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May 5, 2020
The Experiments in Lifestyle Design blog (www.fourhourblog.com)
economic downturns produce discounted infrastructure, outstanding freelancers at bargain prices, and rock-bottom advertising deals—all impossible when everyone is optimistic.
TIM FERRISS San Franciso, California April 21, 2009
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. —MARK TWAIN
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. —OSCAR WILDE, Irish dramatist and novelist
If you’ve picked up this book, chances are that you don’t want to sit behind a desk until you are 62.
Second, this book is not about saving and will not recommend you abandon your daily glass of red wine for a million dollars 50 years from now. I’d rather have the wine.
The manifesto of the dealmaker is simple: Reality is negotiable. Outside of science and law, all rules can be bent or broken, and it doesn’t require being unethical.
The DEAL of deal making is also an acronym for the process of becoming a member of the New Rich.
D for Definition turns misguided common sense upside down and introduces the rules and objectives of the new game.
E for Elimination kills the obsolete notion of time management once and for all.
A for Automation puts cash flow on autopilot using geographic arbitrage, outsourcing, and rules of nondecision.
L for Liberation is the mobile manifesto for the globally inclined.
the DEAL process will turn you into an entrepreneur in the purer sense as first coined by French economist J. B. Say in 1800—one who shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher yield.
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. —NIELS BOHR, Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner
finding a market before designing a product is smarter than the reverse.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. —ALBERT EINSTEIN
These individuals have riches just as we say that we “have a fever,” when really the fever has us. —SENECA (4 B.C.–A.D. 65)
I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters. —HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817–1862)
The New Rich can be separated from the crowd based on their goals, which reflect very distinct priorities and life philosophies.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. —RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, Nobel Prize–winning physicist
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. —PABLO PICASSO
Fame has its perks, as does looking outside the choices presented to you. There are always lateral options.
Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life. —JOHN F. KENNEDY
You might even find an opportunity to work at a school where you could experience a new environment with your child. —DEB
Everything popular is wrong. —OSCAR WILDE,
differentiators to keep in mind throughout this book. 1. Retirement Is Worst-Case-Scenario Insurance.
Retirement as a goal or final redemption is flawed for at least three solid reasons:
don’t mistake retirement for the goal.
“Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.
It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. 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.
Lifestyle Design is thus not interested in creating an excess of idle time, which is poisonous, but the positive use of free time, defined simply as doing what you want as opposed to what you feel obligated to do.
relative income is the real measurement of wealth for the New Rich.
Eustress, on the other hand, is a word most of you have probably never heard. Eu-, a Greek prefix for “healthy,” is used in the same sense in the word “euphoria.” Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress—stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth.
The New Rich are equally aggressive in removing distress and finding eustress.
Named must your fear be before banish it you can. —YODA, from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Immediately, a strange shift began—Hans felt, for the first time in a long time, at peace with himself and what he was doing.
It’s not giving up to put your current path on indefinite pause.
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. —BENJAMIN DISRAELI, former British Prime Minister
Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?” —SENECA
Mere panty pinches on the journey of life.
There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, “Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,” and an optimist who says, “Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway.” Either way, nothing happens. —YVON CHOUINARD,7
You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have no fear of discomfort. —JEAN COCTEAU,
Write down your answers, and keep in mind that thinking a lot will not prove as fruitful or as prolific as simply brain vomiting on the page. Write and do not edit—aim for volume. Spend a few minutes on each answer.
it is fear of unknown outcomes that prevents us from doing what we need to do. Define the worst case, accept it, and do it.
What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear.
If you don’t pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in one year, five years, and ten years? How will you feel having allowed circumstance to impose itself upon you and having allowed ten more years of your finite life to pass doing what you know will not fulfill you?
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
Doing the Unrealistic Is Easier Than Doing the Realistic
Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming.
