The Millionaire Fastlane (34 page)

• Make them feel better.
  
• Help them solve a problem.
  
• Educate them.
  
• Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup).
  
• Give them security (housing, safety, health).
  
• Raise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence).
  
• Satisfy appetites, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual).
  
• Make things easier.
  
• Enhance their dreams and give hope.
  

… and I guarantee,
you will be worth millions
.

So the next time you're trolling the Web looking to make money, sit back and ask yourself, “What do I have to offer the world?” Offer the world value, and money becomes magnetized to you!

“Do What You Love” and Die as You Do

Beware of another guru-speak:
“Do what you love and the money will follow!”

Bullshit.

That is, unless you want to violate the Commandment of Need. “Do what you love” is another mythical decree perpetrated by hypocritical gurus and so-called life coaches who are probably three clients away from broke. Sadly, the road of “do what you love” rarely converges with wealth. In fact, it might lead you down a road to destructive love.

If you're like me, “do what you love” was never an option. Think about what you love and then think, will someone pay for it? Is it going to solve a need? Are you good enough to make money doing it? Most likely, you aren't.

For “do what you love” to work, you need two things:

1. Your love must solve a need and
   
2. You must be exceptional at it.
   

I love to play basketball, but I suck at it. I can't parlay my love of basketball into a career. I love to play piano, but again, I suck at it. I love many things, but I suck at them! If I wanted a career in any of these “loves,” I'd need unlimited time and money because no one would pay me a dime to do it. Who wants to endure that ineptness?

Consider this book. I love to write. The book represents a dream of “doing what I love,” and that dream was made possible by the Fastlane. If I needed this book to pay for my mortgage, I'm not sure it would. I have no clue if this book will sell 10 copies or 10 million. Therefore I can't rely on it.

“Doing what you love” for money often isn't good enough because we aren't good enough. Additionally, so many people are “doing what they love” that the marketplace for that activity is so crowded and margins become depressed and heavy competition reigns.

Authoring a book is a crowded space. Just because I love to write doesn't guarantee money will follow. In fact, no one cares that I love to write. Do you? Of course not! You want to know if my writing will help you.

In a magazine interview, billionaire RJ Kirk was asked about the benchmark to his success. He replied, “It is for others to say whether I am useful or not.” It isn't for you to decide whether you are useful. The marketplace makes that determination. People pay for their satisfaction; they don't pay to satisfy your need of “do what you love.” People pay for solutions, not for your enjoyment. People pay for solved problems. People don't give a dirty dog-ass about your love for whatever. If “do what you love” doesn't fill a need spectacularly, no one will pay for it!

This book is possible because I didn't need the confirmation of money to authenticate my skill. If that sentence is not too complicated to understand, you get my point. Maybe I'm just not good enough. Regardless of sales, my book is a testament to “do what I love” whether I'm good at it or not. The Fastlane allowed money to be removed from the equation. Now, I don't need to get paid to “do what I love.” I just do it. In other words, money led to “do what you love,” it didn't follow. How's that for irony?

Lebron James gets paid to play basketball because he is good. One of the many destinations of the Fastlane is to remove the confirmation of money from your “do what you love” activity. Fastlane success means I could play basketball seven days a week. I can play video games all day. I don't need to get paid to “do what I love” because I can now do it for FREE.

If you are one of the lucky few who can earn an income from a specific activity that you love AND are good enough, kudos to you. And congratulations-you might not need a Fastlane. A Slowlane just might suffice. No worries. But for those of us who can't transform our loves into income, there are other alternatives paved by the Fastlane.

“Doing What You Love” Fakes and Derivatives

If you can't work a job or a business doing what you love, you're likely to fall into a trap. Your natural reaction is to make a deal with the devil-the Slowlane. You trade your life away, doing things you hate, in exchange for doing things you love. You say, “I'll do five days of work I hate so I can enjoy two weekend days doing something I love.” Does this barter sound like rational thinking?

For example, my friend Andy is a bank collections agent and hates his job. At beer time, I hear the complaints, the frustration, and the BS about the job: the Nazi-like micro-management, the incompetent boss, and his psychotic co-workers. He's on the firing line from all fronts. He numbs himself to this suffering five days a week. His salvation?

His weekend.

He pays “do what you hate” with a weekend of boating, which is his “do what you love.”

Then other people negotiate with “do what you love” into an alternative, or a derivative. For example, Pauline loves to knit, so she sells her knitting online. Jose loves automotive audio so he opens a car stereo shop. Janice loves to sculpt and sells her works at the local gallery. Gary is an avid bodybuilder so he becomes a personal trainer.

There are two dangers to derivatives:

1. They don't make money fast.
   
2. They endanger the love.
   

First, “do what you love” rarely creates money fast because more than likely, not only are YOU doing what you love but thousands of others love doing the same thing too (just tune into the first-week auditions for American Idol for proof). The need is weak. This saturates markets and makes profit margins shallow.

At my gym, a personal trainer acquaintance told me he is struggling to make ends meet. When I asked why, he responded that personal training is so competitive that he can't charge a price worth his time. His service fees are deflationary, caused by an abundant supply of trainers, and when supply exceeds demand (need) prices move down. Not enough need, too much supply.

So why is the field for personal trainers so saturated? Simple. People follow the espoused guruesque advice
without reflection on need
: “Do what you love.”

Unfortunately, if you LOVE doing it, bet on thousands of others loving it too. When you “do what you love,” prepare to face stiff competition. Who enjoys higher margins? The personal trainer? Or the guy who starts a company to cleanup crime scenes?

The second danger of derivatives is that your love becomes vulnerable to contamination when you do it for money. If you are forced to do anything, even something you purport to love, in exchange for a paycheck, that love is put in danger.

Years ago, I took a job as a limo driver because I loved to drive. By the time that job ended, I hated to drive. After work, I'd stay home because I was so sick of driving. My love was contaminated.

I once had a friend who created fantastic paintings as a hobby. When I asked her why she doesn't paint full time for a living, her answer was simple: I paint when I am impassioned to paint. The few times when she painted for money, it stunted her artistic creativity because a different force fueled the motivation-money, not emotion from the moment.

“Do what you love” is left to professional athletes, because they are at the pinnacle of their games. And yet, even after making millions, many of these athletes suffer the same fate. They lose their love of the game. Dancers lose their love for dance. Artists lose their love for art. Money and the demands of life cast a cloud over the love and darken it into a burden.

While derivatives of “do what you love” might yield a figment of happiness, they operate in saturated marketplaces and, more importantly, they could jeopardize your natural love for the activity.

Your Ignition: Moving from Love to Passion

The motivational fuel for the Fastlane is
passion
, not love. Passion gets you out of the garage and onto the road. If you have a passion for a specific goal, you'll do anything for it. I had a passion for Lamborghinis and was willing to do anything for it. Pick up dog shit, mop floors, work at 3 a.m.-whatever it was going to take, I had the passion to do it. Did I love driving limos? Hell no. But I had a Fastlane passion and it motivated my movement to the vision of future.

Your vehicle needs an ignition, a starter, something that compels you to jump out of bed in the morning challenged to tackle the day. That ignition is passion. You need a passion for something greater. It is different for everybody, but when you find it, you will do anything for it.

When you reposition your goals and visions at the end of a road that works, that end transforms your daily life into passionate action toward that specified destination. If you can't get paid doing some activity, identify a specific “why” or “end goal” that ignites your passion to act.

What is your WHY? Why are you doing this? Why go Fastlane? Whom do you want to prove wrong? My “WHYS” read like this:

“I want to pay off my mother's mortgage.”
“I want to wake up without an alarm clock.”
“I want to write a book without the pressure of money.”
“I want a big house on a mountainside with a pool.”
“I want a Lamborghini.”
“I want to make a difference.”
“I want to prove him wrong.”

Passion beats “do what you love,” because passion fuels motivation for something greater than yourself and is generalized. When the focus is “doing what you love,” the focus becomes industry-specific and you're likely to violate the Commandment of Need. Why are you starting this business?
Because you love it?
Or because there is a
real market need
?

I repeat: Passion for an end goal, a why, drives Fastlane action.

Mike Rowe, host of the cable television show Dirty Jobs, profiled several owners of businesses who had less than lovable duties. From testing bovine manure to cleaning up pigeon goop, the owners were passionate. None of them “loved” what they did, but they had passionate “whys” and very deep bank accounts. Competition was sparse because everyone else was busy chasing “do what you love.” A formidable “why” is all you need to turn your daily activities into passionate motivation -the “get up in the morning” metamorphosis to bust open a Fastlane road. What are your WHYS, and are they strong enough to motivate you into process?

Passion Erases the Suffering of Work

When I was in startup mode with my company, I worked long hours. Was I suffering the toil of work? No. I enjoyed it, because I had my “whys” and I was moving toward them. The journey hardened me, challenged me, and yes, it was even fun! I was passionate about what I wanted and I was going to get it.
The Fastlane isn't a destination but a personal journey
.

Writing this book has been an enduring journey, and I admit that I gave up three times. Why? After a year of writing and not finishing, my love for writing evaporated. My love became a hate. I was “doing what I love” and suddenly that love faded because people started to expect a book. I confided to a friend, “I quit. I no longer enjoy it and I don't need to finish it.”

So how did I finish if my love for writing evaporated? I found my passion, which compelled me to finish: I love to see the dreams of others become reality. When a dead dream is given sudden life, I feel invigorated. Any time I wanted to give up, I'd receive an email that applauded me: “Your forum changed my life” or “Thank you, my life has turned for the better.” That is passionate currency that repositioned my writing effort into action. I went from love, to suffering, to passion.

Get Your Road to Converge with a Fantastic Dream

A road that doesn't converge with your dreams is a dead end. When you concede dreams, life withers. Reflect back to childhood, when you heard: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Underneath this question, what's it really asking? It's a probe to find the road to your dreams, and it was usually answered in a phantasmal vision. For me, I wanted to be an astronaut (blame Han Solo) a filmmaker (blame George Lucas) and an author (blame Isaac Asimov).

How about you? What is your outrageous, fantastic dream? And the real question of concern: Is there any chance you are doing it, or will be doing it? More than likely, you're not, because the Slowlane has killed it.

I asked my friend Rick this question. Guess what. He didn't answer this question with “I want to be a sales representative at Verizon Wireless.” Nope. He answered with “I wanted to be a race car driver.” So, why is Rick selling cell phones today? Is there any chance in hell he will actually become his dream, a racecar driver? There isn't. The dream is dead and the road is derelict. Nonetheless, as Rick sticks to his job and waits for a promotion, he wonders, “There's got to be more than this.”

And then there's Sarah. She didn't answer this question with, “I want to be a shift manager at Taco Bell.” Nope, she wanted to be an artist. But today, Sarah finds herself working the graveyard shift, mopping up the floors in the dining room from slobs who have mistaken sour cream for finger paint. As she slams the mop-head in the wringer, Sarah has a moment of disquiet. “Is this what my life has become?”

The problem with these people is not their jobs. We've all had crappy, embarrassing jobs that we hate.
The problem is their dead-end road that will never converge with a dream
. Dreams are forsaken to pay the bills. Instead of a convergent road to dreams (or a chance of a dream), their road goes through an inescapable hell.

Life becomes suffering.

There is nothing wrong with working at Verizon or Taco Bell. Heck, these jobs would have been promotions in comparison to the meaningless jobs I've held. But please, don't make these jobs your means to the end, your final road, because the “end” most likely will never come.