BY: JONATHAN LOWE

Finally, we come to a true revolutionary. Timothy Ferriss is author of THE FOUR HOUR WORK WEEK: Escape 9 to 5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. Ferris turned his early dislike of authority into a career by rejecting the established model of deferring life until retirement while "wasting" your prime years in a dead end job. Having designed his own escape from drudgery, Ferriss now sells sports medicines online, and travels the world on the income, while still in his 30s. His purchases, sales, and inventory are all outsourced, so there's no management attention needed, either. And he suggests that listeners can copy what he did by planing month-long "mini-vacations" to do what they really love, and then see if there's a way to continue it. If not, he suggests going back to the office cubical to come up with a new plan. It worked for him, after all. Formerly stuck in a job he despised, making $40G a year, Ferriss now makes $40G a month while living outside the U.S. for 11 months of the year in major world capitals. (Far less expensive than people suppose, he claims.) Utilizing his opportunistic talent for seeing ways to bend the rules, he also won a dance competition in Brazil, and a kickboxing championship in Japan as well. But can anyone follow in his footsteps? Perhaps, but only if they share the same mindset. Self driven and innovative, Ferriss is a rare breed. He doesn't need or desire either the admiration of others, nor their symbols of wealth. He certainly cares not at all for the treadmill lifestyle which characterizes most everyone's experience, watching TV and mimicking their neighbors. "Why retire at all?" Ferriss asks, "if you're doing what you love? Besides, in the traditional retirement you'll be so bored you'll want to stick bicycle spokes in your eyes."  (Audible.com download to iPod; 8 hours unabridged)

JONATHAN LOWE is a novelist and audio book reviewer living in Tucson. A longtime judge in the Audie Awards, he has won writing awards from Audiofile, the SC Arts Commission, and Writer's Digest. Audio of his novels The Awakening Storm and Fame Island are available for download at Blackstone Audiobooks.