The 4-Hour Workweek, Or How I discovered I Am a Creative Vagabond

The 4-Hour Workweek, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss is the hot, new thing to hit the marketplace.

Ferriss has created an interesting vagabond lifestyle. This book is the practical side of the Secret phenomenon. It also reminded me of all the Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie types of books I read in my twenties. In it you are asked to think outside of the normal way you approach your life. Ferriss asks the reader to disregard the notion of efficient living and instead to become more effective at it. You could do that by simply delegating time consuming tasks, checking your email less often and examining what are the priorities in your life. He has created his business to be automated and therefore completely mobile allowing him to have the lifestyle he wants.

The vagabond lifestyle is not for me. I am a home base, nesting kind of person. The beauty of this concept is I don’t have to be Tim Ferriss. However I do like the idea of a mobile business that would allow me the opportunity to travel if and when I wanted. It would also allow me the time to work on the projects that require time but may not have an immediate payoff.

My best example is writing a book. It is a goal I would like to accomplish. My 9 – 5 kind of existence leaves me with little energy at the end of the day. I can imagine if I could create a business that is automated and requires little of my day to day attention I would be writing a book instead of sitting on a subway speeding towards Manhattan. Of course I can write a book any way, but wouldn’t it be fun to write it while sitting at the beach and not go to work?

Ferriss calls himself a serial entrepreneur and an ultravagabond. The most interesting thing I heard him say on a call with Arielle Ford was that he could wake up tomorrow and put the success of the 4-Hour workweek behind him and try something new. He was not tied to this as the sole reason for being. If skydiving called to him then I bet he would do it. He could automate his concept of this book, make money from it, and still do something that might be completely different.

I am a creative vagabond. Barbara Sher calls people like me scanners. According to Sher, “Scanners love to read and write, to fix and invent things, to design projects and businesses, to cook and sing, and to create the perfect dinner party. (You'll notice I didn't use the word "or," because Scanners don't love to do one thing or the other; they love them all.)” Her book, Refuse to Choose frees people from "goal paralysis," readers will stop thinking of themselves as dabblers or dilettantes, and find innovative ways to live lives of variety, challenge, and joy.

A Creative Vagabond is someone who is free to roam and express themselves any where and any way they want. Today you might try photography and tomorrow you may explore an ancient Mayan ruin. Go ahead and have fun. I think Ferriss and Sher are on to something here and I am glad they wrote their books. I plan to write mine too. In the meantime, consider if you have a vagabond soul. Become a traveler like Tim Ferriss or scan the creative landscape like Sher, either way continue to follow your dreams.