The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Update - Timothy Ferriss [91]
53. “Contract outsourcing companies” can be as simple as dependable web-based services. Don’t let the term intimidate you.
54. Sample e-mail responses for fulfillment purposes can be found at www.fourhourblog.com.
55 Joseph Sugarman, Advertising Secrets of the Written Word (DelStar Books, 1998).
56 Depending on whose math is used (number of cars vs. gross sales), some claim the original Volkswagen Beetle holds the record.
57. For the benefit of the customer and to capitalize on universal laziness (me included), provide as much time as possible to consider or forget the product. Ginsu knives offered a 50-year guarantee. Can you offer a 60-, 90-, or even 365-day guarantee? Gauge average return percentages with a 30- or 60-day guarantee first (for budgeting calculations and cash-flow projections) and then extend it.
Step IV:
L is for Liberation
It is far better for a man to go wrong in
freedom than to go right in chains.
—THOMAS H. HUXLEY,
English biologist; known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”
Disappearing Act
HOW TO ESCAPE THE OFFICE
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.
—ROBERT FROST, American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes
On this path, it is only the first step that counts.
—ST. JEAN–BAPTISTE–MARIE VIANNEY, Catholic saint, “Curé d’Ars”
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA
“We’re not going to expense the phone.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
Silence. Then a nod, a laugh, and a crooked smile of resignation.
“OK, then—it’s fine.”
And that was that, lickity-split. Forty-four-year old Dave Camarillo, lifelong employee, had cracked the code and started his second life.
He hadn’t been fired; he hadn’t been yelled at. His boss seemed to be handling the whole situation quite well. Granted, Dave delivered the goods on the job, and it wasn’t like he was doing naked snow angels in client meetings, but still—he had just spent 30 days in China without telling anyone.
“It wasn’t half as hard as I thought it would be.”
Dave works among more than 10,000 employees at Hewlett- Packard (HP), and—against all odds—he actually likes it. He has no desire to start his own company and has spent the last seven years doing tech support for customers in 45 states and 22 countries. Six months ago, however, he had a small problem.
She measured 5′2″ and weighed 110 pounds.
Was he, like most men, afraid of commitment, unwilling to stop running around the house in Spider-Man underoos, or inseparable from the last refuge of any self-respecting man, the PlayStation? No, he was past all that. In fact, Dave was locked and loaded, ready to pop the big question, but he was short on vacation days and his girlfriend lived out of town. Waaaaay out of town—5,913 miles out of town.
He had met her on a client visit to Shenzhen, China, and it was now time to meet the parents, logistics be damned.
Dave had only recently begun to take tech calls at home, and, well, isn’t home where the heart is? One plane ticket and one T-Mobile GSM tri-band phone later, he was somewhere over the Pacific en route to his first seven-day experiment. Twelve time zones hence, he proposed, she accepted, and no one was the wiser stateside.
The second field trip was a 30-day tour of Chinese family and food (pig face, anyone?), ending with Shumei Wu becoming Shumei Camarillo. Back in Palo Alto, HP continued its quest for world domination, neither knowing nor caring where Dave was. He had his calls forwarded to his newly begotten wife’s cell phone and all was right in the world.
Now back in the U.S. after hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, Dave had earned his Eagle Scout mobility badge. The future looks flexible, indeed. He is going to start by spending two months in China every summer and then move to Australia and Europe to make up for lost time, all with the full support of his boss.
The key to cutting the leash was simple—he asked for forgiveness instead of permission.
“I didn’t travel for 30 years of my life—so why not?”
THAT’S PRECISELY THE question everyone