📚 Meeting Tim Ferriss, 4-Hour Workweek Summary, and more.

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Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 10 Lessons I learned from meeting 50+ authors.

• More airports should have this “Book Your Flight” concept.

• A few amazing authors I’ve been fortunate to meet in 2025 so far.

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📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss.

His book inspired a whole generation of people to become digital nomads, solopreneurs, and start lifestyle businesses.

I read this book back in 2016–it completely blew my mind and inspired me to become an entrepreneur.

It’s now considered a classic business/productivity book (some strategies are outdated since it was first published in 2007, but many frameworks are still useful).

Here are 3 key lessons from it:

📖

1) How to Get Rid of Fear (& Do Something New)

Most people fear trying something new so much that they will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.

Tim was the same way–he would set goals and make resolutions to try new things, but was too scared to make any changes.

At the time, Tim was making $70,000 a month from his business but was working 15-hour days and completely miserable.

He dreamed of going on a vacation to a new country, but was afraid his business would collapse or worse.

Then one day, a question popped into Tim’s head:

“Why don’t I decide exactly what my nightmare would be–the worst thing that could possibly happen as a result of my trip?”

So he made a list of what could happen:

• His business could fail.

• His inventory could spoil.

• His car could get stolen.

Then he started brainstorming, if those things did happen, what would he do next?

So he came up with a plan:

• He’d sell his furniture for extra cash if needed.

• He’d cook all his meals at home to save money.

• He’d take a temporary job bartending to pay rent if he had to.

And so on.

That’s when he had the important realization that while many of those scenarios might suck temporarily, none of them were fatal.

His quality of life might drop to a 3 or 4 out of 10, but it would not be permanent.

With that realization, Tim bought a one-way ticket to Europe and went on an adventure that would change the trajectory of his life forever (for the better).

So the next time you want to do something, but are afraid, make a list of all the possible outcomes and what you’d do if those scenarios came true.

By labeling and defining your fears, you’ll realize they’re not as big or bad as they might seem, and give you the confidence to take the jump.

📖

2) How to Get 95% of the Results with 5% of the Work

Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian polymath and one of the most famous economists to have ever lived.

While studying in Switzerland, he demonstrated that 80% of the wealth in society was possessed by 20% of the population.

This would later become known as Pareto’s Law–also known as the 80/20 rule, the idea that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.

And this law applies to all areas of life:

• 80% of results come from 20% of employees.

• 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers.

• 80% of stock market gains come from 20% of stocks.

But what’s even more interesting about this law is that you can take the ratio even further and get to 90/10 or 95/5:

• 90% of the results come from 10% of the causes.

• 95% of the results come from 5% of the causes.

In fact, when Tim looked at his business, he discovered that the top 5% of his customers were bringing in 95% of the revenue!

As a result, Tim “fired” his worst customers who were causing a ton of headaches and focused only on the 5% of customers who were actually worth his time and energy.

As a result, he went from working 80 hours a week to less than 15 hours a week.

So take a moment to reflect on your own life and ask yourself, what are the 5% of activities that give me 95% of the results?

📖

3) Working Smarter > Working Harder

Tim is famous for finding ways to work smarter (he works hard as well, but he prioritizes working smarter first).

For instance, in 1999, Tim won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championship.

He wasn’t a master fighter, but he was a master at finding unexploited opportunities.

He borrowed dehydration techniques used by Olympic wrestlers to lose 28 pounds in 18 hours and then hyperhydrated back to 193 pounds, making him 3 weight classes heavier than his opponents.

He could then easily push his opponent off the platform to defeat them instead of having to fight them.

Tim also found unexploited opportunities in the business world.

When he worked in data storage sales, he would make all his calls before 8:30am or after 6pm.

Why?

That’s when the secretary or assistant wasn’t at the office, so he could talk directly to the executive instead of their gatekeeper.

As a result, he was able to book 2x as many meetings as other salespeople while also only working for 1 hour (another example of the 95/5 rule).

In any scenario, if everyone is following the same strategy, it’s hard to win the game.

But if you go in a different direction from the crowd, you might stumble upon a new way to win the game.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) To overcome your fear, make a list of all the worst possible scenarios that might happen and what you’d do if they came true:

• When you label your fear, it gets smaller and you’ll have a plan for any unlikely scenario.

2) Look at your business and life and ask yourself:

• What are the 5% of activities that produce 95% of your revenue?

• What are the 5% of activities that produce 95% of your unhappiness?

3) Avoid following the crowd–try to find a new way to win the game.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Instead of me sharing a gem I found, I’d love to hear from you.

It could be:

• A podcast that blew your mind

• A product that you absolutely love

• An app that you use every day

So reply to this email with a gem you found for me to check out.

If I love it, I’ll give you a shoutout in a future newsletter!

Your opinion matters!

Thank you for your support,

Alex W.

PS: Want to find time to read books and remember more of what you read?

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