To work only four hours per week and still lead a life of adventure and luxury - Tim Ferriss says you can do it, in his book «The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich».

I will not even pretend to be disinterested and spend 5 blog postings on investigating the concepts behind «T4HWW».

What's the DEAL?

Tim says he looked at the so-called «New Rich» (NR, not to be confused with: «newly rich») and found out that they follow four steps to make their lifestyle a reality: Definition, Elimination, Automation and Liberation.

Definition

We can understand the first phase quite literally: Being rich, work, rules - Tim discards the traditional interpretations of these terms and contrasts them with his own (those of the NR). What do you need to be happy to live an exciting life?

Elimination

Time is what you never have enough of. That's why Tim wants to eliminate everything that isn't necessary, to gain time for what you really want to do.

Automation

The most interesting art of the book, for sure: how can you automate your income? Four hours of hard work per week shall lead to a permanent stream of income that doesn't need a lot of mantenance - besides time, you obviously need some money to finance your new lifestyle.

Liberation

What's a mini-retirement? Tim Ferriss says you should have lots of them, spread across all of your life. Don't wait for «retirement». Keeping contact with others, seamlessly while you are travelling the whole world should be possible. Mobility is what needs to be gained - as a means, not as an end..

To be continued…

The upcoming four postings will deal with the DEAL.

Maybe at the end I'll think the whole stuff is BS - anyway, the book is an entertaining read and I fully recommend it:

Coming soon: Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek (2/5): Reinvent yourself - the definition.

[Update: The second part of the series is available: «Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek (2/5): Redefine yourself - the Definition». There is also an overview on the series.]