Outwork Book Club on “The Millionaire Fastlane”
MJ DeMarco reveals the truth path to wealth and living a life unchained from the shackles of society.
The Outwork Book Club is a book review series where I highlight the main idea, summary, top quotes, and how to take action.
Main Idea
The idea of becoming a millionaire is important.
Not because a million dollars is the key to happiness. If anything, simply chasing a million dollars for happiness is probably the surest way to become sad, lonely, and depressed.
A million dollars represents much more than that. It is the gold standard for success in our country. It is a lofty goal that takes years of hard work and dedication to achieve. The road to achieve it will be littered with failure, self-doubt, naysayers, and failure (again).
The idea of becoming a millionaire is important because of what it takes to get there. DeMarco’s insights into what it takes to move from the slowlane to the fastlane has made this book one of the most recommended for entrepreneurs on the internet today.
Summary
Becoming a millionaire is hard to do because it requires so much risk.
Although it takes time and hard work, the payoff of being an entrepreneur is substantially better. Taking risk can equate to having wealth at a young age when you still have the physical capacity to fully maximize that wealth.
Cruising the streets in a Lamborghini is less exciting when your 60. At that age, it is probably a hassle to be driving around a contraption so loud and fast!
MJ Demarco talks about three different roadmaps a person can take in their life:
- The Sidewalk
- The Slowlane
- The Fastlane
Only one of the above roadmaps will make you rich at a young enough age to enjoy it. It is a process and not a get rich scheme. It involves a rich mindset and not a poor mindset. It doesn’t rely on other people or external factors. The Millionaire’s Fastlane doesn’t care about things like business plans, fancy degrees, your environment, your gender, your whatever. It only requires that make a commitment to fastlane and that you stick to the process long enough to realize success.
Wealth is simply a formula that DeMarco has used many times over. It is observable and repeatable, if only you are willing to take the risks and make the sacrifices.
The Fastlane process demands sacrifices that few make, to resolve to live like few can. — MJ DeMarco
The Sidewalk
The Sidewalk is characterized by hope. Hoping that someday you will get “lucky” and win the lottery. Or maybe get hit by a car driven by a rich person. Sue, sue, and sue. Finally, you have received what is rightfully yours, without any work or real effort.
Side walkers are often lost. They work paycheck to paycheck and blow it all on either instant gratification or a get rich scheme. Or a get fit quick scheme. They always look for something quick.
Short-term feel-good is often long-term bad. Instant gratification is a populous plague and its predominant side effects are easily spotted: debt and obesity. — MJ DeMarco
Unfortunately, side walkers are characterized by being overweight and a lack of wealth. Look around and you’ll notice that this is most of the people you will see.
The Slowlane
The Slowlane is perplexing. It is probably a good solution for most people and most people are content to subscribe to its promise.
The downfall, as DeMarco points out, is that its promise is once again predicated on hope. It appears to be more solid. It appears to be more grounded and more dependable. It is supposed to be a proven road to wealth.
However, the slowlane is not always guaranteed and even more importantly, the reward for persistence and hope is not that great. What is the point of being rich when you are too old to fully enjoy it? It is based on the idea of having a pot of money to rely on in your old age. It kind of makes sense but it is called the slowlane for a reason.
DeMarco lists 12 distinctions between slowlane and fastlane millionaires that magnify these limitations:
- Slowlane millionaires make millions in 30 years or more. Fastlane millionaires make millions in 10 years or less.
- Slowlane millionaires need to live in middle-class homes. Fastlane millionaires can live in luxury estates.
- Slowlane millionaires have MBAs. Fastlane millionaires hire people with MBAs.
- Slowlane millionaires let their assets drift by market forces. Fastlane millionaires control their assets and possess the power to manipulate their value.
- Slowlane millionaires can’t afford exotic cars. Fastlane millionaires can afford to drive whatever they want.
- Slowlane millionaires work for their time. Fastlane millionaires have time working for them.
- Slowlane millionaires are employees. Fastlane millionaires hire employees.
- Slowlane millionaires have 401Ks. Fastlane millionaires offer 401Ks.
- Slowlane millionaires use mutual funds and the stock market to get rich. Fastlane millionaires use them to stay rich.
- Slowlane millionaires let other people control their income streams. Fastlane millionaires control their income streams.
- Slowlane millionaires are cheap with money. Fastlane millionaires are cheap with time.
- Slowlane millionaires use their house for net worth. Fastlane millionaires use their houses for residency.
You can break the Slowlane equation by increasing your value to society. When you have more value, then you can demand more money.
Talent and skill are the guideposts to the Fastlane. Acquiring these traits become your responsibility.
Responsibility is the price of greatness. — Winston Churchill
How to Take Action: The Fastlane
The purpose of the The Millionaire Fastlane is to crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime — which is what DeMarco calls the Fastlane.
Rather than distilling a few proven methods or “ways” to go about achieving the Fastlane, he instead spends several different chapters talking about what it looks like. You have to be able to translate the principles DeMarco talks about into actionable steps.
The Fastlane Principles
The business and lifestyle strategy of the Fastlane is built based on an optimal environment for rapid wealth creation and unconventional lifestyles, rooted in these four segments:
- Controllable Unlimited Leverage (CUL): which is maximum control and leverage of a business or system.
- Business: think Me, Inc.
- Lifestyle: it is all-encompassing, and includes the convergence of beliefs, processes, and actions.
- Rapid Wealth Creation: acquiring large sums of money, consistently and quickly (not 30 years of saving).
In order to succeed in these four segments, you must become a producer and not a consumer. You need to create value and give the world something it needs (or wants). Sell something to a million people and you will become a millionaire.
It needs to have CUL: a new set of wealth variables that are unlimited and controllable.
Wealth= product production that leverages both time and money (profit + asset value)
Avoid Poor Choices
The leading cause of poorness is poor choices. Choice is the most powerful control you have and when you make lots of small, positive choices, it compounds over time. The choices you make have a significant impact on your future, positive or negative.
Read more bout the slight edge and the compounding power of effect over time.
Maximize Time
The ultimate form of abundance is time — free time to do as you please. Avoid the lure of unnecessary luxuries and parasitic debt. Debt will ensure that you have to work for money. The demands of these unnecessary needs will force you to make lifestyle sacrifices to accommodate them. For example, if you by a luxury car before you have built the necessary money producing systems, then you will be forced to work a conventional job to pay for it.
Commit to Lifelong Learning
Education is free for your consumption. You have to actively seek out the education necessary to live in the Fastlane and to be a producer. Conventional thinking will only produce conventional results. Infinite knowledge is at your fingertips but you have to go out there and get it — turn off the TV, quit playing video games, and hit the books. DeMarco started his journey in the library but you can start anywhere, like here. The acquisition and application of knowledge will make you rich.
You can become an expert in any discipline not requiring physical skills. — MJ DeMarco
Solve Simple Problems
Grandiose, life-changing ideas are rare (and unnecessary). Opportunity is simply a solution to an inconvenience and that inconvenience is oftentimes just doing something better than the competition. Enter an established market, then outperform everyone else.
Execution is King
In order to outperform the competition, you must be able to execute. Ideas are plentiful and they are everywhere. The ability to take action and execute is what sets apart those that are successful and those that settle for the status quo. Business plans are ideas on steroids — they need to be tied to execution.
Always Be Marketing
Marketing is your most powerful tool. Marketing is a game of perceptions, and whatever the perception is, that’s the reality. For entrepreneurs, achieving a product/market fit is the only thing that matters.
Focus on One Thing
Become a master at the one thing and then make lots of money off of it. Once you become an accomplished producer than you can start doing other things. Dabbling in too many things at once will damage your ability to focus and build one thing.
Understand the Five Fastlane Commandments
They are simple rules to consider when looking to build a business, which is the catalyst for the Fastlane model. To be in the fastlane, you need own and operate a business.
- Need: businesses that solve needs win. There are lots of businesses that are built on selfishness or “passion.”
- Entry: businesses with higher entry barriers yield stronger returns. Ones with easier entry barriers are crowded because they are easy and require less skill.
- Control: create a brand and build it. Otherwise, you are simply a soldier in another man’s Fastlane Army.
- Scale: sell millions, help millions, serve millions, impact millions. The keyword is millions and in order to achieve this, you must be able to scale upwards. It is the difference between a lemonade stand and a franchise of lemonade stands.
- Time: your business must be able to operate independently of time spent operating it. Otherwise, it is just a job in disguise.
The book’s true value lies in its unconventional message. Many people will benefit from hearing about life in the Slowlane and the misguided promise it purports.
A 9–5 for 30 years, with limited control and a lack of passion, is not the American dream. It is nobody’s dream, instead it is a trap that lures you into a life of suppressed passion, unnecessary things, and mediocre expectations.
Instead, seek out a life in the Fastlane. Study and learn new skills, innovate, adapt, grow, and live a life with passion.
If you are interested in getting the book, you can buy it on Amazon using this link.
The story contains affiliate links, which means I get a portion of what you pay at no extra cost to you. I greatly appreciate the support and wish you the best in your pursuit of success! If you like what you read, consider following my publication on high-performance.
If you are new to Medium, consider joining using my affiliate link. At just $5, you will get full access to all of my stories and every other story on the Medium platform.