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efficiency. I agree wholeheartedly that it’s an excellent idea to delegate and/or outsource everything except the few tasks that are the most profitable and valuable to you. As you’ll see at some length in the next chapter, I’m all for the process of selective ignorance (i.e., eliminating distractions and interruptions).
    Certainly, all these things can help you decrease your work load, especially when you apply them as rigorously as Ferrissapparently does. But does he
really
have a 4-Hour Workweek? I doubt it. First of all, the title of his book is clearly a catchy exaggeration, intended to drive sales. And Ferriss appears, in fact, to work much more than four hours a week, not just in promoting his books, but in maintaining his business interests and a blog.
    But however long his workweek is, Ferriss’s construct works for him because he has redefined the concept of work. In the context of the 4-Hour Workweek, work is
anything you don’t like doing
. Sounds like a great excuse for workaholism, because this definition means anything productive and profitable you enjoy doesn’t count as work—no matter how long or hard you work at it. Some observers consider this specious reasoning; to them, work is work, even when it’s fun—because no matter what, it takes time, effort, and focus. Others point out that if you’re not your own boss, this concept doesn’t really apply; you have to fulfill the requirements of your job description, like it or not.
    I can see their points, but I can see Ferriss’s as well. In fact, one lesson I think we can take away from
The 4-Hour Workweek
is this: if you truly want to maximize your productivity, you have to enjoy what you do. So yes, go ahead and use his methods (and others) to pare your work life down to its essentials, the critical few things all of us time-management gurus tell you to focus on. Then look at them critically; if you don’t love them already,
learn
to love them—or change careers. There’s nothing as soul-crushing as grinding your way through a job you don’t like.
    The concept of the 4-Hour Workweek is a valuable one, but, like so many other business concepts, it only works under specific conditions. Ferriss had already built his existing business to steady profitability before he was able to abandon his eighty-hour workweeks for so-called four-hour ones. So this is a maintenance concept; if you’re an entrepreneur who’s still building your business, don’t expect to work four hours a week. Of course, if you work for someone else, don’t expect them to respond well to the concept (that sentence actually made me laugh aloud while writing).
    If you don’t already, learn to love what you do—or change careers. You can’t maximize your productivity if you don’t enjoy your work.
    Moreover, this method can’t possibly work for every business, no matter how well-established. The concept of “fun work isn’t really work” aside, you can pare down work only so far in a business requiring your constant presence—especially a service business where
you
are the product. For instance, musicians must be present at their gigs every night, so there’s only so much they can delegate. A speaker like me is paid to be on the platform. The turning point of a business like this, of course, comes when you’re so much in demand you can charge whatever you like for your services. Then you can scale back to the number of hours that suits you.
    Much of it depends upon your ability to get good help. Delegating and outsourcing your mundane or administrative tasks sounds good, but let’s face it: good help is hard to find. Finding a customer-service person who can get a transaction right is hard enough; finding someone you depend on to run critical functions in your organization is even harder.
SCHEDULING 101
    Ultimately, the idea of the 4-Hour Workweek is somewhat