The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime

I’ve been on the road for seven months travelling through Asia and Australia and as a digital nomad, excited about living a financially free lifestyle, it’s quite refreshing to read de Marco’s Fastlane Millionaire self help book.I like reading books like this one. First, the author is the kind of underdog expert I like. He’s not Tim Ferris, he doesn’t use fancy terms, I won’t be reading what the whole world is reading and my thinking isn’t interrupted with incessant exercises. Like Allen Carr for smoking or Steven Pressfield for writing , MJ de Marco builds a thorough, plain how-to-guide for apprentice businessmen. More often than not, every page has some sort of breakthrough point causing serious questioning or utter bewilderment. I say bewilderment because I believe that’s the necessary step to welcoming the understanding of a new perspective. I was baffled when I read the writer’s sharp but offensive opinion on slowlaners. After all, my parents and most of my friends are slowlaners.The book compares three metaphoric paths to becoming a millionaire under the appellation of lanes. Put simply, you’re either on the sidewalk, the slowlane or the fastlane. I’ll leave the sidewalk section out of this review since leeches are hardly worth mentioning. Most people are part of the slowlane -- in other words the rat race – working the in the 9 to 5 model, repeating relentlessly the same daily effort to gain crumbs of extra wealth. The slowlaner is on the slow path to wealth – the 40 years path to retirement. The financial plan the slowlaner adopts encompasses saving 10% of their salary, living like a meager, investing into the stock exchange (and in compound-interest-yielding solutions) and praying that by the time he turns 65, inflation or a Ponzi scam hasn’t annihilated his savings…and then there’s the risk of a heart attack, cancer, etc. Even if he makes it, he’s too old to be pleased with it.I’ve got to say the first half of the book isn’t the most pleasant to read. Nor is it the most instructive for anybody with some reading pedigree. It’s repetitive and it strikes me as a bashing way to get the reader’s attention for the second part of the book. After all, what better way to sell the author’s fastlane to the reader in awe after reviewing all the downsides of the slowlane? The author’s style, quite abrupt at times, made me feel bitter and that’s not what I’m looking for in a book. De Marco is fastidious to say the very least and the read goes on and on. I’ve verified this aspect with a friend to who I suggested the book. We agreed, however, that once you got started on the fastlane part, the excruciatingly slow start to the book is all but forgotten and the serious learning can start. As the reading elapsed, it occurred to me that the first part of the book is a necessary mind stir to open it up to the newness of the fastlane.Besides, because the fear of leaving a comfortable but unchallenging job is so overwhelming and conflicting, something requires shredding that resistance.Crack the code to wealthDe Marco became a millionaire after building a multi-million internet-based business. He built it from scratch, after years of seeking an idea with a potential million at the end of it. Then, he persevered to be better than his competitors before selling it.This is the right time to evoke the book’s subtitle, “Crack the code to wealth”, that de Marco uses to drive his point. When you’re in the slowlane, your potential for wealth increase is limited. You have a salary and can only expect so much from a raise. Assuming you don’t need to sleep, you’ll never be able to break the 24 hours threshold. In the fastlane however, your salary follows an uncontrolled unlimited leverage. The fact that the slowlane’s gains are limited by time contrasts with the fastlane’s exponential income leverage. Because the fastlaner can rely on an income factored by magnitude (how much you’re selling your product/service for) and by scale (the number of people you’re selling to) your gains are almost infinite. Numbers make the contrast more real, so here’s a numerical example inspired by the book:If you’re making 10 bucks an hour and work fifty hours a week, you’re making 2000 bucks a month. Let’s say you get a 5% raise, you’ll make 2100 bucks a month. Your gain is linear and limited. Now let’s say you own an internet business that sells an web analytics tool you sell for 50 bucks a month to roughly 500 customers. Feeling confident with the competitiveness of your product, you increase your price to 75 bucks and with word of mouth making its way (and SEO improvements) on how good your product is, 1,000 people are now buying your product. Your monthly income has now inflated from 25,000 to 75,000 bucks; that’s a 300% raise.This revealing contrast precedes a methodology and the outlines of a mindset to stick to the fastlane. It’s not going to be easy, says de Marco. The fastlane is not a Disneyland ride. No one is promising you you’ll make millions. Only you can take responsibility of that, through your choices. But with a focused process, designed toward success, the fastlaner can achieve in a few years what the slowlaner might only do in fourty.Forget what you love, everybody is already doing that.If one wants to build a successful business, it isn’t so much about what one loves to do. The fastlaner isn’t building something around his selfish need. It’s not about him.At first, I found the injunction “Don’t do what you love” quite queer. Back in 2011, I read Marsha Sinetar’s “Do what you love, the money will follow” and it triggered an entrepreneurial thought process in me.What am I doing with my life? I could be doing what I love and I could be making some money.As much as I needed to believe that at the time, it hasn’t worked. After almost a year of penniless efforts doing what I love, I’ll admit de Marco has a point.The argument speaks for itself: the “do what you love” path is now so cluttered that the offer has swamped the supply side of the equation, reducing prices (magnitude) and commoditizing the whole field (denting the scale potential). I like that De Marco advocates designing a business focus on a need instead, not on one’s “selfish” interest – Why would anyone care enough to pay for your interests? One can approach it by paying attention to people’s complaints and seeking for problems to solve. The doing what you love part can come after you’ve cracked your code to wealth.Build a process to produce something valuableNot only does de Marco refer to his experience as a business creator, he also uses testimonies from the fastlane forum where thousands of fastlaners discuss and support each other on a daily basis. The support of a community is required to build a process. Instead of dwelling on the event of success, the author stresses you can build a process to help you thrive: have a routine, delay gratification, find a community for support, learn, learn, and learn.If you’re focused on events, you’ll be shifting projects constantly and running after every shiny object you’ll hear on the news or that someone’s told you about. In most cases, by the time the event has taken place, you’re already too late.So, process gets results. De Marco suggests the process requires trial and error and it’s by repeating, repeating and repeating the same routine every day that you’ll produce something valuable. There’s something close to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours of mastery in this .Just like the avant-gardist Aristotle said, “we are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit,” de Marco might argue that:“Excellence is not an event, but a process.”I’m still fine-tuning mine.What’s yours?

I first heard MJ Demarco's name brought up in a YouTube video, so I ordered this book and then also bought the audiobook so that my son could listen to it. I wholeheartedly agree with his advice on wanting to make more money, you can't just rely on a job, but to use the internet to scale with digital products--such as a YT channel, an ebook, etc. It's what I'm aiming to do as I started my channel, wrote and self-published my first book, Back to Frugal, and going to keep at it. I honestly don't think some of the other YouTubers or authors give this guy enough credit! Thank you MJ!!!

MJ's book is probably one of the best business books I have read in my entire life, and to be frank I rarely ever say that about most books I read.After reading MJ's book, I have probably already recommended it to 30+ of my closest entrepreneurial friends who also have felt the same about the book.As an avid reader of many business books, it is hard to come by a book that truly cuts through all of the BS, and delivers time-tested and proven information from a been there done that no-nonsense entrepreneur who truly cares about your success.Compared to other authors who write books that just want to up-sell you into multi-thousand dollar training programs on the backend, this book stands in the face of all of that noise and "flips them the bird."Not only does this book give you the mindset you must adopt if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, but even more so gives you the tools to use and implement to achieve massive success.I recommend that when implementing a new business idea, or enhancing your current business, please, please, please use this book as your guide.You won't be sorry! By using this book to help you, you are definitely guaranteed to reach all of the goals you have set for yourself and your business...and I stand behind that statement 100% because it has already helped me tremendously with my mindset and business.Here is the truth...While most business books I read are "good," very few of them are great.MJ's book falls into my "great" category for many reasons as described below!In his book, not only do you get a glimpse into the mind of a been there done that multi-millionaire entrepreneur, who made his money OUTSIDE of the publishing business (unlike some of the most well-known business/financial guru's), but even more so, you get a to buy a book that you will want to keep on your night stand forever and be something you reference for many years to come.The parts in the book that truly stuck out to me, and helped me gain a lot of insights and clarity for my business, life and financial plan were the specific parts highlighted below.1. Why Understanding The Process To Creating A Successful Business, is More Important Than Focusing on the One Time "Wealth Event" at The End...(The truth is that if you complete and stick to the process correctly, the wealth event at the end will be a result of all your hard work and discipline to not get ahead of yourself). (After reading this section I realized too many individuals are focusing on the wrong thing when they go into business. This mindset is definitely going to flip you for a loop and challenge every previous thought you ever had about accomplishing anything, and building a company for that matter)2. The Essential Elements To A Fastlane Business (And no they are not what you would expect...this part of the book is worth MILLIONS of dollars to you, and will help you eliminate TIME-WASTING wheel spinning activities in during your current and future entrepreneurial career)3. How to Make a Decision When Faced With Two Semi-Desirable Options (The logic in this is so sound, and the process can be duplicated over and over again, no matter what you are choosing between in the future)4. How To Truly Value Your Business and Set it Up To Be Sold For Millions (And no...it has nothing to do with how many "users" you have without any profit...get ready for this part of the book to blow you away)5. How To Create An Effective Exit Strategy For Your Business That Will Leave You Wealthy...Never Have To Worry About Money or What You Do With Your Time Ever Again (This mindset is so critical to grasp, as most of these web 2.0 companies exit strategy is "sell to Google," when in reality that exit strategy is like praying to win the lottery without a sound base to stand on)6. How To Effectively Think About Investing The Money You Make After Selling Your Company For Millions to Ensure You Continually Grow Your Wealth and Income (If you thought you should be counting on the stock market to make you wealthy, this part of the book is going to shock you, but makes so much sense)So without making the book sound any better than I already have, just listen to me and buy the book...you won't be sorry...just trust me.Truth be told...The book was so good that I even bought it a second time on my new E-Reading device (nook), because I wanted to make sure I had it with me forever to reference if I ever lost my physical copy, or if one of my entrepreneurial friends secretly stole it from me without letting me know they were going to borrow it.And finally...If I had to give a rating out of 5 stars for this book, I would give it a 10. You can't go wrong buying this book because the author truly cares about helping you create all of the entrepreneurial success your heart desires...Hell, he even gives you his e-mail address to contact him after finishing the book! I don't know about you but that says a lot.Enjoy the book! You won't be sorry!-ScottP.S. I even interviewed him for my site here is the link to the interview enjoy![...]

This book is for beginners who dream to of an entrepreneurial lifestyleThis book is for you if you are thinking of making money through your own businessThis book is for you if you are contemplating whether or not to leave your job/career because you see no significant futureThis book is for you if you want to know how to not get trapped in the paycheck to paycheck cycleI read this entire book during my freshman year of highschool.It is now the reason why i believe college is a scam, and if you really want to get rich you need to do so through business, not through a job.Most of it's concepts aren't new to people who already have business experience,but worth the read if you want to live with an entrepreneurial lifestyle