Is The 4-Hour Workweek Possible? 💪

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In this week’s edition:

• Nvidia is almost in the Trillion Dollar Club

• Article: Is the 4-Hour Work Week Possible?

• News: UK vs Germany

• Travel Destination: Istanbul

• Chad of the Week: Nick Huber

MARKET REVIEW

Markets were shakey this week, as the uncertainty around the debt ceiling continues to take a toll on investor sentiment.

However, Nvidia, the chip manufacturer, had one of the most phenomenal rallies as it benefited from demand for its products due to the rise in generative AI.

It is rare that a company beats even the most optimistic predictions. The company is now heading to a 1 trillion dollar market cap. Not too shabby.

Of course, we were all overweight this stock, right? 🙂

Crypto continued to trade sideways, without significant news this week for a change. That’s not something you hear often.

IS THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK POSSIBLE?

TLDR: The 4-Hour Workweek (4HWW) is a modern classic, but must be interpreted carefully. The “muse” micro-business concept seems to be a weak spot in the book, which is otherwise filled with amazing tools and tips on how to achieve more with less. Finding your passive income sources will probably be harder, but well worth it.

• The 4HWW in a nutshell

• Is it possible to implement it?

• Efficiency is the main takeaway

• Passive income exists, but will take time to build

WHAT IS IT?

If you are reading CityChad, I’d bet that you already know what the 4-Hour Workweek (4HWW) is.

It’s the title of Tim Ferris’ 2007 bestseller, which marked a before and after in the field of entrepreneurship and lifestyle design.

The main idea behind the book is that you can create “passive income” from a small business so that you can work for only 4 hours a week, live anywhere and join what he calls the “New Rich”.

Where do I sign, I hear you say?

Well, let’s see if the book (still) lives up to its promise.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

If you take the advice as it was written in 2007, I’d say today it is impossible to create a profitable and sustainable “muse” (what Ferris calls a micro business venture).

The World has moved on, and making money online has changed and will continue to change.

But even when I first read the book in 2011, the “muse” concept seemed a bit too good to be true.

Whipping up a sustainable business from thin air in a few weeks, where all tasks are outsourced and automated, is not how the World normally works (then or now).

Even Ferris himself admitted that the book was written at the time when Google Ads were incredibly cheap and making money with them was easy.

But like everything else in life, these arbitrages disappear with time, and so they did.

SO IS THE BOOK JUNK THEN?

Not at all.

Ferris said later on that the book is not really about working 4 hours a week but how to be more efficient.

Seems like a retrofit explanation to me, but nonetheless there is a lot of credence to that interpretation of the book.

Applying the 80/20 rule, outsourcing low-value tasks, geo-arbitraging are all things a real Chad should be a master at. And the book provides plenty of examples and useful tools to do all of that.

If that’s your jam, I’d certainly recommend another book called “Life Leverage”, which really focuses almost entirely on this subject.

And of course, to keep reading this newsletter to find even more tips and tricks to become the efficient version of yourself.

SO PASSIVE INCOME IS A MYTH?

Wrong again.

Living of fully passive income is potentially possible, just look at the FIRE movement (see our previous article on this).

There are what you could call modern “muses” now, that are not too dissimilar from what Tim talked about in his book.

For example, creating digital products and selling them through Gumroad.

But be mindful, though, that sales of those are rarely permanent and creating high quality products is hardly something you can do with low effort.

WHAT DOES CHAD THINK OF THE 4HWW?

The 4HWW is a modern classic for entrepreneurs, and whilst not perfect, has a ton of inspirational content and tools to motivate you to look at life differently.

Passive income is a loaded word and there are degrees of effort required to make money. If you can find the most efficient way to do it, go ahead.

The 4HWW can certainly help you in that journey.

NEWS: UK VS. GERMANY

Given the last few news highlights, it may seem like we have some sort of beef with our friends in the UK.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

But you gotta admit, it seems like every week there is a new nearly comical news piece coming from Britain.

This time we saw that net migration hit a record high, at 606,000 in 2022.

There were several reasons for this, with non-EU migration being the largest contributor.

Why is this important?

Well, a large reason for Brexit and a big promise of the ruling Conservative party was to reduce and control migration.

Add on top of the highest inflation rate in Western Europe and government bond yields near that of Greece and you can imagine things are not the rosiest in the UK.

However, things within the EU are not looking a lot better either.

Germany stepped into a technical recession this week.

This was mainly due to (you guessed it) inflation.

Consumer spending took a hit in Q1, not surprisingly as Germany removed the long term dependence on Russian energy.

Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost for Germany’s ill advised energy policy, which Trump famously criticised and got mocked for.

It seems like we are witnessing a race to the bottom in Europe, with each major economy trying to outdo each other (not in a good way).

Granted, the Ukraine war was always going to have an impact on the larger European landscape.

But it seems it is only the US that is laughing all the way to the bank, as its economy stays on fire.

TRAVEL DESTINATION: ISTANBUL

This week we headed back to Europe.

Well, sort of. We both went to Europe and stayed in Asia.

Yes, we took a little break to explore Istanbul, the city that lies at the junction of two continents.

Istanbul is a huge city that needs little introduction, with mad traffic and amazing food and sights.

The views of the Bosphorus Strait, the vibrancy of their people, and the affordable prices make it an ideal destination for a digital nomad medium or long term stay.

Make sure to put your haggling boots on, though, as you are expected to haggle at every reasonable opportunity.

• Stay: The city caters to all sorts of budgets, so you will find plenty of options that suit your needs. If it’s your first time, I’d recommend staying near the city centre sights, such as the Hagia Sophia.

• Work: WiFi was very reliable at our Airbnb, so we didn’t get to explore many cafes this time. But make sure you get a local SIM and bring your passport with you to the shop (we used Turkcell). Surprisingly, SIMs are not cheap and take a while to get, so be patient.

• Stay Fit: The city has a lot of traffic and can feel a little cramped, so your best bet is to go with the flow and do lots of walking in the touristic areas and markets. The hilly area around the Dolmabahçe Palace will certainly give you a run for your money.

• Eat: The food in Istanbul is just phenomenal, and something we made the most of (as you can see from our photos!). Being at the junction of two continents, it is no surprise that they know a thing or two about making a great meal. We tried and loved Banyan Restaurant, with amazing views of the Bosphorus. For an even more upmarket experience, try Novikov restaurant.

• Go out: If you are looking for a high end experience, you must go to Bebek. Trust us. We also used this guide and found it to be very helpful in getting high quality recommendations.

• Transport: Uber is very cheap with a 20 minute ride costing around 5 euros. And it is the safest way to move around if you don’t want to get overcharged. However, it may take a while to get one. So the other option is to hail taxis from the street but be very careful. They will insist on charging a fixed fare rather than using the metre due to “traffic” (which is a constant, so not sure how that makes it reasonable). Insist on using the metre or jump out.

CHAD OF THE WEEK: NICK HUBER

We have talked about Nick Huber before here at CityChad, and we thought it was about time we vested upon him the title of Chad of the Week.

What’s so great about Nick, I hear you ask?

He really is a contrarian, who offers an alternative look at how to make money as an entrepreneur, outside the seemingly obvious World of tech.

So if you think you need to be the next Zuckerberg to be a successful businessman and don’t see yourself doing that, you really should pay attention to Nick.

His persona goes beyond touting “Sweaty Startups” (more traditional, hands-on businesses) as a way to make it as an entrepreneur.

His advice is filled with common sense and cheekiness, which does not get unnoticed by Chads around the internet.

He is also a great mindset coach, often dealing with topics such as self-doubt and confidence, and having a winning business mentality.

He is also famous for baiting the woke crowds by showing tons of common business sense, and outsourcing what can be to high quality talent in the Philippines.

We salute you Nick, for being unapologetically yourself, as any true Chad is.

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