The 4-Hour Workweek: Rules That Change the Rules

This post is part of the series on The 4-hour Workweek book review.

“Timothy has packed more lives into his 29 years than Steve Jobs has in his 51.”
–Tom Foremski
Journalist and Publisher of SiliconValleyWatcher.com

Chapters: Rules that Change the Rules
Page: 29-37

Timothy is a gold medalist in the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships. In fact, he is not the best kickboxer because with only 4 weeks of training, he can’t go too far. But the fact is he won the game by beating the game, not playing the game. By finding the loopholes, he used the dehydration techniques to go against those fighter smaller than him. That’s a very interesting story.

The rules for the New Rich is to challenge the status quo and being different. The following rules are the fundamental differentiators:

• retirement is worst-case-scenario insurance
• interest and energy are cyclical
• less is not laziness
• the timing is never right
• ask for forgiveness, not permission.
• emphasize strengths, don’t fix weaknesses
• things in excess become their opposite
• money alone is not the solution
• relative income is more important than absolute income
• distress is bad, eustress is good

These are the 10 rules that make all the differences between the New Rich and the Deferrers. I highly recommend that you read the book for the full elaborations. Some examples quoted are simple, and yet very insightful.

My View

 
One of the rule saying that we should work only when we are most effective. Life will become more productive and enjoyable.

This remind me of one of my clients who actually lives his life like a new rich. He is not cash rich. But I am sure that he spends minimum time to generate the income 10 times more than ordinary people. He has mini vacation every month, and 2-3 major vacations a year that takes more than 2 weeks each. Every once in a while, he will focus on a new project and manage to pull it off most of the time.

Income is also a relative matter. Someone making RM10,000 a month, but working 12 hours a day and seven days a week is actually poorer compared to someone who works only one day in a week, but makes RM5,000 a month. That’s why one of the rule states that relative income is more important than absolute income.

Last but not least, I learned a new term from Tim Ferriss – Eustress. Eu-, a Greek prefix for “healthy”, is used in the same sense in the word “euphoria”. Higher level of success need eustress, not distress. Eustress is stress that is healthful and stimulate you for growth.

Previous 4-hour Workweek Posts

If you missed my previous posts about The 4-Hour Workweek, here is the list:
The 4-Hour Workweek: Doubters Read This {Book Review}
The 4-Hour Workweek: My Story & Why You Need this Book {Book Review}
The 4-Hour Workweek: Chronology of a Pathology {Book Review}
The 4-Hour Workweek: Cautions and Comparisons {Book Review}

In short, this is one of the few books that hook me to read on just after the first chapter. I will be writing a series of the concept and ideas presented in this book on every Thursday. Stay tuned. If you can’t wait any longer, get your own copy of The 4-hour Workweek on Amazon.

(This book can’t be found in Malaysia, none at Popular Bookstores, MPH, Times nor Borders. If you really managed to get a copy of this book anywhere in Malaysia, please share with us in the comment.)

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