The Millionaire Fastlane (50 page)

16. Automate (fastlane superchArger)
Automate your business and honor the Commandment of Time. Get your time detached from your business. The best passive-income money-tree seedlings are money systems, rental systems, computer systems, content systems, distribution systems, and human resource systems. The key to automation in any business lies in these seedlings.

17. Replicate (fastlane superchaRger)
Replicate your system and honor the Commandment of Scale. Get on a playing field where home runs can be hit. To make millions, you must impact millions. To impact millions, you must be on a field capable of affecting millions! Can your product, service, process be replicated on a global scale to tap the Law of Effection?

18. Grow (fastlane supercharGer)
Grow your business by treating it multi-dimensionally, like a game of chess. Build a brand, not a business. Treat customers like your boss and reposition complaints to opportunities. Listen to the world as they offer the best directional clues. Resist commoditization. Differentiate yourself from the competition. Get above the noise. Focus on one business and one business only.

19. Exit (fastlane superchargEr)
Have an Exit strategy. Full passivity accomplished by a money system is one Fastlane destination. Money systems are best funded by liquidation events of massive asset values. Know when it's time to liquidate your assets, transforming paper money into real money. Know when it's time to get off the horse and learn to ride a new one.

20. Retire, Reward, or Repeat (fastlane superchargeR)
After liquidating your asset(s), Retire or Repeat. Regardless of which, Reward yourself for milestones met everywhere along the journey. Sell your first product? Celebrate! Go to dinner, buy a cigar, drink a beer. Break $100,000 in net worth? Treat yourself to something nice. Book a joint-venture deal? Celebrate with an indulgence. Go over $1 million? Take a nice vacation. Break $10 million? Buy a Lamborghini.

“Uhh, Sir … We're Closing …”

The Fastlane road trip isn't a destination but a personal journey, and that journey becomes your life and your process. You will discover that that journey is worth living as long as your dreams are alive and have probability. It doesn't matter where you start, but how you proceed. The garage door to an exceptional life is open-leave behind the past that keeps you grounded and take to the road. All Fastlaners start in similar straits of life turbulence.

But MJ, I have a mountain of credit card debt!
But MJ, I have a job stocking shelves at the supermarket!
But MJ, I have no time after work!
But MJ, my wife hates my business ideas!

Beware of the “buts,” because they do just that: They grind your butt into the couch, doing nothing. Excuses never made anyone rich, and we all have them. Stop being like everyone and start taking action. Make a choice today that can change the course of your life forever.

Wow … we've been here a long time, the sun has set, and the coffee shop attendant has flipped the closing sign. I want to thank you for joining me. If you want to discuss Fastlane theory further, hit your browser to
FastlaneEntrepreneurs.com
or
TheFastlaneForum.com
. If this book has inspired or changed your life, please tell a friend or let me know at
[email protected]

I hope
The Millionaire Fastlane
has awakened your dreams and given them a chance to live. Always remember, if your dream is alive,
you're already living the dream!
I hope everything for you, and maybe, perhaps someday, your impact on the world will reverberate through the years and you can reflect on that simple choice made long ago … that choice to pick up a book and read it. To your dreams … good luck and God bless.

MJ DeMarco

APPENDIX A:
Reader Reflections

MJ, I'm a high school teacher … how do I go Fastlane?

Well, first understand that it isn't going to happen on your current road. While I don't suggest quitting your job (yet), I can suggest that you open up another parallel road that you can travel. Is there anything in your line of work that defines a problem that you can address? What if you invented a product that every school in the country needed for their curriculum? What if you wrote a book that was targeted to teachers? Could you start your own private school?

If you can't identify a need parallel to your existing road, are there other problems that you can identify, on a different road? Perhaps a student can enlighten a need that needs to be solved. Do you hear their complaints? Their issues, trials, and toils? Needs are everywhere, and they don't have to be viewed from your current road.

Roads are opened only when you knock on their doors. Additionally, as a teacher you have unprecedented access to time that most others don't. Do you know how many people would love to have three months off in the summer? Leverage this time into a new road that can dawn a Fastlane.

MJ, my neighbor has owned a business for 19 years. He's never home, he never has time for anything, and he certainly isn't rich. Owning a business doesn't guarantee wealth!

I agree. Your neighbor's problem is he's on a road that doesn't route to wealth because it most likely fails the Commandment of Time. If your business cannot divorce from your time through a money-tree seedling, your business may really be a dead-end job.

MJ, I currently have $12,000 in debt and am barely making ends meet. Where do I start?

Start by understanding the source of that debt. Why does it exist? How did it get there and accumulate $12,000? Your debt accumulation wasn't an event, but a process that happened over many years. You don't just wake up one morning and have $12K in debt! Your choices led to your debt-the many choices to buy on credit over paying cash. You chose to buy those hideous clothes in the closet. You chose the fancy car. You chose to run with the Joneses. Or perhaps you live in a house that's just too expensive and you have paid for everyday staples like groceries using your credit card. Escaping credit card debt requires a commitment to process over event, except in the reverse. Repent from the Sidewalk and make new choices that are designed to keep your debt from growing, or better, to get it declining. Pay cash for everything. If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it.

Second, focus on your income. Face it. You need to make more money. If you owned a business that profited $15,000 every single month, would that debt suddenly seem like such a burden? No, it wouldn't. You'd have it paid off in weeks, not decades. Income is the answer, with a temporary mandate at expense reduction to curb debt growth.

Commit to starting a need-based business that you can use to expand income and expose yourself to the Fastlane wealth equation. Yes, you might need to get your hands dirty doing something that most others would find repulsive. You will need to do what most others won't. You either want it badly enough, or not at all.

MJ, my wife and I are traveling two different roads. She is a lifelong Slowlaner consumed with saving every dime and living a life of frugality, and I am a serial entrepreneur who wants a little more from life. My problem is my “serialness” hasn't produced any success other than turmoil in my relationship.

Has your wife read this book? If so, and she doesn't agree with Fastlane philosophy nor want to participate, you might have tough decisions to make in your future. Your spouse is your lifelong partner, and if your roads don't run parallel, it could be rough riding ahead. Like our choices and their horsepower, relationships also have trajectory. Today's road that diverges one degree from your partner's road will be divergent 90 degrees years from now.

I'm not interested in relationships that are “good enough” but relationships that empower both individuals to be the best they can be. I can't speculate on the strength of your relationship; only you can do that. Can you and your spouse compromise on some common tenets that can bridge your divide of philosophy? Like the value of time and the importance of financial literacy? Like the ruinous effects of parasitic debt? Perhaps these common grounds are strong enough to keep your roads bound together for a common goal.

And finally, your “serialness” might be a problem. Are you a polygamist opportunist balancing 10 different opportunities? Your business is a spouse. Quit cheating and give one business all of your attention. You will get out what you put in, and rationing your time among mistresses is a slow prescription to lackluster incomes and asset values.

MJ, what about real estate? You don't mention it a lot … is it Fastlane?

I consider real estate “Wealth 1.0,” and for it to be Fastlane requires effort and manipulation of the Five Commandments. Namely, are you a real estate investor because of need or because it's just something you know? A successful real estate investor flips a house because it needs rehab. A successful real estate investor develops an apartment complex because the neighborhood needs it.

Additionally, real estate possesses magnitude but lacks reach. That means for its success, you have to engage in multiple successes, or intended iteration. One tiny property isn't going to make you rich, but 200 accumulated over the years might. Accumulation doesn't happen in a few short years, but many. I never meta 22-year-old multimillionaire real estate investor simply because it is a slower Fastlane with asset values that cannot be manipulated as easily as your own self created business. Asset value is limited by magnitude, which is why the richest real estate investors are not only older, but they focus on high-dollar properties. You don't see Donald Trump building single-family homes, but high-rises. Magnitude. Real estate possesses an excellent time detachment component that survives time. Only you can determine if real estate is a Fastlane road that you want to travel.

MJ, are you saying I can't get wealthy working four hours a week?

Sure you can, because you define freedom within your wealth trinity. If wealth to you is traveling the world with $100 in your wallet and you have a knack for getting by on subterfuge, schemes, shitty once-a-day customer service, barter, and other nefarious practices, go for it. If you feel you can own your life and take care of your family's needs on $1,000 a month, go for it. Were there times when I worked four hours a week? Absolutely, and many times less! The difference was, I invested tons of work to get there, and I wasn't earning $1,000/month, but $100,000/month. I never met a multimillionaire who found success investing four hours a week from start to finish. It's a one-way street: Four-hour workweeks are fruit from money trees, but money trees cannot grow from four-hour workweeks!

MJ, what about affiliate marketing? Is that “Fastlane”? I know a few guys who are making good money as affiliate marketers.

Affiliate marketing (AM) violates the Commandments of Entry and Control, and if you can subvert those restrictions, it can be Fastlane. Unfortunately, by itself, AM is not Fastlane. Oh blasphemy! I've been castigated on some affiliate marketing forums for my stance regarding affiliate marketing. Funny how I get labeled the pinhead and those guys spend their days trolling the Internet looking to peddle some Fastlaner's product (like mine!).

Sure, I don't ignore that many affiliate marketers make decent money; likewise, I don't ignore that many lottery winners do too. And yes, there are some career network marketers who are millionaires. My viewpoint is not absolute but about probabilities. Whenever you violate control, you relinquish control. When an affiliate marketer joins my company and hocks my wares, he gives me control and I leverage weak entry. Whenever you violate entry, you must be exceptional.

For every affiliate marketer earning $30,000 a month there are 300,000 earning less than $100. For every network marketer who earns $50,000 a month there are 500,000 making less than $100. For every lottery winner who wins $1 million, there are one million losers. Probabilities! If you think you can defy probability and be exceptional, go for it. And congratulations! I can think of several exceptional affiliate marketers worth millions. It's not impossible if you have solid process! Experience in non-Fastlane disciplines doesn't mean that the discipline is worthless or to be avoided. I am about mathematics and probabilities-that's why my bread isn't in someone else's basket. Affiliate marketing is a powerful mechanism to grow your business; that's why I advocate creating affiliate programs that the masses will want to join, not joining them.

MJ, do you suggest I skip college?

It depends on its cost, your maturity, your goals, and its marginal benefits. If you want to be a doctor, engineer, or a nurse, yes, you need school! If you want to invent a product that needs significant engineering, you're probably going to need college! Be careful of education servitude and know that a college education is not a prerequisite to wealth because formal education can sometimes work against you. The velocity of any education varies by its intended purpose and its cost. I went to college and I have no regrets. In other words, I'd go again.

MJ, my upline sponsor said you're a dream stealer and that your viewpoint on network marketing is flawed.

Great, then keep taking advice from him. Let me know how that goes in five years.

I have a wife and two children to support and I can't afford to quit my job. Where can I find time to go Fastlane?