The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco is a book that teaches you how to become wealthy.
The book describes three states of wealth: The Sidewalk where people will never be rich and will live from paycheck to paycheck, The Slowlane that helps you get rich at 65-70 years, and The Fastlane which helps you build wealth in 7-10 years so you have time and energy to enjoy it.
Book Title: The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime
Author: MJ DeMarco
Date of Reading: October 2017
Rating: 9/10
What Is Being Said In Detail:
The Millionaire Fastlane is a really dense book. It has 8 separate parts and 45 chapters in total.
PART 1: Wealth in a Wheelchair…“Get Rich Slow” is Get Rich Old
The first part is the origin story of MJ DeMarco— a bit about where he grew up, how his businesses failed, how his girlfriend left him, and how he finally moved to Phoenix and made it with his limousine business. The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 1 — The Great Deception
- CHAPTER 2 — How I Screwed “Get Rich Slow”
PART 2: Wealth is Not a Road, But a Road Trip
The second part talks about the mindset of the entrepreneur. The focus is on two things: The first is that there is no event without the process and the second one is that your current financial situation is the result of your financial roadmap.
So to change your financial situation, you will need to change your financial roadmap (mindset about money). The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 3 — The Road Trip to Wealth
- CHAPTER 4 — The Roadmaps to Wealth
PART 3: The Road Most Traveled: The Sidewalk
The third part talks about the Sidewalk. Here, MJ DeMarco talks about the income-rich sidewalker and income poor sidewalker, illusions of wealth, the role money plays in your happiness, luck, and accountability through the Law of Victims.
The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 5 — The Sidewalk Roadmap
- CHAPTER 6 — Has Your Wealth Been Toxified?
- CHAPTER 7 — Misuse Money and Money Will Misuse You
- CHAPTER 8 — Lucky Bastards Play the Game!
- CHAPTER 9 — Wealth Demands Accountability
PART 4: Mediocrity: The Slowlane Roadmap
The fourth part talks about the Slowlane. DeMarco explains the role institutions had in “selling the lie” about the slowlane, why you shouldn’t trade your time for money for 30 years, and the Paradox of Practice. The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 10 — The Lie You’ve Been Sold: The Slowlane
- CHAPTER 11 — The Criminal Trade: Your Job
- CHAPTER 12 — The Slowlane: Why You Aren’t Rich
- CHAPTER 13 — The Futile Fight: Education
- CHAPTER 14 — The Hypocrisy of the Gurus
- CHAPTER 15 — Slowlane Victory … A Gamble of Hope
PART 5: Wealth: The Fastlane Roadmap
The fifth part reveals the secrets of the Fastlane.
It’s about becoming a producer instead of just a consumer, understanding net profit and asset value, divorcing wealth from time through one of the five systems, and exploiting the Law of Effection for either scale (helping a lot of people a little ) or magnitude (helping a few people a lot).
The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 16 — Wealth’s Shortcut: The Fastlane
- CHAPTER 17 — Switch Teams and Playbooks
- CHAPTER 18 — How the Rich Really Get Rich!
- CHAPTER 19 — Divorce Wealth from Time
- CHAPTER 20 — Recruit Your Army of Freedom Fighters
- CHAPTER 21 — The Real Law of Wealth
PART 6: Your Vehicle to Wealth: YOU
The sixth chapter is about character development you will need to become a Fastlaner.
It’s about understanding that you always have a choice, not letting others define who you are, removing toxic people from your environment, fixing the root cause of the problem instead of just mending the effect, and taking intelligent risks.
The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 22 — Own Yourself First
- CHAPTER 23 — Life’s Steering Wheel
- CHAPTER 24 — Wipe Your Windshield Your Clean
- CHAPTER 25 — Deodorize Flatulent Headwinds
- CHAPTER 26 — Your Primordial Fuel: Time
- CHAPTER 27 — Change That Dirty, Stale Oil
- CHAPTER 28 — Hit The Redline
PART 7: The Roads to Wealth
The seventh part is about the Fastlane roadmap.
This part is all about CENTS framework (Control, Entry, Need, Time, and Scale). The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 29 — The Right Road Routes to Wealth
- CHAPTER 30 – The Commandment of Need
- CHAPTER 31 — The Commandment of Entry
- CHAPTER 32 — The Commandment of Control
- CHAPTER 33 — The Commandment of Scale
- CHAPTER 34 — The Commandment of Time
- CHAPTER 35 — Rapid Wealth: The Interstates
- CHAPTER 36 — Find Your Open Road
- CHAPTER 37 — Give Your Road a Destination!
PART 8: Your Speed: Accelerate Wealth
The eighth part is about execution.
The part talks about the difference in executing an idea, focusing on a single business until you make it, and building a brand instead of just a business. The chapters in this part are:
- CHAPTER 38 — The Speed of Success
- CHAPTER 39 — Burn The Business Plan, Ignite Execution!
- CHAPTER 40 — Pedestrians Will Make You Rich!
- CHAPTER 41 — Throw Hijackers to the Curb!
- CHAPTER 42 — Be Someone’s Savior
- CHAPTER 43 — Build Brands, Not Businesses
- CHAPTER 44 — Choose Monogamy Over Polygamy
- CHAPTER 45 — Put It Together: Supercharge Your Wealth Plan
Most Important Keywords, Sentences, Quotes:
PREFACE
“If you aren’t wealthy, STOP doing what you’re doing. STOP following the conventional wisdom. STOP following the crowd and using the wrong formula.
STOP following the roadmap that forsakes dreams and leads to mediocrity. STOP traveling roads with punitive speed limits and endless detours. I call it “anti-advice,” and much of this book follows this prescription.”
“I can’t remember the last time I awakened to an alarm clock—everyday is a Saturday.
I have no job and no boss. I don’t own a suit or a tie. My cholesterol level confirms that I dine at Italian restaurants far too often. I smoke cheap cigars.
As of this edition, I drive a Toyota Tacoma for work (“work” means going to the gym and grocery shopping) and a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster for play.
“I made my first million when I was 31. Five years earlier, I was living with my mother. I retired when I was 37.”
PART 1: Wealth in a Wheelchair…“Get Rich Slow” is Get Rich Old
CHAPTER 1 — The Great Deception
“Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from. ~ Jodie Foster”
CHAPTER 2 — How I Screwed “Get Rich Slow”
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the masses, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. ~ Marcus Aurelius”
“College was a five year prenatal employee brainwashing with graduation as the overrated climax.”
“Despite the confidence, the next few years fell horribly short of my expectations. I lived with my mother as I bounced from one business venture to another. Success was absent.
Every month was a different business: vitamins, jewelry, some hot “turnkey” marketing program purchased from the back of a business magazine, or some goofy long-distance network marketing gig.
Despite the hard work, my record of failures grew, as did my mounting debts. Years passed and folly fermented as I was forced to take a series of Neanderthal jobs that crippled my ego:”
“At 26 years old, I fell into depression; my businesses were not self-sufficient and neither was I.
Seasonal depression gnawed at my fractured psyche. Chicago’s rainy, dark, dreary weather made me crave the comfort of a warm bed and tasty pastries.
Accomplishments were precluded by sunshine; so yes, I wasn’t accomplishing much.”
“My deep depression sunk me into escapes, but instead of drugs, sex, or alcohol, I lost myself in books and kept studying fameless millionaires.
If I couldn’t be successful, I’d escape into the lives of those who were by absorbing books of the rich, autobiographies of the successful, and other rags-to-riches tales.”
“But it got worse. The people in my life gave up on me. My long-time girlfriend proclaimed, “You have no resolve.”
She had a safe and secure job with a rental car agency, but we’d argue because she worked long hours for chump change, a whopping $28,000 a year.
Of course, she rightly retorted with the facts: “You don’t have a job, you make $27,000 less than me, and none of your businesses work.” She was a smart cat. Our relationship ended as she found courtship with a corporate radio ad executive.”
“those who hold jobs operate under a linear scale. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter how great my charts and diagrams were; mom lost faith and I didn’t blame her.
Landing a man on Mars showed more promise.”
“I pulled to the shoulder of a faintly lit road and felt the cold chill of melted snow crawl up my legs from my toes.
I put the limo in park and faced myself in dead silence with nothing but the fall of snowflakes to remind me how much I hated winter. I dazed at the cigarette-burned ceiling of the limousine and thought, “What the hell am I doing? Is this what my life has become?”
Sitting on an empty road in a blizzard in the dark of the night out in the middle of nowhere, I’d had it. Sometimes clarity washes over you like a peaceful breeze and other times it hits you over the head like a falling Steinway piano.
For me, it was the latter. A sharp declaration overpowered my brain: “You cannot live another day like this!” If I was going to survive, I needed to change.”
“I arrived in Phoenix with 900 bucks, no job, no friends, and no family—just 330 days of sun and a burning desire to hit the Fastlane.”
“Naturally, the Internet has no geographical limits, so this venture traveled to Phoenix well. But, like my prior businesses, it didn’t make a lot of money.
However, now it was different. I was naked in a strange town with no money, job, or safety net. I had to focus. I aggressively marketed my Web site. I sent out emails. Cold-called. Mailed letters. I learned search engine optimization (SEO).”
“Then one day I had a breakthrough; I received a call from a company in Kansas that raved about my Web site service and wanted me to design its Web site.
While my focus wasn’t web design, I obliged for a price of $400. They thought the price was a steal, and within 24 hours, I had built the company its Web site. I was ecstatic. In 24 hours, I had most of my rent payment.
Then, coincidentally, not 24 hours later, I received another call from a company in New York asking for the same thing, a new Web site. I designed it for $600 and it took me two days to complete. I had another rent payment!”
“$473. Yikes. I built more Web sites to fill my income gap. The second month’s revenues were $694. Third month, $970. Then $1,832. $2,314. $3,733. And it continued and continued. It worked.”
“So, did I want to sell my company? Hell yes! I had three offers to sell. Offer 1: $250,000. • Offer 2: $550,000. • Offer 3: $1,200,000. •”
“I accepted offer three and became a millionaire . . . instantly . . . well, almost. It didn’t last. At the time, I thought $1.2 million dollars was a lot of money. It wasn’t.”
“As I streamlined my processes and systems, a slow and steady transformation took place. I worked less and less. Suddenly, I worked an hour a day instead of ten.
Yet, the money rolled in. I’d go to Vegas on a gambling spree; the money rolled in. I’d be sick for four days; the money rolled in. I’d day trade for a month; the money rolled in. I’d take a month off; the money rolled in.”
“Then I realized what I achieved. This was the Fastlane. I built myself a real, living, fruit-bearing money tree. It was a flourishing money tree that made money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it didn’t require my life for the trade.
It required a few hours a month of water and sunshine, which I happily provided. Outside of routine attention, this money tree grew, produced fruit, and gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted.”
“Since reclaiming my business, it grew meteorically. Some months I’d PROFIT more than $200,000. Yes, profit! A bad month was $100,000. I earned in two weeks what most people earned in an entire year.
Wealth poured in and I was flying low on the radar . . . no fame. If you earned $200,000 every month, how would your life change?”
“In 2005, I decided to sell my company again. It was time to retire and think about my wildest dreams, things like this book and screenwriting. However, this time I entertained a variety of offers, ranging from $3.3 million to $7.9 million.
After making millions over and over in a few short years, I accepted one of the full-cash offers and repeated the Fastlane process . . . in 10 minutes. That’s how long it took to cash the six checks that amounted to millions.”
PART 2: Wealth is Not a Road, But a Road Trip
CHAPTER 3 — The Road Trip to Wealth
“ Without process, there is no event.”
“When J. Darius Bikoff founded Glaceau Vitamin Water in 1996 and 11 years later Coca-Cola offers him $4.1 billion for the company, the offer makes headline news around the world. What doesn’t?
The 11 years of struggle forged by a sharpened process. The billion-dollar offer is the event—the process is the struggle and the backstory.”
“When you make your first million, it will be because of process and not some clandestine happenstance that just happened to waltz across your path.
Process is the road trip to wealth: The destination shines as an event, but it’s found by process. Yes, the elevator to success is out-of order—you will need to labor up the stairs”
“The compass for the trip—your roadmap—is the guiding force behind your actions. Your roadmap makes up your financial belief system and your preconceived convictions about wealth and money.
There are three roadmaps that will chart your course to wealth: 1. The Sidewalk 2. The Slowlane 3. The Fastlane”
“The Millionaire Fastlane doesn’t care about these things. The Fastlane isn’t a straight and smooth tree-lined street with white picket fences and children swinging on tires hanging from oak trees.
It’s a dark, deserted, unpaved road dressed with potholes that forces change and evolution. If the road trip to wealth were easy, wouldn’t everyone be wealthy?”
“Had someone gifted a Lamborghini to me (or any dream) when I was 16 years old, I can guarantee you I wouldn’t be where I am today.
When someone grants you your desires without you exerting any effort, you effectively handicap process. The person I needed to become would have been dwarfed because process would have been outsourced.
There is no wisdom or personal growth gained in a journey that someone else does for you. The journey is yours.”
CHAPTER 4 — The Roadmaps to Wealth
“Your current financial situation is a product of your existing roadmap, whether chosen or not.
Your roadmap guides your actions, and the consequences of those actions have created your financial life.
How your life unfolds is determined by your choices, and these choices originate from your belief systems, and those belief systems evolve from your predisposed roadmap.”
“Within these three roadmaps lies a psychology, a belief system that dictates actions relative to each roadmap.
More importantly, each roadmap operates within a “universe” governed by a mathematical “wealth equation.”
Whatever roadmap you choose, your universe for wealth creation will abide by each map’s respective wealth equation.
Additionally, each roadmap is naturally predisposed toward a specific destination. Those predispositions are: The Sidewalk >— Poorness • The Slowlane >— Mediocrity • The Fastlane >— Wealth •”
PART 3: The Road Most Traveled: The Sidewalk
CHAPTER 5 — The Sidewalk Roadmap
“A Sidewalker exists in a state of one-something-from-broke: One album failure from broke. One business deal from broke. One gig from broke.
One layoff from broke. On the Sidewalk, you’re always “one something” from being homeless, bankrupt, or back living in your parent’s basement.”
“There is little hope for Sidewalkers because their roadmap is corrupted by gratification, selfishness, and irresponsibility.
This problematic disposition repels wealth and thrusts codependency on overburdened hosts: taxpayers, employers, friends, parents, and loved ones.”
“Income-Poor Sidewalkers, an Income-Rich Sidewalker’s spending isn’t satisfied until they’ve burned through their entire monthly income plus some.
It’s an irrational way to live, as if these people fear that not spending the money will cause it to disappear. Earn $50,000 a month? Spend $60,000. Earn $250,000? Spend $350,000. The money outflow always outpaces the money inflow.”
CHAPTER 6 — Has Your Wealth Been Toxified?
“In pop culture, master illusionists of wealth are called “30K millionaires.” If you haven’t heard this phrase, it characterizes someone who maintains an image of a millionaire, yet has no net worth.”
CHAPTER 7 — Misuse Money and Money Will Misuse You
“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.
And since money doesn’t buy happiness, why save it? And then logic begs, if money doesn’t buy happiness, does poverty?
Does the guy who owns a Ferrari automatically have a small penis while the guy behind the wheel of a Honda must be well hung?”
“The well salaried workaholic who is never home to strengthen the relationship with his wife and kids is likely to be less happier than the poor farmer in Thailand who spends half his day tending to his fields and the other half with his family.”
“1. Money buys the freedom to watch your kids grow up. 2. Money buys the freedom to pursue your craziest dreams. 3. Money buys the freedom to make a difference in the world. 4. Money buys the freedom to build and strengthen relationships. 5. Money buys the freedom to do what you love, with financial validation removed from the equation.”
CHAPTER 8 — Lucky Bastards Play the Game!
“Sidewalkers love events but hate process. It’s only natural for Sidewalkers to assume wealth is luck, because they believe wealth is an event.”
“Belief 1: Luck is needed for wealth. Belief 2: Wealth is an event. Belief 3: Others can give wealth to me.”
CHAPTER 9 — Wealth Demands Accountability
“The Law of Victims says you can’t be a victim if you don’t relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim.”
“The road to victimhood is through denial: First responsibility, then accountability.”
“Was it my fault that I was a broke 25-year-old stuck in a blizzard in a limo on the side of the road? It was.”
“Responsibility is the forefather to accountability, but one doesn’t evidence the other.
When you admit responsibility to over drafting your checking account yet do it again next week, you’re not accountable.”
“And when you own your decisions, something miraculous happens. Failure doesn’t become the badge of victimhood—it becomes wisdom.”
PART 4: Mediocrity: The Slowlane Roadmap
CHAPTER 10 — The Lie You’ve Been Sold: The Slowlane
“Unfortunately, the Slowlane is like bad directions given at a gas station, except these directions aren’t given by strangers, but by people you trust: teachers, television and radio personalities, financial advisers, and yes, even our parents.
These ostensible sources reinforce the strategy’s fictitious strength when its efficacy is a sucker’s bet. The Slowlane is a lifetime wager that a sacrificial today will yield a wealthier tomorrow.”
”THANK GOD IT ‘S FRIDAY”: BORN AND BRED IN THE SLOWLANE A friend recently berated me because I declined to go out on a Saturday night.” Are you crazy? It’s Saturday night!” he wailed.
I told him something a Slowlaner doesn’t understand: For me, every day is a Saturday because I haven’t sold off Monday through Friday.”
“If you have children you have to question this normality. Kids grow on Mondays and Tuesdays. I’ve heard they grow on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays too. Yes, they don’t wait for the weekend to grow up.
When little Miranda speaks her first word, walks her first walk, dances the first dance, she doesn’t care if you’re in Houston for the quarterly manager’s meeting.
Kids and relationships don’t wait for the weekend to grow, and while you’re out trading 5-for-2, guess what—the kids get older and so do you.”
“While I worked my plan, I gave 7-for-0 (I worked seven days and didn’t take a day off) because I knew the roads on my roadmap converged with dreams.
I worked for a better ratio in the near future, not in 40 years. I controlled my destiny and eventually my time trade investment yielded a dividend of 40 years. Now I do 0-for-7. I work zero days and get seven days of freedom.”
CHAPTER 11 — The Criminal Trade: Your Job
“Suckage #1: To Trade Time Is to Trade Life Who taught us that trading time in exchange for money was a great idea? Why does this normalcy consistently translate into unrivaled suckage?
If you’re shackled to a job, you’re engaged to a glorified exchange of your time (your life) for pieces of paper that grant you freedom. You sell your freedom to get freedom. Pretty stupid, huh?”
“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.”
CHAPTER 12 — The Slowlane: Why You Aren’t Rich
“In 1997, I opened a Roth IRA with $1,000 and invested the monies in a growth mutual fund at a major investment firm. Yes, I let the “professionals” manage it for me.
For the next decade, I didn’t touch it. Essentially, I forgot about the account. In the 10 years that followed, I made over $10 million dollars by following a Fastlane roadmap and leveraging Fastlane strategy.
And what about that Roth IRA opened years ago? I never touched it and let it ride the ebbs-and-flow of the Slowlane. Today that account is worth $698.”
CHAPTER 13 — The Futile Fight: Education
“The best excuse people have 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.”
CHAPTER 14 — The Hypocrisy of the Gurus
“THE PARADOX OF PRACTICE The Paradox of Practice asks, “Do you practice what you preach? Are you a model, an exemplification of what you teach?”
“Robert is a Fastlane success story. He created and built a brand worth millions. But the curious question is this: Which came first? The best-selling book or the Lamborghini?
Is there a Paradox of Practice underneath? Did Robert have this status icon “pre-book” by leveraging his real estate teachings? Or did the Lamborghini arrive after selling millions of books?
Robert has undoubtedly amassed a great deal of wealth selling books, games, and seminars. Is it possible you’re being sold one wealth equation while the architect of the game uses another?”
CHAPTER 15 — Slowlane Victory … A Gamble of Hope
“For example, when I routinely earned $100,000 per month, I accumulated wealth fast because I maintained control over my expenses.
As my income exponentiated, expenses grew linearly and weren’t neglected.
If my income increased by 100%, expenses only grew by 10%. I didn’t accumulate wealth because of expense dickery. Income explosion and expense control created wealth.”
“I recently read an article about a young woman named Callie From the U.K. who, several years ago, won millions in a lottery, only to lose most of it shortly there after.
Of course, “lose” implies that the entire bag of cash flew out of the car while cruising down the boulevard in her brand new convertible. She didn’t “lose” it—she spent it.
She was just 16 years old when she won the $3 million, and it took only six years for her to blow it: drugs, partying, exotic cars, breast implants, and a jaw dropping $730,000 in designer clothes. The problem?
Callie thought she was rich and spent like she was rich. Surely she bought into her title: “I’m a millionaire.” While $3 million is a decent chunk of change, she needed $30 million for her lifestyle.”
“Sadly, in today’s terms, a “millionaire” (net worth of $1,000,000) is simply upper middle class. A millionaire is not rich. Five million is the old one million. Depressing, I know.”
PART 5: Wealth: The Fastlane Roadmap
CHAPTER 16 — Wealth’s Shortcut: The Fastlane
“Now, I do whatever I want and I’m not the least bit bored. The world is my playground; I travel, I learned two new languages and how to play piano.
I play water sports, hike, and snowboard at least a month a year. I own three homes, I watch pro sports and my favorite teams whenever I choose, watch 3-4 movies a week, and read 1-2 books a week.
Most of my time is spent with my family, and I literally watch my two daughters grow before my eyes. My family has lived on all four corners of the planet, including Australia and the Caribbean.”
“Time Perception: Time is the most important asset I have, far exceeding money.
Education Perception: The moment you stop learning is the moment you stop growing. Constant expansion of my knowledge and awareness is critical to my journey.”
“Money Perception: Money is everywhere, and it’s extremely abundant. Money is a reflection of how many lives I’ve touched. Money reflects the value I’ve created.”
“Strategy: The more I help, the richer I become in time, money, and personal fulfillment. Destination: Lifetime passive income, either through business or investments.”
“Life Perception: My dreams are worth pursuing no matter how outlandish, and I understand that it will take money to make some of those dreams real.”
CHAPTER 17 — Switch Teams and Playbooks
“The correlation between the Slowlane and the Sidewalk is this: Jobs exist to facilitate the consumer process.
You become a brand manager for a consumer products company, you become an insurance agent, you become an accountant for some corporation—it’s consumer driven and focused to move goods and services into the hands of consumers.
This “consumer” focus is like a gravitational pull to keep you amenable to antiFastlane thinking.”
“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 producer.”
“I’ve never bought a product on late night television, because I’m on the same team. As a producer, I see the infomercials for what they are: producers (the minority) serving the consumer (the majority).
The “act nows,” the “but wait, there’s more!” the “free bonuses”— these are marketing weapons in a producer’s arsenal. I watch infomercials not to buy, but to see what the pros are doing.”
CHAPTER 18 — How the Rich Really Get Rich!
“Net Profit = (Units Sold) X (Unit Profit) ~ and ~ Asset Value = (Net Profit) X (Industry Multiplier)”
“1) Raise Units Sold by Increasing Conversion Ratio A 1% increase from 12% to 13% would give me an instant raise of about $480 per day. That’s $14,400 per month.
If I redesign the Web site, hit a home run and get conversion to 15%, now I’ve expanded my income to over $43,000 PER MONTH.”
“3) Raise Unit Profit If I detect a weakness in supply for my service or improve value, I can raise prices and increase my unit profit. If my unit profit moves from $4 to $4.50,I raise my income to $10,800 per day from $8,000.
That translates to an additional $84,000 per month! Is your mouth on the floor yet?”
“within our Fastlane wealth equation, this second component is called “Asset Value.” Asset value is simply the worth of any property you own that has marketplace value.”
“Slowlaners and Fastlaners have two antagonistic views of “assets.” Slowlaners and Sidewalkers buy and sell depreciating assets that decline in value over time.
Cars, boats, electronics, designer clothes, gizmodos, and sparkly bling to impress that newly divorced woman in the adjacent cubicle—these are all assets that lose value the moment your credit card is charged.
Contrary to this, Fastlaners buy and sell appreciating assets: businesses, brands, cash flows, notes, intellectual property, licenses, inventions, patents, and real estate.
As it relates to the Fastlane wealth equation, the power of “Asset Value” lies in your ability to control the variable in a virtually limitless fashion.”
“Asset Value = (Net Profit) X (Industry Multiplier)”
“SUPER-FAST WEALTH ACCELERATION: LIQUIDATION EVENTS Liquidation events create millionaires overnight, but only if liquidation occurs.
Liquidation events are the process of selling your appreciable asset to the market. It’s a Fastlane exit strategy.”
CHAPTER 19 — Divorce Wealth from Time
“1. Rental Systems 2. Computer/Software Systems 3. Content Systems 4. Distribution Systems 5. Human Resource Systems”
“My preferred system is computer and software systems, including the Internet. It’s no shock that the Internet has paved the road to millions more than any other road out there.
In fact, I heard a statistic that the Internet created more millionaires in the last five years than the previous five decades combined. What makes the Internet and computer systems so potent?”
“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 very rich human being.”
“A member of the Fastlane community owns a few self-storage facilities. Her business is a rental system. People pay money to store their junk and she receives monthly income.
You’d Assume that her facility is run by a human resource system—managers, property assistants—but it isn’t. Her properties have automated kiosks that run each property—a computer system.
This makes her business 85% passive. Remove the kiosk, add human resource systems, and passivity drops.”
CHAPTER 20 — Recruit Your Army of Freedom Fighters
“I retired in my thirties because of this simple reality. I’m a lender, and when you have a lot of money to lend, you live free because passive income arrives every month.
If you had $10 million and lent it at a mere 5% interest, you’d enjoy a passive income of $41,666 every single month. At 8% your monthly income would be $66,666 per month—fully passive.
Over $60,000 every month! This is WITHOUT touching the principal. You can do this for years and still have 10 million dollars left over!”
“But I also exclaimed it to be a powerful passive income generator when leveraged against large sums of money. Contradictory? Just like education, Fastlaners and Slowlaners leverage compound interest differently.
Slowlaners (the middle-class) use compound interest to get wealthy while Fastlaners (the rich) use it to create income and liquidity. Slowlaners start with $5; Fastlaners start with $5 million.”
CHAPTER 21 — The Real Law of Wealth
“I won’t hide my candid sacrilege to the LOA (law of attraction) crowd; I think it’s a bunch of baloney orchestrated to sell books to those who think “thinking” will make you rich.
In fact, the LOA is nothing but old principles of belief and visualization repackaged and remarketed for mass consumption. Who are the true Fastlaners? The LOA marketers!”
“The Law of Effection states that the more lives you affect in an entity you control, in scale and/or magnitude, the richer you will become.
The shortened, sanitized version is simply: Affect millions and make millions. (Grammarians, I can hear you screaming. Relax.
I know the difference between “affect” and “effect.” I’m using “effection” as it appears in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published in 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co., as a noun meaning “creation; a doing.”)”
“To exploit the Law of Effection, your business needs to make an impact of either scale or magnitude, or both.
Within our Fastlane wealth equation, “scale” and “magnitude” are implicit to our “net profit” variable. Net Profit = Units Sold (Scale) X Unit Profit (Magnitude)”
“Scale creates millionaires. Magnitude creates millionaires. Scale and magnitude creates billionaires.”
“Retrace the source of millionaire money and you will find millions of something. Effection of scale or magnitude always precedes money, either directly or indirectly.
The more lives you impact, directly or indirectly, the more wealth you will attract.”
PART 6: Your Vehicle to Wealth: YOU
CHAPTER 22 — Own Yourself First
“Events and circumstances have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown. ~ Henry David Thoreau”
“If you’re a plumber organized as a sole proprietor and you accidentally leave a pipe cutter at a client’s house and the client’s three-year-old kills himself with it, guess what?
They’re coming after you because you chose an ill-protected business entity. Instead of suing a corporation, they sue you and everything you own is up for grabs.
The best business structures for your Fastlane business are: 1. C corporation 2. S corporation 3. Limited liability corporation”
CHAPTER 23 — Life’s Steering Wheel
“If poorness were an illness, take a guess as to its cause. Of course, lack of money. But is that a cause or a symptom of the underlying problem? Lack of education?
Lack of opportunity, positive role models, or determination? Nope. Those are all symptoms. If you retrace poverty’s footprints you will find that poorness starts at the exact same place: choice. Poor choices are the leading cause of poorness.”
“THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM As my income elevated, so did my cholesterol. The road of good living runs parallel to a cliff of gluttony. My doctor’s preferred method of attack was prescription drugs.
I refused because I wanted to fix problems, not mask symptoms. If you approach wealth like a big pharmaceutical company and attack symptoms while neglecting problems, you will not succeed. Feeling tired? Take this pill.Want to lose weight? Another pill.
The problems are ignored while the symptoms are addressed in catatonic cycles. I refused cholesterol medication because it addressed the symptom, not the problem.
The problem is poor diet; cholesterol is the symptom. If your car’s fuel tank had a small leak, how would you fix it?
The symptomatic solver would increase his trips to the gas station to ensure a steady inflow of fuel. The problematic solver plugs up the hole.”
“Your steering wheel (choice) is the most powerful control you have in your life. Why do I hate the Slowlane?
Because it denies choice and gives it to someone else—the company, the boss, the stock market, the economy, and a whole host of others.”
“People don’t choose to be poor. They make poor decisions that slowly assemble into a poorness puzzle.”
CHAPTER 24 — Wipe Your Windshield Your Clean
“You see, you choose to interpret events in your particular frame of reference.
Your mind labels and categorizes events that surround you. For example, when someone says “dog,” you might see a black Labrador, while other people see a poodle.
When you see a mansion on the beach, do you think “lucky?” or “I’ll never own something like that?”
“If your world is canvassed with words like “never” and “can’t,” guess what? It’s true—you can’t and you never will! Is it possible to earn $1 million in one month? Sure it is, just ask the guy who does it.
What makes his windshield different from yours? Good choices of perception translate into good choices of action. To change your perception is to change your future actions.”
“However, just because my brother called me a retard for 12 years doesn’t make it my reality. Your past never equals your future unless you allow it.”
“My life is not defined by being picked last in high school gym class. If your past defines your existence, it will be impossible for you to become the person you need to become in the future.”
CHAPTER 25 — Deodorize Flatulent Headwinds
“Who farts headwinds? They are: Friends and family who just don’t get it. • Educational institutions that preach Slowlane dogma. • Parents who are conditioned to believe wealth is for other people.
• Slowlane gurus who claim your house is the best investment. • Slowlane gurus who say $100 invested today will be worth $10 million in 50 years. • Your environment. •”
“How? Join entrepreneur clubs, attend networking events, ally yourself with like-minders, get yourself around people who subscribe to a Fastlane, anything is-possible mindset, and decide who you want on your team of warriors.
Read books and autobiographies of those who have the kind of success you want. Find a mentor. Join entrepreneur forums with a Fastlane mindset, like the Fastlane Forum!
Not a week goes by when someone doesn’t email me, “This forum changed my life!” That’s a tailwind!”
“By talking with other aspiring entrepreneurs, I’ve learned that significant others (husbands, wives, fiancés, girlfriends, boyfriends) can be some of the biggest headwinds out there.
Having a life partner who doesn’t ascribe to your life’s ideals and philosophies is like towing a trailer full of wet manure. If your partner doesn’t subscribe to an entrepreneurial philosophy and toes the Slowlane road, can you expect to grow together in unison?
Someone fighting with you in your corner is accelerative; if they serve as the opposition, they become treasonous.”
CHAPTER 26 — Your Primordial Fuel: Time
“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. Why? Simple. Life sucks. Life needs an escape. Life is no good.”
“On any given day, $3 trillion is exchanged in the world currency markets. That’s $3,000,000,000,000.”
“To give that perspective, you can spend a million dollars a day for 8,000 years and you still wouldn’t have spent $3 trillion.
That’s 109 lifetimes to quantify the total currency trading volume that exists for ONE DAY. Money is abundant and will be abundant as long as the world’s governments print more.”
“Indentured time” is the opposite: It’s the total time spent earning money and the consequences of that spent time.
When you awake in the morning, shower, dress, drive to the train station, wait, ride to work, and then work for eight hours—this is indentured time.
When you spend your entire weekend “recharging” from the workweek, this is indentured time. Indentured time is actual work and the work you must do for the work.
Morning rituals, traffic, compiling reports at home, solitary “recharges”—whatever time spent earning a buck is indentured time.”
“When I first moved out on my own, 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.”
CHAPTER 27 — Change That Dirty, Stale Oil
“conformity. The purpose of education within the Fastlane is to amplify the power of the money tree and the business system. You’re not a cog in the wheel; you learn to build the wheel.”
“In today’s information society, there is absolutely no excuse not to find out how.”
“I hit the Internet and watched a few hours of video tutorials. Then I hit The Home Depot and bought supplies.
Over the next several days I practiced on cardboard boxes. Within a week I became proficient at faux painting.
I built myself a skill in one week. Days earlier I was in the sphere of “I don’t know how!” and days later, I possessed a new skill that I could aptly sell if I wanted.
The best faux painters earn $10 per square foot. In one week, I built myself a skill that opened a tiny road into the Fastlane equation.”
“I saw a picture the other day of a student publicly protesting one of the government financial bailouts.
She hoisted a large placard that read: “I’ve got a 4.0 GPA, $90,000 in debt and no job—where’s my bailout?” Where’s your bailout? Let me tell ya, walk into the bathroom, flip on the light-switch and look in the freaking mirror. There’s your bailout.”
“You’re paying $50,000 for someone to explain a book that’s found at the bookstore for 19 bucks.”
CHAPTER 28 — Hit The Redline
“FASTLANE WINNERS ARE FORGED AT THE REDLINE Winners are forged at the Redline. What’s the Redline? The Redline is pure,unadulterated commitment.”
“Interest reads a book; commitment applies the book 50 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.”
“When Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he blessed us with his last lecture. He said: The brick walls are there for a reason.
The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!”
“Moronic risks have unlimited downside (long term) and limited upside (short term). • Intelligent risks have unlimited upside (long term) and limited downside (short term.) ”
PART 7: The Roads to Wealth
CHAPTER 29 — The Right Road Routes to Wealth
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CHAPTER 30 – The Commandment of Need
“Need something more concrete? No problem.
Make 1 million people achieve any of the following: 1. Make them feel better.2. Help them solve a problem. 3. Educate them. 4. Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup). 5. Give them security (housing, safety, health).
6. Raise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence). 7. Satisfy appetites, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual). 8. Make things easier. 9. Enhance their dreams and give hope. . . . and I guarantee, you will be worth millions.”
“While she can “do what she loves” and get a job at a shelter, it doesn’t bring her closer to her dreams, nor will the job help her amass the wealth needed to pursue the dream.
Yes, dog shelters are expensive. Instead, Leslie allows her passion to fuel her motivation—she starts a Fastlane business(unrelated to animals) that eventually funds her dream. Her passion leads to a dream without the crucible of money.”
CHAPTER 31 — The Commandment of Entry
“EVERYONE IS DOING IT! Ever get stuck in traffic on the expressway and go no where for hours?
Welcome to “everyone is doing it.” A road full of traffic is a road full of everyone. If everyone is doing it, I won’t be doing it.
I’ll exit the road, and you should too. Why? Because everyone isn’t wealthy. If everyone were wealthy, “everybody is doing it” would work.”
“While the stock market imploded in early 2009, who was buying and who was selling? Everyone was selling.
I was long gone and sold a year earlier. Warren Buffet was buying. Everyone sells and the richest man in the world buys. Hmmm. Could it be that everyone is wrong? Yes it could.”
CHAPTER 32 — The Commandment of Control
“Drivers create MLM companies; they don’t join them. Drivers sell franchises; they don’t buy them.
Drivers offer affiliate programs; they don’t join them. Drivers run hedge funds; they don’t invest in them. Drivers sell stock; they don’t buy stock.
Drivers offer drop-shipping; they don’t use dropshipping. Drivers offer employment; they don’t get employed. Drivers accept rents and royalties; they don’t pay rents and royalties.
Drivers sell licenses; they don’t buy them. Drivers sell IPO shares; they don’t buy them.”
“I can’t imagine running a company in which another entity has the power to instantaneously kill your revenue stream. If someone can “flip a switch” and destroy your business, you’re playing roulette with your financial plan.
The congenital danger of hitchhiking is that you relinquish control to the driver. If the driver crashes into a wall, guess who goes with them. You.”
CHAPTER 33 — The Commandment of Scale
“Billionaire Mark Cuban recently wrote on his blog that it doesn’t matter how many times you strike out in business because you only have to be right once, and that “once” can set you up for life.
In other words, be in the business of home runs.”
“Can the net income of this business scale limitlessly, say, from $2,000 per month to $200,000? Can the asset value of this business scale into the millions?”
“The problem? His goal was financial freedom. If this was his goal, owning a coffee franchise in the local community wasn’t going to do the trick.
With a coffee shop, he has no access to the Law of Effection. Selling 100 lattes a day simply won’t make an impact in either scale or magnitude.
And since he didn’t want to own 20 of these franchises, but just one, he was barricading himself from the Law. Road closed.”
“If you build a Web site that serves single moms, you have direct scale and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.”
“Effection is accessible. Who is my audience? The whole English-speaking world, tens of millions of people!
I’m reminded of scale any time this book is pre-ordered from Australia or New Zealand. My upper limit is the world. My road has no speed limit and that grants access to the Law of Effection.”
CHAPTER 34 — The Commandment of Time
“The Commandment of Time asks: Can this business be automated and systematized to operate while I’m absent? • Are my margins thick enough to hire human resource seedlings?
• Can my operation benefit from the introduction of a money tree seedling? • How can I get this business to operate exclusive of my time?
“Content systems, computer systems, software systems, distribution systems, and human resource systems are all seedlings to money trees. If your business isn’t based on one, can one be added to make it passive?”
“A business attached to your time is a job. • business that earns income exclusive of your time satisfies the Commandment of Time. • To satisfy the Commandment of Time, start with a business that uses a money system • seedling, or introduce one.”
CHAPTER 35 — Rapid Wealth: The Interstates
“Starting a business is a big decision. Treat it with cursory interest, and your business resembles a hobby. And businesses that are run like hobbies pay like hobbies.”
“The business was 24/7 with a lot of early mornings. Me? I’m one cranky bastard in the morning.”
“I compiled my weighted average decision matrix (WADM) to give me clarity. Yes, I really use the stuff in this book!”
“Have you ever wondered why people sell get-rich-quick books and yet the content is just regurgitated blather from 30 prior books? The authors know that authoring is a potent Fastlane.”
“A popular thread at my forum is titled “Is a candy kiosk Fastlane?” A forum user wanted to know if having automated candy kiosks in the mall constitutes a Fastlane plan.
As a standalone, no. But with II? Fastlane baby! One kiosk in one mall isn’t going to make you rich because it’s a singles-based business. However, 200 kiosks in 50 malls might, because it creates net income, scales asset value, and makes a bigger impact of magnitude.
Intentional iteration is the Fastlaner’s response to limited scale.”
CHAPTER 36 — Find Your Open Road
“SOMEONE IS DOING IT! You’ve got a great idea, but someone is already doing it? So what. Do it better.”
“Years ago, what if Sergey Brin and Larry Page looked at the Internet landscape and said “Gee, there are plenty of search engines out there—Yahoo, Snap, AltaVista—why start Google? It’s being done!”
“Garbage has been around since men have walked the planet.
Yet that didn’t stop Brian Scudamore from starting and then franchising 1-800-GOT-JUNK, or did it stop Wayne Huizinga from founding Waste Management with just one truck and a handful of customers.
He later built Waste Management into a Fortune 500 company. Is garbage a new need? Or a need that needed better fulfillment? It was an open road when the road seemed closed.”
”I hate . . .” What do you hate? Solve the hate, and there’s your open road. “I don’t like . . .” What don’t you like? Remove the dislike, and there’s your open road. “This frustrates me . . .”
What is frustrating? Remove the frustration, and there’s your open road. “Why is this like this?” I don’t know, why is it? Remove the “why,” and there’s your open road.”
”Do I have to?” Do you? Remove the “have to.” There’s your open road. “I wish there was . . .” What do you wish? If you wish, others wish too. Make wishes come true, and there’s your open road. “I’m tired of . . .”
What are you tired of? Fix someone’s tiresomeness, and there’s your open road. “This sucks . . .” What sucks? Remove or reduce suckage, and there’s your open road.”
CHAPTER 37 — Give Your Road a Destination!
“1. Define the Lifestyle: What do you want? 2. Assess the Cost: How much do your dreams cost? 3. Set the Targets: Set the money system and business income targets. 4. Make It Real: Fund it and open it!”
“The world is full of financial illiterates; they’ve failed driver’s education and don’t know the rules of the road. As kids, we aren’t taught money management or basic financial discipline.
We’re abandoned in a financial jungle swarming with predators. Many perfectly intelligent people lack rudimentary knowledge of basic financial concepts such as:”
“interest? Return on investment? Do you know what happens to the price of a bond when interest rates go up? Can you figure out the difference between a tax-free yield and a taxable yield?
These concepts harden your road to wealth. Financial illiterates can’t manage money systems. To succeed on your road trip, you have to know the rules of the road and pass wealth “driver’s education”—basic finance and economics.”
”Live below your means” is relevant at any income level. The key variable is the word “means.” If Bill earns $50,000 and Jack earns $1 million, who has the greater means?
Who will live the extravagant lifestyle? Both might be living “within their means,” but Jack has a drastically different lifestyle. Remember, Slowlaners seek to minimize expenses while the Fastlaner seeks to maximize income and asset values.”
PART 8: Your Speed: Accelerate Wealth
CHAPTER 38 — The Speed of Success
“I hear the “220 comment” from youngsters who sneak a peek into my Lamborghini while it’s parked in public. The listed top speed on its speedometer is 220 mph.
Yet, despite all that implied power, the car has never been driven to 220 mph or even 150 mph. The “220 mph” is nothing but “potential speed,” and everything you’ve read in this book is just that: idle, unrealized potential.”
“The King: Your execution • The Queen: Your marketing • The Bishop: Your customer service • The Knight: Your product • The Rook: Your people • The Pawn: Your ideas. •”
“When I started my Web business, several other companies already had established Web sites. Instead of reasoning, “Someone is already doing it,” I executed better and became the leader in my industry.
Was my idea spectacular? No. It was an OK idea, but I executed better than them”
CHAPTER 39 — Burn The Business Plan, Ignite Execution!
“If I received a business plan from an entrepreneur who sold his company for $20 million just two years earlier, you can bet your sevens I’d read it. The value is not the plan, but the person giving it and his track record of execution.”
CHAPTER 40 — Pedestrians Will Make You Rich!
“1. Complaints of change 2. Complaints of expectation 3. Complaints of void and 4. Complaints of fraud.”
“I had to deal with fraudulent complaints almost weekly. A customer typos a price and some idiot thinks that they are entitled to a limo 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. You’re going to pay a lawyer for $250 an hour to fight over a typographical error amounting to 45 bucks? Do you know what kind of dumbass you sound like?”
CHAPTER 41 — Throw Hijackers to the Curb!
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CHAPTER 42 — Be Someone’s Savior
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CHAPTER 43 — Build Brands, Not Businesses
“When you think about the automobile Volvo, what do you think of? I think safety. How about Porsche? I think speed. How about Ferrari? I think rich. Volkswagen? Practical. Toyota? Reliability.
Yet, when someone mentions Chevrolet, nothing clear comes to mind other than looming bankruptcy, union squabbles, and unpredictable reliability. Some auto manufacturers have carved out strong brands, while the others fortify a business.”
“The first step at 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 businesses without a rudder, unmoored to the trade winds of the marketplace.
USP-less businesses offer nothing distinct, nothing unique, no benefit, no logical reason that someone should buy from them other than hope or circumstance wrapped around a cheap price.
Your USP is the anchor to your brand. What makes your company different from the rest? What sets your business apart? What will compel a customer to use you over someone else?”
“It’s ironic: To succeed a Fastlane we must forsake selfishness yet satisfy the selfishness of others. Did I say this would be a nice cozy stroll down the beach?”
CHAPTER 44 — Choose Monogamy Over Polygamy
“What’s usually the first thing an entrepreneur does after they sell their company for $50 million?
They go out and 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.”
CHAPTER 45 — Put It Together: Supercharge Your Wealth Plan
“Wealth is a Formula and a systematic process of beliefs, choices, actions, and habits that form a lifestyle. Wealth is a process, not an event.”
Book Review (Personal Opinion):
This is a phenomenal business book by MJ DeMarco. He got rich by doing the things he explains in the book, self-published the book, and had it become a raving success because of the truths laid out in it. The only reason it isn’t a 10/10 is that his other book, Unscripted, is a business masterpiece.
Rating: 9/10
This Book Is For (Recommend):
- An aspiring entrepreneur who wants to learn how it’s done
- A salesperson who wants to learn about business and money psychology
- A marketer with a blog who wants to create a business out of it
If You Want To Learn More
Here’s MJ DeMarco talking about his book on a podcast.
Millionaire Fast Lane with MJ DeMarco
How I’ve Implemented The Ideas From The Book
When I was creating Growthabit, I took the CENTS framework and tried to make all of the commandments a reality for the business.
One Small Actionable Step You Can Do
If you’re not financially satisfied at the moment, you should take a bit of time and consider if your financial roadmap is enabling or disabling you. That should be your starting point in creating financial freedom.
