The Four Hour Work Week

Whether you’re an overworked employee or an entrepreneur trapped in your own business,
The 4-Hour Workweek is the compass for a new and revolutionary world.

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan—there is no need to wait and every reason not to. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, high-end world travel, monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.

You can have it all—really.

Join Tim Ferriss, popular guest lecturer in entrepreneurship at Princeton University, as he teaches you:

How to outsource your life and do whatever you want for a year, only to return to a bank account 50% larger than before you left
How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of little-known European economists
How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair
How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2-4 weeks
How to cultivate selective ignorance—and create time—with a low-information diet
Management secrets of Remote Control CEOs
The crucial difference between absolute and relative income
How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off
How to fill the void and creating meaning after removing work and the office
The 4-Hour Workweek also includes the sample e-mails, voicemails, and real-life deals (with dollar figures and all) you will need to master the new world of luxury lifestyle design.

Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work

By Michael Masterson

One of the great fallacies in the self-help industry is the notion that you can change your life with “positive thinking.”

The purveyors of positivism, starting with Napoleon Hill and including the people who now promote The Secret, contend that we all have, at our conscious disposal, the means to transform ourselves into walking, breathing success machines.

Some self-help gurus sell positive thinking because they know it is one of the most lucrative products to put in the marketplace. Change one thought and you can change your life! What better promise can you make to an underachieving, wanna-be-rich-and-successful couch potato?

And purely from a profit point of view, they are right. Positive thinking products making quick-and-easy promises account for more than a billion dollars a year in direct-mail and Internet sales. And that’s just for the companies I personally know. The total number is probably multiples of that.

I am not saying all proponents of positive thinking are hucksters. Many are honest men and women who believe in the concept because they use it successfully in their own lives. They are usually people who have always been accomplished, excelling in sports or academics or business almost from the start. Their repeated successes gave them confidence that they can do just about anything. And they readily tap into that underlying feeling of confidence whenever they face a new challenge. In their hearts, they know they can succeed. So when they take on anything new, they can’t help but believe they will be successful.

But what about the rest of the world? The 80 percent of the population that got C’s in school and sat on the bench during ball games and had little or no success in business? What messages are buried in their hearts?

Well, the positive thinkers will tell you that is exactly the point. The people who struggle on without success are failing because they don’t really think they can succeed. If only they could change their thinking, they would do better.

And so the therapy for these self-doubters is positive thinking. Stand in front of the mirror in the morning and repeat 20 times: “I am a good person. I can do anything. I will be successful.”

It’s very appealing. Two or three minutes of talking to your mirrored image, and a mental switch will be turned. Everything after that will come to you effortlessly.

The reality is different.

A study mentioned by Julie Norem in her book The Positive Power of Negative Thinking confirms my belief that though positive thinking may work for people who already have an optimistic way of looking at their abilities, it doesn’t work for people who are pessimists.

Researchers divided their subjects (all identified as pessimists) into two groups. They told one group that, based on their past performance, they were going to do well on a standardized test they were about to be given. And these subjects indicated on a pre-test survey that they did, indeed, feel optimistic about their results. The second group was not given any encouragement. The results? The first group, the temporarily optimistic pessimists, actually performed worse on the test.

I’ve been critical of the idea of positive thinking for years, because I think it is useless to the people who most need help in changing their lives: people who have deeply held negative feelings about what they can accomplish.

Positive thinking works only for those who are emotionally positive. Usually, these are people who have a history of being successful. People who have been good wrestlers, for example, find it easy to believe they will win their next wrestling match. Entrepreneurs like yours truly find it easy to believe their next business venture will be successful.

When you are emotionally positive, you can’t help but think positively about everything.

So thinking positively helps. But it only helps the 20 percent of the population that is already emotionally positive. The rest of the population, the 80 percent of the world that is emotionally negative, cannot be helped by positive thinking.

I knew this was true, though I didn’t know exactly why. When I wrote about it in the past, many ETR readers objected. When I spoke about it at conferences, attendees complained to me afterward. They seemed angry. As if I was trying to take something precious away from them.

They believed I was trying to deny their best chance of succeeding. Meanwhile, what I was really trying to do was get them to stop conning themselves and take the specific actions that would help them achieve their goals.

As the years passed, I would meet some of these same people at other conferences. They were still attending self-improvement seminars, still carrying positive-thinking books, and still upset with me for telling them that positive thinking wouldn’t change their fortunes. It had, after all, worked for the people promoting all those seminars and books.

Year after year. Decade after decade. They stayed poor. They stayed stuck. But they wouldn’t give up their dream of changing their lives quickly and easily by changing their thinking.

I was never able to articulate why it was that I knew positive thinking would never work for these people. But then I read a book that helped me understand: A General Theory of Love. It was written by three eminent psychotherapists and neuroscientists. I have posted my notes on this book on my website (which I recommend you read), but let me tell you very briefly what it taught me that sheds light on this issue.

Essentially, our emotions are deeply rooted in the way our minds are wired. There is a scientific basis for many of our emotional responses and how we relate to others. At the same time, our interactions with the world and people around us have a profound impact on our attitude. This interaction, which can actually alter neural pathways in the brain, begins in infancy and influences our development.

So if you grew up with negative feelings about your ability to achieve success, that’s the way your brain is wired. And no amount of positive thinking will change it.

Here is what the authors of A General Theory of Love have to say about the self-help industry:

“A vigorous self-help movement has championed the hoax that a strong-willed person, outfitted with the proper directions, can select good relationships. Those seduced into the promise of a quick fix gobble it up. But the physiology of emotional life cannot be dispelled with a few words…

“… Self-help books are like car repair manuals: You can read them all day, but doing so doesn’t fix a thing.”

To change yourself from being emotionally negative to emotionally positive, you have to get some solid successes under your belt. And that’s where another success technique – visualization – comes in. But this one works. Visualization is a proven and useful technique for achieving peak performance.

It’s no secret that many of the most successful people in the world – including entertainers, athletes, and CEOs – used visualization to help them achieve their goals.

Take Tiger Woods…

“Visualization has become a major part of my shot-making, especially as it pertains to shaping shots. … It makes a huge difference in your performance.”

And Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers to ever grace the game, said, “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie.”

Famed sports psychologist Bob Rotella charges thousands of dollars per session to help pro athletes and business executives achieve success through visualization. In addition to coaching pro PGA golfers and top athletes in the NBA and NFL, he coaches high-ranking executives at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, Coca-Cola, and many other companies.

Matt Furey – world-class martial artist and top Internet marketer – credits visualization for his success. Matt’s wrestling coach told the scrawny, uncoordinated high school teen he never had a chance. But by using the power of visualization, Matt gained the confidence to win match after match – and became a champion wrestler in high school and college.

Later, Matt became World Kung Fu Champion – thanks, again, to visualization and the very positive attitude that was now buried deep in his limbic brain (the part of the brain involved in emotional behavior).

As I said, people who are emotionally positive about their chances for success have a history of succeeding. They’re doers, not dreamers. So forget about positive thinking. Instead, start rewiring your brain by working toward the goal you want to achieve or practicing the skill you want to master.

At first, you won’t feel very good about what you’re doing, because you won’t be very good at it. But stick with it. Remember that it takes about a thousand hours to achieve competency in anything that’s worthwhile.

Start by setting very modest objectives. Use visualization to help you excel at specific tasks and overcome specific challenges. But don’t waste your time repeating useless mantras. Actions – only actions – will reprogram your limbic brain and turn you into a real “success machine.”

The Fifty Success Habits

By Craig Harper
www.craigharper.com.au

Habits of successful people….

1. They look for and find opportunities where others see nothing.

2. They find a lesson while others only see a problem.

3. They are solution focused.

4. They consciously and methodically create their own success, while others hope success will
find them.

5. They are fearful like everyone else, but they are not controlled or limited by fear.

6. They ask the right questions – the ones which put them in a productive, creative, positive mindset and emotional state.

7. They rarely complain (waste of energy). All complaining does is put the complainer in a negative and unproductive state.

8. They don’t blame (what’s the point?). They take complete responsibility for their actions and outcomes (or lack thereof).

9. While they are not necessarily more talented than the majority, they always find a way to maximise their potential. They get more out of themselves. They use what they have more effectively.

10. They are busy, productive and proactive. While most are laying on the couch, planning, over-thinking, sitting on their hands and generally going around in circles, they are out there getting the job done.

11. They align themselves with like-minded people. They understand the importance of being part of a team. They create win-win relationships.

12. They are ambitious; they want amazing – and why shouldn’t they? They consciously choose to live their best life rather than spending it on auto-pilot.

13. They have clarity and certainty about what they want (and don’t want) for their life. They actually visualise and plan their best reality while others are merely spectators of life.

14. They innovate rather than imitate.

15. They don’t procrastinate and they don’t spend their life waiting for the ‘right time’.

16. They are life-long learners. They constantly work at educating themselves, either formally (academically), informally (watching, listening, asking, reading, student of life) or experientially (doing, trying)… or all three.

17. They are glass half full people – while still being practical and down-to-earth. They have an ability to find the good.

18. They consistently do what they need to do, irrespective of how they are feeling on a given day. They don’t spend their life stopping and starting.

19. They take calculated risks – financial, emotional, professional, psychological.

20. They deal with problems and challenges quickly and effectively, they don’t put their head in the sand. They face their challenges and use them to improve themselves.

21. They don’t believe in, or wait for fate, destiny, chance or luck to determine or shape their future. They believe in, and are committed to actively and consciously creating their own best life.

22. While many people are reactive, they are proactive. They take action before they have to.

23. They are more effective than most at managing their emotions. They feel like we all do but they are not slaves to their emotions.

24. They are good communicators and they consciously work at it.

25. They have a plan for their life and they work methodically at turning that plan into a reality. Their life is not a clumsy series of unplanned events and outcomes.

26. Their desire to be exceptional means that they typically do things that most won’t. They become exceptional by choice. We’re all faced with live-shaping decisions almost daily. Successful people make the decisions that most won’t and don’t.

27. While many people are pleasure junkies and avoid pain and discomfort at all costs, successful people understand the value and benefits of working through the tough stuff that most would avoid.

28. They have identified their core values (what is important to them) and they do their best to live a life which is reflective of those values.

29. They have balance. While they may be financially successful, they know that the terms money and success are not interchangeable. They understand that people who are successful on a financial level only, are not successful at all. Unfortunately we live in a society which teaches that money equals success. Like many other things, money is a tool. It’s certainly not a bad thing but ultimately, it’s just another resource. Unfortunately, too many people worship it.

30. They understand the importance of discipline and self-control. They are strong. They are happy to take the road less travelled.

31. They are secure. They do not derive their sense of worth of self from what they own, who they know, where they live or what they look like.

32. They are generous and kind. They take pleasure in helping others achieve.

33. They are humble and they are happy to admit mistakes and to apologise. They are confident in their ability, but not arrogant. They are happy to learn from others. They are happy to make others look good rather than seek their own personal glory.

34. They are adaptable and embrace change, while the majority are creatures of comfort and habit. They are comfortable with, and embrace, the new and the unfamiliar.

35. They keep themselves in shape physically, not to be mistaken with training for the Olympics or being obsessed with their body. They understand the importance of being physically well. They are not all about looks, they are more concerned with function and health. Their body is not who they are, it’s where they live.

36. They have a big engine. They work hard and are not lazy.

37. They are resilient. When most would throw in the towel, they’re just warming up.

38. They are open to, and more likely to act upon, feedback.

39. They don’t hang out with toxic people.

40. They don’t invest time or emotional energy into things which they have no control of.

41. They are happy to swim against the tide, to do what most won’t. They are not people pleasers and they don’t need constant approval.

42. They are more comfortable with their own company than most.

43. They set higher standards for themselves (a choice we can all make), which in turn produces greater commitment, more momentum, a better work ethic and of course, better results.

44. They don’t rationalise failure. While many are talking about their age, their sore back, their lack of time, their poor genetics, their ‘bad luck’, their nasty boss and their lack of opportunities (all good reasons to fail), they are finding a way to succeed despite all their challenges.

45. They have an off switch. They know how to relax, enjoy what they have in their life and to have fun.

46. Their career is not their identity, it’s their job. It’s not who they are, it’s what they do.

47. They are more interested in effective than they are in easy. While the majority look for the quickest, easiest way (the shortcut), they look for the course of action which will produce the best results over the long term.

48. They finish what they start. While so many spend their life starting things that they never finish, successful people get the job done – even when the excitement and the novelty have worn off. Even when it ain’t fun.

49. They are multi-dimensional, amazing, wonderful complex creatures (as we all are). They realise that not only are they physical and psychological beings, but emotional and spiritual creatures as well. They consciously work at being healthy and productive on all levels.

50. They practice what they preach. They don’t talk about the theory, they live the reality.

So there you have it, your days of reading self-help books are done!

Okay, maybe not. I may have missed a few. Feel free to add a habit or two of your own to the list.

Reinvent Your Life With a Proven Plan for Success

By Michael Masterson

Here’s your challenge: a car race from New York City to Las Vegas. If you get there within a certain amount of time, you win millions of dollars and a completely new and better lifestyle.

Sounds like fun? Good.

Here’s the problem: You don’t know how to get there.

The countdown has already begun. In a few minutes, hundreds of other cars will be screeching away from the starting line. What should you do? Go out and buy a map? Have a navigation system installed in your car? Or start out at the gun with the rest of the pack and find your way by following them and asking questions?

Cautious people would install a navigation system and start the race late – drastically reducing their chances of winning. Successful people would use a combination of common sense and shrewdness: staying with the pack initially and then, by asking questions at gas stations along the way, making sure they were taking the fastest possible route.

Improving your life is a little like taking part in an auto race. If you wait too long to begin, you diminish your chances of finishing. Yet if you start off without any plan at all, there is a chance you’ll get lost along the way.

When I decided to become an A student in college (after barely doing enough work to get C’s in high school), I started working on it right away. But I had a plan. And it was a plan that had been proven by countless A students ahead of me: Study the curriculum. Figure out which courses you have an aptitude for. Show up with an A-student attitude – and work your ass off.

That’s what you should do if you are ready for success. Get started immediately. But use a proven strategy – something that has worked well for others.

Introducing the Master Plan

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines “master plan” as something that gives overall guidance for a project, such as the building of a church or school or city. Master plans are what real estate developers use to transform raw land into suburban subdivisions, urban centers, and waterfront business districts.

Washington , D.C. , one of the most beautifully designed cities in North America , was once a swamp. Its transformation was the result of a master plan by Pierre Charles l’Enfant. And Columbia , MD , developed from rough farmland in the later part of the 20th century, now accommodates a population of nearly 96,000.

I used a master plan to redesign a 3,000-acre residential resort on the Pacific Ocean in Nicaragua. Over 30 years of investing in real estate developments, I learned how helpful it can be to have a master plan in hand before you begin any major project.

Master plans are also used to redesign companies. Jack Welch used one to articulate and execute his vision for General Electric. He said it was the key to transforming the corporate giant from a troubled, declining billion-dollar company to a state-of-the-industry business leader.

And a master plan is what Warren Buffett and his partner used to turn Berkshire Hathaway into history’s greatest financial success story… and themselves into billionaires.

On a personal level, my partners and I have used a master plan to help more than a dozen companies grow into multimillion-dollar enterprises, including one that went from $100,000 to $135 million in 11 years, and another that went from $8 million to $320 million in 14 years.

Master plans don’t always work. The former Soviet Union and communist China were famous for their master plans, which continued to project growth as their economies gradually crumbled into dust.

For a master plan to be effective, it has to be realistic and flexible. It has to be realistic about resources and capabilities, and it has to be adjusted and/or radically changed when circumstances dictate.

But used properly, a master plan can achieve miracles. It can transform deserts into sparkling cities, debt-ridden companies into thriving businesses, and perennially under-achieving people into healthy, wealthy, happy, and wise individuals.

How Is a Master Plan Different From a Plan?

A master-planned project differs from a normally planned project in its scope. Most large endeavors, whether they are real estate projects or business developments, are designed in pieces – one significant section at a time. That is not a bad way to create change, but it does entail wasted time, resources, and capital. Because conglomerating individual designs is always going to result in gaps, overlaps, and omissions.

When you master plan a project, you account for every aspect of it: the landscaping and water systems as well as the architecture, electrical, and plumbing. By getting it all together at once, you can ensure an integrated finished product. You also reduce the time and money you spend fixing things that don’t jibe.

The Dynamics of Your Personal Master Plan

A personal master plan can help you achieve all your life’s goals quickly and with the least amount of trouble, time, and hassle. Using a master plan says you are serious about improving yourself and that you want that improvement to be radical: from C to A. You will not be satisfied with B.

A personal master plan is a formal contract between the person you are today (fed up with the problems and lack of success you’ve been having) and the person you have decided to be (the successful you who is healthy, wealthy, happy, and wise). The personal master plan will help you reinvent your life because it will force you to transform nebulous ambitions into specific objectives. It will spell out exactly what you have to learn, what you have to do, and whom you have to work with.

A personal master plan will change your dreams into tasks. In doing so, it may lose a bit of the romance. But it will compensate for that loss by giving you the exciting, uplifting feeling of progress. As each week goes by, you will be able to see, in very concrete ways, how you are improving. This will give your spirit a great lift and make it easier for you to continue making progress.

Most people never realize their dreams. Not because they aren’t smart or shrewd or motivated enough, but because when they do make an effort it is too little and misdirected. You won’t have that problem. You have already begun your journey. And you will be using a map that has been proven.

Following a personal master plan is actually much simpler than randomly responding to a dozen separate impulses throughout your life. A master plan works because it reduces hundreds of minor and sometimes conflicting dreams and ambitions into four fundamental life goals. By simplifying your goals into four major ones, you will make it four hundred times easier to pursue and achieve them.

I’ve changed my life three times. First, in 1968, when I went from being a C student in high school to an A student in college. Second, in 1982, when I decided to get rich. And third, in 2000, when I developed and began using a personal master plan for Early to Rise.

In every case, the changes were major and the rewards were gratifying. But when I began master planning my success, the improvements came faster and easier. Were it not for the personal master plan that I developed during this time, I never would have been able to write and publish seven books. Or write, direct, and produce a feature-length film. Or write 365 poems in 365 days – all while keeping my “day job.”

Using a personal master plan will put you on a new trajectory. It will take a few weeks to get everything in order, but soon after that you will start to notice the progress you are making. And before long (certainly within two months), you’ll be amazed at how much you are accomplishing. Finally, you will be doing (and actually finishing!) projects that you have been dreaming about for years. As you knock off one objective after the next, you will feel your confidence growing, your skills strengthening, your wealth building, and your enjoyment of life increasing.

It is going to be a very good year for you: the year of your miraculous transformation!

Beware Of “Ted And Thelma Toxin”

By Craig Spencer

It’s so good for us to feed our mind and nourish our spirit by spending time with positive people in a positive environment. People who want to learn, teach, inspire others and give back. People who are making a difference, people who are happy to share what they have learned and most importantly, people who are stoked to see other people succeed. I love talking with people who have great energy, who consistently work at owning a good attitude and who always find the good. In a world which seemingly lives by the mantra of “looking after number one”, it’s kinda refreshing and motivating to meet people who live in a different place. A healthy place.

Simply being around some people can make you feel uplifted, motivated, hopeful, positive, confident and excited, just as being around other people might make you feel stressed, sad, fearful, anxious, unworthy and uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to go to the dump; the toxic dump.

Removing the toxins.

A long time ago I decided to work consciously at removing the sociological, emotional and psychological toxins from my life; toxic conversations, toxic attitudes, toxic beliefs, toxic relationships, toxic environments and of course, toxic people. We don’t need people, circumstances or situations poisoning our life or any part thereof, but that’s exactly what (some) people will do (knowingly or not) if we let them. So I choose, not.

The simple truth is that there are some nasty-ass people who seem to delight in other’s pain, misery and misfortune. They gossip, they lie, they cause trouble, they create division, they criticise and they seem to revel in melodrama and all things negative. They have a poisonous mindset and if you hang out with them long enough, you’ll become just like them. And you’ll get sick. Maybe not physically, but you will get sick.

Toxic us.

And then we have to deal with toxic us. We’ve all been poisoned in some way and to an extent, we’ve all been poisonous ourselves. We all have a little of that bright green poisonous goop flowing in our veins from time to time. We think we’re all that but the truth is we all have the ability and the potential to be toxic – in our thinking, our communication, our parenting, our relationships and in virtually evey part of our day to day life.

Before we start pointing fingers at the rest of the world for their toxic ways, we need to stand in front of the mirror for a little honest self-assessment to make sure that we’re not infecting anyone else and that we’re not killing ourselves with our own toxic thinking, habits and behaviours. Sometimes we need to step back from our life, get some perspective and identify those toxins that are:

a. Stopping us from growing and fulfilling our potential
b. Causing us to be a negative rather than a positive in the lives of others and
c. Making us sick (physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually unwell).

Once we identify those toxins we need to create and undertake our own detox program. Obviously this will mean different things for different people, but typically it might involve some or all of the following:

1. Spending less or no time with some people.

Over the years I have consciously distanced myself from certain people who I have found to be particularly toxic – even if I liked them. People with toxic attitudes, toxic habits and toxic tongues. Hanging out with people who major in minors, dwell on negatives and find fault in everything and everyone is exhausting, depressing and debilitating. This step is not always easy or practical as some of those toxic people happen to be in our life. It might mean spending only the time you absolutely have to with those people, or it might mean creating some ‘rules of engagement’. I have a few friends who know that all of our conversations have boundaries. If I see that we’re heading down the path of the meaningless, pointless, negative diatribe, I will shut the conversation down.

2. Consciously changing our self talk.

Easier said than done, but many of us need to make a concerted effort to change the way we think and talk about ourselves. When someone compliments you, simply accept their compliment and don’t talk yourself down. This is something which I have personally battled with over the years. Even to this day, part of me is uncomfortable with people paying me compliments. However, where once I would dismiss people’s kind words, I now appreciate them and receive them as I should.

3. Hanging out with different people.

Hanging out with positive people is infectious. While I have a broad cross-section of friends and colleagues who I spend time with, I also make an effort to hang out with certain people who I personally find inspiring, stimulating and exceptional at what they do. It might sound a little strategic (rather than developing a relationship naturally and spontaneously) but that’s okay, not every relationship needs to develop the ‘old-fashioned’ way. Quite often these ’strategic’ relationships turn out to be mutually beneficial life-long bonds. I have quite a few friends who I only see three or four times a year for lunch or dinner and most of our encounters prove to be stimulating, thought-provoking, motivating, positive experiences.

4. Changing environments, situations, habits or even careers.

Sometimes we find ourselves in toxic situations and it’s necessary for us to walk away. This might be something relatively minor like walking away from a potential argument, or it might be something much more significant like changing jobs or even careers. I have mentored many people who have worked in a toxic environment for far too long and when they finally made the move it was like they walked out of a dark cloud and into the sunlight. The vast majority of these people regretted not having made the move years earlier.

5. Avoiding toxic conversations.

Toxic conversations are the easiest way to get poisoned. They are pointless, they are destructive, they are frustrating and they drag us down emotionally and psychologically. They are also incredibly common and they permeate virtually every part of the human experience. Some of us have been having the same toxic conversations, with the same people about the same issues for years. Maybe we should cut that out?

So next time you find yourself heading towards a toxic moment, experience, encounter or conversation, take a sharp left, head straight to the toxic dump and don’t look back.