The Millionaire Fastlane

by MJ DeMarco

  4) Social Networks / Communities / Forums

  Community building is a cousin of content systems. Instead of pooling content for eyeballs, people are pulled into groups, or tribes. Facebook started off as a pool for college-aged students and evolved into a generic social network for all ages. LinkedIn hits the upwardly mobile professional. Social networks are mere aggregators of like-minded communities, from mystery novel writers to gear heads who like to rebuild engines on the weekend. Community building, however, is not limited to gigantic corporations. If you have 500,000 subscribers on your YouTube or Instagram account, you are community building.

  5) Brokerage Systems

  Brokers bring buyers and sellers together and facilitate transactions. They are market-makers for a particular industry and earn money typically on each transaction. For instance, my website used to take limousine reservations and take a percentage cut of the fare price. Examples of known brokers are PayPal, Upwork, CarsDirect, and Travelocity.com.

  6) Advertising

  Similar to brokerages, advertisers merge buyers and sellers together and accept advertising fees in lieu of transaction fees. I also owned a niche website that listed limousines for sale. The site accepted advertising fees for each limousine placed for sale. I introduced buyers and sellers. Some services leverage both brokerage and advertising together, such as eBay. Search engines like Google and Yahoo operate both advertising and brokerage models.

  7) E-Commerce

  E-commerce is the act of selling goods, services, and information over the Internet. Amazon, Target, and Rakuten are examples of large-scale e-commerce providers. However, many small local stores have expanded and created scale with the e-commerce model. In my backyard, I have 24 solar lights that I bought online from a small retailer in Minnesota that operates an e-commerce store. Just years ago, that store was local with no scale—now with an e-commerce presence, they are worldwide and are selling products to retired farts in Phoenix.

  E-commerce also can be information. E-books are the most popular form of information distribution on the Internet. When I sell my book in e-book form on the Internet, I’m participating in eCommerce. I can sell books out of my trunk by sitting in the parking lot at Arizona State University, or I can set up a website and sell books to folks in Europe.

  When you look at the Internet as a Fastlane road, it is immensely powerful when examined against our Fastlane Wealth Equation.

  Wealth = Net Profit + Asset Value

  Within the units sold variable (within net income), the world becomes your upper limit when dealing on the Internet. Additionally, asset value, a component of the Fastlane wealth equation, is not only determined by net income, but by traffic metrics. Many websites are sold for billions and don’t have a penny of profit. Traffic, or visitors to a website, also has a boundless upside scale. The Fastlane variables of net profit and asset value have a virtually limitless upside.

  Potent Fastlane #2: Innovation

  Innovation is another broad stroke of Fastlane purity and encompasses many roads. It is the good old-fashioned way to get rich: Invent a product, service, or piece of information, manufacture it, and then distribute it.

  Innovation covers any act of creation followed by distribution. Let me repeat that: Innovation involves two acts:

  (1)Manufacture and

  (2)Distribution.

  Invent a product, then sell it by infomercial, sell it on the Internet, sell it on QVC, sell through 10,000 network marketing distributors, or sell it to 20 wholesalers that then sell it to 20,000 retailers.

  What is the product of innovation? Virtually anything that solves a need or fulfills a desire.

  ➡Food (beer, barbecue sauce, cookies, secret recipes)

  ➡Household (robots that vacuum, tools, hangers)

  ➡Health and vitality (vitamins, herbs, energy drinks, bars, “male enhancement formulas”)

  ➡Information (books, magazines, subscription newsletters)

  ➡Personal (clothing, purses, shoes, gloves)

  ➡Automotive (accessories, add-ons, stick-ons)

  ➡Games or toys

  Inventing is still recognized as the default get-rich-quick method out there, and yes, it is alive and well. However, don’t be fooled. Inventing isn’t really about inventing the vehicle, the telephone, or the goofy Segway—the core inventing activity is just taking something and improving or modifying it. Take something old and stale and make it better. Take an underexposed product, make it your own, and reintroduce it to the world. Take something unconventional and make it conventional.

  On TV I saw an inventor who repackaged vodka from boring clear bottles to colorful bottles with razzle-dazzle. In fact, I received a skull-shaped bottle of vodka for my birthday. Vodka has been around for centuries, yet an entrepreneur took a stale product and added an element of uniqueness and differentiation. Sometimes it’s that simple.

  My favorite example is the Snuggie, an oversized mass-marketed blanket with arms. The product concept has been around for years, but they took the concept, repackaged it, remarketed it, and wham, 40 million sold later, they had a blockbuster.

  Innovation is a dual challenged process: manufacture and distribution.

  Inventing a product that solves a need is half the battle. The other half is getting your invention into the hands of millions, which involves a variety of distribution channels: infomercial (sell via mass media), retail (sell to distributors and wholesalers), and direct marketing (sell via print media, postal mail, Internet).

  For example, when I wrote this book, I was the manufacturer. I wrote it, put it together, edited it, and had it physically published. I practiced innovation. However, like all innovation roads, manufacture is one tiny battle in a larger war.

  Distribution is where the war is won.

  A great product is worthless if it doesn’t get into the hands of people, and that requires distribution. For my book, I will need to leverage Amazon (a distribution system), book distributors (wholesalers), and the Internet (another distribution system) if I am to succeed.

  Yes, your product invention can be something you invent yet is manufactured in China, or an e-book you write in a weekend. Innovation—from books to products—is Fastlane. Have you ever wondered why people sell get-rich-quick books and yet the content is just regurgitated blather from 30 prior books? The authors know that authoring is a potent Fastlane.

  The challenge of any authoring Fastlane is never the book or the words themselves. Some of the greatest books in the world go unread, while the mediocre stuff sells millions. The difference lies in marketing, public relations, and just good old-fashioned business know-how. Writing a book is not a business; selling the book is.

  If I’m obsessively intent on selling this book to millions, I have to manufacture, then distribute. I have to sell, market, promote, appear, speak, interview, and write; I have to invest in the business of distribution. To leverage the Fastlane wealth equation and get near the Law of Effection, I have to strap on my commitment helmet and work, work, work…

  Potent Fastlane #3: Intentional Iteration (II)

  The final Fastlane Interstate is “Intentional Iteration” (II). Iteration is: “the means or act of repeating a process, usually with the aim of approaching a desired goal or target or result.”

  Intentional iteration is a potent Fastlane but it offers the greatest challenge because it really doesn’t satisfy all five commandments, but four.

  The process of intentional iteration is the act of satisfying the final commandment, scale. Scale is achieved either through human resource systems or repeated successes.

  For example, when a real estate investor buys a single-family home at a bank auction and later rents it, there is no scale, and with that one act, nothing can create scale. The investor has little wiggle room in his Fastlane wealth equation: Net income is derived from rent and asset value is derived by the home’s market value.

  To solve that challenge, the investor deploys II and repeats the proc
ess. Instead of buying one home, he buys 50. Yes, easier said than done, and it can be incredibly slow. In effect, the investor has chosen to play on a field of “singles,” and to hit the home run, II needs to become the strategy.

  Iteration is a profitable, singles-based business scaled to home runs.

  Franchising is another example of II.

  If you build a small store with intentional iteration in mind, your goal isn’t one store, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, through the act of chaining or franchising.

  The intentional iterator goes into business to cookie-cut his system across many successes. A small store often starts out as a violation of four commandments but can quickly transfigure into a full-fledged Fastlane venture with iteration. The Fastlane franchising premise is to build a local business defined by systematic processes, then franchise the concept nationally or worldwide. The iterator’s goal is to replicate and sell a concept, a brand, and a system and remove himself from operations. While your little deli might not be particularly Fastlane it could be turned Fastlane by the process of II, through franchise or chaining replication.

  A popular thread at my forum is titled “Is a candy kiosk Fastlane?” A forum user wanted to know if having automated candy kiosks in the mall constitutes a Fastlane plan. As a standalone, no. But with II? Maybe, assuming online retail doesn’t kill every mall in America. One kiosk in one mall isn’t going to make you rich because it’s a singles-based business. However, 200 kiosks in 50 malls might, because it creates net income, scales asset value, and makes a bigger impact of magnitude.

  Intentional iteration is the Fastlaner’s response to limited scale.

  Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

  ➡The best Fastlanes satisfy all five Commandments: Control, Entry, Need, Time, and Scale.

  ➡Assuming a need-based premise, the Internet is the fastest interstate, because it overwhelmingly satisfies all Commandments.

  ➡Innovation can be any variety of open roads: authoring, inventing, or services.

  ➡Inventing success needs coupling with distribution.

  ➡A singles-based business is scaled to a home-run business by intentional iteration. With iteration, scale is conquered.

  [36] - Find Your Open Road

  At first, people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done, and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.

  ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

  Needs, Ideas, Opportunity, and the Open Road

  Opportunities, and the open roads they represent, are everywhere. Look around. That person complaining at the store counter. Opportunity. That stupid voicemail maze you hate navigating when you call the bank. Opportunity. That unsold house that languishes on the market. Opportunity. That trash on the side of the road. Opportunity. The rotting salad that lasted only two days in the refrigerator. Opportunity. Those people bitching on that online forum. Opportunity.

  If you can’t see the opportunities that surround you, you haven’t tuned your Fastlane frequency to them. When you make a few minor mental adjustments, roads seemingly closed are suddenly opened. Many entrepreneurs misinterpret opportunity because they associate opportunity with breakthrough, legendary ideas. They seek virgin ideas, perfect and new; ones that would be unveiled to the world in grandiose events. Rarely does that happen.

  Opportunity is rarely about some blockbuster breakthrough like the light bulb or the car, but as simple as an unmet need, or a need not met adequately. Opportunity is a solution to an inconvenience. Opportunity is simplification. Opportunity is a feeling. Opportunity is comfort. Opportunity is better service. Opportunity is fixing pain. Opportunity is putting weak companies out of business.

  Someone Is Doing It

  You’ve got a great idea, but someone is already doing it? So what. Do it better.

  “Someone is doing it” is a monumental illusion imposing as an impassable obstacle. Someone is always already doing it. The bigger question is, can you do it better? Can you fill the need better, offer greater value, or be a better marketer? When I was struck with my idea to start a limousine portal on the Internet, I thought it was a legendary idea . . . that is, until I went on the web and searched. There were already a dozen companies doing what I thought was a pristine, unmolested idea. At the time, my frequency wasn’t tuned. I was going to drop the idea and start a new brainstorm session in search of that infamous blockbuster idea, one that no one among 7 billion people on planet Earth had never thought of. But a friend interrupted my perception and kicked my antennae into a proper tune. She said, “Competition is everywhere. Just do it and do it better.”

  She was right. Competition is a staple of business. This opportunity was an open road, not a closed one. These existing web directories weren’t easily found and, for the most part, weren’t user friendly. I recognized a poorly met need and I decided to drive this road of opportunity, despite the numerous barricades that warned “Road Closed.” A decade later, every one of those companies I feared disappeared or became insignificant. In fact, the industry leader, unable to respond to my domination, diverted into an alternative service.

  Forget the Big Idea; Go for Better

  Successful businesses rarely evolve from some legendary idea. Nope, successful entrepreneurs take existing concepts and improve them. They take poorly met needs and solve them better. Skip the big idea and go for the big execution. You don’t need an idea that has never been done before. Old ideas suffice; just take it and do it better! Execute like no one has!

  Years ago, what if Sergey Brin and Larry Page looked at the Internet landscape and said “Gee, there are plenty of search engines out there—Yahoo, Snap, Alta Vista—why start Google? It’s being done!” Thankfully, they didn’t, and now Google is the most used search engine, and because of it, Brin and Page are now billionaires. A brand-spanking new idea? Nope, a need solved better with big execution.

  Department stores have been around for decades, but that didn’t stop Sam Walton from creating Wal-Mart. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  Hamburgers were around for decades, but that didn’t stop Ray Kroc from blowing up McDonalds after joining the company. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  Coffee had been around for a thousand years when Howard Schultz bought into the Starbucks concept. A new idea? Nope, Starbucks made coffee fashionable and invented a brand, an ambiance, and an emotion and attached it to coffee. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  DVD rental stores were around for a long time, but that didn’t stop NetFlix or RedBox from starting a company and adding “convenience” to the need equation. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  Beer has been brewed for thousands of years, but that didn’t stop Jim Koch from starting Sam Adams or Sam Calagione from starting Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, now the fastest growing brewery in America. Dogfish was started back in 1995 with a 10-gallon home brew kit and little cash. There was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  Garbage has been around since men have walked the planet. Yet that didn’t stop Brian Scudamore from starting and then franchising 1-800-GOT-JUNK, nor did it stop Wayne Huizinga from founding Waste Management with just one truck and a handful of customers. He later built Waste Management into a Fortune 500 company. Is garbage a new need? Or a need that needed better fulfillment? It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  A blanket with arms? It’s been around for years, but that didn’t stop Snuggie from selling 40 million blankets via infomercial marketing. An old idea better marketed and better executed. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  MySpace was thriving well before Facebook, but that didn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg. He saw a niche need and solved it. And then adjusted as growth followed. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

  Poorly met needs are open roads often appearing closed. Successful businesses take ex
isting ideas, services, and products and simply make them better, or spin them in new directions.

  How to Spot Open Roads

  Not a day goes by when I don’t spot a need that can be exploited for Fastlane opportunity. My mind is tuned because I see opportunity’s terrain through heightened senses. I see and hear what most people don’t. How can you tune your eyes and ears to the same attuned frequency? With a little practice, it’s easy.

  Open roads, needs and opportunity come prefaced with “code words” or phrases that scream “This is an opportunity!” When you catch yourself (or someone else) in these words, you’ve just uncovered a possible opportunity. Here are the most common phrases:

  “I hate . . .”

  What do you hate? Solve the hate, and there’s your open road.

  “I don’t like . . .”

  What don’t you like? Remove the dislike, and there’s your open road.

  “This frustrates me . . .”

  What is frustrating? Remove the frustration, and there’s your open road.

  “Why is this like this?”

  I don’t know, why is it? Remove the “why,” and there’s your open road.

  “Do I have to?”

  Do you? Remove the “have to.” There’s your open road.

  “I wish there was . . .”

  What do you wish? If you wish, others wish too. Make wishes come true, and there’s your open road.