The Get Pesos Boards: Forum: The Get Pesos Lifestyle

The Get Pesos Boards: Forum: The Get Pesos Lifestyle - Recent Posts http://boards.getpesos.com/ The Get Pesos Boards: Forum: The Get Pesos Lifestyle - Recent Posts en Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:03:28 +0000 admin on "Introduce Yourselves!" http://boards.getpesos.com/topic/introduce-yourselves-1#post-25 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:47:34 +0000 admin 25@http://boards.getpesos.com/ In this thread, go ahead and introduce yourself. Let everyone know who you are, where you come from, and what your financial goals are. Old Posts on "The 4 Hour Work Week" http://boards.getpesos.com/topic/the-4-hour-work-week#post-21 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:17:38 +0000 Old Posts 21@http://boards.getpesos.com/ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298743,00.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298743,00.html</a> Timothy Ferriss is quite an accomplished man. He's a Princeton University guest lecturer in High-Tech Entrepreneurship and Electrical Engineering, the first American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango, a national Chinese kickboxing, and even a MTV breakdancer in Taiwan, among various other things. But, what he's most known for, at least lately, is his bestselling book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join The New Rich, that focuses on the 80-20 principle, outsourcing your life, and getting away from your desk. Perhaps it's not as easy as it sounds, but Ferriss's own life makes it appear so. We caught up with him recently to assess whether his theories are more hype than fact. Read on to learn what he had to say. Admittedly, some workers have probably discovered the "4-Hour Work Week" principles on their own. However: are people who've discovered these practices themselves the only ones who are risk-ready enough to use them effectively? Not at all. The principle concept of "lifestyle design" is lower risk than the "deferred-life" career planning most follow. It is not anti-investment, but it is anti-retirement-as-life-goal. I have maxed-out IRAs and 401(k)s and never gamble. The 4-Hour Workweek is intended to save people the trouble of trial and error -- it's the mistakes that cost you, not the recommendations I make. Some of your critics dislike that you condone the use of loopholes or technicalities to gain advantage; they think its tantamount to cheating. Is your school of thinking at odds with, or consistent with the idea of the "American work ethic?" It's 100 percent consistent with work ethic. People are fond of misquoting me, but I only criticize the predominate overwork ethic that focuses on activities instead of results, being busy instead of productive. The founding fathers advocated innovation, dissent, and hard work when applied to the right things. This book is reflective of their philosophies. Most critics haven't read the book. I never break rules -- I analyze them and question the outdated assumptions and habits based on them. To put this in historical context, the bar in the Olympic high jump used to be jumped in a hurdling motion. Then, one athlete started used the current back-flop technique and revolutionized the game. Similar evolution can be seen in almost all sports, from better materials and drafting in the Tour de France to hydrodynamic suits in swimming. Is this cheating? Is Netflix "cheating" against Blockbuster by eliminating retail? No -- it's being a smarter player. Career planning is now evolving, and I'm trying to teach people how to be the chess player instead of the chess piece. This book has generated controversy among readers. Do you take readers' invective personally (when they express disbelief or criticism), or was this bestseller simply a low-maintenance money-making venture, or "muse?" I don't take it personally. This book challenges a lot of behaviors people hold dear, even though they are counterproductive. People either "get" this book or they don't. At the end of the day, it's just the number of people who get it that count. My blog is on the blogroll of some of the top tech CEOs in the world. Do I have all of the answers? Of course not. But I'm asking some important and long-avoided questions that make people uncomfortable. I knew people would either love this book or hate it, and I'm fine with that. I never expected to make a profit on this book. Something like 13 of 14 publishers turned it down, and some editors -- just like some readers -- were offended and hostile that I would question their work-a-day comfort zone. No one expected it to become a phenomenon, getting parodied on Jay Leno, sold into dozens of countries, and so forth. It's been unreal. Do most corporate workers hate their jobs? No. Most corporate workers are bored and dangerously comfortable. They are in that gray area between love and hate that leaves most with constant low-grade anxiety and an acute sense of wasted potential. This is more common and more damaging than hate, because hate spurs action. Tolerable mediocrity leads you to wake up one day and ask "what happened to the last 20 years?" That's no way to spend the prime of life. I was in that zone from 2000 to 2004, and it could have continued until I had a heart attack 20 or 30 years later. I realized this in June of 2004, and that's when I started experimenting with more uncommon alternatives. Boredom should scare people as much as hate. Is this the future of out-sourcing? Not just corporate exportation of labor, but personal exportation of labor? It is. In a digital world where the Center for Work-Life Policy reports the new "40-hour" week is 70 hours and growing, where the norm is time poverty, it's an inevitable shift. Millions of people are already spending income -- a renewable resource -- to reclaim fleeting time -- a non-renewable resource. So, what if there were an eBay for all of the tasks you didn't want to do, where people worldwide would compete to give you more time? What if you could get an MBA for $5 an hour to handle all of your menial personal chores and time-consuming business busywork? I have a veritable army working on my behalf, and someone who makes $30,000 per year could do the same. There are dozens of companies set up in places ranging from India and the Phillipines to Jamaica and Canada. It's the fastest evolving market I've ever seen, and it's only speeding up. Five years from now, most white-collar workers will have digital concierges of some type. A lot of your lifestyle suggestions describe ways to limit the unnecessary expenditure of one's creative energy. Is creativity a scarce resource for most people? Creativity is just an under-exercised faculty. It's always easier to choose from the standard menu of options than to think laterally, but the latter is definitely where rewards come faster. Take the red pill. Old Posts on "What's Your Political Compass?" http://boards.getpesos.com/topic/whats-your-political-compass#post-20 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:15:28 +0000 Old Posts 20@http://boards.getpesos.com/ Guy posted a great little political test over on David's ELT World Forums so I thought I would post it here as well. <a href="http://www.politicalcompass.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.politicalcompass.org/</a> Old Posts on "10 Reasons Bad Employees Don't Get Fired" http://boards.getpesos.com/topic/10-reasons-bad-employees-dont-get-fired#post-19 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:14:17 +0000 Old Posts 19@http://boards.getpesos.com/ From: 10 Reasons Bad Employees Don't Get Fired Have you ever received poor service from someone you expected should be helping you as part of his or her job? The answer is almost certainly "yes." And, if you're like most people, you have probably also experienced the frustration of working with someone who made your own job more difficult. In both cases you may have wondered, "Why don't they just fire this person?" Firing someone may seem easy in theory, but it is often a last resort for an employer. A bad employee's supervisor may know that the employee isn't performing up to snuff, but that supervisor -- or the company -- may have what they consider to be a good reason for not firing the employee. Whenever you encounter someone who you think deserves to be fired -- either in your own workplace or elsewhere -- consider if any of the following might be the reason the bad employee is still on the job: 1. The employee has a relationship with someone higher up. A relationship doesn't necessarily have to be romantic or family, although either is a possibility. In many cases, the relationship that keeps someone from getting fired is friendship. The bad employee may not perform well on the job, but may be a golf or drinking buddy for your boss, or may simply be someone that senior management enjoys having around the office. 2. The boss relies on the employee. According to Terence R. Mitchell, Ph.D., author of the business text "People in Organizations: Understanding Their Behavior," when a supervisor depends on an employee, the supervisor is less likely to attribute poor performance to the employee's ability or attitude, and more likely to attribute the poor performance to forces beyond the employee's control. 3. The employee brings more value to the company than he or she costs. Maybe the employee who jokes around and wastes other employees' time at meetings is also a brilliant worker whose productivity has resulted in significant revenue for the company. 4. The boss thinks it could be worse. Even if everyone knows the employee is not pulling his or her weight, management may fear that a replacement could do an even worse job. This fear is compounded if the company has previously had other people perform more poorly in the position. 5. The boss is afraid of the employee. If there are concerns that an employee might sue the company or possibly become violent if fired, it may take longer to let that employee go. If there's a threat, the company needs to consult with legal or security experts and put appropriate measures in place before letting a bad employee go. 6. The boss feels sorry for the employee. In such cases, a boss is sympathetic to the employee, and not to those whom the employee's actions may be hurting. The boss may worry that if the bad employee is fired, he or she won't be able to find another job. If the employee needs the money to support a family, has health problems, or has recently experienced another life challenge, the boss may feel it's best to let the employee keep the job. 7. The boss doesn't want to go through the hiring process. It takes time to review applications, conduct interviews, check references, and train a new person. The boss may believe it's easier to deal with the consequences when the bad employee messes up rather than deal with hiring a replacement. 8. The employee knows something. The employee might know something embarrassing about the boss, but it's more likely he or she simply knows historical information that the company needs today. For example, if the employee is the only one who knows how to operate an ancient piece of equipment that the company still uses, your employer may need to keep the employee around. 9. The employee has everybody fooled. In their book "Snakes in Suits," Paul Babiak, Ph.D. and Robert D. Hare, Ph.D., explain that a surprising number of workplaces employ psychopaths. While psychopaths make up 1 percent of the general population, Babiak and Hare found that 3.5 percent of the executives they worked with "fit the profile of the psychopath." Psychopathic employees are pathological liars who get away with doing little or no work. They charm senior management with their "leadership potential," con co-workers into covering for them, and successfully blame others for their mistakes. If you're the only one who sees what they're up to, you're in a tough spot. Sometimes it’s the whistle-blower who gets fired, not the snake. 10. He or she is not really a bad employee. So what if a co-worker sometimes works from home, takes long lunches, or does something else you don't think is fair – as long as his or her work gets done. If you're not the supervisor, you're not personally affected, and the employee is not hurting anyone such as customers or co-workers, stop stressing over what he or she does and focus instead on your own work.