by MJ DeMarco
1. Formula (Fastlane supercharger)
Wealth is a Formula and a systematic process of beliefs, choices, actions, and habits that form a lifestyle. Wealth is a process, not an event.
2. Admit (fAstlane supercharger)
Admit that the preordained path to wealth, “Get Rich Slow,” is fundamentally flawed because of Uncontrollable Limited Leverage, weak mathematics predicated on time (Wealth = Job + Markets). Admit that “Get Rich Quick” exists. Admit that “no plan” is not a good plan. Admit that luck is the residue of engagement.
3. Stop and Swap (faStlane supercharger)
Stop following the wrong roadmaps. Stop doing what you’ve been doing. Stop selling your soul for a weekend. Stop thinking that 401(K)s and indexed-funds will make you rich. Swap ineffective roadmaps for the Fastlane roadmap. Swap your allegiances from consumer to producer.
4. Time (fasTlane supercharger)
Time is the king asset of the Fastlane—specifically, free time. Invest in activities that pay more than money, they pay free time. Avoid time thieves, such as parasitic debt that converts free time into indentured time. Invest time into a business system that can transform indentured time into free time. Make decisions with time as a key decision factor.
5. Leverage (fastLane supercharger)
Leverage controllable and unlimited mathematics to create wealth. There is no leverage within the Slowlane wealth equation, an equation predicated on time (hourly pay, annual salary, annualized return, years invested). If you can’t control the mathematics that underscore your wealth, nor accelerate them into large numbers, you can’t control your financial plan. Leverage is harnessed by a system that does the work for you.
6. Assets and Income (fastlAne supercharger)
Wealth is accelerated by exploding income and Asset value via a business that can be systemized and eventually sold in a liquidation event. Live below your means but seek to expand your means by focusing on income while simultaneously controlling expenses. Exponential growth of income and asset value, not slashing expenses, creates millionaires.
7. Number (fastlaNe supercharger)
What’s your Number? How much money will you need to live your dream lifestyle? Determine your number, break it down by the penny, and make it real today. Start saving your loose change, open a brokerage account, and put a chart on your wall that continually monitors your number’s progress. Make your dream lifestyle real by posting photos of that life at your workspace. For example, if you want a cabin on a mountain creek, find a picture of that vision and put it on computer so you have to see it every day. Make your future visions real and force them into your psyche so you’re constantly reminded. Make those dreams tangible and inescapable!
8. Effection (fastlanE supercharger)
Grace Effection and you shall be graced with wealth. The Law of Effection states, “The more people whose lives you affect in an environment you control, the more money you will make.” Impact millions and you will make millions. When you solve needs on a massive scale, money flows into your life. Money reflects value.
9. Steer (fastlane Supercharger)
Life’s Steering is choice. At some point, you must commit to the Fastlane ideology, and that commitment forms your process. Wealth is not one choice (event), just like you cannot choose to lose 100 pounds and suddenly wake up 100 pounds lighter. How you steer determines whether the Fastlane is a lifestyle, a hobby, or a lottery ticket. To enforce good decisions at the extremes, deploy WCCA and WADM. Decision horsepower is strongest in youth and bleeds with age. Examine your past choices. Why are you where you are? What has been treasonous to your life? Why are you drowning in debt? If you don’t rectify the mistakes of your past choices you will be destined to repeat them. Behavior change begins with a reflection of your past decisions and modifying them for the Fastlane mindset. Become responsible, followed by accountable.
10. Uncouple (fastlane sUpercharger)
Officially Uncouple from the Slowlane wealth equation by creating your business structure in a favorable Fastlane entity: a C- or S-Corporation, or an LLC. Thereafter, your entity is the body of your surrogate business system. It “pays itself first” and the government last. It survives time separate from your time. It is your first step at creating an asset.
11. Passion & Purpose (fastlane suPercharger)
With a business entity and a dollar figure that outlines your dream life, you will need a Passion and a Purpose to fuel you into habitual action. Don’t confuse “passion” with “do what you love.” Passion burns your soul and drives you to do whatever it takes. Passion revs you with excitement and enrages you with discontent. Some passions are selfish (I want a Lamborghini) and other passions are selfless (I want to help orphaned children). It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as the passion burns hot enough to burn a hole in your pants and gets you stoked for process.
12. Educate (fastlane supErcharger)
Education begins at graduation. Pledge to never stop learning. What you know now is not enough to become the person you need to be tomorrow. Seek Fastlane knowledge that fosters the construction and operation of business systems in an environment that you control. Get to the library and get on the Internet. Information is the oil on your financial journey. Ensure daily reading in short bursts by leveraging existing time blocks often squandered: the train, the plane, while exercising, on lunch break, an hour in the morning before work, or while waiting at the post office.
13. Road (fastlane supeRcharger)
Get onto a Fastlane Road. But don’t worry if you can’t decide which road; the road can pick you. Train your mind to see needs, problems, and ways to improve things. Observe your thoughts and language, because they expose unmet needs, or needs met poorly. You don’t have to find the next breakthrough; just find an improvement opportunity, a pain-point, or a service gap, and solve it. Many of the best businesses in the world are based on products that already existed; the owners solved the problem better or more efficiently. When you focus on market gaps, roads open. Yes, the road chooses you.
14. Control (fastlane superCharger)
Control your financial plan as this refers to the Commandment of Control. Engage in an organization that you fully control, from pricing to marketing to operations. Fastlane entrepreneurs don’t cede control over critical business functions to hierarchical control structures, because they are the control structure. Swim as a shark, not a guppy.
15. Have (fastlane supercHarger)
HAVE what others NEED and money will flow into your life. This reflects the Commandment of Need. You can’t explode your income by chasing money. Stop chasing money, because it eludes those who try. Instead, focus on what attracts money, and that is a business that solves needs. Money comes from providing value. Cast aside selfishness and seek to HAVE what your fellow man WANTS. When you do, money flows into your life because money is attracted to those who have what others want, desire, crave, or need.
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 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 isn’t a destination.
It isn’t something you try, it’s something you live.
It’s a mindset and it all starts in your head.
If you’re already looking at business opportunities and asking “Is this Fastlane?” you still don’t get it. The Fastlane is a seed that starts in your brain, and grows from there. You can nurture the seed. It is there NOW. Question is, will it grow? Be fed sunshine and water? Or will it wither and die once life’s drama takes over?
Fight through Slowlane dogma and you will find that the Fastlane journey is one of discovery and incredible self-growth. And more importantly, your dreams will be resurrected and teeming with 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 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!
But MJ, you don’t have two kids to support!
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 this year that can change 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 trusting me with your time. I hope it was helpful to your dreams, your life, and your goals.
If you want to discuss the Fastlane strategy further with over 40,000 entrepreneurs from around the world, join the community at TheFastlaneForum.com. It’s FREE and yes, I say “hello” to my readers and contribute there nearly every day. Also, I’ve written a newer book (Unscripted © 2017) which lays out the entire blueprint for turning the Fastlane into a total life strategy—why just build a business, when you can build a life?
If this book has inspired, changed you, or help set you free, please tell a friend or let me know at the forum. I hope The Millionaire Fastlane has awakened your dreams and given them a chance to breathe. Always remember, if your dream is alive, you’re already living the dream!
I hope everything for you, and perhaps someday, your impact on the world will reverberate through the years when you can reflect on that simple choice made long ago . . . that choice to pick up a book and read it.
To your dreams, your life, and your happiness. . . good luck and God bless.
~ MJ DeMarco
APPENDIX A – Reader Reflections
MJ, I’m a high school teacher . . . how do I go Fastlane?
Can you address any problems in your world? What if you invented a product that every school needed for their curriculum? What if you wrote a book that was targeted to teachers? Could you start your own private school? Can you create an education program and sell a subscription to it? A video education has legacy. Once you create it, it exists through time, separate from your time.
If you can’t identify a need near your existing road, can you identify other problems on a different road? Perhaps a student has insight into a problem that needs a solution. Do you hear their complaints? Their issues, trials, and problems? 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. The off summer months could serve as great Fastlane launch point.
MJ, my neighbor has owned a business for 19 years. He’s never home and he has time for nothing. And he certainly isn’t rich. Owning a business doesn’t guarantee wealth!
I agree. Your neighbor’s problem is his business likely fails the Commandment of Time. If your business cannot divorce from your time through a money-tree seedling, your business is probably just a bill-paying job.
MJ, I owe $22,000 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 you accumulate $22,000? 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 $22K in debt! Your choices led the way—the many choices to buy on credit over paying cash. You chose to buy those trendy clothes. You chose the fancy car. You chose to run with the Joneses and charge everything on your credit card. Or perhaps you live in a house that’s just too expensive.
Escaping debt requires a commitment to process over event, except in the reverse. Repent from the Sidewalk and make new choices that keep the debt from growing, or better, 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. Start by looking at a side-hustle; sell on eBay, do odd jobs, sell your art on Etsy. At some point, 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 others would find repulsive. Do what others won’t. You either want it bad, 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 success other than turmoil in my relationship.
Has your wife read this book? If so, and she doesn’t agree, you might have tough decisions for 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.
Personally, I’m not interested in relationships that are “good enough” but relationships that empower both individuals to be their best. I can’t speculate on your relationship’s strength; only you can. Can you and your spouse compromise on some common tenets that can bridge your divide? Like the value of time? The importance of financial literacy? The need to divorce your income from time? The ruinous effects of parasitic debt? Perhaps these common grounds are strong enough to keep your roads bound 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 roll to lackluster incomes and asset values.
MJ, what about real estate? You don’t mention it a lot . . . is it
Fastlane?
For real estate 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 multiple successes, or intentional iteration is required. 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 met a 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. Real estate possesses an excellent detachment component that survives time.
