Takeaways from The Millioner Fastlane by DeMarco
Real wealth is created quickly and asymmetrically. In other words, real wealth has nothing to do with forty years of thankless jobs, penny-pinching budgets, disciplined savings, and patient stock-market optimism.
The book has a very typical 'info-business' cover and my first thought was that the main purpose of the book would be to upsell me the author's courses or webinars. However, after I read the feedbacks on Amazon I decided to give it a shot. So, I bought this book in Kindle format. After I read the book, I can sincerely recommend it. This is a good story.
Below are my takeaways from the book in free form.
There are three types of approach: sidealk, slowlane, fastlane.
No one is going to help you.#
No one will guide you, fund you, motivate you, or coddle you. Few will be supportive. The Fastlane road is yours to travel and yours alone. It is not easy; it’s hard work. If you expect a four-hour workweek here, you will be disappointed.
Not what they teach you create wealth#
People who make a fortune on investment management fees, seven-figure book deals, podcast sponsorships, training programs, and ancillary subscriptions, know something they aren’t telling you: What they teach you doesn’t create wealth fast, but selling it does.
Sidewalkers are ripe for swindling because they seek events (shortcuts) and want to avoid process. When this becomes etched into your mindset, guru pitches on YouTube or Instagram suddenly become daily entertainment. If you want to learn anything from these clowns, don't buy anything they sell; study how they sell it.
Goals#
If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know if you get there?
We believe what we’re taught, even when evidence appears to the contrary.
A Sidewalker’s financial destination doesn’t exist. The plan is to have no plan. Surplus money is immediately spent on the next great gadget, the next trip, the next newer car, the next fashionable style, or the next hot fad. The Sidewalk’s siren song is instant gratification which can come from many addictive sources: junk food, shopping, video games, television, and smartphones. Money is disrespected like a hot potato that’s quickly exchanged for the latest fix of the week. Responsibility and accountability? Weak, or worse, absent. Moreover, “feelings” and quick dopamine hits are prioritized over logic and critical thinking, two skills needed for an extraordinary life.
What is wealth for you?#
If you're not paying attention, culture will define wealth for you by default. And depending on which roadmap you follow, Sidewalk or Slowlane, both definitions are toxic. And both serve a global agenda.
People who declare, “Money doesn't buy happiness” have already concluded they will never have money. This old equivocation becomes the torchbearer to their poorness.
Affordability is when you don't have to think about it.
How do you know if you can afford something? You can afford it if you pay cash, and your lifestyle doesn't change regardless of future circumstances. In other words, if you buy a boat, pay cash, and are NOT affected by unexpected “bumps in the road,” you can afford it. Would you regret a gum purchase if you lost your job a week later? Or if your sales forecast was slashed by 50%? Nope, it wouldn't make a difference. This is how affordability is measured against your level of wealth.
Yet, the Sidewalker's manifesto is predicated on hitchhiking: entrusting your financial plan to others, or worse, no one. Another anchor is to seek a wealth chauffeur, someone else that can drive the journey for you. Unfortunately, this mindset makes you vulnerable to victimhood.
On decisions and choice#
No one forced you to work at Walmart; you work there because you chose to work there. If you're tired of making $11 an hour, raise your value to society. Get your butt over to the library or take an online class at uDemy. Walmart can't offer low wages if they don't have an endless supply of victims like you.
The other day I heard successive radio commercials that were utterly disturbing. You don't need to be a nuclear physicist to know their target... Sidewalking victims. The first commercial was for a mortgage loan modification company. The sales pitch went like this: “Modify your loan and get the lower payments you deserve.” The following commercial was from an attorney. “Been in an accident? Get the money you deserve.” The final commercial was from a credit repair company. “Let us negotiate your debts down to nothing so you can live the life you deserve!” Notice the common phrase? You deserve. Seriously, what do these people really deserve? Your credit sucks, you don't pay your bills on time, and you deserve a better life? Grandma rear-ends your car, and suddenly you deserve a large cash award from some rich insurance company? You buy a house you can't afford, and now you deserve a lower rate? How does “deserving” suddenly come so easy with no particular effort, like an event raining from the heavens?
You deserve what your actions earned or haven't earned. Being responsible is one thing; being accountable is another. When you're accountable for your choices, you alter your behavior in the future and take the driver's seat of your life.
Self value and rat race#
What if I told you ‘insane’ was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn’t you consider that to be insane? (Steve Buscemi, Con Air, Paramount Pictures, 2003)
In 2007 on a cold January morning, a violinist stationed himself in a Washington, DC, train station and played six classical pieces from Bach. Except this was no ordinary violinist, and it was no ordinary violin. This was an incognito Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world, who nights earlier had played to a sold-out concert hall in Boston for nearly $100 a ticket. As Joshua played his $3.5 million violin amid the morning commuter rush, approximately 2,000 people passed through the station, most of them on their way to work. He played continuously for 45 minutes. Only six people stopped to listen briefly. No crowd formed. About twenty folks gave money but continued onward at a brisk pace. When he finished, there was silence except for the rhythmic hustle of a busy train station. No applause. No crowd. No recognition. This experiment, conducted by the Washington Post, uncovers something compelling—and disturbing. Not even the most fantastic musician in the world can illuminate the blinding depths of the rat race and those suffocating by its indifference.
This story exposes the Slowlane for its contempt: When you trade your life mindlessly for a paycheck, you risk being blinded to life as you cursively walk by it in a busy train station.
By working faithfully 8 hours a day, you may eventually get to be the boss and work 12 hours a day.
If you want to escape the Slowlane and find wealth and freedom fast, you’ve got to dump the job. Let me repeat. Dump the damn job!
Control#
Jobs suck because they’re rooted in limited leverage and limited control.
Who taught us that trading time in exchange for money was a great idea?
Experience comes from what you do in life, not from what you do in a job. You don’t need a job to get experience.
If you don’t control your income, you don’t control your financial plan. If you don’t control your financial plan, you don’t control your freedom.
A job seals your fate into a criminal time trade: five days of life traded for two days of freedom.
A job chains you to a set grade of experience. A job takes away your control. A job forces you to work with people you can’t stand. A job forces you to get paid last. A job imposes a dictatorship on your income. These limitations are counterinsurgencies to wealth. Still want a job?
Time#
Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows. — Michael Landon
If an education entombs you under a mountain of debt and shackles you to a job for the rest of your life, is it really a good education? If an MBA increases your salary by 15% but takes 15 years to pay, was it a good investment?
People's best excuse for not having wealth is “I don’t have time.” Well, why don’t you have time? Because you have a job. Why do you have a job? Because you need one. Why do you need one? Because you have bills to pay. Why do you have bills to pay? Because you have debt. Why do you have debt? Oh yes, because you went to school for six years and have six figures in student loans.
Gurus, courses#
When it comes to gurus and financial advisers, this is what you must do: leave class and request a refund because they’re guilty of a Paradox of Practice.
Do as I Say, Not as I Do A Paradox of Practice exists when someone promotes a moneymaking strategy, but that strategy is not what made him or her rich. In other words, they’re not practitioners of their own advice. These people effectively teach one wealth equation (the Slowlane) while they get rich (or try to get rich), leveraging another (the Fastlane).
Gurus fill a market need, and I don’t deny it. However, consider this: Are they being truthful about their paradox and their magic potion? Are they rich because of what they preach or what they sell?
If the “do as I say” doesn’t match the “do as I do,” you should be suspicious.
Life#
I’d rather live in regret of failure than in regret of never trying. — MJ DeMarco
To assume that you will live a long, healthy life is arrogant. To presume that life won’t throw you any curves is naïve. For the Slowlane to prevail, it assumes life is predictable and forgiving.
Life is a menagerie of crisis points, making the Slowlane roadmap a risky bet that consumes your most precious asset: time.
A tricycle that has a top speed of 3 mph will always have a top speed of 3 mph, no matter HOW HARD YOU PEDAL!
Impact on others' lifes#
You can defy the Slowlane’s limitations by becoming so indispensable that your value to society skyrockets. If millions seek you, you will be paid millions. Pro basketball players are paid millions because their skills are in short supply. Famous actors and entertainers are paid millions because millions demand their brand in entertainment form. Extreme talent is paid exceptionally well.
Sadly, a “millionaire” (net worth of $1,000,000) is simply middle class in today’s terms. Hell, it’s not even upper middle class any longer. A millionaire is not rich. — location: 2156 ^ref-30408
In today’s inflationary age, you need to be a baby-billionaire (one billion pennies or $10 million) to really have financial freedom while enjoying the perceived “millionaire lifestyle.” Yes, ten million is the old one million. Depressing, I know. — location: 2158 ^ref-33720
People would do better if they knew better. — Jim Rohn — location: 2203 ^ref-63805
Raffle Sidewalk: First prize: $50,000,000 awarded immediately. Your odds of winning: 1 in 6 million (.0000016%) Raffle Slowlane: First prize: $1,000,000 awarded in 40 years. Your odds of winning: 1 in 6 (17%) Raffle Fastlane: First prize: $15,000,000 awarded in 6 years. Your odds of winning: 1 in 7 (14%) — location: 2211 ^ref-26905
“Get Rich Quick” is such an abused phrase that it has zero credibility. Beaten and battered, we’re numbed to believe it doesn’t exist. Like Santa or a unicorn, we’re advised, “Get rich quick is a scam!” I don’t blame you, but is it true? Can’t fast millions be made as advertised on websites and social media? The distinction is that “get rich schemes” aren’t endemic to “Get Rich Quick,” but its evil twin, “Get Rich Easy.” — location: 2276 ^ref-45687
The Fastlane Is a Business System: The Slowlane Is a Job — location: 2361 ^ref-62857
You were baptized to play for Team Consumer from the day you were born, — location: 2381 ^ref-63792
The winning team is Team Producer. — location: 2389 ^ref-47011
Reshape life’s focus on producing, not consuming. You effectively switch teams and allegiances when you reframe your thinking from majority thinking (consumer) to minority thinking (producer). Yes, become a producer first and a consumer second. Applied, this means instead of buying products on TV, sell products. Instead of digging for gold, sell shovels. Instead of taking a class, offer a class. Instead of borrowing money, lend it. Instead of taking a job, hire for jobs. Instead of taking a mortgage, hold a mortgage. Break free from consumption, switch sides, and reorient to the world as a producer. I know; it’s not easy. However, once you see the world from a producer’s perspective, your perception sharpens like a fine-tuned radio frequency, from static to clear stereo sound. Suddenly, opportunities have clarity, ideas surface, and scams are exposed. This new minority status is critical to strengthening your wealth-creation temperament. Remember, the rich are a minority, and you want to be in that minority. It starts with a producer mindset. — location: 2389 ^ref-46088
To switch teams and become a producer, you need to be an entrepreneur and an innovator. You need to be a visionary and a creator. You need to give birth to a business and offer value to the world. — location: 2410 ^ref-10123
While the centrist theme to the Slowlane is a job, in the Fastlane, it’s a business. — location: 2412 ^ref-2269
In a few short years, JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter brand, went from being a 32-year-old divorced English teacher to a media mogul worth over $400 million. The single mom has sold over 30 million copies of her books in 35 languages. She didn’t crutch the excuse, “I’m a single mom and don’t have time.” Ms. Rowling recalls the happiest point of her life—not the acquisition of millions, but the point at which she could write full-time. Similarly, Dan Brown has sold over 80 million copies of The DaVinci Code in 51 languages. Let me be perfectly clear: If you sell 80 million of ANYTHING, you will be a wealthy human being. — location: 2685 ^ref-2331
The Law of Effection: The Fastlane Primer The Law of Effection states that the more lives you affect in scale and/or magnitude in an entity you control, the richer you will become. The shortened, sanitized version is simply: Affect millions and make millions. — location: 2884 ^ref-51776
Impact millions and make millions. It doesn't get any simpler than that! In other words, how many lives have you touched? Who has benefited from your work, your assets, and your handiwork? What problems have you solved? What value are you to society? If you're working the front desk at a hotel, you simply aren't making much of an impact, and your bank account will represent that same fact. The amount of money you have (or don't have) directly reflects the amount of value you have provided (or not provided). — location: 2890 ^ref-34072
If you aren’t familiar with “pay yourself first,” it’s a Slowlane doctrine that urges you to save your money (pay yourself) before food, gas, car payments, and other bills. This supposedly forces the Slowlaner’s savings rate to accelerate their putrid wealth acceleration vehicle: compound interest via market investments. — location: 2962 ^ref-25975
If your primary income source comes from a job, your ability to pay yourself first is paralyzed because the governments are paid first! For “pay yourself first” to be legitimate, you need to pay yourself first in infinite amounts and the government last. You must own your vehicle. — location: 2968 ^ref-31174
You can’t pay yourself first if you don’t own yourself. Your vehicle (you) must be free and clear. When you have a job, someone owns you. And when someone owns you, you aren’t paid first, but last. — location: 2971 ^ref-35586
Like many entrepreneurs, I made the horrific mistake of getting into business as a sole proprietor. Any “adviser” who recommends a business structure as a sole proprietorship or general partnership should be avoided like an airport toilet. These entities are risky because they don’t protect you and catapult unlimited liability onto you and your personal assets. — location: 2982 ^ref-3713
If you retrace poverty’s footprints, you will find that poorness starts at the exact same place: choice. — location: 3031 ^ref-33135
If you aren’t where you want to be, the problem is your choices. — location: 3042 ^ref-14538
People don’t choose to be poor. They make poor decisions that slowly assemble into a poorness puzzle. Retrace the footprints to poverty, and it happens gradually, systematically, and methodically, under a steady diet of poor choices. — location: 3070 ^ref-20059
The smallest choices made in your daily life create habits and lifestyle that forms process—they are the ones that can make the most significant impact. You can’t decide to “go Fastlane” because it is just an event. A Fastlane process is hundreds of choices. Regardless of your age, reflect and then analyze the forks in the road and where those forks have taken you. The forks are choices, both complex and straightforward, and each shares the common thread of having the magnificent power to take you somewhere different. Whatever you decide today impacts tomorrow, weeks, months, years, decades, and yes, generations. — location: 3167 ^ref-4846
Today is the starting line for the rest of your life. Yes, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. The problem with the past is that we remember memories we shouldn’t, — location: 3318 ^ref-6241
If your eyes are stuck in the rearview mirror, you’re stuck in the past. If you’re stuck in the past, you’re not looking ahead. If you’re not looking ahead, you can’t hit the mark of your future. — location: 3320 ^ref-56532
The universe doesn’t care about your past. It is blind to it. The universe doesn’t care that I wore pink pants in high school. (Hey, remember Miami Vice?) The universe doesn’t care that I got in a fight with Francis Franken and lost. The universe doesn’t care about your MBA from UCLA, your drug-dealing father, or that you wet your bed in junior high. The universe simply doesn’t care. One person and one person only weaponizes past transgressions: you. If the universe doesn’t remember, why should you? Being the youngest of three siblings, you can bet I was the subject of some vile comments. Fat, stupid, you name it. However, just because my brother called me an idiot for 12 years doesn’t make it my reality. Your past never equals your future unless you allow it. Think about a coin flip. No matter how many times it’s flipped, the next flip is always random. Probability cannot be attached to a future flip based on the past. Your past is the same. — location: 3321 ^ref-41548
Extraordinary wealth will require you to have extraordinary beliefs. — location: 3372 ^ref-8280
Before you know it, 45 years have passed, and you need another 25 just to make your financial plan work. Time passes, dreams die, and what remains? An old, withered body, sad for what could have been. — location: 3381 ^ref-14229
While growing up, one of the successful entrepreneurs I studied was Sylvester Stallone. While Sly is thought to be an actor, he’s really an entrepreneur. His Rocky screenplay was his product that touched millions, and he sold it under a specific set of circumstances, which included the provision that he had to play the lead role. — location: 3407 ^ref-7864
Significant Other or Significant Distraction? The worst headwind can be the person who sits in your vehicle’s passenger seat. They sit and lecture you on your dumb ideas and remind you of your failures. Or they don’t say anything and just distract you: They fiddle with the radio, adjust the climate control, mess with the windows, and hum old Duran Duran tunes. Or they play the role of a back seat driver: “Charles! Charles! Do this! Do that! Turn there! No, dummy!” What possibly can be so hazardous to your trip, and who is this person? How did they get in your car? This person is your significant other. By talking with other aspiring entrepreneurs, I’ve learned that significant others (spouses, fiancées, girlfriends, boyfriends) can be some of the most considerable headwinds. Having a life partner who doesn’t ascribe to your ideals and goals is like towing a trailer full of wet manure. Can you expect to grow together if your partner doesn’t subscribe to an entrepreneurial philosophy and toes the Slowlane road? Someone fighting with you in your corner is accelerative; if they oppose, they become treasonous. — location: 3429 ^ref-10639
Time isn’t a commodity, something you pass around like a cake. Time is the substance of life. When anyone asks you to give your time, they’re really asking for a chunk of your life. — Antoinette Bosco — location: 3453 ^ref-62999
Why will most people never get rich? Look no further than a $6 bucket of chicken. It made big news: A major fast-food restaurant offered a free bucket of chicken to anyone who had an Internet coupon. People flocked to restaurant locations and waited for hours, all for a free $6 bucket of chicken. Do you know anyone who would stand in line for hours just to get something free? — location: 3456 ^ref-46166
These stories are familiar, yet my reaction is the same: What the hell is wrong with people? I’ll tell you: These people value their time at zero. It’s free. They’re convinced that time is abundant and in endless supply like the air we breathe. They live as if they were immortal. They are confident that time, the fuel of their life, never runs empty. — location: 3459 ^ref-8050
The greasy chicken truth: Value your time poorly, and you will be poor. When time is wasted as a lifestyle choice, you will be stranded in places you don’t want to be. — location: 3464 ^ref-35610
Moreover, the average American watches more than four hours of TV each day. In a 65-year life, that person will have spent nine years glued to the tube. Nine years Ms. Bueller. Nine. — location: 3469 ^ref-9206
Instead of wasting nine years on Game of Thrones and How I Met Your Mother, why not invest those nine years into a business system that can pay dividends for the next thirty years? — location: 3474 ^ref-41607
You can live in blissful happiness or in a miserable depression—time is indifferent, and it just drips away. Since time is scarce, wouldn’t it make sense not to waste three hours of your life on a $6 bucket of chicken? — location: 3497 ^ref-12114
When I first moved out, I quickly learned the Law of Chocolate Chip Cookies: If the cookies don’t get into the grocery cart, they don’t get home. And if they don’t get home, they don’t get in my mouth. And if they don’t get in my mouth, they don’t transform into belly fat. Parasitic debt follows the same law. Control parasitic debt by controlling its source: instant gratification, a trait of the Sidewalk. The next time you feel compelled to buy some trinket at Macy’s, ask yourself: Will this be obsolete in six months and land in the garage with the rest of the junk? — location: 3542 ^ref-15047
Time losers are also inconvenient savers. The inconvenient saver desperately clutches onto every dollar, fearful it may never return. Extreme inconvenience is never a match for saving money. For example, a friend wanted an exercise bike and found it on sale at a store miles away from her home. I told her just to buy the darn thing locally and pay the higher price, which was an extra $29. Nope, she was an inconvenient saver. Instead, she drove one hour to save $29. Total time spent? Two and a half hours. Subtract gas and the total valuation of her time is about $5 per hour. Last I checked, she doesn’t work for $5 per hour but has no problem wasting her free time at this rate. — location: 3563 ^ref-27331
Sidewalkers and Slowlaners use money as the sole criterion in decision-making: Which job pays the most? Where is the cheapest item? How can I get some free chicken? Money is scarce, and time brings up the rear and sweeps up the mess. If you want to be rich, you must start thinking rich... Time is king. — location: 3575 ^ref-36893
Face it. What you know today is not enough to get you where you need to be tomorrow. You must constantly reinvent yourself, and reinvention is education. — location: 3597 ^ref-51930
I’m tired of sob stories from well-intended college graduates with mountains of debt who can’t get a job. Take responsibility. You bought into the myth that college ensures a job. You pursued a degree with no marketable value. The fact is, when you allow unquestioned cultural norms to drive your vehicle, you’re likely to end on the street with a homemade poster proclaiming the value of your 4.0 GPA and the crushing burden of your six-figure debt. No one cares. — location: 3735 ^ref-55503
What fool would pay $50,000 to attend a seminar, workshop, or coaching program? Many do. This is a common question at the Fastlane Forum. So-and-so offers a three-day “training” on real estate investment for $50,000. Should I buy it? What? Are you a smoking crack? Do you know what you’re buying? Let me tell you. You’re paying $50,000 for someone to explain a book found at the bookstore for twenty bucks. — location: 3743 ^ref-5292
People want events, not processes, and what better event than a $50,000 seminar or coaching program! — location: 3748 ^ref-58204
Most cheap training programs are day-long upselling to more expensive programs. And those well-suited presenters? They suffer the typical Paradox of Practice: rich from selling five-figure coaching programs, not from anything they teach. — location: 3751 ^ref-15851
The second tipoff is price again. Be wary of FREE. FREE usually means eight minutes of education and eight hours of upsell to a higher-priced program. — location: 3770 ^ref-43447
Thirdly, who is giving it? Is it a professional speaker? Or someone who actually practices what they teach? Read the fine print. “Johnny Guru’s strategies have made millions!” and the fine print says, “Johnny Guru will not be in attendance.” Huh? Would you allow an acting surrogate to perform surgery on you if the real surgeon wasn’t available? Fail! — location: 3771 ^ref-23820
Interest reads a book; commitment applies the book fifty times. Interest wants to start a business, commitment files LLC paperwork. Interest works on your business an hour a day Monday through Friday; commitment works on your business seven days a week whenever time permits. Interest leases an expensive car; commitment rides a bike and puts the money into your system. Interest is looking rich; commitment is planning to be rich. — location: 3797 ^ref-3266
There is never a perfect time. Someday is today. Today is now. A week is seven days strung together while a year is 365. Today is all you’ve got! And if you wait, opportunities pass. Your Fastlane journey never starts, and year after year passes with new preconditions being added while the old ones are satisfied. While opportunity passes, guess what else passes? Time. — location: 3890 ^ref-59018
We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but we greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in five years. ~ Peter Drucker — location: 3934 ^ref-47546
There is a difference between good money, big money, and legendary money. Good money is $20,000/month. The cattle call of every network marketing company is, “Hey, wanna make $10,000 a month?” Big deal. Remember your windshield. It’s big money only in your head. That’s decent money, but nothing will put you into a private jet and 40-foot yacht on Newport Beach. Big money is $200,000/month. Now we’re talking—$200,000 every month puts a dent into your lifestyle. At this income level, life changes. And then there is legendary money, where you earn more than a million dollars every month. Outrageous? Not at all. One million a month is not impossible when you leverage all five commandments and control your company. — location: 3995 ^ref-31828
Low-barrier-entry businesses are weak roads because easy entry creates high competition and high traffic, all of which share the same pie. And where there is traffic, there is no movement. In other words, if “getting into business” is as simple as paying $200 for a distributor kit, there are no entry barriers, and the opportunity should be passed. If any Joe Blow alley-napping next to a dumpster behind Chan's Chinese restaurant can start your business in minutes, it isn't a business you want to be doing! The world is littered with so-called businesses that have no entry barriers. And that is why they suck, and the people who follow them aren't rich. — location: 4130 ^ref-41448
Want to know if your business violates entry? The answer is simple: Is getting into business an event or a process? Real business startups are processes, not events. — location: 4161 ^ref-1632
In the late 1990s, when tech stocks were skyrocketing, I lost money because I followed everyone. I learned. During the latest housing boom, I didn't buy a house. No, this time, I sold three properties before the decline. While the housing market collapsed and stocks soon followed, I was long gone and sitting in cash. How did I know? I spotted the signs of “everyone is doing it” because if everyone were rich, “everybody is doing it” would work. While this logic might seem spurious, it has never failed me. How do I know when “everyone is doing it?” Simple. When there is irrational exuberance about any investment that pervades Team Consumer—the general populous—that's when I know it is time to GET OUT AND STAY OUT. When the plumber comes over to fix the toilet and raves about his three cryptocurrency shitcoins that have appreciated 50% in the last three months, it's time to get out and stay out. When your personal trainer raves about his meme stock portfolio that earned 60% in two months, it's time to get out. — location: 4181 ^ref-50477
Dumb money—EVERYONE—always shows up at the end of a boom. Who is dumb money? Consumers! Money chasers! But some wise people have mastered the Rule of Everyone. Instead of getting out, they sell shovels to the gold diggers. Cryptocurrency miners, Amazon analysis platforms, and other eCommerce management systems are all examples of shovel sellers. — location: 4188 ^ref-35624
Businesses that solve needs and provide value win. Businesses that solve problems win profits. Selfish, narcissistic motives do not make good, long-term business models. Think about the purpose of businesses. Why do they exist? To satisfy your selfish desire to “do what you love?” To meet your craving for wealth and financial freedom? Seriously, no one cares about your desires, your dreams, your passions, your “whys,” or your reasons for wanting to be rich. No one cares that you want to own a Ferrari and prove your parents wrong. No one cares that corporate America wronged you. No one cares! Yes, the world is a selfish place, and nobody gives two-shits about your motives to “go Fastlane.” So, what do people care about? People care about what your business can do for them. — location: 4215 ^ref-38424
Never start a business just to make money. Stop chasing money and start chasing needs. Let me repeat that because it's the most critical thing in this book: Stop thinking about business regarding your selfish desires, whether money, dreams, or “do what you love.” Instead, chase needs, problems, pain points, service deficiencies, and emotions. — location: 4225 ^ref-13571
At first, people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done, and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago. — Frances Hodgson Burnett — location: 4753 ^ref-34903
Opportunity is rarely about some blockbuster invention like the light bulb or the car, but as simple as something I call value skew. Value skew is anything your business does better than the competition AND is discernible by your target audience, causing them to buy. Value skew is a solution to an inconvenience. Value skew is a simplification. Value skew is a feeling of excitement, comfort, or prestige. Value skew is better service, better ingredients, or a better label or user interface. Value skew is not being a big-tech bully who censors anyone they disagree with. Value skew is having a noble purpose behind your company. — location: 4762 ^ref-20557
You’ve got a great idea, but someone is already doing it? So what. Do it better. Find value attributes and skew them favorably. Do it better than the existing company. “Someone is doing it” is a monumental illusion imposing as an impassable obstacle. Someone is always already doing it. The bigger question is, how can you do it better? — location: 4771 ^ref-33851
Successful businesses rarely evolve from some legendary idea. Nope, successful entrepreneurs take existing concepts and improve them through value skew. They take poorly met needs and solve them better. Skip the big idea and go for the big execution of more value skew. You don’t need an idea that has never been done before. Old ideas suffice; just do it better and execute as no one has! — location: 4782 ^ref-57640
Poorly met needs are open roads often appearing closed. Successful businesses take existing ideas, services, and products and simply make them better through value skew or spin them in new directions. — location: 4802 ^ref-26054
The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. — Benjamin Mays — location: 4857 ^ref-42588
The end of the Fastlane road trip is to crown your happiness with freedom. — location: 4862 ^ref-25162
Freedom has a price, and that price is money. — location: 4864 ^ref-1782
I see this repeated at the Fastlane forum (TheFastlaneForum.com): “I’d like to make $5,000/month; how do I do this?” Aside from the flawed “money chasing” logic, the first step is to make $50/month. You can’t make $5,000 per month until you learn how to make $50 per month! I call this mindset the Olympic Fallacy: One shouldn’t ask how to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming if one doesn’t yet know how to swim. — location: 4926 ^ref-63087
You can’t build a financial empire if you’re ignorant of basic finance and economics. These disciplines are the building blocks to a financial empire, and without them, the Sidewalk becomes a danger. — location: 4961 ^ref-35598
Slowlaners seek to minimize expenses while the Fastlaner wants to maximize income and asset values. — location: 4981 ^ref-21921
Do those late-night get-rich infomercial products really work? Can you really make millions trading foreign currency or buying real estate with no money down? The truth is you can—but these infomercial peddlers don’t tell you their actual revenue model: planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is a marketer’s expectation that whatever they’re selling you, you won’t use it. And if you don’t use it, you’re unlikely to ask for your money back. Doing nothing is expected. Human nature plays an influential role in the business models of producers. Get-rich systems sold on TV (or online via landing pages) take advantage of human nature because humans seek events and want to avoid the process. The path of least resistance is to not do anything or to try halfheartedly. Whether they agree with the Fastlane strategy or not, most people will do nothing with the information. They’ll stare at the roadmap and agree with the mathematics but never hit the road and the accelerator. It’s one thing to possess the treasure map; it’s another to get out of the house and follow it. Doing nothing is normal when it’s the normalcy that you seek to avoid. — location: 5022 ^ref-35532
No, I won’t sign your NDA, nor do I care about your idea. In the world of wealth, ideas are worthless yet treated like gold. — location: 5067 ^ref-45493
The world reacts how it reacts. If you think 1 + 1 = 2 and the world tells you it’s 3, you have to let it be, despite your brain. When it comes to your ideas, plans, and business, you NEVER know what works until you put it out to the world. — location: 5109 ^ref-52174
Be prepared for the ultimate business sacrilege: Business plans are worthless. Yes, I said it. Business plans are useless because they are ideas jacked up on steroids. — location: 5128 ^ref-40347
Business plans are useless until they are married to execution. And guess what happens then? The moment you execute, the world will tell you just what I told you: Your business plan is useless. — location: 5133 ^ref-8348
Figure out what needs figuring and just go do it. The world will do its job and tell you the directions to travel. — location: 5144 ^ref-28770
But I Want Venture Capital! I know, I know: I can hear the objections already. Without a business plan, how will you get venture capital? Or investors? You can’t. Without a business plan, you won’t get funding. But please, take heart, the issue isn’t your business plan, nor will it ever be your business plan. The best business plan in the world will always be a track record of execution. If you are a successful entrepreneur, suddenly, people will want your business plan because they know you can execute it. If I received a business plan from an entrepreneur who sold his company for $20 million just two years earlier, you could bet your left leg I’d read it. The value is not the plan but the person giving it and his track record of execution. — location: 5146 ^ref-61853
If you want investors, get out and execute. Create a prototype. Create a brand. Create a track record that others can see or touch. Dive into process. Investors will open their wallets when you have a physical manifestation of an idea. Heck, be good enough, and they will be fighting to give you money. — location: 5163 ^ref-16759
You see, when you have nothing except 120 pages of text, charts, and graphs, that shows organizational skills, not execution. Angels to private equity never invest in business plans—they invest in people with track records of performance. That is your best business plan! So, if you really want to get funding for your business, get out and make your idea tangible. Give investors something they can see, touch, and feel. Give investors a glimpse of your execution because that is what creates speed on the Fastlane. — location: 5166 ^ref-44812
When business owners hear a complaint, most of them ignore it. Most of them pass the buck to an employee and pray the issue goes away. Not in the Fastlane. Complaints are a beautiful thing. They represent free feedback and expose unmet needs in your business. They represent the journey’s road noise. — location: 5190 ^ref-34860
Complaints are the world’s whispers hinting at the direction you should be moving. — location: 5195 ^ref-5783
A customer mistypes a price, and some idiot thinks they are entitled to a limo rental for $5.00 an hour versus the $50.00 per hour. “You owe me, or I will contact my attorney and sue!” Yes, I’m sure you have an attorney. Good luck with that, champ. Will you pay a lawyer $250 an hour to fight over a typographical error amounting to 45 bucks? Do you know what kind of fool you sound like? — location: 5242 ^ref-5206
How do you deal with exploitive complainers? You respond once with grace, explain your position, and move on. — location: 5247 ^ref-30586
There’s an old saying, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” — location: 5249 ^ref-11741
Some complaints need to be ignored. If you try to make everyone happy, you’ll drive yourself nuts. Pick your battles. Solve complaints that add the most value while helping the most. As a business owner, you must remember that, while you don’t have a boss, the person who pays your rent is your customer, and they always should be heard—but sometimes ignored. — location: 5256 ^ref-62249
You can explode your business into the stratosphere by deploying a customer service strategy that exceeds expectations: I call it SUCS, or “Superior Unexpected Customer Service.” — location: 5273 ^ref-40169
Associate yourself with [wo]men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better to be alone than in bad company. ~ George Washington — location: 5380 ^ref-39926
Your castle is your business. If you put crooks in the castle, expect trouble. Returning to our chess analogy, the rook—or the castle—represents the people you place in your business. This includes employees, partners and investors, and advisers. — location: 5382 ^ref-3361
No spectacular product features, such as great technology (snazzy websites) or great architecture (lavishly appointed hotels), can compensate for poor customer service. — location: 5480 ^ref-3911
A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one. — Henry Ford — location: 5499 ^ref-32449
People tend to make buying decisions for commoditized goods and services based on one metric: price. If you don't, the business has done an excellent job differentiating its product from the alternatives. If your product isn't unique, it doesn't stand a chance, and you're forced into the strategy of “cutting prices to stand out from the crowd.” — location: 5510 ^ref-32808
Another “dead professor” moment: Forget about your competition 95% of the time. The other 5% should be used to exploit their weaknesses and differentiate your business. — location: 5549 ^ref-2851
Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, ‘Make me feel important.’ Never forget that message when working with people. — Mary Kay Ash — location: 5575 ^ref-5679
Marketing can convince people to buy mediocre products. Marketing can hide or disguise service flaws. It can shadow incompetence and keep convicted felons disparate from their product. The power of marketing is that an effective ad campaign can move products, regardless of the cockroaches hiding underneath. Marketing is a game of perceptions, and whatever the perception is, that’s the reality. — location: 5583 ^ref-58735
Build a Brand, Not a Business Businesses survive. Brands thrive. A brand is the best defense against commoditization. When your company just pays the bills for the month, you’re playing checkers and being one-dimensional. People are loyal to brands and relationships, not corporations or businesses. — location: 5586 ^ref-13267
The first step in building a brand is to have a Unique Selling Proposition or a USP. As a business without one, you’re adrift in a sea of me-too companies without a rudder, unmoored to the tradewinds of the marketplace. — location: 5604 ^ref-53650
Your USP is your brand anchor and is typically your primary value skew. What makes your company different from the rest? What will compel a customer to buy from you over someone else? My USP was decisive: “No-risk advertising: If we send you nothing, you pay nothing.” — location: 5607 ^ref-59223
On the first day of the sale, my football clock gathered many looks, but no deal. My young mind plotted. How can I get $2.55 for my clock? I didn’t want to budge on my price because $2.55 was the likely cost of some gadget I wanted to buy at the corner store. Then I had an idea. I grabbed the masking tape Mom used for labeling prices. I tore four small pieces of tape and stuck them above the current price. Then on the first piece of tape, I boldly wrote $5.55 and crossed it out. For the next piece of tape, I wrote $4.50 and crossed it out. Then, $3.95, and the next $2.95. Each piece of tape successively had a lower price, clearly crossed out so buyers could see the “price reduction,” leaving the same old price of $2.55. My clock was now priced the same, except it was presented differently. The taped higher prices, visibly slashed, conveyed two things: 1) A higher value and 2) A smoking deal. And guess what? The second person to look at the clock bought it. I succeeded in reframing the price in the mind of my buyer. — location: 5771 ^ref-39603
My artist friend painted the most exquisite, beautiful paintings and priced her work through her own limited price filter. She was a single mom living paycheck to paycheck. For her, $500 was an extraordinary amount, and because of that, she priced her works far below their actual value. Her own corrupted vision of price distorted her earning power and degraded the perceived value of her work. I suggested a price increase. Take that $90 painting, make it $300, and see what happens. Sure enough, she sold just as much art at a higher price because price implies value and defines brands. — location: 5792 ^ref-23201
Even in the Slowlane, pricing can play a role in the form of a salary you’re willing to take. For example, this was posted on the Fastlane Forum: A company placed two ads for only one web programmer position in the paper. One listed the salary as $120K a year. The other ad listed it for $32K a year. The first, higher-paying ad received only about four responses. The second ad for MUCH less pay got over 100 answers. Most people lack confidence in themselves and their ability and are willing to settle for so much less. Are you settling for less in business? Is your warped frame of value corrupting your unrealized potential? The right pricing strategy is crucial to brand building and marketing. The wrong price conveys the wrong meaning. For industries with heavy commoditization, price is vital. A public relations consultant can charge 30% higher than their competitors, but a gas station can’t. — location: 5796 ^ref-36548
Cheating Spouses Aren’t Good Partners — location: 5831 ^ref-25362
The idea is to toss as much shit on the wall as possible because something’s gotta stick. Something’s gotta make me some money! A scattered focus leads to scattered results. Instead of one business that thrives, the polygamist-opportunist has twenty businesses that suck. Ten companies earning $10,000 cumulatively are not better than one business that does it single-handedly. When you segregate your effort among assets, you build weak assets. Weak assets don’t do the heavy lifting, and they don’t build strong pyramids. Weak assets do not generate speed. — location: 5839 ^ref-53296
In other words, their monogamy led to polygamy. What’s usually the first thing an entrepreneur does after selling their company for $100 million? They invest in multiple companies, get involved in philanthropy, and spread out their passions. Why is polygamy now possible? Money. Money buys systems, like human resource systems and money systems that buy time. Fastlane success comes from monogamy, not split attention among wives and mistresses. It’s marriage. Yes, good old-fashioned monogamy. Focus on one Fastlane business and kick ass at it. — location: 5860 ^ref-54403