Project Description

Book_4_Hour_Large2Description: It’s less about shrinking the amount of work you do and more about getting more done in less time… being more efficient… business shortcuts, etc. Great read.

By: Tim Ferriss

  • “Whenever you find yourself in the side of the majority, you need to pause and reflect.” Mark Twain
  • “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” Oscar Wilde
  • The fantasy is not the millions in the bank, but the lifestyle it buys. The key is to get that lifestyle without the money.
  • “Once you settle for second, that’s what will happen to you.” John F. Kennedy.
  • “Everything popular is wrong.” Oscar Wilde
  • “If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t working on hard enough problems.”
  • What we fear doing most is what we most need to do.

Notes:

  • What is the one book that changed your life forever:
    • “The magic of thinking big”
    • “How to make millions with your ideas. An Entrepreneur’s guide.”
    • “The e-myth revisited”
    • “Vagabonding. For World Travel…”
    • “Reducing emotion and material reliance.”
    • “Less is more.”
  • Why the meaning of life is not solvable:
    • If you knew the answer, what would you do with it? Then stop wasting your time.
    • To live is to learn.
      • Traveling helps to make learning quicker. Observe on a skill when there.
      • Language learning is the most helpful. Adults can learn language much faster than kids if they eliminate all the other stuff.
      • Visit his site for speed language learning.
  • To explain resume gaps say, “I had a once in my lifetime opportunity and I took it. I have 20 to 40 years of work ahead of me, so what’s the harm.”
  • Mini retirements where you stay in one place for 6 months is the only way to live.
    • Plan to attend school and the staff will help with apartments for me.
    • Great to bring kids on.
    • There are hundreds of secondary school throughout the world to put kids into. Don’t worry.
    • Could do home exchange to save money too.
  • Post resume on career websites every once in a while.
  • Customer service is selling a fantastic product at an appropriate price and solving legitimate problems in the fastest manner possible.
    • Henry ford sold one model T. Apply sells one iphone at a time.
    • The more options you produce, the more the burden on you.
    • Offer basic and premium only.
  • No work entrepreneur (lesson number 29).
    • Don’t ask people if they would buy (they want to be liked and not squash your idea).
      • Ask them to buy in order to get an accurate response.
    • Doesn’t like free anything. Only cheaper in order to win customers.
    • Don’t be the CEO or founder. It screams startup. Give youself a mid-level position.
      • Vice president.
      • Put various emails on the website for different departments.
        • Human resources, sales, biz development.
        • Get various phone numbers that go to the same number.
      • Instead of a PO box, use the post offices actual address so it sounds much better.
      • Use ad agencies that get discounted ad space in media of 90%. Never pay full rates.
    • Offer an irrational deal.
      • Lose / win guarantee. Most people are honest, so they wouldn’t hurt you.
      • Provide as much time as possible so people forget it.
    • Micro-test. Gives companies time to test responses to product ideas before manufacturing.
      • Use Google advertising to get it done.
      • Figure out differentiators and build beautiful website using stock photos.
      • Reinventing the wheel is time consuming. Just use what other people have done.
        • Tim stole his slogan from rosette stone,… a different industry. Use what’s already working and adapt it.
      • Add testimonials.
      • Put on ebay and cancel the bid at the last min to avoid legal problems.
        • At least you’ll see how much the item is worth.
    • Step 1: Look at the competition and make a more compelling offer on a basic 1 to 3 page webstie.
      • Use freestockphotos.com.
      • Getty.com for the best photos.
      • Yahoo store is great for end to end e-commerce.
      • Do AB testing to figure out which version of my homepage are more effective.
    • Step 2: Test offer using short Google ads for three to five days.
      • Disable google’s attempt to serve only the best ads to figure out the conversion rate of each ad. Assemble this data to use for the website, book title, contents, etc.
      • Do not offer the product for free to avoid window shoppers and those unlikely to buy.
      • Use the web page sign ups to gauge user interest. If ten people sign up to get the gift, and you believe 1/3 will actually buy, then you have your math equation.
    • Step 3: Manufacture winners for sales rollout.
  • Mentors:
    • Call at least one super star mentor once a day for three days.
      • Call before 8:30 or after 6pm to evade secretaries.
      • Have one question in mind. One that I’ve researched well.
      • www.contactanycelebrity.com for help.
      • Ask for target mentor by first name only.
        • I know this may sound a bit odd, but I’m first time _____ and I found a recent media featuring ______ and I found the courage to call him for some advice. Is there any way you can help me to ask him some questions. It’ll only take 2 mins of his time. Say I finally built up the courage to call. Pull the trigger
        • End the conversation with a request to send emails every once in a while if I have additional questions.
  • To launch a successful product:
    • Pick an affordable niche market. Small enough that no one else will compete.
    • Price the product as a premium solution.
    • Digital information is the hardest thing to copy. Imitators refuse to do it.
    • Need to convince at least 50 customers to buy in order to be an expert.
    • Not important that the niche has money but that they spend money.
    • Go to elance for their engineers to develop hard products.
    • Must describe these two things in one pharse! “How is it different and why should I buy it.”
    • Choose a product you can fully explain online, so you don’t get crazy questions.
    • Pricing low will drive you bankrupt.
      • Higher pricing attracts lower maintenance customers.
      • Attracts fewer customers, therefore, more time on each.
      • High margins.
      • 8 to 10 times that costs.
  • How to be an expert:
    • You can license content from someone else.
    • Experts are the ones with the most expert indicators, not the ones with the most knowledge.
    • Steps:
      • Join two to three related trade organizations.
      • Read the top three books on your topic. Summaries each in one paragraph.
      • Give a seminar at a local university using posters to advertise.
      • Then give seminars at local companies in the same area as the local university.
        • Offer it to them for free. Record from two angles for later DVD sales.
      • Write articles in one to two different trade magazines.
      • Join profnet, a service that journalist use and find experts to quote in articles.
  • Get a virtual assistant to do odd tasks that you should delegate.
    • Maybe have them contact different important people around the world to keep me on their radar. Use Google filters for this.
    • This bring eccentric billionaire tasks to within hand.
    • Send cards and into to past clients.
    • Run four to 15 dollars and hour. Simple to very advanced.
    • Never use a new hire.
    • Interview yours before establishing a relationship.
    • Look at your todo list and ask if a VA could do this.
  • If a boss asks for overtime just this once, they will exact them to do it in the future.
  • Inventright.com: for licensing ideas to others for profit.
  • It’s amazing how someone’s IQ doubles with you give them freedom and trust.
  • Batch similar items to be more efficient.
  • Start and end meetings at odd times to get people to focus (e.g. 3:20 versus s3:30)
  • A task will swell in perceived important and complexity in relation to the time allotted to complete it.
    • Solution: Find the most critical components and establish short and hard deadlines.
  • Respond to voicemail via email as much as possible.
  • Before setting up a meeting, ask them to send you the exact agenda and see what items you can solve via email first.
  • How to get more done and stop wasting time:
    • If you get a reputation for efficiency then people will get to business faster.
    • Don’t encourage people to chat. Get to the point quicker.
      • When greeting them on the phone, say you are in the middle of something, but you have a min to talk. What do you need?
      • If they meander, say you have a call in 5 mins or just ask them to write an email.
    • Ignore meetings, phone calls, emails, etc that are time wasters.
      • Turn off automatic send and receive. Check emails at noon and 4pm only. Ensures you don’t miss anything.
      • Never check email first thing in the morning!
      • Create email auto response. Don’t ask for this permission.
    • Three times today ask yourself the following question. Am I being productive or just active?
    • Simplicity requires ruthlessness. If you had a heart attack and had to stop 1/2 of your work, what would you cut out?
    • Learn to ask, if this is the most important thing that I accomplish all day, will I be satisfied with my day?
    • Should never have more than two mission critical items to finish that day.
    • Start taking Friday’s off. You’ll get more done.
    • Instead of doing the back and forth over what to do, start by suggesting a solution. If taken, then no more time waste.
    • No websurfing unless it’s necessary.
    • Starting something does not mean you have to finish it. Movies, meals, readings, etc.
  • How to read 200% faster:
    • Use a pencil or finger to trace under each line to stop regressing and losing place while reading.
      • Reading is a series of jumping snapshots.
    • Start each line focusing on the third word in from each side. This allows your peripheral vision to aid you.
    • Trying reading super fast to reset your speeding limit and then slow down to start comprehending better.
  • He never checks voicemail on the weekends.
    • Emergencies somehow don’t exist. Colleges know he will not answer them.
  • If you are insecure, guess what, the rest of the world is too.
  • Learn to be difficult when it counts:
    • Example: If he ever got less than an A on an assignment, he would go to the graders class for two to three hours with questions. He either figured out how the person awarded points or made the person nervous to give anything less than an A.
  • If it isn’t going to destroy your world, then try it first and ask for forgiveness later.
    • Most people are fast to stop you, but wouldn’t stop if you are already going.
  • Focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses.
  • Anyone could quit and pick up their careers exactly where they left off.
  • Don’t follow rules that don’t work.
  • When cold calling he discovered that secretaries filtered out most calls, so he called before and after secretaries would in. Booked twice the results in 1/8th of the time.
  • Retirement sucks, b/c if you are hard working and save lots of money to have a great life, you’ll get bored.
    • If you suck in life then you’ll have no money.
  • Distribute mini retirements throughout life.
    • Don’t let life pass you by.
  • What would you do if there was no way you could fair. AKA, you were ten times smarter than everyone else.
    • List five things you could dream of having.
  • Most material wants are ridiculous and don’t matter.
  • When Where and How to Live is the key to lifestyle.
  • Leaving the US multiples your money many fold.
  • A family took a trip sailing around the world before waiting for the kids to grow up.
    • There three kids would never read books, but then had no choice.
    • The kids had no patience, but had to coexist on a boat, thus learning patience.
    • Proved to be their best investment of their lifetime even though they pulled the kids out of school.
  • Before considering doing something amazing, think of the absolute worst thing that could happen.
    • It isn’t really that bad.
    • If you were fired today, what would you do to get your life back together? Do that now.