Facts and Fiction about Virtual Assistants and why Timothy Ferris loves them (and why you should too)

 Recently I was having lunch with a friend, and I was sharing with her some details on a project I on using a virtual assistant. and she said, "What the heck is a virtual assistant?"

This is not an uncommon question for me. Most people look at me with confusion when I talk about taking advantage of using virtual assistants. Some people think a virtual assistant is an online software or mobile app, others simply have no clue as to what they are.  

So  in this post I want to help you understand what exactly is a virtual assistant is and why it’s smart to use them.  
Like the guy in this picture - we all want help getting to the good life, so why not get people to help you get there. This is what a virtual assistant can help with

FACT: A virtual assistant is person who does a task (or a series of tasks) for you, but is someone you may never meet in person.  They could be located in Des Moines Iowa or they could be located in the Philippines,
and usually you communicate with them via phone, Skype or email.  

In reality, the idea of virtual assistants is really a fancy future sounding term for hiring someone else to get the task you need done.  People from the beginning of time have always used other people to get the job done. They figured out by hiring someone else to help them they could accomplish more than they could on their own. 

FICTION: Only Rich people or highly successful business can hire someone to help them out.

Thanks to the age of online communication, now you can afford to hire someone to help you anywhere in the world and sometimes very cheap prices, because in most cases their cost of living is much cheaper than it is for you. 
Essentially you are hiring virtual assistance and getting to benefit from access to expertise around the world.

FACT:  Really successful people know the only way to grown business and wealth is through delegation, which can include hiring virtual assistants.

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Napoleon Hill, famous his wealth building strategies and the famous book, Think and Grown Rich, strongly advocated for the working with others to grow your business and your wealth. In his book, “Think and Grow
  Rich, in chapter ten called “The Power of the Master Mind” he speaks about the power of surrounding yourself with people to help you and lend their expertise.

“Nature's building blocks are available to man, in the energy  involved in THINKING! Man's brain may be compared to an electric battery. It absorbs energy from the ether, which permeates every atom of matter, and fills the entire universe.

It is a well known fact that a group of electric batteries will  provide more energy than a single battery. It is also a well known fact that an individual battery will provide energy in proportion to the number and capacity of the cells it contains. The brain functions in a similar fashion. This accounts for the fact that some brains are more efficient than others, and leads to this significant statement—a group of brains coordinated (or connected) in a spirit of harmony, will provide more thought-energy than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries will provide more energy than a single battery.

Through this metaphor it becomes immediately obvious that the Master Mind principle holds the secret of the POWER wielded by men who surround themselves with other men of brains.”

This quote emphasizes the fact that more people you have focusing on the same action can create more power, and more power increases opportunities for success and wealth building.
Napoleon Hill is not the only one who believes working with others will help you get rich faster.

In 2007 Timothy Ferriss wrote a best-seller called , “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich”.  And this is the first place I learned about virtual assistants. 

He advocates anyone in any business which extols the merits of using and hiring virtual assistants to free up your time by letting them handle scheduling and other routine tasks.

Tim Ferris has been quoted as saying:

 “Getting a remote personal assistant is a huge departure point and marks the moment that you learn how to give orders and be commander instead of the commanded. It is small-scale training wheels for the most critical of [Four-Hour Work Week Skills]: remote management and communication. It’s time to learn to be the boss. It isn’t time-consuming. It’s low-cost and it’s low risk.”

As for me?   
I have personally used many different types of virtual assistants – from complicated online research of real estate markets, to creating my logo (and I’m finicky), even writing ad copy.  The list of things you can do with a virtual assistant is just about endless – anything you can think of there is someone out there who can help you. 
You really don’t have to do it all by yourself – you can delegate and hire a virtual assistant to do it for you. 

Trust me… it is a very wonderful feeling knowing someone else is doing it for you.

Take Action Now:
Make a list of all the tasks you hate doing – and figuring out how you can get someone else to do it for you. Then it is just a matter of finding the right virtual assistant for the job and let them do it for you.