The Five-Hour Workday

Live Differently, Unlock Productivity, and Find Happiness

In 1914, an American entrepreneur named Henry Ford had a decision to make, and it wasn't an easy one.

Ford Motor Company had just implemented a new technology called an "assembly line", and almost instantly, the innovative machinery provided a massive gain in productivity.

By the rules of capitalism, Henry Ford had every right to maintain the 10-16 hour workday that was common at that time, and pocket the financial gains of this new productivity.

But where other capitalists saw a path to greater profits, Ford had a much grander vision.

Ford took a gamble that would change the world as we know it: he doubled his workers' wages, and more importantly, he gave them their time back. He reduced the workday to 8 hours, and shared the fruits of this new productivity, in both money and time.

For his workers and his company -- and eventually our entire nation -- quality of life was completely transformed for the better. For the first time ever, the majority of workers had time to spend with their families, and time to purchase goods and enjoy them.

As a result of the shortened workday, Ford attracted the nation's best workers, created a culture of innovation, and grew his company to a 61% market share within 7 years. Reducing the working hours was a simple idea that absolutely changed the world for the better, for both business owners and employees.

Fast forward 100 years, to where we are today. A new assembly line has arrived: computers, software, and the internet that connects them all. But unlike Ford's assembly line -- which increased the productivity of the human body -- today's technologies have increased the productivity of the human mind.

We're in an era of monumental gains in worker productivity, and corporations have become wildly profitable. They're achieving more profits, and faster, as workers are needing much less time to finish their work and generate those profits.

And yet, the 8-hour workday -- which was invented for factory workers over 100 years ago -- hasn't changed.

Until now, that is.

This book is about one company that simply asked why. A company that had the courage to try an experiment, toward re-inventing a more sensible, productive, and healthy workday for the knowledge workers of today.

A company that switched to a five-hour workday, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and found that it changed everything for the better. As a result, that company -- Tower Paddle Boards -- is now one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation.

In this book, company founder and CEO Stephan Aarstol explains how his company's experiment has changed both his business and his workers' lives for the better, and why it has the potential to do so for our entire society.

 In The Five-Hour Workday, you’ll learn:

And most importantly, you’ll learn how reducing your workday will transform your own business, and your own life, into something better than you ever imagined possible.

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Author Stephan Aarstol on "The Five-Hour Workday"