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ocotillo house plant Buy African Ocotillo Phoenix, AZ | Alluaudia proceraMadagascar's Exotic Desert Sculpture for Phoenix Landscapes African Ocotillo African Ocotillo (Alluaudia procera) is one of the most unusual and eye catching plants available for Phoenix area landscapes. Native to the spiny forests of southern Madagascar, this tall, columnar succulent features upright stems lined with small leaves and short thorns, creating a silhouette that resembles the native Arizona Ocotillo but with a distinctly tropical
Madagascar's Exotic Desert Sculpture for Phoenix Landscapes — African Ocotillo
African Ocotillo (Alluaudia procera) is one of the most unusual and eye-catching plants available for Phoenix-area landscapes. Native to the spiny forests of southern Madagascar, this tall, columnar succulent features upright stems lined with small leaves and short thorns, creating a silhouette that resembles the native Arizona Ocotillo but with a distinctly tropical character. Growing 10–20 feet tall in Phoenix, African Ocotillo adds instant architectural drama to Scottsdale courtyards, Gilbert xeriscape gardens, and Chandler modern desert designs. Extremely drought-tolerant and heat-loving, it thrives in the Phoenix Valley's hottest microclimates with almost zero supplemental care.
African Ocotillo Plant Details
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Alluaudia procera |
| Common Names | African Ocotillo, Madagascar Ocotillo, Alluaudia |
| Mature Height | 10–20 feet in Phoenix landscapes |
| Mature Width | 3–6 feet (multi-stemmed clump) |
| Growth Rate | Moderate — 1–2 feet per year in full Phoenix sun |
| Sun | Full sun (6+ hrs). Loves reflected heat from walls and pavement. |
| Water | Very low once established. Stores water in stems. |
| USDA Zones | 9b–12 (Phoenix is Zone 9b–10a — protect from hard frost below 28°F) |
| Soil | Well-draining required. Thrives in sandy, rocky Arizona soils and caliche. |
| Foliage | Semi-deciduous — small round leaves along stems in warm months, may drop in winter drought |
| Native Origin | Southern Madagascar spiny forest — adapted to extreme heat and drought |
African Ocotillo Uses in Phoenix Landscapes
Architectural Specimen & Focal Point
A single African Ocotillo creates a stunning vertical statement in any front yard, courtyard, or entryway. The upright multi-stemmed form casts dramatic shadows against stucco walls, especially when uplighted at night. Plant a 15–25 gallon specimen in a prominent gravel bed in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, or North Phoenix for instant sculptural impact. The exotic silhouette is unlike anything else in the Arizona landscape palette.
Modern Desert & Collector Gardens
African Ocotillo is a prized specimen for plant collectors and landscape designers seeking rare, conversation-starting plants. Pair with Madagascar Palm, Boojum Tree, and Firestick Euphorbia for a curated "world desert" garden theme. In Mesa, Tempe, and Gilbert, group 2–3 at staggered heights with native Ocotillo for a striking comparison between the Arizona and Madagascar desert forms.
Pool-Friendly & Courtyard Plantings
African Ocotillo drops minimal litter and has a narrow, upright footprint — ideal for tight spaces beside pools, along narrow walkways, and in walled courtyards across Chandler and Peoria. The stems won't encroach on structures, and the shallow root system won't damage pool equipment or foundations. Plant 3–4 feet from high-traffic areas due to the small thorns along the stems.
Living Screen & Vertical Accent
Plant multiple African Ocotillo 3–4 feet apart to create a semi-transparent living screen with a completely unique aesthetic. Unlike a solid hedge, the vertical stems filter views while maintaining light and airflow — perfect for privacy without the heavy feel of a traditional hedge wall.
Best Time to Plant African Ocotillo in Phoenix
Spring (April–May) is the ideal planting window when warm soil and rising temperatures fuel rapid root establishment. Fall (October) works as a second option. Never plant in winter — African Ocotillo is frost-sensitive and needs warm soil to establish. Protect from hard freezes below 28°F with frost cloth during the first 2–3 winters until well established.
How to Plant African Ocotillo
- Dig wide, not deep — 2–3x the root ball width, same depth. Do not bury the stem base deeper than it was in the pot.
- Ensure excellent drainage — break through any caliche layer. Root rot from standing water is the primary killer.
- Backfill with native soil — a 70/30 mix of native soil to pumice or coarse sand is ideal.
- Spacing — 4–5 feet from structures; 3–4 feet between multiple specimens for a screen effect.
- Stake if needed — tall specimens may need temporary support for the first 6 months until roots anchor.
- Gravel mulch — 2–3 inches of decomposed granite. Avoid organic mulch that traps moisture.
Watering African Ocotillo in Phoenix
First Year Watering Schedule
- Weeks 1–2: Water once deeply, then let soil dry completely (7–10 days).
- Months 1–3: Every 10–14 days in warm months.
- Months 4–12: Every 2–3 weeks in summer; stop or dramatically reduce in winter.
- After Year 1: Every 3–4 weeks in summer; little to no water in winter. The stems store moisture.
Drip Irrigation
Place 1–2 emitters (1 GPH) 12–18 inches from the base. African Ocotillo is extremely drought-tolerant and far more likely to die from overwatering than from drought. When in doubt, skip a cycle. If stems look plump and firm, the plant has plenty of water reserves.
How fast does African Ocotillo grow in Phoenix?
Moderate — expect 1–2 feet of height per year in full sun with well-draining soil. A 5-gallon plant can reach 8–10 feet within 4–5 years. Larger specimens (15–25 gallon) provide immediate height and presence.
Is African Ocotillo related to Arizona Ocotillo?
No — despite the similar common name, they're completely unrelated. Arizona Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) is native to the Sonoran Desert. African Ocotillo (Alluaudia procera) is from Madagascar. They share a similar upright, multi-stemmed growth habit, which is why they share the common name, but they belong to entirely different plant families.
Is African Ocotillo frost hardy in Phoenix?
It handles most Phoenix winters without issue, but hard freezes below 28°F can damage stem tips. Cover with frost cloth during cold snaps for the first few years. Established specimens in warm microclimates (south-facing walls, central Phoenix) rarely need protection.
Does African Ocotillo have thorns?
Yes, small thorns line the stems — they're much smaller and less aggressive than Arizona Ocotillo thorns, but still worth noting. Plant away from high-traffic walkways and play areas.
You May Also Like
- Ocotillo (Native) — Arizona's own version with a similar dramatic silhouette and red spring blooms.
- Madagascar Palm — another Madagascar native with a thick spiny trunk and tropical leaf crown.
- Boojum Tree — a bizarre, tapered desert tree that pairs dramatically with African Ocotillo.
- Firestick Euphorbia — adds vivid orange-red color contrast at the base of tall African Ocotillo stems.
- Moroccan Mound — a dense, mounding euphorbia that contrasts with African Ocotillo's vertical form.
How Many African Ocotillo Do I Need?
African Ocotillo is an architectural specimen, so think in terms of grouping rather than a hedge. At a mature width of 3 to 6 feet, use this guide:
| Planting Goal | Spacing & Count |
|---|---|
| Single focal point | 1 specimen, 4 to 5 ft from walls and structures |
| Sculptural cluster | Odd-numbered group of 3, spaced 4 ft apart so each column stands clear |
| Semi-transparent screen | Plant 3 to 4 ft on center along the run (about 3 plants per 10 ft) |
Keep the small stem thorns 3 to 4 feet back from walkways, patios, and pool decks.
African Ocotillo Season-by-Season in Phoenix
- Spring (Feb–Apr): The best planting window. Warming soil triggers a flush of small round leaves along every stem. Growth accelerates as nights warm.
- Summer (May–Sep): Peak season. Thrives in extreme and reflected heat that stresses most plants, and welcomes monsoon humidity. Needs only an occasional deep soak.
- Fall (Oct–Nov): Growth continues in the warm soil. A workable second planting window early in the season before nights cool.
- Winter (Dec–Jan): Frost-sensitive. Leaves may drop and stem tips can burn below 28°F. Cover with frost cloth on hard-freeze nights, especially for the first 2 to 3 winters and in cold low spots.
At a Glance
✔ Heat-Loving (Reflected-Heat Tolerant) ✔ Drought-Tolerant ✔ Pool-Friendly (Low-Litter) ✔ Low-Maintenance ✔ Deer & Rabbit-Resistant
Plant It With
- Boojum Tree: another bizarre tapered desert form for a collector's "world desert" grouping.
- Madagascar Palm: a fellow Madagascar native with a thick spiny trunk and tropical crown.
- Madagascar Palm (Pachypodium geayi): slender silver-trunked cousin to layer in varied heights.
- Variegated Lucky Cactus: vivid columnar euphorbia for color contrast at the base.
Is African Ocotillo Right for Your Yard?
African Ocotillo thrives in full sun and reflected heat, needs sharply draining soil (break through caliche and avoid organic mulch), and asks for very little water once established. Its narrow upright footprint suits courtyards and poolside beds. Not a fit if your site sees regular hard frosts below 28°F with no warm microclimate or frost-cloth plan, since cold can burn the stem tips.
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4.7 ★★★★★
Based on 2411 reviews
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★★★★★ 5
Learn to live life now
I am a first time reviewer. I don't know Tim. I only know his book. That there are so many first time reviewers speaks volumes about the book. That said, here is my review:
It took a kid to get the grown-ups to acknowledge what everyone knew to be true: the emperor was naked. Tim Ferriss is a kid relative to most other "self-help" authors but, like the young boy in the fable, his simple, uncluttered collection of "information we already know" more explicitly and successfully states the truth: our idea of achievement that requires a slavish obsession with working ourselves into the ground is a naked religion. Success is joy.
Few books have the potential to inspire passion and fuel personal revolutions. The 4-Hour Workweek is one of them. This book speaks the common yearning to be liberated from the punishing work habits that our society has convinced us are compulsory for success. In simple, often humorous, terms, Tim Ferriss tells us how most of us lie to ourselves about why and how we work and shows us how we can become free.
The modern age promised to bring freedom to humanity. Automation would liberate us from the drudgery of many common tasks, allowing us to complete our work with lightening speed, reserving the rest of our time for leisure. Like millionaires who can afford servants to do the drudgery, the common person would be able to forget the mundane and engage in the profound, to travel, to explore, and most importantly, to be free of worry. Unfortunately, we humans forgot about freedom and became slaves to our machines. Machines increased productivity and the availability of things. We reacted by convincing ourselves that we had to have them all to be satisfied and so became slaves to the jobs we believed necessary to obtain those things. More recently, email and cell phones, which were intended to increase productivity and communication, did so by making us instantly accessible and required us to be instantly responsive at any time of the day or night. Cable television and the Internet also increased communications and the flow of information, but also resulted in an information bombardment that left us catatonic, unable to disengage, yet unable to absorb it all. The result? At the end of our working lives - many times not by our own choice but because of downsizing and outsourcing -- exhausted and demoralized, we cannot enjoy the delayed gratification that has been our beacon of light, our holy grail, for so many years.
Tim Ferris has the audacity to set the whole paradigm on fire in order to illuminate its true nature. Tim questions our assumptions about what progress is and what progress has done for us by highlighting the terrific costs we have imposed on ourselves. With gleeful delight Tim opens our eyes to the fact that we have become the cyborgs, less human rather than more. In a clear, step-by-step fashion, he presents elegant concepts and applies them to life in practical ways that have profound results. He reminds us that "the opposite of happiness is not sadness but boredom" and employs Pareto's 80/20 principle to demonstrate how we can identify those aspects of our lives that hold us back from being happy. He urges us to understand that life is not about the acquisition of things for later enjoyment, life is about happiness, fulfillment in the present, rather than in some un-promised future. Unfettered by useless jargon and overly academic presentation, Tim demonstrates how we can return to sanity and achieve happiness by finally becoming masters over the technology that was supposed to free us. He challenges us to give ourselves permission to quit the rat race and rejoin the human race. These ideas are not entirely new, but Tim's particular expression of them is like sparkling water to the parched souls of millions who now labor incessantly to achieve success yet yearn to quench their thirst for freedom. You don't have to be a millionaire to live a millionaire lifestyle, Tim says. Do you have a dream? Live it now.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2007
★★★★★ 4
Amazing book, unnecessary expansion
Format: Hardcover
If you haven't read the original version - the 4-hour Workweek books is for many one of the most important books they've ever read, including me.
For those who have read the original - the revised version is an improvement on the original, but not a big enough one to justify a second purchase if you've already read the book before.
I've read this book and taken action on just a few of the principles and it has greatly improved my life, and you can easily do the same with the content from this book.
Why?
First, almost of the content in the book includes not only the general idea of doing something (like liberating yourself from an oppressive workplace), but also practical tips on how to actually do it. Even if only one section really relates to you that alone is enormously valuable and justifies the entire price.
Second, the book espouses a 'lifestyle' philosophy which had many points that I had not really considered before reading the original edition. No, it isn't the idea of a 4 hour workweek. Tim Ferriss in makes it extremely clear that a 4 hour work week without anything to replace that fre time leaves you feeling empty inside. The point is to change your life or build systems that let you minimize the stuff you hate doing to only 4 hours a week.
To free up your time up from doing things you hate he provides practical tips on: optimizing your work, setting up remote work agreements, automating it through designing systems, or outsourcing it to a Virtual Assistant. After that, he provides ideas of what to do once you've generated so much free time; because, most of us think we know what to do if we didn't work but it's only on an abstract level not a practical plan. Examples of replacement activities: traveling the world, creating 'charities' or other things that give back to the community, or simply setting up companies that earn money promoting the things you love. From a basic glance all of these ideas might sound trite or obvious, but the difference with the book is that he gives practical advice on how to actually make them all happen.
I don't think I have yet read a better single book for changing your life into a fulfilling entrepreneurial lifestyle. If you were interested enough to even look at the reviews for the book just go buy the book already - at least something in the book will resonate enough to justify the purchase.
As a side note: I notice a lot of recent reviews complaining about the author's writing style. Honestly, the book is easy to read and the content is amazing. Even if you completely hated the author's style (I think their complaints are hugely exaggerated) you can still learn plenty of things to adapt to your life. As for the honesty of his stories just check out his blog which has plenty of transparency and video proof of many of the things claimed.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2010
★★★★★ 5
Plus the title made it sound like it belonged on an infomercial and not in my ...
Format: Hardcover
I had seen the uber-orange cover of The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss all over: Bookstores (duh!), backseats of cars, airplane terminals, frat houses and more. Yet despite its proliferation into the hands (and Kindles) of millions of people all over the world, and its catchy headline, I had yet to read it. In fact, I had no inclination to read it whatsoever.
Quite frankly, I had no idea what it was about. Plus the title made it sound like it belonged on an infomercial and not in my book collection.
Things changed when I started listening to the Tim Ferriss Show podcast just a few weeks ago. The podcast is fantastic and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it; I highly recommend it.
From what I’ve noticed, if I enjoy reading someone’s articles or website, I generally enjoy their podcasts (the same holds true vice-versa). So when I saw that it was available for only $1.99 on Kindle I didn’t hesitate one bit.
Can I really only work 4 hours?
That’s what everyone wants to know. For the most part, no it is not feasible for most. In fact, Tim repeats in his podcasts and presumably other mediums that The 4 Hour Workweek is not to be taken literally. Rather, it drives the point home of what the book is really about: Optimizing your time, eliminating distractions, and finding passive streams of income to allow you to do minimal work while having maximum freedom.
It’s a solid concept. In fact, there really is little basis for the traditional 9-5 schedule:
How is it possible that all the people in the world need exactly 8 hours to accomplish their work? It isn’t. 9– 5 is arbitrary.”
The idea behind this book is to essentially turn the idea of working hard on its head:
Being busy is a form of laziness— lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective— doing less— is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.”
Many books of this nature are simply filled with fluff, woo-woo, and other law of attraction platitudes, but The 4 Hour Workweek is absolutely filled to the brim with productivity tips. This makes the book worth the price of admission alone (that goes for the full price hardcover too!)
There are a few concepts that he really stresses throughout the book and that will allow you to eliminate and optimize.
The first of which is the 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto Principle. This principle states that 80% of results (profit, happiness etc.) comes from 20% of output. Once Tim discovered this principle, he applied it to his nutritional supplement company so that he could focus on the select few clients that brought him the bulk of his income, and to eliminate the pesky customers who were nothing but trouble.
Sure, it cost him some income, but it allowed him to reduce his stress exponentially and freed up a plethora of time.
A second major principle is Parkinson’s law, which states:
… that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. It is the magic of the imminent deadline. If I give you 24 hours to complete a project, the time pressure forces you to focus on execution, and you have no choice but to do only the bare essentials. If I give you a week to complete the same task, it’s six days of making a mountain out of a molehill.”
The best approach to Parkinson’s Law is to
1. Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time (80/ 20).
2. Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important (Parkinson’s Law). The best solution is to use both together: Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines.”
There are a plethora of other tidbits of wisdom throughout, such as:
Check e-mail twice per day, once at 12: 00 noon or just prior to lunch, and again at 4: 00 P.M.
At least three times per day at scheduled times [ask] the following question: Am I being productive or just active?
More is not better, and stopping something is often 10 times better than finishing it.
Getting Your Own Personal Assistant
One of the most engaging and laughable topics in the book was the chapter on virtual assistants (VA). I say laughable because it’s actually incredibly feasible to have a 3rd world virtual assistant, and I couldn’t help myself from laughing at the idea of having a team of Indians heeding my every beck and call.
Consider this:
If you spend your time, worth $ 20-25 per hour, doing something that someone else will do for $ 10 per hour…”
Makes sense. Plus there are other good reasons to consider getting a VA:
Getting a remote personal assistant is a huge departure point and marks the moment that you learn how to give orders and be commander instead of the commanded. It is small-scale training wheels for the most critical of NR skills: remote management and communication.”
The Original Internet Entrepeneur
When I began to read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, I noticed something: I had read this before. But it wasn’t because Aurelius was plagiarizing content 2000 years in the future, rather it was the inverse.
I’ve noticed this phenomena with The 4 Hour Workweek in that much of the content seemed all too familiar with the Digital Nomad and lifestyle design communities and advice of today. But seeing as it was written originally in 2007, one could say it was the first of its kind.
In fact, the proliferation of internet entrepreneurs are likely a result of this book.
On that note, look where Tim Ferris is today. He’s not lounging on a beach in Guatemala making money off his supplements. Rather, he’s busting his ass in Silicon Valley helping startups turn into massive success stories.
This is no fault of his; I just think many readers of this book and these internet entrepreneurs lose sight of this. They get caught in finding ‘passive income’ and settling for 1-3K a month; just enough to make do in a foreign country of their choice.
This is what I wanted for so long, but now this doesn’t seem like enough. I’d much rather be doing what Tim is doing now as opposed to what he recommend in his book.
Don’t Follow This Book Like the Gospel
Again, the 4 Hour Workweek isn’t designed to be taken literally. This is a pattern throughout the book.
In fact, much of the information regarding internet marketing and asking a boss for a remote work agreement is completely useless for me and may be for you. Yet, overall I was really impressed with the book. There was plenty of solid, actionable advice throughout. In fact, I’ve already marked this book down as one I will have to read again to internalize the concepts that stood out to me.
http://masculinebooks.com/2015/05/26/the-4-hour-workweek-by-tim-ferriss/
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Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2015
★★★★★ 5
Life changing - if you want to change!
Format: Hardcover
Follow your bliss, and doors will open", Joseph Campbell famously stated. In "The Four Hour Work Week" Tim Ferriss details how he has followed his bliss, and the doors have certainly opened for him. Rather generously, he then tells us how to do the same.
I found this book to have much that is very worthwhile. There is an enormous amount of information here, and the reader is free to pick and choose what he/she wants to take or leave. It has changed my life for the better.
Some reviewers commented that they found the first half of T4HWW fascinating, but then lost interest. Assuming they are not the very time-deficit folks Ferris talks about, this is probably because the first portion of the book is entertainingly anecdotal, while towards the middle it becomes heavy with lists of information sources - web sites, organisations, reference books and so on. I have personally found this later section to be incredibly useful. That's because I have read and re-read the book with an intention to actually use it. I get the sense that a lot of the critics have never really tried to apply the book's philosophy and specific tips, and quickly returned to re-testing the keypads on their Blackberries.
I found many of the listed web sites very useful. I have always wanted to feel the rush of being a colonial master, so I have hired book editors, programmers, virtual assistants, and translators from sites mentioned in the book, and all at very inexpensive prices. If I hadn't read the book, I would not have been aware of that these people even existed; or at the very least, would never have thought that I, with my one-man writing/publishing business, could ever use them.
One other philosophical positive, Ferris is scathing of the modern culture of work for work's sake, information overload, and time wasting with gadgets. I fully concur. People are wasting their lives tapping away on mobile phones, Blackberries and lap-tops, just like I am now. There's a whole world out there waiting for us when we unplug from the matrix of the money and machines society. I personally loved the stories Ferris relates about his experience with this.
Some people have expressed concerns about the ethical side of this book, and someone compared Timothy Ferriss to a snake oil salesman. I don't share this view, but I understand it. A clear statement of ethics earlier in the book would go a long way - what is right and wrong. In one section detailing how to become an expert, Ferriss says that the idea of expertise is largely a myth. All one really needs to do is read the three leading books in the field and come up with a new angle, then sell it. It may well be true that you could pass yourself off as an expert doing this, but I don't see it as being ethical, because it is a deliberate deception. If you have a brilliant idea, a fair enough; but you shouldn't be telling people what to do or what to buy if you don't have significant experience and knowledge of the subject (go into politics instead, where you will find lots of friends). To be fair though, Ferriss much later states that he will not work with unethical or dishonest people.
Nonetheless, I do agree that it is often great - and very freeing - the break the rules; but the golden rule is never do harm to others.
Towards the end of T4HWW, Ferris encourages the reader to act upon what really moves us, what makes us happy; and he asks us to be of service to the world. "Take time to find something that calls to you, not just the fist acceptable form of surrogate work" (p. 297), he writes. Once we have decided this (or "permitted" might be a better word), the task is to find out how to help others, the future generations, to do the same. He then implores us to develop a habit of charity.
This very closely approximates my own approach to life, as I've outlined in my books. One thing I would suggest though, is developing a set of specific tools to enable you to really follow your inner guidance system. I call it listening to the "Sage". Ferris doesn't address this issue specifically.
I suspect T4HWW will work best for western audiences. Besides being a lot fatter and generally more annoying than just about everyone else, studies tend to show that westerners are more individualistic and free-thinking than other cultures. In comparison, Asian cultures have a low tolerance for ambiguity and change (Singapore has the lowest capacity in the world, Hong Kong, where I live, is fifth last - so don't come here trying to change anyone's mind). A central point Ferriss makes is that people develop life and work habits which drain their souls of vitality, spontaneity, and the adventurous spirit of the child (I am in complete agreement). To shift those habits one has to begin to jettison the conformist, conservative and restrictive culture of one's society.
It is unfair to criticise Timothy Ferriss for not always having followed the formula outlined in T4HWW. He's a relatively young man in his early 30's who is finding his way through the world with active experimentation, by being adventurous. He is following his Bliss. So give the poor New Rich kid a break. I say, "Well done, Tim. Keep up the good work!" - and it is how to do good (fun, vitlising) work that he is teaching us. And as Ferriss points out on his web site, the title should not be taken too literally. The author doesn't work four hours a week. He merely does what he loves, when he wants to do it, where he wants to do it. That's what I call smart. That's living your Bliss.
I give Timothy Ferriss' "The 4 Hour World Week" a 5-star rating. It is potentially life-changing. This is not a book you read just once for inspiration. It is hands on, and chock full of practical tips and know-how. T4HWW will work best for those who have an entrepreneurial and freedom-loving spirit, those who like to think outside the box, and preferably outside the country. It is highly recommended.
Marcus T. Anthony, author of "Sage of Synchronicity" and "Integrated Intelligence."
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Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2010
★★★★★ 3
Overpromises and underdelivers but has some good advice
Format: Hardcover
The idea of this book is not necessarily to make someone rich overnight, but to help some get just rich enough to abandon full-time work and maximize profit over a shorter time so the individual can enjoy whatever he wants to do the rest of the time. In the author’s case, that seems to involve a lot of travel and beaches and that sort of thing. In my case, that involves…different work. I really don’t want to work just four hours, but I was hoping the book would have some good insights into methods of automation and streamlining that might help move me toward dedicating more time to DIFFERENT kinds of work than the mundane things that unfortunately seem to dominate too much of our lives.
All in all, I’d call the book a mixed success. It’s a good mix of some ideas that ought to be self-evident to anyone with a working brain, some genuinely good insights I hadn’t necessarily considered before, and some motivational stories to “prove” the ideas really can work.
Unfortunately, the motivational stories don’t really prove much of anything except that certain ideas worked for certain individuals in certain circumstances, and very few of those are applicable (or even interesting) to the vast majority of readers, so we can immediately dismiss a good chunk of the book as mere filler. But what about the rest? Is there really good information here?
Well, yes and no. The book does commit the same sin just about every business book in the world (certainly all the popular ones) commit: it overpromises and underdelivers. If you’re working a nine-to-five, even perfect execution of 100% of this book’s ideas will never get you down to four hours per week unless you invent something that completely automates your job (but of course without your employer finding out about it) or generates plenty of passive income. The author’s selling a pipedream.
That said, if you look past the exaggerated claims and put on an entrepreneurial hat, there actually is plenty of good advice in here about managing your time more effectively and plenty of resources to tools and services you can use to take some of the burden of the mundane off your own back and place it (sometimes at surprisingly low cost) somewhere else.
At the end of the day, I found plenty of useful information in here. But for a book largely about liberating oneself from wastes of time, it really should’ve been half as long at the longest.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2025