Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
Before hiring one of my assistants, Charlie, I asked him where he wanted to be in 6 and 12 months.
I made him define what he wanted to have and what he wanted to do in both timeframes. At the top of the list was a mini-retirement to Thailand or South America.
Done and done.
Charlie just returned three weeks ago from Buenos Aires. It was there he developed a rather keen interest in Brazilian girls, who were visiting Argentina as tourists. Two weeks ago at around 2am, while preparing the new book launch at my house, he somehow accidentally (riiiiight) got stuck in a Flickr slideshow of Brazilian models.
The photos belonged to someone named Jeremiah Thompson.
Digging a little deeper, it turned out that Jeremiah had an incredible story. Two years ago, he decided he wanted to become a professional photographer of Brazilian bikini models. That, and he wanted to get married. Despite the fact that he was from Montana and had no training, he made both happen in record time.
This is his story…
An Interview with Jeremiah Thompson
What’s your background?
I was born in Missoula, Montana, a small college town in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. My Dad was a colonel in the Army so I grew up all over the place, including a couple of stints in Germany. I definitely have a strong entrepreneurial background and have been in business in one form or another all my life, starting at a very young age. The internet has helped me open up a number of businesses.
Did you have much experience as a photographer?
If I thought I could make it rich taking photos, I would have gone into this profession a long time ago. But really, photography has always just been a hobby.
How did you choose Brazil as your destination?
Learning how to surf was, believe it or not, a real stepping stone in my life. About four years ago, I learned how to surf behind an artificial wave put up by a wakeboarding boat. I really got into the sport and wanted to carry my surfing aspirations into the ocean. I narrowed my choices down to Australia and Brazil. A 15-minute phone call to Hans Keeling of Nexus Surf convinced me that Florianopolis, Brazil would be the perfect place for me to go.
[Editor: Some of you might recall that Hans, a recovered ex-lawyer, is a case study in The 4-Hour Workweek]
How did the calendar idea come about?
Arriving in Florianopolis in January of 2008, I was amazed by the sheer quantity of beautiful women — they were everywhere! I’d always had this dream of photographing models, so it was a perfect opportunity to make that dream come true. I coined the calendar name “Girls of Brazil” and so the adventure began. Then I just needed to find the models.
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
So, how and where did you find the models?
The first model really set everything into motion.
I was hanging out with Hans Keeling (the owner of Nexus Surf) at Praia Mole Beach, when we passed a super sexy woman working at a fresco paddle rental stand. I had already mentioned my swimsuit calendar idea to Hans, and he happens to speak perfect Portuguese. I asked him if he would help me talk to her and pitch the idea. At this point, I had no product or business cards — just a pair of board shorts, my camera, and some photos of wildlife I had taken in Montana. But that was all I needed. It worked. She agreed to meet me the next day! She was even going to hitchhike to my house at 5:00 AM! I convinced her to let me pick her up, and we shot the next day from 5:30 AM till 8:30 PM. It was a great start to my project.
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
After that, I found most of the girls on my own, speaking to them in very basic (if not completely broken) Portuguese. I was able to find girls almost everywhere – at the beaches, clubs, supermarkets, walking down the street, and even online. It was too easy. Once I had a few great shots under my belt, I was able to show these same photos to other girls, and most wanted to participate just to get their own pictures taken.
Were they professional models?
The girls were, for the most part, your everyday gals. I did shoot one girl who was actually an international model. I found her while I was driving down the street. I jumped out of my car, chased after her, and asked if she wanted to participate. You would think someone like that would laugh at me, but she ended up making the photos:
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
Quite a few of the models had experience as event girls. I had the best luck finding those girls online.
But my best photos came from the girls with no professional experience. They always came to the shoots with the most energy. Their openness allowed me more freedom to infuse my own ideas into the photo shoot. This definitely made things more fun, and the results were always great.
Did you pay them for the shoots?
During the first year, I never paid any of the models. By the second year, I started paying a little. I had been dating one of the models and she helped me realize that many of the girls were actually using their own money just to prepare for the photos. They were paying to get their hair done, manicures/pedicures, new bikinis, etc. It was expensive. I started paying them 500 Brazilian reais, which amounted to approximately $250 US dollars. And because I shot many of the girls multiple times, it was a very small price to pay. However, I’m convinced that even if I didn’t pay anything, I would have just as much success or possibly even more. The girls, especially in the first year, really got excited about the opportunity, even though there was no money involved.
Critics might say you were taking advantage of them. What would you say to that?
One of the cool things about this project is the success they’ve had using my photos afterward.
Four of the girls went on to pose for Playboy Brasil. One of the girls got hired on as a dancer for the top television show in Brazil on Sunday afternoons. Many got modeling jobs. And they’ve all appreciated the opportunity, so that’s one of the best things about doing this.
Furthermore, it is not as if I was making money myself. The first few years of this project were big losses. Frankly I couldn’t afford to pay the girls to participate. This was a project I started more out of my desire to be a swimsuit photographer than to make another dollar. The girls loved the project and the photos. Many participated in multiple years. There weren’t any victims here.
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
For those who’ve dreamed about being a swimsuit photographer but have never had the chance, can you describe the atmosphere of a shoot?
The atmosphere is definitely one of the best things. It starts when the girls come to my house. I need to see them in their bikinis before we head out so I can prepare for the shoot. In the first year, all of the girls used their own bikinis and that worked great 90% of the time. But I started buying bikinis for the girls in year two. So the first step was always to pick out the best bikinis. We would usually find 2-4 bikinis that we would take to the shoot. After that, we either walked to a nearby local beach or took my car to a more private beach.
Usually, we would arrive before sunrise. This meant the girls had been up since 2:30 AM preparing! I typically rolled out of bed around 5:00 AM. Not an easy thing to do, but when the moment comes and those first rays of light hit a beautiful girl in a tiny bikini, it’s worth it.
Posing the girls was always the most difficult part. I wanted to bring out the best in each girl. I would put them through as many poses as possible, mentally noting how they looked best. Then when the best lighting conditions occurred, I would get the girls into what I already knew would be their best pose. This system worked great.
After the shoots, the first question from the girls was always: ”When will the photos be ready?”
They were thrilled to have shots for their portfolio that would otherwise have cost them at least a week’s pay.
Were there any methods you used to produce better results (i.e. humor to loosen up the model, etc.)?
I enjoyed bringing out the genuine smiles of each girl.
Most model photos always have that super serious look, which is supposed to be sexy. I don’t know if I’m different in this regard, but I always enjoy seeing a girl’s smile more. So for half the photos, I would get the girls smiling their biggest smiles possible, and the other half I would let them revert to that serious but “sexy” look you see in all the magazines. Getting the girls to smile was easy: I would just say “mais sexo!” For two years I thought that phrase meant “sexier!” but I guess it really means “more sex!” So it usually made the girls laugh before going into an even sexier pose. That’s how I discovered the girls’ natural smile and how great it looked in the photos.
What have been some of the more memorable moments from your shoots?
I’ve shot something like 30-40 girls now, and there are so many memories with each girl.
Fernanda was my first model and she will always be one of the best memories of this project. Actually, the first photo I took of her is, to this day, one of the best I have ever taken:
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
Then there was Iris, who showed up an hour and a half late to our shoot. We jumped in my car and she changed into her bikini as I sped off. When we arrived at the beach, I quickly put her into a pose, and we made this photo [below] in about 10 minutes. It was not a minute too soon, as the sun set right after.
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
When I think about how much preparation goes into a Sports Illustrated shoot and compare it to some of the photos I’ve taken, I’m amazed by the results I’ve had as a one-man operation. It really is a credit to the beauty of these girls and the environment I am working with down in Brazil.
Last but not least, there’s Dayana.
She and I ended up getting married, so how could I not mention this as one of my best memories?! We were really connected right from the beginning. It was a goal of mine to find a woman like Dayana to marry, so having this dream come true as a result of this project was incredible, to say the least.
Photo: Jeremiah Thompson
What sales channels have you used for distribution of the calendar?
I’ve never had the opportunity of getting into the main calendar distribution channels, due to my lateness of releasing the calendars. I learned afterward that most calendars get released almost a year before the calendar year.
That meant the calendar had been shot as early as two years before. Since I was doing this more for fun than to make money, I decided to release the calendars as close to the calendar year as possible. The models were happy with this, as they didn’t have to wait two years to see their photos debut. It wasn’t smart business on my part, but again, I wasn’t doing the project to make the most money.
Having said that, we’ve enjoyed being one of the top calendars through Amazon for a couple of years now. We’re giving “Sports Illustrated” a run for their money (at least with Amazon) and I feel a great amount of pride seeing that and knowing how small my operation is compared to them.
Have you done any unique promotions to get the word out?
In 2009, we sent 20,000 calendars to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, we sent approximately 3,000 (I was working with a bigger personal budget in 2009 than in 2010). I hope to get these numbers back up in future years if I stay involved in the project. I always get troop requests and have a list of soldiers who have already requested their copies for 2011. It feels great helping these guys out. Hopefully seeing the beautiful girls on their walls keeps them motivated to stay strong and finish out their missions safe.
What’s the “Girls of Brazil” contest you mentioned to me?
The idea behind the contest is to give someone the chance to live the dream of being a swimsuit photographer. There really is no better place than Brazil for this.
I’d help the lucky winner of this contest along with each step. First, we’ll recruit the girls and find the models he’ll be shooting. Then I’ll give him my camera equipment and teach him how to photograph the girls. The winner will be shooting the girls on his own, but I’ll be around if he needs my help. And afterward, we’ll celebrate the results “Brazilian style”!
The contest doesn’t exist yet, but I’m hoping to get sponsored by a magazine who can feature it. It would make a great story and fill several issues of their magazine with content guys will love.
That sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If a magazine doesn’t pick up the contest, perhaps we can make it happen 🙂
—
So, how did his calendars turn out? Take a look at Girls of Brazil website or visit Amazon. If you want a taste of his photos on Facebook, here’s your fix.
Question of the Day (QOD): If you’re happily married, how did you meet your husband or wife, and do you think someone could engineer the same? Share in the comments!
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Odds and Ends: Blogging Lessons and New Stickers
This post produced a lot of strong responses. Please see my comments below in orange, as well as Jeremiah’s. Related to that, here are a few guidelines I follow while blogging:
Blog Lesson 1 – Please Everyone to Interest No One
If this post put your knickers in a twist, before leaving a snarky comment, realize this: when everyone is your customer, no one is your customer. This is true in business and writing. Bloggers often make the mistake of trying to generalize every post to every person. This is slow suicide and results in plain vanilla posts that offend no one and interest roughly the same. Expect that blog to disappear within two years, whether from reader attrition or blogger boredom.
I prefer to write posts that strongly appeal to at least a portion of my readers, and simply rotate to hit different demographics/psychographics with different posts. If I perfectly hit the nail on the head by educating (or entertaining) 20% of my readership, and they share it with their friends, does it matter if I lose 2-5%? Not in my experience. From what I’ve seen, this is precisely how you build an uberstrong community comprised of readers who actually speak their minds and show an unusual degree of tolerance (by Internet standards, at least).
If you’d like to read the female perspective on the mating and marrying game, here’s another post on this very same blog.
Blog Lesson 2- Strategic Redating of Posts
Some of you have asked, where did the last two posts go? The posts on GetGlue stickers and book promotion parties?
Here’s the answer: I redated them in WordPress so they wouldn’t appear on the homepage. Once time-dependent promotional posts have been up for 48-72 hours, and my core audience has seen them, I redate them, as these posts aren’t valuable to new visitors. There’s only one chance to make a first impression, so I always want strong stand-alone content to dominate my blog homepage. I’d used redating in this fashion for more than two years. Some bloggers go so far as to ensure one of their most popular posts is always displayed first on the homepage, followed then by their most recent.
Hope that explains things.
Eat drink and be merry. Happy Thanksgiving!
New Stickers – The 4-Hour Body
The 4-Hour Body is almost exactly three weeks away, which means a new sticker from GetGlue! This one is of reader, Nathan. To learn how to get it (and all the others) for free, read this:
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Great post Tim. Anybody who thinks this is misogynistic is probably bitter and/or jealous. Don’t hate the player, hate your venti Frappuccino!
As a woman, I’ve modeled for Playboy and Penthouse only topless. I also work and train with a lot of Brazilian models in bjj.
Tim I think this article is a little irresponsible because it sounds like it’s encouraging people to capitalize on young people for sexual purposes, whether that be male or female is not the issue. Something seems off about it…Jeremiah was candid but perhaps too candid and could be misinterpreted.
I have to agree with CS and some of the other women on here. I think their is a fine line between creepshow and win/win situation. Jeremiah shows signs of both. Showing other men how to target women by being something they are not, by showing them how to get them into your car or home doesn’t sound 100% ethical. If you are not a real artist, than don’t do it to these women.
No model wants to work for free and I don’t want you picking my daughter up in your car and taking her home with some empty promise of fame just because you want to date a beautiful woman and this is just your schtick.
Their are a million creeps who already have the same idea who actually prey on young men and women for sex. Those photographers are just annoying as spam or guys who want to hook up.
I see the potential for a business model here, (no pun intended) but no business model is based on getting clients alone in your car and home, work for free just so you can date them!
If marriage to a Brazilian is what you want, surely being genuine will go much further. I think his work is beautiful, that is why he found a model. They have common ground. It is not enough to say I like hot chicks and you are a hot chick so that is a common interest for all you guys who think this is a great idea.
Are you going to write an article for women on where and how to target a rich man to marry? No sarcasm, just really interested on your thoughts about this because it is a viable business model as well, model targets rich men for marriage…
Hi Jacqueline,
I agree that the straw that broke the camel’s back in this post was the “back to the house” part. I think there’d be about 10% the criticism if that had been omitted. Hopefully people can, as Bruce Lee recommended, “Accept what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.”
Thank you for commenting,
Tim
Oh, thank you! You definitely nailed what I was thinking in response to this article. I’m glad Jeremiah cleared up the compensation issue but it still read a little ‘creepy’ to me and, yes, Tim, some of that was probably a result of the “back to the house” comment.
Not that I don’t love being accused of being unattractive, white, middle class, and a hater for thinking so!
Hey Tim,
It’s my first time checking out your blog and I guess I hit you up on quite a controversial post. As an independent woman, a writer, a feminist and a full-time proponent of following your passions, I’m commenting here to thank you and Jeremiah for sharing. I was inspired to read about HOW Jeremiah did what he did; he followed his passion and that takes courage, ambition and drive. I don’t care exactly WHAT he did. It would not be MY personal burning desire to photograph Brazilian women and then marry one, but I have a hell of a lot of respect for this man who not only realized his own passion but followed through on it. Keep on keepin’ on, my friend.
Tim, on a side note: one of my personal goals is to track you down for a one-on-one lunch. Standby. I’ll make it happen.
Thank you for the comment, H.
Jeremiah, what a great story, not to mention the pics, and with a happy ending as well.
I think the women complaining let the pictures drain their brains of any logic. Allow me to critique the critics.
@Lisa “This post made me a little uncomfortable. The case study was actually very good”
then Lisa wrote
“However, it’s also rife with exploitation.”
Which is it Lisa? Were you ‘a little uncomfortable’ or did you really feel that it was ‘RIFE with exploitation’ in which case you should contact the authorities! Big difference between a little uncomfortable and rife with exploitation. If you truly felt it was ‘rife with exploitation’ you would have written how outraged you were. He explained that several girls move up to Playboy Brazil- a huge step. Maybe their experience gained by him going out there and asking helped them in confidence, experience, photo resume?
@Coco
“What nice big boobs and butts! Good for him he married a pair, eh?”
That’s not what he wrote but you read that into it. He wrote about his wife “We were really connected right from the beginning.”
@Hayden
“ I was also uncomfortable with how much he got from these models. If this was design, people would be decrying the ‘spec’ work.”
Uh, I don’t know if you are familiar with acting Hayden, but people work for FREE all the time. I did community theater, etc. One play took months! I got paid nothing other than the experience and fun. These girls only had to get up at 3am ONE morning and they got FREE photos for their resume. My head-shots cost $100s.
@CS who called him a ‘creepshow’ and quoted OUT OF CONTEXT “I would invite the girl back to my house so we could look at the photos together on my computer.”
“After the shoots, the first question from the girls was always: ”When will the photos be ready?”
Sometimes, if I enjoyed the shoot, I would invite the girl back to my house so we could look at the photos together on my computer. Otherwise, I took a few days to do some basic edits, then we’d meet up and I’d give them the best photos.”
@CS Their first question was they wanted to see the photos!
What I learned is when posting bikini photos in an article, reading comprehension goes out the window for some readers.. And that you must be careful when selling to, writing for, dealing with women because some seem to read and interpret things that are NOT there. Also, some women in America are uptight. Why can’t you just take one tiny thing learned from this article and change it, shape it etc so it works for your situation? [ I watched a one hour show with Wayne Dyer- I got only one idea from it, but it was worth it.] Or just stop reading the article.
To critique the “critiquer” of the critics:
Where did the women objecting to this post identify themselves as Americans? Or are you just as guilty of reading something into this that wasn’t there as they are?
BTW – Loved the article Tim & Jeremiah very informative.
Cheers,
WIFE HUNTING?!!!?
I’ve been a big fan for a long time… I have to say that this article made me SICK. Really Tim? Really? I wish I could say this was inspiring. And maybe to the men on your list looking to pick up a beauty form the third world it is, but it reads less like dream fulfillment and personal accomplishment and more like the inner workings of how to get laid.
I know you can do better than this. I’ve seen it. And I’ve gained inspiration that has moved me forward! Now I’m ashamed to have recommended your book and site to folks in my network. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sex-positive, BDSM practitioner, and event producer. I’m no prude. But you have marketed a very particular resource here and this article does not live up to the standard.
Will you be doing one on Husband Hunting? How about lovers for queers? What about one that will help me find a charming lesbian submissive? Or if you must, how about an article on Nina Hartley’s rise through porn to having her own educational web TV show? Inappropriate? Irrelevant?
Please be more thoughtful in the future. Please continue to be encouraging. Please don’t ever dilute your reputation and brand like this again.
🙁
!Kona
Thank you for your comment, !Kona. I truly appreciate it. This post is an example of me pushing the boundaries a bit (thought I didn’t expect this strong a response, generally — I must admit) and testing readers’ sensitivity to specific topics.
Let me ask, as I really want to know: if there had been no mention of Jeremiah reviewing photos with models at his house, would this post still have bothered you? If so, can you please tell me why?
Thank you again,
Tim
It would have still very much bothered ME, for example. Here’s why…
It’s not because of Jeremiah’s story – “photographers” like him are everywhere. His idea of how to get access to hot chicks is not groundbreaking. In my modeling days, as I was building my portfolio, I met my fair share of losers-with-a-camera. They fancy themselves to be artists, but consciously or not, really seek to take the mediocre pictures they do, to jerk off to.
No, it would have bothered me mainly because of your interest and endorsement of this story and the stereotype the post title propagates. It’s the presupposition that it should be your readers’ dream to marry a woman whose most accurate two-word description would be “Brazilian model”.
I guess as a female follower I might have had this fantasy that you were one of those rare, enigmatic men who seeks soulful, earth-shaking romantic adventures, instead of the PUA-mindset subscriber. I might have fantasized that your predominantly male audience were people like how I imagined you to be – reality-benders who lead the world into a more exciting future… including the way men and women relate to each other. Not through sleazy looks-to-cash transactions, but through unions of fully-developed, well-rounded human beings who make magic together. People who relate to each other with integrity and inspiration, instead of the fill-the-void type of mindsets of the past.
Of course, I don’t personally know you; I guess I projected on you the qualities of the kind of man I’d respect and desire. Can you blame me? I figured you were not the stereotypical shallow PUA-minded sleaze just because in so many other ways you do break stereotypes and the status quo.
I guess I fantasized that the kind of woman that moved you would be the kind of woman I strive to be – someone fascinating, head-spinning, independent, beautiful of course, but also strong, inspired, and just as reality-bending as you are.
To someone who posted above that the offended women must be bitter – yes I am! But I am not bitter because I feel inferior to these models; in fact, I perceive myself to be much prettier than most of these girls (no offense). But how much credit can I take for my favorable genes? No, I am bitter at the way it is so accepted among men to objectify, dehumanize and “2-D” the way they relate to women. I usually avoid blogs that propagate this mindset. I just didn’t expect to find it on Tim’s blog.
Tim… I get the whole idea of polarizing the audience, making waves (or in this case, noise) and what not; but by endorsing this story I do feel like you are disrespecting the cool perception people like me might have had of who you are and what you stand for. That’s all.
Hi V,
Thanks for the comment. I mean it. Just to respond in my defense, though, you did write:
“I guess as a female follower I might have had this fantasy that you were one of those rare, enigmatic men who seeks soulful, earth-shaking romantic adventures, instead of the PUA-mindset subscriber.”
First, I would say that it’s unfair to label me “PUA” (“Pick-Up Artist” for those unaware) simply because I posted this on my blog. Jeremiah got married to the girl of his dreams (yes, physical attraction being part of that), and that’s what I wanted to emphasize. Sure, the girls are pretty and so on, and headlines get clicks, but I didn’t say anything, nor did Jeremiah, to imply these girls have no qualities besides beauty. That would be despicable.
I do seek soulful, earth-shaking romantic adventures, absolutely. But do I also like being with a woman I’m physically attracted to? Most certainly. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
All the best,
Tim
Yes Tim, I agree. You never said anything remotely referring to the “PUA” community in this post and I apologize, I used the term where I shouldn’t have, to mean something else.
The reason I used it is because I meant to liken the ‘attitude’ of the post to the mindset of the guys in that community, who rate women’s VALUE from 1 to 10 based on their physical qualities – only.
Nothing wrong with wanting the woman you date / marry to be beautiful. I’m into hot guys myself, so I feel it’s ridiculous to judge anyone for this.
It’s just the hint at basing women’s value as marriage material on their looks only, suggested by the title. Even if you now say it’s not what you believe, and you do care about other qualities too, and so did Jeremiah, it was nonetheless the first impression, and it rubbed some women here the wrong way. The kind of woman who buys the 4HWW and follows your blog will tend to be ambitious, defy stereotypes, and seek independence. So I think it’s only natural for her to feel nauseated by this post.
And it just made you look shallow. Perhaps it was the title, more than anything. I had the negative reaction as soon as I saw it in my RSS reader and even before I opened it, so you could say I was already pre-judging whatever the article was going to be about. But then it turned out to be about a pseudo photographer. Ugh. Anyway.
I think you got enough heat on this post already, so I will leave it here. I’m not going to stop following you yet, because you’ve made a difference in my life and I hope this thing here is not a major direction you’re taking your brand into.
Cheers.
Thanks again for the comment, V. You’ll notice that I’ve changed the blog post title 🙂
Abrazo,
Tim
Yes, I noticed… 🙂 I’m glad you did.
completely agree.
I love this, it was a fantastic read Tim. The crazy thing is that your guy Hans, he was a good friend of my brother Mike. I remember going to his frat parties at Stanford back in the days. This lets me know how cool of a person you are. Keep inspiring us to live the life we’re ment to live Tim!!
Latin American is a great place to met women. I have been to Costa Rica and Colombia. Currently I have a girl friend in Bogota. I am studying to get my ESL certificate. I hope to sell most of my stuff and take a mini-retirement teaching English in Latin America. To quote a song by the band Gomez “See the World, find and old fashion girl”
Wow…How ironic to see this post today!
I just came back 2 days ago from my 2 month mini retirement in Buenos aires (thanks Tim for the inspiration!)… and 10 (spontaneous) days in Rio after the Brasilenhia-on-vacation-phenomena Charlie experienced in BsAs as well.
I guess the bottom point that hits ME reading this post is to Enjoy every moment of the lovely things you are doing…make sure work doesnt take away your life joy!
Jeremiah had a multi-million dollar company at a young age but got overworked and took the (probably) difficult but crucial step to do something else. And now he really got the edge!
Are we enjoying what we are doing most of the time? If not, maybe It`s time to step up and do something about it!?
We should experience, see, taste and hear new things more often…it stimulates excitement and wellness!
The hard thing for me, to be honest. Is that I`m a creative person, a massive thinker of nature and I`m fighting to get better at more action and less procrastination.
Anyone got some good tips to overcome this?
Tim, I remember you referred to Norwegian women as one of the worlds most beautiful women… Are you every coming back here?
Bring your snowboard and camera for easter to see all the beautiful girls sun-tanning in the slopes here. 😉
Looking forward to reading The four-hour body as I have personally experienced massive “muscle memory” restoration in short periods both with and without the Colorado project as a base. I`ve also studied NLP who made me realize the amazing capabilities the human mind has over the physical body. Wonder if you have any takes on this!
Patiently waiting for your book.
Un fuerte abrazo!
Bendik
Another great story for making your dreams come true. I give my hat off to Jeremiah for going for his dreams.
Tim, your book has tremendously inspired me as well. In 2008, I was living in a 2000 sq foot house, married, with a lots of stuff, and working like crazy… But in deep in my heart I knew I was not doing what I wanted in life, I knew I was not married to the person I truly wanted to share my life with, and I knew I was not living in the place I really wanted (In Louisiana at the time).
So, I got divorced, sold everything I had, packed my stuff in a small 24ft B class RV and took off to travel and I have been in that path every since, now salsa dancing in San Francisco and attempting to win the world salsa championships, traveling to Grand Canyon with my RV, and blogging about my Urban Mobile Lifestyle.
Thank you for all that you do! I think you are doing a fantastic job presenting controversial topics with great taste and sensitivity and not coming off as a jerk! That is definitely a skill that I want to cultivate more as well! All of the best!
Hey Tim – just saw the Facebook post, testing what happens after “submit.” Hopefully I can help out.
Bwahahaha! Now I understand why my husband insisted on getting two signed copies! 😉
A good story to read. Jeremiah puts himself in the position he likes. The world is always inclined. Just check our position. ?!
Female commenter, formerly subscribed to mailing list but now unsubscribed.
I thought there was a punch line to this post and kept reading the ridiculousness to the end when I realized that it was written with all seriousness. The women photographed are beautiful but agreed that the context was sexist and racist…
I had been unclear for some time whether Tim Ferriss was a hack taking advantage of the fact that some people in the world today have it easy and some do not, but it is clear to me now.
Thank you. I will not waste my time anymore.
The topic of “how to meet people for dating” is interesting, so it would be helpful to continue to have blog posts on the topic of dating.
It seems to me that more women from other countries are more feminine and many of these women genuinely enjoy being a sensual feminine woman.
Another article could be about the legal issues of how to go about bringing back a new girlfriend or wife to your country.
After reading the 4HWW, I looked into hiring models for photography projects, but it can be expensive to hire models.
I am a single man seeking a woman for dating and this very interesting blog post opened me up to the idea that there is a world of opportunities. I am now excited to travel to some new countries to do business, have new experiences, and to meet new people!
Very refreshing post. Just shows you can do whatever you want in life. I am assuming he was making money from his businesses though while in Brazil to support himself.
“If you’re happily married, how did you meet your husband or wife, and do you think someone could engineer the same?”
Oh no! I think Tim is getting ready to settle down.
I am born, raised and still living in Florianópolis because of stuff like this. I highly recommend anyone on the earth to meet this place. Not just for the girls, the town is awesome.
Totally true. The surf, the people, the food — all amazing.
Um abraco,
Tim
Great story!
Jeremiah, this would make a great iphone/android app. You already have all the content so it would be fairly easy to get things up and going.
If you want someone to do the leg work for drop me a line.
Wes
why is my comment awaiting moderation from yesterday?
Hi Jacqui,
I actually read my comments, but I don’t check every day. Checking them out now…
Tim
I must agree with some of the women on here. I found this post SUPER creepy…seriously. I thought it was going to be more of a dating guide. Which would be interesting.
I’m just so skeeved out after reading this. Ick.
I don’t care if this is published or not, but just so you know, I’ve been an ardent but quiet follower of yours for years, promoted your books, site, and philosophy to many. You lost me on this one, dude. Too “boys club” for me, I unsubscribed.
I’m sorry, Fiona. That wasn’t my intention. I hope you find more content that you like, and my apologies that this one turned you away.
All the best,
Tim
Tim – the fact that you cared about my point of view is making me reconsider. Thank you.
Hi all!
The 4HWW Book byTimothy is amazing! I read it all in one breath. After that I decided to quit my boring office job. Put all my travel things to my backpack and set up to the world to experience more exciting life. You know what I mean, half year work close to sea, second half work directly in mountains and enjoy snow and everywhere meet new people and hunt girls as well 🙂
Note, I had really very small budget just for one month without income. The reality was hard. I was not lucky to find job, so after all money spent I had to go back to home. Its really bad without money 🙁 Why I tell you this unhappyend story? At home I realised something. I wasnot honest to myself. I went abroad to hunt girls, but very deep in my heart I feel I want to have only one girl for whole life really.
some people wrote here about spreadsheet with points you would like to meet by your partner. I absolutely agree. This is very important thing! You must be very specific who you are looking for. But I have to add one very important note:
You must be very honest in all facts you write down to the paper.In fact I want one lifepartner, but I went abroad to hunt girls. Does anybody know why? 🙂 Maybe I am not sufficient strong to believe I will find the right partner, maybe I simply copied behaviour from the rest of the society. But at this moment I know. This is not the right way. I must be honest to my wishes, what I really want. And find out that, it seems to be so hard sometimes. 🙂 grrr
what you think?
Because there is a lot of shiny words about what should you do to have exciting life. And somebody can adopt this style persuaded to himself this is what he really want. But firstly, he should ask only himself.
It is little bit danger to read these energizing comments. Because then you can write to your spreadsheet that you want a lot of sex, you want to live with brazil girl, etc… but in fact you want to have sex rarely, you want be married with girl from your country.
nevertheless thankyou very for Tim’s books and these blogs. It really opens new life perspectives. To everybody: Lets follow OUR dreams!
I’ve been living in South America for the last couple years, and its laughable to me now that some people are “offended” by this post. Why…because there are a few pictures of beautiful girls in bikinis? Maybe a trip to South America would help change the perception of some that the female figure and openness about sex isn’t necessarily offensive.
The story is inspirational. This guy had a dream and went after it and achieved it.
A side note: For all the guys on here who think they can just land down in any latin american city and start dating models, I would have to say think again. It’s not as easy it it may sound.
Hey Jeremiah, you imply that you’d anticipate your contest winner would be a guy – any reason why a woman couldn’t win the contest? And maybe look at producing a “Boys of Brazil” calendar? Probably a smaller market but I can’t believe that only the women are attractive there. 🙂
Laura, I’m sure Jeremiah would be game. Sadly for American men, perhaps, the boys take as good care of themselves down in Brazil (Rio, at least) as the women. Athletic country all around.
Hi Laura
My wife and her girlfriends have talked many times about starting up the “Guys of Brazil” calendar. They probably would have a lot of success. I’ve never seen so many six packs in my life outside of the movie “300”. The foreign women who visit are always just as blown away by how beautiful Brazilians are.
In regards to the contest, nothing has been set in place yet but of course it would be open to everyone. Actually I have a lot of respect for how some women photographers have such a great talent for making beautiful photos of other women.
Yes Laura, some of the biggest male models come from Brazil.. they make a speedo look HOT!!!
You should do it!!
New goals: I’m going to take up photography as a new hobby within the next 12 months and then making a trip to Buenos Aires within the next 5 years.
Hey Jeremiah and Tim,
I thought about it a bit though, and I don’t think I could do it even if you were awesome enough to extend the opportunity to me. Jeremiah, I think you should sell screen savers in addition to printed calendars though, they’d definitely sell and you could just make them an amazon download.
Peace,
Sean
men are attracted to physical beauty 80% and personality 20%
women are attracted to physical attractiveness 20% and personallity 80%
personally i thnk its more but that how evolution designed up because of the internal economics that govern our behavior
stop bashing on men for their desires are trying to make us think like women we don’t want to think like women because it doesn’t do up as good to evolutionary
lastly when it comes to having standards and preferences everyone has their own that’s what makes them unique
beauty is one of the traits men look for its a major one get use to it you women put on make up and lie to us and clothes that highlight features and go to clubs and say oh i just like to dance, yeah right like evolution doesn’t have a hidden agenda there you could of stayed and danced in your room if oyu love the music so much and bought the drinks for a lot cheaper and invited ur friends you go there for attention you go there for men and then you backwards rationalize ur emotions to solidify ur internal reality
i have seen so many women attacking other women, the decisions of other men, the actions of other men, its a mating game darling get with the program you obviously know nothing about men, mind ur own business, in life you do what works to get you closer to what you want, and you sure as hell don’t have to justify it to strangers who need to comment because they have no life of their own
Hi Tim,
Interesting selection of title pictures for the recent posts..
Any chance you’re bumping up testosteron levels to increase uptake of the 4-hour Body??
Married to a Brazilian beauty myself. Great country and culture.
Keep up the excellent work.
Thanks, Bjorn. Perhaps it’s just me getting stir crazy in winter, but the testosterone could have something to do with it! That’s been a project recently. Totally serious 🙂
Um abraco,
Tim
I find it really amusing that some women take a post like this as an affront to them personally – get over yourselves! No one has chosen you to represent all of womenkind. These women are beautiful and have been given an opportunity to showcase themselves and add to potential modelling portolios etc. They are just as opportunistic as Jeremiah. Stop being so up yourselves PC and insecure. Good on the girls and Jeremiah – if you’ve got it -flaunt it I say..
I think this was a great article and especially enjoyed the happy ending! Oh yeah, I am a woman and also have a PhD in a technical field from one of the top universities in the U.S. I read the text carefully and found the story to be interesting. If anything I feel inspired to get to the gym more often and to start to go run the stadium steps! Thank you for this post.
Thanks, Elsie 🙂
Marrying a beautiful woman [Brazillian models included] is one of the most logical and fun thing to do after a person has achieved financial success. I remember reading from Napoleon Hill that wealth without women is vain.
Tim, for those who bought 4 copies of your updated version of 4HWW last year and are supposed to receive and advance-copy of 4 Hour Body, when are those going out?
Hey Jesse,
Next 5 days! Just got my copy about a week ago, so you’re right at the front of the line 😉
All the best,
Tim
Thanks. I didn’t read the article, I just came here for the pics.
I love how some people think those who are offended have ‘issues’ with the pictures on the site or are ‘insecure’.
That is sad.
The pictures on this site are SO ‘tame’ seriously. haha
The story is creeeepy.
-An attractive woman from Recife
after spending years in academia promoting critical thinking and analysis of mass media, I gotta say this post is pretty low on the ‘offense-o-meter’ compared to the daily onslaught of ads that link beauty with products… all while helpfully reminding us – ladies & gents alike – how bad we smell, look and feel so we can keep buying stuff that will never deliver that airbrushed/slenderized perfection.
a nice, bold post and great contribution from Michael with the list…I’ll give it a whirl! (and spend more time on the beach, too…:)
Tim
I had to laugh at people getting upset like Ikona.
Give me a break!!!!!!!!
You told a story about a fellow who thought what he wanted to do was impossible to ACHIEVE.
He ends up falling in Love with one of his models. I think it’s really cool. It gives the rest of us hope. I have lived here in the Bay area and just would love to find a normal gal who is bright AND ATTRACTIVE.
If you ask me,, looks like this guy hit the jackpot. It’s his wifes attitude. That is what is attractive.
The girls who like me live in other countries and my passport seems to be in purgatory. I dream of traveling like you do, never mind meeting these type of gals.
You keep it up Tim. Your honest with the man in the Mirror. At the end of the day. That is all that counts. BRAVO !!!!
YEY! Now do a “Boyfriend-Hunting: How to Date a Spanish Futbolista”! 😛
Hi, I’m Amar.
(Tim, please approve this comment. This girl could be the one! lol)
Haha, cute.
Tim,
How was your Thanksgiving ?
I commend you for sacrificing your Saturday night to personally reply back to many comments on your blog. I really hope you don’t lose many readers because of one post that “might” be a bit controversial.(seriously, it’s not.) Since you take good care of your readers, I personally believe your blog will be stronger, better and more popular.
*Ladies, I find female readers of Tim’s blog to be incredibly attractive.* 🙂
I got the travel bug again reading this post. I had to enlist a friend’s help to flush the travel bug out of me this time. I caught the bug from reading your recent posts, but I was able to retain sanity by tearing my hair out. Unfortunately, that was not enough this time. So my friend (all too enthusiastically) agreed to slap my face silly. I also consumed a large amount of Glühwein which helped a lot. As it is the season to be grateful, I thank you for the experience. 🙂
On a side note, I am really impressed with your reading and typing speed. I noticed that your replies were only a one or two minutes between each other. Amazing! I know of your speed reading techniques, but how do you type so fast ? It takes me ages to type a single post. (even typing this comment took embarrassingly long.)
I would like to mention about the stickers, though. I was finally able to order the stickers today. (Yay!) But I have to tell you it wasn’t easy. I had to collect 20 on-line stickers to be able to order physical stickers. It wasn’t a simple task as the site lacks explanation of how to obtain each online sticker. If they would clearly display requirements (time of day, check-ins and etc) for each sticker, it would be a much simpler and enjoyable experience using the site. Please pass this suggestion along if you can.
It is a shame that It takes so long to get physical 4 hour work week stickers. The stickers were a great marketing idea. But I fear that I will not receive the stickers by the time your book launches, losing the chance to promote your book via handing out awesome stickers. bummer.
It’s five am. Time for more Glühwein and sleep.
Hi David,
Thanks for the comment! Ah, Gluhwein. I remember it fondly from winters in Berlin. Love that stuff. Dangerous, though.
I’m pretty fast with WordPress, so that probably explains the speed. I respond in the comment moderation and wish I could do the same for e-mail! Another story, perhaps.
I also agree that GetGlue is pretty confusing. Sorry about that!
Your feedback will get passed to the CEO.
Pura vida,
Tim
I don’t think Tim or Jeremiah is a misogynist.
I was pay attention more to what did Jeremiah do to make his dream comes true. This is what it excite me. Overall, Jeremiah showed how he adapt through his experience become a better person working with models. Is he a bad person, no.
Jeremiah is a testimony to ‘livin your dream’.
Aside from Jeremiah and Tim, like Tim mentioned of his female friends who confessed of what do they really want. They are right. Go back to Ellsworth’s article reading eye contact. The eye contact and other interpersonal skills I used have gained me an insight what I thought was right. I found I have been wrong and I have become unconventional.
Seek further and connecting more and your mind will change and you will see the undistorted reality. This is what Tim is doing and it sometime is hard to accept. Tim have done this with lot of thoughts before he executed. Tim is real deal. This is what I see in his writing.
What an inspiring post. It makes everything crazy seem within reach.
My husband found me in a green apron behind a Starbucks espresso machine. He said he only saw my eyes for the longest time.
His pursuit was relentless.
We eloped last June and now we work from home in our PJs. Life couldn’t get any sweeter. We both read this blog regularly and we’re loving the book too.
I hadn’t looked over all of the comments before, until just now, but just somewhat skimmed them, and again as someone who really enjoyed this article I would just like to also mention that I am the current and past Chair of major women’s organizations (and am personally an extremely active supporter of women in technical fields) who encourage women to support technical fields. (Can’t say too much b/c how many women have a PhD from one of the consistently top 3 universities in my field in the US and are so active as I am?). Maybe I really liked this post as I am comfortable also with my looks. And I’m going spinning today for 1.5 hours, thanks to this post! Again, much gratitude, Tim.
Thanks so much for this Elsie! It’s good to see you and some of the other women say you don’t have a problem with this post.
Tim put in an attention grabbing headline. He’s a genius for that. But for those who read the article they can see it is not about marrying but rather taking a dream and making it happen.
The post was an interview between two guys and it was intended for a men’s interest magazine. We didn’t change anything prior to letting it run in Tim’s blog. Sorry to Tim for that! He’s gotten a lot of negative comments and it’s clear some tweaking could have been done to prevent most of this.
This was not meant as a blueprint for men to run to Brazil and become swimsuit photographers. Rather to show how somebody took his dream and made it happen. Things are rarely as difficult as we build them up to be. It usually just comes down to taking the action and of course this story was hopefully going to be an inspiring one about what can happen when you do act on a dream.
When I went to Brazil it wasn’t to find my wife or even to shoot photos of women. I went there because I wanted to surf. But seeing the beautiful women made me want to take my dream of becoming a swimsuit photographer and make it happen. I wound up fallen in love through the process and marrying an incredibly special person.
My wife supports this project every bit as much as I do. I’ve shot photos of all of her girlfriends. This is just something that is culturally different than in the US. These girls enjoy being beautiful and who can blame them for that?
I’m a pretty simple guy and my intentions are always genuine. That by itself is probably the biggest reason I was successful when speaking with these girls about making the photos.
Of the last 30 girls I have shot, every single one of them had jobs including 2 dentists & a psychologist. No kidding. One was a student but she still had a job. Thirty beautiful girls and every single one of them had a job, that’s incredible! I don’t think the people commenting negatively are giving these Brazilian women enough credit.
I’m sorry we didn’t do a better job of preparing the interview before it was
posted to Tim’s blog. We thought we had a nice story for both men and women and continue to feel the same about that. Thanks everyone who did like this story!!
Jeremiah,
If you had always wanted to be a photographer – if that was always your calling – I’d respect this “dream come true” explanation you’re pounding on. But it’s obvious that your original motivation for these calendar projects was to meet and interact with the “beautiful women” you saw in Brazil – not to actualize your love for the art of photography.
You say “This was not meant as a blueprint for men to run to Brazil and become swimsuit photographers.”
Yet, funnily enough, I saw quite a few responses by men who are all of a sudden inspired to go to Brazil and present themselves as photographers, in order to meet and date swimsuit models.
I mean, doesn’t this post start with “How to…”, after all?
I’ve met many guys like this, who “become” photographers only to gain access to beautiful women. It’s creepy and icky.
Jeremiah, you don’t strike me as a bad person. You obviously create some value, for some guys, with your calendars. You might not be a world-class photographer, but there’s obviously a niche for the things you do, and I respect that.
It’s just that I thought Tim a more sophisticated guy. This post was sleazy, and it’s disappointing to see it on Tim’s blog.
At first I thought “Hey this post is a little… um….” but is this story anything else than a testimony of how easy it really is to photograph a beautiful girl in her bikini? I’m sure it would work just as well in any country.
“Hey I’m a photographer and you are really beautiful. Can I take your picture?”. How many percent would say no to that? Pressuming ofcourse that we are somewhat happy with the way we look and that the guy is obviously genuine I think most of us would be very flattered. 😉
I read your book while spending 6 months in Poland and Germany, and had a journey of discovering Relevance in my life. I’m struggling with applying your principles, God help me, but I can’t go back to “normal” life. But even back in Australia, most people have the live to work mind set, and say I’m/your a dreamer.
Which leads me to ask, Tim, if you have managed to find companion who can fit into such a lifestyle and sees the world so differently? Their are beautiful women everywhere, you should know, but its the character and inner beauty that keeps you long past the external looks have waned. Is this post a sub/conscious expression of your desire, a wife? Are you not interested in a committed relationship atm and staying a bachelor? Or do you prefer to keep such matters private?
Posts like this are why I’m such a big fan of yours, Tim!
I’m surprised to return to this post after initially reading it to find negative comments. I think some people might be missing the point, which can (perhaps easily) get overshadowed by the Brazilian supermodel aspect.
What people should really take away is: “Jeremiah took a chance by traveling to ______ to successfully pursue his dream of _________.” The rest are just additional, specific details.
Looking forward to the book, keep up the great work! (And congratulations Jeremiah!)
Alex
Agree with you Alex!
It`s easy to forget the core message of the post….I must admit myself those photos erupted my mind to illusions being back in Brazil…
I guess those photos made many people forget about the content! 😀
Hi Tim, Jeremiah,
I really enjoyed this post and found the photos absolutely breathtaking! I think what I liked the most, is that these photos weren’t “selling” sex. No pouty lips, spread legs, etc. These women all had genuine smiles that reached their eyes. Very classy.
My only objection is to some of the comments on here about “getting a Brazilian wife.” It seems to me that Jeremiah’s goal was to photograph swimsuit models, and discovered that Brazil would be the best place to get started, meeting the woman of his dreams was due to the both of them being in the right place at the right time – and hitting it off.
Women, where ever we are from, are humans. Not commodities to be bought or “gotten.” Even if those comments were made tongue-in-cheek, it still reveals the underlying belief of the person making the comment. If someone is going to visit Brazil (or any country that is foreign to you) – go for the experience of seeing new things, learning about a different culture, learning a new language or languages, and meeting fascinating and, yes, beautiful people, inside and out. And if, during this adventure, you meet the other half of your soul – well, then, you were both in the right place at the right time! 😉
Kirsten
Just one more comment to add, the only thing I didn’t like about this post was the title. While I realize that it is/was an attention grabber, it was the most dehumanizing, insulting part of this post. I think that there are more creative ways to grab attention than that.
Thanks,
Kirsten
Tim, I’m a relatively new reader and this post unfortunately turned me off. I’m not vowing never to come back or anything, just wanted to let you know.
I don’t have any real problem with anything Jeremiah himself did, but to have this presented as a “how-to” guide strikes me as icky. It’s putting “hot wife” on the check list of stuff to acquire to be happy – common enough of a sentiment, but not really in the spirit of the 4HWW as I understand it.
One way to tell if something is misogynistic or not is to read the responses to it – not just from the offended, but from those who are enthusiastically approving of it. So far in this comments section women have been accused of being jealous, illogical, and bitter (and all without any argument or rebuttal from you.) Stay tuned for the inevitable “every woman who objects to this is fat and ugly” responses, also.
Hi Lydia,
Thank you for the comment. To be honest, I’ve been to busy responding to the women to respond much to the men! Please see some of my responses.
As it relates to men calling any female critics of this post “jealous, illogical, etc.” — it is, of course, ridiculous. I think there are both intelligent and ridiculous responses in the comments from both genders. Plenty of impulsive and unnecessary name-calling on both sides.
Hope that helps!
Tim
When reading Jeremiah’s entrepreneur upbringing, it makes me happy to know that I am actively inspiring my 2 daughters (age 3 and 5) to think about their creativity and entrepreneur potential (maybe not selling rocks to neighbors, yet).
I have been a creative designer, life hacker and thing inventer for a long time, but never really persued any design idea for development. Most of it is just for fun or sport. Inspiration from Tim finally got me off my arse toward ultimately doing something productive about my ultimate goals. Jeremiah has cemented my resolve to stop dreaming about it and just get started. Thanks!
I responded once before but after watching the comments pile in I feel like chiming in again,….from the highly educated female perspective once again (which by the way I am pretty sure your female audience is extremely highly educated),….
I think you might be touching on a deeper lying issue in our “go for it highly educated we are all equals” culture,…at least the one we find in the more liberal and U.S. enclaves. (And, hay, I think that has been an awesome and important step in the right direction,…but we can keep going in terms of how it is affecting our relationships!!)
This might be controversial again,….but David Deida has been doing some interesting writing about this phenomenon (which okay I myself discovered by traveling/volunteering in South America & Asia and meeting men from other cultures outside of the U.S., including Brazil). Here in the U.S. at least we have this tendency to want to mate in a “we are all equal” way that neutralizes sensuality and sexuality (grant it that is far better than the previous relationship model, for men and women). We women were trained in more liberal areas to be admired for our brains instead of our looks,….so actually this post could instantly simply fire off (yes, the wiring) that was programmed in during this life,…..to say,….”I am more than a body”. Unfortunately though some of this programming shut down the fun and awesome part of being a human! Sensuality! And I happen to know that men are not the only ones seeking this outside of the U.S. (oftentimes only to realize what is actually awesome about men/women here),….anyway, it is a two way street phenomenon.
What I like about this post,….is that you are kind of throwing this kind of “guess what we still like to be hot and like to admire hot” thing out there into a highly educated crowd,…..and maybe helping to push this notion that we can be “equals” and we can also seduce each other and enjoy being in great shape on the inside and the outside (we can have our cake and eat it too). Obviously,….like you have stated in your thread and others have reiterated,…there is a lot more that goes into a relationship,..and ultimately love must look beyond shape to fully blossom as actual love,…but I think it is narrow-sighted (and actually requires compassion) that we instantly think of “objectification” when we think of men or women wanting to admire, well, someone who is hot.
I’d actually love it if as an entire culture we could invite in some South American sizzle into our lives. Adding that to our intellectual culture, and our equality,…..well that would be fun. And when I say “some”, I mean that,…its a bit intensely aggressive down there for us from the north! Whoa!
Anyway,….please know,….some of my work has been absolutely heart breaking in some of the highest (child) sex trafficking areas of Brazil (that serve the negative side of what this post, and these pictures, are demonstrating in cultural “wiring” when the desire goes perverse),….yet,…..just because people take things to the extreme does not mean it is all extreme.
And,….I think I wasn’t as offended by the title/etc. because it is also obvious that Jeremiah is really good at what he does,…like other commenters have said,…..if you don’t have the actual skill you will get the boot. (And obviously the title was used to suck us in which Tim actually teaches about in detail in the 4HWW so why would that surprise us? Its kind of obvious he is testing his crowd for where he’s heading with the new book, or at least, that’s my guess.) I also think we can be more open minded about what people enjoy doing, and choose into doing, when it is not actually hurting anyone. There are many paths to walk in life.
That’s my two more cents. 🙂 Thanks for all of the thoughts everyone! Quite an interesting, intelligent and unique crowd on here!
Thank you for your very thoughtful comment, Rhea! Deida definitely has some good material, and — like you said — “just because people take things to the extreme does not mean it is all extreme.”
For what it’s worth, I do think that the very American emphasis on de-polarizing men and women causes just as many problems as it solves. Men and women are different, and it’s incredible when we embrace those differences to the betterment of both sides. Tango is a wonderful embodiment of this.
All the best,
Tim
Thanks for the response Tim, and Tango, thank you, the perfect illustration.
Holy comments! Glad I checked back on this one.
First, I should clarify that, like most of the other women
who commented here, I have no problem whatsoever
with photos of women. Just ask my wife. I was just generally
creeped out by the whole thing, and especially about the money
thing.
Kudos to the intelligent, articulate women and men who
commented here.
Boo to the women and men who say that because a woman
finds this creepy, she must be bitter, jealous, uptight and unattractive.
Boo to the condescending tone of some of these comments.
Hi Tim,
I know I’m late chiming in on the subject, but I’m a firm believer in, “What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander”. So, in the spirit of fairness I have to ask, are there going to be any articles on how to become the photographer for Abercrombie & Fitch or the CK underwear campaign if you’re a woman? Those have been dreams of mine since the rise of the Male Super Model. (Good times, good times.) I was a preteen then so, trust me some women grow up with the same parallel fantasy. But fantasy aside, I’d love to know your thoughts, and if you need someone to test those theories for you, I’d be more then game.
🙂
Cheers!
Michelle
P.S. In the new book, you describe the technique for giving a woman a 15 minute O. Are there any plans for the opposite view? Have to keep that new hubby happy! Just saying…
Hi Michelle,
It’s a good idea. I’m up for it, but I don’t know as many female photographers. If you can find someone who’d make a good female case study, I’m happy to do it! Just send amy-at-fourhourworkweek-dot-com a link to the person’s website and indicate I asked for it in a blog response.
As for the hubby’s happiness, there are a few chapters on testosterone that will make him happy, and the “O” chapter will be enjoyable for him, too 🙂
All the best,
Tim
Just a note on the paying the models issue, not sure if this has already been addressed –
When starting out, many models have to pay to have their photos taken for their portfolio. This has been the experience of most of my friends who model (East coast, USA). If he wasn’t charging the girls for the photos and allows them to use them for their portfolio, then that is a better deal than many girls starting out get!
What a bunch of overreactions……. sheesh. The only part that I could disagree with is the title…”wife-hunting”? But I also didn’t like “4 hour WW”, and didn’t read your book for a couple years because of it. (Too much like a RE huckster, to be honest, IMO)
But the content of this article was fine- the ideas were workable, and it fits with your lifestyle design idea. It even had an actual businessman that applied your principles and went out of the office to another part of the world.
I recall a Tony Robbins story where he was doing an appearance in Denver and a pimp came up to him with some of his “ladies” and thanked him, and gave him all the credit; uncomfortable, TR said…. with the point being that a good idea works in a lot of situations. If we replace the photog with John Fielder and nature photos, there is no controversy. But the whiff of “sexuality” seems to suspend that appreciation of what the guy did. Oh well……
Would these same women commenting complain if it was a female photographer taking photos of men in speedos? How hypocritical.
I guess you didn’t have bad intentions here Tim, but the kind of materials and the kind of attitude you promote on this post are underlying components of what makes daily harassment and abuse of women into a social norm.
It’s not just “perverts” who harass and assault women; it’s mostly ordinary men, who are being told day after day that treating women like brainless pieces of meat is normal and justified, and behave accordingly.
Do take a look at ihollaback.org to get a better idea of how the women around you live their daily lives, and if you still don’t see the connection, please go ahead and Google “rape culture”. Whether you like it or not, and regardless of your intentions, you are now part of this culture.
Seriously Tim, I hate to unsubscribe, but supporting you is like shooting myself in the foot. Couldn’t you find a more intelligent and less damaging way to promote your book?
I’m proud to include myself in the 2-5% of followers that you don’t mind losing due to this post. I know you declared that losing us didn’t matter to you, but does it matter to you that you lost face?
Thank you, well put.
Maybe it’s difficult for men to empathize with women. They’ve never experienced what we are subjected to by men every day, throughout our adult life (actually even in childhood, for many of us). The sexual harassment, the perception of you as weak, not as smart, not as important, not as valuable as men…
Men are so into this whole idea of their supremacy sometimes, that they don’t even see how offensive they are to us. They think it’s a compliment to us when they treat us like the latest Porsche model that they dream of buying.
The sad thing is that many women still believe this too, and they act this way, and they think their highest self-actualization in life can will from marrying a successful man. They read David Deida and say, oh how true, because that’s what I see in old movies and that’s how it is in old books, and that’s how my parents were. Ugh.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! It’s in conversations like this throughout the world where the future is shaped, and I am proud of the women here who spoke out and let the men know that it’s NOT OK and we won’t be just sitting and taking this treatment.
It may seem like an overreaction, but every time we keep quiet about this, is like we’re slapping ourselves in the face. In the past 50 years here in the most developed country in the world we have proven we’re just as good as men are, and we don’t have to sit and take this treatment any longer.
No offence intended: so, what you’re saying: a guy can’t say a girl is hot at all?
Likewise, a woman can’t say that about a guy?
We aren’t allowed to honour our primitive need for an attractive mate? I want that in a partner (as does my gf in me). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.
I can totally say yep, those girls are smoking: doesn’t mean I think they don’t have brains (look at any number of supermodels with side businesses: smart businesswoman – Elle McP a good example).
Notwithstanding the very real and valid comments you make about the objectification of women (I’m a guy and I object to marketing appealing to me with overtly sexual images of women ALL THE TIME, so I’m on your side there).
Maybe I missed your point.
Perhaps the images in this post went a bit overboard in explaining the process.
Wow. Yes there are some scummy men out there, but there are just as many women who take advantage of men out there and behave like children because, “I’m a girl so it’s ok.” Most men are not like this and neither are most women so stop playing the victim. And for the record I don’t think you’re less smart than a man because of your gender, or your looks, I think so because your an adult who in your last post used the word “icky.” Grow up.
Tim — this was a great post, thanks for keeping it real.
TF~
I have to admit I saw this post and had no desire to read it because of the title, but after seeing some of the comments that came on your FB page I decided to see what it was all about.
The title was a bit misleading, which is why some of the woman “took offense”, but seriously what is offensive about a a guy that loves to take pictures, loves woman, makes it his life and falls in love? Sounds like more of a chick flick to me!!
I love to hear about people that follow a dream and make it happen, good on you Jerimiah for living in your bliss, and finding the girl of your dreams.
My husband and I met surfing in the water 13 years ago….and are celebrating 7years of marriage today. Love can be found anywhere even if you are not looking!
Thanks for sharing your story and best to you on the project.
FYI TF~ the sticker from get glue of the guy looking down on his abs/package…now that is creepy!
Keep living large!
Rhonda Swan~ Mother of The Unstoppable Family
Some of the comments
Thanks, Rhonda! LOL on the “guy looking at his package” comment. That’s hysterical. I’ll tell the model. He’ll love it.
Tim
I might be late to the party, but wanted to chime in anyway: I’m on a popular amateur modeling site trying to get started and it’s very common to do work for no pay. The photographer gets to add to their portfolio and you get to add to yours.
This post rubbed me the wrong way at first, but I can easily see a post about an enterprising woman traveling to an exotic country entitled “husband-hunting” being posted here just as easily. Of course, then the comments would be about how it made women look shallow.. we really can’t win.
It’s actually been stated in a few comments here (from men) that men are the more shallow….one mentioned that guys care about looks 80% compared to woman at 20%……………..and he’s probably right….
As far as winning is concerned in the battle of the sexes……it doesn’t really work with this situation.
If Tim had a bunch of dudes in banana hammocks on a “Husband Hunting” post, most women wouldn’t even relate to it because they’re simply not as shallow as men……….and most (straight) men wouldn’t even get past the first picture before getting nauseated and losing interest.
Most guys wouldn’t threaten to unsubscribe but instead they’d probably just be confused and then question Tim’s sexuality……(J/k Tim:) so it’s probably not worth it…. but if anyone would try it, I’d have to agree that Tim would:)
It’s already a given that Tim will be making a post targeting to make you ladies happy, so wait and enjoy it when it gets here…and at least for my own sake, I hope it doesn’t involve pictures of guys in bikinis. (Lets all be honest and admit that the bulk of society really doesn’t want to see that)
Maybe pictures of shirtless guys with pants on or guys in board shorts, but even the most fit guy looks like a tool when wearing a banana hammock…… so from a logistical standpoint it’s simply not practical.
I’m of course joking a bit, but there’s a grain of truth in every joke….
good on you jeremiah for living in your bliss and finding the girl of your dreams.
Tim,
Are you a Deida fan by chance? You really took one for the team here man. =)
Haha… I haven’t read to much of his work, but The Way of The Superior Man is a very practical read. I don’t agree with all of it, but I agree with most of it.
Tim
@Christine wrote ” I was just generally
creeped out by the whole thing, and especially about the money
thing.”
I previously wrote that I as a man have done LOTS of FREE theater, plays, heck I even PAID to do a class and perform. I had fun!
Christine I don’t think you are “bitter or unattractive” just uneducated of how things work. geez
Tim,
Looks like guys will be boycotting Amazon. Look what I found! 56 books with the title “Husband Hunting” ewwww how ‘creepy’
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Husband+Hunting&x=-130&y=-1
and this title too
Husband Hunting Made Easy : And Other Miracles for the Modern Gay Man [Paperback]
==================
Please American men, stand up to these complainers. Be a man. Think. Do some research like I did. None, absolutely none of what these complainers mentioned is true.
Hi Tim/Jeremiah
wow, you certainly got allot of reaction on this one. I have to give kudos to Jeremiah for his sharing something so personal. We are talking about how he found his wife. I think that is as personal as one can get.
I liked the fact that he came back today to stick up for the women he photographed. They all had other jobs. I found his post a “breath of Fresh Air”.
My heart goes out to you Tim, in your responding to all the women that have posted negatively. I love what you said on another post. That “several women did admit with the Honesty that comes from a few drinks, that they just would not marry a man who was not successful at his profession”.
The reality is that even in today’s society of womens liberation. Man is expected to be the gatherer, ( a great catch) . That is just the cold hard truth. Tim, I am looking forward to running into you someday. From that little Island across the bay bridge
To cut off any ad-hominem attacks against what I will say, I am not a woman–I’m a heterosexual male combat veteran with two tours in the Middle East under my belt. (Don’t thank me; thank my recruiter.)
1) Great post. Full of insight, humor, and highly motivating.
2) Terrible title. I agree with Ms. Kirsten Lew: while I understand why you crafted such a title, it set a lurid tone for the rest of the article. Once they got to reading (and looking), people ignored it because, hey, in advertisement, sex sells! But for your would-be detractors/unsubscribers/critics, it raised their hackles before reading the case-study, and it was up to the individual’s personal bias/experience to harp on a detail (be it that Jeremiah didn’t pay the girls at first, or that sometimes he took them home to conduct business, or even that roughly 50% of the comments can be reduced to I-love-exotic-t!ts-and-@ss-gimme-gimme). Many people have pointed out that as compelling as it was, the Brazilian models aspect was just a detail of Jeremiah’s solid application of preparation, daring, hard work, and luck.
3) You’d probably disagree, but I think you’ve hit such a critical mass of followers and fans who will do your marketing for you that you don’t have to rely on such snake-oil-salesman tactics to deliver your content. I think you’re already in that enviable position where your content’s quality can sell itself.
4) I’m also kind of appalled by how dismissive a lot of your defenders are of your critics.
Nice post on how to think rich and grow rich..i am reading napoleans book now and well J’s journey backs Napoleans theory.
But I need to be enlightened on one thing: I don’t understand why guys pretend they are after look when it comes to choosing wives when they really aren’t…at least the goodlooking ones I know never really look for a beautiful girl as a potential wife…
i give u some examples…
Once I was dumped for a girl whose body weighted two times as mine and her mind and heart weighted half as mine.
Another time the guy who dumped me just told me he is not looking for a barbie and flied all the way to australia to meet a girl who proceeded me and him in age and weight. Didn’t have the chance to try her inteligence or intention but in photo, she sure looked anything but beautiful to me or to him.
And well, last (hopefully least) I received a call from an ex of mine who left me for someone he had met over the net saying how I had been the classiest most fragile and kindest woman he had ever met…how they all the time have fight …..but he also added he is very happy with his decision…
I am not holding anything against any of the ones who dumped me for less…but my experiences tell me we’re fooling ourselves if we think we are after look or any tangible/measureable quality…
I still can’t figure what that sticky thing is that brings two ppl together and closes their eyes to their flaws…i just know it is not the look..
Honestly….get over it.
I really liked this story and am surprised that so many assume that these women were taken advantage of. This is an insult to the all the women photographed as it assumes they didn’t have the mental capacity to judge the offer and make the right decision for themselves. What do you think? “They are attractive girls from a third world country so they must be defenseless.” If you think that, you are dead wrong. Consider that many of these women used the photos from these shoots to land other opportunities – this one point alone shows that they were business mind people capitalizing on one experience to gain another.
Another important point to consider is the fact that just because there is no monetary exchange doesn’t mean there was no real consideration in this contract. In Tim’s book he talks about exchanging English lessons in lieu of cash for something he wanted of value (sorry Tim I can’t remember what you received for the English lessons off the top of my head). Before the modern monitary system services and good were traded, quality photography is a valued service just like modeling.
There are many other points but this controversy is being given way too much attention.
I wanted to say to Jeremiah: this story really touched me. I have been working through Tim’s book to develop a financial muse (and am about 3-6 months away from hitting the goal) and lost momentum. The problem was not having a goal beyond the freedom and mobility of the financial muse itself, but this story and your picture made me dust off my camera (hadn’t touched in in over a year) and get excited again.
You landscape pictures are amazing – I’m now working towards traveling and taking some pictures too.
I’m hoping to be as fortunate as you to bump into a worthy travel companion like you did. 😉
P.S. Day is not only hot but really photogenic. Good luck to the both of you (you both look really happy) and to your new life together!
haha! The complaining women are jealous whether they admit their unconscious needs or not. Why else must someone accuse a happy man for enjoying marriage with an attractive wife?
If you’re not a woman being your most attractive, other women are stealing guys from you.
Keep “offending” Tim. My liking for you is turning into an unusual and uncomfortable attraction.
Congratulations Jeremiah on living your dream! I hope that you do get the contest sponsored and running and when you do, I hope that you open the contest to female photographers, as well as male photographers. I would love to shoot models in Brazil!! Thanks for the inspiration as always Tim!
I’m a big big fan of Tim (blog & book), really inspiring work.
i’m definitely not a fan of this ‘getting a perfectly shaped brazilian ‘model’ to marry you [via ‘i’m a foreign ‘photographer’ with no references, please let me see how you look in a bikini first’] post. (no offense, jeremiah!)
next part ? how to marry a hot thai actress [via ‘i’m a director without references nor budget but i’m trying to capture the beauty of thailand with my camera. would you like to take some semi-nude shots at the beach?’]
it’s a lame story.
nevertheless (&sure thing): i wish jeremiah & his wife all the best.
What a great story! You’ve helped many girls get the jobs and careers they were after and you got what you were after. Win-Win for everyone! You make a great couple! 🙂
I showed this post to my wife and she said ‘your never going to brazil !’
Americans are one of the few cultures who marry for Love most cultures marry for power, or money.
This only works as long as he does not bring her to the USA. Once she is here she will dump this guy in a second. Most of these chics only see you as their ticket out of poverty.
Best of luck.
My wife and I met In Calc 2 for science and math majors! Very Sexy! Whats’ really sexy is that she took that class for fun and got an A without studying while I struggled! (The pleather pants she was wearing on our first day of class 13 years ago didn’t hurt either.) Great story! Great shots.
Tim,
When you redate blog posts, how do you get around the problem of links to those sites being broken? Both of our blogs include the date in our URL.
Jeremiah,
To be mentored in photography would be a fantastic opportunity, you should definitely go ahead with the competition.
I would like to take a moment and point something out that is troubling to me. I have seen several comments along the lines of “Not only are Brazilian woman more beautiful, but they don’t fly off the handle the moment someone nears their oh-so-sensitive comfort zone.”
Women, all over the world, are objectified. And saying that ‘men are attracted to women and therefore it’s natural and therefore anyone who objects is not living in reality’ is just plain wrong.
My husband is a man who greatly enjoys the beauty of women. BUT. He has never made a woman feel uncomfortable or leered at her in public. (He’s made an art of the casual glance and/or making a woman feel like a goddess, not an object. A huuuge difference.)
My female friends, many of whom he finds attractive, are comfortable in his presence. The difference is that he enjoys feminine beauty without feeling the need to force them to acknowledge it.
So many men leer/stare, grope, even follow women around in public, and generally feel entitled to approach any woman they find attractive. (ihollaback.org is an excellent website on this.) This isn’t merely ‘appreciating the aesthetics of feminine beauty’ because otherwise one wouldn’t feel the need for an approach regardless of a woman’s body language.
When I was in middle school, I developed early and, while I am now proud of my physique, I was terrified of the men who constantly stared and followed me around. Because I was ‘not feminine enough,’ or ‘hated beautiful women’? Obviously not.
But merely having boobs and being in public apparently gave these men carte blanche. Am I alone in this experience? Not by a long shot.
Am I saying men can never approach an attractive woman? Of course not! But the guys who are creeps and objectify women are the guys who pursue women without respect for her desires and will ignore her body language and physical signals of discomfort.
Hi Hayden,
I agree with all of this, but let’s be fair: nothing in this piece indicates that Jeremiah ignored the models’ physical signs of discomfort. Yes, men can do terrible things to women, but this doesn’t put Jeremiah in that category IMHO.
Best,
Tim
Tim, this was in response to some of the comments, not the post.
The title is misleading and this post would have generated more positive reactions from females, because I only see one or two sentences that relate to the title in any way, and leave a number of ladies here flustered. If the title was something like “How I married an average looking daughter of a Mexican school director” doesn’t sound as opulent or hormonally stimulating as “Brazilian models” when it’s force-fed to men as an ‘ideal’ in mainstream erotic magazines, not that there’s anything wrong with Brazilian models, or daughters of school directors are any less interesting, the truth of the matter is it’s more about tits and ass then it is about finding spousal insight the majority can relate to, this article doesn’t really assist single women, single men with preferential differences, or married couples looking for relationship insight (in the end it’s more romantic and fascinating that two people can find each other in the world than people working for free). It would have been more relevant and potentially meaningful to hear how one values looks vs.brains, how foreign women can protect themselves from scams (a man can easily approach a woman lying on a beach in a foreign country, scam and force her into prostitution which happens every day in under-developed countries), where the balance lies in spousal equality from foreign and financial differences, would have been more interesting to read. I find it frightening that a woman can be so easily approached, and I (nor anyone) should be surprised if a handful of these ‘inexperienced never been shot before girls’ would walk away for the right amount of cash for porno filming, because again we are talking about an under-developed country (but we’re not printing that story are we? just the blueprint!), with possible minors and no legitimate model release forms, or safe business practices mentioned in protection of both the model and photographer for a “How-to” guide. If this started with a different title like “How an average guy can become a swimsuit photographer” or “How Jeremiah attracted his ideal partner” or anything that doesn’t generate red flags in every paragraph (not that I can get past the returning point) perhaps would have been more suitable?
I guess I have to do the Naked Girls of Brazil 🙂
Tim, Jeremiah – I’m totally with Elise on this one! I think it’s an amazing story of someone who set out to follow a dream and find love! This post reminded me anything is possible. That, and the fact I want to start doing squats and lunges again ASAP 😉
PS: As a magazine journalist I can tell you why there are women on the cover of women’s magazines. It’s because – wait for it – women like looking at other women… they just don’t like admitting it so much! Food for thought.
🙂
No. Actually, that’s completely false. The male gaze is the right term for that. It means that the anticipated audience, as well as the artist(s) behind the camera, are male. Lol sorry honey, but you need to do a little research before splaying your own beliefs onto others.
Uhm, no. It’s because it creates insecurities, the very stuff that advertisers need!
Holy Brazil Batman! Just give me a minute while I pick my jaw up off the floor. I’m sure I’ve read before that Brazil has the highest percentage of gorgeous women per capita than anywhere else.
What an inspiring post! And for me it hits close to home:
Since I was a little girl I dreamt of being a writer (since these were daydreams, a world famous writer) and my favourite hobby was photography. A couple of years ago I decided to make myself a writer and turn photography into more than a hobby. Being self taught I always assumed I would not hold up to the ‘pros’ with their training. Really the only thing holding me back was me.
I am so happy to see someone that leapt in and made his dreams come true.
And just a note here about model shoots, it is actually quite common for both photographers starting out and models beginning their careers to shoot and be photographed for no payment. The best way to build a portfolio when no one knows you is to offer to trade services. I photographed women for no cost and they modelled for no fee. I took the photos for my portfolio and they for theirs. It is mutually beneficial.
Thanks for keeping my inbox interesting Tim and Jeremiah!
If that contest gets going count me in.
Alles liebe! 🙂
@Hayden Tompkins And what countries have you lived in?
You write about being looked at in middle school. What does that have to do with a guy photographing ADULT models?
” So many men leer/stare, grope, even follow women around in public, and generally feel entitled to approach any woman they find attractive”
I feel entitled to approach women I find attractive. What am I supposed to do approach women I don’t find attractive? You are in serious need of some help.
When did the photographer grope anyone? Why would you write that?
Do you know what women do? They make false claims against men. Innocuous claims at work like ‘he stood too close to me’. That happened to a friend of mine and they fired him for ‘sexual harassment’ because they couldn’t find ‘standing too close’ in the HR manual. LOL Geez now my friend, his wife and daughter had to move because of a woman making false claims. And he didn’t do anything wrong- the woman was a psycho. How about that Hayden Tompkins? America sooo uptight.
When I lived in Brazil women followed ME around. How is that for ya!?
Thanks for letting people know how uptight westernized people are.
Oh my god I am going to be in trouble with the women. I wrote
“You write about being looked at in middle school. What does that have to do with a guy photographing ADULT models?”
I should have written “a guy photographing models who are adults” because I am sure if this were an article you would read into it that ‘adult models’ is like adult movies as in X rated or something. oh just go away you whiners.
If you had read the comment, you would see that I was not referring to the post at all.
“If I had read the comment”? That’s unnecessarily rude and presumptuous. I did read the comment, but perhaps I misread it. Considering a friend’s father was diagnosed with cancer just before I got into the comments, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Tim
Hello Tim and the world,
I’d like to take a moment to thank Tim for this inspiring post – the make the darn first step to follow your dreams part and the pics too (OFC!).
What I really-really-REALLY!! enjoyed about this post is the fact that Tim had to ditch the push-up bras and came up with some cool and interesting post title but not the OMG! I HAFTA READ THIS!-style of doing it.
Tim don’t get me wrong your post are very, and I mean veery!, interesting. You don’t need this PPC-esque style of posting bro! We don’t like to have our expectations let down and I’m sure that’s the same for you.
We love you man, we love what you do, we love the way you do it and we love the fact that you help us realize that everything can be done, everyone of our dreams can be reached. We thank you for sharing everything with us and I’m certain you can feel it too.
Keep up the good work! We’re here for you
Pete
I am not usually commenting on blogs, but since you took so much heat for this post i just want to say that i considered it very good and inspirational, a pleasure reading it. Much more interesting than other posts.
I came back for a second visit and noticed a less compelling title….
Great post Tim!!
Something I would pursue if only I could take photographs haha.
Keep up the good work!
I love this post. You have inspired me over and over again. A close friend sent me this with the header “Lets move to Buenos Aires”. Honestly I have been considering this place as one of most likely places to live. Now you have definitely sold the final aspects of why one single man should live here. After exploring much of that world South America feels like the next likely destination.
Thank you for being an inspiration for change!
-Vic
In answer to Tim’s question about whether you can engineer meeting your husband or wife, I answer yes, because that’s exactly what I did.
I decided to come up with a new kind of dating philosophy in order to become more pragmatic and structured about meeting people. The idea was to spend more time on dates and less time chickening out of talking to girls. It worked. A year after I married my wife I read Tim’s book, got inspired, and created a dating guide which has become my muse. It’s called The Go-Getter’s Guide To Finding Your Soulmate and it’s a dating guide for the romantic, pragmatic and determined. So I engineered meeting my soulmate… and I’m slowly but surely engineering my financial independence.
Know what you want, and go get it!
Great story about how you can accomplish some wild idea by just going for it. By your plane ticket and worry about the rest later.
It seems like many readers have inserted HUGE negative assumptions into both Jeremiah’s story and Tim’s decision to write this post, and as a result both Jeremiah and Tim have received some very unfair criticism here. Melodramatic statements implying that a man who desires female beauty is one step away from becoming a rapist are inappropriate and insulting to both sexes. In your future conversations, please make sure that your passion is directed in a constructive, and accurate, manner.
It is an inherent and irreversible trait of human beings to be attracted to physically fit individuals. (No one is implying that physical appearance is the ONLY component of attraction…do we really need to state this caveat every time)? If you were given a choice between your partner being physically fit or not, which version would you choose? (Some may argue that they would “love” their partner the same, but I’m not implying that you would love your partner any more or less…only that you would PREFER the physically fit version). I don’t believe that anyone can honestly answer otherwise (even if we can’t make you admit it out loud). You would prefer a physically fit version and…here’s the kicker…there is nothing wrong with that!!
Tim, this post was a perfect example of taking your own advice not to try to please everyone with every blog post. I loved everything about this post: Jeremiah’s inspiring story on his professional success, Jeremiah’s inspiring story of his personal life, the photos and yes, even the original title!! If I can’t have Tim Ferriss’s life I’d love to have Jeremiah’s!!
I am stating the obvious to say that most people would prefer to have a partner with a Brazilian-bikini-model level of fitness and attractiveness. I am also stating the obvious to say that most people won’t get a partner like that…most women don’t possess that trait, and neither do most men. What I find intriguing is that we don’t see men being angered by this reality. Many women seem angered by the fact that men still prefer beautiful women. It’s no secret that the components of attraction are more equally weighted with women, but it seems like there is a lot of animosity from women over the fact that men don’t weight the components of the attraction in the same proportions that women do.
I wonder if the root source of this controversy comes from American society’s increasing insistence that there are no inherent differences in men and women which go beyond whether or not your parents gave you dolls vs trucks as a kid. Societal expectations have changed in America over the last couple decades as American society has pushed hard for the feminization of men…and has gotten it in large measure. I think it was expected that if you could get men to outwardly act like women that all our differences would go away.
I don’t like to look at beautiful calendar girls because I like to look at them – I like it too much. Too much, I like it. And it’s not good for me.
If you want to marry someone amazing, don’t try too hard. Don’t make lists. Don’t calculate. Don’t analyze your way into nuptial bliss. My wife is nothing like the girl of my dreams. Nothing like the girl I was searching for. And I am glad. No matter how good you think your dreams are or how complete your list of desired attributes, there are things you haven’t thought of.
I could not have dreamed up my wife all by myself in a million years. But she came along, both more amazing (and more difficult) than my dreams.
One last thought: for true romance, there’s nothing like following tradition – I mean old traditions, like waiting till your wedding night and serenading her from beneath her window. (I did this, singing in Italian, and then her mother applauded.)
@Jason Murphy You noticed the change in title huh? Just wait until Tim takes out the photos too. He is being cowed by just a few women reading things into the story that are not there. Some woman called his friend a ‘creep’ but provide no quote to prove this. I would not let them call MY friend a ‘creep’.
@ Tim Why did you not take your own advice written above? I don’t get it. Seriously I don’t. You changed the title after some overreactors and liars complained and said they were leaving anyway. So who cares? Why did you change the title?
“Blog Lesson 1 – Please Everyone to Interest No One
If this post put your knickers in a twist, before leaving a snarky comment, realize this: when everyone is your customer, no one is your customer. This is true in business and writing.”
Hi John,
I actually changed it after speaking with Jeremiah. He felt, and I think he was right, that there wasn’t enough how-to about marriage specifically to warrant the title. I don’t think it’s good to attempt to please everyone, but it’s no sin to change course. I do this quite a lot, especially with content. Offensive is fine, if the how-to is strong, but I don’t want the title to be misleading and lead to disappointed readers.
Hope that helps,
Tim
Tim,
After reading the comments on this post, I feel inspired to follow your advice under “How Does A Bestseller Happen?” and write a book about the “protest culture” that is spreading across our society. Every day I am more and more amazed by the fact that we now have more ways to access information than ever before, but we seem to know less and less about what’s really going on.
All of the people who criticized this post make valid arguments about the fact that men CAN potentially abuse and objectify women, a point that I nor anyone else can argue against, yet none of them seem to have read the actual story and acknowledged that Jeremiah is not an abuser and never hurt or took advantage of anyone. One may argue that he took advantage by not paying some girls initially, but he clearly states that it was an honest mistake that he corrected AND any model who thought they were getting a bad deal could have just said “No” and moved on. He wasn’t forcing girls to take their clothes off and pose, they willingly volunteered. If anything, the complainers are doing much worse because they create this story where South American women are not very smart and are immediately hypnotized by any white man who claims to be a photographer. As noted by you and others, this is total BS. Undermining the intelligence of attractive women is its own form of objectification.
This is how protest culture works! They find a story, only pay attention to the details that fit their worldview of “Someone is taking advantage of someone else,” and ignore (or even worse, distort) important facts to the contrary. This used to only be the territory of fanatical religious groups, but since the rise of political correctness and 24-hour news networks, misrepresentation has become shockingly commonplace. Normally intelligent people, such as the type I would expect to read this blog, begin foaming at the mouth at the chance to complain about how “offended” they are at something they never bothered to fully comprehend. Hell, you could say I’m doing the exact same thing right now by reacting to the reactors 🙂
By the way, to re-re-reclarify my stance, I am not saying that women are never taken advantage of, bad things do happen to good people almost every day. My question is, since the facts maintain that neither Tim nor Jeremiah are raging misogynists, what is the benefit of protesting them? No one is being reformed here because there is nothing to reform, and while date-rapists worldwide continue to do horrible things to undeserving women, we’re all wasting time being pissed off at the good guys.
On a lighter note, if you’re interested, here is a video of the film director Kevin Smith telling the story of how he attended a protest of one of his own movies, Dogma, in 1999.
The movie was a comedic take on various Catholic precepts that was actually surprisingly pro-Catholic, but the protesters never knew that because not one of them ever saw the film. I guess it’s a lot easier to be pissed off about something if you just make up the ways that it offends you.
Best,
– Pat
Pat-
That sounds like a best seller. Make it happen, may the force be with you. I can’t wait to read it.
Crowd of mindless protesters –
Thank you for the entertainment. That’s what you wanted right? Argumentative attention is better than no attention at all.
I have been happily married to a Brazilian girl for four years. I met her in Massachusetts and started to teach her English. It is easily engineered. Just like Jeremiah teaching poses and helping these beautiful girls, you will wind up with one to marry. The brazilian girls love Americans. I have a friend in Florianopolis so I am planning to spend a few days in Florianopolis for my next trip to Brazil so maybe I will meet Jeremiah and Hans. My wife is studying photography also so maybe she can get some lessons from Jeremiah.
I work as an aspiring fashion photographer. Lots of these comments are being made so far from people who don’t actually know how the industry works! Saying “she’s being taken advantage of” is such a huge disrespect.
Here’s a link that might “enlighten” the haters:
http://dp.lexar.com/phro-photo/how-did-they/getting-started-high-fashion-photography
Photographers and models both start out working on developing a portfolio, FOR FREE! Expect this to happen for a number of years until you develop the skills/relationships with the right people to further your career! Both parties win.
Thought I would put an end to this nonsense.
Great post Tim!
Tim and Jeremiah, I am currently moving to Brasil. I lived in Costa Mesa, CA for the last few years and worked at a job that I felt was suppressing my soul. A few years ago I read your book, The 4 Hour Work Week and was inspired, to say the least. I quit my job, sold my furniture, stored my car, and headed south with a backpack. I’m currently in Mexico and will be going through all of Central America, Venezuela, and entering Brasil from the north towards Florianopolis where I will reside. I’ve been to the southern part of Brasil and fell in love with every aspect of the culture, women, and climate… especially in Florianopolis. My intention is to take a Portuguese course to become as fluent as possible while down there and teach English privately. I’m open to other entrepreneurial projects as well.
The story of how I met my wife also has to do with the lure of the exotic. In 2000 I quit my boring, safe, lucrative job and moved to Venezuela to teach English & learn Spanish. The students were very pretty and the streets of Caracas were full of beautiful women. Within the first 2 months I met Francia at a ska concert in an infamous bohemian bar of Caracas. We dated for a couple of months and then she dumped me. I met a few great girls there, but Francia was always my favorite. We stayed friends and she basically tortured me with the “let’s just be friends” scam.
I stayed there 2.5 years and then moved out to Maui. Over the years Francia & I stayed in touch here and there by email. She moved to France and then Brazil. Facebook came out and that got us more in touch. Then, in Aug 2008 I traded apartments with a friend from NYC. I asked Francia if she wanted to meet me there. She came up, and we rekindled the flame. We spent 2 weeks together there and decided to get married. 2 months later we eloped on a beach in Margarita Island. Now it is 2 years later, and married life in Miami Beach couldn’t be better.
Hi Tim,
Here are my 2 cent for the title (yup! the topic is on :D): How to live your dream and marry a Brazilian model while you’re at it! Hope you like it and use it.
Cheers
Pete
PS: Browsing through Jeremiah’s flicks I found this AMAZING lady that I think deserves to have a picture in this post (again my 2 cents and personal favorite, you don’t have to please me) and I’m talking about (ta-daa!) The Wonderful Amazing Sweet Angelic H.O.T. Larger than Life Michelle (*fluffy hearts floating around me as I type her name*).
Set up that contest and I will be in Brazil in a heartbeat. I’ve always been into photography, but Brazilian girls just would take it to a whole new level. Great post and amazing photos Jeremiah!
Pictures like these are what motivate me to get my ass to CrossFit at 5am. :p Being of Brasilian heritage, I am determined to rock a bikini like that.