Karma

Between the recent text messages I have been getting lately (automated messages in which I did not sign up for) which have been giving me inspirational messages which seem to fit my daily thoughts “exactly”, tonight I dove back into the book for one more final round (#3).

With the TV on and about 40 pages into it, a movie comes into the background – its the movie in which I saw with my sweetheart about a year ago in a Harvard theater, called “The Bucket List”.

Actually it was on 1/27/08 – the 7:20pm show, just about 30 minutes after sharing a Pete’s coffee reconnecting after almost  4 months and 2 special holidays gone by.  I don’t know why, but I have been troubled on how I have not been able to loose this movie stub which sits on a shelf in my closet.

Anyways if you haven’t seen it, its a pretty powerful movie and one that will make you think and smile and laugh a little.

Now that I look at the entire picture and round #3 on this book – the movie “The Bucket List,” fits hand in hand with what Ferris so passionately describes in the 4HWW.

Well a few more tears, similar to the ones we both shared in the theater a year ago…back to reading.

Happy New Year!

Outsourcing and Time Management Hits Home (In Boston)

I may  have just found simply the coolest, most awesome, most convenient, time saving, money saving, most awesome (did I say most awesome?) service in downtown Boston – RunMyErrand.com

RunMyErrand is owned and operated by bootstrapped techie and entrepreneur peer – Leah Busque a local resident of Charlestown, MA (like me too!)

Never heard of it? Well RunMyErrand is a cross between Ebay & Craigslist.  Find out more here.

Ok – today was my first experience with RunMyErrand and I am here to share it with all of you.

1.  I logged onto the site and set up a profile…yada yada yada.

2.  Ok.  Next, I set up an errand to run right online and submitted it.

3.  My Errand:

Two things: 1. Please come by my office and pick a small bag & my credit card. I need you to return a shirt & tie to Barney’s in the mall (Prudential Center).

2. Please also stop into Barnes & Nobles at the mall and pickup 1 book (2 copies) for me. Then I will need my credit card returned to me with the recipts and 1 book & the other book delivered to an associate down the street near my office.

(and please write the following note in the inside cover and deliver)

Ill leave out the details of a personal note to a dear friend…

My Price: I bid $20 for this errand.

Timeline: I needed this done by 4pm today.

And we’re off…

That task went out at approximately 9:45 a.m.

Within 10 minutes I got a text message and an email stating that the errand had been “taken” and ANGE N. was in route to come to my office!  WOW…how great, I thought to mysefl.

ANGE showed up at 12:00 professional and courteous and I went over the errand with him and gave him my American Express card (as I needed a credit on my card from Barney’s).  Well.  Its 1:45 and he’s back already.  Done, completed, recipts in hand, credit on my credit card, AMEX back on my wallet, new book on my desk and another book delivered to my dear friend.

So what are you missing here?  NOTHING!

This is simply a phenomenal new business that I see exploding very soon!

Good luck Leah and thank you!!!

More information check out RunMyErrand.com and Leah’s Blog

QUESTION:  How much would it cost YOU to run this errand?  Whats your time worth.  This is my first experience in what Tim has preached to me for the past week.  Simply unreal.

Brain Dump: Last source of notes

Ok.  I have finished the book.  Its Saturday and it took me exactly one week.  Totally unreal, that’s all I can say about it.  I will be compiling my personal thoughts and steps on how I plan on implementing this into my business and my life over the next few days.   As for now…here is my last Brain Dump of notes that hit home with me.

OUTSOURCING LIFE

Pg 113 – AJ Jacobs – Editor and Chief of Esquire magazine…fascinating and comical overview on his outsourced life.

Pg 114 – “Desired satisfaction”
-    YMII (Your man in India)

Pg 116 – “ strange feeling having people work for you when yoru sleeping”  – geographic arbitrage”

Pg 119 – The MOST critical skills:  remote management & communication

Pg 120 – NR is about building a system to replace yourself not just working smarter

Goal is to free your time to focus on bigger and better things!

Pg 121 – Delegation Dangers
Automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiencies but equally could harm it to an inefficient process

ELIMINATE before automating/delegate

Principle #1 is to refine rules & processes before adding people

YMII does both personal and business

PG 125 -  for examples of what YMII can do

PG 129 – outsource redundancy like YMII has backups in place

Pg 133 – crystal clear instructions to make it so easy for outsource, exact wording.
-    set deadline!
-    One task at a time

Pg 143 – Income Autopilot
Our goal is to create an automated vehicle for generating cash without consuming time.  – THE MUSE

Pg 145 – testing products before going to market (old way vs new ways)

Pg 147 – Pick an affordably reachable niche market!
-    Find a market and define your customers, the developer product for them
-    Be a member of your target market and don’t speculate what others need or will be buying

“If everyone is your customer than no one is your customer”

The Main Benefit Should Be Encapsulated in One Sentence

“People can dislike you and you often sell more by offending some….but they should NEVER misunderstand you.”

iPod – 1,000 songs in your pocket!

Pg 152 – Good FAQ

Page 152 – Options
1.    Resell a product
2.    License a product
3.    Create a product

Pg 158
1.    Tailor a skill…  “nicheing” down – think narrow and DEEP not broad
2.    Become and expert yourself
3.    Record interview expert and associate
4.    Consider problems – failure to success story

Pg 159 – Expert builder
1.    Credibility indicator
a.    Join 2 or 3 related trade orgs
b.    Read 3 top selling books on the topic
c.    Give free seminar at college/company
d.    Offer to write an article for trade magazine
e.    Join ProftNet for writers looking for experts www.prleads.com/discountpage   www.ExpertClick.com mention “Tim Ferris $100”

Pg 162 – www.WritersMarket.com  – www. Srds.com  -  www.HotRecorder.com

Pg 164 -  www.InventRight.com – www.Guthyrenker.com

Pg 170 – www.pxmethod.com   www.wordtracker.com   www.freestockphotos.com www.getty.com

Pg 182 – Income Autopilot – MBA (management by absense)

Pg 183 – Remove human element

Pg 184 – Start with the END IN MIND    . Goal is to start a business  that bothers us as little as possible not as large as possible  SCALE – create schedule for CD.com

Pg 192 – Watch example…. wanted to advertise 1 watch not 6 on the NYTimes page.
-    Customer service is providing an excellent product at an acceptable price and solving legitimate problems in the fastest manner possible. NOT becoming a person concierge
-
-    Offer 1 or 2 products…thats it
-

Pg 195 – Make your customer base an exclusive club, and treat the members well once they have been accepted

-    Loose Win Guarantee (not money back)
-    – Delivered in 30 minutes or its free – Dominos
www.sempo.org  www.marketingexperiments.com www.did-it.com www.pepperjamsearch.com    www.celebbrokers.com www.celebrityendorsement.com  www.contactanycelebrity.com

Pg 279 – THE TOP 13 NR Mistakes
1.    Loosing sight of dreams and falling into W4W (work for work)
2.    Micromanaging and emailing to fill time
3.    Handling problems your outsourcers or co-workers can handle
4.    Helping outsourcers or co-works with the same problem more than once
5.    Chasing customers, particular unqualified when you have sufficient cash flow to finance your non financial purists
6.    Answer email that will not result in a sale that can be answered via a FAQ
7.    Working where you live sleep or relax
8.    Not performing a thorough 80/20 analysis EVERY 2 – 4 weeks
9.    Striving for endless perfection rather than great or good enough
10.    Blowing small problems into big problems in order to work
11.    Making a non-time sensitive issue urgent as an excuse to work
12.    Viewing one product, job, venture as the end all be all
13.    Ignoring social rewards of life

Lets not pass judgement

As I glance back on my first initial post(s) maybe its time to reflect.

One point (I am not done reading the book yet, so maybe Tim gets to this) that I am confused, baffled and not sure how I am going to handle yet, is that, it is NOT my goal to work a 4 Hour Workweek.  In fact, I freakin LOVE my job and can not get enough of it. The back cover of this book notes, “Warning:  Do not read this book unless you want to quit your job.”  Jease!!!  I almost did not buy it because of this.  I love my job, love the people I work with and love the industry that I am in!

The main motivation in reading this book is two-fold.

1. To help me focus and create a profitable endevor in something I am extremely passionate about and to give me an edge in building a startup business with zero cash in a market environment where everyone else in this vertical is GOING OUT OF BUSINESS and I am trying to GROW MY BUSIENSS.  This is/has been very difficult because of our far less superior revenue structure due to the amount of cash back and commission refunds which fuels our very different buyers brokerage real estate business model.

2. To create balance in my life for myself, the ones I love and those who love(d) me.  I lost someone about a year ago – someone so dear and special to me – a girl whom I loved so much.  My work life & career had consumed me to no end, it forced me to make poor decisions which entail ruined the best thing that ever happend to me.  From the basics of overworked, poor diet and unresponsible daily, weekly relationship activities which did not exisit; to bigger picture things which I undoubtedly proved to her via my actions that I would never change.  Well, I am going change, I am changing, right now… and for once I have found a clear path to balance, happiness, and the ultimate way of living our short lives on this earth.  I am sorry it took so long to get to this point….but I do I love you ABK.  If you do ever find this blog or find a place in your heart to forgive me and give us a shot again….well, you know what to do!  (… up to the sky gorgeous!)

Flip the Script, Hit The Gas & Hold the F*%# On!!!

Flip the Script and Hit The Gas

Notes on 4 Hour Workweek (Day 1 & Day 2) – 12/1/08

Now, I have never been a good reader, thus I have always needed to take extremely good notes to fully comprehend.  So far I have been taking chicken scratch notes along the way on the back binder of  the book, but typing this all out is a great way to ensure comprehension.  Below is an overview form page one of The 4 Hour Workweek through  page 109.  Please excuse me for poor grammar use, formatting, etc…this is a just brain dump and need to get it out as its not on my priority list!

Oh, BTW:  this is a photo I took this a.m. on the way to work – so freaking pumped up and then I saw this.  What does it mean to you?

Hmm…. How about GO FOR IT!  But flip your world upside-down and do it different!

Here we go.

Definition – upside down common sense
Elimination – Kills notion of time management
Automation – Cash flow on autopilot
Liberation – mobility

Apples & Oranges
New Rich (NR) vs. Deferred (D)

What, Where, When, Whom = Money (multiplied with practical value)

Pg. 24 – Freedom Multiplier

Pg. 29  – Everything popular is wrong

Pg 31     1) Retirement is worst case scenario / Golden Years, Inflation = F’ked
2)    Interest & Energy are cyclical
3)    !! Health !! – Capacity, Interest + Mental endurance
4)    Mini-retirements
5)    Less is not laziness – NR produce more results
3)    Timing is NEVER right
4)    Ask for forgiveness not permission
5)    Emphasize strengths not weaknesses
6)    Things in excess become opposite
7)    Money alone is not the solution
8)    Relative income is greater than absolute income
a.    Chap A = 80 hours a week
b.    Chap B = 10 hours a week
c.    DOLLAR & TIME = relative income
d.    Job promotion & bonus is a joke…expectations outweigh pay!
9)    Distress = bad (health & strain) , Eutress = Good (Roll model & motivating)

Pg 38 -  Dogging Bullets – Fear setting & Escaping Paralysis  — Hans Hangliding & BMW vs. Benz

Pg 40 – Defining the nightmare — Tim first company, not scaleable, worst case scenario, set 1-10 basis (GO FOR IT)

Pg 45  -  “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do!”

Personal Exercise
1)    Worst Nightmare
2).    To bankrupt the company & myself
3).    It would not kill me, definitely not permanent, could raise capital and I would survive

2)    Steps to Repair
a.    Sell % of company, Raise capital, Employ proven expert

3)    Outcome / Benefits of taking the leap
a.    Temp:  Boost in PR, Sales & Freedom (no fat guy in red bmw!)
b.    Permanent:  Industry leader, successful profitable biz, complete personal happiness

4)    If I was fired?
a.    Get up in the a.m and get a new job tomorrow – very fortunate to be talented enough to employ my single self in any industry

5)    What am I fearing?
a.    Loosing personal
b.    Getting sued
c.    Mega brokers accepting the our business model in their city

6)    What is this delay costing me?
a.    Financially:  $1M+ in personal income
b.    Emotionally:  Personal friends, family & whole mindedness
c.    Physically:  I am in horrible shape mentally and physically

7)    What am I waiting for?
a.    Nada – I am full steam since the minute I opened this book

Pg 48 – System Reset
Princeton lecture, roundtrip ticket, 20 of 60 students awesome example
None completed task
Could have bent the rules and submitted document
Next year group 6 out of 10 completed!

Pg 50 – Unrealistic is easier than realistic
Raise $10M easier than $1M
Pick up a perfect 10 easier than five 8’s
Big things need to be asked for properly

Pg 51 – Excitement = happiness – Boredom = sadness
WHAT WOULD EXCITE ME???

Pg 52 -  BrainQuicken LLC
Automated cashflow – $1k per day
Alternative activities to replace initial workload
FAT MAN IN RED BMW!!!!!!

Pg 53 – Correcting course – GET UNREALSITC

Pg 54 – Dreamlining (attached doc is my first stab at dreaminling)

Pg 60 – Comfort Challenge
Most important things are NEVER comfortable
Get uncomfortable
Challenge #1 – Eye gazing …this was awesome! I freaked out a few people this a.m. at Starbucks ☺

Pg 66 – Elimination
Time mgmt → FORGET ABOUT IT
Blackberry & carrying paper around office – F’ed
PRODUCTIVITY = Deal

As an entrepreneur – AUTOMATION is key – reap all the benefits as direct biz owner

Pg 67 -  Effective vs. Efficient
Efficient is the default mode – this sucks (Tim’s wording – I like it though)
Door to door salesman = efficient

1.    Doing something unimportant does NOT make it important
2.    Requiring a lot of time does NOT make it important either.

Pg 68 -  80/20 Rule  (HOLD ON TO YOUR SEAT)
Pareto Law!!!
80% of wealth comes from 20% of population
80% of his garden peas came from 20% of peapods
80%  etc etc….sometimes 90/10, 95/5 and even 99/1 not UNCOMMON

Pg 69 – was an awesome task
Find 20% of sources causing 80% of problems
Find 20% of sources resulting in 80% of happiness

Find inefficiencies and eliminate them
Find strengths and multiply them
Run ROI / fat cutting – Tim chopped 90% of saleforce
W4W = all Bullshit

Pg 71 – Is the customer always right?  (HELL NO)

Pg 72 –

1)  Advertising
Identified 80% of revenue and eliminate the rest
2)  Online affiliates + Paeto – fired 250 and kept 2 of them!
“Most things make no difference”
“Being busy is a form of laziness”
“Lack of time is a lack of priorites”

Pg 74 – Filing time – example term paper due in 24 hours…got an A

Pg 75  -  Do’s
Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/20)
Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important!
USE BOTH!

Pg 78 – Key 4 Elements
1)    Define a short to do list
2)    Define a not to do list

“If this is the only thing I do today will I be satisfied?”

DO NOT MULTITASK

Law (macro & micro level)
Macro – Leave @ 4pm every day and take Monday and Friday off
Micro – limite to do list and shorten deadlines

Pg 81 TASK
Make suggestions
Offer a solution
Stop back and forth and cut to it!

Pg 82 – Low information diet (awesome chapter)
1.    No newspapers, websites, nothing
2.    Emergencies just Do Not Happen
3.    Selective ignorance
4.    Ignore or redirect
5.    Lifestyle design = mass actions (OUTPUT not INPUT)

Catch up on current events, ask guy at lunch whats important out there..etc
You retain more

Less is more!!!!!!

Pg 86 TASK – No media for a week, cold turkey, world will still be here!
Practice non-finishing!
If food sucks stop eating
If article sucks stop reading
Etc!

Pg 89 – Art of refusal and interruption
Bully example in school yard, learn to be difficult

Evils –
1.    Time wasters – things that can be ignored, meetings, phone, email
2.    Time consumers – repetitive tasks – similar list
3.    Empowerment failures – instance where someone needs approval from you

Pg 93 – Email twice a day, auto-responder 9 a.m. and 4pm.  I did this today…wholly shit! Got 10X done today…maybe 20X

Communicating importance
Rather email than pick up the phone or go to meeting
All the way down
If you have to meet, limit meeting time

Puppy dog close!

Pg 101 – BATCH
Tshirt example – awesome

Pg 105 – Tony Longo the ultimate bottleneck of information.  REMOVE me from biz!

“People are smarter than you think.  Give them a chance to prove themselves”

Pg 106 –     – Create systems to limite avialablity on email, phone
- Batch to elimiate setup cost
- Set rules and guies for occasional review

Pg 109 – TASK – Say NO to everything this week….awesome!

Below is my 6 month & 12 month Dreamline (click on it to expand)

Diving into the book again tonight….more later!

Breaking the rules already

I probably broke rule #1 by taking the time to set up this blog – ugh – what a waste of time!  Anyway at this point in time, this what I know, how I know & where I know.

At this very moment (11:25 pm EST, Sunday evening, November 30th), I just finished Step II (up to page 114) in this ever-boggling book – The 4-Hour Workweek.

I need to be honest — at this point, I have no idea where this blog may lead me too, however, I do plan on using it as my personal notepad so I can look back and reflect on what I found to be most important in this experiment I plan to embark on.

Possibly other 4 Hour’ers will find me and chime in with their experiences.

I have quite a bit I would like to share right now and I have jotted some illegible notes on the back cover, however, I only started taking notes at around page 52, so I will need to go back and update this later.

Here are my notes thus far: (well points/pages I noted that I need to go back to visit)

pg 52 – Specific goals

pg 54 – Dreamlining

pg 60 – Comfort challenge

pg 69 – 80/20 Rule

pg 75 – Parkinsons Law

pg 78 – To-do-list

pg 93 – Time wasting

pg 97 – Training

pg 100 – Puppy dog

pg 102 – Batching

pg 103 – Batching (again)

pg 105 – Scalable / Bottleneck

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reflecting back on some of these notes there are many tasks that I need to go back and catch up like drawing out my Dreamline, etc.  For now, I am going to put the blog down, get some rest and start tomorrow (Dec 1) with a fresh start.  I have alredy drawn out my 2 tasks for tomorrow and they will be done before 11 a.m.

Oh, one last thing…I almost forgot.  I did implement one of Tim’s most prided techniques.  I put my auto-responder on tonight.  So, if you email me tomorrow and on…. (anthony@condoDomain.com) you will surely find this bounced right back at ya….

Greetings Friends -

Due to high workload, I am currently checking and responding to e-mail twice daily at 12:00 p.m. EST  and 5:00 p.m. EST.

If you require urgent assistance please call me directly on my cellular – 617.515.5498.

Thank you,

Tony L.
CondoDomain.com

*** New on CondoDomain ***

1.  Just opened Baltimore & Philadelphia – Now open in 8 cities!
2.  Follow me on Facebook or Twitter
3.  Check out our new client testimonials in High-Definition Video

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(BL – I must say, this has been an interesting past two evenings reading this book. I hope to thank you in person very soon for force-feeding me to buy this book and read it – - – I foresee a life changing event to come…but for now…thank you.)