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I don’t think so. I have to admit right off the bat that I haven’t read The 4-Hour Work Week, but I heard Mr. Ferris interviewed and read the book reviews and his premise just doesn’t hold water. Mr. Ferris, who describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur and utlravagabound", has written an extremely popular book that will make him wealthy and leave readers disappointed. That is if they actually believed they could learn his secrets of the 4-hour work week.
Mr. Ferris doesn’t believe in long-term retirement planning, it’s just too much work. Why not do what the super-rich do and hire out your work? The problem – unless you are super-rich how can you afford to have someone to do your work? The answer – outsource to India or some other developing or third world country. Yes, siree, Bob, you can pay someone to do your work and have all the time in the world to learn all those things you want to know and to travel to fabulous places, too.
Mr. Ferris has a nifty acronym to help you remember all you have learned: DEAL. D for Definition, E for Elimination, A for Automation and L for Liberation. The secrets to his methods are found in these four simple words. I could tell you more, but I am saving the details for my upcoming book, The Secret of the Two-Minute Book Review.
In some ways this makes sense, but what then does the country do with it’s unskilled labor, imported unskilled labor, and the unskilled labor that imported itself? There’s a lot, and you can’t just wave your hand and say go get engineering degrees.