by Tricia
Boy, that title sure sounds like one of those, “Too good to be true” type books, doesn’t it? The tag line doesn’t help either, “Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.” That’s what I thought at first too. Then I read a review from a blogger who tends to have the same philosophies as myself and I started to think that maybe there was something to this book that could be interesting to us.
I received a gift certificate to Amazon.com so I decided to purchase it (this was a while ago). I’m glad I did.
I was going to do a book review, but I agreed with the review that originally led me to purchase the book. So I am going to provide a link to that review for everyone to read and then just discuss how the book has affected us.
The 4-Hour Workweek Book Review at Get Rich Slowly
Like JD, there were parts of the book that I wasn’t interested in, but there were many parts that I was interested in. It gave me a lot of food for thought when thinking about certain aspects of our business.
Ferris talks about becoming an expert in a certain area. I don’t agree with the suggestions on how to become an expert. Joining some organizations and reading a few books and then promoting yourself as an expert doesn’t sit well with me. It makes me question every “expert” out there. I think to be an expert you have to really immerse yourself in a subject.
Even before I read this book, my husband was doing that. He hasn’t always been paid for all of the work he has done, but he is becoming respected among peers (including a person who works for someone my husband would love to work for). Others are coming to him for answers so he is very close to becoming an expert. That is thanks to all of the studying he has done the past three years. We knew his expertise would help the business, but reading about it in Ferris’ book gave us more ideas on how to utilize it in other ways.
Ferris also talks about outsourcing your life. Our business was geared towards outsourcing some tasks to keep our time commitment low. But after reading this book I realized that we could outsource even more so we shifted our business model a little bit. As it works now, we create products and then some of the products are produced & shipped by a third party. After reading the book, we realized that we could outsource more. You do pay for that outsourcing in terms of a lower profit margin, but you have more time to work on the more important parts of the business. I also got some ideas on how to automate some of the administrative parts of the business as well.
So our business is not traditional. There is no physical store front. Is a path like ours right for everyone? No – just like I believe that this book is not right for everyone. I chuckle because I know someone who would call the book rubbish. I think it depends on what you where you are in your life and what you want. For us, we read the book at the right time. If I had this book in my hands fresh out of college I probably would have called the book rubbish too.
I have read your blog for several years and this post was the most encouraging post about your situation I have read. I’m floored that no one has yet commented on this. Your business has the potential to resolve your debt issues and to significantly supplement your and your husband’s wage earner income (or even replace all or a portion of the job income) and no one is interested enough to follow up.
In my view, this post demonstrates you are on the right track. You and your husband are learning how to run a business efficiently and profitably. The potential return on the invested time and capital is enormous, as you are now finding out. Is Ferris’ book superficial and full of “rubbish” at times? Yes, but it also contains some fundamental ideas that you are obviously putting to good use.
I’m looking forward to reading more about the business and how it is changing your outlook on both your debt and your income.