by MJ DeMarco
➡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.
PART 7
THE ROADS TO WEALTH

PART 7- THE ROADS TO WEALTH
[29] - The Right Road Routes to Wealth
He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end.
~ Henry Emerson Fosdick
Is Your Road-to-Wealth a Dead-End?
What is the road as it relates to wealth journey? If you’re a Slowlaner, your road is your job: doctor, lawyer, engineer, salesman, hairdresser, pilot. If you’re a Fastlaner, your road is a business: Internet entrepreneur, real estate investor, author, or inventor.
Your road is your career or business path, and that road must route to wealth. Unfortunately, most jobs can’t because of their mathematical limitations and, surprisingly, most businesses don’t either! A road that starts in Chicago and leads east will never hit Las Vegas. It’s a dead end! If you’re on an errant business road you have to use your steering wheel and make a course correction: Exit, turn, or reverse course.
This impasse confronts millions of business owners. They fool themselves by driving the wrong road and then wonder why wealth has eluded them. Instead of fighting 8-hour workdays, they fight 12-hour store hours. Instead of leveraging the surrogacy of a system, they trade time for dollars. Instead of trading five days of work for two days off, they trade 6-for-1, or 7-for-0, in lifelong perpetuity.
If you heed the Fastlane philosophy and start a lemonade stand simply because the Fastlane said, “Start a business,” I have failed. That road is unfit because it doesn’t have probabilities for wealth. The right road must lead to wealth and carry real probabilities! How? Your road must go near or through the Law of Effection.
The Road to Effection: The Five Fastlane Commandments
The Law of Effection says to make millions you must impact millions. How can you impact millions? In the Slowlane you explode intrinsic value, become enormously indispensable, and earn millions. In the Fastlane, you engineer a business that touches millions of lives in scale, or many lives of magnitude. If your road doesn’t lead through Effection’s neighborhood or have an exit-ramp onto it, sorry, you’re on the wrong road.
The power of the Fastlane wealth equation is ignited by a business that drives to the Law of Effection. Business opportunities are plentiful, and unfortunately most of them aren’t Fastlane roads. If you’re stuck in a retail store selling $15 haircuts, can you reasonably expect to serve millions? A kick-butt attitude is snuffed if your road is directionally challenged toward Effection, because Effection is the gatekeeper to wealth.
To light the Law of Effection and illuminate your Fastlane road, cross-examine it against the Five Fastlane Commandments, the CENTS framework.
(1)The Commandment of Control
(2)The Commandment of Entry
(3)The Commandment of Need
(4)The Commandment of Time
(5)The Commandment of Scale
CENTS is a Fastlane litmus test and validates your road. Does your road (or potential road) route to wealth? Is it Fastlane? Can it be made Fastlane? Can it hit Effection? Can your road route to a multimillion-dollar enterprise, generate passive income, and end at a final liquidation event?
A road meeting all five commandments can make you filthy rich fast. As violations accrue, the road degrades in its wealth potential, and with it, your ability to get near Effection also degrades. While it’s possible to violate one or more commandments and still create wealth quickly, you should aim for a road that satisfies all five commandments. Potent roads are potent wealth creators. Sadly, most business opportunities fail the commandments, and, if they fail, they don’t deserve your respect or attention.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
➡Not all businesses are the right road. Few roads move at, through, or near the Law of Effection.
➡The best roads and the purest Fastlanes satisfy the CENTS Framework; the Five Fastlane Commandments: Control, Entry, Need, Time, and Scale.
[30] - The Commandment of Control
There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence on one’s self.
~ John Gay
Demand the Driver’s Seat
Yes or no. You’re either driving the Fastlane or you aren’t. You’re either in control over your financial plan or you aren’t. There is no in between. And if you’re not driving, you’re sitting in the passenger seat and someone else is in control.
Envision your dream car, boat, or plane. Great, now here are the keys. You get it for one hour, unencumbered. Would you grab those keys and take it for a joyride, using every single minute? Or would you plop your butt into the passenger seat and resign, “Meh, you take control, I’ll just sit here and hitchhike a ride.” Senseless? Not exactly. This is how many people approach business: They hitchhike, give up the driver’s seat, and violate the Commandment of Control. In doing so, they sacrifice control over their financial plan and ultimately, make someone else rich.
Hitchhiking a Fastlane
While life’s hitchhikers tread the Sidewalk and are victims, the hitchhikers of business violate the Commandment of Control.
(Control) – E – N – T – S
A business hitchhiker seeks refuge from risk and cowers within the confines of a matriarchal organization. This subservient relationship relinquishes control and leaves you vulnerable to the driver’s actions. When you control your business, you control everything in your business—your organization, your products, your pricing, your revenue model, and your operational choices. If you can’t control every aspect of your company, you’re not driving! And if you can’t drive, you set yourself up for sudden, unexpected crashes.
Fastlane drivers retain control. Those who violate the commandment do not. In general:
✓Drivers create MLM companies; they don’t join them.
✓Drivers sell franchises; they don’t buy them.
✓Drivers offer affiliate programs; they don’t join them.
✓Drivers run hedge funds; they don’t invest in them.
✓Drivers sell stock; they don’t buy stock.
✓Drivers offer drop-shipping; they don’t use drop-shipping.
✓Drivers offer employment; they don’t get employed.
✓Drivers accept rents and royalties; they don’t pay rents and royalties.
✓Drivers sell licenses; they don’t buy them.
✓Drivers sell IPO shares; they don’t buy them.
✓Drivers don’t join the hottest trend, they serve the hottest trend.
So are you DRIVING a Fastlane? Or HITCHHIKING one?
If this hitchhiker description describes you, don’t get discouraged or defensive. You can’t be a driver in every instance. Heck, even I partake in hitchhiking activities. Fastlane hitchhikers can make good money, sometimes boatloads. However, understand this: The driver retains control and makes the big money. At best, the hitchhiker makes good money.
Good Money Versus Big Money
There is a difference between good money, big money, and legendary money. Good money is $20,000/month.
The cattle call of every network marketing company is, “Hey, wanna make $10,000 a month?” Big deal. Remember your windshield. It’s big money only in your head. That’s decent money but nothing that’s going to put you into a private jet and 40-foot yacht on Newport Beach.
Big money is $200,000/month. Now we’re talking—$200,000 every month puts a dent into your lifestyle. At this income level, life changes.
And then there is legendary money, where you earn more than a million dollars every month. Outrageous? Not at all. When you leverage all five commandments and control your company, one million a month is not impossible.
To hit big money or legendary money, you need to control every aspect of your system. When you relinquish control and defer power to a higher authority, you cede big money to the driver and accept good money as the passenger.
For example, my company offered an affiliate program. My best affiliate consistently earned $20,000+/month. Yes, he was making good money. He was the hitchhiking passenger, and I, the driver, controlled the affiliate process. However, think about the danger he assumed. At any moment I could have instituted a “new policy” that would have reduced his earnings. I drove his income stream, and he absorbed the risk that I wouldn’t disturb, alter, or modify the affiliate agreement. And most importantly, as a driver, I was the one making big money ($200,000/month), while he settled for good money ($20,000/month).
Similarly, you might have heard of a unique group of Internet entrepreneurs called “AdSense” millionaires. Google Adsense is an advertiser network that online content publishers leverage to earn income from their websites’ traffic. There are affiliates, bloggers, and publishers who earn good money from using Google’s AdSense program. Some content providers and bloggers earn six figures monthly. Arguably, this is big money, yet Google (the driver) makes the legendary money.
No Control = Crashes
Think about the dangers of hitchhiking. You get into a stranger’s car and you let them drive. Hitchhiking a Fastlane is an incredible risk, especially when your family is the cargo. My experience has repeated itself for countless entrepreneurs who learned the hard way.
Some background: My forum leverages the Google advertising network, which pays revenue for ad clicks that evolve from my forum. It is a hitchhiking relationship—Google is the driver and my forum is the passenger. A thread at my forum discussed an e-book marketing program. As the thread progressed, a joke was made about a former bankrupt NBA player, and (long story short) the folks at Google claimed the content violated their terms. My ads were terminated and the revenue stopped. Now imagine if my forum and its Google revenue were responsible for feeding my family. Imagine if I was earning $15,000/month from these ads and in one big swoop, poof! Gone.
No control. No say. No power. It took me eight days to fix the problem, but it exposed the hitchhiking dangers as a passenger versus driving it. For those eight days, my income from that activity was zero. In any driver/hitchhiker relationship, the driver always makes more money than the hitchhiker and retains a critical component to Fastlane strategy: control.
I can’t imagine running a company in which another entity has the power to instantaneously kill your revenue stream. If someone can “flip a switch” and destroy your business, you’re playing roulette with your financial plan. The congenital danger of hitchhiking is that you give up the keys to the driver. If the driver crashes into a wall, guess who goes with them.
You.
The problem with hitchhiking is you really never know the driver. The driver could be ethical, moral, and just, or the driver could be corrupt and evil. Either way, you waive power to your driver. He who owns the keys owns the power.
Yet millions of people submit to this type of organizational control without pause. They sign franchise agreements, giving control over crucial business decisions, including marketing, ads, and royalties. They join distributorships in which others dictate their compensation structure. Their product funnel is directed by a centralized source. They’re told like automatons what they can and can’t do. They’re held hostage to a corporate matriarch, not realizing that they aren’t really their own boss. If you can’t change your product, your price, or influence marketing decisions, are you the boss?
Decades ago, I joined a network marketing company. I had a friend who earned good money. Ultimately, the company changed its product line and compensation structure. My friend’s income stream was disrupted and eventually disappeared. The asset he created (his downline and cash-flow stream) vaporized in a matter of months. My friend had no control despite claiming that he “owned his own business.” His mistake was to violate the Commandment of Control. He never had the keys to his business, and his empire was nothing but a mirage founded on false foundations governed by a political party in which he had no voice.
When drivers make radical turns and change terms, you have no choice but to go with them. If it’s bankruptcy or criminal neglect, their sinking ship becomes yours. Do you really want to partake in a business relationship like this?
Think Shark, Not Guppy
If you lived in an aquarium, would you rather be the shark or the guppy?
Sharks eat . . . guppies get eaten.
Business is a fierce competition for the consumer’s mind and their money. It’s an expansive ocean where multiple species wage war over sustenance: money. In this oceanic game, you want to be at the top of the food chain, not at the bottom fighting to the top.
Build corporate ladders—don’t join them.
Build pyramid organizations—don’t join them.
Think manufacture, not retail.
To become a shark, you have to think like one. Sharks think big and guppies think small. As a shark, you have to drill into your belief system and change your mindset.
Think globally, not locally.
Think to lead, not to follow.
Think to innovate, not to copy.
The change and transformation from guppy to shark starts with your thoughts as your focus moves from the few to the many.
When you engage your Fastlane road, be the shark and use the entire ocean as your playground. Ever watch a school of fish? Each fish doesn’t act individually. They act as a collective. Unfortunately, most people can’t see the danger of this analogy. They’re just one fish immersed in a collective controlled by a force greater than themselves. And who is attracted to these schools of fish? The sharks. Be the shark, the predator, not the guppy. Be a driver, not a hitchhiker.
Invest in Your Brand Only!
Whose money tree are you growing? Are you investing in your brand or in someone else’s?
Ever sit in traffic and spot a car plastered with some company’s decals and stickers? From network marketing jigs selling acai drinks to the country’s largest makeup company, these decals are official announcements from the driver: “Yes folks, my life is invested in someone else’s brand.”
They are guppies in a shark-infested ocean.
I recently had a older woman approach me in my gym’s parking lot. She stopped her car and asked me about my Lamborghini and its vanity license plate. Then she opened a Pandora’s box and asked, “Do you do any network marketing?” Before I unloaded, I glanced at her car. She drove a rusty old Hyundai that needed new tires and a paint job. The rear window was missing (unless duct tape and plastic counts). The side doors were plastered with magnetized signs exclaiming the greatness of her network marketing company.
“Make a huge income from home, call 555-555-5555!”
I wondered if her company (and her road) were so great, why was she driving a POS Hyundai that costs less than the front left tire on my Lambo? How can she advertise “Make a huge income from home!” when obviously, she wasn’t? I respectfully asked her why she invests in a business that she doesn’t control. Why are you painting someone else’s “big picture” when you should be painting your own?
She smiled, raised her “dream-stealer” defenses, and rejected my analysis. As if what she was doing was working and reasonable, her mind was closed to my suggestions. That’s fine. Keep doing what you’re doing and see if that wins you real freedom. Don’t listen to me; you approached me and I’m the one who’s retired and living the dream. I know that sounds arrogant and pretentious, and I apologize, but logic eludes most people.
When you blindly invest your life and time into someone else’s brand, you become a part of their marketing plan. You become a swab of paint in their big picture. You resign yourself to the slim possibility of making good money versus big money. Not investing in my own brand was my serious mistake as a young entrepreneur. Hitchhiking a Fastl
ane is an epidemic that deceives many would-be entrepreneurs. I say “would-be” because hitchhiking isn’t entrepreneurial, because at the heart of entrepreneurship is creation and innovation. Hitchhikers aren’t pioneers; they don’t create or innovate. They sell, operate, and manage.
If the driver closes shop, you’re out of luck. If the driver discontinues a product and it’s your sole source of income, you’re out of luck. Fastlaners control their brands, their properties, and their financial plans. They don’t blindly give it to others and hope for the best.
Network Marketing As A Fastlane, Only If . . .
Network marketing is a Fastlane but only if you own the network marketing company. As a Fastlaner, you want to create these companies, not join them.
Before I purged them, I had a lot of Facebook friends who were spiritedly engrossed in network marketing. I never publicized my views because ultimately, they have to see it for themselves. If they believe $20,000/month is a great income, let them believe it. If they believe their income stream will be passive forever, let them believe it. If they believe they’re in control, let them believe it. These folks can’t be told the fire is hot, they need to feel the burn for themselves.
It took me four network marketing companies to expose the truth. And that truth? The only people in the company who live on the Pacific coast with a garage full of exotic cars were the founders and inner circle—not the distributors who signed up years later.
I don’t hide my discontent for network marketing, although the reason is misconstrued. Network marketing is a hitchhiking strategy that disguises itself as entrepreneurship. My discontent lies in the misconception; millions fall for the pitches such as “Be your own boss!” “Own your own company!” or “Passive residual income!”
