Product Description

The New York Times bestselling how-to and why-to guide to throwing out the old tools and methods for success and replacing them with a whole new way of living

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Tim Ferriss has trouble defining what he does for a living. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer: 'I race motorcycles in Europe', 'I ski in the Andes', 'I scuba dive in Panama', 'I dance tango in Buenos Aires'. He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the 'New Rich', a fast-growing subculture that has abandoned the 'deferred-life plan' and instead mastered the new currencies - time and mobility - to create a new way of living. Why wait a lifetime for your retirement when you can enjoy luxury now? Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing first class world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with no management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.Join Tim Ferriss as he teaches you: how to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want; how blue chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs; how to eliminate 50 per cent of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist; how exchange your career for life for short work bursts and frequent 'mini-retirements'; how to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair; how to cultivate selective ignorance - and create time - with a low-information diet; how to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80 per cent off; how to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office; and learn about this and more to live the life you want - now.

About the Author
Tim Ferriss gives an immensely popular bi-yearly lecture at Princeton called Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit. He speaks six languages; holds a world record in tango; is a national Chinese kickboxing champion; and has appeared on a hit TV series in China and Hong Kong. Ferriss's writing has appeared in publications ranging from The Economist to Maxim magazine and he will be a main character in the upcoming feature-length documentary As Seen on TV, produced by Emmy Award-winner Dan Partland.

Customer Reviews

Simply tosh
I picked up this book after seeing so much about it in the press.

It's simply tosh.

He offers views on time management, outsourcing, automatic business processes, and travel, that any half-intelligent individual knows already...unless like Ferris you exhibit misanthropic tendencies, e.g. live on a low-information diet, never read a newspaper, only take emergency phone calls, avoid e-mail, divert customers to call centres and don't socialise or belong to any community.

If you want to run an online vitamin supplements business this book may hold some value. Otherwise, use your time more effectively, and save yourself some money. Take it from me.

The one star is only for including Thoreau's seminal work Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (Dover Thrift) on the reading list.

Now that is a book worth reading.

Wealth v Lifestyle: What Do You Really Want?
The best thing about this book is that it questions the common desire to become a millionaire, and actually shows that this is used by many people as an excuse to delay living their dream lifestyle.

That in itself, for many, will make the book worth the price and the short time it takes to read.

This book focuses on creating an additional income largely through automated work and tasks that can be outsourced. This leaves you with a passive income and free time.

The book is not as detailed as it could be, and it does seem disjointed in places. There have also been doubts over how accurate Ferriss' claims are.

Don't let any of that put you off reading this book which could change the way you view work, money and lifestyle forever.

Trivial Diversion..
The book is fun for the first 150 pages, then tails off into quite a tedious read. By then, all the book seems to be is famous quotes mixed with adverts for websites, glued together with vague case studies.

The chapter on faking expertise was very amusing, but I read the book so I guess the joke is on me.

It would serve as a holiday book.