Imagine that you are walking through a street and you encounter an old, strange man who stops you and says he has a message for you. "It contains good news as well as bad; which one do you want to hear first?", he explains quietly. I still believe in happy endings, so given this situation I would let him start off with the bad news. Now imagine he tells you that you only have three more years to live. "You won't be ill in that period and your passing away will be a very peacefull, quiet one. You will die in your sleep without noticing anything of your own demise." I expect I would be a little bit confused by this time and I would be wondering who this guy is. "Well,...what's the good news?", I would reply after having pulled myself together. "I'm a very wealthy man", the man proclaims undisturbed. "And I want to offer you the possibility of doing everything you have ever wanted to do in your life during your last three years on this planet." By now I'm even more confused, but I do like this perspective a lot more than the initial one. "So," the old man continues, "what would you like to do?".
That's the question I would like to answer for myself in the next few weeks. For starters, I'm (finaly) finishing school in a few months and I'm a litlle bit relucant to go and find a dull nine-to-five job in which I will find myself listening all day to a boring colleague complaining about every fly that dares to cross his or her desk. Ok, maybe I'm exagerating and stereotyping a little bit, but am I really that far off? Maybe I've had my share of bad experiences during internships and student jobs and there are probably a lot of interesting jobs out there. But somebody showed me something completely different. That someone is Timothy Ferriss, author of the book "The Four Hour Workweek" and owner of an arsenal of degrees, world records and national as well as international titles in various disciplines. I must admit that I'm usually pretty sceptic towards get-rich-quick schemes and quick fixes, but this time something's different. Tim explains his theories in a clear step-by-step format and it all sounds very reasonable. I read his booking during my last exams (yes, it is at times like that you find the time to read good books ;)) and I couldn't wait untill the day I would be able to start testing his teachings. Today is that day.
The first time somebody told me about the existence of this book was over a year ago, when Frank Bekkers, CEO of CityLive, adviced everybody who was attending that day's meeting in his own contageously enthousiastic way to read "one of the best books that were ever written". Earlier this year two friends of mine who read the book, convinced me to do the same - on seperate occasions, that is. They were all right, this really is a book for me! In this #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, the author explains how he has found a way to get cured from a disease that is spread more widely then the HIV-virus: people's notion that they have to work really hard for a really long time to enjoy a relatively quiet retirement. In real life, IF you reach retirement you either a) are to old to do all the things that you have ever wanted to do b) have got so used to a regular, boring life that you have long forgotten what where once your dreams or c) still haven't earned enough money to do all the things you wanted to do (I'm talking a lot about doing here, because I'm a rather experience-oriented person, but this can also apply to having/possesing or being - I will explain this in more detail in a later post). Tim reveals another way of living, by not postponing enjoyment, but dividing your retirement into mini-retirements and spreading them over the course of your life. Sounds good to me! :)
What I am going to do in these next few weeks, is reading the book again and doing the assignments that are at the end of each chapter. I will post my findings here, combined with other posts, in which I will reflect on subjects ranging from evolutions in our society to the latest trends in bikini fashion. :p I'm very aware of the fact that some people might be sceptic, in disbelieve and even offended by the content of my reports, because some of the ideas I will be posting here will be far out. I will not be personally offended by this, because I see it as my mission to step as far as possible outside of the confined dimensions of the "box" that our society opposes on us. It's time to bend some unwritten (and why not some written) rules.
(For those who are wondering why I'm writing this in English, I'm going to answer this question once: if I had only three more years to live and I had all the money at my disposition, I would probably not stay in Belgium and I would meet a lot of new friends all over the world. That's why!)
