REVIEW: [business book] Work four hours a week. The Tim Ferris Method
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With you business consultant @ dizhmur @dizhmurbiz Thanks to YOU, my rating is growing, and for this I am very grateful. In the continuation of previous posts on planning and goal setting, I will summarize the review of the book by Tim Ferris.
Work four hours a week. The Tim Ferris Method
Introduction
Tim Ferris begins the book with a tempting picture: the finals of the World Cup in tango in Buenos Aires, he - in the winning couple. And this is after five months of daily rehearsals, while most couples were preparing for 15 years. That's what this book promises: dizzying travels, overseas hobbies (and at the level of not an amateur, but a champion), precious knowledge,
An opportunity to do something essential for humanity. Tim won not only in tango, but also in battles in the cage and in kickboxing, prepared dozens of record holders, was a TV presenter in China and Taiwan, professionally mastered four languages, appeared in Asian TV series and performed brake-dance, teaches the basics of entrepreneurship in
Princeton also teaches mnemotechnics, explores the problems of diabetes and political emigration and drives a motorcycle.
And although Tim stipulates that it is not for every reader to imitate him exactly in travel and records (you can spend free time for leisure with your family, for example), you should not minimize the role of personality and purpose.
If a person only wants to do the same, but less, he will hardly be able to reach the heights of ingenuity in the struggle for his freedom. And let Tim's advice on time management help reduce the working day, the emptiness of something and the life will not be more interesting. Important is the inner feeling of a free and diverse person,
The desire to do something new and try a lot.
Travel, if not geographical, then metaphorical - new circles of acquaintances, new professions, new tasks - the necessary goal, which will teach you to find means and help overcome all obstacles.
It is the goal and belief in one's own unlimited possibilities and the right to realize - the new and the most essential in this book. Without any mysticism, it forces a person to come to his senses and be reborn, to seek oneself, and not to be a prefix to perform a particular function. For a full life we need a guaranteed income, time and mobility.
Tim Ferris shows how to get money, time and mobility, and these instructions, in principle, have long been familiar: the basic skills of the businessman, the fundamentals of time management and outsourcing, automated business models. All this is simple, accessible and effective.
The only difference is that the reader can believe and start applying these tips,
Inspired by the vision: to surpass the Argentines in tango, the Chinese in kickboxing, to master the whole world, remaining himself.
Only the goal is needed. You just need to put it to yourself.
1. Know yourself and be free
1.1. Liberation begins from within.
The outdated idea of freedom: to become a boss or work for oneself, to ensure old age,Early to retire, to buy prestigious things and - the top of the dream - not to do what you do not want. The new rich need not the removal of the negative, but the best that the world can offer the person. Become not a boss, but a master, not to have, but to be, to strive not for idleness, but for self-realization, to find the meaning of life and to bring the world benefits.
1.2.The main obstacle to a new life is fear.
The professional is afraid to break his career, the hired worker - to remain without a pension, the founder of a prosperous company - to ruin his business. To defeat fear, you need to calculate "the worst" and make sure that reality is even worse.
Having created the company, which brought $ 70,000 a month,
Tim was forced to work for 15 hours a day without holidays and days off. The business model did not allow outsourcing, the company could not be sold, and the trip threatened to ruin. Having calculated the risks, Tim realized that he was afraid of temporary troubles and doomed himself to permanent slavery.
1.3. You can live as a millionaire without millions.
True wealth is the opportunity to choose where to live, when and where to go, what to do.
Chained to his job, the rich man spends a fortune on a two-day vacation and can only envy his own subordinate who has a reasonable schedule of work and two weeks a month skiing in any part of the world.
1.4.The rules of the new rich
• Do not wait for retirement. Money is getting cheaper, they still will not be enough, life will pass, and if you have not learned to rest, then on pension you will polezesh on the wall.
• Alternate tides. "Mini-pensions" right now.
• Work less, but more effectively (not self-sacrifice, but productivity).
• Do not postpone the dream (there will not be a suitable time).
Annually about 300 French families go on a round-the-world voyage. It is enough just to postpone business and replace the children with a year in school with unique impressions and books. The costs are comparable to rent in Paris.
• Begin boldly (problems are eliminated as they arrive,
The authorities must be put before the fact, and not ask for permission).
• Identify your strengths and develop them without worrying about the weak.
• Surplus is harmful. Even the excess of free time and money.
• Do not be a slave to money. Once again, remember what you really need. And consider not the total income, but the relative (earnings per hour).
• Good stress - useful. Risk, physical activity, the pursuit of a goal, constructive criticism - all this stress, returning the fullness of life.
1.5. Coping with an unrealistic task is easier than with a real one.
For a simple task, many are taken, and you have no competitors. Look for unexpected recipes.
It is almost impossible to "get out" on the boss: he is jealously guarded by the secretaries. On the first job, Tim chose to call time from 8.00 to 8.30 and from 18.00 to 18.30, when the receiver takes the head himself. Working an hour a day, he managed to have more experienced salespeople.
1.6. The question "what do I want" is too general. No man knows exactly what he wants.
We need a specific goal, and not "happiness", but a passion. What do you really want to do and what to achieve in this matter?
1.7. Define your desires: goals should be unrealistic, and steps - specific.
Decide what you will do: "Live as a millionaire" means to live interesting, not to own prestigious things.
• Ask yourself what would you do,
Be you all smarter, be a failure completely excluded, have you a hundred million. There is no general answer - break it into private: where to go, what to do every day, what to learn.
• Highlight the main thing: what you want to become, and you will understand what you need to learn, what to do and what to achieve.
• Highlight the 4 main dreams and mark the progress towards them.
The first step is now.
• Calculate the worst consequences if you decide to fulfill your desires right now. Think through the steps to minimize the damage.
• Calculate how much you need to give up your dream (financial and emotional costs, damage to health and quality of life).
• Start overcoming your fear.
Training to overcome fear: learn to look at people at close range. Right now go out into the street and look into the eyes of a stranger.
1.8. When you stop being afraid, give up a business that takes too much time.
If you work for hire, get the consent of the authorities for independent and remote work. If the chief does not agree,
Just fire. And you will find other ways to pay bills, save money on retirement and build your career.
Do not force yourself to do uninteresting work just because you are on it. So, Tim forced himself to eat a failed cheesecake - liquid! - although still most of it had to be poured. Spill - and go forward.
1.9.Slow down the pace and on vacation.
Do not try to accommodate three continents in one vacation. Live in the country for a long time, eat local food, make friends with local people. And thus you will extend not only time, but also money: fewer flights, fewer VIP excursions, long-term renting is incomparably more profitable, local food is cheaper.
2. Save your time
2.1. Half-Management should not turn into efforts to do more or to simulate employment.
The goal is to increase productivity and release time. (An employee must first go to a remote job, or the requirements will be increased.)
2.1.1. Efficiency - the ability to operate economically so as to get as close to the goal as possible.
Rationality is the fulfillment of the task in the most economical way. Performing a trivial task can be rational, but will never be effective.
2.2. 80/20 (Pareto law). 20% of costs give 80% of the result. Determine the sources of 80% of the desired results (or ditch the sources of 80% of the problems).
You can work much less,
Almost without loss in income. Under the same rules, select customers, partners, sources of income, advertising.
Of the 120 wholesale buyers, 5 brought Tim 95% of the revenue. 98% of the time was spent negotiating with other customers. Of the top five buyers, two people ate a lot of time and nerves with endless quibbles.
Tim presented both ultimatums: one client was lost, the second accepted new conditions. Then Tim determined the qualities of "good" customers and began to look for just such. Instead of 120 buyers, he had only eight, the income doubled, the working week declined from 80 to 15 hours.
2.3. Parkinson's Law: how much time a person is given,
So much he will spend.
The more time is allocated to the task, the more complicated it seems. Deadline helps focus and perform work quickly and efficiently.
• Cut off unimportant tasks (Pareto law).
• Limit time to cut off all unnecessary (Parkinson's law).
2.4. Three times a day, check whether you work productively,
Do not think up your own lessons. Make lists: "what to do" and "what not to do."
Control questions:
• Imagine that after a heart attack, you can work only two hours a day.
What will you do? • You are executed if you do not give up 80% of your cases.
Quickly decide!
• Name three classes that you fill in the time,
"In order not to sit in vain."
• Clarify: "If I do this today, will I be satisfied?" (Or: "What happens if I do not do this?"). No more than two important cases per day.
• Do not do several things at the same time.
Multitasking is the same fuss.
2.5. The 80/20 principle should also be applied to information (selective ignorance).
To be aware, it is enough to snatch headlines, read one or two industry journals and handle questions to specialists. The art of speed reading is useful.
When Tim thought about how to write a bestseller, he chose ten authors and called them and their agents.
Each book took 2 hours to read, and 4 hours to plan the conversation.
In less than 30 hours, Tim acquired knowledge and connections in the new field.
• Discard all sources of information for a week.
• Take only important and specific (the right now) information.
• Do not force yourself to "eat off the tasteless" - it became boring, throw.
2.6. Against attempts at one's time, one must defend oneself.
Sometimes it makes sense to be "difficult" or "impolite" so that you will not be touched. Our time is taken away:
• Fliers (meetings and other unnecessary formalities).
• Consumers (routine tasks, like reading letters, reports, services).
• Bureaucracy (ask for permission or give instructions).
2.6.1. The easiest way to get rid of thieves.
Set the time for checking mail (not in the morning), put an answering machine on the mail and on the phone and refuse the meetings. The meetings should be brief and on the case, they should be directed to a specific decision. Correspondence is preferable: it accustoms to laconism. And do not let anyone "peek" into your office.
2.6.2.Reduce the costs of routine tasks can be due to "serial production".
Checking a hundred letters once a week will take much less time than hourly reading. Group your tasks in series and packages.
2.6.3. Get the bosses maximum autonomy - or, if you're the boss, give autonomy to employees.
Let the questions at the price of $ 100 decide for yourself. Then you will not spend an hour to save $ 100.
3. Outsourcing: the advantages of a flat world
3.1. Outsourcing is the best way to save your time.
Routine work, the collection of materials, as well as the payment of taxes and even personal purchases can be entrusted to a remote referent.
Esquire's senior editor, EJ Jacobs, hired two assistants in India: one for work, another for his personal affairs. He not only freed up time, but also freed himself from stress.
Literally: Zita promised to worry instead of him.
3.1.1. An employee can free himself from a significant share of the work, transferring it to others.
This is advantageous: colleagues from developing countries take four times less (ten times if they carry out the routine part of the work), ie, the relative income increases.
3.1.2. For an employee and for a startup, outsourcing is preparing to become a boss. Learning to delegate authority:
• First, we eliminate the unnecessary.
Sometimes you just do not have to do the work.
• What can not be eliminated, we try to simplify or automate (for example, answering machines, response templates and mailing can help with mail).
• Delegate specific and time-consuming tasks. Clearly specify the requirements and how much time is allocated for execution (payment by the hour).
3.2.Advantages of foreign outsourcing: the cheapness of the workforce, the difference in time zones (the boss is asleep, the work is on), the zeal of the employees.
But it is necessary to take into account the problems, including the language barrier. The main criterion is the total cost and quality of the task.
3.3. It is better to have not one helper, but a group or an assistant with a ready team.
Such a team is more convenient than full-time employees: there is always someone to whom to give instructions.
3.4. Security measures.
Any employee may turn out to be incompetent or even a fraudster, and it is difficult to keep information even in your computer.
Recommended:
• Sign agreements on trade secrets.
• Avoid hiring new freelancers without your approval.
• Establish separate logins and passwords for employees.
• Pay only by credit cards.
4. Money without problems: how to come up with a new product and establish your business
4.1. Task: business without time.
This can not be a production or service. Only the goods,
Sold through the Internet. Basic conditions:
• Thoughtful test.
• Competent positioning.
• Intelligent distribution.
4.2.1. Wholesale sales should be limited to a narrow circle of customers who undertake not to knock down the price.
The more participants in the chain,
The greater share of profit you leave (otherwise the profitability will fall in all links of the chain).
4.3. First of all, find or create your niche in the market. Do not try to guess the demand in an unfamiliar environment: you yourself are part of the target audience. His dietary supplements ("neural catalyst") Tim intended for students, then clarified: to students-athletes,
And finally narrowed the audience to an extreme: students-wrestlers.
4.3.1. Look closely at what you buy most often.
What groups of people share your interest? Are there any special magazines for them? Look in these magazines for advertising companies that sell online or by phone.
4.3.2. Formulate the "product idea".
Its main advantage should be expressed in one phrase. It is desirable to supply the goods with the same simple instructions, so as not to answer then the endless questions of customers. The basic requirements for the product: • Cost - $ 50-200 (should not be reduced, it makes life easier for competitors, deprives the goods of "elite" and forces to search for more customers).
Expensive buy those who do not shake over money - there will be less complaints and requirements of after-sales service. But too expensive goods cause discomfort. The difference between the cost price and the selling price is 8-10 times.
• Production time - not more than a month.
Clarify with subcontractors terms and prices for different parties.
On a large print run, you can make a significant profit.
4.3.3. Demand must be pre-tested. Important is not positive feedback, but the immediate willingness of the focus group to pay money for the goods. A good way is Google Adwords (for only $ 500 you will check the attractiveness of your advertising). You can create several advertising modules,
Differ only in one parameter, provide them with automatic rotation in Google and see which option is more successful.
Ed decided to sell dietary supplements for athletes. He started with a brochure about BAA and placed advertising in a men's magazine. If the text did not provoke interest, the losses would be reduced to the price of the announcement.
A large number of orders for the brochure confirmed demand. Ed's dietary supplements sold expensive and only in one chain of stores (so as not to oversaturate the market).
4.4. The main options: resale, licensing and creating your own product.
4.4.1. Buy wholesale and retail - the simplest and fastest, but short-lived solution.
It is suitable for related products, which are already available to customers. Get a price list from wholesalers, register an LLC and create a website.
4.4.2. In a licensing agreement, the new rich can be both parties: for an inventor or a brand owner it's a kind of outsourcing,
For the licensee - the opportunity to start a business.
4.4.3. It's not difficult to create your own product.
Development can be entrusted to engineers or designers, even easier - to adapt an existing product for a specific market. On your instructions, make the necessary corrections, and you will give the order to the manufacturer.
• Compare products in the same category (Google search by keyword).
• Offer a wide range or fast delivery (but not less than the price).
• Strengthen trust in yourself as a specialist.
• You can test the interest by putting the goods on Ebay.
Sherwood wanted to sell French vests. He created an advertising site,
On which the buyer filled the order, with the address and phone, and when he pressed the "buy" button, he received the answer: "The goods are not in stock". Probably, so Sherwood lost several clients, but he realized if he could sell his goods.
4.5. Calculate the initial costs, unit cost and minimum order.
We do not want to fall into slavery and do not undertake construction work or expensive electronic toys. You need a product that is created quickly, with minimal costs and allows markups 20-50 times. The ideal product is information.
4.5.1. The most popular industrial products, such as Nike sneakers,
"Live" no longer than three months - and then there are 20 times cheaper Chinese copies. Copy the same information without violating the copyright law is impossible.
Three top American TV shows used only 25 operators in the state, and all other work was done by outside experts.
The aggregate amount of information is estimated at $ 65 million for 2002. At the other end of the spectrum is a DVD course on security systems for warehouses. This niche product cost $ 2, and was sold for $ 95, and the creator of the film alone earned several hundred thousand.
4.6. You do not need to be an expert.
It is enough to understand the issue a little better than the average buyer, and it takes less than a month to acquire such knowledge. You can combine content from several books, adapt material that is publicly available, or invite a specialist (for example, for royalties).
4.6.1. The task is not to be,
But to seem like an expert (not to create a product, but to sell).
For this:
• Join a professional organization.
• Read the three best-selling books on the topic.
• Conduct free seminars at the university and in the branches of two large companies. In companies refer to the university seminar and to membership in a professional organization.
Record the video of your speech.
• Offer industry journals articles or interviews with an expert.
• Register on the Profnet website: here journalists are looking for experts.
5. A business model that works by itself
5.1. The business model is built "from the goal": a stable and not demanding company.
In the scheme of the company, its owner, as it were, does not: Ferris compares himself to a policeman who does not intervene until everything is in order.
5.1.1. At the first stage, the owner takes orders himself, answers customer questions, monitors advertising and participates in packaging and loading, picking up cheap options.
5.1.2. Starting from 10 units per week, connect local order processing services. A small company can request payment deferrals and discounts.
5.1.3. Compose the text "from the support service" and duplicate it in the answers to the clients.
5.1.4. Over 20 orders per week - connect other outsourcing companies, help center, payment processing service, etc.
5.2.Many companies lure customers with an abundance of options.
This is a wrong approach.
First, it complicates the life of the owner. And secondly, it complicates the life of the buyer.
• One basic offer for goods and delivery and one special.
• Do not communicate over the phone, only through the network.
• Do not offer courier and international delivery.
5.3.Uncomfortable customers filter out, treat good as to partners or members of the club: respectfully, but without servility.
5.4. Strict price policy: wholesale discounts only for large lots, related products - at least for a symbolic price, but not free of charge, instead of free samples - loser-win-win guarantees.
5.4.1. Losing-Win-win guarantees are a kind of betting:
If the buyer remains dissatisfied, he will not just get back the money, but will also win.
• In case of delay, delivery is free of charge.
• Do you prefer a competitor? Return our product - we will pay for another purchase.
• Will not give the promised effect - we will return 110% of the price. So Tim sold BADy.
Sales jumped three-fold, and the decline was sharply reduced.
5.5. To a small company, large sellers and potential partners are not trusted.
Here are ways to "fan your cheeks":
• Call yourself not a founder or general director, but some kind of "vice".
• Specify multiple addresses and phone numbers, but not your home address and not an PO Box.
• Use an interactive answering machine.
5.6. Learn to relax in the public - you must not only think, but also act non-standard. Try, for example, for 10 seconds to lie down in a crowded place.
5.7. And remember the parable of the conqueror, who wanted to subdue half the world, and then to rest. About a businessman,
Which is missing a few million for a life of freedom. About an employee who is waiting for a pension to see the world. Your business model works - pack your bags.
Conclusion
And then a new life begins. It can begin with frustration. Because everything is the same around you, and you have not changed, and it is unclear how to fill the emptiness.
That is why, even if your main dream is to lock yourself up at home and write a novel or collect stamps, to start its realization wisely from the trip. Full switching. And, selecting things on the road (at a minimum), you will get rid of the ballast.
Prepare in advance, transferring your business to automatic mode, severing burdensome ties,
Passing the steering wheel to a trusted person. Do not be afraid to take your children with you. But be sure to keep discipline and find them a school or language courses.
Set yourself in a foreign country for a long time: you will save both on renting a house and on VIP excursions. Relax, now you have enough time. Cover all aspects of life in the country - study language, dance,
martial arts. Be interested in benefits, the opportunity to live in a budget. Earn and survive in a strange world - an adventure.
You will have to go through doubts: are not you a weakling or a lazy person if you left the game in the youth? Do not you have to be jealous of friends who successfully make careers and money?
It will be very difficult to dispose of free time.
Just because you did not have that experience yet. It will torment the question of the meaning of life, and many days will be "lost."
And then tell yourself: the meaning of life is in joy. Find something to do that will give you contentment: traveling, volunteering, creativity. There are many options, but, interviewing dozens of new rich,
The author derived a general formula: teaching and ministry.
Travel is an ideal way to learn languages, folk art, local sports. The combination of mental activity with the physical is most satisfying and encourages new acquaintances. The world appears in bright colors.
Service is the desire to do better not only your life.
Everyone chooses a mission by themselves, and it is not worth arguing whether to save whales or children. Find an interesting and important thing for you personally, do it in good faith and do not look at anyone. When you slow down, you will return to the starting point, almost in childhood - there you can do whatever you want and become anyone - this important thing will come to you
.
Avoid typical mistakes.
Do not come back, afraid of emptiness, to work for work. Do not come up with small things to fill the day, do not interfere with the work of your perfectly arranged computer. Do not mix work and life, divide them in space and time. Fully observe the 80/20 principle and perform regular cleaning.
Do not strive for excellence, do not kill years to master 100% of what you have mastered for 95% in a few months.
Live among people. Love people, give joy, seek positive impressions.
In a word, be free and happy. Do not delay.