I respect the honesty of this post, but I didn't like that dig at The Four Hour Work Week!
4HWW is about putting systems in place that remove you and thus allow your company to scale. Until you remove yourself you don't have a real business. Of course when you walk away it dies.
Ironically, that seems to be the existential problem Refer.ly had/has - its only compelling content is the founder's blog.
First of all, that's not at all how I interpret the 4HWW book. That's subjective, of course, but I personally didn't like the book or find it useful.
Second, I challenge you to find any founder/hacker of a fast-growing, successful startup who lives out the philosophy in that book. They aren't compatible. Look for blog posts about when Tim Ferriss spoke at RailsConf a few years back (spoiler alert: it wasn't well received).
Second, I challenge you to find any founder/hacker of a fast-growing, successful startup who lives out the philosophy in that book. They aren't compatible. Look for blog posts about when Tim Ferriss spoke at RailsConf a few years back (spoiler alert: it wasn't well received).
You aren't really addressing his point though.
Dmor made a dig at the 'idea' of a four hour work week (that is, the idea that you can just succeed as a founder without putting in massive hours.) The comment to which you're replying is that, hey, Four Hour Work Week isn't saying that its an obvious instant option -- it's a goal to which you can work towards.
I think, that you're actually missing the point. 4HWW (at least to me) is about finding a business you don't necessarily care about, that can be easily automated, and provides an ongoing income stream. That's it.
I don't read it as a story about founding a successful company, I read it as a story about finding a income delivery mechanism that lets you spend your time on things you'd rather be doing.
4HWW is about putting systems in place that remove you and thus allow your company to scale. Until you remove yourself you don't have a real business. Of course when you walk away it dies.
Ironically, that seems to be the existential problem Refer.ly had/has - its only compelling content is the founder's blog.