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Book Review: The 4-Hour Workweek – A Different Take (Part 2 of 3)

Mark Pescatrice Book Reviews, Entrepreneurship

Riley Freeman from The BoondocksA Word to the Haters

Riley: “There he goes again! Hatin’!”

Granddad: “Boy! Stop Hatin’!”

Boondocks, Season 1 Episode 11 – Let’s Nab Oprah

 I am not sure what some of the people who read this book were expecting.  This is what some of the people on Amazon.com have to say in their reviews:

  • “A con artist with a motivational speech”
  • “His shameless self-promotion and braggadicious (sic) style is second only to the undisputed champion of the genre, Donald Trump.”
  • “The whole book is about how to become a sleazy snake-oil salesman in the modern internet era.”
  • “A con man who needs to be taken down”

Yes, the book is painful to read at times.  Ferriss mixes up his message sometimes, which makes him come across as a charlatan and brings his sincerity and integrity into question.  He is from the school of Dan S. Kennedy, which is all about tireless, persistent promotion.  But he is honest, to a fault, which is something that is missed by his harshest critics.  Timothy Ferriss isn’t perfect and sometimes his message is confusing.  Here are some of the problems the people who hate (yes hate) this book seem to have:

  • They had a hard time extracting anything useful from the book, which is unfortunate;
  • They did not approach his concepts with an open mind;
  • They confuse the meaning of ‘rich’, or to use Ferriss’ term ‘New Rich’, to mean monetary wealth;
  • They see only a common con-artist;
  • They believe that self-promotion is a bad thing.

The message is very much about living a richer life with less material wealth.  Timothy Ferriss is a hustler, not a con-artist.  So is Jay-Z and so am I, though they are both much better at it than I am. We are out there working, finding the opportunities, and seeing what works and what does not.   If Ferriss really wanted to, he could exploit this book much in the same way that Steven Covey and many others have with their successful books, holding seminars, giving lectures, etc. and charges thousands of dollars to do so.  I know I would.  He gave the public a manual and challenged people to apply it.