by MJ DeMarco
Yes, it’s true: “Get Rich Quick” exists.
The Shadow Behind “Get Rich Quick”
Successful Fastlaners “Get Rich Quick.” Don’t let those three words scare you; I know when you hear them you’re inundated with a flurry of negative associations starting with “scam:” things like “one tiny classified ad” and seminars that cost $5,000, memories of infomercial gurus, foreign lotteries, the Interior Finance Minister from Nigeria who needs help unloading $9 million dollars (USD), and the phony “Bill Gates,” who needs you to “forward this email beta test to everyone” and be rewarded $50,000 in quick cash because, gosh golly, the attorney listed on the letter says so.
“Get Rich Quick” is such an abused phrase that it has no credibility. Beaten and battered, we’re numbed to believe it doesn’t exist. Like Santa or a unicorn, we’re advised, “Get rich quick is a scam!”
I don’t blame you, but is it true?
Can’t fast millions be made as advertised on infomercials and websites?
The distinction is that “get rich schemes” aren’t endemic of “Get Rich Quick” but its evil twin, “Get Rich Easy.” “Get Rich Easy” shadows its innocent sibling, leaving a trail of victims to be blamed by its brother. “Get Rich Easy” parades in the limelight and on Instagram feeds with pictures of beaches, palm trees, and used Ferraris. It lies, deceives, and casts a mirage of vanity that all desire. Just watch buy this $197 PDF or buy this stock software program, and wham, you will be rich in 10 days! No! That’s not “Get Rich Quick” but “Get Rich Easy”—and that only leads to a lighter wallet.
Fastlane success stories embody “Get Rich Quick.” For people to proclaim “It doesn’t exist” is another untruth advanced by ignorance. Don’t allow Slowlane losers to corrupt truth. Don’t concede. Don’t make “That only happens to other people” your truth. Many people have lived “Get Rich Quick” because it was preceded by process.
Tales from the Fastlane
Unless you live in a vacuum, you’re already familiar with the Fastlane. When anyone experiences a get-rich-quick event via business, you’re witnessing the Fastlane. Here are some Fastlane stories pulled from the headlines:
✓The inventor who creates a gadget and sells millions of them to 15 wholesale distributors.
✓The YouTuber with thousands of subscribers who monetizes it into a subscription service or a product offering.
✓The guy who builds a cell phone application and sells it 50,000 times.
✓The guy who formulates an energy bar to help him stave off hunger and later is offered $192 million for his company.
✓The guy who builds a blog and three years later sells it for $4 million to a big pharmaceutical company.
✓The woman who invents a mop and sells 500,000 of them on QVC.
✓The teenager who builds a website that profits $70,000 month and later sells it for millions.
✓The guy who patents a product process and then licenses it to a Fortune 500 company and goes on to make $14 million.
✓The guy who creates a website to help him listen to his favorite basketball team and later sells the company for $5.5 billion.
✓The guy who builds a software company and later becomes the richest man on the planet.
✓The doctor who researches anti-aging treatments and sells them to a drug company for $700 million.
✓The author who writes a book about a teenage wizard and goes on to become a billionaire.
✓The gal who manufacturers and sells 20 million undergarments that help women fight body gravity and later becomes a billionaire.
✓The entrepreneur who refines and improves a product process and goes on to sell $150,000/month through a variety of channels, including Amazon.
✓The guy who creates a $20K/month supplement business allowing him to travel the world and later sells it for $560K.
Don’t let some of the big stories fool you. Most “Fastlanes” aren’t publicized and fly under the radar: fortune but no fame. The larger “Get Rich Quick” Fastlanes make news, the smaller ones set their owners free.
The Fastlane: Wealth’s Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a historic period when humans learned how to leverage the speed and efficiency of machine-based manufacturing. Manual labor was replaced by systems, a union of distinct parts that coalesced into a specific production outcome. Long and arduous tasks manually handled by humans transformed into mechanization, expelling most human labor out of the production equation. For that era, it was their version of “Get Rich Quick.” Products that formerly took months to manufacture now took days.
Likewise, financial freedom via the Fastlane Roadmap is like an industrial revolution for wealth. The default road to wealth is manual labor, a fight against time and intrinsic value. The rapid road to wealth is to industrialize the wealth process, to systematize it like our ancestors systematized production. The differences between the default road (the Slowlane) and the shortcut (the Fastlane) are best demonstrated in an Egyptian parable.
The Parable of Fastlane Wealth
A great Egyptian pharaoh summons his twin nephews, Chuma and Azur, and commissions them to a majestic task: Build two monumental pyramids as a tribute to Egypt.
Upon completion of each nephew’s pyramid, Pharaoh promises each an immediate reward of kingship, retirement amidst riches and lavish luxury for the rest of their natural lives.
Additionally, each nephew must construct his pyramid ALONE.
Chuma and Azur, both 18, know their daunting task will take years to complete. Nonetheless, each is primed for the challenge and honored by the Pharaoh’s directive. They exit Pharaoh’s chambers ready to begin the long pyramid-building process.
Azur begins immediately. He slowly drags large heavy stones into a square formation. After a few months, the base of Azur’s pyramid takes shape. Townsfolk gather around Azur’s constructive efforts and praise his handiwork. The stones are heavy and difficult to move, and after one year of heavy labor, Azur’s perfect square foundation to the pyramid is nearly finished.
But Azur is perplexed. The plot of land that should bear Chuma’s pyramid is empty. Not one stone has been laid. No foundation. No dirt engravings. Nothing. It’s as barren as it was a year ago when Pharaoh commissioned the job.
Confused, Azur visits Chuma’s home and finds him in his barn diligently working on a twisted apparatus that resembles some kind of human torture device.
Azur interrupts, “Chuma! What the hell are you doing!? You’re supposed to be building Pharaoh a pyramid and you spend your days locked in this barn fiddling with that crazy machine?”
Chuma cracks a smile and says, “I am building a pyramid, leave me alone.”
Azur scoffs, “Yeah, sure you are. You haven’t laid one stone in over a year!”
Chuma, engrossed but unfazed by his brother’s accusation retorts, “Azur, you’re short-sightedness and thirst for wealth have clouded your vision. You build your pyramid and I will build mine.”
As Azur walks away, he chides, “You fool! Pharaoh will hang you in the gallows when he discovers your treason.”
Another year passes and Azur solidifies the base of his pyramid and begins the second level. Except a problem arises. Azur struggles in his progress. The stones are heavy and he cannot raise them to the pyramid’s second level.
Challenged by his physical limitations, Azur recognizes his weakness: he needs more strength to move heavier stones, and to do so, seeks the counsel of Bennu, Egypt’s strongest man. For a fee, Bennu trains Azur to build bigger and stronger muscles. With great strength, Azur anticipates the heavier stones will be easier to lift onto the higher levels.
Meanwhile, Chuma’s pyramid plot is still vacant. Azur assumes his brother has a deathwish since, by all appearances, Chuma is violating Pharaoh’s mandate. Azur forgets about his brother and his nonexistent pyramid.
Another year passes and Azur’s pyramid construction slows to a disheartening crawl. One stone placement take
s one month. Moving stones to the upper levels require great strength and Azur spends much of his time working with Bennu to build greater strength. Additionally, Azur is spending most of his money on counseling fees and the exotic diet required for the training. Azur estimates at his current construction pace, his pyramid will be completed in another 30 years. Unfazed, Azur lauds, “After three years, I’ve far surpassed my brother. He hasn’t placed one stone yet! That fool!”
Then, suddenly, one day while hauling a heavy stone, Azur hears a loud commotion erupting from the town square. The townsfolk, regular observers to his work, abruptly abandon his plot to examine the celebratory fuss. Curious himself, Azur leaves to investigate.
Surrounded by a cheering crowd, Chuma trolls up the town square commandeering a 25-foot contraption, a towering machine built from a twisted maze of gantries, wheels, levers, and ropes. As Chuma slowly moves up the village street amidst the jubilant crowd, Azur fears the explanation. After a short trawl to Chuma’s barren pyramid plot, Azur’s suspicions are confirmed.
Within minutes, Chuma’s strange machine starts moving heavy stones and begins to lay the foundation to his pyramid. One after another, the machine effortlessly lifts the stones and softly places them side-by-side into place. Miraculously, the machine requires little effort for Chuma’s operation. Crank a wheel attached to a rope and cantilever entwined by a gear system, and bingo! Heavy stones are moved quickly and magically.
While Azur’s pyramid foundation took over a year to build, Chuma lines up the foundation to his pyramid within one week. The second level that Azur struggled with is more shocking: Chuma’s machine does the work 30 times quicker. What took Azur two months takes Chuma’s machine two days. After 40 days, Chuma and his machine accomplish as much as Azur’s three years of toilsome work.
The revelation destroys Azur. He spent years doing the heavy lifting while Chuma built a machine to do it for him.
Instead of honoring the machine, Azur stubbornly vows, “I must get stronger! I must lift heavier stones!” Azur continues the hard labor of pyramid building while Chuma continues to work the crank of his machine.
After eight years, Chuma finishes his pyramid at age 26: three years to build the system and five years to reap the benefits of the system. The great pharaoh is pleased and does as promised. He rewards Chuma with kingship and endows him with great riches. Chuma never has to work another day in his life.
Meanwhile, Azur continues to dredge away at the same old routine. Lift rocks, waste time and money to get stronger, lift rocks, and get stronger. Sadly, Azur refuses to acknowledge his flawed strategy and endures the same old process: Carry heavy stones until you can lift no more . . . then get stronger so you can lift heavier stones.
This mindless prescription leads Azur to a lifetime of sweat and drudgery.
He never finishes his pyramid promised to Pharaoh simply because he decides to do the heavy lifting himself when he should have focused on a system to do it for him.
Azur has a heart attack and dies while on the 12th level of his pyramid, just two levels from finishing. He never experiences the great riches promised by Pharaoh.
Meanwhile, Chuma retires 40 years early in a crown of luxury. Sloshing in free time, Chuma goes on to become Egypt’s greatest scholar and an accomplished inventor. He is entombed alongside Pharaoh in the same pyramid he built.
The Fastlane Is a Business System: The Slowlane Is a Job
The Slowlane is a job: your hard work traded for your employer’s cash. Azur’s struggles resemble that of a Slowlaner; to get rich, you’re told to get stronger (spend money, return to school, and earn more in the job market) so you can lift heavier stones.
The Fastlane is about building a better system, a better contraption, a better product, or a better “something” that will leverage your work. In the Slowlane, you are the source of heavy lifting, while in the Fastlane, you construct a system that does it for you.
On your wealth road trip, the Slowlane roadmap asks that you endure a long, tiresome walk to wealth. The toil of wealth is the process itself. In the Fastlane, wealth is driven in a business system you create—the toil is the creation and management of the system itself.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
➡The risk profile of a Fastlane strategy isn’t much different from the Slowlane, but the rewards are far greater.
➡The Fastlane Roadmap is an alternative financial strategy predicated on Controllable Unlimited Leverage.
➡The Fastlane roadmap is predisposed to wealth.
➡The Fastlane Roadmap is capable of generating “Get Rich Quick” results, not to be confused with “Get Rich Easy.”
[17] - Switch Teams and Playbooks
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.
~ Benjamin Franklin
The Fastlane Roadmap: The Playbook for Wealth
Losing teams use losing playbooks. Play for a losing team and you’re stuck using their losing playbook. To win, switch teams and use the winner’s playbook. The Fastlane roadmap creates financial winners because it uses a winning formula rooted in unlimited and controllable mathematics.
Where is this playbook and how do you get it?
You have to forsake the majority ideology and become a Slowlane traitor.
Switching Teams and the Playbook
From the day you were born, you were baptized to play for Team Consumer, from the Barbie Doll and the Tonka Truck to the Star Wars action figures. You’ve been conditioned to demand: to want products, to need products, to buy products, and of course, to seek out the cheapest of those products.
The correlation between the Slowlane and the Sidewalk is this: Jobs exist to facilitate the consumer process. You become a brand manager for a consumer products company, you become an insurance agent, you become an accountant for some corporation—it’s consumer driven and focused to move goods and services into the hands of consumers.
This “consumer” focus acts like a gravitational pull to anti-Fastlane thinking and immediately puts you on the wrong team.
Cracking the Code
Decoding the Fastlane roadmap is as simple as joining the team that is custodian to the decryption key.
The winning team is Team Producer.
Reshape life’s focus on producing, not consuming.
When you reframe your thinking from majority thinking (consumer) to minority thinking (producer), you effectively switch teams and allegiances.
Yes, become a producer first and a consumer second.
Applied, this means instead of buying products on TV, sell products. Instead of digging for gold, sell shovels. Instead of taking a class, offer a class. Instead of borrowing money, lend it. Instead of taking a job, hire for jobs. Instead of taking a mortgage, hold a mortgage. Break free from consumption, switch sides, and reorient to the world as producer.
I know; it’s not easy.
However, once you see the world from a producer perspective, your perception sharpens like a fine-tuned radio frequency, from static to clear stereo sound. Suddenly, opportunities have clarity, ideas surface, and scams are exposed. This new minority status is critical to strengthening your wealth-creation temperament. Remember, the rich are a minority, and you want to be in that minority. It starts with a producer mindset.
Producer Reorientation
When you encounter an advertising message that coaxes you to buy something, examine it from the producer perspective. How does this company make money? What psychological tactics are used in its marketing messages? What kind of operational processes are involved in offering this product or service? Is this company making a profit? What is the revenue model? Is this product manufactured overseas or locally?
I’ve never bought a product on late night television, because I’m on the same team. As a producer, I see the infomercials for what they are: producers (the minority) serving the consumer (the majority). The “act nows,” the “but wait, there’s more!” the “free bonuses”—these are m
arketing weapons in a producer’s arsenal. I watch infomercials not to buy, but to see what the pros are doing.
As producers, our job is to entice consumers to buy. As a producer locked into a producer mindset, I attract wealth because consumers seek producers. Consumers are the majority who demand their fill!
To Consume Richly, Produce Effectively
And the irony of this producer/consumer dichotomy? Once you succeed as a producer, you can consume anything you want with little consequence because you’ll be rich.
To consume richly, produce richly first.
Unfortunately, most people have it backward: consumption and no production.
Producers get rich. Consumers get poor.
Switch teams and reorient as a producer first, a consumer second. Make wealth attracted to you!
Be a Producer: Leverage the Business of a System
To switch teams and become a producer, you need to be an entrepreneur and an innovator. You need to be a visionary and a creator. You need to give birth to a business and offer the world value.
While the centrist theme to the Slowlane is a job, in the Fastlane, it’s a business. Yes, good old self-employment. I know, not breaking news for “get rich” books, however, it’s important to note that most small business owners are light years away from a Fastlane and dickering with Slowlane metrics. Some businesses masquerade as jobs!
A Fastlane business is the key to the Fastlane wealth equation (Wealth = Profit + Asset Value) because it unlocks LEVERAGE, a new set of wealth variables that are unlimited and controllable, whereas in the Slowlane, they are limited and uncontrollable. Yes, ULL is swapped for CUL.
