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Mr. Ferriss is a master at self promotion. That doesn't mean that there's not good stuff to be learned after you sift through the self-promoting crap in the bo

Mr. Ferriss is a master at self promotion. That doesn't mean that there's not good stuff to be learned after you sift through the self-promoting crap in the book. Tidbits I picked up: * Throw a quick 3 page website up as a sales letter to market a $100 product. Point $200 worth of ad-sense at it over 10 days to see if you get any uptake. If you have more than 2 signups or "buy-ins", you've past the break even point and you're on the road to making money. * Focus on developing a $50-150 priced product. You don't have to sell a ton of those products to make a decent living for yourself. * 100 units sold * $100 = replace my monthly income. * Focus intensely on what's going to make you cash. All the cool technology you're building doesn't matter to your business unless it helps the bottom line. This was apropos to me, because I have an acute case of... oh, look at this shiny new thing. Focusing on what makes money helps cut through some of that. * People like to buy things. No, really. They like to pay for things. It makes them feel better about their lives. So, if you offer them a compelling reason to give you money, they will probably give you the money. * Outsource as much as you can that isn't non-core business. e.g. Hire interns to do marketing and PR work for you. Outsource writing your copy. Outsource design work, outsource product development if appropriate. Outsource market research, outsource date finding, outsource travel plans, outsource, outsource, outsource everything away to make your life simpler. * Filter out distractions as much as possible. i.e. no meetings, minimal email. * Have balls. No, really, dude hacked a martial arts festival and won. Why? By hacking the weigh-in legally. He has a lot of legal cons that help you hack the publicity system. Put your balls to use by hacking a social structure and rules in a situation to your benefit. If you don't have the balls to try something, you're not going to achieve it. * Chase the big dreams. Life is too short. If you want a Lotus Elise, test drive it, and find out how much you'd have to make a month to pay for it. Figure out how to make that money. If you want to go to Figi, figure out the cost, make the money to get there and then just go.

qaexl 18y ago
Yeah, the Taiwanese with whom he competed with are pretty serious about Face. When I read the excerpt about it, I rolled my eyes and thought Ferris was full of it, claiming to be a national kickboxing champion. After reading the account, however, I have to admit it was a good hack. Throw people out of the ring. There isn't much way for the judges to cheat on that either, heheheh. Ferris recently got a new TV show on History Channel, airing as a pilot. It is called "Trial By Fire", where he attempts to learn skills that normally takes 10 - 20 years to master and learn them in about 5 days. The show is interesting to see how the strategizing works. I have no idea if there are going to be more made, but if they were, Ferris promised showing skills like car racing. Of course it is probably a way to get all of the stunts he wants to learn financed by a TV Network, but that's the point. What he wants to do isn't necessarily what I want to do, and applying the skills of hacking to life is a good thing.
bemmu 18y ago
One problem with outsourcing is that people tend to have a lot of context to their tasks that whoever they hire to handle it for them won't have. There can be miscommunications about what needs to be done, the other person might not understand what the requester likes/dislikes, they might have to ask for extra details etc. and often it may be just faster to do it yourself.

qaexl 18y ago

Yeah, the Taiwanese with whom he competed with are pretty serious about Face. When I read the excerpt about it, I rolled my eyes and thought Ferris was full of it, claiming to be a national kickboxing champion. After reading the account, however, I have to admit it was a good hack. Throw people out of the ring. There isn't much way for the judges to cheat on that either, heheheh. Ferris recently got a new TV show on History Channel, airing as a pilot. It is called "Trial By Fire", where he attempts to learn skills that normally takes 10 - 20 years to master and learn them in about 5 days. The show is interesting to see how the strategizing works. I have no idea if there are going to be more made, but if they were, Ferris promised showing skills like car racing. Of course it is probably a way to get all of the stunts he wants to learn financed by a TV Network, but that's the point. What he wants to do isn't necessarily what I want to do, and applying the skills of hacking to life is a good thing.

bemmu 18y ago

One problem with outsourcing is that people tend to have a lot of context to their tasks that whoever they hire to handle it for them won't have. There can be miscommunications about what needs to be done, the other person might not understand what the requester likes/dislikes, they might have to ask for extra details etc. and often it may be just faster to do it yourself.