TIM FERRISS’ FOUR HOUR WORK WEEK IS FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED

I’ve learned a lot from Tim Ferriss. His book, The Four Hour Work Week, was the catalyst to quit my job and backpack South America for three months because it opened my mind to consider other ways of life besides an 8-5 work day. But as I’m watching myself “work” 80 hour weeks to pursue sharing a message and building a business that inspires me, I wonder how he’s creating his podcast and filming his web/tv show while living on a hammock in under four hours a week. That’s when I realized: Tim Ferriss got it wrong.

There are three destructive flaws of Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Work Week [FHWW] theory:

1. IT PREYS UPON THOSE LESS CONFIDENT OR COMPETENT, REQUIRING THEM TO NOT ASCEND FOR US TO THRIVE

The theory that the lucky few who create a company that can “run itself” still requires many other people to be doing the grunt work. For Tim Ferris’ concept to work, it rewards those with a technology background (or interest) and requires that others less confident or competent pick up the slack. For one person to work a four hour work week, it requires five, twenty or a hundred others to be making up the difference.

2. THE TIME IT TAKES TO ACHIEVE A FOUR HOUR WORK WEEK EVENS OUT THE TIME EVENTUALLY SAVED, EXCEPT YOU LOSE MONTHS OR YEARS OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE

To get to a place of living the FHWW, you have to put a flip ton of 60+ hour work weeks in to set up your FHWW. By the time you’ve done that for months or years, the time saved likely averages out during the life cycle of your new company’s success. Except you just spent all those months or years without work-life balance.

3. FEEDING THE MENTALITY THAT WORK NEEDS TO BE UNPLEASANT, AVOIDED AND ELIMINATED GOES AGAINST THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

If we seek a Four Hour Work Week, we’re focused on minimizing work we don’t want to do. We are treating work as something that should be avoided or eliminated, which is laughably out of reach for many of us. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s probable.

More importantly, it doesn’t mean that everyone would enjoy or be fulfilled by eliminating work.

And most importantly, the law of attraction states that if we focus on “eliminating work we don’t like,” that we will actually attract more “work we don’t like.” We instead need to focus on making work something we enjoy, and therefor attracting more joy and fulfillment.

A SOLUTION THAT IS LESS ELITIST, MORE REALISTIC, MORE FULFILLING AND MORE COMMUNITY-MINDED IS TO SEEK
A ZERO HOUR WORK WEEK.

IRONICALLY, THE ZERO HOUR WORK WEEK IS MORE ATTAINABLE, AND YOU CAN START LIVING THE ZERO HOUR WORK WEEK RIGHT NOW.

I’m not talking about quitting your job and backpacking South America for three months (although I did that). I am talking about designing your work day around what inspires you, indulging in the inspired mindset, and watching “work” stop feeling like “work.”

1. DEFINE WORK DIFFERENTLY

WORK, BY DEFINITION, IS NOT OPPRESSIVE 

Check out Merriam-Webster’s definition of work:

1: activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something: a : sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result

This definition makes me excited about work! Using my effort to overcome obstacles and achieve? I picture superheroes and strong, persevering, inspiring people doing this “work” thing.

But too often we don’t feel like superheroes at work. We feel like task-masters, clocking in and out with either too much ho-hum of boredom or hemming and hawing about exhaustion. Neither of those sound inspired, and they certainly don’t sound like what Merriam-Webster has in mind for us!

Sure, based on the pure aspects of prioritization, they’ll be tasks you like the least. I can go into an ice cream shop and by default have to have a least favorite flavor, but I’d still enjoy every flavor in a 20 scoop sundae (if only that consumption was possible and healthy). If there are tasks you don’t like, you have two options: learn them or delegate them. You might not be enjoying the task because you aren’t comfortable, confident or experienced in it. If you learn something, you can do it faster. Or you can hire someone so you can focus on what you’re best at. It will move you forward faster.

2. DESIGN YOUR WORK DAY AROUND WHAT INSPIRES YOU

Happiness is hard to choose, but it’s easy to choose to be inspired. Lean into and indulge in inspiration in the aspects of your job that you enjoy the most. Connect with the most fulfilling aspects, and do more of the work you love. Sometimes you have to change more than your mindset. Sometimes the ceiling for happiness is too low to break through and you have to change jobs, train for a new career or start your own business. Creating a new path doing what you love has never been more possible than it is right now. Figure out what’s stopping you from your dream job.

3. INDULGE IN THE INSPIRED MINDSET

Just like a daily (or hourly) gratitude practice, the inspired mindset seeks, attracts and indulges in inspiration. By choosing to be completely present and taking the time to fully indulge in an inspired moment or activity, we can let the positive energy of inspiration recharge, fill and fuel us. Make your Inspiration List, and choose to indulge in inspiration often.

4. WATCH “WORK” STOP FEELING LIKE “WORK”

The Zero Hour Work Week is possible when we seek to be inspired in our current job or we pursue a new career that is in alignment with our true selves. Work can be fulfilling and help us flourish. When we’re connected to the inspired aspects of our job, we can experience greater fulfillment and let the best of what we have to offer others flow, help grow a business, and help our clients and community improve their lives.

When you do what inspires you, it’s not working. It’s living.