Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek

During my five hours of "mechanical delays" on United Airlines this weekend, I read "4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss. While I would view some of the book's suggestions as a little impractical, in a way Tim's ability to think outside the box and dream outrageously is what makes the book an inspiration. Despite thinking there is no way I could do some of what this guy suggests, I did find myself thinking about a lot of other things that I could do beyond what he suggested. The four key principles I took from the book were as follows:

1) Dream big-- its ok! Chase those dreams.
2) Retirement is not a dream.
3) When you aren't on track to fulfill your dreams, change direction. This can be scary, but often the costs are way less than you think.
4) Global arbitrage isn't just for corporations. You can benefit by outsourcing some of your work or at least capturing the arbitrage on vacation in low cost geographies (too bad the dollar has weakend so much since he first published the book in early 2007).

At the end of the day I'd say this book was a good read. It will force you to evaluate your life and determine whether or not you are living by the golden rule of happiness: "Do what you enjoy."