-CHRONOLOGY OF A PATHOLOGY

-CHRONOLOGY OF A PATHOLOGY
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that

an be made in a very narrow field.

—Niels вони. Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when

he was merely stupid.

—heinrich heine, German critic and poet

T

A his book will teach you the precise principles I have used to become the following:

■-No-holds-barred cage tighter, vanquisher or*four world champions

- First American in history to hold a Guinness world record in tango

- Princeton University guest lecturer in entrepreneurship

- Applied linguist in Japanese, Chinese, German, and Spanish

-Glvcemic Index researcher

••National Chinese kickboxing champion

•-MTV break-dancer in Taiwan

•* Athletic adviser to more than 3,0 world record holders

- Actor on hit TV series in China and Hong Kong ••TV host in Thailand and China

- Political asvlum researcher and activist •-Shark diver

•- Motorcvcle racer

How Į got to this point is a tad less glamorous:

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1977 Born 6 weeks premature and given a io% chance of liv­ing. 1 survive instead and grow so fat that I can't roll onto my stom­ach. A muscular imbalance of the eyes makes me look in opposite directions, and my mother refers to me affectionately as "tuna fish." So far so good.

1983 Nearly fail kindergarten because I refuse to learn the alphabet. My teacher refuses to explain why 1 should learn it. opting instead for "I'm the teacher—that's why." I tell her that's stupid and ask her to leave me alone so 1 can focus on drawing sharks. She sends me to the "bad table" instead and makes me eat a bar of soap. Disdain for authority begins.

1991 My first job. Ah. the memories. I'm hired for minimum wage as the cleaner at an ice cream parlor and quickly realize that the big boss's methods duplicate effort. 1 do it my way. finish in one hour instead of eight, and spend the rest of the time reading kung-fu magazines and practicing karate kicks outside. I am fired in a record three days, left with the parting comment, "Maybe someday you'll understand the value of hard work." It seems I still don't.

1993 1 volunteer for a one-year exchange program in fapan. where people work themselves to death—a phenomenon called karooshi—and are said to want to be Shinto when born, Christian when married, and Buddhist when they die. I conclude that most people are really confused about life. One evening, intending to ask my host mother to wake me the next morning (okosu), I ask her to violently rape me (ohisu). She is very confused.

1996 I manage to slip undetected into Princeton, despite SAT scores 40% lower than the average and my high school admissions counselor telling me to be more "realistic." I conclude I'm just not good at reality. I major in neuroscience and then switch to East Asian studies to avoid putting printer jacks on cat heads.

1997 Millionaire time! I create an audiobook called Howl Beat the Ivy League, use all my money from three summer jobs to manu­facture 500 tapes, and proceed to sell exactly none. I will allow my

Chronology of о Pathology 15

mother to throw them out only in 2006, just nine years of denial later. Such is the joy of baseless overcon fide nee.

1998 After four shot-putters kick a friend's head in, I quit bouncing, the highest-paying job on campus, and develop a speed-reading seminar. I plaster campus with hundreds of god-awful neon green flyers that read, "triple your reading speed i N 3 hours!" and prototypical Princeton students proceed to write "bullsh't" on every single one. I sell $i spots at $50 each for the 3-hour event, and $533 per hour convinces me that find ing a market before designing a product is smarter than the reverse. Two months later. I'm bored to tears of speed-reading and close up shop. I hate services and need a product to ship.

Fall 1998 A huge thesis dispute and the acute fear of becoming an investment hanker drive me to commit academic suicide and in­form the registrar that I am quitting school until further notice. My dad is convinced that I'll never go back, and I'm convinced that my life is over. My mom thinks it's no big deal and that there is no need to be a drama queen.

Spring 1999 In three months, I accept and quit jobs as a cur­riculum designer at Berlitz. the world's largest publisher of foreign-language materials, and as an analyst at a three-person political asylum research firm. Naturally. I then fly to Taiwan to create a gym chain out of thin air and get shut down by Triads. Chinese mafia. I return to the United States defeated and decide to learn kickboxing. winning the national championship four weeks later with the ugliest and most unorthodox style ever witnessed.

Fall 2000 Confidence restored and thesis completely undone. [ return to Princeton. My life does not end. and it seems the year­long delay has worked out in my favor. Twenty-some things now have David Koresh-like abilities. My friend sells a company for $450 million, and t dec ide to head west to sunny California to make my billions. Despite the hottest job market in the history of the world, I manage to go jobless until three months after graduation.

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FIRST AND FOREMOST

when I pull out my trump card and send one start-up CEO 32 con­secutive e-mails. He finally gives in and puts me in sales.

Spring 2001 TrueSAN Networks has gone from a 15-person nobody to the "number one privately held data storage company" (how is that measured?) with 150 employees (what are they all doing?). I am ordered by a newly appointed sales director to "start with A" in the phone book and dial lor dollars. I ask him in the most tactful way possible why we are doing it like retards. He says. "Be­cause I say so." Not a good start.

Foil 2001 After a year of 12-hour days. Į find out that I'm the second-lowest-paid person in the company aside from the recep­tionist. I resort to aggressively surfing the Web full-time. One after­noon. having run out of obscene video clips to forward. I investigate how hard it would be to start a dietary supplement company. Turns out that you can outsource everything from manufacturing to ad design. Two weeks and $5,000 of credit card debt later. I have my first batch in production and a live website. Good thing, too, as I'm fired exactlv one week later.

2002-2003 BrainQUICKEN LLC has taken off. and I'm now making more than $ц.оК per month instead of C40K per year. The only problem is that I hate life and now work 12-hour-plus days 7 days a week. Kinda painted myself into a corner. I take a one-week "vacation" to Florence. Italy, with my family and spend 10 hours a day in an Internet cafė freaking out. Sh*t balls. I begin teach­ing Princeton students how to build "successful" (i.e., profitable) companies.

Winter 2004 The impossible happens and I'm approached by iu\ infomercial production company and an Israeli conglomerate (huh?) interested in buying my baby BrainQUICKEN. I simplify. eliminate, and otherwise clean house to make myself expendable. Miraculously. BQ doesn't fall apart, but both deals do. Back to Groundhog Day. Soon thereafter, both companies attempt to repli­cate my product and lose millions of dollars.

Chronology of о Pathology 17

June 2004 I decide that, even if my company implodes, I need to escape before 1 go Howard Hughes. 1 turn everything upside down and — backpack in hand—go to |FK Airport in New York City, buying the first one-way ticket to Europe 1 can find. I land in London and intend to continue on to Spain for four weeks of recharging my batteries before returning to the salt mines. I start my relaxation by promptly having a nervous breakdown the first morning.

July 2004-2005 Four weeks turn into eight, and 1 decide to stay overseas indefinitely for a final exam in automation and experi­mental living, limiting e-mail to one hour each Monday morning. As soon as I remove myself as a bottleneck, profits increase 40%. What on earth do you do when you no longer have work as an excuse to be hyperactive and avoid the big questions?' Be terrified and hold on to your ass with both hands, apparently.

September 2006 1 return to the United States in an odd, Zen­like state after methodically destroying all of my assumptions about what can and cannot be done. "Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit" has evolved into a class on ideal lifestyle design. The new message is simple: I've seen the promised land, and there is good news. You can have it all.

First and Foremost. -FAQ— DOUBTERS READ THIS

JLs Iitcsivie design tor you? Chances are good that it is. Here are some of the most common doubts and fears that people have before taking the leap and joining the New Rich:

Do I have to quit my job? Do I have to be a risk-taker?

No on both counts. From using jedi mind tricks to disappear from the office to designing businesses that finance your lifestyle. there are paths for every comfort level. How does a Fortune 500 em­ployee explore the hidden jewels of China for a month and use tech­nology to cover his tracks?¹ How do you create a hands-off business that generates $SoK per month with no management? It's all here.

Do I hove to be a single twenty-something?

Not at all. This book is for anvone who is sick of the deferred-life plan and wants to live life large instead of postpone it. Case studies range from a Lamborghini-driving 21-year-old to a single mother who traveled the world for five months with her two children, tf you're sick of the standard menu of options and prepared to enter a world of infinite options, this book is for you.

Do I have to travel? I just want more time.

No. It's just one option. The objective is to create freedom of time and place and use both however you want.

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FIRST AND FOREMOST

Do I need to be born rich?

No. My parents have never made more than $50,000 per year combined, and I've worked since age 14. I'm no Rockefeller and you needn't be either.

Do I need to be on Ivy League graduate?

Nope. Most of the role models in this book didn't goto the Har-vards of the world, and some are dropouts. Top academic institu­tions are wonderful, but there are unrecognized benefits to not coming out of one. Grads from top schools arc tunneled into high-income So-hour-per-week jobs, and 15-30 years of soul-crushing work lias been accepted as the default path. How do I know? I've been there and seen the destruction. This book reverses it.

-MY STORY AND WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is
time to pause and reflect. —mark twain

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack o(

imagination.

—Oscar wiLDii. Irish dramatist and novelist

M

у hands were sweating again.

Staring down at the floor to avoid the blinding ceiling lights. [ was supposedly one of the best in the world, but it just didn't regis­ter. My partner Alicia shifted from foot to foot as we stood in line with nine other couples, all chosen from over 1,000 competitors from 29 countries and four continents. It was the last day of the Tango World Championship semifinals, and this was our final run in front of the judges, television cameras, and cheering crowds. The other couples had an average of" 15 years together. For us. it was the culmination of 5 months of nonstop 6-hour practices, and finally, it was showtime.

"How are you doing?" Alicia, a seasoned professional dancer. asked me in her distinctly Argentine Spanish.

"Fantastic. Awesome. Let's just enjoy the music. Forget the crowd—thev're not even here."

That wasn't entirely true. It was hard to even fathom 50.000 spectators and coordinators in El Rural, even if it was the biggest exhibition hall in Buenos Aires. Through the thick haze of cigarette smoke, you could barely make out the huge undulating mass in the stands, and everywhere there was exposed floor, except the sacred

6

FIRST AND FOREMOST

30' x 40' space in the middle of ic all. I adjusted my pin-striped suit and fussed with mv blue silk handkerchief until it was obvious that I was just fidgeting.

"Are you nervous?¹"

"I'm not nervous. I'm excited. I'm just going to have fan and let the rest follow."

"Number 152, you're up." Our chaperone had done his job. and now it was our turn. I whispered an inside joke to .Alicia as we stepped on the hardwood platform: "Tratujuih"—Take it easy. She laughed, and at just that moment, 1 thought to myself. "What on earth would 1 be doing right now, if I hadn't left my job and the United States over a year ago?"

The thought vanished as quickly as it had appeared when the an­nouncer came over the loudspeaker and the crowd erupted to match him: "Pareja numero 152,Timothy Ferriss у Alicia Monti, Ciudad de Buenos Aires!!!"

We were on. and I was beaming.

The most fundamental of American questions is hard for me to answer these days, and luckily so. If it weren't, you wouldn't be holding this book in your hands.

"So. what do you do?"

Assuming you can find me (hard to do), and depending on when you ask me (I'd prefer you didn't). I could be racing motorcycles in Europe, scuba diving off a private island in Panama, resting under a palm tree between kickboxing sessions in Thailand, or dancing tango in Buenos Aires. The beauty is. I'm not a multimillionaire, nor do I particularly care to be.

1 never enjoyed answering this cocktail question because it reflects an epidemic I was long part of: job descriptions as self-descriptions. If someone asks me now and is anything but absolutely sincere, I explain my lifestyle of mysterious means simply.

"I'm a drug dealer."

My Story and Why You Need This Book 7

Pretty much a conversation ender. It's only half true, besides. The whole truth would take too long. How can I possibly explain that what 1 do with my time and what 1 do for money are completely different things?' That 1 work less than four hours per week and make more per month than 1 used to make in a year?

For the first time. I'm going to tell you the real story. It involves a quiet subculture of people called the "New Rich."

What does an igloo-dwelling millionaire do that a cubicle-dweller doesn't? Follow an uncommon set of rules.

How does a lifelong blue-chip employee escape to travel the world for a month without his boss even noticing? He uses tech­nology to hide the fact.

Gold is getting old. The New Rich { NR) are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design (LD Į.

I've spent the last three years traveling among those who live in worlds currently beyond your imagination. Rather than hating reality. ГН show you how to bend it to your will. It's easier than it sounds. My journey from grossly overworked and severely underpaid office worker to member of the NR is at once stranger than fiction and — now that I've deciphered the code—simple to duplicate. There is a recipe.

Life doesn't have to be so damn hard. It really doesn't. Most peo­ple, my past self included, have spent too much time convincing themselves that life has to be hard, a resignation to 9-10-5 drudgery in exchange for {sometimes) relaxing weekends and the occasional keep-it-short-or-get-fired vacation.

The truth, at least the truth I live and will share in this book. is quite different. From leveraging currency differences to out­sourcing your life and disappearing, I'll show you how a small underground uses economic sleight-of-hand to do what most con­sider impossible.

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FIRST AND FOREMOST

If you've picked up this book, chances are thac you don't want to sit behind a desk until you are 62. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, real-lift? fantasy travel, long-term wandering, setting world records, or simply a dramatic career change, this book will give you all the tools you need to make it a reality in the here-and-now instead of in the often elusive "retirement." There is a way to get the rewards for a life of hard work without waiting until the end.

How? It begins with a simple distinction most people miss—one I missed for 25 years.

People don't want to be millionaires—the)' want to experience what they believe only millions can buy. Ski chalets, butlers, and ex­otic travel often enter the picture. Perhaps rubbing cocoa butter on your belly in a hammock while you listen to waves rhythmically lap­ping against the deck of your thatched-roof bungalow? Sounds nice.

$1,000,000 in the bank isn't the fantasy. The fantasy is the life­style of complete freedom it supposedly allows. The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom withouifirst having Si.ooo.ooo?

In the last five years, I have answered this question for myself, and this book will answer it for you. I will show you exactly how 1 have separated income from time and created my ideal lifestyle in the process, traveling the world and enjoying the best this planet has to offer. How on earth did I go from 14-hour days and $40,000 per year to 4-hour weeks and $40,000 per month?

It helps to know where it all started. Strangelyenough.it was in a class of soon-to-be investment bankers.

In 2002.1 was asked by Ed Zschau. ubermentor and my former professor of High-tech Entrepreneurship at Princeton University, to come back and speak to the same class about my business adven­tures in the real world. I was stuck. There were alreadv decamillion-aires speaking to the same class, and even though I had built a highly profitable sports supplement company. I marched to a distinctly dif­ferent drummer.

My Story and Why You Need This Book 9

Over the ensuing days, however, 1 realized that everyone seemed to be discussing how to build large and successful companies, sell out. and live the good life. Fair enough. The question no one really seemed to be asking or answering was, Why do it all in the first place? What is the pot of gold that justifies spending the best years of your life hoping for happiness in the last?

The lectures I ultimately developed, titled "Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit." began with a simple premise: Test the most basic assumptions of the work-life equation.

- Flow do your decisions change if retirement isn't an option?' -What if you could use a mini-retirement to sample your

deferred-life plan reward before working 40 years for it? ■* Is it really necessary to work like a slave to live like a

millionaire?

Little did I know where questions like these would take me.

The uncommon conclusion? The commonsense rules of the "real world'* are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions. This book will teach you how to see and seize the options others do not.

What makes this book different?

First, I'm not going to spend much time on the problem. I'm going to assume you are suffering from time famine, creeping dread, or— worst case—a tolerable and comfortable existence doing some­thing unfulfilling. The last is most common and most insidious.

Second, this book is not about saving and will not recommend you abandon your daily glass of red wine for a million dollars 50 years from now. I'd rather have the wine. I won't ask you to choose between enjoyment today or money later. I believe you can have both now. The goal is fun and profit.

Third, this book is not about finding your "dream job." I will take as a given that, for most people, somewhere between six and seven billion of them, the perfect job is the one that takes the least time. The vast majority of people will never find a job that can be an

10 FIRST AND FOREMOST

unending source of fulfillment, so that is not the goal here; to free time and automate income is.

I open each class with an explanation of the singular importance of being a "dealmaker." The manifesto of the dealmaker is simple: Reality is negotiable. Outside of science and law. all rules can be bent or broken, and it doesn't require being unethical.

The DEAL of deal making is also an acronym for the process of becoming a member of the New Rich.

The steps and strategies can be used with incredible results— whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur. Can you do every­thing I've done with a boss? No. Can you use the same principles to double your income, cut your hours in half, or at least double the usual vacation time? Most definitely.

Here is the step-by-step process you'll use to reinvent yourself:

D for Definition turns misguided common sense upside down and introduces the rules and objectives of the new game. It replaces self-defeating assumptions and explains concepts such as rela­tive wealth and eustress.' Who are the NR and how do they oper­ate? This section explains the overall lifestyle design recipe—the fundamentals—before we add the three ingredients.

E for Elimination kills the obsolete notion of time management once and for all. It shows exactly how I used the words of an often-forgotten Italian economist to turn 12-hour days into two-hour days . .. in 48 hours. Increase your per-hour results ten times or more with counterintuitive NR techniques for culti­vating selective ignorance, developing a low-information diet.

1. Uncommon terms are defined throughout this boob as concepts are intro­duced. If something is unclear or you need a quick reference, please visit www.fourhourworkweek.com for an extensive glossary and other resources.

My Story and Why You Need This Book

11

and otherwise ignoring the unimportant. This section provides the first of the three luxury lifestyle design ingredients: time.

A for Automation puts cash flow on autopilot using geographic arbitrage, outsourcing, and rules of nondecision. From bracket­ing to the routines of ultrasuccessful NR. it's all here. This sec­tion provides the second ingredient of luxury lifestyle design: income.

L for Liberation is the mobile manifesto for the globally inclined. The concept of mini-retirements is introduced, as are the means for flawless remote control and escaping the boss. Liberation is not about cheap travel; it is about forever breaking the bonds that confine you to a single location. This section delivers the third and final ingredient for luxury lifestyle design: mobility.

I should note that most bosses are less than pleased if you spend one hour in the office each day. and employees should therefore read the steps in the entrepreneurially minded DEAL order but imple­ment them as DE LA. lfyoudecidetoremaininyourcurrentjob.it is necessary to create freedom of location before you cut your work hours by So%. Even if you have never considered becoming an en­trepreneur in the modern sense, the DEAL process will turn you into an entrepreneur in the purer sense as first coined by French economist |. B. Say in 1S00—one who shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher yield.²

Last but not least, much of what I recommend will seem impos­sible and even offensive to basic common sense—I expect that. Re­solve now to test the concepts as an exercise in lateral thinking. If you try it. you'll see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, and you won't ever go back.

2. http://www.pQter-drucker.com/books/00887 306187.html.