The path to profitability doesn’t need to be complicated. (Photo: El Photopakismo)
I’ve known the guys at 37Signals for a little while.
I first met Jason Fried at SXSW in 2008, and I then got to know David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) over e-mail and in person last year. On a fundamental level, I think, our philosophies just mesh well.
Comfortably situated in Chicago outside of the “start-up” echo chamber, 37Signals is focused on getting sh*t done instead of chasing the Silicon Valley venture capital death spiral. Financing has it’s place, but it’s a means to an end and shouldn’t be confused with an end.
The end is a profitable business. Now, let’s be clear: there are ways to play the acquisition game (or even financing game) and make millions without ever turning a profit. But don’t let the media fool you–you hear of the few successes because the stories are fun to tell. The thousands of failures that die sad but unspectacular deaths don’t get on the magazine covers.
More than 3,000,000 people worldwide use 37Signals products, including me. I use one of them, Basecamp, for project management, and it rocks in its simplicity. I’m not the only one who thinks so: Basecamp generates millions of dollars in profit every year.
37Signals’ employees–fewer than 20 total–are spread across 8 cities on two continents, and no matter how many rules they break, profit seems to be the end result…
This is part of the reason I was excited to get an advanced copy of Rework, their new book, which I encourage people to think of as an Elements of Style for building profitable businesses in a web-savvy world. Each chapter is 2-5 pages long and delivers their tactics and principles fat-free, without fluff. Just like their business models.
Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite. Profitability doesn’t need to be elusive. It’s a simple process… if you have the right recipe from the outset.
Why grow?
People ask, “How big is your company?” It’s small talk, but they’re not looking for a small answer. The bigger the number, the more impressive, professional, and powerful you sound. “Wow, nice!” they’ll say if you have a hundred-plus employees. If you’re small, you’ll get an “Oh . . . that’s nice.” The former is meant as a compliment; the latter is said just to be polite.
Why is that? What is it about growth and business? Why is expansion always the goal? What’s the attraction of big besides ego? (You’ll need a better answer than “economies of scale.”) What’s wrong with finding the right size and staying there?
Do we look at Harvard or Oxford and say, “If they’d only expand and branch out and hire thousands more professors and go global and open other campuses all over the world . . . then they’d be great schools.” Of course not. That’s not how we measure the value of these institutions. So why is it the way we measure businesses?
Maybe the right size for your company is five people. Maybe it’s forty. Maybe it’s two hundred. Or maybe it’s just you and a laptop. Don’t make assumptions about how big you should be ahead of time. Grow slow and see what feels right—premature hiring is the death of many companies. And avoid huge growth spurts too—they can cause you to skip right over your appropriate size.
Small is not just a stepping-stone. Small is a great destination in itself.
Have you ever noticed that while small businesses wish they were bigger, big businesses dream about being more agile and flexible? And remember, once you get big, it’s really hard to shrink without firing people, damaging morale, and changing the entire way you do business.
Ramping up doesn’t have to be your goal. And we’re not talking just about the number of employees you have either. It’s also true for expenses, rent, IT infrastructure, furniture, etc. These things don’t just happen to you. You decide whether or not to take them on. And if you do take them on, you’ll be taking on new headaches, too. Lock in lots of expenses and you force yourself into building a complex businesss—one that’s a lot more difficult and stressful to run.
Don’t be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small, should be proud.
Scratch your own itch
The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use. That lets you design what you know—and you’ll figure out immediately whether or not what you’re making is any good.
At 37signals, we build products we need to run our own business. For example, we wanted a way to keep track of whom we talked to, what we said, and when we need to follow up next. So we created Highrise, our contact-management software. There was no need for focus groups, market studies, or middlemen. We had the itch, so we scratched it.
When you build a product or service, you make the call on hundreds of tiny decisions each day. If you’re solving someone else’s problem, you’re constantly stabbing in the dark. When you solve your own problem, the light comes on. You know exactly what the right answer is.
Inventor James Dyson scratched his own itch. While vacuuming his home, he realized his bag vacuum cleaner was constantly losing suction power—dust kept clogging the pores in the bag and blocking the airflow. It wasn’t someone else’s imaginary problem; it was a real one that he experienced firsthand. So he decided to solve the problem and came up with the world’s first cyclonic, bagless vacuum cleaner.
Vic Firth came up with the idea of making a better drumstick while playing timpani for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The sticks he could buy commercially didn’t measure up to the job, so he began making and selling drumsticks from his basement at home. Then one day he dropped a bunch of sticks on the floor and heard all the different pitches. That’s when he began to match up sticks by moisture content, weight, density, and pitch so they were identical pairs. The result became his product’s tag line: “the perfect pair.” Today, Vic Firth’s factory turns out more than 85,000 drumsticks a day and has a 62 percent share in the drumstick market.
Track coach Bill Bowerman decided that his team needed better, lighter running shoes. So he went out to his workshop and poured rubber into the family waffle iron. That’s how Nike’s famous waffle sole was born.
These people scratched their own itch and exposed a huge market of people who needed exactly what they needed. That’s how you should do it too.
When you build what you need, you can also assess the quality of what you make quickly and directly, instead of by proxy.
Mary Kay Wagner, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, knew her skin-care products were great because she used them herself. She got them from a local cosmetologist who sold homemade formulas to patients, relatives, and friends. When the cosmetologist passed away, Wagner bought the formulas from the family. She didn’t need focus groups or studies to know the products were good. She just had to look at her own skin.
Best of all, this “solve your own problem” approach lets you fall in love with what you’re making. You know the problem and the value of its solution intimately. There’s no substitute for that. After all, you’ll (hopefully) be working on this for years to come. Maybe even the rest of your life. It better be something you really care about.
Tone is in your fingers
Guitar gurus say, “Tone is in your fingers.” You can buy the same guitar, effects pedals, and amplifier that Eddie Van Halen uses. But when you play that rig, it’s still going to sound like you.
Likewise, Eddie could plug into a crappy Strat/Pignose setup at a pawn shop, and you’d still be able to recognize that it’s Eddie Van Halen playing. Fancy gear can help, but the truth is your tone comes from you.
It’s tempting for people to obsess over tools instead of what they’re going to do with those tools. You know the type: Designers who use an avalanche of funky typefaces and fancy Photoshop filters but don’t have anything to say. Amateur photographers who want to debate film versus digital endlessly instead of focusing on what actually makes a photograph great.
Many amateur golfers think they need expensive clubs. But it’s the swing that matters, not the club. Give Tiger Woods a set of cheap clubs and he’ll still destroy you.
People use equipment as a crutch. They don’t want to put in the hours on the driving range so they spend a ton in the pro shop. They’re looking for a shortcut. But you just don’t need the best gear in the world to be good. And you definitely don’t need it to get started.
In business, too many people obsess over tools, software tricks, scaling issues, fancy office space, lavish furniture, and other frivolities instead of what really matters. And what really matters is how to actually get customers and make money.
You also see it in people who want to blog, podcast, or shoot videos for their business but get hung up on which tools to use. The content is what matters. You can spend tons on fancy equipment, but if you’ve got nothing to say . . . well, you’ve got nothing to say.
Use whatever you’ve got already or can afford cheaply. Then go. It’s not the gear that matters. It’s playing what you’ve got as well as you can. Your tone is in your fingers.
Say no by default
“If I’d listened to customers, I’d have given them a faster horse.”
—HENRY FORD
It’s so easy to say yes. Yes to another feature, yes to an overly optimistic deadline, yes to a mediocre design. Soon, the stack of things you’ve said yes to grows so tall you can’t even see the things you should really be doing.
Start getting into the habit of saying no—even to many of your best ideas. Use the power of no to get your priorities straight. You rarely regret saying no. But you often wind up regretting saying yes.
People avoid saying no because confrontation makes them uncomfortable. But the alternative is even worse. You drag things out, make things complicated, and work on ideas you don’t believe in.
It’s like a relationship: Breaking one up is hard to do, but staying in it just because you’re too chicken to drop the ax is even worse. Deal with the brief discomfort of confrontation up front and avoid the long-term regret.
Don’t believe that “customer is always right” stuff, either. Let’s say you’re a chef. If enough of your customers say your food is too salty or too hot, you change it. But if a few persnickety patrons tell you to add bananas to your lasagna, you’re going to turn them down, and that’s OK. Making a few vocal customers happy isn’t worth it if it ruins the product for everyone else.
ING Direct has built the fastest-growing bank in America by saying no. When customers ask for a credit card, the answer is no. When they ask for an online brokerage, the answer is no. When they ask if they can open an account with a million dollars in it, the answer is no (the bank has a strict deposit maximum). ING wants to keep things simple. That’s why the bank offers just a few savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and mutual funds—and that’s it.
Don’t be a jerk about saying no, though. Just be honest. If you’re not willing to yield to a customer request, be polite and explain why. People are surprisingly understanding when you take the time to explain your point of view. You may even win them over to your way of thinking. If not, recommend a competitor if you think there’s a better solution out there. It’s better to have people be happy using someone else’s product than disgruntled using yours.
Your goal is to make sure your product stays right for you. You’re the one who has to believe in it most. That way, you can say, “I think you’ll love it because I love it.”
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Odds and Ends:
Rework – the first mainstream book by 37Signals Tim Ferriss on Twitter – Follow my misadventures, experiments, cool findings, and mischief in real-time. It’s fun to watch me stumble.
Rolf Potts is one of my favorite writers, and his book Vagabonding was one of only four books I recommended as “fundamental” in The 4-Hour Workweek. It was also one of two books, the other being Walden; Or, Life in the Woods, that I took with me during my 15+-month mini-retirement that began in 2004.
The following is a guest post from Rolf on the art and lessons of travel, all of which you can apply at home.
Enter Rolf:
Last fall I spoke at the excellent DO Lectures, which brings innovative thinkers from around the world for a series of talks in rural Wales (Tim was a speaker in 2008). My talk, which is available in full via the video link above encourages people to make themselves rich in time and to become active in making their travel dreams happen.
The talk itself contains essential advice and inspiration regarding travel — but what struck me on re-watching it was an improvised moment at the beginning of the talk, when I pointed out how “these aren’t really travel-specific challenges — these are things that can apply to life in general. Think of travel as a metaphor for how you live your life at home.”
Indeed, travel has a way of slowing you down, of waking you up, of pulling you up out of your daily routines and seeing life in a new way. This new way of looking at the world need not end when you resume your life at home.
Here are 5 key ways in which the lessons you learn on the road can be used to enrich the life you lead when you return home…
1) Time = Wealth
By far the most important lesson travel teaches you is that your time is all you really own in life. And the more you travel, the more you realize that your most extravagant possessions can’t match the satisfaction you get from finding new experiences, meeting new people, and learning new things about yourself. “Value” is a word we often hear in day-to-day life, but travel has a way of teaching us that value is not pegged to a cash amount, that the best experiences in life can be had for the price of showing up (be it to a festival in Rajasthan, a village in the Italian countryside, or a sunrise ten minutes from your home).
Scientific studies have shown that new experiences (and the memories they produce) are more likely to produce long-term happiness than new things. Since new experiences aren’t exclusive to travel, consider ways to become time-rich at home. Spend less time working on things you don’t enjoy and buying things you don’t need; spend more time embracing the kinds of activities (learning new skills, meeting new people, spending time with friends and family) that make you feel alive and part of the world.
2) Be Where You Are
A great thing about travel is that it forces you into the moment. When you’re celebrating carnival in Rio, riding a horse on the Mongolian steppe, or exploring a souk in Damascus, there’s a giddy thrill in being exactly where you are and allowing things to happen. In an age when electronic communications enable us to be permanently connected to (and distracted by) the virtual world, there’s a narcotic thrill in throwing yourself into a single place, a single moment. Would you want to check your bank-account statement while exploring Machu Picchu in Peru? Are you going to interrupt an experience of the Russian White Nights in St. Petersburg to check your Facebook feed? Of course not — when you travel, you get to embrace the privilege of witnessing life as it happens before your eyes. This attitude need not be confined to travel.
At home, how often do you really need to check your email or your Twitter feed? When you get online, are you there for a reason, or are you simply killing time? For all the pleasures and entertainments of the virtual-electronic world, there is no substitute for real-life conversation and connection, for getting ideas and entertainment from the people and places around you. Even at home, there are sublime rewards to be had for unplugging from online distractions and embracing the world before your eyes.
3) Slow Down
One of the advantages of long-term travel (as opposed to a short vacation) is that it allows you to slow down and let things happen. Freed from tight itineraries, you begin to see the kinds of things (and meet the kinds of people) that most tourists overlook in their haste to tick attractions off a list. A host of multi-million-dollar enterprises have been created to cater to our concept of “leisure,” both at home and on the road — but all too often this definition of leisure is as rushed and rigidly confined as our work life. Which is more emblematic of leisure — a three-hour spa session in an Ubud hotel, or the freedom to wander Bali at will for a month?
All too often, life at home is predicated on an irrational compulsion for speed — we rush to work, we rush through meals, we “multi-task” when we’re hanging out with friends. This might make our lives feel more streamlined in a certain abstracted sense, but it doesn’t make our lives happier or more fulfilling. Unless you learn to pace and savor your daily experiences (even your work-commutes and your noontime meals) you’ll cheating your days out of small moments of leisure, discovery and joy.
4) Keep it Simple
Travel naturally lends itself to simplicity, since it forces you to reduce your day-to-day possessions to a few select items that fit in your suitcase or backpack. Moreover, since it’s difficult to accumulate new things as you travel, you to tend to accumulate new experiences and friendships instead — and these affect your life in ways mere “things” cannot.
At home, abiding by the principles of simplicity can help you live in a more deliberate and time-rich way. How much of what you own really improves the quality of your life? Are you buying new things out of necessity or compulsion? Do the things you own enable you to live more vividly, or do they merely clutter up your life? Again, researchers have determined that new experiences satisfy our higher-order needs in a way that new possessions cannot — that taking a friend to dinner, for example, brings more lasting happiness than spending that money on a new shirt. In this way, investing less in new objects and more in new activities can make your home-life happier. This less materialistic state of mind will also help you save money for your next journey.
5) Don’t Set Limits
Travel has a way revealing that much of what you’ve heard about the world is wrong. Your family or friends will tell you that traveling to Colombia or Lebanon is a death-wish — and then you’ll go to those places and have your mind blown by friendliness, beauty and new ways of looking at human interaction. Even on a day-to-day level, travel enables you to avoid setting limits on what you can and can’t do. On the road, you naturally “play games” with your day: watching, waiting, listening; allowing things to happen. There’s no better opportunity to break old habits, face latent fears, and test out repressed facets of your personality.
That said, there’s no reason why you should confine that sort of freedom to life on the road. The same Fear-Industrial Complex that spooks people out of traveling can discourage you from trying new things or meeting new people in own your hometown. Overcoming your fears and escaping your dull routines can deepen your home-life — and the open-to-anything confidence that accompanies travel can be utilized to test new concepts in a business setting, rejuvenate relationships with friends and family, or simply ask that woman with the nice smile if she wants to go out for coffee. In refusing to set limits for what is possible on a given day, you open yourself up to an entire new world of possibility.
Naturally, this list is just a sampling of how travel can transform your non-travel life. What have I missed? What has travel taught you about how to live life at home?
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Footnote from Tim: Are you planning, in the middle of, or returning from a long journey? If so — and if you’d like your travel blog or lifestyle-design website to be featured as one of Rolf’s Vagabonding Case Studies — drop him a line at casestudies [at] vagabonding.net and tell him a little about yourself.
This new, long overdue Random episode covers our personal resolutions–personal, business, physical, and otherwise–as well as favorite recent gifts (both given and received).
The video is recorded on two cameras, including Glenn’s new experimental HD delight. Topics include:
- Chocolate
- Powerlifting
- Filtering false friends
- Funny hats
- The art of the decline
… and naked ladies.
Best to give the video 10-20 minutes to buffer before watching. It’s a big ‘un.
Please let us know in the comments what you’d like our next show topic to be! If you missed previous episodes, all of them can be found here.
Here are the links to resources mentioned in the video, provided courtesy of reader DynastyDC. Thanks, D! …
Wine
1. Big House Red 2006: http://www.wine.com/V6/Big-House-Red-2006/wine/95766/detail.aspx
Most of you have never seen this. I really hope you enjoy it. To download, just sign into Vimeo and you’re set. If you Final Cut it up, please set to a Crystal Method or Sevendust soundtrack :)
In other breaking news:
I need only 120 more Amazon reviews to beat The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a dream I’ve had since 2007! Not because I dislike him, but precisely the opposite — he’s one of my writing role models and I long viewed his book as untouchable.
If you’ve read the 4HWW but haven’t left a short review on Amazon, please take 30 seconds and help me here! The stars are, of course, up to you.
It would really mean a lot to me, and what a milestone it would be as a late Christmas present :)
Thanks for all the kind words and questions in the comments! Here are answers to a few common questions:
“Gaijin [foreigner] resentment from the Japanese?”
None whatsoever. Major point of conflict with the production company, as they wanted me to show I was ‘proving my teacher’ wrong, etc. for manufactured drama. Total nonsense. The Japanese teachers and students were some of the most gracious and generous people I’ve ever met. The Japanese get a bum rap for xenophobia, mostly by Americans who go over, speak to them in English, and them call them ‘inscrutable’ when they don’t respond in fluent, idiomatic English. Learn some Japanese and they are 100% fine. Business settings = negotiating = not a representative interaction. Get with the people and interact, preferably with something physical. I’ve never felt this artificial insider/outsider wall people talk about.
“Pre-bed and other preparations for physical only or also mental?”
Also for mental and learning. Pre-bed and mid-night language review is incredibly effective for improving recall.
“How much story arc vs. real issues?”
It was real. The fear of falling off was real. It came up only after arrival that injuries were much more common and severe than expected. The editing didn’t do justice to the drama. We had 100+ hours of footage, and there were some gems that could have replaced other bits in this 45 minutes. It rained for 2-3 days of the practice time, for example, and we couldn’t use the horses. The non-yabusame human-to-human interactions with the Japanese were also missing. Some really hysterical moments.
“Have I been back to train?”
Not yet. I love Nikko and would love to go back. I have spoken with both my teacher (Hayashi) and some of the Japanese crew, however. Truly wonderful people.
“Superhuman book to include cooking?”
The way I do it, yes. Simple stuff that tastes great and works. Boys, don’t worry — it’s bachelor screw-up proof.
“Doing a traditional Japanese martial art myself for many years do you ever get frustrated when you learn a skill and then to a certain extent ‘move on’ that you’re just scratching the surface?”
A few people asked this. I don’t try and “hack” everything and move on. I do believe in the enjoyment of constant practice as an exercise, almost like meditation. It’s important to balance achievement with appreciation, and there are skills that I continue to practice without abandoning them. In fact, I don’t feel like I abandon much. Even if I haven’t really practiced tango since 2006, for example, the skills and awareness I developed in tango are applicable to other things, even yabusame. I feel like each is intertwined with the next, so I’m — on a macro-level — constantly working on a process of skill-development that spreads across these various experiments.
In simpler terms, I’m just having fun and doing what makes me most excited. I see nothing wrong with this. For some, that will mean 1 skill a year, others 1 skill a month, and others still, one skill a lifetime.
In a future post, I will explain exactly what I did in PR and marketing (including recordings and screenshots) to help it happen, but the reality is: you made it happen.
You all rock. For buying the book? No. For making this community what it is. For helping one another and sharing your stories and lessons learned. For teaching me more than I can ever possibly teach you.
This is my dream team.
I’m leaving for South Africa this week (first time to Africa!), but I wanted to try and express my thanks before I left. There are three things I’d like to start with:
1) Free signed books at Samovar in San Francisco
2) Free round-trip ticket anywhere in the world per the last post
3) 600 free books on Facebook (+ Facebook bankruptcy template)…
1) Free signed books at Samovar in San Francisco
There are roughly 100 signed copies of the 4HWW–including both hardcovers and paperback galleys–available for free at all Samovar locations in San Francisco. Please ask the manager on duty, and there is a limit of 2 per person. Alas, once they are gone, they are gone.
2) Free round-trip ticket anywhere in the world per the last post
The winner of the video case studies from the last post is…. Chuck Holton!
Here were the top 8 most-voted videos:
I loved all of them and felt that it was hard to vote for one, as lifestyle design is — by definition — personal. That which impresses the most people might not be the best approach for you to emulate, if your circumstances are different. For that reason, I would like to mail a thank-you gift to each of the initial 15 case studies who were finalists. You know who you are.
If you were one of them, please e-mail Amy your mailing address with the subject line as “Video Case Study – [your name]“.
Use the e-mail address you used to post your comment (Chuck, please do the same for now). It might take a week or two, but I will send you a thank-you gift for taking the time to share and teach.
In a word: incredible.
3) 600 free books on Facebook
Not long ago, I declared Facebook bankruptcy and moved things around. In fact, I started over from scratch. 1,200+ unread messages required it. Information Chapter 11.
The catalyst was an e-mail I received from Paul Colligan, which inspired me to finally take the leap and get things under control. To tame the beast. Find his group e-mail here, which you can use as a template if needed.
Here’s what I’m doing as a belated Christmas giveaway: changing things up.
My Facebook peeps never get any love — it’s always my blog readers and Twitter followers. This time, I’m giving away 600 books using what Facebook does best: getting people in touch. The first 100 people to do the following will be mailed up to six books to share (1 for each of their friends, and 1 copy for them).
The three steps are simple and fast:
1) Step one:Take a picture of yourself holding a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek (old or new) and upload it to the Tim Ferriss fan page, so I can easily find the pics and contact you directly. There are more than 100 photos I’ve put nowhere else, and dozens of never-before-seen videos are coming. If it’s a Kindle or electronic version, just show it on the screen and you’re all set.
Having trouble uploading? Here is a tip from reader Cameron Hurd (Thanks, Cameron!):
…Try clicking on a fan photo, and then choosing ’see all photos’. The page will now have an ‘add photos’ link at the top. http://bit.ly/7rcbNE Or, once you’re logged in to facebook, click this linky-poo: http://bit.ly/8SQhnf
2) Step two: Tag 3-5 friends (no fewer than 3 friends and no more than 5) in the picture whom you’d like to give the new version of the book. They might be workaholics, travel lovers, recent college grads, people who hate the rat race, or even your parents or siblings. Be sure to tag at least 3 of your friends in the picture, but don’t tag more than 5 friends total. There are a limited number of books I can give away, and I want as many people to have gifts for their friends as possible.
3) Step three: Post reasons and a link. In the photo description, you need to do two things: explain to your friends why you chose them, and link to either the post of case studies or this Slideshare presentation. Feel free to write your own, or you can mix and match these templates:
1. I’m calling you guys out — you’re workaholics! In an effort to reduce your work hours and re-kindle our friendships, I want to give each of you “The 4-Hour Workweek.” More to come soon. If you don’t know what the book is about, here it is: http://bit.ly/7ntXSU [or http://bit.ly/87GkE5]
2. Hey friends! I want to give you all a copy of “The 4-Hour Workweek” (which is why you’ve each been tagged in this picture). More to come soon, but I should have a belated Christmas gift for you :) If you want a sneak peek of the book, check this out: http://bit.ly/7ntXSU [or http://bit.ly/87GkE5]
3. Hello fellow travelers! I want to give each of you a copy of “The 4-Hour Workweek.” It shows you how to travel at 50% off, hire virtual assistants for next to nothing, and otherwise live like a king or queen overseas. The author is sending out a ton of free copies of the book. More to come soon. If you don’t know what the book is about, click here: http://bit.ly/7ntXSU [or http://bit.ly/87GkE5]
Unfortunately, due to logistics, I can only mail books to addresses in the US. Shikata nai and lo siento mucho!
There are 48 hours.
The three steps must be completed by 12 midnight PST this Thursday, 1/7/10.
What then?
Nothing — that’s it. One of my assistants will contact the first 100 people via Facebook in a private message no later than Sunday (1/10), and you’ll be asked for your shipping address. The books will be shipped next week.
In closing, and this applies to all of you international friends as well:
The video case studies that I asked for in the last post really caught me unprepared.
I…am…so happy that it’s hard to put it into words.
From Denmark to India, from college students to retirees, from yoga instructors to engineers, the stories poured in. Narrowing them down to finalists, even with several people, was excruciating, but below you will find 15 of our favorites. Many more are worth watching (I watched them all) and can be found here, or by searching “4hww success” on YouTube. There are also 150 comments on the last post full of practical how-to implementations.
The below videos represent a real-life crash course in the many paths and practicalities of lifestyle design. I hope you love watching them as much as I did…
Happy New Year, y’all. Decide today that 2010 will be the year when everything changes.
It can be.
Gary Misner (below)
Gary is a 22-year old from Long Island. He left his family’s autobody business to start his own businesses, travel the world, redesign his body, rediscover his love for his family, and enjoy the best the planet has to offer, including philanthropy and the little things we so often undervalue. Philosophically, I think he nailed what I was hoping to impart — it’s about living more, not just working less — as did many of the other case studies below.
Chuck Holton (below)
From Chuck:
My attempts at leaving the corporate world met with very limited success until I read the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. In the last few years, we’ve successfully done the following:
1. Left the corporate world for good.
2. Taken a 1-year mini-retirement (with 5 kids!) to Panama.
3. Paid off our house through the application of geoarbitrage.
4. Diversified our cash flow into more than ten different streams
5. Automated over 50% of our cash flow (passive or semi-passive)
6. Cut my work hours from 70+ per week to however many I feel like (closer to 20/wk)
7. Implemented 4hww strategies into my children’s home schooling, teaching them to structure their own lives to attain freedom.
Two of Chuck’s children–both under 15 years of age–are also earning $300-500 per month with their own companies.
The World’s Best Fruit (below)
This video doesn’t include a name, as the narrator wants to quit her job in person :)
She and her husband put in 4-6 hours per week and earned an extra $2,200 in their first month of testing. Our anonymous lifestyle designer, whom we’ll call “The World’s Best Fruit” for obvious reasons, shares the following:
I did it Tim! Until 14 months ago, I was destined to retire in 30+ years. Twenty days from now I’m giving notice of my intention to leave in May. Thank you!!
I want to be an example of possibility for others that are just getting started. In this video I’ve shared how I applied the following techniques:
-picking a muse
-becoming and expert
-adding a VA (or an intern in this case)
I have also highlighted the first techniques I used to improve my life.
-Dreamlining
-Speed Reading
-Elimination
-Surrounding myself with like-minded people
These helped me in the early stages when I was stuck trying to figure out a product, but knew I wanted to become part of the New Rich.
Ki’une (below)
Ki’une’s video needs to seen — and listened to — to have its full impact. Recorded over a year of traveling, it also showcases why his dance muse has been successful. That’s some damn fine locking.
Oh, and in case you miss it, don’t forget the sunscreen.
Jose Castro-Frenzel (below)
Think your business is too bricks-and-mortar for lifestyle design?
Using several principles he describes in this video, Jose transformed his concrete company, Omega Masonry Inc., into a virtual company. He also added more than 40 hours per week of free time and has started a new online product based company. Jose also helped me and others (like Matt Mullenweg and Andrew Rosca) build a preschool in Vietnam, which we visited together in 2009.
SoulTravelers3 (below)
From the mother in the family known as SoulTravelers3 (edited for length):
We are beyond thrilled that we are one of the case studies in the new expanded 4HWW & we are a family traveling the world non-stop, on an open ended world tour since 2006!
Unlike someone who mentioned in the comments that it could not be done once these men were married and had families, I am here to validate that it not only can be done, but might also be the most rewarding way to do marriage and family and probably the best possible education for future 21st century global citizens!
…We have traveled over 175,000 miles (most overland) to 4 continents, 32 countries since we left in 2006…
I think [this video] “talks” to the 70% of families that dream about extended travel, inspires many of every age & gives hope to women who love freedom and travel, but fear they must give that up when they have a child.
YES! Families can and DO live the 4HWW dream too! ;)
On the video, which has been viewed more than a million times:
It took 18 months to make this video and it was hard enough to get the film, let alone decent sound in these crowded, noisy environments. Thus we did a montage cover song as all do in these kinds of videos. She is young and it takes great concentration to play such sophisticated songs under such circumstances, but her nature is one of great joy as you can see in our other videos or website. We are not rich and travel and live on a total of 25,000 dollars a year.
Bolding is mine. Living richly does not require riches.
Dane Low (below)
Dane used Facebook to get incredible press for Room to Read and build a school in Vietnam in the process. His approach is an incredible model for the future of giving back and karmic capitalism.
Alex Climent (below)
Alex, who read the Spanish version of 4HWW in Valencia, Spain, used Pareto’s and Parkinson’s Laws to shoot an independent, low-budget film in 8 locations in 4 days. The script had been in a drawer for 4 years.
The Ren Men (below)
The Ren Men have created a 3-day workweek (9am-3pm), built a net wealth of $2-million, take 10+ mini-retirements per year, and much, much more. This video explains the 3 principles they focused on to automate a brick-and-mortar business.
Maneesh Sethi (below)
Maneesh has created a digital lifestyle that has allowed him to live in Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina, among others. His video includes an exact screencast of how he has created automated income based on Google Adwords and outsourced article creation.
From Maneesh:
I currently work exactly 3h59m per week (11am-2:59pm on Monday), and in the video I show EVERYTHING—my entire job, the software I’ve written to automate myself out of existence, and how my VAs literally do everything without me. I’m about 4 weeks away from outsourcing the final 3h59m, as well. My business is an SEO SEM biz, writing articles based on keywords that people are searching for on google. My business is monetized by adsense and ad revenue—i literally go to sleep, wake up, and check how much money I’ve earned. I’m serious–no matter where I am in the world, my work is getting done, and I am getting paid, no matter what the hell I do.
So what do I do with all this time? I travel—for 2 years straight, I’ve been living in a new country every four months, studying the language, and just enjoying life. (I have lived in Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, India—and I speak Italian, Spanish and Portuguese). I do pushups in every city (my life goal is a pushup in every country).
Now, with all of this free time, I’m trying to change the lives of others and give them an opportunity to do the same. I founded an NGO, SaveThem.net, and I am building a classroom in Upli Badi village near Udaipur, India—an extremely poor shanty town. I’ve raised over $1500 to buy these children laptops, and I’m going to begin giving them personalized classes starting January 16. I was lucky enough to be introduced to computers at a young age—hopefully, these poor kids will be able to learn to use the computer, break out of their horrible cycle of poverty by working a good technical job, be able to raise money, and bring back this money to their parents and friends in Upli Badi. Until they do, my NGO will be around helping more and more children.
Austin Evarts (below)
Austin created two profitable companies while traveling abroad and having the experiences of a lifetime. This video showcases his muses and how he designed them.
KEG (below)
KEG used Parkinson’s Law and the 80/20 principle as a musician to finish his long-postponed album, and he then used techniques in the book to get on both NBC’s America’s Got Talent (twice) and Cooking Along with Gordon Ramsey.
Long live rock.
Pete Williams (below)
Pete from Australia applied his newfound “free” time back into his business. He first focused on building his business faster instead of mini-retirements, and now he’s embarking on the latter. From Pete:
I’ve really embraced the 4HWW principles in by “business life” with to two full time Philippine Virtual Assistants and a range of part-time specialists across the world taking care of all the day-to-day stuff; so I can spend more time working on the 3 businesses I own (rather than in them) – This process culminated in being named Global Runner up in JCI’s 2009 Create Young Entrepreneur Awards (ceremony in Tunisia) and a mini-retirement to the Halloween Party at the Playboy Mansion.
The first three dreamlines I’ve set in place and booked for 2010 are 1. Join the circus and learn how to trapeze, tight rope walk, handstand etc (Jan-March) 2. Trek the Himalayas to raise money for charity (April) 3. Train for the NYC marathon.
In a show of good humor, Pete also asked one of his virtual assistants to post a video:
Nathan Jurewicz (below)
This is a hysterical video. The theme, however, is practical: shifting from presence to performance. From Nathan:
Book changed my life!!
This really is my lifestyle no joke!
I do whatever I want, whenever I want and I am semi famous!!
Thanks Tim!!
- Nathan Jurewicz
Lee Burrell (below)
Lee gets into logistics around 1:30, and he gives outstanding examples of low-cost and highly effective product development. He is now on track to have a million-dollar muse within 15 months and is a full-time student. Note the video suggestion to take customer phone calls in the beginning stages to compile a FAQ — this saves hundreds of hours later in e-mail exchanges and customer service. Suggestions from Lee include:
- Figure out what customers want – and give it to them. By first performing seminars and getting detailed student feedback, I was able to determine where other companies product’s were falling short. Keeping their feedback in mind and building a list of FAQs based on the most commonly asked questions/concerns, I developed a product that people want and are willing to pay more than 8-10x mark-up for.
- Outsource. Outsource. Outsource. I outsourced the website creation, content creation, have a VA, professional proofreader, powerpoint expert for building presentations, and customer service “center.” All of was done using the books principles and recommendations. (Elance rocks)
If sales continue to grow as expected, I will have a million dollar muse in 15 months (at the ripe old age of 24) and will be helping people reach their dreams along the way.
Can’t thank you enough Tim.
Cheers!
Lee
(Btw I came in 2nd in your “Trail By Fire” contest. The Planet Earth DVD’s you sent were awesome! I’m definitely excited about the possibility to win a plane ticket to see some of those places in person :p)
Alex from Montreal (below – turn up your audio volume)
In this video, Alex shows exactly how he left a sales job at a Fortune 500 company to travel the world and live like a rockstar (literally), meeting with both billionaires and celebrities. Brilliant use of local Chambers of Commerce. The audio is frustratingly low, but it’s worth the watch.
David Walsh (below)
David has grown a venture-backed start-up from 2 to 14 people, written a book, created an audiobook, launched a language learning tool, and produced a popular podcast. Most recently, he founded an early-stage venture investment firm like Y-Combinator.
He must be constantly connected, right?
Nope. David got rid of his mobile phone 4 months ago and is loving life without it.
Brad Kirr (below)
Brad filmed and edited this video from Morocco on his Sony k100i phone. Cool.
What do you do when you need to add 800 products to a new site but each product takes a fully day? Outsource your life, of course. Brad explains how and underscores the under-mentioned importance of making your instructions teachable.
Now he’s surfing, snowboarding, and skating the world over. From Brad:
I talk about three principles from the book as it applies to my life including outsourcing your life as it applies to technical aspects of product addition and seo of my web business, dreamlining and the use of “My Fantastical Autobiography” to initiate my dreamline of starting a skateboard company in Dubai, and finally the 80/20 principle as it applies to my current dreamline of becoming a big wave surfer.
You can make my next dreamline happen by sending me to the Mentawis buddy!!!
Brad
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Happy New Year all!
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Get the brand-new Expanded and Updated 4-Hour Workweek, published 12/15, which includes more than 50 new case studies (including families) of luxury lifestyle design, muse creation, and world travel. Make 2010 the year when you make the leap.
Where would you go if you had a free ticket anywhere? The island of Bohol in the Philippines? (source: WisDoc)
Not long ago, I received the following comment — edited for length — from Ryan N.:
I hate you Tim. I had a secure future ahead of me, and I left my job, my reasonably well paying professional career all because of your book. Best thing I’ve ever done!!
I was wondering if you might be able to put up a blog post where people could post their ideas or muses as case studies. I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who would like to share their stories and listen to others living the 4HWW.
Here’s to 2010 being the year everything changes.
Indeed. Here’s to 2010 being the year everything changes.
I decided to take Ryan’s advice. Below is a post of just a few select video case studies. This is also where you can win a round-trip ticket anywhere in the world.
That would be a nice way to start 2010 with a bang, right?…
I’m sure you’ve dreamed of taking that big trip, but it’s been put off due to the million things that interrupt and overload all of our lives. The fact is this: there is never a convenient time to do the most impactful things, whether having a baby, quitting your job, or taking a dream trip overseas. It’s something you pull the trigger for despite imperfect circumstances, not because of perfect circumstances.
Let’s end the wait.
Here’s how it works – simplicity itself:
1) Upload a video to YouTube of 5 minutes or less where you describe how you’ve most successfully applied techniques or tools from The 4-Hour Workweek to your life or business. Be sure to tag your video with “4hww success” in quotation marks. Click here to see what it should look like when you are uploading your video.
2) Leave a comment on this post with a link to your video and a brief description of what worked for you (no need for more than 1-2 short paragraphs). Do all of this no later than 5pm PT this Saturday, December 26th. Early responses get bonus points.
3) I and a few secret judges will select our top favorites, and then you all will vote for the winner.
4) I will then provide a roundtrip ticket anywhere in the world that the 25+ airlines in the Star Alliance fly.
In the meantime, find below some fun examples to get your juices flowing. Included are:
- Electra, a mother who uses batching to run her business while making time for the kids
- Michael, a father of two who’s lived in Argentina and explored both international and home schooling while earning full-time income.
- Harris, a father who can take his kids to the zoo on a Wednesday or take the entire family to Barcelona for a month.
- Jed and Chelsea, who quit their previous jobs, moved to another city, and are reinventing themselves one step at a time.
Last but not least, we have Aaron Carotta, who was diagnosed with cancer but still achieved the four-hour workweek in 60 days and documented it all on video. Here is the cliff notes version, in his words:
-Diagnosed with cancer
-Lost wages
-Accumulated medical bills
-Received the book as a gift
-Documented his interpretation of the book
-Achieved goals to free up his lifestyle
-Successfully opened and sold a business in another country
-Generated automated money
-Now successfully runs a company that allows his to travel for a living, The Seven Wonders Tour [with sponsors, Vibrams!].
-Continues to live healthy, travel the world, and be happy
I’ve included a 3-part video diary compilation of Aaron’s experience at the end of this post after the other case studies. Total viewing time is just around 20 minutes.
Enjoy these wonderful examples and don’t forget — your own video submission and comment on this post must be up no later than 5pm PT this Saturday!
Question of the day: where would you travel if you had a free round-trip anywhere in the world?
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Get the brand-new Expanded and Updated 4-Hour Workweek, published 12/15, which includes more than 50 new case studies (including families) of luxury lifestyle design, muse creation, and world travel. Make 2010 the year when you make the leap.
Recommended and Related: Tim Ferriss on Twitter – what adventures and mischief am I up to this instant? Tim Ferriss on Huffington Post – marketing case studies, travel how-to, and more
Jaime Cevallos and the MP30 Training Bat (Source: Jaime Cevallos)
“Cevallos told Zobrist [Tampa Bay Rays MVP] he could turn him into a power hitter…The results have been remarkable.”
- ESPN The Magazine
This article will tell the inspiring story of Jaime Cevallos, who went from $7 an hour to coaching MVPs in Major League Baseball, automating his income in the process.
Jaime is now — in many respects — set. But how did he do it?
Some of the questions I asked Jaime include:
1) What is your muse [automated business]?
2) How did you contact the initial MLB players, and what exact wording did you use?
3) What things were much easier than expected, and which things were much harder?
4) To those people who haven’t yet tried to create a muse, what 3-5 pieces of advice would you give them?
5) What mistakes did you make, and what did you learn from them?…
The Beginning: An E-mail
Our interaction started with an e-mail to one of my assistants in August, 2008:
Amy:
I just thought I would let you guys know that three years ago, I was making $7 an hour. I read 4 hour work week and now I am one of the most sought after swing coaches in Major League Baseball.
If you google my name, you will see the headway that I have made. I really have to say that I owe a lot of my success to FHWW.
After reading the book. I began approaching MLB players and offering them my assistance. I always knew I was an expert on the baseball swing but didn’t know how I would penetrate the MLB ranks. FHWW just showed how to do it.
I gave my company the name “the swing mechanic” and the rest is history.
Although I’m feeling like I should reread The Four Hour Workweek lately
(because I am quite busy and I know I need a refresher), I look back and
have to say that I’m still employing the principles quite well.
1. I was invited to speak at the American Baseball Coaches Convention, the largest baseball coaches convention in the world, on January 10th. It’s amazing what you get when you ask. I just found out who the guy in charge of speakers was and sent an email along with my accomplishments and followed up twice with phone calls. (4HWW chapters/principles – Becoming An Expert, Eustress Is Good).
2. My book, Positional Hitting, is being self published after the person that I hired to edit and format the text and design the cover (on Elance, LOVE ELANCE) is finished. Should be out February, 2010. (4HWW chapters/principles – Becoming an Expert, Outsourcing Life)
3. My second and third training aids are currently being designed. For one of my inventions, I had blueprints and prototypes made in China (on Elance) for $150 and then found a local manufacturer on Thomasnet.com to iron out the details and do the mass production. (4HWW principles – License A Product/Create A Product)
Doing quite a bit as you can see. But, as I said, it’s still time for a refresher :-)
I hope all is going well for you both. Keep in touch and let me know how everything is going.
Jaime
How have Jaime’s results in the majors turned out? Judge them for yourself. Here are just two examples:
In 303 plate appearances before working with Cevallos, Zobrist had 3 home runs and a .259 slugging percentage. In the 309 plate appearances after, Zobrist hit 17 home runs with a .520 slugging percentage. “The numbers before I worked with Jaime compared to after speak for themselves,” said Zobrist. In 2009, Zobrist won the team MVP award for the Rays, finishing the season with a .297 batting average and 27 home runs.
Before working with Cevallos in 2007, Drew Sutton, playing professional baseball for the Corpus Christi Hooks, had 9 home runs and a .267 batting average. After working with Cevallos in 2008, Sutton improved his numbers to 20 home runs and a .317 batting average, earning team MVP honors. “(Cevallos) has made a huge difference,” said Sutton after the season.
Tips from a Pro
“Ted Williams once famously remarked, ‘Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports’…Jaime Cevallos has made it his life’s mission to conquer the unconquerable.”
– Fort Worth Star Telegram
1) What is your muse [automated business]? Coaching is, of course, usually tethered to one location.
My muse is the MP30 baseball training bat. Having a muse allows me to “be in more places at one time.” I can be giving a lesson in Dallas while a player is receiving his MP30 training bat from UPS in New York. It’s a great feeling to know that thousands of hitters around the country are improving because of a training bat that I designed. Now my training bat is in the dugouts of six Major League teams and I get orders every week from hitting coaches of university and professional baseball teams, which is a great compliment. I can’t be everywhere to give instruction, but my bat serves as an instructional device that is almost as good as me being there.
2) How did you contact the initial MLB players, and what exact wording did you use?
After reading 4HWW, I understood that if I was really going to pursue my goal of being the best swing instructor, there would be many moments of discomfort and even embarrassment along the way. After I accepted that, I was left with nothing but excitement. I just started walking into hitting facilities around my home and introducing myself to the management. One day, I walked into Showtime Sports Academy in Franklin TN, and the manager, Tony Naile, must have seen the determination in my eyes when I told him that I was going to change baseball with my hitting methods. He said, “Come back here. I have someone I want you to meet.” He took me to the back of the facility where Ben Zobrist and Nevin Ashley, both MLB players in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, were taking batting practice in one of the cages. When they were done, I introduced myself to them and said, “I have a unique method of analyzing and training baseball swings that I’d like to share with you guys. Would you be willing to let me film your swings so I could offer my analysis?” They looked at each other and looked back at me and said, “Sure. Why not.” The rest is baseball history.
This was a huge step for me. I could have easily said to myself: “These guys have coaches. They aren’t looking for me.” At the time, it was unheard of for MLB players to receive instruction from a guy who never played in the Majors himself. I changed that. Without those real gutsy moves, especially in the beginning, I find that usually nothing great ever happens. One of the biggest things that helped me to just get out there in the beginning was really understanding the principle in 4HWW that “doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic.”
3) What things were much easier than expected, and which things were much harder?
The technical things were much easier than I expected. For example, when designing my company logo, I was a little apprehensive about posting a project online (Elance.com), so I called a local provider to do the design. Despite her being thirty minutes late to our first meeting, I told her what I wanted, gave her a downpayment of $250, and she said she would have something for me within a week. Five weeks later she had a design that looked like it had been made by a first grader. I expressed my disappointment to her and never paid the second half. So I was only out $250.
I immediately posted the project on Elance, using the first designers logo as a rough sketch of what I wanted. The next morning I had six bids on the project. I immediately chose a designer and less than four hours later, the provider had a sample for me that was absolutely perfect. It’s still the logo that I use today. In one day and for $90 I had a perfect logo that a local provider couldn’t even do in 5 weeks for $500! I still use Elance today. In fact, most of the work in my book, Positional Hitting, coming out in February, was done on Elance.
As for the something that was much harder than expected, I must confess, I drove to a Starbucks 40 minutes from my house and sat there for an hour trying to muster the courage to lay down in public [Tim: this is an exercise in discomfort from 4HWW]. All the caffeine I could handle wouldn’t get me on that floor. I just couldn’t do it. I’ll do it one day. I don’t know what country I’ll be in, but I’ll do it.
4) To those people who haven’t yet tried to create a muse [automated business], what 3-5 pieces of advice would you give them?
a. Choose something within a subject with which you have some level of familiarity. You wouldn’t want to become a real estate agent if you never before had an interest in homes or interior design. The same is true of your muse. You should have a considerable amount of knowledge about the niche market that you are targeting.
b. Take your time in choosing your muse if it doesn’t hit you right away. If you just choose anything so you can get started, you may not have the full commitment necessary to stay the course. Make sure you believe in it enough that you can say, “There’s no doubt that I can do it, it’s just a matter of time.”
c. Keep an open mind. The market is always changing, which means new demands for brand new products and services. I invented a product. That obviously means that nobody else in the world had tried selling the product before me. If you choose this route, it will be a tougher road because you don’t have others to model, but the upside can be much better too.
5) What mistakes did you make, and what did you learn from them?
For me, when I start to make bad decisions, it’s usually because I’m afraid of making bad decisions.
For example, when sales started picking up for the training bat, I suddenly assumed I needed a partner. I desparately searched for someone who would take over some of the control of the business. It was a disaster. He would call me to tell me what I needed to be doing to run my company. The root of the problem was that I assumed that there was a “right way” to do things and I needed to do it that way.
There isn’t a “right way.” When it’s your company, there’s one way: your way. The lessons you learn along the way are yours alone and they are your most precious assets.
###
Get the brand-new Expanded and Updated 4-Hour Workweek, published 12/15, which includes more than 50 new case studies (including families) of luxury lifestyle design, muse creation, and world travel.
It’s a vastly superior book, and new material includes:
• More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point.
• Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating e-mail, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than $8 a meal
• Fully revised resources – the latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either.
I wanted the launch for this new expanded edition to be as elegant and effective as possible, as I’m also on deadline for the new Becoming Superhuman guide to hacking the human body.
Instead of the usual 4-week launch plan with extended marketing and media, I decided to compress almost all of it into one week. This week.
To make it all work, I would have to combine pre-orders and sales from this week. Weekly New York Times lists are tabulated from Sunday to Sunday.
Alas, that’s when things got all screwed up, hence Plan B.
- Late last week, readers began to tweet that the book was already shipping, despite the official on-sale date of today. I’ve seen a few friends screwed in the past when their pre-orders were split between two weeks. They missed the NYT lists, which is critical for any snowball effect.
- Three national media spots were canceled this week due to scheduling conflicts and producer mix-ups.
Time to reset and bring out the big guns.
Plan B
Sometimes, size matters.
Now is one of those times, and I’d like to ask you a favor. Please consider the following.
This is for the next 24 hours only. It expires 2pm PST on Wednesday, 12/16/09.
If you’ve ever wanted to give The 4-Hour Workweek as a gift, or if you think you will, I’ll offer the following, with goodies attached and important details at the end:
Buy 1 copy (or use your older edition) – Participate in a 2-hour live Q&A with me on 12/22. It will focus at least 50% new material. No email receipt needed, but familiarity with book will be important.
Buy 4 Copies – Free signed, advanced copy of Becoming Superhuman when it comes out later in 2010. It will be one of Random House’s biggest releases, and you will see it even before most media.
E-mail Amazon receipt to bonus@fourhourworkweek.com with subject line “4 copies”.
Buy 10 Copies - The above signed copy of Becoming Superhuman and 1 full year ($120) of DropBox’s 50GB back-up and synching service for free, which I use and which appears in the book.
This makes the ten copies, in effect, free.
E-mail Amazon receipt to bonus@fourhourworkweek.com with subject line “10 copies” (we will have to confirm quantities, of course).
Buy 100 Copies (limit 20 spots) – Buy 100 copies here and get all of the above (Superhuman, 1-year DropBox), as well as a VIP invitation to a private bash I will be throwing in San Francisco on Friday, Feb 26th.
Dine and hang out with me and my best friends from tech and all over the world. It will be an evening to remember much like this, which was hosted on a functioning WWII warship, but even cooler and crazier.
Buy 1,000 Copies (limit 1 spot) - Buy 1,000 copies here and get all of the above (Superhuman, 1-year DropBox, VIP dine/party) and a full day of consulting with me on whatever topics you desire. I will fly you from anywhere in the world to San Francisco, where I will cover all meals and entertainment for 24 hours. One friend or business partner is welcome to attend if they cover their own travel and hotel.
Again, the above are valid for the next 24 hours only, ending at 2pm PST, Wednesday.
Some Details
What if I already ordered the new book?
No problem. Just combine the Amazon/online receipts in one email to bonus@fourhourworkweek.com with “4 books” (for the 4-book bonuses) or “10 books” (for 10-book bonuses) in the subject line.
What if I want the bonuses but don’t need 100 or 1,000 books?
Also no problem.
I’ll find a home for them, or you can sell them, or you can give them to a non-profit. There may well be a tax write-off if you do the latter, but you’d need to chat with a real accountant first to get it right.
Do Kindle and audiobook versions count for the Plan B bonuses?
Unfortunately, not for anything other than the live 2-hour Q&A next week.
Kindle and audiobook sales do not count for the New York Times list (f*ing ridiculous, I know), and this is an emergency list-recovery measure to compensate for the Amazon mix-up and cancelled major media.
Obviously, if you buy one of the formats that don’t count towards the list, have ever bought the book, or even read the blog, I’m still thankful!
Here is my most recent keynote from the 2,000-person+ Le Web in Paris, which focused on how to catalyze a global phenomenon on a very limited budget. Topics include:
- How to sell “around the product” for more coverage.
- The three necessary types of media exposure.
- Real-world tipping points from the launch of The 4-Hour Workweek
- How to increase website conversion 80%.
It pulls from real case studies, including my own experience and tech start-ups I advise…
To advance slides on the presentation, just hover the mouse over the right-hand side of the displayed slide and click when a hand appears.
To embed the presentation in your own blog, find the embed code here.
Elsewhere on the web: Get the New and Expanded 4-Hour Workweek with 50 new case studies and all-new tools and tricks. Tim Ferriss on Twitter – real-time antics, and see the new launch techniques as they unfold beginning Monday, 12/14
