
Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses - da5e
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/12/11/engineering-a-muse-volume-2-case-studies-of-successful-cash-flow-businesses/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timferriss+%28The+Blog+of+Author+Tim+Ferriss%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
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pier0
Tim Ferriss started by selling people the idea that they could be successful
too.

Except that his entire career and success is based on telling people what they
want to hear.

First it was "you can be successful and you don't even need to work hard",
more recently he's turned his attention to lifestyle advice such as how to
lose weight, how to swim faster, how to look better.

Why would anyone take advice from him beats me, but that's another story.

~~~
PStamatiou
I admire Tim as a person. He has done an amazing job making a name for
himself. Everything he talks about is ridiculously well-researched. He's not a
snakeoil salesman. For example, I have a copy of his book 4 Hour Body.. the
thing is 600 pages, mentions no less than 50 doctors with whom he consulted
while writing the book and endless citations that support what he says.

He has personally helped with some aspects of my fundraising process, despite
having been right in the middle of his book launch, and taken the time to
listen to me and help me through some situations - both with my startup and
with health/fitness advice.

~~~
eavc
"He's not a snakeoil salesman."

This is an ironic endorsement.

One of his enterprises is called 'Brain-Quicken,' and it's the quintessential
snake oil operation.

I have no respect for people with the ability of Tim Ferris when they also
have the scruples of Tim Ferris.

~~~
lachyg
Could you back that up with some evidence? I'm a firm follower in a lot of
what Tim says, and everything in his book so far seems to be well researched,
and provides a lot of scientific reasoning.

~~~
steveklabnik
He's referring to Tim's first "4-hour" business, which was a suppliment/energy
drink business. <http://www.brainquicken.com/>

~~~
eavc
Yes, that's right.

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lachyg
I do expected to be down voted for what I say, but hey, who cares. Reading a
lot fo the comments on this really do disgust me, a bit.

"Tim Ferriss started by selling people the idea that they could be successful
too" -- His career was actually started by starting a supplements company. All
of the information he gives in the Four Hour Work Week was pre-4HWW. Which
means he had to have some income to travel the world, and outline all the
feats he does in the blurb.

"Why would anyone take advice from him beats me, but that's another story." --
Because he has a huge amount of previous experience in the topics he preaches.
He backs them up with case studies, data and scientific evidence (especially
the 4HBody).

A lot of people see a self-help book and immediately cry _snake oil
salesman!_.

This guy may bother a lot of people, but who cares. I know a lot of people
that bother me. Ergh, I'm ranting.

~~~
jonhendry
"Because he has a huge amount of previous experience in the topics he
preaches. He backs them up with case studies, data and scientific evidence
(especially the 4HBody)."

What I see is a guy who got lucky once, in an industry rife with fraudulent or
borderline-fraudulent claims and huge markups. I'm sure the oily guy in the
infomercials selling "colon cleanse" quackery makes lots of money too.

Now, because he lacks more meaningful entrepreneurial skills, he's leveraging
that early experience into the self-help field, a field not known for a high
barrier for entry, and where the customers are not particularly demanding.

I just don't see any _there_ there. In the universe of accomplishment, "sold
snake oil supplements and self-help books amid rabid self-promotion" just
doesn't amount to very much, as profitable as it may be for him.

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away
The people on HN think that the world revolves around start-ups and Paul
Graham's philosophies. It doesn't. There are a lot more ways of making money
in this world.

~~~
mgrouchy
I am actually shocked that people on this site would buy in to Paul Grahams
philosophies. I mean why would they? This is a community site about
startups(at least originally), that was developed by PG, for a company who
funds startups(YC).

How appalling.

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pledgingto
"Make sure that you have your business basics down first. Proper business bank
account(s), incorporate earlier, record expenses properly, keep receipts, and
get your accounting straight. It’s very hard to switch things over later, so
invest some time at the outset and get it right."

How hard is it to switch from sole proprietorship to s-corp/llc if you keep
your accounting straight and use your personal bank account?

~~~
jayzee
Are you actually asking?: "How hard is it to switch from sole proprietorship
to s-corp/llc if you keep your accounting straight and use your personal bank
account?"

Not hard at all. If you are a sole prop, American citizen, paperwork in order
then it is very easy and a law firm could do it in a couple of k. Orrick has
Start-up docs on their website for free.

~~~
lkrubner
However, remember that going from an LLC to anything else is very expensive.
This varies state to state, in the USA. We formed an LLC in Virginia. Our
lawyer warned us that if we ever wanted to go to Wall Street and become
public, then a standard C form corp was far more appropriate. And you can not
easily transition from LLC to C form corp. Our lawyer told us that the IRS
would treat is as liquidation sale and tax everything we had - in other words,
it would never make rational sense to do this. It would be as if our LLC went
broke and was liquidated and then was bought by the new C form corp.

When we closed down that LLC, there was intellectual property we had to
entangle, so that it could go back to belonging to various individuals, all of
whom were continuing with their careers. This was messy. We had a highly
customized partnership agreement for our LLC. That is the great thing about
LLCs - that they allow such flexibility (this, too, varies state by state in
the USA. Virginia allows a great deal of flexibility). My advice is, if you
form an LLC with other people, put in a clause about shutting down.
Essentially, negotiate a pre-nup. Divorce goes easier when everyone knows
ahead of time exactly how it will be conducted.

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beastman82
Does this guy bother anyone else as much as he bothers me?

~~~
Construct
The real value in Tim Ferriss' work for me is not usually in the actual
content (This blog posts talks about where to register domain names rather
than nitty-gritty business details, for example) but rather in observing how
well he sells himself and understand what people want. He obviously does a lot
of research and testing, and his posts are carefully tailored to sell dreams
to large portions of the population.

He has two books: One sells you on the dream of world travel with minimal
work, interspersed with stories about how awesome he is and how you, too, can
be just as awesome if you follow his instructions. Nevermind the fact that he
clearly states he wrote the book because he became successful by working long
hours and working very hard to make his company successful.

His second (upcoming) book is all about how to 'beat the system' when it comes
to eating and fitness. He talks about losing body fat while eating anything he
wants using little-known secrets, among other things.

Finally, his blog (and this post in particular) tell a lot of feel-good
stories that feel just within reach. He's a master at weaving a narrative that
makes you feel like you want his lifestyle, and that it's within reach if you
just follow his simple advice.

So what do these all have in common? He's a master at selling people on an
idea, even when all of the facts don't quite line up. His works all make lofty
promises, but they all seem just crazy enough to still be within reach. He
even puts reverse-psychology disclaimers throughout his works to trip up your
own sense of disbelief. Meanwhile, he has become wealthy and successful not by
following his own advice, but by selling his advice to others.

The takeaway: Learn from his techniques and products, not from his advice. And
there's a lot to learn if you step back and look at it.

~~~
StavrosK
I was just pondering getting his book, but then I read the comments here and
reconsidered. Is it worth reading? Obviously you won't get a 4-hour work week,
but is there anything of value in it?

~~~
steveklabnik
It's worth reading. People have sour grapes about others being successful.

~~~
StavrosK
Ah, thanks.

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iantimothy
The thing about Tim Ferris' solution to improving your life is that it is
built on the base of people who cannot work 4 hour work weeks.

It is like a Multi-Level Market company, except now with time being sold
instead of products. Eventually, you will reach a mass of people doing lots of
work, for a low cost, just so that someone can outsource the boring parts of
his business and tell the world he did it in 4 hours a week, but the true
cost, paid by someone else, isn't.

Which if you think about it, is pretty much how the world works. A base of
people powering the few at the top.

The one thing that really really irks me, is that people who I've met, and I'm
not talking about Tim, who goes with the 4hww philosophy is that they never
truly appreciate the work done by the people at the base. They make all the
money, but will tell the producers of the work, hey, I can easily outsource
this website design to another Indian programmer for half the cost, so you
better lower your price or I won't use you.

The base is dispensable.

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madair
next book: how i made a million dollars in real estate by writing this book
about making millions in real estate

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stygianguest
Some of the questions seem really stupid. ``Where did you register the domain
name?'' seriously? How is that ever an issue. It could have been so much
better if there had been a real interview. Lazy journalism?

~~~
ojbyrne
I think they were actually an excuse to get some affiliate links on the page.

~~~
codexon
Nice catch. Some of them appear to be affiliate links.

I also think his book has a few businesses like Yourmaninindia where he tells
the reader to mention his name. He probably gets commission for that too.

