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Imagine that you want to get from point A to point B
Now, also imagine that you want to do this while you're still young,
healthy and vibrant of energy, then you'd want to do this as fast as possible, am I right?
As you want to get there as fast as possible, would you rather choose to walk there?
Without a map?
To drive there in a slow tractor?
Or would you rather drive a Formula One car, with the top speed of 372 km/h?
I thought so
However, most people do not act like this in real life
Most people choose not the Fastlane, but the Slowlane or even the Sidewalk
In this video, we will learn how to reach our financial goals faster,
much faster
This is a top five takeaways video summary of: The Millionaire Fastlane
The book is written by MJ DeMarco, who made a really impressive fast lane journey himself
Once he chose the Fastlane road he went from a depressed 26 year old living in his mother's basement
to a millionaire at the age of 31.
Takeaway number 1: The sidewalker, the slowlaner and the fastlaner
In order to understand better what the sidewalk, the slowlane, and the fastlane represents
we will have a look at three stereotypical characters from each group. We have:
Sidewalk William, Slowlane Steven, and Fastlane Frank
Now,
here is what they might say about a few topics
I encourage you to do an honest evaluation and think about which beliefs that you identify with the most
Primary income:
- Whatever pays best today, I'll take it!
- My only source of income is my Fortune 500 employer
- Business systems and investments
Money:
- Spend it! Carpe Diem!
- Money is scarce a dollar saved is more than a dollar earned live below you means
- Money is everywhere and it's abundant
Money is simply a reflection of how much value I've been able to create and deliver to my fellow man
Live below your means, but with the intent to expand those means
Time:
- Time is abundant, but I don't feel like doing today. I can always do tomorrow.
- I am happy to trade my time for money and I'm happy to trade many years of my life at college to get a higher salary
- Time is my most valuable asset by far. I must detach my income from my time spent
Destination and goals:
- What??
- I'm going to retire financially secure at age 65
- My goal is to create a lifelong passive income through businesses or investments
Life:
- Live today! No ragrets!
- I've given up on big dreams
I'm a realist, you know, but if I live frugally and don't take any unnecessary risks
I will retire with a million one day
- I will pursue my dreams no matter how crazy they may sound
I know that I'll need time and money to make them a reality. So let's get this going!
Do you recognize yourself in the beliefs of Fastlane Frank? Please comment "Fastlaner!" down below
Our beliefs form our actions
If you identify yourself with many of the slowlane, or perhaps even the sidewalk beliefs,
it's very probable that you are currently not on a highway towards wealth
Let's see why and let's see how you can change that
Takeaway number 2: The mathematics of poverty and mediocrity
Depending on which road you choose, you are predisposed to end up at a certain financial destination and
as you probably already have guessed the sidewalk is predisposed towards poverty, the slowlane towards
mediocrity and the fastlane towards wealth
Let's have a look at the wealth equation of each of these to see why that is so
The sidewalker believes that wealth is created like this:
Wealth = Income + Debt
Yes, the sidewalker actually believes that debt can be used as a tool for wealth building, and that's because he's got the wrong
perception about wealth
He believes, like the majority of our society, that looking wealthy means that you must be wealthy
As his credit card can allow him to buy that new Armani suit, it must mean that it makes him wealthier, right?
Unfortunately, the sidewalk doesn't care about how much money you make, because poor money management cannot be solved with more money
Onwards to the slowlaner's wealth equation, which looks like this:
Wealth = Job + Market Investments
Let's break these two down
Depending on how you are paid, the wealth that stems from your job can look like this:
Or, like this:
The problem with both of these is that they are bound by time
For A, you can only increase your wealth by switching into a job that pays a higher hourly wage or by working more hours
Work 12 hours a day instead of 8 and you'll earn 50% more, but you'll also burn out in the process, guaranteed.
For B, You will have to go to college to get a higher annual salary, or to climb the corporate ladder,
both of which takes a lot of time
Ever seen a 20-something CEO?
The market investment equation is not linear
like the job equation is. We've heard it before, and Albert Einstein calls it the eighth wonder of the world:
Compound Interest
However,
it too is bounded by time, because the equation only starts to work drastically in our favor
once we have big numbers
Fastlaners love compound interest too, however,
their goal is to skip the first 20 years and start where the real fun begins. Let's see how
Takeaway number 3: The mathematics of wealth
It's simple as this: to escape the slowlane you must dump your job and start a business
If you want to learn how to get rich as an entrepreneur in a low-risk way
you may want to check out my video of the Lean Startup by Eric Ries, after this
Now, let's look at the fastlane wealth equation
Wealth = Profit + Asset Value
We can break down the profit that you make in your business into two parameters: Units sold and profit per unit
Here's where the power of the Fastlane shows
Both of these variables are possible to leverage
You can sell something that gives $10 in profits, or you can sell something that gives
$10,000 in profit. You can sell a hundred units, but you may as well be able to sell a hundred thousand
Let's go back to the slowlaner's wealth equation for a second
Do you think that you can ever become rich earning $12 per hour and working 40 hours per week?
No
That's because small numbers have a strong gravity towards mediocrity
Can you get rich by
profiting $10 per unit and selling a hundred thousand of those units?
You most certainly can, and really fast too
Asset value will help you reach your financial goals even faster. If you own a good business system,
people are typically willing to buy it from you, and they will typically pay way more than one year profit for it
Just look at the stock market and the price-earning multiples there!
But, let's be a bit more conservative. Say that you can get five times the yearly earnings by selling your company
Still, this is pretty incredible compared to a normal job
Imagine walking up to your boss and proclaiming: "I quit!" and then he responds:
"I see mr. Abrahamson, just wait a moment while I'll write you this ginormous check. Shall we say him at five times your yearly salary, perhaps?"
Note that this doesn't guarantee anything
This sidewalk who wins the lottery will undoubtedly become wealthy, and the slowlaner can become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company
But the odds are not in their favor
We want odds in our favor, and therefore we want to start a Fastlane business
Takeaway number 4: The five fastlane Commandments
Okay, so we've established that, to reach financial freedom fast, you need to quit your job and start a business
But not any type of business. This is not a "do what you love" or "be your own boss" advice
No, a business should fulfill as many as possible of "The five fastlane commandments" to be worthy of pursuing
The commandment of control. If you're not in control of your business someone else is
For instance,
hitchhiking a content distribution platform to distribute your educational videos violates this commandment
Another example: there are lots of businesses that earn good money from Google's Adsense program, but you know what?
The company which brings in the great bucks is Google itself. Oh ...
Anyways ...
Here’s an ad for you!
The commandment of entry
If the road you are choosing is crowded with other people you can count on being stuck in a traffic jam
You'd like some kind of barrier of entry to your business - a certain knowledge that people must possess to participate,
large sums of money required for investments,
contacts that you need to have etc
The commandment of need
Doing what you love is a flawed strategy
People do not care about what you love, people care about having their problems solved
Selfish motives like "doing what you love" is a free ticket to the road with a traffic jam again, because if you love it,
chances are that everyone else loves doing it, too
It's quite simple really: Offer the world more value and you'll become rich
Affect millions and you'll make millions
The commandment of time
Somewhere down the line, you must be able to detach yourself from your own business
You must create a business system that can survive without any input from yourself
We want passive income. Otherwise, you've just created yourself a job in disguise
Money is not king, time is
The commandment of scale
MJ DeMarco talks about something he calls "The law of affection"
And this is so important in my opinion that I'd like to make it into its own takeaway
Takeaway number 5: The law of affection
Basically, you can become a millionaire by having either magnitude or scale in your business
Magnitude is how much value you provide per person you affect. Scale is how many you affect.
If you do not have either, you do not have a millionaire fastlane
Let's take a few examples
Slowlane William opens a lemonade stand outside of his garage
He profits one dollar for each drink sold, so he does not have magnitude in the business, and
what about scale? Is it possible for William to sell ten thousand drinks from his garage?
Nah, probably not
William's business fails the commandment of scale, because he's got a ceiling attached to both the magnitude and the scale of his business
Fastlane Frank is a doctor and he starts a private clinic for plastic surgery in Hollywood with his best friend
Just like William, Frank has attached a ceiling to his business in terms of scale
He cannot provide value for, say, more than ten people today
But he does have magnitude
Delivering upgrades in looks provides a lot of value and doing so to some of the richest people in the world
means that he can become rich too
Fastlane Fiona discovers some type of new beauty product for young women. Yes. It really isn't possible to saturate this market!
She profits only three dollars from each product sold, so she does have a ceiling in magnitude just like William
Unlike William, she doesn't try to sell this from her local garage
She decides to partner up with a few influencers and distribute the product online
During the first year,
she sells 100,000 units. During year two: a million. If you sell 1 million of
anything, you can be sure you'll become rich
If you manage to combine both magnitude and scale, we're talking Billionaire Fastlane rather than Millionaire Fastlane
That's it! Time for a summary:
- You beliefs form your actions
Try to change your attitude to that of a fastlaner and you will see results in your personal finances down the road
- The sidewalk is mathematically predisposed towards poverty. The slowlane is predisposed towards mediocrity, and ...
- The fastlane is predisposed towards wealth. We want to stack the mathematical odds in our favor
- A fastlane business should fulfill as many as possible of the following five commandments: control,
entry, need, time and scale
- Provide value in scale or magnitude to become a millionaire
If you want to ignite a fire in your gut, I can highly recommend this book
Get it from the link in the description, if you want to support this channel
If you like this video, and you can already feel that fire, have a look at my summary of the Lean Startup by Eric Ries
There, I explain how to start your own Fastlane business, using your time as efficiently as possible and
without risking your neck doing it
Cheers!
Please play the YouTube video first