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There's a difference between the “four-hour work week” and magic. You can create revenue in a short week. You can't create magic.
Magic is what we all want to create with our work. Most of us love our work. It gives us purpose and satisfaction. And yes, we'd love a “three-month” paid vacation—or just any vacation at all. And that's the goal. The goal is to work hard, but to also have a great time. |
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I don't mow the lawns. I outsource it.
I don't do my accounts. It's what keeps my accountant in business. I bake my own bread, cook my own food, but at least half of the time it's all outsourced. In fact, when I think about it, a good chunk of my life is outsourced.
I don't build my own computers, code my own programs, generate my own electricity. I didn't even bother to weave my own carpet.
So yes, you could safely say that outsourcing is a good part of my life.
What I don't outsource is magic
It's magical to write my own articles. Do my own books. Draw my own cartoons. Answer my own email.
When I think about those who keep yearning for a “four-hour” work week, I find it incredibly weird and unsettling. I think of Leonardo da Vinci spending only four hours a week, painting. I think of Michelangelo goofing off on David and just putting in the least amount of time.
I think of the wine I drink and how it would taste if the wine maker decided not to put in 50-60 hours a week. I remember the movies that moved me, the food that tantalised my taste buds, the books that have elevated my senses. I think of all the magic the world has seen, felt and experienced over the years and a “four hour” workweek makes zero-sense to me.
You can create money in four hours
You can't create magic. Money isn't magic. It may seem that way, when you're slogging in a job that you have no control over. A life that seems to pull and push you in all directions. At that point, money and magic may seem like one and the same thing. And yet it's not.
Work is magic
Work well done, is something we all yearn for. And try as you may, you can't outsource the important stuff in life. So when some internet marketer comes along and tells you that a four-hour work week is magical, they're just equating work with money. That somehow you could work for four hours in a week, and make all the money and you'd be happy.
I can assure you that you'd be happy for a while, but then you'd seek magic.
And magic yup, that takes a lot more time and effort.
I wake up at 4 am every day and have done so for many years
I don't have to wake up. We've done well over the years. We have a business which attracts really phenomenal customers. Some of them have been with us for over 12 years (considering we're Internet-based, that's like a hundred years).
Our workshops are always full. Our courses often sell out in an hour or so sometimes 20 minutes. We've banked enough, own enough, travel three months in a year. Truly speaking, if we were to stop working now, we could go for at least another 20-30 years, living our comfortable lifestyle.
So why wake up at 4 am?
Why put in 99 cartoons in a book when people are happy to just buy text? Why bother to re-write, re-engineer our courses by 20-30% every year? It's all extra work, isn't it? More hours in a day, month and year that seems to slip by increasingly faster.
The answer lies in magic
You can outsource some stuff, and you should. But to create the Mona Lisa, David and some fine wine yup, that's going to take a chunky 50-60 hours a week. Get used to it!
Oh my goodness!! Incredibly
shockingrefreshing like a cool, mountain spring infusing life into a worn and weary, somewhat jaded IM traveler. Thank you Sean for refusing to follow the herd just because….You’re welcome 🙂
I’m right there with you Sean,
I don’t agree 100% with the four hour work week at all. A lot of people believe that’s exactly what the book teaches, how to live on a four hour per week business when it’s way more complex than that.
I believe that’s just how it was marketed though but to each their own.
Really enjoyed your podcast, just subscribed and will be listening to the rest of the podcasts over the next days.
Sergio Felix
True, but when you listen to the “three month vacation”, that’s 100% accurate. The four hour week was never, ever accurate.
Not for a second.
Sure it’s a great book title, famous more for what it promises than delivers. Long live hype, I guess.
Moved to happy tears… realizing that it’s the joy I feel when I really create something magical that makes the extra time worth it. Sean has a gift for capturing the essence of “why” in every situation. Bravo!
Thanks Debbie 🙂
I’m 70. I am living an excellent life, filled with magic. I do not have a 401k, a retirement plan, or great piles of money in the bank. I have a small SS stipend and the TIME I need and want to work on my magic. I have a few clients, by choice, because I can decide the kind of magic I enjoy most. So every day is exciting, an anticipation worth experiencing in real time.
In my work career, I had a client (Focus Four) who was also a teacher for me. We worked on how to choose your preferred future, determine your roadblocks, develop plans to overcome them, and reach your goals. We used our business as our benefactor. Leonardo had benefactors; Amadeus had benefactors. Our business can be our benefactor if we make it so.
So, Sean, I have a strong bond to your message and heartily endorse it. Looking forward to the next ‘cast.
To magic, Randy 🙂
Sean,
Thank you for sharing your magic with us! I admire your writing and storytelling mastery and I hope I’ll be able to reach that level one day. 🙂
On the topic, thanks for putting this out there. I thought I was one of the 3 people who disagreed with this book. After I read it, it felt like a bunch of hacks that I was supposed to employ and… Get what?
Granted, I’ve always wanted to be the master of my time and I am, but I think an endless vacation will just not feel like a vacation. Because there is nothing to contrast it with and, like you said, there would be no purpose.
That’s the problem, Gerry. We’re supposed to accept the madness of the crowd, even if something is not possible. Or ever possible in the first place.
Stand your ground. It’s important to live the life YOU want.
Very interesting perspective Sean!
I too find the title “Four Hour Workweek” unsettling along with some of the tips given in the book, particularly when it comes to outsourcing so many aspects of your job. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself even if I could somehow whittle my workweek down to four hours.
I believe that there are some very good lessons in the book, however- especially as it relates to his more “big picture” philosophy of shifting our focus from end-of-life “macro” retirements to more frequent mini-retirements as well as the whole notion of creating “lifestyle businesses.”
There are good lessons in every book. What can I say? After reading how he “won his bout” by using some weird techniques and pushing someone out of the ring, I couldn’t trust him to be honest with anything else. I’m sure Tim is very smart. But it’s hard to believe someone who only works with results in mind, no matter what the means.
There are lessons, indeed. But he’s also a master of “rebranding to suit his purpose”. Learning to cook, for instance is not work, but something he does for leisure. Well, any learning can be considered leisure. But if you said “learning to become a master at copywriting” or “article writing”, you might consider it work. So there’s a lot of “I’m not really working, I’m having fun”. I have fun doing what I call work. When I’m on vacation, I don’t work. It’s that simple. There’s no fuzzy branding involved. No ambiguity.
Sean,
I have started listening to your free podcasts and they are quite valuable as I plan to deliver courses as a trainer. I also have your brain audit course which I will go through in earnest. you make the learning fun , practical and very easy to apply in our life. Now I trust your products to deliver on the promise. Having worked in Mumbai I can also relate to lot of your experince.
Ganesh
Thanks Ganesh 😉
Sean,
thanks for the podcasts I can’t express how much I appreciate the work you invested into it.
I found your website about a weeks ago, already listened 25 of the episodes, read your bonus study on the headlines, I bought your book The Brain Audit, and read it within 3 days, and I am blown away!
This is exactly what I was looking for, the missing piece of my puzzle!
Thank You!
Gábor
PS. Isn’t it ironic how I got here, it started with a book, I read few years ago. Guess what book… The 4 Hour workweek.