The Four Hour Work Week
I recently read the Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. The book lays out the case for ‘lifestyle design’, where you, me and Joe the Plumber can become financially independent and use our time to do the things we really want to do–like ballroom dancing, kickboxing, meaningful charity work or otherwise become a Renaissance Man–rather than being chained to a desk in the most fruitful years of our lives. If you detect a faint note of disdain in my description, you are not too far off because that’s how I initially greeted the book and how it was marketed.
The initial chapters of the book reminded me of Aleksey Vayner and of tons of spam that poses as advice on how to become a PUA. If you’re willing to overlook the almost-intentional hokeyness of the early chapters, you can walk away from the book with several thought-provoking ideas on simplicity, the value of time and the virtue of being more effective by working smarter rather than harder.
More than anything else, the book emphasizes the value of time, once the time-money trade off shifts in favor of time. Ferriss ruthlessly condemns conventional wisdom, which advises people to defer enjoyment until they have retired, at which point the change of pace is a big shock and might lead to regrets and aimless time-wasting anyway. He lays out some techniques that will help readers become fully detached and mobile from one’s work; to become financially secure in ways that will help them accomplish their dreams; to trim the fat of unnecessary possessions, ties and expectations from their lives and to take advantage of labor arbitrage to aggressively outsource mundane tasks to others. The last theme especially might give some food for thought to entrepreneurs running Atomized Enterprises.
Above all, Ferriss emphasizes active living, i.e. imbuing everything you do with intentionality, self-awareness and explicit volition. The man’s effort is commendable–what starts out sounding like a tacky, get-rich-quick book winds down sounding like it came out of a Zen text.
It’s good for Tim that he has been in sales roles for much of his life, because those roles can afford a reasonable amount of mobility. At my current workplace, several of the top-performing salespeople are perfectly fine working out of a home-office so long as they are ’smiling and dialing’ enough. As part of the Generation Y ethos, I hope for a flexible work environment, varied activities and travel in my career, but I still expect to spend several more years in a traditional office environment for the kind of work I want to do. But Ferriss’ exhortations on the value of time–the fierce urgency of now if you will–are definitely something to keep in mind as I strive to live a fulfilling life.
I’ve started my next book, Getting Things Done by David Allen, which takes a whole different approach to time management and efficiency. There is a huge online cult following for the book already, but I might report back with some of my own thoughts.
Five Things About India That Blew My Mind
Last week, I attended a event organized by TiE on US-India entrepreneurship (the same one I talked about in my other post) and came home with my mind racing. Of the many great speakers at this event, one was Navjot Singh, a Partner at McKinsey&Co. From his talk and over the course of the evening, I learned the following five things about India that blew my mind:
- According to the McKinsey Global Institute, private consumption in India is set to grow 4.1X in the period from 2005-2025.
- In 2012, India is set to overtake China as the fastest growing global economy.
- By 2010, private equity investment in India is set to reach $20bn (A PE Hub report states that VCs have pumped $2.3bn into India so far this year).
- 40 percent of produce grown in India never gets consumed, due to poor infrastructure and inadequate food preservation.
- Healthcare in India will present a $20bn market opportunity by 2015, including fundamental research, drug development and patient care.
India has made a name for itself in IT services so far, but as the economy and old ways of life slowly transform, the enormity and sheer variety of opportunities in the years to come should boggle anybody’s mind.
Timeless advice for entrepreneurs
Yesterday, I attended a mini-conference at Princeton University, which explored entrepreneurship opportunities in the India-US corridor. TiE, the organizers of the event, had assembled an extraordinary roster of speakers, all of whom were engaging and made many thought-provoking points. One of the speakers was Ken Morse, the Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, who was especially entertaining. One of his quips:
As an entrepreneur, you have to work 24 hours a day, but you get to choose which 24.
Almost simultaneously, the doom and gloom from the convulsions of the financial sector has found its way to the Silicon Valley crowd. Warnings from investment stalwarts such as Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway have almost single-handedly ended the exuberant atmosphere among the entrepreneurial set. Several VC firms have held come-to-Jesus meetings evaluating the impact of the credit crisis on the health of their portfolios. No doubt, it’s never a bad time to be an entrepreneur. Now is especially a good time for those just starting out to hunker down and build a company that will be in the right place when the economic headwinds turn. In his talk, Ken Morse gave some advice that applies to entrepreneurs no matter what the economic climate is like:
- Business people are essential. Ken said 80 percent of startups consisting only of technical founders (the ‘geeks’) fail. Conceiving an idea is less than half the battle. Assuming competent execution of the idea, getting the word out and selling to customers are a lot more important to the success of any venture. Ken exhorted entrepreneurs not to view salespeople as ‘lower life forms’.
- CFIMITYM. Cash Flow Is More Important Than Your Mother. Even if you are not the business person in your venture and even if you are lucky enough to be well-funded, get to know how your business model generates recurring revenue at a basic level. Make basic financial projections for your own reference that will guide your thinking for several months ahead.
- Selling skills are important. Ken said there is a real shortage of sales skills among entrepreneurs. By sales skills, we are not necessarily referring to dealing with prospective and current customers. Selling people on ideas and strategies is just as important.
- Do the homework. Regardless of whether you’re a lone business-minded founder looking for your technical soulmate/co-founder or vice-versa, you have to do the early market development yourself. Validate your ideas early by talking to prospective customers. Defining the scope of what you will do with real outside input is an experience that will refine your idea and potentially lead to new directions.
- Customers are the best source of funding. Rather than chase 4F (Friends, Family, Founders and Fools), angel or venture capital money, see if you can’t get customers to fund your development. Customers provide validation to your business model and can act as external champions of your product or service. What’s more, in return for their money they just want their problem solved and pain points removed; they don’t want any of your equity.
Ken made the above points alongside a great presentation detailing success factors for an entrepreneurial venture. Perhaps these success factors will change even as the nature of entrepreneurship itself is changing. But the points of advice above are truly timeless.
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