The 4-Hour Workweek was first published April 27th, 2007.

I did my best to cover all of the bases when it debuted, but there were gaps. Though I included cases studies of families using lifestyle design, for example, it was hard to find more than a few the first time around.

Not anymore. Things have changed. There are more than 30,000 comments on this blog, hundreds of people have shared their successes and failures via detailed e-mail, and both case studies and experiments continue to flow in from around the world.

This doesn’t mean that the current edition doesn’t do the job — it does — but more than 40 printings and 35 languages later, a new and expanded edition has finally been completed…

This new version includes all of the updates and additions that I’ve wanted to make for the last 2.5 years, including more than 50 case studies from readers, as well as 100+ pages of new content. Many of the “tools and tricks” resources have been completely revised to reflect testing with newer and better technologies.

The book publishes December 15th but is available for preorder here at a 30% discount. Why not get some X-mas shopping done early? :)

The graphics in this post are the new cover and jacket, which you voted on here. Thank you all so much for the wonderful input and conversation, both online and in real-life.

I learn more from you than I could ever hope to teach.

I hope you love this new edition as much as I do (larger font in second graphic):

Pre-order it here for 30% off the cover price, making it less than $15.

If you’re in media and would like to discuss exclusive interviews, stories, or segments, please email amy-at-fourhourworkweek-dot-com with “4HWW Media” in the subject line.

Have a beautiful weekend!

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Odds and ends elsewhere on the web:
Tim Ferriss on TED – Smash Fear, Learn Anything
How to Tim Ferriss Your Love Life (from WordCamp 2009)

Napoleon, though mostly known as a little man with a funny hat, is regarded as one of history’s great commanders. He was also well-known for his unusual but effective methods of information management.

Here are just two examples from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay entitled “Napoleon, or The Man of the World“…

His instructions to his secretary at the Tuileries are worth remembering. “During the night, enter my chamber as seldom as possible. Do not awake me when you have any good news to communicate; with that there is no hurry. But when you bring bad news, rouse me instantly, for then there is not a moment to be lost.”

It was a whimsical economy of the same kind which dictated his practice, when general in Italy, in regard to his burdensome correspondence. He directed Bourrienne to leave all letters unopened for three weeks, and then observed with satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence had thus disposed of itself and no longer required an answer.

(hat tip to Ryan Holiday for the source)

He was also a source of excellent quotes that can act as decision-making guideposts. To wit:

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
“Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”
“He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”

Read more on Napoleon’s military strategy here, aptly referred to as “Napoleonic strategy”.

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Odds and Ends: Short Interview from London, Comment from the Philippines

Ryan Carson interviewed me in London yesterday, and we covered a number of topics more and more people have asked about, including: favorite software and tech, more detail on outsourcing e-mail and the inbox (the fundamentals are in “The Holy Grail: How to Outsource the Inbox and Never Check Email Again“), application of 4HWW and lifestyle design during a recession, and much more.

If the video doesn’t display for you below, it can be found here. I hope you enjoy it.

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I’ll let this comment, from another post on the blog (The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen, which I reference in the video), speak for itself. From a virtual assistant (business process outsourcing) in the Philippines:

I am a writer in the Philippines employed by a BPO company which caters to clients in the US needing virtual assistants, and I speak on the latter’s behalf as I get to observe them everyday.

I am sorry to disappoint AAndrews, but as “laborers” in the Philippines “making the cost of Americans’ dream activities less and so affordable”, a VA’s life is not all that bad so there really is no need to guilt Tim Ferriss and others like him who rely on virtual assistants. The VAs in our company may get just a pittance of what personal assistants get paid in the US, but it is still a win-win situation because the cost of living here is after all not as high as the US’s. This case with the VAs and others like them is not the vile, repulsive thing that child labor is.

Those of us in BPO companies are professionals happy to be able to stay in our country doing work we like. We are aware of the gulf between our pay and yours, but you see, with our salaries, we get to live like your average young professionals. We make rent, send our kids to school, enjoy time with friends, indulge in hobbies, dress decently.

Here as in anywhere else, your lifestyle is a choice you make.

Ah, lawyers. It’s a love-hate relationship.

Just this week alone, I’m working with a literary attorney (publishing), an entertainment attorney (TV), and a corporate financing attorney (angel investments).  All three are great.

Yesterday, though, I received the threatening letter below from Protocol Integrated Direct Marketing, whose call centers I recommend in the 4HWW. WTF?

Click to enlarge…

But what did I say about Protocol specifically? Here it is, after an group intro where I indicate providers can also be compensated per-minute:

“Protocol Marketing: One of classic sales-oriented call centers. I’ve used them for years.”

I used them as a start-up CEO and felt the recommendation was valuable to readers. Blasphemer! Even if a correction were needed somewhere, the legal bitch slap isn’t needed.

My response was simple: I called the lawyer and told him I would both have the mention removed and also announce the correction to readers (that’s this blog post).

I suspect the CEO, Don Norsworthy, is not aware of this letter, as he would have no doubt approached it differently. He would recognize a few things:

[Postscript: Don got in touch within 24 hours after this post and here's the scoop: the entire management team had been on an offsite while this transpired. When Don tracked down the e-mail thread resulting in this letter, none of the proper channels had been CC'd. He was a polite gentleman and even declined when I offered to publish a response on the blog, stating that he was calling to apologize, not to have anything published. It was precisely the best response from someone heading a $100-million+ per year operation.]

1. How you say something IS what you say.

Ever heard “it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it”? I would go further: how you say something is what you say. A simple call or e-mail to Random House with “we’re getting too many calls for the wrong services; would you mind changing it to the following?” would have sufficed. Have a normal human conversation and don’t come off sounding like Robocop (video above).

But what if you need to be forceful? If someone’s motives are clearly bad? I’ve dealt with this as well. First of all, if their actions are done with obvious malevolent-intent or law-breaking, you can be more forceful. Second, for those cases that fall in the middle, it’s possible to be forceful and clear without being rude. For example:

“It’s come to our attention that [action your want them to cease in neutral terms]. I’m sure you are unaware, but this causes [negative consequences for you], which results in [other problems]. We thank you in advance for removing/stopping/correcting X as soon as possible [notice how less abrasive this is than 'immediately', but it achieves the same effect] and confirming when this has been done. Legal action is always a last resort, but if we do not receive confirmation within one business week, we’ll be compelled to take appropriate next steps. Your fastest correction and confirmation is both important and appreciated.”

2. It’s counterproductive to threaten someone until you determine their incentives to refuse compliance.

In other words, what do I gain by refusing to remove them? Nothing. In fact, it’s in my readers’ best interest to make it accurate or remove it. Threatening me with Darth Vader-speak like “compel compliance with [our] demand” just pisses people off, and I could have still been a strong proponent of theirs. Too bad, so sad.

3. It’s better to steer the golden goose rather than kill it.

If I’m sending them enough calls to “inundate” their phone lines (ironic in itself, since they’re offering call center services), it would be in their best interest to just make the description more accurate, no? It’s free advertising in a #1 NY Times bestseller to be published in 33 languages. How much advertising cost — or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) — does that save them if it’s accurate? Knowing the revenue model and having worked with call centers, I’d guess hundreds of thousands of dollars at a minimum. To save what? A few thousand dollars in filtering out mom-and-pop callers at $.90 per minute? That’s just penny-wise and pound-foolish.

4. Don’t mistake symptoms with root problems, or confuse correlation with causation.

There are no “income investment requirements” that I can find listed anywhere on their call center site. It strikes me that their main problem could relate to a system-wide issue with pre-qualification. The blurb in the 4HWW is just a symptom — any successful PR or marketing that brings people to them will produce the same filtering bottleneck. Fixing the root cause is better than threatening the person who makes the root cause come to the surface.

If they have a problem with “closer”, Protocol might also consider removing the following from the second paragraph of their main call center page:

Whether you need a salesperson to close deals or specialized technical support services, Protocol’s contact center services can help.

Confused? Me too.

5. If you threaten someone in a digital world, it might become what your prospective customers see first.

Principle one: Better not to threaten people whenever possible. Principle two: Google someone before you threaten them. If their PageRank and SEO beats yours, recognize that the public will see what they say first and foremost. Principle three: if someone is sending you business, and you threaten them because of a positive description (even containing inaccuracies), you are disincentivizing all partners, journalists, and customers from evangelizing for you if it becomes public. Given the new dynamics of personal branding in a digital age, being nice should be company policy, if not for cheap Google insurance.

Oh, and being rude sucks.

Be firm when necessary, but be nice whenever possible. Long-term, it doesn’t pay to do otherwise.

In conclusion: Protocol, I’m sorry for endorsing you and reflecting my experience in a positive description. I was wrong and you are right. Readers, please pull out your Sharpie and strike Protocol from pg. 201.

Ah, lawyers. Use them wisely or the problem you create could be bigger than the one you solve.

Anyone have suggestions for good call centers that won’t threaten me for recommending them?


To lighten the mood, a photo from the American Apparel factory, which I visited last Saturday. More pics here.

Rather than sprinkle these announcements around, I figured I’d just load up one post. Hope to bump into some of you at one of these!

Keynote with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park in Las Vegas

I’ll be doing an opening keynote with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park fame at BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas, Sept. 21st at 9am. Hosted with Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Worldwide, it’s going to be a blast. Here’s what we’ll be covering…

Learn what it takes to create You, Inc. — whether for yourself or a company — online and offline in a crowded world. What are the right and wrong (and best) ways to get attention? What are the most important decisions? Where do blogs fit in, and are they ideal or outdated? How do you parlay “internet fame” into major media?

I’ll be taking a ton of notes at this conference. Lots of heavy hitters will be in attendance to share their experiences with blogging, monetization, PR, etc.. Here is code you can use for 20% off registration: 4HVIP

Inc. 500 Speaking with Inc. and Fast Company Editor-in-Chief

Prior to Vegas, I’ll be speaking Sept. 19th at 3:30pm in DC with John Koten, CEO and editor-in-chief of Mansueto Ventures (Inc. and Fast Company magazines), at the Inc. 500 Conference. Here is a sample of what we’ll cover in our fireside chat:

Called the “Indiana Jones for the digital age,” Ferriss is author of the #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek. He has become almost as famous for his use of social media to rocket his book to bestseller status as he is for the book itself.

Find out the back-story to his book, what he wished he had included, and why he thinks technology such as email, instant messaging and PDAs complicate life rather than simplify it. Still have burning questions? The second half of the session will be dedicated to an interactive Q&A period.

I’m hoping to meet a number of the speakers, including Jim Collins (Good to Great) and Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla Motors, etc.). Bill Clinton spoke last year, and there should be some fantastic sessions.

The 4-Hour Workweek Home: Now in 3-D

My house, where I wrote 4HWW, is on the market! Check out the virtual tour here. Search MLS Number 80825680 on www.mlslistings.com if that doesn’t work. The zebra print carpet isn’t mine, but I’m willing to include the best bed ever built (just look at the frame!).

4HWW Madrid Party in Two Weeks — Sept. 25th!

Por fin! On Thursday, September 25th, I’ll be hosting a blow-out 4HWW party in Madrid. Tickets are free and limited to the first 150. Better to register earlier rather than later, as the London and Sydney parties both “sold out” in less than a week. If you’re in Spain or nearby, come over and have some Rioja red with me.

Here’s where you should RSVP: http://4hwwmadrid.eventbrite.com/

Any suggestions for cool locations that can hold 150 people?

There is a misconception that lifestyle design is just for entrepreneurs or CEOs.

In reality, the principles — borrowed from economics and behavioral psychology — can be applied within organizations and groups with even more dramatic effects.

Just watch the 25-minute segment above from the Danish equivalent of the BBC (DR1), where lifestyle design is tested by both an employee at insurance giant Codan and by the CEO of a fast-growing microbrewery. For English subtitles, choose “Danish” from the “Choose Language…” drop-down.

Who made more progress? The boss or the person with a boss? The results might surprise you…

Group Dynamics: Leverage for Good or Evil

Whether you’re a three-person start-up or Google (I’ve spoken there twice), whether you’re a receptionist or the President, Bill Gates’ following observation applies to implementing behavioral change in groups. The brackets are mine and what I feel can be removed:

The first rule of any [technology used in a] business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

Even if you are a low-level employee, it’s important to your personal life and future to understand what this means.

From Chapter 8 of 4HWW:

Principle number one: refine rules and processes before adding people. Using people to leverage a refined process multiplies production; using people as a solution to a poor process multiplies problems.

This applies as much to excessive CC’ing people on personal e-mail as it does to large-scale operations.

If the processes are wasteful (inefficient), performance will decrease when you attempt to scale. The more people involved, the more severe the decrease. If the processes–including prioritization and workflow optimization–are lean (efficient), performance will increase. Combined with other people following the same lean processes, performance can increase in an exponential vs. linear fashion (For any exponentially growing quantity, the larger the quantity gets, the faster it grows).

Most important, just as with Best Buy, where 24-year old Cali Ressler started the ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) experiment, huge changes can be initiated from the bottom up.

It just takes some lateral thinking and a willingness to test small.

Inside one brand-name public company in Silicon Valley: the new rules in one engineering group.

Case Studies

The Gazette in Colorado Springs published a great overview of several local companies that have implemented 4HWW training for all employees. I encourage those interested to read the entire 2-page article, but here are a few excerpts from one of the case studies:

The changes at Sandoval’s office are evident. A few months ago, Sandoval [the CEO of an advertising and design firm] said he would not have had time to sit down and talk about a book.

Now, three months after restructuring his daily routine and asking his nine employees to buy into the same process, piles of files and papers have disappeared from Sandoval’s desk because the work is done. His four computers, along with his BlackBerry, no longer demand immediate attention. He trusts employees to do their jobs without constant monitoring.

Moreover, Sandoval and other local business owners who are following some of the book’s advice claim it’s helped them improve relationships with clients, increase business and streamline operations.
…

“We added up what it cost us to have weekly meetings, roughly $50,000 a year in salaries, so we combined them into twice a month. We also have an agenda, and we get more done,” Neubacher [owner of a 12-person SMB tech support firm] said. “We’re working smarter versus harder.”

DublinBlue’s Shinn has had similar success. “We’ve removed many of the normally accepted distractions that detract from productivity,” he said. “It’s not so easy to just pop your head into someone’s office for a ‘quick’ question. You start to see the true cost of those little interruptions, and you modify your approach. Our efficiency has increased, so we have been able to take on more work without adding employees.”

The Checklist and a Call to Experimentation

CEO Bernard Sandoval developed a 5-page 4HWW guide as required reading for his employees called “Being More Productive” that you can download here.

I encourage you to share it with friends and those you work with. It’s a great starter kit for a few of the concepts in the book and it’s all presented in an easy-to-digest checklist that anyone can review each morning.

One CEO added the following in an e-mail to me:

As a result, I can now pull in 35% more work and not have to add staff. Think of what that could do nationally.

Lifestyle design is a portfolio of lateral approaches for producing precise results and measuring outputs instead of hours. Experiment with implementing the principles — as temporary experiments to improve workflow — within groups and larger organizations, as that is where the most dramatic results can be seen.

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Odds and Ends: Seeking mothers, and thanks to reader Christian Bang Marxen!

Seeking mothers for major TV and media: Are you a mother who’s used the principles in the 4HWW somehow in your life? If you’re interested in being featured on major TV programs and other media, please put a 1-3 minute video on YouTube that describes some of the changes in your life. Be sure to put “4hww mother” in the “tags” field so producers can find it! Deadline: Sept 3, but earlier is better.

Thanks to Christian Marxen: Special huge thanks to Danish reader Christian Bang Marxen for translating the above DR1 video into English subtitles. Christian, you rock! Please keep an eye on your e-mail, as I have a special gift for you.