Eric Clemens, president of
Acroment Technologies, and IT consultant extraordinaire, recently sent me a copy of
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris.
I have to admit that I was highly skeptical of the title at first, but after devouring the book earlier this week on a trip to Vegas, I am pleased to report it has changed the way I look at success, and given me valuable insight into ways to increase the efficiency and productivity of our
PR and marketing agency.
Some of the concepts are a bit far-fetched for service-based businesses like
PR 20/20, but there are lessons to be learned for every professional, especially entrepreneurs.
Check out 15 of my favorite excerpts, and then grab a copy for yourself. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised:
- “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” - Mark Twain
- “I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” - Herbert Bayard Swope, American editor & journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize
- “Having an unusually larger goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal.”
- “It is easy to get lost in minutiae, and the key to not feeling rushed is remembering that lack of time is actually lack of priorities.”
- “The end product of a shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.”
- “Don’t ever arrive at the office or in front of your computer without a clear list of priorities.”
- “If you prioritize properly, there is no need to multitask. . . . Divided attention will result in more frequent interruptions, lapses in concentration, poorer net results and less gratification.”
- “Stop asking for opinions and start proposing solutions.”
- “An interruption is anything that prevents the start-to-finish completion of a critical task, and there are three principal offenders: time wasters (those things that can be ignored with little or no consequence), time consumers (repetitive tasks or requests that need to be completed but often interrupt high-level work) and empowerment failures (instances where someone needs approval to make something small happened).”
- “There is a psychological switching of gears that can require up to 45 minutes to resume a major task that has been interrupted.”
- “For the employee, the goal is to have full access to necessary information and as much independent decision-making ability as possible. For the entrepreneur, the goal is to grant as much information and independent decision-making ability to employees or contractors as possible.”
- “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.” - Frank Wilczek, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in physics
- “Life is too short to waste, but it is also too long to be a pessimist or nihilist.”
- “Surround yourself with smiling, positive people. . .”
- [This one is my personal favorite] “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.” - Steve Jobs, Stanford University Commencement, 2005
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