The Millionaire Fastlane (32 page)

When it comes down to getting in the mud and getting dirty, most people will opt for the smooth sailing of first gear and avoid the discomfort of Redline. The Redline busts through roadblocks and hardens process.

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!

The last two words of the quote are “other people.” You want to be damn sure you aren't “other people,” because “other people” is synonymous with “most people.” Most people are consumers who are two paychecks from broke. Most people won't invest long hours into their business system while friends are living it up on credit. Most people will allow friends and family to deflate their dreams with “that won't work” directives. Most people start excited and gush with exuberance but give up at the first pothole or failure. Most people succumb to “I quit” and give up not knowing that they are one or two plays away from a touchdown-the Fastlane exponential growth curve.

Are we there yet?”

Wealth is a devious entity, and its elusiveness weeds out the weak. Your journey will follow a predictable path of excitement, questioning, commitment, and rebirth. Fastlane success requires an investment toll of time and effort. This is the toll that makes you special and keeps everyone else OUT.

This Redlined effort cannot be bypassed nor outsourced. Prime your expectations for work and sacrifice, know your destination, envision your dreams, ready your means, and know that you are simply paying the toll because you don't want to trade 5-for-2 for life! If you don't do the hard work that Fastlane opportunity demands, someone else will. And if you aren't like everyone, you will discover something miraculous: You can live unlike everyone.

Get Your Foot off the Brakes!

The sweat of success is failure, and I am soaking wet. If you've taken a step, spin, or aerobics class, you know the objectives: to sweat, to get your heart rate up, to build cardiovascular endurance, and to lose weight. If you went to a cardio class and the instructor forbade sweating, it would negate its purpose. Hard work naturally produces sweat, and sweat becomes evidence of your effort.

Unfortunately, this ludicrous analogy is the paradox you face if you fear failure and refuse to release the brakes. The sweat of success is failure. While you can't build cardiovascular endurance without sweating, you can't experience success without failure. Failure is simply a natural response to success. If you avoid failure you will also avoid success.

You can't drive the road to wealth with the brakes engaged. You have to take risks. You have to get uncomfortable. You have to get out there and fail.

What causes this fear of failure? Fear of failure is attributed to an overestimated worst-case consequence analysis. What is the absolute worst that could happen and the probability of it happening? You fail at business and have to go back to work? Big deal. When you resist societal headwinds, you will sweat!

Take calculated risks. Do so and things happen. You meet new people. New opportunities arise. Feedback pours in. “Lucky breaks” converge into your life. The act of doing does marvelous things. Yes, the Fastlane is a risk. Failure is imminent. I learned how to code computers by trial-and-failure. I'd fail a code block hundreds of times before I found the right way to do something. My other failures ranged from moronic multi-level marketing programs to jewelry to direct marketing programs. Each time, I brushed it off, reanalyzed, learned, adjusted, and tried again. The brakes were disengaged, baby!

I once heard, “A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” You can learn from my failures. I didn't learn the Fastlane overnight. I found it by the light of failure. Fear of failure is normal, yet failure creates experience and experience breeds wisdom.

Fastlane Risks Can Have Lifelong Returns

Bill Gates is a one-hit wonder. He built one company and made billions. One company was all it took. Some might say I'm a one-hit wonder. Great. I'd rather be a one-hit wonder than a no-hit wonder. One hit is all it takes, and you could be set for life.

You have a challenge: If you want to hit home runs, you've got to get up to the plate and swing. Home runs or singles can't be hit sitting on your butt in the dugout or sitting on the couch eating pretzels while killing grunts on Halo 3. Getup to the plate and start swinging! Start striking out! After enough swings and acclimating yourself to the velocity of business, contact becomes easier.

Take Intelligent Risks and Skip the Moronic Ones

When it comes to risk analysis, there are two types of risk designated by best- and worst-case outcomes or consequences: intelligent risks and moronic risks.

Flying to Las Vegas and gambling a month's salary at the craps table is a moronic risk. Driving a car on the freeway with faulty brakes is a moronic risk. When you take intelligent risks and avoid the moronic ones, you amplify your wealth trajectory through time. Intelligent risks have a limited downside, while their upside is unlimited. Moronic risks have a bottomless downside and their upside is limited, or short term.

Most moronic risks fall into the asymptomatic category. They simply aren't clearly defined and it takes a little diligence to spot them. When I'm out racing on the streets of Phoenix in an 850-horsepower car, I'm engaged in an asymptomatic, moronic risk. My upside is a short-term burst of adrenaline and a temporary ego boost. The downside is crashing and killing myself or someone else. The upside is limited and short-the downside is unlimited and long. Yes, it seems so idiotic.

Here's another moronic risk, and it took me this chapter to uncover it. I'm writing this book on a cloud computing application. That means I'm writing to an external source, or an external server. I have not made copies of my work. If the cloud server fails, my work is gone. Yes, moronic risks come in all sizes and flavors, and this makes me the idiot of the day. Excuse me while I go back up my work.

OK, I'm back.

Now let's talk about intelligent risks. When I invest $100,000 in an Internet company, I'm engaging in an intelligent risk. When I sold my Internet company, I reinvested part of the proceeds back into the company. I still own a minor percentage and it is completely passive. Why did I invest $100,000 and expose myself to the risk? I assessed the acquiring company's probability of success to be high. Their goal was to take my small company and transform it into a $100 million company. If they succeed, my small $100,000 investment would then be worth $2 million. The downside? The company could fail and the liquidation value of my investment would lose about 50%. My downside is limited while the upside is substantial. This is an intelligent risk.

If you quit your job to engage in a Fastlane business, it's an intelligent risk. Your upside could be millions. The downside? You might have to live below your standards: mop floors, flip burgers, eat rice and beans, and ride your bike to the grocery store. Is that really that bad? Not if you know your destination and your commitment to the roadmap. Again, it all comes down to what you are willing to do and not willing to do. Risk involves careful stewardship of choice. Minimize moronic risk and take advantage of intelligent risk. As for failure, trust me-it is easier to live in regret of failure than in regret of never trying.

Smack “Someday …”

What prevents people from hitting the Redline? Someday does. Someday I will … someday I'll do this, someday I'll do that, someday when the kids are grown, someday when the debts are paid … someday.

And yet,
someday never comes
.

Someday is a distant horizon in the theater of your mind.

Someday is dangerous and paralyzing. It traps you in land of Nowheresville. Someday is here, now, pristine and clean and begging no allegiance for tomorrow. The Fastlane petitions you for this simple transformation: Make someday today. Ever drive somewhere and all the traffic lights are green? Unfortunately, when it comes to opportunity and risk minimization, people wait for perfect timing-they wait for all lights to go green, which summons the “somedays.” Ask anyone seeking Slowlane escape … why haven't you made the leap? What are you waiting for? It's always some excuse…

“I'm waiting for a promotion.”
“I'm waiting for my kids to be older.”
“I'm waiting to be debt-free.”
“I'm waiting until I inherit money.”
“I'm waiting for the new year.”
“I'm waiting to finish school.”
“I'm waiting for my wife to get a job.”
“I'm waiting for the economy turn around.”
“I'm waiting until I fix the hot-water heater.”
“I'm waiting for this …”“I'm waiting for that …”

The common thread is always the same …
“I'm waiting.”

But waiting for what? Someday!

Someday for something, some event, or some precondition. Sadly, these mentally constructed provisions come and go, leaving the opportunity seeker stuck in the same rut for years. Waiting for all green lights is waiting for the skies to turn purple on the third Wednesday in November.

Let me be clear if I haven't been: There is never a perfect time. Someday is today. Today is now. A week is 7 todays strung together while a year is 365. Today is all you've got! And if you wait, opportunity passes. 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. Ring up the cheesy soap opera music. Yes, as time passes, so do the sands of your life . . . and these are the days of our lives.

Opportunity Doesn't Care About Timing

Opportunity drives through your neighborhood frequently, and when it does, you have to grab that bitch. Evaluate the risk and take action. Unfortunately, opportunity doesn't care about your timing. Opportunity doesn't care about your circumstances, your broken-down car, or your life's turmoil. It comes and goes of its own will, has a mind of its own, and it's blind to predicaments. Opportunity comes dressed as changes and challenges. Remember, change makes millionaires.

The “Fastlane Forum” (
TheFastlaneForum.com
) is my example of seizing opportunity outside of my desired timing. My forum existed years before this book was written because opportunity drove through my neighborhood unannounced. My preconceived timing for the “Fastlane Forum” was after my book's completion.

However, years before the first word was written, I revisited a business forum that I had once frequented. I recognized familiar forum contributors lamenting about “the old days” and how hucksters had invaded the forum: people pimping their spam, schemes, and scams. It was a blooming garden of flowers that had become overrun by weeds. People demanded change or an alternative.

In my mind I had a forum coming at some point in the undefined future. But this
opportunity was not coming at my convenience
. Opportunity suddenly turned the corner and I heard its deafening exhaust. Even though I was in the shower, I got out, ran outside soaking wet, unprepared, premature, and met the opportunity. I greeted it, opened the door, and led it inside. Not in my time, but “opportunity's time,” and someday became today. That decision allowed me to pre-sell hundreds of books before the first word was written.

Many of the world's successful entrepreneurs started businesses in college. You know their companies: Microsoft, Dell, FedEx, and Facebook. Their founders seized opportunity outside of their timing and chose to take an intelligent risk. These entrepreneurs captured opportunity and didn't wait for satisfaction of preconditions: “After I graduate” or “On summer break” or “After my Math 202 exam.” Opportunities are dressed as unfilled needs, and when they ring your doorbell, answer it! Unanswered, opportunity leaves and rings another doorbell, knowing eventually, someone willing will answer.

Why not you? Timing is rarely perfect. Waiting empowers mediocrity. People sit around waiting their entire lives for the perfect this, the perfect that. The perfect scenarios and circumstances never arrive. What does arrive? Time, old age, and the specter of a dream lost.

And now you have the opportunity to get out of the garage and take the road. The road is where your Fastlane journey starts. Fastlane roads lead to wealth. You have the Fastlane roadmap, and you know how the Slowlane and the Sidewalk operate. You know how to tune your vehicle. You know which mindsets are assets and which are liabilities. You've exposed the gravitational forces that will conspire against your vehicle. You have all the necessary tools to get out of the garage and get on one of the many roads to wealth. Yes, it's time to hit the road.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Interest is first gear. Commitment is the Redline.
  
• Hard work and commitment separates the winners from the losers.
  
• Some choose short-term mediocre comfort over long-term meteoric comfort.
  
• To live unlike everyone else, you have to do what everyone else won't.
  
• Arm your expectations to hard work, sacrifice, and other bumps in the road. These are the land mines where the weak are removed from the road and sent back to the land of “most people.”
  
• Failure is natural to success. Expect it and learn from it.
  
• One home run could set you financially secure for your life, perhaps generations.
  
• Home runs can't be hit in the dug out.
  
• Moronic risks have unlimited downside (long term) and limited upside (short term).
  
• Intelligent risks have unlimited upside (long term) and limited downside (short term.)
  
• There is never perfect timing and waiting for “someday” just wastes time.