Essay Questions

Who are the New Rich?

The New Rich are a group of people that have quietly emerged in modern society. They live in the present the way many people desire to live in the future, using their own forms of currency: time and mobility. These two elements, far more important than the accumulation of money saved for the future, are all that is needed to participate in a lavish lifestyle right now. They delegate responsibilities to minimize their own workloads, work as little as possible for maximum results, value activity over retirement, and act in ways that maximize their own freedom. They differ from the traditional rich in that their money isn't the end, but simply a means to realize the life they truly desire to live.

Describe Ferriss's four-step process for becoming a part of the New Rich.

In the tradition of popular wisdom-imparting self-help gurus, Ferriss organizes his four-step process into an acronym: DEAL.

1. Definition
2. Elimination
3. Automation
4. Liberation

The first step, Definition, involves defining one's specific goals, dreams, and fears. What does your dream life look like? If you pursue your dreams, what is the worst thing that could happen as a result? The second step, Elimination, consists of eliminating unnecessary and detrimental elements from your life, such as menial and meaningless tasks with a low-profit yield, replacing them with rest and relaxation for overall health and happiness. After Elimination comes Automation, which is the attempt to make your workflow self-sustaining, and sometimes even automatic (achieved by outsourcing busywork). Liberation is the final step, and the one by which people can free themselves from restrictions imposed by others. Practical elements of this liberation might include working remotely, having a large amount of free time, and working for oneself and on one's own terms. Once all of these steps have been completed, Ferriss claims that you will be part of the New Rich.

What are some pieces of advice Ferriss gives that might be viewed as unorthodox?

Ferriss is proud of his unorthodoxy, and it comes across in his writing. He encourages readers to defy traditional expectations in many different ways, one of which is the rejection of a forty-hour workweek in favor of a much smaller one. Such a transition might be seen as lazy, but it's far from lazy: it's smart. Spending a smaller amount of time, but on the most important things, will yield almost as much result with only a fraction of the effort. This unusual advice will allow a wise reader to free himself up to do the things he's always wanted to do.

Ferriss's unorthodoxy is most on display, however, in his story of how he won the National Chinese Kickboxing Competition. Instead of fighting with the traditional method, he all but cheated to win the title: he dehydrated his body before the competition so he would be put in a smaller weight class, then rehydrated so that he was easily thirty pounds heavier than his opponents, and he won every match on an unsportsmanlike technicality: if your opponent falls off the platform three times, you automatically win. Ferriss literally won the championship by pushing people off things. This type of cunning might be seen as a violation of ethics, but Ferriss's point is clear: do unexpectedly clever things to advance your own interests.