In What I learned from The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, I shared what I learned about the book. It is a very educational book that gives you the incentive to be more effective and make more of your available time. But who is Timothy Ferriss? How did he get to where he is today? What distinguishes him? We would like to explain this and much more in this blog post in our first series of author introductions. We would like to take a closer look at his life and show his beginnings up to where he is today.

In this author introduction we will show the following topics:

• The Life
• Works
• Awards
• The 4-hour work week

The Life

Let’s start from the very beginning. Timothy Ferriss or simply “Tim” was born and raised on July 20, 1977, in East Hampton, a beautiful idyllic village in New York, USA. East Hampton belongs to a popular tourist destination in the USA and is located about 104 miles (167.37 km) from New York City thus, depending on traffic conditions, should be reachable by car from there in 3 hours. After graduating from St. Paul’s School (New Hampshire), Tim studied at Princeton University, earning his degree in East Asian Studies in 2000. Princeton University is located in the city of Princeton in the state of New Jersey and is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. East Asian Studies as a major provides knowledge of economics, society, politics, language, literature, history, and/or geography from the countries of China, Japan, and Korea, depending on the major.

After Timothy graduated from Princeton University, he first worked for a data storage company in sales. In 2001, he founded BrainQUICKEN, an internet-based nutritional supplements company, which he ran alongside his day job at the data storage company. We know that even before he founded the company he was dissatisfied with his main job. It was unacceptable for him to see how avoidable professional processes reduce productivity, and he was also unhappy with the salary and the daily work routine in a 9 to 5 job environment.

Not taking risks

Tim didn’t just quit his day-to-day job because he was dissatisfied with the situation to build something new, something of his own. No, he continued his job in the data storage company as normal and used every free minute after work or even on weekends to build up an internet-based nutritional supplement company called BrainQUICKEN. BrainQuicken was marketed as the world’s first neural enhancer designed to improve mental and athletic performance. Soon, Tim was earning over $40,000 per month with his built internet-based business. The genius of it was that the business model was running on the fly and all processes were automated. From ordering to delivery to the customer. However, we can see that it takes a lot of time and effort in the beginning, from setting up the company to marketing it.

The point is that it is not about taking a high risk. Build something that you can build on the side. Invest your time, even if it takes up all your free time at first. Be passionate about it. That’s what entrepreneurship is all about.

Later on, Tim sold his company to a London-based company in 2010 after it was successful in the market and generated enough revenue. Later Tim stated that his most successful book, the 4-hour work week was based on this period.

A successful entrepreneur, Tim participates as an investor for startups and advisors and is also referred to as one of the world’s leading angel investors in technology.

Works

Tim has released five books over the course of his career, all centered around the theme of life hacks, life improvement, productivity, and life.

The following books have been published so far:

The 4-hour Workweek 

Publication date: November 18, 2009

Escape the 9-5, forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred life plan. This book is for anyone who wants more out of life.

The 4-Hour Body

Publication date: December 14, 2010

Tim describes this book as a guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman.

The 4-Hour Chef

Publication date: November 20, 2012

This book is all about cooking like a pro. Learn everything you can think of and live the good life.

Tools of Titans 

Publication date: December 6, 2016

The tactics, tools, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers. Experience and learn from the best and how they made it this far.

Tribe of Mentors

Release date: November 21, 2017

This is short life advice from the best in the world.

Awards

Tim is a self-made millionaire. He is considered among the most influential personalities. Tim has made a brand out of his name. Accordingly, he has received awards over the years. Among others, in 2012 he was listed in Newsweek’s Digital Power Index 100 as the seventh most influential online personality. In 2008, he won Wired Magazine’s “Greatest self Promoter of all time” award and was named one of the “Most Innovative Business People of 2007” by Fast Company.

Ferriss holds the world record for the most consecutive tango turns in one minute.

Timothy Ferriss guiding principle is always to work smarter not harder. In 1999 Tim won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships. He did not win the medal because he was good at kickboxing. He had never really done kickboxing before. No, rather the opposite. He understood how to study the rulebook and therefore found two loopholes that he made to his advantage. In his book the 4-hour work week, Tim explained how he did it.

1. the weigh-in took place the day before the competition. He used dehydration techniques to lose 28 pounds (12.7 kg) in 18 hours. As a result, he weighed 165 pounds (74.84 kg) at the weigh-in. Before the actual competition, he regained his original weight to 193 pounds (87.54 kg) through hyperhydration. It is hard to fight someone who is several weight classes higher.

2. in small print, there was a technicality that Tim turned to his advantage. If a fighter fell from the elevated platform three times in a single round, his opponent automatically won as a result. Tim decided to exploit this technique and used this tactic throughout the competition to push his opponents off the platform.

The result? Timothy Ferris won all of his matches by Technical Knock-Out and went home as the National Champion in the Chinese Kickboxing Championship.

The 4-hour work week

Timothy Ferriss was unknown for a long time, while he was working in the sales department of a data storage company and building up his company BrainQUICKEN on the side. He first gained real notoriety with his most successful book to date, The 4-Hour Workweek, which has sold over 2.1 million copies, been translated into over 40 languages, and spent four years on the New York Times bestseller list.

In the article What I learned from The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, I wrote about what I learned from the book. In his book, Tim explains in detail about his time, how he escaped the 9-5 principle, successfully built his business, how to get more out of your everyday time, and how it can give you the motivation to strive for a similar goal. But even if you are happy with your current situation and job, the book is also great if you just want to get more out of your day.

Today Timothy Ferriss is a successful entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru.

Recommendation: What I learned from The 4-Hour Work Week