一周工作四小时不是梦

    如果说有谁能了解创业的艰辛，这个人非蒂姆•菲利斯莫属。这位成长于纽约东汉普顿区，毕业于普林斯顿大学（Princeton）的作家曾是一家数据存储公司的销售人员，之后还开过一家运动营养品公司。2007年，他出版了《每周工作四小时》（The 4-Hour Workweek）。这本书成为《纽约时报》（New York Times）的最畅销著作，但也引起了很大争议。它极力向读者推荐菲利斯的“生活方式设计”原则，还提出了优化工作时间，提高生活质量的方法。这本书的成功让菲利斯成了自助大师，还为他在2010年出版后续作品铺平了道路。去年秋天，菲利斯和亚马逊图书出版部门Amazon Publishing签定合同，由后者发行他的新书《每周下厨四小时》（The 4-Hour Chef），成为知名作家中第一个吃螃蟹的人，轰动一时。同时，菲利斯还把注意力放在了科技领域。截至目前，他所投资或担任顾问的科技公司已经超过30家，其中包括Facebook、Twitter、租车网站Uber和网上劳务市场TaskRabbit。

    本刊记者借数字时尚品牌InsideHook在旧金山举行发布会的机会和菲利斯共进了午餐。这位曾经的全美散打冠军（没错，他真的是散打冠军）谈到了他和亚马逊结缘的过程，解释了他为什么暂停投资活动以及他近期不会推出新书的原因。

    《财富》：你之前曾经告诉过我，《每周下厨四小时》这本书被砍掉了250页。请恕我直言，我听说你对亚马逊不是很满意。是真的吗？

    菲利斯：有很多事情都让我满意的不得了，但我想大家都低估了大型零售商对Amazon Publishing做出的非理性激烈反应。这不是亚马逊的错，在这一点上我不怪亚马逊。当时我们知道有哪些风险。所以当机会出现时，我决定放手一搏，责任也由我来承担。亚马逊在数字领域执行的非常好。我们预计会遭到图书零售商Barnes & Noble的抵制。但我们没想到塔吉特（Target）、好市多（Costco）和沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）这些零售商也会抵制我们。

    情况变化的非常快，这次经历则教会了我很多东西。就好像下次出书时我就能（拿到一个）MBA学位。下一本书我会找亚马逊吗？我会采用传统方式吗？还是把二者结合起来？还是自己出版？我不知道。

    最近我不会出版新书，部分原因是我认为在接下来的大概24个月里会出现大屠杀或者军备竞赛那样的场面，我想一直等到尘埃落定。我不会低估亚马逊！（轻笑）而且作为一名传统出版人，我还要说，现在至少还有十几家初创型企业值得关注，我不会目光短浅地把所有注意力都集中在亚马逊身上。如果你不打算创新，我就会这么做，趁成本还不那么高……

    ……而且不是通过亚马逊。

    没错。

    换句话说，今后一、两年都别指望再看到蒂姆•菲利斯的新作了。

    我不这么想。我是说，凡事没有绝对，但如果明年或后年能出书的话，我会感到格外惊讶。

    If anyone gets the entrepreneur's plight, it's Tim Ferriss. The East Hampton, N.Y.-raised, Princeton-educated author once worked in sales at a data storage company before starting a sports nutrition supplement company and penning The 4-Hour Workweek in 2007. The controversial New York Times bestseller inculcated readers to Ferriss's "lifestyle design" principle, serving up ways to optimize the work day and increase quality of life. Its success established him as a self-help guru and paved the way for a follow-up in 2010. Last fall, he created a stir as the first major author to sign with Amazon (AMZN) Publishing to distribute The 4-Hour Chef. At the same time, Ferriss also kept his eye on the tech scene. To date, he has invested in and advises over 30 tech companies, from Facebook (FB) and Twitter to Uber and TaskRabbit.

    Fortune caught up with Ferris at the launch of the digital lifestyle brand InsideHook in San Francisco, where the former national Chinese kickboxing champion (yes, really) reflected upon his Amazon flirtation, why he's on hiatus from investing, and why another book isn't coming any time soon.

    Fortune: You told me earlier that 250 pages were cut from the 4-Hour Chef. Feel free to disagree, but I'd heard you weren't happy with Amazon. Is that true?

    Ferriss: There were many things I was more than happy with, but I think everyone underestimated the irrational backlash from big box retailers that would come of Amazon Publishing. That wasn't the fault of Amazon, and I don't blame Amazon for that. We understood the risks going in. So as the opportunity presented itself, I made the decision to pull the trigger. I take responsibility for that. On the digital side, Amazon executed fantastically. We anticipated that Barnes & Noble (BKS) would boycott. We did not anticipate that Target (TGT), Costco (COST), Wal-Mart (WMT), and so on would boycott.

    The landscape is changing so quickly, but the experiment itself taught me a lot. It was like [getting an] MBA in the next wave of publishing. With the next book, would I do Amazon? Would I do traditional? Would I do a mixture? Would I do self-publishing? I don't know.

    Part of the reason I'm not doing a new book in the immediate, foreseeable future is that I think there's going to be a bloodbath or arms race over say, the next 24 months, and I want to wait until the dust settles. I wouldn't underestimate Amazon! [chuckles] And as a traditional publisher, I would also say, I wouldn't get myopically focused on Amazon when there are at least a dozen startups you should also be concerned with. If you're not going to innovate, I would do so while they're less expensive –

    -- and not Amazon.

    Exactly.

    In other words, don't expect another Tim Ferriss book within the next one to two years.

    I don't think so. I mean, never say never, but I would be exceptionally surprised if I were to have a book come out in the next year or two.