Comments on: Book Review – The 4-Hour Work Week

By: Derek Chamberlain

Derek Chamberlain — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 14:56:28 +0000

Bruce,

Sorry about that – that is pretty vague 🙂 What I meant was implementing changes to automate my life more vs. making everything manual (which requires more of my time).

Tim’s whole philosophy is to automate stuff as much as possible so that you can check in for 5-6 minutes vs. spending hours on a routine task.

Does that make sense?

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:04:01 +0000

Derek,
I enjoyed this review – thanks for writing. I re-read the book in 2014 and found that it added a lot to my life. Quite a few of my bucket list goals involve travel so that part of the book certainly resonated with me.

Regarding the Muse business building, it’s true that the book describes the process at a very high level. Specifically, I think it underestimates the difficulty of learning how to effectively use Google AdWords.

I’m currently running a survey for readers of “The 4-Hour Work Week” so I’m curious to know what you meant by this: “I’ve already begun to recognize small changes in my life from implementing some on Tim’s principles!” What kind of changes?

By: Derek Chamberlain

Derek Chamberlain — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 17:42:11 +0000

Michael,

Thanks for stopping by! I agree with your thoughts, the biggest thing I took away is not to place artificial limits on what you think you can believe. Also, to change your mind at the outset and create systems that are more efficient and remove you from the equation.

By: Michael@Save-Invest-Grow

Michael@Save-Invest-Grow — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 17:18:43 +0000

Great review! I also really enjoyed this book. I think the biggest thing I took from it is Tim’s way of thinking. Even if I don’t have the exact same goals as he does, it was really valuable to learn his process. I’m not interested in leaving my career, but this book helped me remove limits from my goals, and realize there is a lot out there for us if we want it!

By: Derek Chamberlain

Derek Chamberlain — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 14:26:07 +0000

GMS,

Thanks for stopping by again 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the review. I’m in the same exact boat as you. I don’t want to spend 40 hours doing work for someone else and letting them reap the benefits. I’ve saved the company I’ve worked for more than $15 million dollars over the past several years, and I don’t have much other than my normal salary to show for it 🙂

By: Green Money Stream

Green Money Stream — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 21:55:32 +0000

Thanks for the review. Another book to add to my list. You are not alone as being someone who went from high school, to college, to work. That is what this society expects from us. I feel similar to you, in that I didn’t realize that there could be another way. I wish I would have realized it 10 years ago, but at least I’m here now. It’s not that I don’t enjoy work, but I don’t want to do it 40+ hours a week and that is basically the option I have since not many employers in my field would offer part time work. I’m always amazed at folks who don’t know what they’d do if they weren’t working or would be bored. I know that I have plenty of interests and resources to fill up my time!

By: Derek Chamberlain

Derek Chamberlain — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 16:28:24 +0000

Brock,

Thanks for commenting! I think there’s a whole gamut of folks that are perfectly happy in their jobs all the way to folks who wish they could kill themselves because they hate their jobs so much. If your one of the lucky ones to actually LOVE what you do, then that’s awesome 🙂

The whole book is written for folks that have aspirations to do something different with their lives. It isn’t really about sitting on the beach all day. He goes to random countries, learns a new skill, and a new language. That really isn’t my cup of tea either.

If I had a business that generated enough money such that I didn’t have to work more than 4 hours per week I think I would probably hike the world with my family 🙂

By: Brock @cleverdude

Brock @cleverdude — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:35:26 +0000

The thing about books like this, and similar philosophies is the assumption that a career and a job are things to get away from at all costs – that we should all strive for having to do as little work as possible to make a ton of money and then do something else. Well…to that I say, you have chosen the wrong career path. I’m an engineer, and LOVE waking up and going to work and exercising my brain with what I do all day. Why in the world would I want to reduce that to 4 hours a week so I can lay on a beach somewhere and be bored out of my mind?? Just my two cents… 🙂