Why The 4-Hour Workweek Ruined A Generation

A whole generation chased the dream of working less and earning more, and it left a lot of people confused about what real progress actually looks like. The idea of shortcuts and hacks sounds tempting when you’re tired of grinding, but deep down you know something feels off when the promise of easy success doesn’t match your reality.

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  Before our work week, one of the most influential business books of all time, but it low-key ruined a generation. It's not because the book is bad. It's pretty good, actually. It's brilliant. It's because an entire generation, a generation I'm a part of, totally misunderstood this whole book. People read The Four Hour Part and thought, "Hard work is for suckers," that there's some sort of hack to this success thing. The funny thing is, is that Tim Ferriss himself admitted it on his own podcast several times, that he works very hard and that the whole point of the book was not to avoid hard work, but to 10x your output. So how do we make sense of this book? How do we get the most out of this book? Let's go inside and figure it out.

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  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

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  I want to get something straight. I'm not here to trash Tim Ferriss today. All right? Tim Ferriss is an absolutely brilliant author, entrepreneur. He is an absolute goat. I read this book back in 2007 when it came out. 2007, guys, you know? In a lot of ways, he legitimized online entrepreneurship. Beforehand, online business was almost seen as scammy, almost risky for people to take on. But vividly remembering reading this book in, probably in two days, I zoomed through it. It blew my mind wide open. But having said all that, many people read this book, people that I've met personally, totally misunderstood it. So much so, like I mentioned, Tim mentions in his own podcast several times that a lot

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  of people think that this book is about not working hard, but it's actually the opposite. Tim works incredible hours and works very hard on his business and all the wonderful books he writes. But I'm here to tell you why it doesn't work, why this mentality doesn't work, this idea of, "Well, if it's hard," a lot of people believe that, "if my business is hard, then I must have not found the hack. There's something that must be easier around the corner that I just haven't discovered yet." So to reiterate, the problem is not Tim Ferriss's book, okay? It's the interpretation. It's the culture around this book that has manifested that says, "Work is supposed to be easy, not hard." It's actually opposite. Anything that's worth anything is hard, and that's what differentiates you from the other people.

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  You're willing to do what's hard to get what you want. And when I say a generation, I'm not like poo-pooing young people, a lot of brilliant, hard-working young people out there, but it's a mentality. It's this idea that there must be a shortcut, there must be a hack, there must be a way to do this. And you know what I'm talking about. There's so many of these things that pop up constantly in the world of business, and it just re-manifests itself in different forms. It used to be dropshipping, then it became passive income, then it was automation, then crypto came around, then it was NFTs, and now it's AI. It's all the same fantasy. It's this belief that somewhere, there is this button that I can press that gives me maximum results with minimum effort.

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  And I literally have heard people say that hard work is for suckers, okay? That hard work is for those who don't know how to work smarter. Well, there is such a thing as working smarter, but people that work smarter still work hard so that they have an advantage, right? The advantage is the smart part, but they're still working hard so that they can outbeat their competition. And to Tim's credit, this is where he focused in the book, how to outsource people's talents, how to leverage other people's time, how to make sure that you are getting the most out of your money, too. Like he talked about, you know, you can live in a different country and, you know, pay $5 for a meal rather than $50, and so on and so forth. And obviously, this is 2007 when the book was written, so economics are different.

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  But the point here that he was trying to make is that, listen, you can give yourself a head start in business and life if you work a little smarter while working harder. Now, here's the kicker. Yes, the book is called The Four Hour Work Week, but it doesn't mean you have to work four hours. It just means you can work four hours if you wanted to as a bare minimum. Now, you might be asking, Omar, so what happens if I work hard? What if it never pans out? What if I don't make it if I work hard? That's why I look for shortcuts. That's why I look for the hack. That's why I look for an easier way to get around and get to success faster. Okay? Let me show you what happens when you try to hack your way through success. Let's go to the whiteboard and figure this one out. So I call this the hard work compound curve, right?

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  On the Y-axis, we have success, whatever you define success to be, money, accomplishment, impact, whatever that might be. And then on the X-axis here, we have time, and I have like just chronological age, like 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, as you go through life, all right? We're going to give an example of the hacker, what I call the hack hunter. So the hack hunter, all right? So what does this person's trajectory look like throughout their life? So they find a hack, let's call it dropshipping, right? And it works for a bit, but then it doesn't. So they go back down. And then, for example, they find another hack, and they go up a little bit, then they go back down. And then they find another hack, but that does short-lived, they go back down, and

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  another hack, and another hack, and another hack, and another hack. All these hacks have a shelf life, and the problem with these hacks is that they don't actually build any skills that compound, that allow them to build upon these skills and be able to leverage those skills into building something of value, an asset, a business, okay? And then this just keeps going on their whole life. And a lot of times, what happens is they just give up because they're sick of failing and not being, and having to start over and over and over every single time, and they just kind of fizzle out and they just forget about this dream called business, okay? But let's look at another example. Look at the hard worker instead. Hard worker, okay? Now, hard worker, yes, they're working smarter, but they're also working harder.

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  This person, they're not getting a lot of success in the beginning. They're still figuring things out. They're still a beginner. They're not kind of getting it yet. You know, they might screw up, but then they learn a little bit from that screw up, and they just have this like slow, steady growth. They're getting to their 50s and their 40s. Wow, I'm making a bit of money now. People recognize me. My reputation has started to grow. People understand. And as you start to go, their skills start to compound, and they're able to leverage those skills to have more and more success throughout their life. As you could see, maybe the hacker had a bit of success in the beginning, but then they dropped down again, they dropped down again, and eventually, what happens, somewhere around 40, 45, which is around my age, I'm 46, you start to outpace, you start to beat

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  the hacker, you start to realize, you leave them in the dust, really. You're so far ahead because you're able to learn from your failures, build upon those skills, take those skills, monetize them, build a business, build assets, sell those businesses, make some money, and reach whatever success you're looking for. That's the hard work compound curve. Today's episode is supported by iXL Learning. Lessons move quickly this time of year, and iXL aligns with what kids are learning in school so they can practice the same concepts they're covering in class and keep pace with confidence. iXL is an award-winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning, whether they're building math confidence, strengthening reading and writing skills, or reviewing science concepts.

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  So as you saw on the whiteboard, those who spent their twenties and thirties hunting for hacks, they didn't just waste time. They wasted the most powerful years of their entire life, okay? In your twenties, in your thirties, you're at full force. You have full energy, your physical energy, your mental energy, you could stay up all night, I mean, you could stay up all night and party, right? And get up the next day with minimal sleep, you could do the same thing with hard work, okay? You have a lot of time. You have a lot more free time. Why? Because you have less responsibilities. As you get older, in your thirties, forties, fifties, you're gonna have more responsibilities, whether it's kids, whether it's aging parents, whether you're getting older and you need to deal with your own health ailments. So you have less things to worry about in your younger years.

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  And this is why I really believe that it's criminal, in my opinion, to waste your twenties and thirties, you know, messing around and not investing in your skills and working hard as much as possible. Now, I'm not saying you have to like have no life, but you have to recognize the fact that this is a valuable time that you will never get back. If you're in your twenties and thirties right now, this is the exact time to work as hard as humanly possible. When I was in my twenties, I was from 20 to 32, I was an educator. I was a school teacher and then I was a chair department at the university I worked at. I was working crazy hours, not only because I wanted to get promoted and do well in my

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  job, but I recognized the fact that I need to learn as fast as possible so that I can get better and better, because I don't know how much time I will have with this kind of energy, with this least amount of responsibilities possible. And no matter how much responsibility you have in your twenties or thirties, it's gonna get more and more complicated as you get older. Then, when I left teaching, I'm at 32, and went full-time in entrepreneurship, literally working 15, 16 hours a day. Now, listen, I'm not promoting this idea of like just completely working till you can't live anymore or your eyeballs bleed. Work as hard as humanly healthy possible, okay? If that makes any sense.

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  But the point here is that I really prioritize my time to learn and grow at that point in time in my life, because I knew it's a limited amount of time. I can always have fun, have vacations, have nice cars, have a nice home, have all that kind of stuff later in life. I don't need to have a lot of energy to enjoy those things, all right? But in my thirties, I really focused on building my skills as an entrepreneur, building my businesses, failing a ton and learning through the process, building my network, building my reputation, understanding that, hey, whatever I do now, I'll get to reap the benefits of that, you know, those seeds I was planting. You know, I'll harvest what I was able to grow in my forties and beyond.

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  And that's exactly what happened. So please, stop, stop wasting this precious time when you have this full power and full capacity. You will never get it back. That's a fact. Hey, if this episode's hitting a nerve, thank you. I hope so. That's what I want. I want you to also subscribe to the show, because we have an upcoming episode I don't want you to miss. It's called "AI is Killing Agencies." And this is a really close-to-the-grain episode, because a lot of my close friends have reached out to me personally on phone calls, on Zoom calls, through text message, saying, hey, my business is hitting rock bottom. I'm about to go out of business because of AI, and they run agencies, whether it's marketing agencies, design agencies, you name it.

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  So I'm gonna talk about this problem and how agencies can reinvent themselves to bounce back and be better than ever. So hit subscribe so you don't miss it. Now, I gotta talk about the elephant in the room. The irony of this whole episode, okay, is that I worked a ton in the last 20 years to get to this point in my career as an entrepreneur. Now that I run my media company, The Hunter on BNA, sold my software company, Webinar Ninja, where I was literally working 12, 15, 16-hour days to build the best software company, because it's crazy competitive in software, and I had no time to rest, because I was trying to build as valuable as a company as possible, so I can sell this company, which happened, and be able to not worry about money ever again, which luckily, we're able to do.

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  So the reason why I'm saying the irony is because now I have a business and a life that gives me a ton of flexibility. If I'm being completely honest, I don't really need to work more than four hours a day. Most of the work I have to do is show up in front of the camera and deliver these episodes. You know, we're building this team around us to help me just do what I need to do, what I like to do, my secret sauce, which is teach. And that's really what I like to focus on. Nicole and I love to travel into different parts of the world, but also, I like to travel for work and speak on stages. So I have a lot of flexibility, but that didn't happen by accident. That happened because I invested in myself and I was able to build a business that has the kind of margins that it has now, where I can hire some help, I can hire a team, where

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  I can expand different roles and take things off my plate. That doesn't happen because I got lucky or I found a hack. That happened because I worked hard, I built an asset, I was able to sell that asset, make a ton of money, that I can then reinvest and build another business with, and do things a little bit more comfortably. So my mission in life is not to work hard forever. My mission in life was to be able to build enough assets, enough success in my background, so that when I built something in the future, I could have a little bit of an easier life. I did this on purpose, because I know that in my forties and in my fifties and in my sixties, I will not have the same energy as I had when I was younger. And that's the truth. The truth is that like, you know, when we get approached by partners or by affiliates

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  or whatever it might be, I just don't have the energy to do what they're asking you to do if the numbers are not right, if the money's not right. So I built a system so that I can protect my time and energy, and I can understand that, hey, I have a higher value now, because my time is very expensive. It was a little bit cheaper when I was younger, because I had nothing but time and no money. But now, it's sort of the opposite. So now I can have a little bit more choice and a little bit more autonomy. The crazy thing is, is that even though I don't have to work more than four hours a day, I tend to enjoy work beyond that. You know, we've had some long days this week, because I love what we do. I love building a team. I love being able to train new people to come in. I love being able to present and do workshops and all that kind of stuff. It's fun to me.

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  And if I can continue to have fun, I don't mind doing it. But if there's things I don't like to do, or things that I don't enjoy, or I don't feel like I'm making an impact with, that's something I need to outsource. That's something that somebody else can do, or I just cut out altogether, not worth doing. And you need to build to get to that position. And in order to do that, it's gonna take a bit of hard work and a bit of sacrifice. I know it's easy for me to say, looking back, but I remember very clearly what life was like when I was grinding it out. So what should you take away from this book, The Four Hour Work Week? Well, it's certainly not to avoid hard work. It's actually the exact opposite. Stop avoiding hard work, because hard work is your single biggest differentiator.

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  Here's why. Most people won't do it. A lot of people ask me, Omar, how you have all the success with this podcast, you know? You have millions of downloads every month and da-da-da-da-da. And my answer to them surprises them. I say, hey, I've been doing this for 12 years. If I wasn't successful, there'd been something seriously wrong with me. So sometimes you just have to keep going, work hard, and out hustle, I know the word hustle is very tainted, but out hustle your competition. And that's really a big differentiator. Most people won't do that. Most people will give up. Most people don't have the longevity. Most people don't enjoy what they do enough for them to keep going. So most people are looking for the hack. Most people are looking for a shortcut. They're looking for an easy way.

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  And my true belief is people that do that, they don't really love business. They don't really love entrepreneurship. Because at the end of the day, I just love the game of business. I just love the challenge. I just love learning from failure and bouncing back and experimenting and figuring things out. And then, hey, that worked. Let's try more of that. That whole thing has nothing to do with dollars, has nothing to do with success or accolades. It has a lot to do with the journey of business, of the actual enjoyment. It's like playing a video game, and I actually want to do an episode on this, like Treat Your Business Like a Video Game. But if you play a video game and you beat the game, you go through all the levels, right? What do you do if you really love the game? You play it again, because you just love the journey, okay?

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  Even if you know the story, you know the arc, and you know everything's gonna happen, you still enjoy the actual game. And that's the same thing with real, true entrepreneurs. There are people that just love the game, so even when they build a business and sell it, they want to start a new business, because they just love the journey. And you have to start falling in love with that, falling in love with the hard work, and see yourself as somebody that, hey, no matter what happens, at least I'm in the arena. At least I'm doing this thing. I'm one of those people that gets to be an entrepreneur. So again, your willingness to go through what others won't and refuse to go through is your competitive advantage. And the book's real lesson is never escape work, but to understand what you're capable of with limited resources.

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  He was really a maximizer of resources, and that's what Tim Ferriss was really focusing on. It's like, hey, even if you have limited resources, little money, limited time, you could still do a lot. And I love that message. And I want to be clear about when I say hard work. I want you to cut out the busy work. Cut out the things that don't actually move the needle, that actually don't make you money. Go hard on the things that actually compound, that actually matter, like relationships, like building team, like improving your product, like improving your customer support, like understanding your customer, like maximizing your profit and your finances of the business. Remember the numbers? You know, this is what business is all about? This is the stuff you really should be working hard on. And hard work isn't for suckers. It's actually the opposite. People that are avoiding hard

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  work, they're the ones, as you saw on the whiteboard, they're the ones that are the suckers. They're the ones that actually lose at the end. They're looking for something that doesn't exist. And if you want something bad enough, it's worth working hard for it. Hey, if this episode landed, I highly recommend you pick up The Four Hour Work Week. If you haven't read it before, it's a really good book. It's actually really a fun read, and it reads like an adventure novel, almost like a Bond movie. And Tim does a great job. It's his first book that he wrote, and you should check out his other books as well that are very useful. It's definitely inspiring, and it kind of opens your eyes to a lot of different things. But remember, this dude works harder than most people, okay? You don't write a bestselling book over and over again, he's got like four New York Times bestsellers, by accident. It takes a bit of hustle, takes a bit of work, takes a bit of long nights to make it happen.

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  But if you want to continue learning here on the podcast, I highly recommend you check out a recent episode we had called "How to Run Your Business in Four Hours a Day." Maybe you don't want to go four hours a week, but four hours a day is definitely doable if you focus on the right things. Go ahead and check out that episode. Just scroll back on whatever app you're using right now. You know what you gotta do. You saw the difference between someone who looks for the hack and the person that is compounding their skills and just works hard and stays consistent. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help start, grow, and scale your business, subscribe to the podcast. All you gotta do is hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically. It's absolutely free, and it's

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  a way for you to commit to growing your business. I'll check you in the next episode.