The 4 Hour Work Week - is it possible?

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The 4 Hour Work Week - Is it possible?

Years ago, I read Tim Ferris’s book The 4 Hour Work Week and was intrigued by the idea of sitting around with just a laptop, working only a few hours a week.

What I got out of the book was

  • a) That you do not need to be an expert to do something. All you need to do is to find information and relate this to others. This makes you an ’expert’ in your own right.
  • b)That if you can find ways to make passive income, then you can reduce the hours you need to spend working a.
  • c)Outsourcing means others can help you do things. This could be research or physical tasks by a virtual assistant or products manufactured for you. Dropshipping and third-party logistics have also become ways of applying this principle today.
  • d)That I can create my own product to sell. I have done this in my offline business, but in order to reach a large worldwide audience, I really need to consider digital products. Digital products are much easier to deliver than physical products. The other option is to promote someone else’s product, which is where affiliate marketing has boomed as an option today.
  • e)You can have flexibility and the freedom to enjoy life more if you can create passive income streams which only require a few hours a week to manage, once you are established. It just might take a little more than 4 hours a week to get them up and running.

Many people do follow these principles today, even though they may have spent more than 4 hours a week doing so. Some of these models include:

  • building an e-commerce website selling your own products, or dropshipping from other manufacturers.
  • Writing blogs selling your own range of products or promoting other people’s products through affiliate marketing.
  • Writing books or producing courses and delivering them digitally or through membership sites.
  • Sometimes people build a website, or social media profile with a good following and then sell the product itself. A website, after-all, is simply a business model.
  • Others have built a private label brand through Amazon and sold it as a going concern.

How to get started.

When it comes to writing a blog, creating a website or creating a course, it can simply be a matter of researching a topic and writing about it. Many people will write about how they have applied a particular action and received results. If you make this claim, you must ensure your information and testimonials are accurate.

Otherwise, you will need to find accurate and relevant information and present it in your own words and perhaps from a slightly different angle to attract a different audience

Can be done in 4 hours a week? Definitely not in the short term, and I believe many online business models certainly need more than 4 hours a week to maintain.

When looking into the possibility of a 4 Hour Work Week,

I started to do some more research and watched videos and started reading blogs by people trying to make it happen.

My conclusion was that most people claim to work as little as possible and travel the world.

However, when you dig a little deeper, they are working a few hours a day stuck in a room in a third world county. Yes, it is cheaper to exist, but are you really living?

I currently travel Australia and live very cheaply by not owning a house.

I can camp up somewhere for weeks at a time without paying rent, but I still need money for food, petrol for the car and generator (when hot or overcast). I still need to have money in reserve for ongoing expenses like insurance and telephone bills. Not all bills stop just because you take a break. I must ensure that my yearly income allows me time to have bi-annual breaks.

It may sound wonderful to live in Bali or Thailand or some other exotic location away from your family and friends but is it what the 4 Hour Work Week principle should really be all about. I feel something is missing if you cannot play tourist and enjoy the lifestyle of the country you are living in.

I will admit that I currently work about 100 days a year – mostly 4 days a week, 3 weeks a month with a 4 week vacation in July and 6week vacation at the end of the year. Even on the weeks I work I have a two or three free days.

This is the work that I do in my face to face retail businesses. I travel and sell similar to the door to door model, except that I sell town to town at markets therefore I don’t physically go to your front door.

When I average everything out including bookwork, travel time, work hours and preparation time it works out at about 25 hours a week averaged. (I am only working half days of the year). If I made more money with what I was selling, then it would be possible to downsize further. But alas, that is not the case. In fact, as the economy tightens, I am looking at working more hours unless I can find passive income through my websites.

What if I stop working?

The reality is that if I stop traveling and exhibiting at markets, like most laptop workers, when I stop working the income dries up.

I have started a couple of blogs and looked at using the internet to make money like it is promoted in the 4 Hour Work Week.

I have probably only spent about this amount of time actually doing work within my websites over the past 18 months, therefore the result is that the amount of money I have earned from my blogs is precisely $0.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that I need to apply myself as I would a full-time job, if I want to get the basics in place to even have the opportunity to work fewer hours. Back to the drawing board.

As I have learned to build websites and an online business, I have built a website for my offline business and one for a brand that I own. I have received enquiries and made sales through having this online presence. A website can be like having a listing in the phone book. It says you are real. The education process has therefor not been a total loss.

However, there are only so many hours in the day. I spend a lot of time researching and educating myself on they ways to attempt to make money online through Wealthy Affiliate and You Tube.

Moving Forward

As I move forward, I am trying to work out how can I apply the principles of the 4 Hour Work Week, even if it incurs a lot more time to achieve results. I think that the principle is sound, even if the implementation takes longer than 4 hours a week.

As mentioned in point (e) above, you need to become established before you can start reducing work hours. I believe that you need to put in at least 4 hours a day so that you can set the basics up properly.

Further, you need to market yourself. Every business needs to advertise, and an online business is no different. There are many ways to promote including, paid advertising and social media. Many of these can be found in the Wealthy Affiliate training. Again time is required to build yourself a social media profile.

I will be applying these principles as I move forward in my attempts to make money online. I do have time to spare and I will be trying to work on the 80/20 principle, which is also outlined in The 4 Hour Work Week, and dedicating more time to building my online business and less time to leisure.

I will also look at different ways to set myself up to earn passive income.

As I prepare my goals for the upcoming year, I will take into account the time I need to start spending in order to build my blogs into online businesses and move towards the principles of the 4 Hour Work Week.

I hope that you will be encouraged to learn all you can, creating as you go and join me as together, we all work towards applying the principles of the 4 Hour Work Week in our online life.

KerryAnn

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Recent Comments

21

Thanks for sharing your thoughts KerryAnn!
It sounds like you are already on your way to achieving the lifestyle you desire.
I think that’s what is important. Not everyone wants to travel to exotic places.
I would just like to rebuild my retirement savings...no desire for a big house or fancy car.
Each of us must put in the effort to achieve our own success, which is different things to different people.
Continued Blessings to you!
KyleAnn

Hi KerryAnn, I like your assessment and conclusion. A four hour work week is definitely possible, I reached it in my off line business. It took me twenty years and much work to achieve it. I'm retired now, but have a desire to build an on line business. My work ethic has to revert to what I did in my off line in the beginning. I have a huge learning curve and only time and work will allow me to achieve my on line goals. I have learned something from my previous failures which will help, but it is a level playing field as a beginner for the most part.

Sound more realistic than most of the advertising around selling online. I have the mindset that it will take some hard work and a some failure, hopefully as few as possible. I also believe it includes not having only one niche or idea and test what works.

Thanks for sharing, Kerry Ann.

I certainly enjoyed your thoughts in this blog. It gives much to consider. Good Job.

Interesting Kerryann. I must admit that while a 4 hour workweek sounds great l would probably be totally bored after a while.

Hello KerryAnn - great review of this!

The question is, of course, how many 60 hour work weeks to finally get to a 4 hour week ;)

thanks for this summary - I'll bookmark it. Marc

Hey KerryAnn- Good to see you tonight and what a great post.
The 4 Hour Work Week is awesome and I agree with you- It takes a drive and hard to attain this when we are so new to this online business stuff but if we do it well, 4 hours should be all we need
I'm looking forward to this very much
This is my favourite post for today, thank you and I have saved for another read my friend
Vicki

Thanks Vicki. We all need goals to aim for, maybe this can be one.

Absolutely KerryAnn - I'm with you on this one
I went to your website
amazing post - about me- love it
Vicki

thanks Vicki

4 Hour Work Week is really possible. Also while living more luxurious life... Just need to work hard beforehand.

However, I think that most people don't eventually find satisfaction in that. I believe that humans are created to grow and develop.

If someone wants to sip Martinis in the beach and get himself a tan, that's his choice but I find that kind of lifestyle very boring and also quite selfish.

I'd like to work +80 hours per week but so far I haven't found the discipline to do that.

I sort of live this lifestyle now. It is not boring, and it is why I can find a fair amount of time to spend on here. I often wonder how I ever found the time to work. There are simply not enough hours in the day. By the time 6 o'clock comes along I am ready for happy hour.

I have also done the 60+ hours a week starting a business from scratch for 20 years whilst bringing up a family. I figure I have done my time giving back to society and employing staff. Spent many a Xmas & Easter break working. Thankfully that part of my life is over.

I am nearly 58. I certainly don't want to work too many hours a week any more. You can do it while you are younger. I have brought up my kids and now spend a reasonable amount of time with my grandkids.

I wish you all the best. I am working towards a slower lifestyle.




Yeah, people are different.

I have tried "4 hour week style" a couple of times and I immediately felt bad :D

I've also listened to many other people's experiences (also older ones). Most people said that Max. 1 week is fun but at some point you want to go back working and producing.

But yeah, people have different mindsets and goals in life :)

Thank you for the share

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