Every potential escapee should have a personal researcher. Someone who can scout out opportunities, trends, companies, etc. while you are dealing with the 9 to 5. Leveraging someone who understands business and business processes is also a month. And if they are hoping about the globe doing interesting things and writing books in the process, well that’s just an added bonus.
Tim and I don’t talk as much as I would like, but that’s ok. He passes on his research in the form of blog and twitter posts and I utilize it as I am able. Some of us still have to work for a living. I have to say I get more value Tim’s tweets than most of the rest of the people I follow combined. His approach to providing information makes him the ideal personal researcher. And what a bargain. My total investment to date is three different versions of the 4 hour Work Week. Yes – I have the original, the audio version, and the updated version. I recommend all three.
Who Can Help You?
There are lots of people out there who can be part of your personal research team. Search them out. I recommend checking out the Stanford Entrepreneurial series and TED Talks on iTunes. This is likely to point you in some interesting directions. Or start with Tim – I don’t mind sharing him.
One of these days I need to sit down with Tim and have a nice relaxing chat. But for now, I’ll take what he has to offer, and leverage it the best I can. It’s also nice to participate in some of his various experiments. His first version of 4 hour work week spawned an idea which has further expanded into a movement, of which I am pleased to be a part. If you happen to have the second edition, go the page 173 and look for the heading Lifestyle Design In Action . That’s my small contribution to help Tim keep doing what he does.