By Peter Taylor

‘Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.’ Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen)

The lazy winner is for anyone who simply wants to do more with less effort and succeed in their work and personal life without rushing around like a headless chicken or putting in100 hour weeks. We are all too good to put our personal life and careers and work–life balance at risk by working too hard! Equally we can’t head off in the opposite direction and ignore the ‘work’ part of the equation while focusing our time and effort solely on the ‘life’ part. That is not a work–life balance at all and, unless you are already wealthy enough to go for just a life–life balance[1] then you do need to come up with a real ‘balance’ that applies to you.

You are just too good to fail at what you do and I want to help you get even better at succeeding in what you do in the future.

The lazy winner builds on the concept of ‘productive laziness’ which encourages people to apply more thought before leaping into action and throwing effort at a problem or task. There are much better ways to progress in work and in life. I mean, what is the point in rushing around like busy bees all of the time and yet looking back at the end of the day and wondering what it was all about and what you actually achieved.

With a different approach to planning you can ensure that you are one of the lazy winners and achieve success in what you do at work and in life – achieving more impressive results with the minimum of effort.

I want you to make the right decision here. There are hundreds of self-help books out there that will promise to help you ‘get paid more and live a longer happier life’. What I do believe is that by adopting a few simple rules in your life you can make changes that can be quite significant, depending upon your starting point of course, and what your expectations are of such change.

What this book is then is a roadmap, a route planner, a step-by step progress plan, to guide you on your way to achieving some level of ‘productive laziness’. And that is an important thing to understand. You don’t have to go for the ‘big bang’ approach and you don’t have to do 100% of what I suggest to achieve some benefits. I believe that you will achieve some advantage at each stage – small incremental gains as each lesson is learned and applied.

Again, many self-help books only work if you entirely immerse yourself in what they have to say and then adopt all the advice to the maximum. And when you fail to make any significant changes it will be your fault for not doing it all properly and thoroughly enough.

This book is not like that. So, should you read this book?

You need to ask yourself some questions before you make up your mind.

What happens when you get involved in something? Do you get carried along in the excitement of it all, caught up in the rush, or just accept everything that heads your way with a spirit of fatalism?

Or do you ever hold back and ask yourself:

- Do I want to do this piece of work, job or task? Even if I do want to do it, do I need to do it?

- Is the potential result or outcome worth my effort?

- Do I have to do it myself?

- If you have to do to it then what is the shortest path to the point of success?

- What exactly is that point of success and at what stage will you just be wasting your time?

If you get a clean run of ‘Yes I do that’ across all five questions then put your purse or wallet away and go buy something else. You are most likely ‘winning’ already.

If you lost your way at some point in the short questionnaire, and that is going to apply to the majority of you I am sure, then you either just enjoy being a headless chicken and working 100 hours a week or you seriously want some help.

If the ‘100 hour per week chicken’ profile is your key to happiness then again, you don’t need this book. You can just carry on as you are and good luck to you. Contentment is a blessed thing and it is good that you have found yours.

But, if this has made you consider in any way that there might be some changes that you could make – if only you had some sort of guide and reference point – then you need to learn the art of productive laziness and, surprise, surprise, The lazy winner is a great place to start.

Try the questions again in the context of this book:

- Do I want to read The lazy winner? Do I need to read The lazy winner?

> Well you should have a clear view by now based on what you have read so far and on the answers to the questions above.

- Will the outcome of reading The lazy winner be worth the effort?

> Trust me; I will make it as painless as possible to get the most out of this book – working smarter not harder, I practice what I preach – you will gain in proportion to what you put into the process.

- Do I have to read The lazy winner myself?

> Ideally yes, but actually I can be hired at a ridiculous fee to come and read it to you – your choice, but why not give the book a go yourself first?

- If I have to read The lazy winner then what is the shortest path to the point of success? What exactly is that point of success and at what stage will I just be wasting my time?

> When your chicken is no longer headless and you have reduced your working hours then you may well be reaching a point of return on your investment.

So, do you want to be a lazy winner or carry on being a busy loser?

Hopefully I have demonstrated my integrity by being honest and upfront about what the book is and isn’t. Out of that massive number of self-help books I noted earlier how many are actually read completely? How many are really used as they were intended? How many now sit on a shelf collecting dust or are destined for the next charity sale? We are all human, I know – we want to change but it is so hard sometimes and so much easier to just carry on with things as they are. I have twenty or so cookery books, beautifully produced with wonderful pictures and stimulating recipes, but I still, mostly, end up eating the same meals that I always have done. Strange.

OK, enough of me talking here, it time for you to make your mind up.

Decision time

So what is it going to be? You need to answer all of my questions but I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he ask six questions or only five?’

Well, to tell you the truth, in all the excitement I kind of lost track myself, but being as this is a book about productive laziness, the most powerful way of working in the world, and could blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya?

Go ahead reader, make my day… Or to be more precise, go ahead and make your day by learning to work in a better way, the winning way of productive laziness.

Just remember:

‘Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.’