Archive for January, 2011

Parc del Laberint d’Horta, Barcelona (Photo: Marcel Germain)

Big successes often seem like foregone conclusions.

In reality, most entrepreneurs (read: creators) who appear to have unique genius suffer through the same frustration as the masses of unknowns. They simply test and persist a few steps further.

Richard Branson will tell you this of his Virgin empire.
Tony Hsieh of Zappo’s shares similar stories.
Steve Martin can prove that it applies to anything creative, not just business.

Below is a piece of paper from 2005 I recently unearthed while purging books and folders from my house.

It reflects a complete failure–protracted over weeks–to find a good title for what later became The 4-Hour Workweek (4HWW). Most of the ideas are horrible beyond belief, and it wasn’t until I tested a few variations using Google AdWords that we decided on “The 4-Hour Workweek,” which I still disliked on multiple levels.

Here are two pages of frustrated attempts, two pages of dozens (click to enlarge, then click again)… Read More

After a long hiatus, here is a new episode of The Random Show! It’s not episode 87, but we couldn’t remember the number. Click here for all of our magical past episodes.

In this hang-out discussion, we enjoy a frolicking romp (c’mon, not that kind) through:

- Booking media and how-to tips
- How to build iPhone apps, how Kevin’s doing it, how to assemble (and pay) a team, and DIY tips
- How Kevin’s puppy effectively bites through mic cables
- Knives for military or survival use — Tim’s newest and perhaps oldest obsession
- 2010′s resolutions and 2011 New Year’s Resolutions… Read More

(Photo: Dyobmit)

Let’s start with what you think you want.

“I want to get on Oprah eventually, and we’ve been pitching The New York Times, who’s interested.”

Good news or game over?

I hear some version of this on a weekly basis from start-up founders. Sadly, most of them aren’t prepared for national media and do more harm than good with a premature (and non-strategic) jump into the spotlight. The New York Times doesn’t often do two major stories on a single company, so that first — and possibly only — appearance is what counts.

But what of lack of media attention? Indeed. There are two main media challenges:

How do you get media interest? Big media interest?
How do you ensure you’re prepared when a big opportunity presents itself?

In both cases, you chart a course and execute. In this post, I’ll show how I went from my first real TV exposure to appearing repeatedly as a guest on national TV shows. I’ll also share the exact e-mail pitch that led to a Wired feature, as well as recorded radio interviews.

Media coverage isn’t magic, and it need not depend on luck. It can be a step-by-step process… Read More

(Photo: Felipe Morin)

Holy crap. The 4-Hour Body (4HB) has ended up producing an avalanche of questions.

There are definitely a few gems hidden amongst the rubble, and more than a few typos were unearthed in the process.

This post — mostly how-to with a few bits of entertainment — is purely for tying up loose ends. I hope it helps.

Covered in this post:

The blog moving forward: 4HB content vs. 4HWW content vs. random topics
4HB Bonus Materials – If You Missed It
4HB Tools and Tricks – All Online!
Contest winners
Slow-carb clarifications
4-Hour Body – common questions and Q&As
Audiobook PDF downloads
4HB reader-generated goodies: desktop wallpaper, etc.
Media samples
4HB corrections and typos… Read More

Is it possible to remove fat from specific areas of the body? (Photo of low-fat legs: Kirikiri)

(Preface: This is one of the “bonus chapters” for The 4-Hour Body. My sincerest apologies for the confusion! All bonus materials can be found here. Enjoy! New forums and more coming very soon…)

I’m allergic to food. Every time I eat it breaks out into fat.
—Jennifer Greene Duncan

Does History record any case in which the majority was right?
—Robert Heinlein

In the early 1900s, a 12-year-old girl burned the back of her hand. You are right: this is not newsworthy.

It’s what followed the burn, documented in the medical records, that fascinated me:

Doctors used skin from her abdomen as a graft over the burn. By the time this girl turned thirty, she had grown fat, and the skin that had been transplanted to the back of her hand had grown fat as well. “A second operation was necessary for the removal of the big fat pads which had developed in the grafted skin,” explained the University of Vienna endocrinologist and geneticist Julius Bauer, “exactly as fatty tissue had developed in the skin of the lower part of the abdomen.”

The plight of women and fat is the stuff of legend.

Female fat deposition in the legs and buttocks increases with age, as does abdominal fat and the so-called saddle bags—fat just beneath the hips—in perimenopausal and menopausal women.

How is it that women can eat peanut butter, for example, and seemingly bypass the stomach to put it directly on their asses? Why doesn’t this happen to men, who seem to put fat directly on their would-be six-pack, which ends up resembling more of a one-pack (or “six-pack in the cooler”), even if they have bodybuilder-like veins on their arms?

To paraphrase Gary Taubes: some biological factor must regulate this. One candidate is the A-2 receptor, and that is what I decided to look at for practical experimentation… Read More

In The 4-Hour Body, I profiled Tracy R., a mother of two who lost more than 100 pounds.

The secret wasn’t marathon aerobics sessions, nor was it severe caloric restriction. It was the Russian kettlebell swing, twice a week for an average of 15–20 minutes. Her peak session length was 35 minutes.

This post will explain how to perform the two-handed kettlebell swing, and it will offer a cheap $10 alternative.

Beyond fat loss, this movement will help build a superhuman posterior chain, which includes all the muscles from the base of your skull to your Achilles tendons. For maximum strength and sex appeal in minimal time, the posterior chain is where you should focus. From “violent hips” for power sports, to the perfect ass for aesthetics, I suggest one starting point:

The Swing

… Read More