The 4-Hour Workweek
Timothy Ferriss (born 1977) is an American entrepreneur and author of a bestselling book entitled The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich[1].
Entrepreneurship
While attending Princeton University, Ferriss' entrepreneurial side became apparent when he began offering speed-reading classes for profit. Upon graduating from Princeton and after a number of unfulfilling jobs, Ferriss co-founded[citation needed] BrainQUICKEN, a nutritional supplement company.
His business soon grew and he became overworked. In preparing to take a month-long vacation to Europe, Ferriss learned techniques to reduce his workload and outsource areas of his business while maintaining profitability. Ferriss then wrote of these techniques in his semi-autobiographical self-help book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.
The 4-Hour Workweek
Much of Ferriss’ book is reminiscent of Henry David Thoreau and features themes similar to Walden. Ferris is critical of an often labeled "Dilbert" or a so called “Office Space” culture – after the film by Mike Judge. He assails emerging cubicle workplace habits such as Human Multitasking, constant checking of email and news services (like the Drudge Report), and general Internet Addiction. Ferris maintains that the jobs of office workers are not results-oriented and hence, to fight boredom, office workers waste time consuming internet media or participating in pithy blog commentary, instant messaging or contributing to a folksonomy (like HotorNot.com).
Ferriss' book has received glowing testimonials from a number of business leaders and well-known authors, such as Jack Canfield. However, this positive praise is starting to be overshadowed by several controversies surrounding his book and blog.
Controversy & Claims
Ferriss' book was released to the public on April 24, 2007. On the very same day, Ferriss' book received 17 five-star reviews on amazon.com written by first-time amazon.com reviewers[2]. This has raised questions about the credibility of these early reviews and whether amazon.com's book review system was manipulated to promote Ferriss' book.
On pg 284 of Ferriss' book, he shares with his readers a poem that he claims to have received from a terminally-ill girl. The poem, titled "Slow Dance", is actually taken from a well-known hoax email chain letter[1] [2] [3] that was circulated on the Internet in 1999. The said poem was originally written in 1991 by David L. Weatherford, an adult male child psychologist[3].
Ferriss makes a number of claims on his blog[4] and in his book, including:
- That he is the "First American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango." This achievement, the record for the most tango spins in one minute, has been positively verified by Guinness World Records[5] [6].
- That he has been a "Cage fighter in Japan, vanquisher of four world champions (MMA)" and a "National Chinese kickboxing champion." Ferriss does not give any substantial proof to back up these claims on his blog or in his book[7]. He has, however, posted a number of photographs and videos on his blog that seem to show him in action as a competitive fighter[8].
- In The 4-Hour Workweek, he claims to have won a kickboxing championship by exploiting a loophole in the rules. Ferriss does not properly identify the said tournament with any specific details.
- That he is "Advisor to more than 30 world record holders in professional and Olympic sports." Ferriss fails to list any specific names or testimonials substantiating this claim.
- In an article on his blog[9], Ferriss claims to have gained 34lbs of muscle in 4 weeks. This article has been criticised as being a deceptive marketing gimmick to promote his book[10] [11] [12] [13].
References
- ^ Ferriss, Timothy. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. New York: Crown. 2006.
- ^ http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2007/05/timothy_ferriss_outvaynering_vayner.html
- ^ http://www.davidlweatherford.com/slowdance.html