
Below are my personal notes of The 4 Hour Work Week. These highlights were what I used to write my personal development book, Wiser Next Week, a condensation of many different self improvement books.
Note this is the last entry in the Ultra Condensed Condensed Cliffnotes Series.
Entrepreneurship: shifting economic resources from an area of lower yield to higher yield
- Finding a market before designing it is smarter than the reverse
- The truth is most people prefer unhappiness over uncertainty, as uncertainty entails unlimited potential pain vs the fixed amount of pain in unhappiness
- Those that avoid quitting their job tell themselves that their course will improve overtime. Pure hell forces action, anything less can be endured with rationalization
- Ask yourself: Are you better off than you were a year ago? If not, you must be a catalyst for change
- Worst case scenario is not failing, but accepting mediocrity
- Think of money as monthly cash flow rather than a grand total. This unlocks the mindset of living how you want to live, rather than deferring life to achieve a lump sum.
- Determining How Much Cash Flow You Need:
- Create a want list for 6 months and 12 months out
- Circle the 4 most important ones that will bring you the most happiness
- Determine its monthly cost
- Multiply the sum by 1.3, this is your monthly required income
- Define how you will earn that income
- Elimination:
- What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it
- Pareto’s Law: 80% of outputs result from 20% of inputs
- Which 20% of activities bring me 80% of my problems and concerns?
- Which 20% of actions lead to 80% of my happiness?
- Focus on the latter and forget the former
- Most activities make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action
- Parkinson’s Law: Tasks expand or shrink to the time allotted to them, if you want more done in less time, decrease the alloted time
- Increased productivity is::
- Limiting tasks to the most important to decrease time spent (Pareto’s)
- Shorten work time to limit task to the important (Parkinson’s)
- In other words, identify a few critical tasks (the One Thing, and schedule them with a tight deadline
- Ask: If this is the one thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied?
- Ask if it sounds reasonable, it’s hard for people to label it unreasonable
- Delegate only what remains after eliminating inefficiencies
- “Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.” Niccolo Machiavelli
- Raising children: each child is given a virtual amount of cash for every hour of good behavior. The same amount is subtracted for breaking the rules. All goodies are purchased from that account, no balance, no goodies.
- Differentiate between results driven activities (exercise) characterized by routine, and enjoyment driven activities (recreations, travel) characterized by variation.
If these brief notes peaked your interest in The 4 Hour Work Week, you can check it out on Amazon here.
And be sure to check out my book, Wiser Next Week.
All Previous Entries:
The Magic of Thinking Big: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #1
Millionaire Fastlane: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #2
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #3
30 Lessons for Living: Tried & True Advice from the Wisest Americans: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #4
Awaken the Giant Within: Ultra Condensed Cliff Notes #5
The End of Jobs: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #6
Slipstream Time Hacking: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #7
Think and Grow Rich: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #8
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #9
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #10
The Obstacle is the Way: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #11
Meditations: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #12
Why Loyalty Matters: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #13
Walden: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #14
Self Reliance and Other Essays: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #15
Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #16
Letters From A Stoic: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #17
On the Shortness of Life: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #18
Principles Life & Work: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #19
As A Man Thinketh: Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #20
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreements without Giving In (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #21)
The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #22)
Man’s Search for Meaning: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #23)
Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #24)
Unlimited Memory: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #25)
The One Thing: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #26)
How to Lead When You’re Not In Charge: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #28)
Psycho-Cybernetics: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #29)
The Game of Life and How to Play It: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #30)
How to Live On 24 Hours a Day: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #31)
Be Obsessed or Be Average: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #32)
Philosophy For Life and Other Dangerous Situations: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #33)
The Science of Getting Rich: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #34)
How To Win Friends and Influence People: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #35)
The Richest Man in Babylon: (Ultra Condensed Cliffnotes #36)
I just ordered that book, Kingston! Wow! I’m excited now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy reading Cherie!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
WOW!.. this is really good.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, as old as I am now, I have to say I learned plenty from this today. Thanks much, Kingston. You’re a goldmine!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome, I’ll keep writing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Kingston Lim!
Thank you very much for following Sutcase travel blog and thank you for your post. It is great tips.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have great tips for travel addicts like us Angela
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person