I once worked at an office where "4HWW Fever" swept through like a pandemic.  It lasted about a month, and was fueled largely by our collective desire not to be there.  Eventually everyone slowly lost the faith, but it was fun while it lasted.

We learned that there are several very big roadblocks to implementing Tim Ferriss' plan for world domination, and the subsequent sipping of Margaritas on the beach.  Here are the real mandates for The 4-Hour Work Week:

1.    Already Be Running A Successful Business

While Tim Ferriss was employed at his last day job, he started making crazy money selling vitamins over the internet in his spare time.  Then he quit his day job, and just sold vitamins over the internet.  And finally after THAT, he discovered the key to structuring his internet vitamin business such that it basically ran without him.

In order to survive on four hours of work a week, you need to implement a lucrative business which can run with a minimum of effort on your part.  And you will need to already be independently wealthy, because a new business always has start up costs.  

In other words, the best way to follow Tim Ferriss' example is to be Tim Ferriss.

2.    Be An A-Hole

Ferriss has some great productivity advice buried in the middle of the steaming pile of "Make Money Fast Then Retire" advice.  But if you implement them, you will eventually realize that there are more important things in the world than being productive.  (A valuable life experience in and of itself, but maybe not what you were going for.)

Ferriss paints an antagonistic relationship between yourself and your friends, family, and business clients.  This is accurate - you can either be building and maintaining social connections, or you can be getting your work done, but not both.  And be aware that if you start treating your friends, family, and business clients like time-sucking nuisances, they will think you are an a-hole.

Also, be aware that although Tim Ferriss is fabulously wealthy AND famous, he is also single.  I submit that this is because Ferriss is a sociopath, and that furthermore he's pretty open about this, as you will discover if you read his book.

3.     It's Not Actually True

Tim Ferriss works 70-80 hour weeks just like the rest of us, except that he doesn't call it "work."  If he's pitching his work and himself, it's not "work" it's just "how I spend my leisure time."  And as a side benefit, it makes him a lot of money.

The same is true of his previous businesses.  I doubt he would be able to run his vitamin business hands-free now, if he hadn't spent 70-80 hour weeks getting it up and off the ground and running in the first place.

Furthermore, if you want to work with outsourced help, you need to be prepared to double-check everything, and spend about a hundred hours training and re-training.  After that, sure, you may only need to check in on them once a week.  Meanwhile, I hope you are able to live on the ten cents per hour you are able to skim off the profits, after you have paid everyone along the length of your elaborate (but hands-free!) supply chain.