A Book Changed Me

Being an avid reader, I've been influenced by numerous impactful books throughout my life. However, if I were tasked with singling out a single book, my pick would be "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Timothy Ferriss (2011). The reason: it significantly altered the course of my life (for the better) when I was approaching the age of 40.

This is not a book review. Given its status as a New York Times best-seller, plenty of people have written reviews for this book. Here, I will talk about how it changed my life.

Before reading this book, as a sole-income earner of the family, I worked as a software developer (contractor) with a relatively good income. Like many, I dedicated myself to producing quality work and hope to get the contract renewed or find the next role. In that sense, I did pretty well, with nearly full employment (as a software contractor, not easy, as there were bad times, e.g. DotCom Burst and Global Financial Crisis). However, the quality of our lives has not really changed substantially.

1. Focus more on stuff that generates Passive Income

While coding for others during the day, I have been working on my 'passive income generators" in my spare time:

• Authoring books

I have written 12 ebooks and a press-published book on Test Automation and Programming, an interactive course on Educative. 

• Software (Tools)

TestWise, a functional testing IDE and BuildWise, a Continuous Testing server. BuildWise won the runner-up prize at the 10th Ruby Award in Japan.

• Software (Web Apps)

e.g. ClinicWise (clinic practice management), SiteWise (content management system) and WhenWise (service booking app). Each of those has a few satisfying commercial customers (as I don't do marketing, no growth yet; this is an area I plan to explore). 

• Writing Articles

Initially, I was writing articles on Medium for my daughter, sharing my experience. Later, with more people liking my articles (frequently featured, 150+ in total, in software testing newsletters), I realized that I could make some passive income by making articles behind Medium's paywall, i.e., earning some passive income. 

I turned down all the requests to add advertisements to my articles.

"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others" - Confucius

One note: I did daytime work with high efficiency and high quality. Why? I can purely focus on my own work in my spare time.

2. I copied the action in the book: "Say No to Over-demanding and Rude Customers".

My ClinicWise app had two customers who complained repeatedly about things out of my control, and they could fixed quickly. These two customers are overseas, using ClinicWise to manage their dental clinics. Our server resides in Japan. 

The complainant was "slow and unable to access the site". This was due to the Internet connection issues. The real solution was adding a backup line, such as another Cable Internet and 4G. It worked well for my brother's clinic in the same region. Really, it is a minor cost for a business. 

However, they have been complaining every a few months. Even though I've been promptly responding to their emails, confirming that the server is functioning well and providing a step-by-step guide to diagnose and the solution. Typically, within a day or two, their ISP managed to rectify the problem, and then there was no further communication from them. However, the problem resurfaces repeatedly, and there's been no substantial change in the situation.

While I understand their frustration (they ran the business on ClinicWise) and the business owners are dentists who know little about IT, this repeated nonsense troubled me a lot, as there was no more I could do to help.

One day, I picked up "The 4-Hour Work Week" book and perused its contents once again. Interestingly, the author had encountered a comparable situation, and he finally took the action that relieved himself (and his annoying customers as well). I copied his action.

I wrote the email to these two ClinicWise customers:

Thank you for being our Customer. Regarding the connecting issue, we will respond immediately (usually under 5 minutes) to confirm our server status. History shows that 100% of the time, there were connection issues with your ISP or others, which were out of our control.

When the next connection issue occurs, please refer this page for diagnose, and we strongly suggest installing another backup Internet service. 

From today, any reported connection issue must be with diagnose results, otherwise, we will just respond by confirming our server status. 

If you find our service unsatisfactory, we suggest you switch to an alternative (suggestions: … ). Simply because we couldn't provide better help on this particular situation. If you choose to switch, we would help with data export (free).

Regards, ClinicWise Team

Guess what? It worked like a magic. We rarely got that kind of meaningless complaint since then, and got along well with them.

3. Taste of greatness of Passive Income: a little bit of happiness every day

The first task after wake-up is to check emails for any sale of books, software tools, new sign-ups to my apps, and new followers on my books and articles. If there is one, start a day with a bit of happiness. 

Frankly, the money is still very minor compared to my daily rate working as a software consultant. But the happiness is totally different. It really feels great to receive financial rewards from

• the stuff that you created (rather than exchanging your time)
• while you are sleeping
• from globally

I can tell you a story. In 2015, My family visited Taiwan and reunited my parents and my sister's family there. One day, I received an email notification while touring: a Canadian company just purchased two copies of the TestWise license. I told my parents: "We can treat ourselves to a better dinner tonight".

Backing to the hotel, I pulled out my Macbook and sent the license keys to this customer. My sister asked what I was doing. I replied, "Selling software". She was amazed.

4. Travel at will

The definition of "New Rich" in the book is not really about the wealth figure. Instead, it is about time and freedom.

In January 2023, China reopened the border after its infamous 3-year "Zero-Covid" policy. I booked the flight to visit my parents for 2.5 months, ignoring a potential short-term consulting contract (I received the purchase order, but the starting date was postponed repeatedly. I just texted the manager that 'I will be going on a holiday and back in June'). A decade ago, I would never have contemplated making such a choice.

It turned out to be the most relaxing and truly free vacation ever. My passive income made this possible.

5. Next Goal: Work Anytime, Live Anywhere

We live in a 'smaller' world; reaching more services and customers globally is feasible and actually preferable.

Our family likes visiting Japan, particularly the culture and the food. If my passive income hopefully grows, I might be able to have a regular long stay there.

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Reading a good book and taking action can really transform one person's life. If you are opting for a "New Rich" lifestyle (by the way, it is still a far goal for me, although I am quite happy with the life changes so far), I highly recommend the book: "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Timothy Ferriss.