Why The 4-Hour Work Week Is A Myth

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Hi, my name is Igor Kheifets and this is the List Building Lifestyle, the only podcast which delivers cutting edge conversion strategies from the online trenches straight to your earbuds. Download the transcript of today’s episode and all future episodes at listbuilidnglifestylesshow.com. I also invite you to grab a free copy of “The Wealthy List Builder’s Survival Guide” at lifebuilidnglifestyleshow.com/survival and now once again it’s time to claim your List Building Lifestyle.

Jonathan: Welcome back List Builders to another edition of List Building Lifestyle with your host, the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Igor Kheifets. What is up my brother?

Igor: Hey Jonathan, long time man. About a week since we haven’t spoke.

Jonathan: I was just thinking the same thing. I feel like it’s been a long time and really to the listeners it’s been a week but how long has it really been? At least a month, right?

Igor: Probably yeah, probably at least a month, honestly I don’t even count because every moment without you man is like of like one day less a year.

Jonathan: Oh man, you got me. You got me. I was supposed to play that card but you got me. [laughter]

Igor: [laughter]

Jonathan: So how has it been going, man? You’ve been getting some killer interviews. You have been rocking and rolling. How has your podcast journey been?

Igor: Well so far it’s been tremendous to be honest. It really raises awareness about Solo Ads being a great traffic source and a lot of people come in and they write me about how they weren’t even aware of being able to have access to such an amazing pool of new leads and all the same time, its right there. So as far as I’m concerned we are doing our job right. We are definitely raising awareness. We are definitely helping people convert more and convert better which is accidently sort of accidently became the number two purpose of this show is to help people to convert better with their emails and with their lists. Overall, I’m just tremendously excited about the fact that living in a cave out here in Israel, I’m able to touch so many lives out there all around the world, you know people from Lithuania and Switzerland and America and Canada and even Africa. We got quite a few listeners in Africa believe it or not so I’m just excited and I’m thankful and grateful for all you guys, all you List Builders out there for tuning in every week and now twice a week to hear my annoying voice give you list building advice.

Jonathan: They must love it so I know we got to jump into our episode but I couldn’t help but read some of the reviews and if you’ll just allow me just a moment, I want to read one of the reviews we got recently.

Igor: Fire away.

Jonathan: So let me get this computer closer to me. So it’s titled, “It Keeps Getting Better (is that normal)”? So this is by that man Max who is a friend of mine and he writes each episode is better than the last. I feel like Igor shares more of his life as he goes on and Jonathan is able to pull out the gems that inspire his process. So more than most other shows, you walk away really understanding the structure behind the strategies that means you can implement them and make them fit your personality and goals. Keep them coming.

Igor: Wow! Wow, Mad Max thank you.

Jonathan: [laughter] I only picked that one because it had my name in it. [laughter]

Igor: I’m sure you did. [laughter]

Jonathan: What made me really want to mention that is I feel the same way that Max does is that when you and I get talking and I get to do a little digging around I start getting you to talk about some weird stuff that you might not normally talk about and I feel like that makes the coolest shows.

Igor: Well, you know it’s definitely accidental; it’s not something I prepare because I’m more of a closed guy. I don’t like to put my stuff out there and especially in my hometown where everybody knows everybody it’s so easy to get caught up in the gossip, you know, where everyone just discusses everybody else. I don’t like that so naturally I’m just a closed off person but I mean I’m not sure if it’s something in the water in this coffee shop or maybe it’s your questions, I don’t know but something is weird is going on where as soon as I get on air I feel compelled to share my most intimate life stories and life secrets with you and the List Builders.

Jonathan: Hmm. So what do you have in store for us today?

Igor: Well, today I’m sort of rebelling against a bunch of my friends. Basically I do get to hang out a little bit with entrepreneurs here in the real world but for the most part the people I hang out with are not entrepreneurs and so the one thing that I love about being an entrepreneur is that there are really two purposes to my life. I live by the saying, “Love in work, work in love is all there is to life.” I don’t remember who said that but I believe that person was right because to me that’s pretty much it. We were just having a chat before getting on air here with you and you’ve seen it, right. There are only two main areas of my life where I focus that is either my work or my family.

Jonathan: Yeah.

Igor: So when you talk to an average entrepreneur, the average entrepreneur wants to work a lot and they kind of see lots of virtue and they get lots of pleasure out of working long hours and really putting their soul and their heart into their business which is something that I do myself. But at that same time, there is other people out there who hate working; they kind of feel that work is a bad thing. In fact that’s been the experience I’ve been going through here in my hometown when I was trying to hire people who never ever stick is that they feel that work is actually work. They don’t enjoy it. So at the same time though, here is why these people are hypocritical because at same time, they admire guys like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet and Elon Musk. They talk about them. The media talks about them and they talk about them. They all respect the kind of changes that we’re undergoing as a society as a community as a result of the work that these people have put in, right. While they admire these folks and they put them on a pedestal, they are not willing to follow in their footsteps and live the kind of life they lived which is life pretty much all about work. They feel that work is a bad thing. They feel like they got to go on vacations often and they feel like the people who do work a lot like me are miserable which in reality is not right. I think that entrepreneurs are the most fulfilled bunch of people on the planet. What do you think about that Jonathan?

Jonathan: I believe that if it was really work, I wouldn’t enjoy it and so both you and I from what I understand about us is that we’re filling a bigger purpose than just work. The work is what gets us to that purpose.

Igor: Yeah and to be honest, it’s fun. I mean for me personally it’s really, really fun to write emails, to build lists, to create offers, I mean to do stuff that I know has impact on the people around the world. When it comes to the definition, if you will of the word “work”, I don’t even feel like its work. I don’t feel it’s a bad thing. When I wake up in the morning, I can’t honestly say that I will wake up with pep in my step or whatever, that I’m jumping up and down with the prospect of going to write another sales letter….

Jonathan: [laughter] Dancing to work.

Igor: Yeah. But at the same time, I don’t drag my feet. I actually wake up and I know what my purpose is and I know what kind of goals I want to accomplish that day and I’m off. Like earlier today, I woke up. I knew that we’re going to be sitting down to another episode so I had to sit down and come up with the idea, the structure etc and it’s beautiful. It’s great. I love it when I wake up in the morning and I’ve got a purpose and I know that my effort that I’m going to put into creating that purpose is actually going to have an impact on a bunch of other people’s lives. I mean that is actually much more rewarding to me than the idea of soaking up the sun on the beach, sipping on a margarita with a little pink umbrella because when I do that I kind of feel guilty. I’ve spoke to other entrepreneurs about this and they actually feel the same way like I actually feel guilty on vacation. You ever got that?

Jonathan: I used to get that and I’ve worked through that and I really feel guilty now if I don’t take time off.

Igor: Oh you’re evil, man. Now I feel bad.

Jonathan: [laughter]

Igor: [laughter]

Jonathan: Well, we talked about this earlier because there is a balance that you have to have with your work and life so people think about the work and life kind of balance but it’s really like a work/life harmony and it all needs to work together sometimes you work more, sometimes you work less but part of that balance is you taking time to recharge yourself so that you can be better for your customers, for your family and for everyone.

Igor: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean you can be more right than that. I’m guilty of I guess sometimes working too hard and putting my work first ahead of my family but as we have discussed before the call, I do my best to change that right now and to spend more time with Erica and to spend more time with Anastasia. I can see the impact that this is having on my family. So to circle back to the whole purpose of this episode is to I guess remind you guys that you should not feel as if you’re really working because – actually let me take one step back and share a little something completely different. So one of the things that we do at Igor Solo Ads is we offer you a “done for you funnel” for the people who can’t really convert on their own, we actually build them an entire funnel and write a follow up sequence and it’s something that we do for clients. You can’t actually have us do that unless you’re already doing business with us. So one of the things that we do, we ask people to describe your ideal life or ideal day as you want to see it once your business is up and running. One of the most common themes that I’ve spotted was that almost everybody once they’ve got enough money coming in which is usually around $8-10,000 per month want to spend their time living on the beach.

Jonathan: Hmm.

Igor: So they want to be waking up in the morning, checking their stats from overnight, see sales come in, drink their coffee, go off to do some yoga, come back and have lunch or have breakfast, and then go out to travel, come back and have dinner or have dinner in the restaurant or something and then spend the evening with friends. That’s pretty much been the pattern that I’ve spotted when it comes to your ideal day, to the ideal day question. Now to me, of course, I understand why people want that but all at the same time, if you build a business that makes you 10 grand a month, it is actually very difficult to have such a day every single day. In fact, [laughter] ….

Jonathan: [laughter]

Igor: You know that …

Jonathan: Surprise!

Igor: [laughter] In fact, you know what Jonathan, let’s just assume for a second that they could that you can have a business that’s making you 10K per month where you don’t have to work, you could just check your stats, things happen for you, you drink your coffee, you do some yoga, you workout, and you travel and you spend time with friends. But how long will you go before that is something that you’re sick of at this point? How long before you get bored with that life? Because I can only imagine myself living like that for maybe 48 hours. Because you know day three, I’m waking up what am I going to do next. I can’t just sit there, enjoy myself all of the time and besides in two days I probably run out of things to talk about with my friends. You know what I mean?

Jonathan: [laughter] That is awesome. It’s interesting that you mention that. I was writing emails this morning. I jumped out of bed and the first thing I did was write some daily emails. I wrote about the myth of the four hour work week. I mean Tim Ferriss put this book out in 2007; everybody has been obsessed with it ever since this idea of the four hour work week and that is what I said in the email. I said if you really love something, if you really enjoy something would you only want to do it for four hours, I don’t think so.

Igor: Yeah and this is a good point. I believe that the four hour work week is a myth simply because I mean Tim is a great guy, very smart as well but notice the irony. So he writes the “Four Hour Work Week” where you can supposedly be making six figures working only four hours a week but then he goes out on whole tour of public speaking engagements, radio engagements, podcast engagements and etc to promote the book. I remember watching an interview with him where he was sharing how he built up his blog and people said hey you’re probably succeeded with your blog because you’re already famous because of the book. To which he said, well actually the blog helps the book much more than the book helps the blog which means he blogged to promote the book. Now again, it is a little bit ironic in my humbly yet accurate opinion that someone who wrote the “Four Hour Work Week” actually ends up spending so much time to promote his work. Now again, it doesn’t take away from the idea.

I’m sure with today’s outsourcing capabilities, you can definitely set up a four hour work week, but hey if – just like you said Jonathan if you truly enjoy what you do you will not be able to keep yourself from diving into that thing for more that four hours a day not a week.

Jonathan: Four hours a day, you just blew the whole thing apart. [laughter] Oh man, that’s awesome. So what do you suggest then? Is it that people are not picking the right kind of work because I know you’ve had some motivation issues on our staff and all that? Where do people then find this – this passion something to carry them through how do they get there?

Igor: Well, just like we’ve been talking about this in the previous set of episodes, I find my passion in this in lack. So I was brought up in a very poor environment and I sort of made a decision not to be poor ever again so I’m passionate about business. Other people they need their job or they need their craft to self-actualize in society. So I was speaking to this gentleman that comes into this coffee shop every now and again who’s actually the father of the guy who owns the shopping mall. So the guy who owns this whole place, it’s his father. I used to work for that guy so he knows me and we chat a little bit sometimes. He sees me, like he saw me bloom from just a teenager to this business owner and somebody who is established so we were connecting. I was like you immigrated to Israel back in the 60s and he is from I think Romania. Like how was it? Were you an outsider when you stepped into this society? Because I was like when my family immigrated in the year 2000, I was definitely an outsider because back in Ukraine, I was a Jew in a country full of Ukrainians and here I was actually an Ukrainian in a country full of Jews, although I’m 100% Jewish. I said were you an outsider? He was like well yeah because I didn’t speak Hebrew and I just arrived and I was kind of pushed out, he says. I’m like okay what happened, how did you become one of the guys? He said well I actually did it through my work.

I excelled at my work and I think he worked in farming because that was really the kibbutz concept I think was really powerful back then. So it was farming and he said look I just did my job and I did it so well that they started respecting me for the kind of work that I’ve done. And incidentally, I can say the exact same thing about my business today. I excelled at one skill which brought me the fame and the accolades which I kind of live off of today.

Jonathan: [laughter]

Igor: Hopefully, righteously but like work is actually something that I see as a means of establishing yourself in society, making a name of yourself, basically giving meaning to your existence and I know that sounds really shallow and I know that all the New Age folks listening to this interview are probably going to be like, “oh man, you’re so wrong and you live an empty life etc” but you know what I’ve tried living that other life, I actually been a member of a cult for six months and we’ll just devote a different episode to that, I can talk about all that.

Jonathan: I can’t wait. [laughter]

Igor: [laughter] It was a six month journey I will never forget. But this is the kind of life that I chose for myself, like I said “Love in work, work in love that’s all there is to life” and I believe that work is the other element besides love which one should devote himself to in order to give meaning to one’s life. So again probably not everyone agrees with me and that’s perfectly fine but that’s the answer that I arrived at after about six years of going back and forth on the whole question of why do I work, what is the purpose of making money, what’s the purpose of me being here, what’s the purpose of life and on and on and on.

Jonathan: So I know we are coming close to the end of the episode but I got to ask your opinion on this, why on earth is everybody obsessed with living at the beach?

Igor: Man, that’s a great question. Well because if you close your eyes, Jonathan, and I ask you, Jonathan can you please go ahead and imagine what does freedom look like? What do you get? What kind of images do you get?

Jonathan: Yeah, damn it, man, I got the beach.

Igor: You got the beach.

Jonathan: [laughter]

Igor: You’re a surfer. Right? You’re a surfer.

Jonathan: Right.

Igor: So I mean we can basically say well you get the beach because you’re surfing but hey I’m not a surfer. I’m probably as close to surfing as you are to shooting terrorists.

Jonathan: [laughter]

Igor: So which again, something that Israelis excels at of course but we don’t excel at surfing necessarily. Anyone even an accountant sitting in a cubicle somewhere, you ask him what does freedom look like and they will tell you, it’s probably something to do with the beach and the sea and seagulls. It’s these images that were implanted throughout our consciousness I don’t know where they originate from but I do know almost everyone thinks that way. That is why you see all these sales letters and sales presentations in our space, in the make money online space being all about the beach.

Jonathan: Yeah, that’s crazy. I’m going to get to the bottom of that. So what do you have coming up for us next time?

Igor: Oh next time, I’m interviewing Ray Higdon, the “Three Minute Expert” guy about as you probably guessed instant authority. So one of the biggest problems I see in the marketplace is too many people try to enter this crowded space having well giving zero reasons to the client to actually listen to them let alone buy from them of course. So in the next episode, Ray Higdon and I are going to discuss how you can leverage the existing information in the marketplace in order to become an instant authority within weeks not years. So stay tuned.

Jonathan: Wow! Dude, I’m like jumping out of my seat. That’s kind of interesting. I love that concept there. So alright, I can’t wait till next time. That’s a wrap for List Building Lifestyle. Thank you, Igor, for sharing your insights with us and thank you List Builders for tuning in, we will be back in your earbuds next time.

Thanks for listening to The List Building Lifestyle Show, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Google Play to never miss an episode because who knows just one conversion tactic we share on the show might double your list and double your business. Download the transcript of today’s episode and all future episodes at listbuilderslifestyleshow.com and don’t forget to claim your complimentary copy of “The Wealthy List Builder’s Survival Guide” at listbuildinglifestylesshow.com/survival. This is Igor Kheifets until next time we talk, have a good one.

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