Living A 4 Hour Work Week

Posted by reasonableoutrage on September 16th, 2007 filed in Uncategorized

I have found this guy to be visionary. You need to read the book and/or blog to fully grasp the idea but essentially it is finding where you waste time and how the rest can be done more efficiently or by others.

I had read an article where AJ Jacobs basically outsourced his life, they even helped him fight with his wife! These might be extremes but there is a paradigm shift in their ideas. I am a big fan of the paradigm shift. The 4 minute mile record was stuck until Roger Bannister broke it and then people followed him. But it seems to have taken one to open the eyes of others to see the possibilities.

It was thought that if a car went faster than 100mph that it would fall apart. Jack Welsh, who did some amazing things at GE, is known for his stretch goals. With these, after he said your goal is to have this done by a certain period, he would add a stretch goal. For me a stretch goal is something where someone asks you to do something if you have a chance. It is in the back of your mind but no one holds it against you if you don’t do it but they are very happy if you do. Essentially they are planting an idea in your head. Mild hypnosis.

With this idea he went from having things done 5% quicker every year on building airplane engines to have speed increases of 15% or more. Essentially they increased in one year what normally would take 3 years.

Even if your habit is to say, “That can’t be done,” take the next moment and ask, “Well, if it could be done, how could someone do it.”

Myself, I have always had ideas but hadn’t acted on them. I started talking to a buddy of mine and now we have started to implement some of our ideas. We have web and product ideas. My first idea will arrive on my doorstep next Monday and I will put in my order for my second product this week. I have even tested out sourcing things for my day job and it cost $5 an hour. For my job it wasn’t worth the hassle to train them but there are things I may be able to use them for in the future.

So check out the book or blog for 4HWW and see what ideas you can come up with.

Check out for links to ideas to improve your life.