How To Get Rich Without Burning Out

What if I told you that you could work only 4 hours each week while sustaining your dream lifestyle?

Sounds like a good old scam, doesn’t it?

I recently finished The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and today I'm going to share my main takeaways from this book.

I’m going to show how you can join me in my plan to join the "New Rich" without burning yourself out.

The "New Rich"

Tim Ferriss describes the "New Rich" as a new generation of entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs work a fraction of the hours compared to everyone else. And they run their businesses while traveling the world working wherever and whenever.

Trust me, I was skeptical at first too.

This book shows you the roadmap to escape the rat race and pursue a life of financial, location, and time freedom.

Unfortunately, most people won't ever achieve this because they let fear drive their lives. They would rather play it safe and stay in their stable paying jobs.

Some other ways people talk themselves out of starting a business include:

• Thinking they don't know enough about running a business

• Thinking they don't have time outside of their full-time jobs

• Not having the balls to plan ambitious goals

• Believing they need to wait until old age retirement to start living their dream lifestyle

But, for those willing to take a leap of faith, there is hope.

Here are 5 steps you can take to join the "new rich" in a life of freedom.

Step 1: Start a business

You won't ever get rich by renting your time out to an employer.

A business allows you to detach your outputs from your inputs. The internet allows for infinite leverage. Until recently, businesses could operate within their local area. Now, with the power of the internet, you can put something online and have millions of eyes on it within minutes.

Personally, I think you’d have to be silly to not take advantage of this.

Owning a business, especially one that leverages the power of the internet, is non-negotiable if you want a life of freedom.

Step 2: PPPP Framework

Tim Ferriss is a big proponent of both Pareto's principle and Parkinson's law.

The PPPP Framework is something I coined by combining these two principles.

It stands for:

Pareto & Parkinson's Productivity Principles

Pareto's principle, aka the 80/20 rule, suggests that roughly 80% of the outputs come from 20% of the inputs. In other words, a small number of factors are responsible for the majority of the results.

In the context of business, it might suggest that 80% of a company's profits come from 20% of its areas of focus.

Parkinson's law is a principle that suggests work will always expand to fill the time allocated for its completion. Think of the times in school when you’ve been given 8 weeks to complete an assignment. Chances are, even with the excess time, you didn’t manage to complete the assignment until the end of the 8 weeks. This is Parkinson’s law in effect.

Parkinson's law can be taken advantage of by setting tight deadlines for tasks. This will encourage you to work more efficiently and effectively.

You can combine these two principles into the ultimate productivity system by:

- identifying the 20% of tasks that are most important

- focus most of your time on these tasks

- set tight deadlines to force yourself to work efficiently

The correct use of PPPP will help you significantly reduce the hours in your work week while still producing results.

I love using this framework when identifying and allocating my most important tasks. I schedule my most important tasks into blocks of focused work in the morning where I only have a limited amount of time to complete them.

Step 3: Outsource as much as you can, as soon as you can

Outsourcing is a fantastic way to free up time for you to focus on higher-value activities.

How much do you value an hour of your time?

Let's say your price is a modest $50/hr.

There are many small tasks in running a business that can be outsourced for much less than $50/hr.

For example, you might outsource bookkeeping, marketing, or customer service. If you're a content creator, you might outsource scripting or editing. This allows you to focus on the tasks that are most important to your business.

Outsourcing should be done as soon as possible because it forces you to conceptualize the true value of your time.

Step 4: Set ambitious goals

Tim Ferris often emphasizes the importance of setting ambitious goals that you dream of achieving.

He calls this "Dreamlining".

Funnily enough, this is something I explored a few weeks ago.

I called it "Big Dick Energy Goals".

Regardless of what you call it, the concept is the same:

Think of the dream lifestyle you want to have 10 years from now. Next, break that down into yearly goals and monthly goals you need to achieve to reach that lifestyle.

Now the path for you is clear and you can start working towards achieving your big dreams.

To help you with this planning - here is a Big Dick Energy Goal Planner I created on Notion, you can duplicate it and use it here:

Step 5: Take mini-retirements

"Mini-retirements" are extended periods of time where you take a break from your career.

You can use this time to explore new interests, travel the world, or simply relax. Traditional retirement, where you work for 40 or 50 years and then stop working altogether, is an outdated concept.

And honestly, waiting for traditional retirement sounds absolutely fucking miserable to me.

Who would want to climb Mt Everest after 6 knee surgeries and a broken back?

Ferris encourages people to plan and save for mini-retirements as part of their financial and career goals. He suggests setting a specific goal, such as traveling to a certain number of countries or learning a new skill and then developing a plan to achieve it.

I don't usually like to share my goals, but personally, I plan to travel to 50+ countries within the next 10 years. And you can bet I will do everything in my power to take as many mini-retirements as I can.

By taking mini-retirements, you can pursue your passions and interests, and find balance in your life.

Summary

TLDR how you can escape the 9-5 and live life on your own terms:

1. Start a business

2. Use Pareto and Parkinson's Productivity Principles

3. Outsource

4. Set ambitious goals

5. Take mini-retirements

I hope this helps encourage you to take a leap of faith.

I wish you the best of luck on your journey.

Cheers,

-Ivan