By Cheryl Rushing

Title:  The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content
by Timothy Ferriss

I’m reading the Kindle edition.

One of the great things about the Kindle (besides being able to carry 400+ books around in my purse) is that you can download a sample of book before you buy it.  It’s usually the first few pages or first chapter, but a good writer can get you hooked in that amount of time.

Timothy Ferriss definitely got me hooked.  I wanted to know how I could have a life like his.  I was hungry for someone to tell me life could be different from my 40 hour workweek at a job I’m not always crazy about.  That’s his message, and he sells it well.

I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I have not finished reading the book.  According to my Kindle I’m only 33% done with the book, but I can tell you what I think so far: it’s an interesting concept.

Ferriss gives you a brief biography of his life, then explains the process of going from office drone to international man of mystery in a few (easy?) steps.  He talks about how to automate your life by controlling e-mails and phone calls, as well as become a remote worker at your current job, and even recommends that you outsource some of your regular functions to India.

And that’s where he lost me.  Outsourcing to other countries is not something I support.  I understand why he would think this is a good idea, but it’s not something I would do.

Ferriss also has the luxury of running his own company.  He has (or rather, had – I believe he sold it) a company that sells supplements over the internet.  He built it up himself, and then automated the process so much so that he only checks voicemail and emails every few weeks.  The income from the business finances his globe-trotting lifestyle.

That’s all well and good, but I don’t own a business, and my employer seems to think that remote workers are nonproductive workers.  We have to be where we can clock in and be monitored.

That’s not to say he doesn’t have good ideas, and some of his concepts are very solid.  Why are we checking email 45 times a day?  Have we trained our clients and coworkers that everything is an emergency that we will be available to correct 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

Essentially, Ferriss is preaching that there isn’t just one way of doing something, and that just because you’re busy all day doesn’t mean you are productive.  That is a powerful message to someone like me who spends a lot of time thinking “there has to be a better way!” while doing the same old things.

I plan on finishing the book in the next few weeks (I will definitely post an update to this review if something blow my mind).  It probably doesn’t help that I’m reading two other books besides this one, and those are actually writing-related.

Interestingly, the latest version of The Well-Fed Writer references The 4-Hour Workweek, so I am looking forward to seeing what Peter Bowerman gleaned from this book and how it affected his processes.

Do I recommend this book?  If you’re an outside-the-box thinker, absolutely yes.  It might be a little bit of preaching to the choir, but there is helpful information and some practice exercises that can get you out of a rut.

Image via Wikipedia

Over the past couple of years I’ve been trying to focus more on writing of the paid variety.  I like to write, and I like money, and I’ve heard there are people who are able to marry those two concepts.  I’d like to be one of those people.

My problem is, I’ve been going about it the wrong way.  I started out by searching for blogs about “freelance writing” and then subscribing to them.  ALL of them.  Then I started subscribing to those job posting sites for writers.  ALL of them.

I had come to the point where my RSS readerwas over 2,000 unread items, almost all of it freelance-writing-related, and I began to feel equal parts guilty and overwhelmed.  I unsubscribed from about half of them, but just the ones I was consistently skipping over.

Then I found a few freelance sites that offer classes and ebooks, and I started buying ebooks (the classes always seem too expensive).  Those ebooks are mostly unread.

Then I started reading those freelance blogs I was still subscribed to, and this is what I read:

• Freelance writing is so easy, anyone can do it.
• Freelance writing is not for the faint of heart.
• With a little hard work and some pluck, you can have a successful freelance writing career.
• If you don’t already have a two-page writing resume and a degree in marketing, you will never make it in this business.
• You have to pay your dues to be a true freelancer.
• Forget about “paying your dues” – get paid for your work!
• There are plenty of great writing jobs out there.
• All the great jobs are taken, and print work is dead.

And so on, and so on.  There are some freelance sites that want to teach you to be a freelancer (for a fee, for a course, for a book), and there are sites that want to discourage you from it (to reduce competition?).

I got caught in the trap of thinking I needed every resource, and then getting overwhelmed by the number of resources out there. 

The bottom line is: I want to write, I want to freelance, and I want to make money at it.  I’m smart, I think I’m talented, and the opportunities aren’t going to come to me.

I think I have managed to cobble together enough good and positive information that, when added to my desire to succeed, I can probably get somewhere.  The journey begins here and now.