Could it work?

Timothy Ferriss is the epitome of the uber-riche. After reading his biography, you'd wish to have one second of his lifestyle. He's obviously a "silver-spoon" right? Wrong. His parents have never made more than $50k combined. His lifestyle is the result of calculated planning and dedication. He exposes the secrets in his New York Times bestseller, The 4-hour Workweek: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. This book gives the seemingly obscure secrets to the millionaire lifestyle and ability to free more time for yourself or your family.

Although I'm only 5 chapters into the book, I already see methods for changing my lifestyle to enjoy greater family and vacation time. Ferriss' argument is that by being more productive in less hours, you can actually see more capital. Therefore, your increased productivity/capital enables you to remove yourself from the office, and work where and when you want.

While I agree with many of the suggestions thus far, I question whether Ferriss' philosophy can work for a service-based industry (doctors, lawyers, etc). My initial conclusion is that it cannot. Without dumping your first profession (in lieu of another products-based business) the professional cannot extricate themself from the office to live anywhere. The reason being, the clients/patients visit you because of your special skills and expertise. Moreover, I appreciate that some aspects of certain professions (i.e. transactional attorneys) promote or enable more freedom, the majority of service professions are tied to the office.

However, I don't think that this fact should be discouraging. I think solo practice offers a closer actualization of this goal than most other areas. The solo-practictioner depends on the client, but by being more productive, setting more focused goals, and taking time to appreciate being out of the office, the solo can more easily (and radically) change his or her self.

One of Ferris' biggest suggestions is to appreciate (stop) that useless time you're "working." His suggestion is that if you're "working" to be at work or feel productive, you're just wasting time. You can probably spend time elsewhere, doing more meaningful things. I've seen the reality of this by looking around my office, and in my own work habits. If I were to be totally honest with myself, the number of hours I've been "at work" and "working" is probably fewer than 20 per month. I think it's pretty common for most people to sluff off (surf the internet) because there really isn't that much to do, or we're procrastinating those things that actually need to get done. Ferris would say some like, "get your butt up, do what you have to do, and enjoy the free time you have because you completed your duty."

Overall, Ferriss offers some good advice, which, if heeded, can significantly improve your productivity, focus, and overall bottom-line; and everyone knows that a higher bottom-line equates to more family and personal time.

Side note: Ferriss takes off 1 month for every 2 months he works, and still makes $40,000/month.