by MJ DeMarco
A friend of mine recently had her identity stolen. As we dined at a restaurant she bellyached about the nightmarish ordeal. Determined to find the cause of her problem, I stopped her contempt midstream and asked a few questions. I wondered, was she a victim, or not being accountable?
I asked, “How did your identity get stolen?”
“My purse was stolen in Mexico.”
“How did that happen?” I probed.
“I was at a restaurant and someone swiped it”
“Oh? Was your purse laid out, wide-open on the table, like it is now?”
She glanced at her purse and got my point. As we dined, her purse sat on the tabletop in open view of everyone. Any thief could easily snatch her purse and run. She looked at me, scoffed, and then grabbed her purse and secured it to her lap.
A victim? Or not holding herself accountable? Her problem was caused by a bad choice—the choice to not safeguard her purse. And even after this costly lesson, she still didn’t understand the power of being accountable. If she were accountable to the error, her purse wouldn’t lie exposed on the table as a beacon of opportunity to thieves, but safe in her lap.
Immunize Yourself from Victimization
Stop being a victim by taking responsibility, followed by accountability.
In 2006, I bought my dream home in Phoenix, Arizona, overlooking a gorgeous mountain range. The home had one of the best views in Phoenix but needed a substantial remodel. A new friend recommended a general contractor whom I hired without investigation; no diligence, no reference check, no license investigation, nothing.
Duh.
What should have taken eight months rotted into a three-year ordeal, a nightmare that framed the worst decision of my life. The contractor was grossly incompetent and an idiot.
Yet, I was to blame.
I accepted both responsibility and accountability because I hired the contractor. To plunder a line from Star Wars, slightly modified, “Who’s the idiot, the idiot himself or the idiot that hires the idiot?”
But I wasn’t a victim because I first was responsible: It was my fault.
I allowed it to happen.
Then, second, I became accountable: Now when I hire house workers, I do an investigation. Or, I could sink my teeth into being a victim and play the pity violin like everyone else.
For my friend with the stolen purse, the Fastlane mindset is to take responsibility followed by accountability.
Responsibility: It was my fault that my purse was stolen.
Accountability: In the future, I will take precautions to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Immunization for victimitis occurs when you are both responsible for AND accountable to your actions and the action’s possible poor consequences. Own your mistakes, failures, and triumphs. Reflect on your choices. Are you in a situation because you put yourself there? Did you error in the process? Were you lazy? Most bad situations are consequences of bad choices. Own them and you own your life.
No one can steer you off course, because you are in the driver’s seat. And when you own your decisions, something miraculous happens. Failure doesn’t become the badge of victimhood—it becomes wisdom.
Deny accountability and responsibility and the keys of your life are given to someone else. In other words, take the damn driver’s seat to your life!
You Deserve! You Deserve! You Deserve!
The other day I heard successive radio commercials that were utterly disturbing. You don’t need to be a nuclear physicist to know their target . . . Sidewalking victims.
The first commercial was for a mortgage loan modification company. The sales pitch went like this: “Modify your loan and get the lower payments you deserve.” The next commercial was from an attorney. “Been in an accident? Get the money you deserve.” The final commercial was from a credit repair company. “Let us negotiate your debts down to nothing so you can live the life you deserve!”
Notice the common phrase?
You deserve.
Seriously, what do these people really deserve?
Your credit sucks, you don’t pay your bills on time, and you deserve a better life? Grandma rear-ends your car and suddenly you deserve a large cash award from some rich insurance company? You buy a house you can’t afford and now you deserve a lower rate? How does “deserving” suddenly come so easy with no particular effort, like an event raining from the heavens?
We’re being methodically brainwashed to believe that we deserve everything without obedience to process, or accountability.
You deserve what your actions earned, or haven’t earned.
Being responsible is one thing; being accountable is another.
When you’re accountable to your choices, you alter your behavior in the future and take the driver’s seat of your life.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
➡Hitchhikers assign control over their financial plans to others, which effectively introduces probabilities to victimhood.
➡The Law of Victims: You can’t be a victim if you don’t relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim.
➡Responsibility owns your choices.
➡Taking responsibility is the first step to taking the driver’s seat of your life. Accountability is the final.
PART 4
MEDIOCRITY: THE
SLOWLANE ROADMAP

PART 4- MEDIOCRITY: THE SLOWLANE ROADMAP
[10] - The Lie You’ve Been Sold: The Slowlane
What if I told you ‘insane’ was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn’t you consider that to be insane?
~ Steve Buscemi (Con Air, paramount pictures, 2003)
Next Exit: “Slowlane” Mediocrity Ahead
In the previous chapter, we highlighted that a Sidewalker has no financial plan and is only focused on today’s pleasures, often governed by instant gratification. While the Sidewalk is a lifestyle that mortgages the future for a comfortable today, the Slowlane is the antithesis: a sacrificial today in the hopes of a more comfortable tomorrow.
As a Slowlane traveler, you’re besieged by a hodgepodge of doctrines that plead discipline to the trade-off. Get a job and waste five days a week toiling at the office. Bag a lunch and stop drinking $10 coffee. Faithfully entrust 10% of your paycheck to the stock market and your 401(k). Quit dreaming about that sports car in the window because you can’t buy it! Eat cheaply and buy everything on clearance. Delay gratification until you’re 65 years old. Save, save, save because compound interest is powerful: $10,000 invested today will be with 10 gazillion in 50 years!
Surprisingly, the Slowlane is the Sidewalk’s first convenient exit and evolves from maturity and increased adult responsibilities. Most college graduates begin their post-schooling life on the Sidewalk. I certainly did. Graduation sanctioned a license to buy stuff that yielded instant pleasure: trips to Cancun, a flashy car with a booming stereo, nightly drinking binges, a massive music collection. Life was all about now, regardless of future consequences. Sidewalkers (and people in general) instinctively regard a better future: “I’ll be making more money,” “I’ll hit the lottery,” “After my father dies I’ll inherit thousands.” Future crutches justify pleasurable nows and, behind the scenes, Lifestyle Servitude swells.
However, with increased responsibilities, perhaps a growing family, mounting debts, and future expectations not matching reality, the Sidewalker comes to terms with the uncertainty of the Sidewalk. He does the seemingly responsible lane change: He off-ramps and graduates to the Slowlane roadmap, a strategy touted and praised by credible sources. While the Sidewalk is typified by undisciplined behavior, the Slowlane’s financial plan introduces responsibility and accountability into the wealth formula. That can’t be bad right?
Unfortunately, the Slowlane is like bad direction
s given at a gas station, except these directions aren’t given by strangers, but by people you trust: teachers, television and radio personalities, financial advisers, and yes, even our parents. These ostensible sources reinforce the strategy’s fraudulent strength when its efficacy is a sucker’s bet. The Slowlane is a lifetime wager that a sacrificial today will yield a wealthier tomorrow.
The Promise of Wealth . . . The Price? Your Life
The Slowlane is rarely challenged. It’s a lie so deceiving that when the ruse comes to light, decades of life have passed . . . meanwhile, millions more are being newly indoctrinated to the deception.
If you buy the lie, you sell off today in hopes of a glorious tomorrow. And when does this glorious tomorrow happen? When can you splurge, spend your millions, and enjoy life? When? The driving force behind Get Rich Slow is time—time employed at the job and time invested in the markets. Your glorious tomorrow might arrive after 40 years, when you’re living your last presidential administration and on your second hip replacement. Your glorious tomorrow might arrive when you’re 83 years old and soaked in urine and strapped to a stinking bed because you’ve lost your mind to Alzheimer’s. Seriously, when does this Slowlane plan of retiring rich actually become real so you can enjoy your millions?
As a teenager, Joe reads several personal finance books about getting rich. They tell him to save, get a career, clip coupons, and live below your means. After graduating with a law degree, Joe follows this advice. While it is difficult, Joe follows this plan for wealth diligently. He works 60 hours weekly at his law firm, often neglecting his family and children. His weekdays are consumed at the office, while his weekends are spent home “recharging” from the rigors of the workweek.
After 12 years in law, Joe decides his profession is no longer enjoyable. Yet, he decides to endure, as he is just one promotion away from making partner and a base $250,000 salary. As Joe’s life progresses, he never loses sight of his goal: Retire by age 55 because, after all, financial guru David says, “The smart people finish rich.”
Joe saves, works overtime, invests in mutual funds, and participates in his firm’s 401(k). He continues to endure his job for the sake of the plan. No one said it’d be easy. That “one day” was coming, the day when he’d retire with millions. He justifies that five miserable days in a hated job is worth the sacrifice for the future. Then, one hot summer day while mowing the lawn, Joe has a heart attack and dies at age 51 . . . four years before his destination.
You can either live rich young or live rich old while risking death along the way. The choice is yours and it shouldn’t be a contest. Rich at 25 years old beats the snot out of rich at 65 years old. Ask a youngster how to get rich young. Will coupons, mutual funds, and 401(k)s be the answer? Comedic, I know.
Wealth is best lived young and enjoyed while you have health, vibrancy, energy, and yes, maybe even some hair. Wealth is best lived in the prime of your life, not in its twilight after 40 years of 50-hour workweeks have pulverized your dreams into surrender. Deep in our soul we know this, yet we continue to faithfully pledge obedience to a financial roadmap that *promises* wealth after four or five decades.
And the bigger concern you should have is, does it even work?
The 2008 global recession exposed the Slowlane for the fraud it is. With no job, the plan fails. When the stock market loses 50% of your savings, the plan fails. When a housing crisis erases 40% of your illiquid net worth in one year, the plan fails. The plan is a failure because the plan is based on time and factors you can’t control.
Unfortunately, millions of people have loyally entrusted decades into the plan only to discover the ugly truth: The Slowlane is risky and insufferably impotent.
A strategy that requires your life and dreams as penance is a sucker’s bet. The Slowlane arrogantly assumes that you will live forever and, of course, be gainfully employed forever. Unfortunately, wheelchairs don’t fit in the trunks of Lamborghinis.
Slowlane Mindposts and Missives
Over time, the Slowlaner collects and then endures a series of mindposts reinforced by credible sources. Mom and Dad say go to college, graduate, and get a job. Best-selling author David says, “Stop drinking expensive lattes.” Suze says, “Open a Roth IRA and contribute 10% of your paycheck.” Ramsey says, “Snowball that debt.” CNBC proudly proclaims that the secret to wealth is simply explained on handwritten index card promoting 50 years of indexed-funds. All these missives formulate the Slowlaner’s mindposts, a journey to wealth that consumes a lifetime.
Debt Perception:
Debt is evil. It must be religiously attacked, even if that means working overtime for life.
Time Perception:
My time is abundant and I will gladly trade my time for more dollars. The more hours I can work, the more I can pay off my debt and save money for retirement at 65.
Education Perception:
Education is important because it helps me earn a bigger salary.
Money Perception:
Money is scarce and every dime and dollar must be accounted for, budgeted, and rigorously saved. If I want to retire by 65 with millions, I have to ensure I don’t squander my hard-earned money.
Primary Income Source:
My job is my sole source of income.
Primary Wealth Accelerator:
Compound interest is powerful because $10 invested today will be worth $300,000 in 50 years. Oh yes, and don’t forget about mutual funds, home appreciation, and my employer’s 401(k).
Wealth Perception:
Work, save, and invest. Work, save, and invest. Repeat for 40 years until retirement age . . . 65 years old or, if I’m lucky and the markets return 12% yearly, maybe 55!
Wealth Equation:
Wealth = job + market investments.
Destination:
A comfortable retirement in my twilight years.
Responsibility & Control:
It’s my responsibility to provide for my family although for that plan to work I have to rely on others, including Wall Street, my employer, my financial adviser, the government, and a good economy.
Life Perception:
Settle for less. Give up on big dreams. Save, live frugal, don’t take unnecessary risks, and one day I will retire with millions.
So how do you know you’re being sold the Slowlane? The following lists the primary munitions indigenous to the Slowlane roadmap.
ALERT! SLOWLANE INDOCTRINATION AHEAD!
Indexed-funds The stock market
Go to college (regardless of cost) Stop drinking expensive Starbucks
Pay yourself first Save X% of your paycheck
Be ridiculously frugal Save, save, save!
Buy and hold Compound interest
Patience (you’ll be rich in 50 years!) Contribute to your 401(k), IRAs
Pay off your house early Live below your means
Invest in mutual funds Pensions, paychecks, benefits
Diversify Get out of debt
Cancel your credit cards Your home is an asset
Look at this 50 year chart! Clip coupons
Get an advanced degree Dollar cost averaging
Raise your insurance deductibles Cancel the movie channels
Overtime Corporate ladder
When you encounter these “buzz phrases,” be wary—someone is selling you the Slowlane as a total plan to wealth. While coupons and other Slowlane strategies aren’t worthless IN a plan, they shouldn’t be THE plan. The Slowlane as a total plan is the problem, not the Slowlane being a piece of the plan. This distinction is critical because financial discipline must accompany any wealth campaign.
The Slowlane Roadmap: A Mathematical Introduction
How is wealth created in the Slowlane? To expose its method (and its weakness) you need to reverse engineer and deconstruct the strategy down to its mathematical roots, or its wealth equation. In other words, you want to expose the plan’s theoretical speed limits for wealth, which is always determined by two variables: your prim
ary income source (a job) and your wealth acceleration vehicle (market investments). These two variables formulate the Slowlane’s wealth equation and governs its wealth creation power or, in this case, futility.
Wealth = (Primary Income Source: Job) + (Wealth Accelerator: Market Investments)
This equation factored looks like this:
Wealth = Intrinsic Value + Compound Interest
The primary income variable, intrinsic value has two variables itself dependent on how you are paid within your job. It could be either:
Intrinsic Value = Hourly Wage × Hours Worked
~ or ~
Intrinsic Value = Yearly Salary
Compound interest is derived from “market investments,” which is the universal concept that $X invested in the stock market today will be worth $X millions decades from now. In Chapter 12, we will examine the Slowlane’s mathematical constructs and exploit their true deficiency. Therein, you’ll discover why society’s plan, your parent’s plan, the mainstream media’s plan, and the guru’s plan are horrific strategies for wealth.
