I was 19 years old when I first read The Four-Hour WorkWeek. That was eight years ago, and I can honestly say it completely transformed my life’s trajectory.
But it wasn’t just a good read that I put down and forgot about—it became my blueprint for living and taught me the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned.
When I finished that book, I realized I needed to change just about everything, not just a few things. The transformation was immediate and radical, but more importantly, it taught me how to filter the world around me in a completely new way.
Table of Contents
The Great Purge
One of the first major changes was becoming a minimalist. I was living in an apartment and ended up taking three loads to the thrift store, then one load to the dump, and I still sold a bunch of stuff on Facebook Marketplace. It was incredible how much unnecessary stuff I had accumulated.
But this wasn’t just about decluttering my physical space—it was about decluttering my entire approach to life. I wanted freedom, and all that stuff was just weighing me down.
This process taught me something crucial: just because something looks valuable or everyone else has it doesn’t mean it’s right for me.
Questioning Everything I “Knew”
Before reading the book, I had never really taken computer work seriously. I was convinced I was a physical person who wanted to do physical things for work. I didn’t want to sit around behind a desk all day.
But then I realized the power of working from a laptop—the power of the internet and being able to scale things and really reduce your hourly workweek.
I thought, “Oh wow, I guess I do need to work from a computer.” I needed to get better at computer skills, even though I was already decent from school.
The biggest pivot was going from working for someone else to working for myself. That’s a huge shift when you’re 19 and still figuring out life. But this career transformation taught me something even more valuable than entrepreneurship—conventional wisdom isn’t always wise.
Living the Change
At 19, I knew I wanted to finish college, and I was pretty tied down financially. I just needed to keep making money and had a job that would make me enough to get through school, so I needed to finish all that first.
I spent the whole summer in 2019 living out of my car, actually. That’s when I landed my first client as a freelance copywriter and started my business writing copy for clients—mostly email marketing and SEO work.
Living in my car while building my first business was humbling, but it clarified something crucial for me. I was surrounded by people giving me advice about how to live my life, but I started noticing a pattern: the people telling me to “be practical” and “get a real job” weren’t living lives I wanted.
Life-Changing Realization
Through this journey, I developed what became my core life principle: only take advice from people you want to be like. This simple filter has guided every major decision I’ve made since.
The Wrong Advice
There are plenty of successful people you encounter in life, and I had several around me in college—professors, friends, mentors. But here’s what I realized: there’s a difference between conventional success and the kind of life you actually want to live.
I’d meet people who had conventional success, and when I looked at their lives, I’d think: “Man, I’d take one-tenth of their income if I could just live in a van, be free, ski all the time, and pursue my passions.”
That lifestyle is totally possible, but to reach that level of freedom where you work for yourself, taking advice from someone who’s been a lawyer or ski resort executive their entire career doesn’t make sense.
It’s hard to listen to them about entrepreneurship because they’ve never actually done it—even though some of their wisdom could be valuable.
This is where it gets tricky: some people have solid advice in certain areas but terrible advice in others. And it’s always challenging to figure out who’s who.
For example, I had professors who were 60 or 70 and incredibly fit. When they shared advice on living well, I’d think: if you’re that age, in great shape, and genuinely happy, some of your guidance definitely applies to me. But not all of it—especially if I want a completely different career path.
Applying This Filter Today
The key is identifying people who’ve built the kind of life you actually want—not just the kind that looks successful on paper. If you want freedom, find people who’ve created real freedom for themselves. If you want to be an entrepreneur, learn from people who’ve successfully built businesses.
If you want work-life balance, don’t take advice from someone grinding 80-hour weeks, even if they’re financially successful.
This philosophy has guided me through multiple business ventures—from freelance copywriting to running SLC Events for 26 months, to my Christmas lights business, and now my custom wedding guest book company.
With every major decision, I ask myself: “Who am I getting this advice from, and do I actually want the life they have?”
It’s helped me stay true to my vision of freedom and unconventional success, even when that path looked risky or impractical to others.
Conclusion
The Four-Hour WorkWeek didn’t just change my work habits—it taught me how to think critically about the advice and influences around me. It showed me that questioning conventional wisdom isn’t rebellious; it’s necessary if you want to build something different.
Eight years later, I’m living proof that you can build the life you actually want, not just the one you’re supposed to want. I’m not saying everyone should live in a van or become an entrepreneur, but you should be intentional about whose blueprint you’re following.
The most valuable lesson wasn’t about working four hours a week—it was about being selective with whose vision of success you adopt. Because at the end of the day, the question isn’t whether you’re successful. The question is: whose advice are you taking, and do you want their life?