The Millionaire Fastlane

What are the big ideas?

1. The Law of Effection: This book introduces a unique concept called the "Law of Effection," which is different from the popular "Law of Attraction." According to the author, the Law of Effection is absolute and operates independently of one's beliefs or roadmap. It states that wealth is created by serving millions through scale or a few in magnitude, and getting closer to the source of large numbers will lead to greater wealth. This concept emphasizes the importance of impacting others on a significant level for financial success.
2. The Slowlane vs. Fastlane: The book offers an interesting comparison between the "Slowlane" (conventional path) and the "Fastlane" (unconventional path) to wealth creation. While the Slowlane is characterized by linear progress, risk aversion, and external events, the Fastlane emphasizes exponential growth, calculated risks, and personal accountability. The author argues that the Fastlane requires hard work, innovation, and a unique perspective on money and wealth.
3. Process over Events: The book stresses the importance of focusing on the process rather than fixating on events in wealth creation. Wealth is not an event but rather a result of a well-orchestrated process. This idea distinguishes this book from traditional self-help literature that often focuses on achieving specific outcomes or goals without addressing the underlying processes.
4. Accountability and Responsibility: The author emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for one's financial choices and being accountable to their consequences. He argues that hitchhikers (people who rely on luck, events, or others) are not accountable and cannot achieve true wealth. This perspective encourages readers to embrace personal responsibility and make deliberate decisions in their pursuit of financial success.
5. Impacting Millions: The book suggests that to create wealth, one must serve millions in scale or a few in magnitude. This concept challenges the common notion that becoming wealthy requires serving only a select few clients or customers. Instead, the author encourages readers to focus on impacting large numbers of people through their business or investments, which will eventually lead to financial success.

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Takeaways

• Wealth can be achieved quickly through the "Fastlane" approach, not just slowly through the conventional "Get Rich Slow" methods.
• To change your reality of financial mediocrity, stop doing what you've been doing and adopt new ways of thinking and taking action.
• The Fastlane lifestyle involves creating wealth rapidly, enabling you to live your dreams and have financial freedom.
• The Fastlane does not require specific qualifications or talents; it is accessible to anyone willing to learn and apply its strategies.
• This book is not a step-by-step guide but rather a roadmap to help you understand and implement the Fastlane philosophy in your life.
• The Fastlane approach requires hard work, commitment, and a shift from traditional financial advice that may not serve your best interests.

PART 1: Wealth in a Wheelchair… “Get Rich Slow” is Get Rich Old

Takeaways

• The Fastlane is a mindset, a new way of thinking about wealth.
• The Slowlane is the conventional path to wealth-it's linear, slow, and requires time.
• The Fastlane is exponential; it's a rapid acceleration from one level of wealth to another.
• The Fastlane is not for everyone. It's a unique path that only a few will ever take.
• The Fastlane requires risk and innovation.
• The Fastlane is not for the faint of heart; it's for those who are willing to take calculated risks.
• The Fastlane requires action, not just ideas or dreams.
• The Fastlane is not easy, but it's worth it in the end.
• The Fastlane can be scary, but it's the only way to achieve true financial freedom.
• The Fastlane requires a shift in mindset, a change in how you think about money and wealth.
• The Fastlane is not for people who are content with mediocrity or complacency.
• The Fastlane is for those who are willing to challenge the status quo and blaze their own trail to wealth and success.

Quotes

“The real golden years of life are when you’re young, sentient, and vibrant.”

“I studied everything from finance to Internet programming to more autobiographies of the rich.”

PART 2: Wealth is Not a Road, But a Road Trip

Takeaways

• Wealth is a formula, not an ingredient.
• Process makes millionaires, and the events you see and hear are the results of that process.
• The perfect dish is a series of ingredients and a well-engineered process of execution. Wealth creation has the same method of execution.
• Wealth eludes most people because they are preoccupied with events while disregarding process.
• Process makes millionaires, and the events you see and hear are the results of that process.
• All self-made multimillionaires create their wealth by a carefully orchestrated process. They have and use the entire formula.
• Despite what you may have read or heard, wealth is not an event. Wealth doesn't drop from the sky or come from a game show. It doesn't ring the doorbell and await you on the front porch with balloons and a check the size of a refrigerator. Wealth does not chime from a machine with spinning bars, lemons, and cherries.
• Wealth is a process, not an event. Ask any chef and they will confirm that the perfect dish is a series of ingredients and a well-engineered process of execution: a little of this, a little of that, done at the right time at the right place, and wham, you have a tasty meal. Wealth creation has the same method of execution-a fabricated accumulation of many disassociated ingredients into an assembled whole that has value and is worth millions.
• The sale of my company climaxed in an event, but its fruition was carved by process. Outsiders see the nice house and the expensive cars and might think, “Wow, if I only could be so lucky.” Such a belief is a mirage of event over process.
• When you make your first million, it will be because of process and not some clandestine happenstance that just happened to waltz across your path. Process is the road trip to wealth: The destination shines as an event, but it's found by process. Yes, the elevator to success is out-of-order-you'll need to hit the stairs.

Quotes

“Wealth eludes most people because they are preoccupied with events while disregarding process. Without process, there is no event.”

“All events of wealth are precluded by process, a backstory of trial, risk, hard work, and sacrifice. If you try to skip process, you’ll never experience events.”

“Self-made millionaires don’t become millionaires by stumbling into money. Likewise, financial failures don’t become failures by stumbling into poorness. Both are outcomes of your financial roadmap and the actions and beliefs evolving from that roadmap.”

PART 3: Poorness–The Sidewalk

Takeaways

• The law of victims states that you can't be a victim if you don't relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim.
• Hitchhikers are not accountable and rely on luck, events, and others for their financial success.
• Fastlaners take responsibility for their choices and are accountable to the consequences.
• The Law of Victims is the result of denying responsibility and accountability.

Quotes

“Immediately after the 2008 financial meltdown, it wouldn’t surprise me if 85% of American families would have had zero or negative net worth. But you can bet they have 650 cable channels streaming into their five flat-screen HDTVs.”

“more money is not a solution to poor financial management.”

“Wealth is not authored by material possessions, money, or “stuff,” but by what I call the three fundamental “F's”: family (relationships), fitness (health), and freedom (choice, both fiscally and personally). You will find true wealth and, yes, happiness within this wealth trinity.”

“Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable. ~ Clare Boothe Luce”

“A 2003 World Value Survey (worldvaluessurvey.com) found that the happiest people in the world have a tight sense of community and strong family bonds. After basic needs are met (security, shelter, health, food), our happiness quotient is most significantly impacted by the quality of our relationships with our partners, our family, our friends, our spirituality, and ourselves.”

“about jobs, bosses, or unpaid electric bills. Freedom is fantastic. Yet my lifestyle is not “normal.” Like wealth, society, through its “Get Rich Slow” mandates, has defined “normal” for you. Normal is waking at 6 a.m., working eight hours at a tolerated job Monday through Friday, save 10%, and repeat for 50 years. Normal is to buy everything on credit. Normal is to believe the illusion that trusting Wall Street and their cohorts will make you rich. Normal is to believe that a faster car and a bigger house will make you happy. You’re conditioned to accept normal based on society’s corrupted definition of wealth, and because of it, normal itself is corrupted. Normal is modern-day slavery.”

“If you have to think about “affordability,” you can’t afford it because affordability carries conditions and consequences.”

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~ Thomas Jefferson”

“Luck is introduced when you play. If you don’t play, you can’t win. Unfortunately, Sidewalkers assign luck to events of mystical chance. They don’t see the manipulated probabilities imbued by process which makes the chance possible. If you want luck, dive”

“Wow, how disturbing. Was someone arrested? Seriously, someone should arrest the man who put the loaded gun to Eugene’s head forcing him to work at Wal-Mart for a below-market wage! Give this guy a bitch-slap. No one forced him to work at Wal-Mart; he works there because he chose to work there. Hey, Eugene, if you’re tired of making $11 an hour, raise your value to society. Get your ass over to the library. Wal-Mart can’t offer low wages if they don’t have an endless supply of victims like you.”

“These people seek the easy life yet want someone else to pay for it. They’re lifetime hitchhikers.”

“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.”

PART 4: Mediocrity–The Slowlane Roadmap

Takeaways

• The Slowlane is a road of mediocrity because its variables are limited and uncontrollable.
• Wealth is created by manipulating the intrinsic value variable through fame or corporate management.
• The Slowlane is risky because it is slow and requires 40 years to achieve.
• Slashing expenses is not the same as building wealth.
• Millionaires are not rich; they are middle class.
• Fastlane millionaires earn millions in less than 10 years and live lifestyles reserved for the famous and infamous.
• You can't force the stock market to yield higher returns, but you can force yourself to become famous or climb the corporate ladder.

Quotes

“The global recession has 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 faithfully invested decades into the plan only to discover the ugly truth: The Slowlane is risky and insufferably impotent.”

“Friday evening is glorified because people celebrate the dividends of their trade: five days of work-bondage exchanged for two days of unadulterated freedom. Saturday and Sunday is the paycheck for Monday through Friday, and Friday evening symbolizes the emergence of that payment, freedom for two days.”

“By working faithfully 8 hours a day, you may eventually get to be the boss and work 12 hours a day. ~ Robert Frost”

“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows. ~ Michael Landon”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein”

“like I make $145,000! The best excuse people have for not having wealth is “I don’t have time.” Well, why don’t you have time? Because you have a job. Why do you have a job? Because you need one. Why do you need one? Because you have bills to pay. Why do you have bills to pay? Because you have debt. Why do you have debt? Oh yes, because you went to school for six years and have six figures in student loans.”

“If millions seek you, you will be paid millions.”

PART 5: Wealth–The Fastlane Roadmap

Takeaways

• The Law of Attraction is not a law; it's a theory.
• The Law of Effection is absolute and operates independent of a roadmap.
• The Law of Effection is the only true law of wealth.
• The Law of Attraction is based on belief; the Law of Effection is based on mathematics.
• To make millions, you must serve millions in scale or a few in magnitude.
• All self-made billionaires have impacted millions in scale or magnitude, directly or indirectly.
• The closer you get to the source of large numbers, the closer you will get to wealth.
• If you want to serve millions, your best chance at impacting those numbers is through SCALE, which comes from multiple transactions with many customers (e.g., selling 10 million books).
• If you want to serve fewer people but in magnitude, your best chance at impacting those numbers is through MAGNITUDE, which comes from a single transaction with a single customer (e.g., selling one Picasso painting for $100 million).
• Effection is how money flows, and the closer you are to that flow, the richer you will become.

Quotes

“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.”

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful, lest you let other people spend it for you. ~ Carl Sandburg”

“Change creates millionaires. Those who observe and take advantage of change will be the new millionaires and billionaires.”

PART 6: Your Vehicle to Wealth–YOU

Takeaways

• Don't be afraid to take risks, but be sure they are intelligent risks.
• You don't have to live in regret; you can hit the Redline and live a life unlike everyone else.
• The road to wealth is not paved with somedays.
• Failure is a natural part of success; learn from it and move on.
• Distinguish between moronic and intelligent risk.
• The Fastlane is not about being lucky; it's about taking action and making things happen.
• No one else can hit the Redline for you; it's your choice whether or not to hit it.

Quotes

“My doctor’s preferred method of attack was prescription drugs. I refused because I wanted to fix problems, not mask symptoms.”

“I awoke to the epiphany that I was the driver of my life and my problems were the consequences of my choices.”

“If you want extraordinary results, you’re going to need extraordinary thinking. Unfortunately, “extraordinary” is not found trapped in society’s mediocracy and the beliefs that fuel them.”

“Today is the starting line for the rest of your life. Yes, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. The problem with the past is that we remember memories we shouldn't, and we don't forget what we should“ If your eyes are stuck in the rearview mirror, you're stuck in the past. If you're stuck in the past, you're not looking ahead. If you're not looking ahead, you can't hit the mark of your future.

The universe doesn't care about your past. It is blind to it. The universe doesn't care that I wore pink pants in high school. (Hey, remember Miami Vice?) The universe doesn't care that I got in a fight with Francis Franken and lost. The universe doesn't care about your MBA from UCLA, your drug-dealing father, or that you wet your bed in junior high. The universe simply doesn't care. One person and one person only weaponizes past transgressions: you.”

“If the universe doesn't remember, why should you? Being the youngest of three siblings, you can bet I was the subject of some vile comments. Fat, stupid, you name it. However, just because my brother called me an idiot for 12 years doesn't make it my reality. Your past never equals your future unless you allow it.

Think about a coin flip. No matter how many times it's flipped, the next flip is always random. Probability cannot be attached to a future flip based on the past. Your past is the same. Just because you failed at five relationships doesn't mean your next will fail, especially if you learn from them! Just because you flipped burgers three hours ago doesn't mean you can't be a millionaire next year. The universe forgets, just like the universe forgot I mopped floors and delivered pizza not long ago.”

“If your past defines your existence, it will be impossible for you to become the person you need to become in the future.”

“After graduating from college, I was expected to find a good job. I didn't and instead dove into entrepreneurial ventures.

My family thought I was crazy and proclaimed, “You're wasting a five-year education!” Peers thought I was delusional. Oh dear, delivering pizza and chauffeuring limousines while two business degrees hung from the wall?! Women wouldn't date me because I broke the professional, “college-educated” mold the fairy tale espoused. Going Fastlane and building momentum will require you to turn your back at the people who fart headwinds in your direction. You have to break free of society's gravitational force and their expectations. If you aren't mindful to this natural gravity, life can denigrate into a viscous self-perpetuating cycle, which is society's prescription for normal: Get up, go to work, come home, eat, watch a few episodes of Law and Order, go to bed … then repeat, day after day after day.”

“Time isn’t a commodity, something you pass around like a cake. Time is the substance of life. When anyone asks you to give your time, they’re really asking for a chunk of your life. ~ Antoinette Bosco”

“Value your time poorly and you will be poor. When time is wasted as a lifestyle choice you will be stranded in places you don't want to be. Take a look around. How do your friends, family, and peers value their time? Are they standing in line to save four bucks? Are they driving 40 minutes to save 10 dollars? Are they parked on the sofa anxiously waiting to see who wins Dancing With the Stars?”

“The average American watches more than four hours of TV each day. In a 65-year life, that person will have spent nine years glued to the tube. Why? Simple. Life sucks. Life needs an escape. Life is no good. Show me someone who spends hours online playing Mafia Wars or Farmville, and I'll show you someone who probably isn't very successful. When life sucks, escapes are sought. I don't need television because I invested my time into a real life worth living, not a fictitious escape that airs every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Again, majority thinking yields mediocrity, and for that majority, time is an asset that is undervalued and mindlessly squandered.”

“Debt needs a constant drip of blood, and that blood comes from your gas tank of life: time. And since time is fixed, an increase in indentured time comes from only one source: your free time.”

“Rich or poor, time is equally possessed, shared, and consumed by all. Every day, you use it. I use it. Your neighbor uses it. No one gets more and no one gets less. Twenty-four hours for everybody. No one has an unfair advantage. You, me, we all have 24 hours to consume, expire, and spend. Time is the ultimate equalizer.”

“There’s a profound difference between interest and commitment. Interest reads a book; commitment applies the book 50 times.”

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!”

“Unfortunately, this is the paradox you’ll face if you fear failure and refuse to release the brakes. The sweat of success is failure. While you can’t build cardiovascular endurance without sweating, you can’t experience success without failure. Failure is simply a natural response to success. If you avoid failure you will also avoid success. You can’t drive the road to wealth with the brakes engaged.”

“Someday is dangerous and paralyzing. It traps you in land of Nowheresville. Someday is here, now, pristine and clean and begging no allegiance for tomorrow. The”

“Opportunity drives through your neighborhood frequently, and when it does, you have to grab that bitch. Evaluate”

PART 7: The Roads to Wealth

Takeaways

• The Fastlane is the means to achieving your financial goals as it provides a reliable and sustainable source of income.
• Breaking down large goals into smaller, manageable tasks helps in making progress towards them.
• Daily savings help build a passive income stream that eventually funds your lifestyle and money system.
• A money system focuses on generating income, while building wealth is left to the Fastlane business.
• Financial literacy is crucial for managing a money system effectively and avoiding financial pitfalls.
• "Live below your means" can be applied at any income level, with the focus being on expanding your means rather than just minimizing expenses.
• Financial advisers do not solve financial illiteracy, and literacy is essential to evaluate their advice effectively.

Quotes

“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.”

“People care about what your business can do for them. How will it help them? What’s in it for them? Will it solve their problem? Make their life easier? Provide them with shelter? Save them money? Educate them? Make them feel something? Tell me, why on God’s green Earth should I give your business money? What value are you adding to my life?”

“Stop thinking about business in terms of your selfish desires, whether it’s money, dreams or “do what you love.” Instead, chase needs, problems, pain points, service deficiencies, and emotions.”

“Money is like a mischievous cat; if you chase it around the neighborhood, it eludes you. It hides up a tree, behind the rose bush, or in the garden. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts the cat, it comes to you and sits in your lap.”

“Make a freaking impact and start providing value! Let money come to you! Look around outside your world, stop being selfish, and help your fellow humans solve their problems. In a world of selfishness, become unselfish.

Need something more concrete? No problem. Make 1 million people achieve any of the following: Make them feel better. Help them solve a problem. Educate them. Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup). Give them security (housing, safety, health). Raise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence). Satisfy appetites, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual). Make things easier. Enhance their dreams and give hope. … and I guarantee, you will be worth millions.”

“For “do what you love” to work, you need two things: 1) Your love must solve a need and 2) You must be exceptional at it.”

“Excitement (wants and desires) serves as passionate fuel, as does discontent (undesirable situations). Both allowed me to do what others wouldn’t. If you find yours, you will too.”

“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 prescription to lackluster incomes and asset values.”

“I believe if you can succeed at network marketing, you can succeed at anything.”

“Lead generation services often provide a service to consumers while simultaneously aggregating a non-homogeneous industry. This is what I did for the limousine industry. I pooled a highly fragmented industry into one centralized source, brought consumers into the mix, and sold that consumer information to limo companies.”

PART 8: Your Speed–Accelerate Wealth

Takeaways

• The Fastlane is about creating wealth through building a business or investing in assets, rather than relying on a salary or hourly wage.
• Focus on increasing income and asset value exponentially, rather than cutting expenses to save money.
• Leverage is essential for creating wealth, as it allows you to control the mathematics that determine your financial success.
• Effort, not luck, is the key to building wealth in the Fastlane.
• Commitment and consistent action are required to succeed in the Fastlane.
• Choose a business or investment that solves a need or problem and has the potential to scale up.
• Control your financial plan by setting up a favorable business entity and focusing on what you can control.
• Money comes from providing value and solving needs, rather than chasing it directly.
• Automate your business and focus on creating systems that can run without you.
• Replicate your successful business model to expand its reach and impact.
• Have a clear exit strategy for monetizing your assets and achieving financial freedom.
• Continuously educate yourself and stay informed about the latest trends and opportunities in your industry.
• Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who can support and inspire you on your journey to wealth creation.

Quotes

“The King: Your execution - The Queen: Your marketing - The Bishop: Your customer service - The Knight: Your product - The Rook: Your people - The Pawn: Your ideas.”

“The owner of an idea is not he who imagines it, but he who executes it.”

“When you trust everyone, you engage in business opportunities that violate the Commandment of Control. You allow others to dictate your financial road trip. And when that happens, you crash and burn. There is only one person you can blindly trust in this world, and that is YOU.”

“You could own the best hotel in the world located on the best beach in California, but if customers are treated like inconveniences and requests go unfulfilled, they won’t return.”

“A market is never saturated with a good product ,but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one. ~ Henry Ford”

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