
The 4-hour workweek for startups - pius
http://www.mystealthstartup.com/2008/04/14/the-4-hour-workweek-for-startups/
======
flux
The book is mainly about building a business that sits in the background
making a dependable but not necessarily huge income. It's not really
surprising that it's popular with internet marketers because they generally
are not concerned about the quality of products they are producing, more about
if they sell and make money. Tim's example was selling supplements online, do
you think he was really passionate about this business? I doubt it but that's
kind of the point of the book, focusing on enjoying a lifestyle rather than
your work.

For people wanting to create an internet site/service of value and are really
passionate about technology and the internet and enjoy focusing a lot of time
on that then this probably isn't a good book to read.

~~~
tjakab
On the other hand, is it necessarily bad to follow the techniques in the book
to create a steady revenue stream (even if it's just enough to cover some
basic debt) while putting your energy into a proper startup?

The general point of the book is to find a way to separate income from labor
and thus free up your time to do things you really want to do. That probably
includes founding a startup just as much as it would traveling around the
world or cage fighting or whatever else.

~~~
flux
I guess if it's necessary to get your startup off the ground it could be a
good idea. It's just that I see a lot of people looking at the internet just
as a source of money, rather than thinking how can I improve this or add
something of value. Having said this I do think some of his techniques could
be useful and the book was quite interesting.

------
truebosko
The whole idea of spending 4 hours a week to run your startup business is just
silly. Yes, I've read the book and know what kind of techniques he mentions
but it doesn't fit for many businesses.

As an example. I could outsource my customer service to someone else, but then
I lose that connection between the customer and I. I like having that
connection, it allows me to see what my customers are looking for, what irks
them, and allows me to further advance my business

Basically, I can't stand this book. :)

~~~
pchristensen
That aspect gets talked about a lot (both in and out of the book), but the
truth is he already had a business with paying customers, and he streamlined
it so he could run it easily instead of trying to maximize revenue. A rarely
mentioned part of the book is where he gives you steps to build a business
like his. First, you have to do a _lot_ of work, including doing _everything_
from answering phones, writing marketing copy, packaging every item, etc _by
yourself_. Only when you have a product, traction, customers, and experience
managing them, can you write the scripts, evaluate vendors and outsourcers,
and streamline the business so that a customer can buy, receive, return, or
complain about your product without ever encountering you.

Despite the popular misconception, Tim Ferriss says you still have to _build_
your own business. But if you pick the right business, you can put it on
autopilot _once it's built_. But that aspect isn't controversial enough to get
a lot of press.

Did you read the book or just hear about it?

------
noodle
i'll summarize the article for everyone:

"buy and read tim ferriss' book and make sure to click on my amazon affiliate
link to buy it."

~~~
pchristensen
It's not affiliate link.

