Photo-A-Day #1601

Today as I did a job for a coworker who thinks they are are boss I listened to Tim Ferris’ 4 Hour Workweek on my iPod. Maybe it is the writing, maybe it is the reader but it has such an arrogant feel to it. There are concepts that are interesting and I will apply to my life but, well I need to listen to the whole thing to make my final decision. At Blog World Expo last year I saw Mike Shinoda and Tim Ferriss and Rohit Bhargava give a keynote. I liked it but I still got that way to confident vibe from Ferriss. I liked the talk but at the same time got that vibe. I just get the feeling that if I was to ask him a question it wouldn’t be a good enough one and I’d feel like I was wasting his time. Maybe I should read the book rather than listen to it. It may very well be the reader that is giving me this vibe.

I did apply one of the things that I learned from listening to the audiobook. After I had finished my task, which was not mine in the first place but rather a “favor” for a coworker. By favor I mean this became my obligation to that coworker and their responsibility and task became mine. So I took care of it let the coworker know I was done. They looked at it and sent back a few minor changes that they could have taken care of instead of telling me the changes needed to be made. I made a simple e-mail back stating that I was swamped for the rest of the day and tomorrow and since they wanted things posted today they were simple changes that they could make easily. The e-mail response from them was “okay”. Problem solved, time waster taken care of.

I have a hard time saying “No” to people. I want to help people, that is my nature. I respond to every comment, every e-mail and every tweet. I like that. I like interacting with people. I don’t find that my online interactions are wasting my time because I am building relationships with people. I am also building relationships with people at work as well. I do these little projects to help out and also to make myself the go to guy for certain things. But I also don’t want to be sucked into useless meetings that waste my time.

At the same time I am reading Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Now Chris comes off more like a regular guy in his book, he’s a guy you want to hang out with. Reading Trust Agents gives me a much better feeling about the book and thus about Brogan himself. Trust agents isn’t about reducing people to time wasters and producers and it isn’t telling you to outsource your life to get what you want. So, Trust agents is the book I’m probably going to get more out of than 4 Hour Work Week. I think it will speak to me more I know they are completely different books and should be taken as such.

This must be book time for me because I am also very much excited about Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk. I’ve seen a video review of it already (by Sarah Evans) and I am very much jealous as I want an advance copy of that book to review. I already placed an order for my copy but I’d still like to review it early. Gary if you read this I’m asking you for a copy because I will put it to fantastic use. Look for a real review once I listen to the whole 4 Hour Workweek and when I finish Trust Agents and hopefully when I get that copy of Crush It (early… please… Gary)

What are your thoughts on the books, have you read them? Have you listened to the audiobooks? What is your take?