Yesterday Chris Knudsen and I went out to lunch. He said he had finished reading the 4 Hour Workweek on a plane a few days before and he kept thinking “This is John Jonas” as he read it.

Last night I finished reading it.

A few thoughts.

1. The stuff he says in the book is possible for anyone.
2. It’s not as easy as he makes it sound (what ever is?).
3. Making a lot of money, and then taking “mini-retirements” is VERY possible.

Read pages 166-176 where Tim gives a system for testing a product before putting up money to have it manufactured.

Basically it involves

1. Find a market
2. Find a need/product in that market
3. Put up a short sales page online
4. Put up an order page after the sales page where someone thinks they’re going to buy (but don’t collect their credit card info)
5. Advertise on Google Adwords
6. Track sales

Most people get stuck on

1. Find a product
2. Put up a sales page

Here’s how to solve them:

1. In an area you know something about (golf, scrapbooking, construction, health, diet, souping up cars, paper, …), pick a product you know people want/need. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT IT IS. Just pick something. Once you’ve done it and failed once, finding another product and succeeding the second time is much easier.
2. Write a headline, 2 sub-headlines, and about 500 words of sales copy. Then hire someone on elance.com to put it on a website for you (it’l cost you between $100-$500).

Simple.

So why am I writing this “review”? Because Tim put onto paper a bunch of ideas/thoughts I’ve had over the past years/months. Because I’m planning my first extended trip overseas right now (because of the book). Because it’s something you should read.

Because tons of people are reading this book right now but after they’re done with it, nothing changes. They just go back to their J-O-B and talk about how it would be cool if they could actually do what Tim talks about.

You Can!

PS. Please don’t come to me asking me to help you sell your idea unless:

1. You’ve already done (or are willing to do) a significant amount of work on it
2. You’re willing to give me half of your business

[tags]4 hour workweek, 4 hour work week, four hour workweek, four hour work week, timothy ferris[/tags]