4 Hour Work Week
Tim Ferris
Summary
How to automate your life
Rating: 4/5
Notes
DEAL: definition, elimination, automation, liberation
‘Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one - Albert Einstein
If you can free time and location, your money is worth 3-10 times as much
Everything popular is wrong
Different is better when it is more effective or more fun
Refinement is worst-case
Interest and energy are cyclical
Focus on being productive instead of busy
Ask for forgiveness, not permission
Top new rich make 5k for an hour of work
Define your nightmare outcomes in a positive scenario and what you’re scared off
What we fear doing most is what we most need to do
Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic
Fail better. Contacts celebs and investors to get advice from those at the top
Send 2-3 paragraph email and one simple but thought provoking question
The most important actions are never comfortable
Apply the 80/20 principle to all aspects of your life
Doing less is the path of the productive
Parkinson’s law: the task will happen in relation to the time given
‘If this is the only thing I accomplish w/ my day, will be satisfied with my day?
Reading after a certain age diverts the mind too much from creative prospects. Any man who reads too much and uses his brain too little falls into the lazy habit of thinking - Einstein
Problems solve themselves if you remove yourself from the info bottleneck/disappear
Do a 1 week media binge and go cold turkey
Develop the habit of non finishing
Batch your time. Define set times to do tasks
Give employees responsibility to make their own judgements
People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves
Eliminate stories. Get to the point.
Use evernote for notes and all paper, take picture to eliminate it
Build a system to replace yourself
For virtual assistants, do per task costs
Change passwords for virtual assistants
Schedule emails to go out
Make the entire operation automatic
Contact outsourcing companies instead of individual freelancers
Offer a performance guarantee
Fortune favours the bold
If you can’t define it or act upon it, forget it
Improve the world however you want, not what people think
Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time
There are no statues erected for critics
***
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
***
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Free E-book download here
