Four-hour workweek

There is a great book that is grabbing people’s attention all over the world because it offers concrete ways to liberate the individual and supercharge
his or her earning potential – it will change your life if you want it to so do read this book review by Tim Roberts because it may make your life easier

This book, The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss is easy to read and powerful and has been an international bestseller. I’m recommending this book to
friends and colleagues and, most importantly, to my children.

The reviews are excellent and include: “It’s about time this book was written. It is a longoverdue manifesto for the mobile lifestyle, and Tim Ferriss is the ideal ambassador. This will be huge.” Jack Canfield, co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul®.

“If you want to live your dreams now, and not in 20 or 30 years, buy this book!” Laura Roden, Chairman of the Silicon Valley Association of Start-up Entrepreneurs.

It’s the last review that got me thinking about the Police Service. I think many of Ferriss’ ideas will transfer into the police culture but not all of them
because of the requirements of the operational life.

However, there is enough potential in the book to allow you to make sweeping changes at work but also, crucially, in things you might do outside work, such
as starting a business in your downtime.

I can imagine officers reading this page while having refreshments on a nightshift and thinking:“When can I start a business! I don’t even have enough time to recover between shifts or to see my family!” Keep on reading…

If you’re pushed for time, with commitments and responsibilities to honour, then you need to read this book. Ferriss shows in simple and reliable ways how to accomplish a number of things that will allow you to manage your work more efficiently – but also how to start your own business and make it pay.

There is also a companion website that offers useful tips and inspirational blogs and photos at www.fourhourworkweek.com

I remember when I was a young PC; I was always tired and short of money. For a stretch of about 18 months, after we had bought our first house, money was extremely tight. We’d feed our kids before we fed ourselves in case we didn’t have enough food to go round when the monthly money had run out.

I longed for advice on how to develop other options but there was no one I knew who could help me. I felt stuck. I loved the police work but it was not paying what we needed. If The 4-Hour Workweek had been available then, it would have been one answer to our problems.

I like to think that had I had access to Ferriss’ advice I could have set up some sort of business that generated revenue with minimal effort and that perhaps my wife could have run it while I continued with my police career.

Ferriss takes readers through a series of steps needed to develop a successful income stream that does require only four hours a week. He speaks from a position of authority – he’s done it.

Pension trap
Before I left the police I was aware of the pension trap that had captured so many of my friends. They wanted other challenges, other income, and a different lifestyle but would not risk their security by sacrificing a police pension.

Ferriss’ advice means that we can offset the pension worry, and we can develop revenue even after we retire. Interestingly, Ferriss does what a growing
number of authors are doing, he questions and reframes the notion of retirement.

He says he never wants to retire but to take mini retirements and adventures at regular periods through his life. This is something that I aspire to.

Of course, by the time I am retirement age, whenever that is, and the age seems to ever recede over the horizon, the turbulence and unpredictability in the world, with oil, with the economy, may mean that retirement is a very different experience, if it exists for me at all.

This all makes the learning that Ferriss has to offer all the more important.

If I can make a suggestion; take a risk, get a copy of the book, most libraries will have it. Dedicate a week to reading and learning from it. Do whatever you
need to do to create the time.

Be open-minded. Then list all the reasons why Ferriss’ advice won’t work in your life and then go through that list and challenge each assumption you have made. Then, adapt Ferriss’ ideas to your own life situation.

Finally, if you have a partner, romantic or business, work together to put a timetable in place to achieve what Ferriss suggests is possible.

It is perfectly realistic for you to have a business up and running and one that provides a good income stream in less than six months from starting the book. Now, that is worth it.

Incidentally, I was talking to my neighbour over our wheelie bins the other day. We got onto the subject of income and I mentioned The 4-Hour Workweek.“Oh yeah,” said my neighbour,“my mate’s done that and it
worked for him. He now works one day a month and enjoys the rest of his time!”

If it is possible for him to accomplish this here in the backwaters of sparsely-populated New Zealand, it is certainly possible in the busier areas of the UK.

Pareto’s Law: the trivial many and the critical few Timothy Ferris mentions Pareto’s Law in The 4-Hour Workweek. He says that it is one of the tools that he uses time and time again to prioritise his life and work.

Vilfredo Pareto (1848 to 1923) was born in Paris and
grew to be Professor of Political Economy at Lausanne, Switzerland. Pareto focused on social and political statistics and trends.

Pareto is credited with developing the principle of “the trivial many and the critical few”. This principle is evident in many areas and is known by a number of
names including:

● Pareto’s Law, the 80:20 rule
● The Pareto Principle
● The Principle of Least Effort (a term coined by George Zipf in 1949 based on Pareto’s theory)
● The Principle of Imbalance
● The 80:20 Principle
● The Rule of the Vital Few (a term coined by Joseph
Juran in the field of quality management).

Meaning of Pareto’s Law
Pareto’s Law suggests that in many business and social activities there is an approximate 80:20 split between the value generated, or the results we want
(80) and the effort required (20).

It is often written as 80%-20% but this may be inaccurate because Pareto didn’t claim it to be out of a hundred per cent.

Pareto’s Law is important because it allows us to identify the small concentration (the 20) that is causing business growth, opportunities, or problems. We are then free to develop insights into these with more clarity and purpose.

Pareto’s theme seems consistent across many subject
areas. The common pattern is that a few produce a lot, whether this is a lot of positive benefits or negative.

What Pareto’s Law does
The principle is helpful in bringing rapid and reliable clarity to complex situations, especially when deciding where to focus effort, energy and resources.

At times of crisis, or at regular review times every few weeks, reflect on where you need to place effort and take action.

Regularly analyse what results you are getting, whether work or social. Identify the 80-20 split because this will allow you to act with more precision. Pareto’s Law brings clarity and creates more choices.

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