I think a lot. And I was raised to believe a lot of concepts and paradigms that didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. I never really dared say it out loud but I was always a little doubtful about various social constructs and the nature of working life. Then, one day, quite by chance, I came across a book – The Four Hour Work Week – a title which instantly appealed to me, because I was one of the living dead who didn’t want to waste his life working.

When I read The Four Hour Work Week, my life changed.If nothing else, it was proof of one thing: there was another human being in the world that thought the same way I did. And, further, he’d actually gone out and proved it. When I finished the book, I knew I was not deluded. I was simply a minority thinker.

I’ve always wondered whether quoting books in a blog is legal, because isn’t the book content copyrighted? But Tim does it all the time on his own blog, so I’m sure he won’t mind me doing it here. The parts in bold are in my opinion the real gems and parts I agree with the most.

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 – they 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 millionare lifestyle of complete freedom without first having a million dollars?”

In the last five years, I have answered this question for myself. I will show you exactly how I 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 a year to 4 hour weeks and $40 000 a month?

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

In 2002, I was asked to speak at Princeton University about my business adventures in the real world. I was stuck. There were already decamillionaires speaking to the same class, and even though I had built a highly profitable sports supplement company, I marched to a distinctly different drummer.

Over the ensuing days, however, I 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 nobody seemed to be asking 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 lecture I ultimately developed began with a simple premise: to test the most basic assumptions of the work-life equation.

• How do your decisions change if retirement is not an option?
• Is it really necessary to work like a slave to live like a millionaire?

Little did I know where such 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 tell you how to seize the options others do not.

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 the most common and most insidious.

Less Is Not Laziness

Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance is NOT laziness. This is hard for most to accept, because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.

The new edition of The Four Hour Work Week is now available from Amazon.com. If you’re interested in buying, please use the link in this paragraph. Thank you! If you’re in the UK, click here. If you’re from the US, click here.