Growth Potential: Money is one of the biggest issues we all have to deal with in this life – there is no way you can exist without some kind of dealing with money. I used to avoid dealing with money at all (ignorance is bliss) and it paralyzed me with fear. Now I’m well on my way to saving money for travel and a prosperous early retirement; I have an ease around dealing with money and it makes my whole life work better.

Pop Potential: This process would work for anyone who doesn’t know the basics of how to track their income and expenses who doesn’t want to read a book or take a course on money. I personally prefer the individual attention to keep me accountable and so I can ask whatever questions I have, whenever I have them. No pop icons swear by Conscious Bookkeeping that I know of, but they should!

“Get Real” Potential: I can see how this process might not work for people who aren’t into “clearing limiting beliefs” and “setting intentions.” There are plenty of nuts and bolts available (such as tracking all your income and expenses in Quicken), but folks who are seriously averse to slightly New-Agey language might have a problem here.

What I Got out of it: Through my coaching with Joetta, I have transformed my relationship with money from one of fear, avoidance, and thinking it was someone else’s job to deal with (which is ridiculous, since I’m single and it IS my job) to a relationship of empowerment – I know what I want my money for and I know how to handle it. My two goals in this process were to be financially empowered so I could get what I want in my life, and to model a successful relationship with money for my small daughter as she grows up, and I’m very pleased with the results so far.

Learn more about Conscious Bookkeeping

Growth Potential: Ferriss brings a great mix of his own ideology with specific, usable tips and resources. He makes a convincing argument for why you shouldn’t give the best years of your life working for someone else, on the arbitrary 40-60 hr/week schedule. He then delves into dozens of specific ‘how-to’s from pre-testing products and outsourcing their production, to managing interrupting people who want to ‘chat’ at work. My favorite exercise was called ‘dreamlining’ where you put your dreams into realizable financial goals.

Pop Potential: I think Tim has a better chance of hitting the pop mainstream than his book, although he did achieve bestseller status. He’s a charismatic & good lookin’ fella, and you can see from his blog that he spends a fair amount of his time being active and having fun. The YouTube videos on his site are certainly intriguing enough that one could see a 4hourworkweek TV show in the not-too-distant future. That is if it didn’t require putting more than 2 hours a week into it (he’s got other businesses to run after all).

“Get Real” Potential: Central to the book’s premise is that working in an office, on a 9-5 work schedule and having bosses and stuff is bad. Running around skydiving and traveling while your own business is on autopilot is good. I’d argue that that’s a little extreme as each has its merit. Also, I can’t help but get the feeling that a life with free time during the weekdays, and bopping from country-to-country lends itself to a degree of loneliness. If you don’t talk to your employees, customers and have virtual assistants emailing thank you notes to your friends and loved-ones…um, who are you interacting with?

What I Got out of it: Personal development books often get me real psyched up at first, and then I kind of forget about all that stuff I was going to do to transform my life a few days later. This is the first book that I can really say is a new bible. So much of what the author shared resonated with thoughts I’d had for years but felt ashamed to think. He not only helped me make sense of my intuition, he told me how to make it work. This book served as a catalyst for me to streamline and optimize my life and projects so that I can spend more time doing the things I’m really passionate about.

Learn more about The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss

Buy the book from Amazon.com