He seems to make a success of whatever he turns his attention to, whether kickboxing, dancing or lying on a beach making money on autopilot. And he has a successful book called "The Four-Hour Work Week."

Let me make things clear - I've done kickboxing and I would say I wasn't too bad on the dance floor when I was younger. Oh, and maybe I was handsome when I was his age, 20-plus years ago. Yet right now, I am virtually bedridden, going through the slow process of recovery from a serious back problem. No dancing or kickboxing for me right now.

I'm a web entrepreneur, media trainer and journalist who is running several online businesses. And it is at a time like this when I appreciate the messages Ferriss conveyed in his book. When you have a serious health problem you realize that you need a system in place to run your business on autopilot.

Like Ferriss, I am a convert to outsourcing. I've always been something of a workaholic during my years as a journalist reporting in such diverse places as Afghanistan, Iraq, China, India and Thailand. I've tended to crave control and what I felt was the necessity to do everything myself. Ferriss' book, and the good advice of outsourcing "gurus" Jonas Reese and Tyrone Shum have led me to the light.

If you want to become really successful working online, you have to learn to let go - outsourcing a lot of your tasks to full or part-time "staff" in the Philippines, India or elsewhere. One of my marketing mentors swears by the webmaster he has in Romania. Alternatively, you might want to employ local staff to take the load off you if your business gets big enough.

I outsource some of my work and when I was struck down by this back problem it renewed my resolve to develop my business in such a way that I can hand over 80-90% of the work to other people. Right now, there are still many things that I have to do that will keep me busy for 40 hours per week or more. Yet, in the long run, once the systems and processes are in place, I hope to outsource much of what I do to then focus on some journalism projects I have in hand and also to travel.

I am chasing Tim Ferriss because I would like to get to the stage where I could beat him - not at kickboxing or dancing - but his claim to only work four hours a week (actually, I think he does more than that but what he claims is his businesses can be run with just four hours of oversight per week - possibly checking in on his laptop while sipping a tequila on the beach!).

If you are in the game of online marketing you will probably find that in time you too could outsource a lot of your work and gain freedom to take it easy, spend time with your family or travel. Ferriss and some other entrepreneurs seem to have perfected this.

So what I suggest is - chase Ferriss and see if you can beat him!

Julian Gearing is a web entrepreneur, media expert, trainer and journalist. He is working on material to help people make the most of working online and web creativity. His main working online affiliate program can be found here - http://effective-marketing-online.com