4-Hour Workweek : Chapter 3 Q&A

Directions: write down your answers without any mental editing, just brain dump and aim for volume. Spend a few minutes on each answer.

1. Define your nightmare, the absolute worst that could happen if you did what you are considering. What doubt, fears, and “what-ifs” pop up as you consider the big changes you can – or need to – make? Envision them in painstaking detail. Would it be the end of your life? What would be the permanent impact, if any, on a scale of 1-10? Are these things really permanent? How likely do you think it is that they would actually happen?

The worst that could happen is that I give up my steady job and then all my ideas are flops, all my existing freelance clients fall through, I’m not able to land new clients and I have no income coming in. Because of this, I am not able to pay my family’s bills. We have to scrape by on a meager way of life. My family complains about the stupid choice I made and how their life is ‘hell’ because of it. We eat up all of our savings by paying bills without income, and end up losing our house. [My wife] has to go back to work before we really want her to and can’t find a job because she’s been idle for so long and because of the economy. I start to seriously doubt I ever had ability and that I have anything of value to offer this world or my family. I feel like a failure. There’s a lot of crying in the house.

Permanent impact would be a step down in salary – potentially 25% or so, and even that would be a temporary pay cut to get back ‘in the door’ somewhere to start building again. It would not be the end of our life, especially if the ‘trial period’ did not last more than a year or so. But our savings would be seriously depleted. We would not lose our house over the course of a year. We would either have to borrow from retirement accounts or refinance to pull cash out of our equity. I would probably know whether this was potential direction within 6 months, rather than 12 months. So, the worst case scenario would be about $XXk in expenses for a ‘trial run’ of seeing what I can do outside of a ‘steady job’ and had no income, perhaps less if we really ratcheted down.

Permanent potential negative impact I would rate at a 5 or so. Likelihood is hard to say. If I was really able to focus my energy on my freelance work, ideas and trying some muses (that this book refers to), I may actually do pretty well. Let me re-consider that last statement. What is ‘pretty well’? I need to get to the point where I’m pulling in at least $Xk per month pre-tax. Is that really feasible with consulting / freelancing? Let’s not go there right now. I’m supposed to answer whether the worst case scenario would have a permanent negative impact. Worst case is $0 income for 6 months of trying + 3 mos of trying to find a ‘steady job’ again. Permanent impact would be a dent in our retirement, which I agree with Tim Ferris that retirement doesn’t sound like a lot of fun anyway. I’d rather excitement, professionally and non-, from now until I die.

2. What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even if temporarily? Chances are, it’s easier than you imagine. How could you get things back under control?

To repair the damage, I would need to spend up to a few months looking for a new job. I could potentially use contacts I have at work now to get back in to [my current employer] or to get in wherever those people are at that time. I bet many of the people that I’ve worked with would be willing and able to hire me for at least 80% of what I’m making now. If not, I know that I am good at interviewing and good at communicating that I have a lot of value to offer.

3. What are the outcomes or benefits, both temporary and permanent, of more probable scenarios? Now that you’ve defined the nightmare, what are the more probable or definite positive outcomes, whether internal (confidence, self-esteem, etc) or external? What would the impact of these more-likely outcomes be on a scale of 1-10? How likely is it that you could produce at least a moderately good outcome? Have less intelligent people done this before and pulled it off?

More probable or definite positive outcomes include:

1. Being able to focus on trying to implement my best ideas – really ‘going for it’
2. Freedom of location for my work
3. Seeing whether I am able to leverage outsourcing in my consultative work
4. Being able to focus my energy on areas of work that I’m truly interested in (web technologies and marketing)
5. An immediate consulting / freelancing income in the range of 50% of my current salary for less than 50% of the work, allowing me to buffer the impact of trying this new venture.
6. I would enjoy my work a lot more, because I’d be doing what I want to be doing
7. I’d be able to look back without regret, knowing that I really went for it

The impact of these more-likely outcomes is probably an 8. I’m really nervous about the realistic potential of income. However, yes, less intelligent people have done this before and pulled it off – what is really stopping me?

4. If you were fired from your job today, what would you do to get things under financial control? Imagine this scenario and run through questions 1-3 above. If you quit your job to test other options, how could you later get back on the same career track if you absolutely had to?

If I was fired from my job, I would probably look for contract opportunities with my current employer to continue some of the application development and support that I’ve started. While I did this and my freelancing, I could look for other consulting opportunities to fill in the income gap, or be looking for another full-time position, closer to home.

5. What are you putting off out of fear? Usually, what we most fear doing is what we most need to do. That phone call, that conversation, whatever the action might be – it is fear of unknown outcomes that prevents us from doing what we need to do. Define the worst case, accept it, and do it. I’ll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous businesspeople for advice.

I am putting off asking whether my father would help me in this direction. I don’t want to ask him for anything, but he does have the ability to help me with some ‘training wheels’, so to speak, so that I don’t fall without gaining some confidence and getting the feel for the new venture. He has already given so much, and I don’t want him to think at all that my relationship is because I want something from him. At the same time, I love my daughters, and I know that if I had the means and I could see that they were as serious as I am about pursuing their dreams, I would want the opportunity to help. I just don’t want him to feel taken for granted or taken advantage of.

Aside from asking my father for help, I fear taking the ‘plunge’ into pursuing my dreams without first having a safety net. I would want a higher average hourly value before taking a risk with my family’s well-being. It seems perfectly reasonable – even wise.

6. What is it costing you – financially, emotionally, and physically – to postpone action? Don’t only evaluate the potential downside of action. It is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction. If you don’t pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in one year, five years, and ten years? How will you feel having allowed circumstance to impose itself upon you and having allowed ten more years of your finite life to pass doing what you know will not fulfill you? If you telescope out 10 years and know with 100% certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as “the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome,” inaction is the greatest risk of all.

It’s definitely causing me a lot of frustration. Thinking that I have potential to really do well doing what I love to do. Thinking that I have what it takes to do great things. I know that this frustration will turn into regret at some point – regret for not even trying. If I don’t pursue the things that excite me, I am going to be bored out of my mind, and likely beat down by the bureaucracy of big business – I’m already sensing it. Ten years of this? All I can hope for is to bear it without breaking down.

Wow, that’s pretty bleak – is that truly reality? Do I get reward from my job, even though it is big business? The satisfaction I get is from doing what others can’t. Providing value, as the ‘little guy’ in ways that teams of people can’t or won’t do. I love the respect I get from people for the all-in-one package they receive from me. I’m able to manage their project, solve their problems, develop and implement the solution. Unfortunately, the biggest project I have, and likely the direction my career is going is taking me away from what I love to do. Also, that all-in-one package does seem to represent great leadership capability.

Do I know 100% that 10 years from now of the same thing is a path of disappointment and regret? I’d say yes. I’d regret not trying it on my own. The path I’m on professionally is a path of disappointment – I am either headed into more formal project management, project management leadership, or asking to be focused on what I love and only being able to do Access development and become stagnant. It doesn’t look promising – but it’s an income. Is that enough?

What are you waiting for? If you cannot answer this without resorting to the previously rejected concept of good timing, the answer is simple: You’re afraid, just like the rest of the world. Measure the cost of inaction, realize the unlikelihood and re-pairability of most missteps, and develop the most important habit of those who excel and enjoy doing so: action.

What am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? I’m waiting for a sign of a financial safety net. I’m waiting to see the opening to eliminate, automate and liberate, as this book describes. The financial safety net could be more regular clients. It could be seeing the potential in a muse venture. Something that I can see tangible and likely income equal to or greater than my steady job.

The question is, is my answer above based on ‘good timing’ as the question states? I don’t know. I’m definitely afraid. But isn’t fear a good thing is some instances? Isn’t it fear that makes you run when face to face with something that could harm you? The key word there is probably ‘could’. ‘Could’ could mean 1% or 99% – the question is likelihood. So, back to prior questions in this Q&A, what is the impact and likelihood of the worst and best scenarios? Is it worth the risk either way? Thinking about the risk about putting in another 10 years and looking back with disappointment and regret, that seems like a pretty certain and powerful risk.

What is the cost of inaction? Being a slave to the corporate machine. Being beaten down by the political nonsense that permeates everything that happens in big business. Regret and disappointment for being a coward and not believing in myself and my Lord, who appears to be calling me down this path.

Are missteps unlikely and repairable? I think that potentially getting started could be slow, but action will lead to experience, which would lead to success. If the process proves to be too slow, and I have nothing to fall back on, yes, the potential misstep of trying would eventually be repairable. What would I have lost? Income. What could I stand to gain? Freedom to really have life and have it abundantly.