Do You Have A Story, Or Are You Just Living?

What Is Your Headline?

This week, I was researching the title of my next book.  I know now that the title of the first book, So, Now What? was not the headline to make the book fly off the shelves.  I know this because my royalty checks haven’t paid for the new Aston Martin or X5d just yet.   Most people that read So, Now What? only admitted to understanding the title after reading more than half the book.  With the help of Imal Wagner, I realized that a title of a book is nothing more than the headline for the story.  As I looked at all of the books that were on my shelf, one title stood out.  The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.  All I could think was “What a great headline, what is mine going to be?”

I have to hand it to Tim Ferris and his team.  A title like The Four Hour Work Week is sure to be a hit.  I have read The Four Hour Work Week twice and have talked to lots of people that have read it as well.  Did the book live up to its promise?  I haven’t met anyone yet that has started working four hours a week, and somehow the answer is yes.  Mr. Ferris did show us how it could be done and how he did it.  

The Four Hour Work Week is a great headline, and the book has a ring of truth to it.  So the big question is, what is missing?  There is a a key ingredient to the life that is promised by The Four Hour Work Week that is missing from a life most people want.  They want more than the life image that Mr Ferris presents in The Four Hour Work Week.   They don’t want a life that is defined by four hours a week or the life that results from four hours a week.  Even Tim Ferris wanted more or he wouldn’t of written the book now would he?  

What is the headline for your life?  Does it match the story that follows?

The Follow Through

Even when there is a great headline, there has to be a story that people want to read.  When there is, the readers become fans, and the fans become your best marketers.  The Four Hour Work Week is a great story, and Mr. Ferris doesn’t let us down.  I know dozens of people that have referred the book to their friends.  I am one of them. 

When I picked up The Four Hour Work Week, I had the romantic notion of doing just that, working four hours a week.  After reading the book and the lifestyle Mr. Ferris had to lead, I knew it wasn’t’ for me.  I also knew it wasn’t for anyone that I recommended the book too.   The headline didn’t match my story.  In fact I knew after reading it, it wouldn’t match anyone’s story that I know. 

Sell Them What They Want

The title of The Four Hour Work Week sold me and many of my friends.   One person scoffed at the title and didn’t read the book.  He didn’t believe in the possibility of The Four Hour Work Week.  I did, and so did the rest of my friends that read the book.  We became more sure of our belief after reading the book. 

Every thing sounded perfectly reasonable, and the lifestyle Mr. Ferris lived on the four house of work wasn’t that far out of line.  The title sold us what we thought we wanted, even if it was only for a passing moment.


Mr. Ferris’s story matched the headlines.  Does your lifestory match your headline?  My lifestory says I really enjoy my work.  All day every day I am working on something.  I just enjoy what I do and it is part of me.  I can’t stop.  When you truly enjoy your  life, your story will not stop either.  You will know if we meet on an airplane, ski lift or a beach.  I will introduce myself and try and find out how I can help you.  Mr. Ferris found a way to help a lot of people telling his story of working four hours a week. 

So if I didn’t want to work four hours a week and didn’t think my friends would, why do I recommend the book?

Give Them What They Need

I suggested the book because it gave everyone some little bit of realization that there was a better way to run their business and live their life.  There is an old adage to success, “Sell them what they want, give them what they need?”  The title of The Four Hour Work Week sold us on what we wanted even if we didn’t want it in it’s entirety.   The book gave us something we needed. So the book The Four Hour Work Week is clearly a runaway success.

What are you doing  to sell them what they want and give them what they need?