#836: The 4-Hour Workweek Principles — 13 Mistakes to Avoid, The Art of Mini-Retirements, and Navigating the Dizziness of Freedom

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.6 • 17.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This time around, we have a bit of a different format, featuring the book that started it all for me, The 4-Hour Workweek. Readers and listeners often ask me what I would change or update, but an equally interesting question is: what wouldn’t I change? What stands the test of time and hasn’t lost any potency? This episode features three of the most important chapters from the audiobook of The 4-Hour Workweek. The audiobook, produced and copyrighted by Blackstone Publishing, is available wherever audiobooks are sold. You can find it on Audible, Apple, Google, Spotify, Downpour.com, or wherever you get your favorite audiobooks.

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TIMESTAMPS

[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:31] Mini-retirements: embracing the mobile lifestyle.
[00:09:22] The birth of mini-retirements and the death of vacations.
[00:11:03] The alternative to binge traveling.
[00:16:14] Purging the demons: emotional freedom.
[00:18:43] The financial realities: it just gets better.
[00:24:24] Fear factors: overcoming excuses not to travel.
[00:30:08] When more is less: cutting the clutter.
[00:39:29] The Bora-Bora dealmaker.
[00:43:11] Questions and actions.
[00:44:22] Take an asset and cash-flow snapshot.
[00:45:02] Fear-set a one-year mini-retirement in a dream location in Europe.
[00:48:38] Prepare for your trip.
[00:59:42] Adding life after subtracting work.
[01:01:51] Depression and boredom: it's normal.
[01:05:31] Frustrations and doubts: you're not alone.
[01:12:01] The point of it all.
[01:13:37] Learning unlimited: sharpening the saw.
[01:17:24] Service for the right reasons.
[01:20:05] Questions and actions.
[01:22:46] Make an anonymous donation to the service organization of your choice.
[01:24:05] Take a learning mini-retirement in combination with local volunteering.
[01:28:42] The top 13 new rich mistakes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show. This time around, we have a
0:08.1	different experimental format featuring the book that started it all for me, the four-hour work week.
0:14.0	And even though it was published in 2007, it was one of Amazon's top 10 most highlighted books of all time.
0:23.1	Last I checked around 2017.
0:30.3	So this is a bit of a foreshadowing of a point I want to make. A lot of people, readers and listeners, ask me what I would change or update in the four-hour work week or in other books,
0:34.6	but especially the four-hour work week. An equally interesting question,
0:38.9	I think a very compelling question, is what wouldn't I change? What stands the test of time
0:43.8	and hasn't lost any potency? What would I absolutely not touch? And perhaps there are a few
0:50.7	minor tweaks here and there, but by and large, what has stood the test of time for almost 20
0:55.5	years. This episode features three timeless chapters from the audiobook of the four-hour work
1:00.0	week, a chapter on taking many retirements, which challenges everything about the deferred
1:04.8	life plan, the slave save retire approach, and shows you how to distribute adventure and retirement throughout life
1:13.0	instead of saving it all for the end. The chapter titled Filling the Void, which addresses
1:18.9	navigating the dizziness of freedom and handling unexpected emotional and philosophical challenges
1:26.6	that you can run into, not just after reading the four-hour work week, but if you are an entrepreneur of any type, really, but especially one following the tenets of lifestyle design.
1:36.6	And last but not least, the 13 mistakes of the new rich, where I outline the most common pitfalls I've seen in people encounter, stumble over when
1:46.2	implementing the book's principles. These are all narrated by the great voice actor Ray Porter,
1:51.3	and if you are interested in checking out the rest of the audiobook, which is produced and
1:55.0	copyrighted by Blackstone Publishing, you can find it on audible, Apple, Google, Spotify,
1:59.8	downpore.com, or wherever you find your favorite
2:02.0	audiobooks until the next long form interview please enjoy optimal at this altitude i can run flat
2:10.3	out for a half mile before my hands start shaking can i answer your personal question now we'll
	...

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