The 4-Hour Workweek

Text in black are quotes; text in green are my notes. I sometimes write in Spanish.

• Retirement as a goal or final redemption is flawed for at least three solid reasons: a. It is predicated on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing during the most physically capable years of your life. #

• I’m not saying don’t plan for the worst case—I have maxed out 401(k)s and IRAs I use primarily for tax purposes—but don’t mistake retirement for the goal. #

• Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up. #

• The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre. Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair. #

• Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. —BENJAMIN DISRAELI, former British Prime Minister #

• What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. #

• The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. —GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Maxims for Revolutionists #

• Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think. #

• The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?” #

• ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ You won’t believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.” #

• To have an uncommon lifestyle, you need to develop the uncommon habit of making decisions, both for yourself and for others. #

• It is not daily increase but daily decrease. #

• fact, if you want to move up the ladder in most of corporate America, and assuming they don’t really check what you are doing (let’s be honest), just run around the office holding a cell phone to your head and carrying papers. Now, that is one busy employee! Give them a raise. #

• 1. Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. 2. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important. #

• Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness? #

• Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness? #

• Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. #

• It’s easy to get caught in a flood of minutiae, and the key to not feeling rushed is remembering that lack of time is actually lack of priorities. #

• Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. #

• 1. Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20). 2. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law). #

• The best solution is to use both together: Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines. #

• It is often the case that you have to fire certain friends or retire from particular social circles to have the life you want. This isn’t being mean; it is being practical. Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic. #

• Focus on what digerati Kathy Sierra calls “just-in-time” information instead of “just-in-case” information. #

• Simon received the Nobel Prize in 1978 for his contribution to organizational decision making: It is impossible to have perfect and complete information at any given time to make a decision. #

• Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time. #

• is your job to train those around you to be effective and efficient. No one else will do it for you. #

• SET THE RULES in your favor: Limit access to your time, force people to define their requests before spending time with them, and batch routine menial tasks to prevent postponement of more important projects. Do not let people interrupt you. Find your focus and you’ll find your lifestyle. The bottom line is that you only have the rights you fight for. #

• Replace the habit of “How are you?” with “How can I help you?” Get specific and remember—no stories. #

• Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos, and compensate in rupees, but that’s just the beginning. #

• 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. #

• I have found that a price range of $50–200 per sale provides the most profit for the least customer service hassle. Price high and then justify. #

• Ask ten people if they would buy your product. Then tell those who said “yes” that you have ten units in your car and ask them to buy. The initial positive responses, given by people who want to be liked and aim to please, become polite refusals as soon as real money is at stake. To get an accurate indicator of commercial viability, don’t ask people if they would buy—ask them to buy. The response to the second is the only one that matters. #

• Those who spend the most complain the least. #

• Offering something for free is the best way to attract time-eaters and spend money on those unwilling to return the favor. #

• Lose-win guarantees not only remove risk for the consumer but put the company at financial risk. #

• Lose-win is the new win-win. Stand out and reap the rewards. #

• While entrepreneurs have the most trouble with Automation, since they fear giving up control, employees get stuck on Liberation because they fear taking control. #

• In the world of action and negotiation, there is one principle that governs all others: The person who has more options has more power. Don’t wait until you need options to search for them. Take a sneak peek at the future now and it will make both action and being assertive easier. #

• Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. —ANATOLE FRANCE, author of The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard #

• If you can’t define it or act upon it, forget it. #

• What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. —VIKTOR E. FRANKL, Holocaust survivor; author of Man’s Search for Meaning #

• Focus on great for a few things and good enough for the rest. Perfection is a good ideal and direction to have, but recognize it for what it is: an impossible destination. #

• Money doesn’t change you; it reveals who you are when you no longer have to be nice. #

• should not invest in public stocks where I cannot influence outcomes #

• Suggested reading: Rethinking Investing—Part 1, Rethinking Investing—Part 2 on www.fourhourblog.com #

• It’s usually better to keep old resolutions than to make new ones. #

• pairs of ExOfficio lightweight underwear. #

• Calvin Coolidge once said that nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent; I would add that the second most common is smart people who think their IQ or resume justifies delivering late. #