Utter these words in any work place around the world and you’ve likely just set up an appointment for yourself with the staff psychiatrist, who may diagnose you with a possible brain tumor considering your outlandish remarks.
Anytime you get a group of people together that are 25+ years of age and the conversation of work arises, all it takes is for one person to mention the R-word (RETIREMENT) and the conversation suddenly veers to flights of fancy of what their magical world would look like if they were to stop working today. What would they do? How would they spend their extra time? And most importantly: How many times would they flip off their boss on the way out?
The rat race population has been living within this day dream since the 50s. Sitting at our desks, sipping our third cup of coffee before 11am, and periodically closing our eyes to look at the perpetual retirement countdown clock we’ve all installed on the inside of our eyelids. The clock also comes with two by-products; the reasons why we’ll come back to work tomorrow, and the reasons why its not okay to strangle a co-worker.
Maybe its just our generation, X, Y, DD or whatever other nickname some middle aged journalist has decided to dub us non-Baby Boomers. And couldn’t they have called the Baby Boomer Generation something more exciting. Like the nymphomaniac generation, or the generation of married couples that actually had sex. I think sticking with the term “Baby Boomers” was just boring and lazy. Just because there’s alliteration, doesn’t make it cool.
Past generations have raised us with the same ideals that were set forth at the turn of the industrial revolution. Find a job with any company, stick with that company for 30-40 years, then pull the pin, cash out your chips, and start babysitting your grand children and wintering in Florida (because its better for your now flaring arthritis and stiff joints). Its become evident to me that a lot of these Baby Boomers when R-time comes are either bored out of their minds or are too unhealthy to enjoy the fruits of their labours. Obviously this is not a universal truth but the case holds true in enough instances to hold ground.
Fortunately, for those of us bored to death with the tradition of working in a cubicle farm or selling anything insurance related, we have a new leader that’s started a wave of change. His mantra is as frustrating as it is inspiring because once you get a taste of his ideals, the next time you have to “ask” for some vacation time it will boil your blood. I’m referring to Timothy Ferriss, who is the author of the Wall Street Journal, and New York Times best selling book called The 4 Hour Work Week.
Tim describes a specific category of people as the Living Dead. The traditional idea of spending 30 years in a job you don’t really like, with people you’re none too fond of, just to make enough money to buy a bunch of things you don’t really need. His ultimate comparison is “the fat man in the red convertible”. This fat man has all the money in the world, but no real time to spend it on anything that will improve his life, so in the end he’s left with nothing but a bunch of depreciating toys.
There are some new ideas that come along with being part of the New Rich:
- Inactivity is NOT the goal. Doing that which excited you is.
- The goal is to do all the things you want to do and be all the things you want to be
- To think big but to ensure payday comes everyday. Cash flow FIRST, big payday SECOND.
Each step in this new direction begins with the same concept: replacing assumptions. I hear so many people say, I hate my job, I hate what I’m doing, I need something different… but nothing changes. Everyone thinks to make a change it has to be huge and grandiose like Hollywood leads us to believe, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. It could be as simple as taking a night class, or trying your hand at a new part-time business. Its taking a step forward, even a small step, opposed to tuning into Lindsay Lohan’s latest booze infused disaster.
In the book there is a line that’s managed to etch itself into my brain. It goes along with Tim’s view that living in pure hell is the best state someone can be. “Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization to last forever”. The bare truth of that can be a pretty scary thing.
As I don’t believe I could ever do this book enough justice on my own, I have found a way to have the author help me out.
In the links below I’ve provided all of you with a hour long interview with the author Timothy Ferris as he goes into detail regarding the contents of the 4 Hour Work Week and the story of how at 30 years of age, he’s making $40,000 a month selling a dietary supplement online, he’s won a World Kickboxing Championship in Asia, and spent 15 months traveling the world, all the while making more money than when he was working 80 hours a week.
Tim’s main premise is to not save life all for the end. There is every reason not to.
The first link will allow you to download the entire audio file so you can burn it onto a CD to listen to in your car, or do what I did and toss it on your iPod and listen to it whenever you have the time.
The second link is a streaming audio file you should be able to listen to via your browser. I use Firefox, so if there’s trouble with IE. Let me know.
Full download – http://www.perfectlyturbulent.com/4HourWorkWeekInterview.zip
Streaming audio – http://www.perfectlyturbulent.com/4hourworkweek
And if you happen to like the interview, you might as well buy the book.
Its $15.00
Seriously, what’s the worst that could happen?
Have a great week everyone.
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