Book Review: 4-Hour Work Week

Most people in civilized society follow the same typical path of graduating college, finding a job, and keeping that job while working the usual nine-to-five shift until retirement in old age. This lifestyle causes stress in a lot of people and prevents many of those workers from fulfilling themselves in life. However, because to most it is the only way to make a living and contribute to society, many choose this past because they see no other. But one author has found the way to get out of that monotonous routine and has found a way to make the same amount of money working a four hour week as he would working a forty hour week. The book entitled “The 4-hour Work Week” details Timothy Ferriss’ strategy for escaping the same cyclic lifestyle that society molds and thriving in a care-free lifestyle in which you can make your own choices and make money at the same time.

Timothy Ferris is an entrepreneur, author, and a master of many skills. He has been featured in various magazines and media outlets, and has written several best selling books. He holds a Guinness World Record, runs a multi-national firm, and speaks six languages. He has written “The 4-Hour Work Week” to describe his secrets to success and to share his secrets with anyone who wishes to break away from the cycle of life laid before them. The book is over four hundred pages and provides a guide to a life of luxury without the stress of having a job that you don’t want to have. The book encourages readers to follow their dreams and to seek what will make them fulfilled in life, all without having to lose the means to financially support themselves. In essence, it teaches how to work only four hours a week and make as much money as people working ten times more.

The book details how the author when from earning $40,000 a year working eighty hours a week to making the same amount of money working only four hours a week. Ferris includes tips on how to “outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want,” “how blue chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs,” and “how to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist,” among many other things. The book has earned rave reviews and has appeared on several best sellers lists. Many have read the book and experienced a great change in their lives.

In a way, the book relies mainly on the appeal of what it promises, which is a fun life free of worries, and a way to make money. The author encourages morally ambiguous practices to achieve this goal. Ultimately, a lot of what is described in the book isn’t new or life changing information, but it does provide the boost that many people need to take the next step forward in life. The philosophy of the book focuses mainly on how to reap the most benefits while putting in the least work. Those who believe in this philosophy will benefit the most from this book.

Book Review: Delivering Happiness

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose is part candid memoir and part fascinating business book written by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh describing his remarkable journey in the business world and the lessons that he learned along the way. He writes about his rapid and unorthodox ascent from Harvard grad to becoming the CEO of a very successful online shoe and apparel company. The first half of the book reads like an autobiography while the second half of the book discusses his unusual business practices and his philosophy to customer service and company culture. Here is what I like about this book.

1. This book is funny, and easy to read.

I found myself laughing out loud many times when I was reading the first section of the book, which gives details on Tony’s entrepreneur adventures from his childhood, college years, to his association with Zappos. His writing style is informal, down to earth, and entertaining. It almost felt like he is in the room telling me his stories in person.

2. This book is filled with useful business tips.

The second section of the book is about what Zappos is and how they became the largest online shoe store. Tony and his team did a good job collaborating this section by using past company e-mail, personal narratives, and real life examples to illustrate how they came to focus on: customer service, culture/core values, and employee training and development. Check out Zappos’s core values (page 155-190). My favorite one is: Deliver WOW Through Service.

3. This book has a thought provoking take-home message.

The third section of the book details how Zappos got acquired by Amazon in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion in 2009 and how they came to this vision statement: Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world (page 230). The take-home message for me is: the lasting happiness is closely linked with a higher purpose. In pursuing a higher purpose, we will bring happiness to ourselves and to others.

Delivering Happiness is one of those books that challenges conventional wisdom about business and life. I highly recommend this insightful book to anyone who wants to make a profit while living their purpose.

Book Review: Drive: The Suprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Most of us wake up every day with a definite plan in mind about what we need to accomplish before we head back to bed at night. For most, that means heading off to a job that we may not necessarily love, but which we need for a variety of different reasons. We basically become driven by a daily routine that is developed in order to achieve our goals. If you asked the average person what it was that made them follow their routine in such a devoted manner, most would point to the quest for money and the pursuit of happiness in general, but is that the real reason so many of us are driven to get out and work every day?

That is the question that Daniel H. Pink tackles in his book, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Mr. Pink takes the results of more than four decades of research into human behavior to argue that perhaps it’s a little too easy to suggest that everyone is simply in it for the money. Before getting to the meat of the book, it’s important to understand that just because Pink has drawn from that research that he has created a hefty tome that will be impossible to wade through. Drive comes in at a trim 250 pages, but at no point does it feel that the author skimped on the information in order to make the book a “light read.”

The basic premise of Drive is that the average human is not as driven by money and the quest for success as many would have you think. Pink believes that, deep down, people are more driven by the need to be in control of your own life, which includes having the freedom to continually learn and create new things that show off what we have to offer. The author feels that the way in which the business world works tend to run counter to those feelings, which is why we may have adopted the race for money as the ultimate driving force.

Pink sets out to show that the business world may actually be coming round to the other way of thinking. In the book, he cites Google as an example of one company that encourages its people to be creative, even if that means them doing something other than what they were specifically hired to do. The results seem to speak for themselves, with the people at those types of companies generally happier than most and feeling as though they have a purpose in life.

Drive doesn’t just take the time to explain where our true motivation may lie, but also shows the steps that we can take to get off the money carousel and jump on a ride that will make each of our lives more fulfilling. Taking the time to read Drive might not necessarily change your life forever, but it will certainly make you question what it is that makes you get out of bed every day.

Book Review: Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

In her new book “Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking“, Susan Cain, a distinguished author, talks about introversion and extroversion and why they are both unique in themselves. In this book you will discover that society has made people think that there is something extremely wrong with being an introvert. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth according to Ms. Cain. In the information that follows, we will take a closer look at this new book and try to provide some insight that will help the reader understand why being an introvert is also part of the overall human makeup.

To begin with, you will get a whole lot more out of this book if you understand the basic meaning behind being an introvert versus being an extrovert. After all, the main purpose behind the book, “Quiet” is to provide you with a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live as an introvert in an overly celebrated extroversion society.

Being an Extrovert: Qualities

• Obtaining and being concerned with gratification that comes outside of one’s self
• Comfortable in large groups
• Always involved or engaged in public or community activities
• Gregarious
• Assertive
• Talkative
• Extremely enthusiastic

Being an Extrovert: Work Environment

• Sales
• Managing large groups
• Teaching
• Political aspirations

Being an Introvert: Qualities

• Predominately interested and concerned with one’s own mind
• More energy during self reflection
• Much more reserved
• Less talkative
• Much more independent
• Much more solitary

Being an Introvert: Work Environment

• Inventor
• Writer
• Computer programmer
• Sculptor
• Painter

Although the information listed above will show only some differences between introversion and extroversion, the idea is to give you an understanding of what it means to be either one, and how this book talks about being an introvert living in a society that promotes extroversion.

This book touches on a variety of different issues which begins with the ideal of being an extrovert. This is something that has been instilled in almost every one since their first day of school. Because of this cultural ideal, school systems combine 20 to 30 students in a single classroom based on the ideology that everyone is an extrovert, therefore everyone learns the same way. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Ms. Cain goes on to talk about charisma and leadership and how collaboration can sometimes be the main killer behind creativity. This is talked about in great length because there are introverts who are forced to collaborate with others and move away what comes natural to them and that is their creativity that comes from living and being within themselves. She also talks about how the extrovert ideal creates individuals that are not all that individual. Most people, over time begin to mirror each other which ultimately will limit the production of individuality.

In this book, Ms. Cain also talks about the historical roots of the extrovert ideal, the pitfalls, defining both introversion and extroversion, distinguishing what introversion is, and differentiating the core of both identities. She also talks about those that have both personality traits whereas sometimes a person may act as though they are an introvert, and at other times act as though they are extroverts.

Towards the end of the book, Ms. Cain also talks about the psychology of temperament, what it’s like to be an introvert in the workplace, child and education development, finding a balance in a person’s life in terms of trying to dominate one ideal or another, and what the future holds for the extroversion idealism and what it will be like to be an introvert in the future.

Quite frankly, this is one book that will have you riveted to the pages simply because of the information provided on both aspects of a person’s personality. “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” is a book that will help you understand that you have been created the way you are for a purpose. And as an introvert, you may feel that extroverts have it good right now; however, it’s important for you to know that you have a place – because when all of the noise dies down, people tend to look towards the thinker because for the most part an introvert really does have superior characteristics.

Book Review: The Power of Habit

When people talk about habit, they typically talk about something that is extremely familiar such as brushing their teeth a certain way, waking up at a certain time, or performing certain tasks at the same time each and every day. There are good habits, and there are bad habits. But have you ever thought about a habit in terms of why you have it, how it works in your life, the effects it has whether good or bad, and how to go about changing it? The author of “The Power of Habit” Charles Duhigg, talks about these very concepts in his new book, and what you are about to read is a review on what he has to say.

The problem with a habit is that they can be extremely powerful. In fact, some habits are so powerful they can actually do us harm. However, before moving forward in this respect, it’s important to understand that there are good habits and bad habits. Some examples of good habits are:

• Waking up each morning on time
• Paying your bills on time
• Completing your work on time
• Taking care of yourself the proper ways each and every day

Although these are only a few examples of good habits, they give you an idea of what good habits look like. Now let’s take a look at some of the bad habits that people struggle with and those are:

• Eating certain foods that you know aren’t good for you
• Not getting to work on time
• Not paying your bills
• Procrastinating

So, now that you have a better idea of what good and bad habits are, it’s important to talk about how the book “The Power of Habit” can help you make changes to these habits either way. Duhigg talks about how powerful habits can be. He also talks about why it’s so important to understand how habits work. In his book, he goes on to say that most habits function in the same way. Each habit has a set of properties which will include:

• A cue or trigger
• A routine
• A reward

A cue or trigger, in many cases, will allow the habit behavior to unfold without the person even knowing what has developed. This can include but isn’t limited to other people, a certain situation, the time of day, or a location. The routine is what happens during the habitual behavior, and the reward is the anticipated result. Duhigg says that all habits whether good or bad will all have the same underlying properties. He also says that by understanding these traits, this will be the very key to changing these habits.

In order to change a habit, Duhigg refers to engaging in an experiment. However, before you can try any type of experiment, you will have to spend a little time identifying all the different aspects of the habit itself. The book “The Power of Habit” talks about how to do this in a few short and easy steps. Once identified, you can choose your own experiment which includes doing something different during the routine and reward phases of your particular habit.

All in all, the approach Charles Duhigg uses in the book is pretty amazing because he talks about identifying and diagnosing your habit, changing your routine, introducing a different reward and as a result, breaking or changing a habit that may have held you in psychological and physical bondage. The book is roughly 400 pages and offers a really good read. This one deserves a thumbs up for sure because everyone has a habit but, some habits are not worth keeping.

Book Review: The Happiness Advantage

We all need to work in order to pay the bills and live the life we want, yet very few people are able to find a job that truly makes them happy. The very idea of going out to work is one that is very much counter to the dreams of the average person, so it almost stands to reason that a certain level of unhappiness should be par for the course. It doesn’t have to be that way though, that is if you believe the contents of author Shawn Achor’s book, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work.

The idea that fueled the book is based on the theory that we have all been working in reverse our entire lives. In short, most of us try to find that perfect job, partner, and home that will make us happy for the best part of our lives. Mr. Achor believes that in fact the opposite is true and that it’s not until we are truly happy that everything else will fall into place. To prove this theory the author introduces seven principles based on positive psychology that he believes can turn around the life of the average person once they are put into play.

Before you get to thinking that this is just another boring self-help book that rehashes a number of old methods, you really should take the time to start drinking Achor’s happiness Kool-Aid. The author not only delivers his arguments in a way that perfectly gets his point across, but also in a style that is both entertaining, and at times laugh out loud funny. “The Happiness Advantage” is not simply a collection of ideas put together in a hasty manner, and is in fact the result of over a decade’s worth of research performed by the author during his time lecturing at Harvard.

The book is so well written and almost anti-business that you will find yourself very quickly engrossed and willing to invest in the information being provided. That Achor is able to deliver on what the title promises without leaving the reader bored out of his mind is a testament to the fact that his research may indeed have some real validity. Reading the book makes you feel good, which in turn leads you to want to turn the page to see what’s next. That is the perfect example of what the 7 principles can do for your life, with happiness indeed leading to you wanting to do more.

Reading “The Happiness Advantage” is not likely to change your fortunes overnight, but it does deliver enough solid information to get you on the right path to do so. What you may quickly discover is that there are positive elements of your job and your life that have become mired in the negative. Being able to recognize the good things and focus on those will start you down the path to happiness and success and will truly give you a happiness advantage.