Tim Ferriss’s widely popular book has become the center of a huge movement that can easily be observed throughout the blogosphere. Many, many blogs out there, this one included, have discussed the notion of alternative lifestyle design. However, a significant number of bloggers out there are publishing stuff that disregards the traditional career-path as a ‘nothing more than a soulless system with replaceable drones keeping things running’, or something along those lines.
Cal Newport recently wrote an article defending the opposing side from the bombarding attacks of the hard-core lifestyle designers, and rightfully so. Here’s my take on the whole thing:
Although many bloggers seem to take it as such, in my mind the principle behind lifestyle design isn’t simply to abandon the all-evil career path. It is to avoid paths that we are not completely satisfied with, and do what we need to do to follow our passions and live a fulfilling life. The vital key here, in my opinion, is the word ‘we’. Only we can know for sure what path we desire. Here’s a few examples:
1. For some, this means setting up an automated ‘muse’, or some type of alternative income source, quitting their job, and spending their lives traveling, pursuing passions, etc. This is the Tim Ferriss route, and the one you always hear about on the blogosphere. It’s definitely not for everyone though.
2. For others, it means finding a job that fits like a glove; something that they love doing so much that they can’t bear the thought of leaving. For example, a lead engineer at Honda who absolutely loves being a part of the company’s desire to be at the forefront of the environmentally friendly vehicle market.
3. For yet another person, it could be a combination of the above. This person negotiates remote work assignments so they can devote time to their lifetime goal of becoming a published novelist, while still contributing meaningful work to their organization.
These are just a few examples, but you get the point. Only you can decide what route you want to take, and you really shouldn’t give a damn what others think you should do. If you choose your route, and it’s meaningful to you- what more could you want?
For myself, I would love to be able to live off of alternative income sources while dedicating my life to things that mean a lot to me. However, this isn’t the only path that I would find rewarding: it’s just my ultimate goal. I’ve still got a while to figure things out though. All I know is that I don’t want to settle for anything less than doing something I love, wherever that may lead me.
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6 users commented in " The Rift Created by The Four Hour Workweek "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackBlake, very good points. Ferris wrote from his experience and loves what he does. The way he lives his life is not at all appealing to me, and I would never do what he does on a regular basis. We have to find our own path and travel it 100%. I, too, am still searching for that path. I am not rushing it. I know what I enjoy doing and am always on the look out for ways to earn an income doing what I love. Good luck to you in this as well!
Personally I found the book filled with a lot of garbage. I found that Tim Ferris is a pompous insecure guy who thinks he’s found the secret to living life. Finding an automated source of income - writing a best selling book is definitely one way to do it. And if he seriously makes a product that generates $40,000 of revenue monthly ( half a million a year) - what the heck is he doing looking for other sources of income anyway?
Tim Ferris falls in like with the whole pf blogosphere and the rich dad poor dad trend. Bottom line - enjoy your life, and secure alternative sources of income so that you can protect yourself in the event of a downturn. Anything else is a bonus.
what a great post! There are many different ways to stucture the work/life balance, for me I would die of boredom if I quit working and i get a bit tired of it being talked up as the ‘ultimate lifestyle’ all the time. What is satisfying changes as circumstances change. but having money gives people a lot more options.
Thanks for the replies guys and gals.
Although it’d be crazy fun for a little while, I too don’t think I could live the Ferriss life for very long.
Playground,
I can see where you come from. The 4HWW is a book that must be taken with a grain of salt. He seems to really promote his exact lifestyle, but the main message I took from it is that there are options, like louise referred to. A lot of people really don’t even consider this fact, and in effect settle for something that’s less than ideal to them.
Personal opinions of Ferriss himself aside, I think the book does a decent job of getting the reader to at least look past the status quo.
I didn’t find anything troubling about 4HWW. In fact, I was quite impressed by some of Ferriss’ insights and paradigm shifts (and I’m by no means a newbie reader on this topic of alternative lifestyle design….it’s not a new topic).
Tim’s strength is being able to distill knowledge from his life experience and turn that knowledge into practice in a very short time. He’s extremely effective this way. It’s no doubt part of why he’s been able to accomplish so much so soon.
Find ways to take what you like from Ferriss’ book and combine it with what else you know that you want to achieve. Design your own plan that will work for you.
Good thoughts money. It really is about combining what your goals and ambitions are with the ideas that can be taken away from 4HWW.
I think it’s dumb for people to read it literally and think that Ferriss is advocating his exact lifestyle. Like you conclude with, the message is to consider our circumstances and develop our own plan.
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