By Benjamin Kwong — Nov 21, 2022

Book Summary: The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco

Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime.

📖 The Book in 3 Sentences

Starts with the first concept known as the "Sidewalk" where you are poor with both time and money with no plans to move beyond this concept
Continues with the concept most of us are familiar with which is going to university to get a degree, get a job where we trade our time for money and invest that money into system which has a long time horizon for it to reap the benefits of compound interest
Finishes with Fastlane which talks about the path of an Entrepreneur which is set of beliefs around process, execution, being a producer vs a consumer and focusing on systems that scale as opposed to selling our time for money

🖼 Impressions

The Millionaire Fastlane is a guide on how to understand the difference between what society tells us about getting rich slowly in what the author labels as the "Slow Lane" versus the "Fast Lane" as an entrepreneur. The book gave me a great understanding of the inner workings of how to be a successful entrepreneur and all the factors one needs to think of starting a business.

👥 Who should read it?

Storytelling With Data is essential reading for anyone considering to understand the differences between working a job and running a successful business and what steps are required to be a successful business entrepreneur. If you're thinking of quitting your day job and moving into your own business this book is a must read!

❌ People who want easy solutions to be rich. This book is not for anyone who does not want to apply any effort to become wealthy or successful - the book provides a lot of insights and ideas how to move forward with good ideas and structure which require a high level of sustained effort to work.

❌ This book is not for people who are averse to starting businesses. The advice of this book revolves around being an entrepreneur and explains concepts that are fundamental to starting a business.

💡 How the book changed me

Highlighted the the shortfalls of white collar professional jobs of trading time for money and how it's a fast path to the middle class
Has made me focus on being more of a creator/producer and less of a consumer
Emphasized life long learning by continually making an effort to update my knowledge on a regular basis
Helped me understand why successful business and entrepreneurs operate in the current age by factors around control, entry, need, time and scale
Become focused on process/execution over events and ideas

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

Some of the quotes are longer than usual but really some of my favourite parts of the book.

On educating yourself:

The greatest travesty of the free world is the under use of knowledge. Walk into your local bookstore and inhale. Smell that? That’s the smell of infinite knowledge. Walk into your local library and look around. Amazing. Wall-to-wall books, free for the taking. Imagine if you could digest every book, every paragraph, and every sentence. Would “I don’t know” be a detriment to your success?

I’m astonished that education is freely available, yet most choose to ignore it. Education is unpicked fruit from a tree, and all it needs is the ladder laying on the ground. Yet, most people cling to the limiting belief that “I can’t afford education.”

Sorry, but it’s an excuse to be lazy

Education is free for your consumption. Infinite knowledge is at your fingertips and the only thing preventing you from getting it is you. Yes, YOU.

You have the innate power to become an expert at anything not requiring physical talent. Anything! No book in the world can make me a professional singer or a basketball player, but books can transfigure novices to experts in nonphysical disciplines. You can become a currency-trading expert. Real estate. Business. web programming. Sales. A public speaker. The expertise for any discipline not requiring physical coordination is out there. What does it take? Your commitment of pursuit, and then the biggy: applying it.

On being a producer first and a consumer second:

When you re-frame your thinking from majority thinking (consumer) to minority thinking (producer), you effectively switch teams and allegiances. Yes, become a producer first and a consumer second.

Applied, this means instead of buying products on TV, sell products. 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.

On pursuing creating value over chasing money:

Well-Never start a business just to make money. Stop chasing money and start chasing needs. Let me repeat that, because it’s the most important thing in this book: 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.

📒 Summary + Notes

PART 1 - WEALTH IN A WHEELCHAIR: "GET RICH SLOW" IS GET RICH OLD

Chapter 1 - The Great Deception

“Get Rich Slow” demands a long life of gainful employment where you trade your time for money, rely on Wall St to grow your savings and work away the golden years of life are when you’re young, sentient and vibrant

Chapter 2 - How I Screwed "Get Rich Slow"

Summarizes the story of MJ Marco how he was inspired by a young Lambo driving kid being an inventor which sparked his journey into finding the answers to wealth
With his own web service the author learnt the experience of solving a need and experienced exponential growth where his life changed overnight
That is where you should not fear taking roads that have not been paved by others.

PART 2- WEALTH IS NOT A ROAD, BUT A ROAD TRIP.

Chapter 3 - The Road Trip to Wealth

Wealth is a formula, not an ingredient where consistency and process makes millionaires
We all are caught up in events when someone is successful however events are residual by-products of process
You have to drive your own destiny - nobody will be there to get you to that destination
The process cannot be outsourced, because process demands wisdom, personal growth, strength, and ultimately as a byproduct events will occur

Chapter 4 - The Roadmaps to Wealth

To force change, change must come from your beliefs, and your roadmap subscribes to those beliefs
Each roadmap is governed by a wealth equation and predisposed to a financial destination
Sidewalk to poverty, slow lane to mediocrity, and the Fast lane to wealth

PART 3- POVERTY: THE SIDEWALK ROADMAP

Chapter 5 - The Road Most Traveled: The Sidewalk

The sidewalk is the place where you are poor in both time and money
You remain there with no financial plan and manage your finances poorly
You can be income rich and still ride the sidewalk dirty
If wealth is defined by income and debt, wealth is an illusion, because it is vulnerable to potholes, detours, and “bumps in the road.”
When the income disappears, so does the illusion of wealth
Poor financial management is like gambling; the house eventually wins

Chapter 6 - Is Your Wealth Poisoned?

Wealth is not a culmination of possessions and money
It is actually a combination of strong familial relationships, fitness and health, and freedom
Unaffordable material possessions are destructive to the wealth trinity

Chapter 7 - Misuse Money and Money Will Misuse You

Money doesn’t buy happiness because money issued for the purposes of your won consumption traps you to eternal servitude to pay for these habits
Consumer pursuits is destructive to this freedom
Anything destructive to freedom is destructive to the wealth trinity
Money, properly used, can buy freedom, which can lead to happiness
Happiness stems from good health, freedom, and strong interpersonal relationships, not necessarily money
Lifestyle servitude steals freedom, and what steals freedom, steals wealth
If you think you can afford it, you can’t
The consequence of instant gratification is the destruction of freedom, health and choice

Chapter 8 - Lucky Bastards Play The Game

Like wealth, luck is created by process, not by event
Self-made millionaires arise from self-made luckProcess creates events that others see as luck
To create luck, engage in processes so probabilities move from nothing, to something
If you find yourself playing the odds of “big hits” you are event-driven, not process-driven
"Big hits" are sudden miracles that create wealth fast
The mindset is conducive to the sidewalk, not the fast lane
Be warned. “Get Rich Quick” marketing is a fast lane because savvy marketers know that people on the sidewalk place faith in events over process. Moneymaking “systems” are rarely as profitable as the act of selling them to Sidewalkers.

Chapter 9 - Wealth Demands Accountability

Hitchhikers assign control over their financial plans to others, which effectively introduces probabilities to victimhood
The Law of Victims: You can’t be a victim if you don’t relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim
Responsibility owns your choices
Taking responsibility is the first step to taking the driver’s seat of your life
Acountability is the stops with you

PART 4 - MEDIOCRITY: THE SLOWLANE ROADMAP

Chapter 10 - The Lie You've Been Sold: The Slowlane

The slow lane is a natural course correction from the Sidewalk evolving from responsibility and accountability
Wealth is best experienced when you’re young, vibrant, and able, not in the twilight of your life
The slow lane is a plan that takes decades to succeed, requiring masterful political prowess in a corporate environment, frugality and Wall-Street wizardry.
For the slow laner, Saturday and Sunday is the paycheck for Monday through Friday.
The default return on your time in the Slowlane is negative 60%—-5 for 2.
The 5 for 2 trade inherit in the Slowlane is generally fixed and cannot be manipulated, because job standards are five days a week.
The predisposed destination of the Slowlane is mediocrity. Life isn’t great, but it isn’t so bad either.

Chapter 11 - The Criminal Trade: Your Job

Jobs are not ideal to build wealth and freedom as you are in effect selling your freedom (in the forms of time) for freedom (in the form of money)
Experience is gained in action and as an entrepreneur you learn a lot more faster as opposed to a job with a limited set of actions within a defined environment repeated every day
Being in a job you are at the mercy of the organization's control of you
Office politics is everywhere and the only way to control this dynamic is to be the owner/boss
Wealth accumulation is thwarted when you don’t control your primary income source

Chapter 12 - The Slowlane: Why You Aren't Rich

ULL or Uncontrollable Limited Leverage is the concept where working a job to trade time for money and then investing it for compound interest with long horizons of return provides limited control and leverage
To attract a large sum of money the following is required: Control and Leverage
When you're in a job trading time for money there are two variables: The "primary income source" ( how income is earned ) and the "wealth accelerator ( defines how wealth is accumulated )
These equate to the job as the primary income source and investments such as 401(k)s and indexed-funds.
The first variable in the Slowlane wealth equation stems from a job that factors to intrinsic value which is your nominal value for each unit of your life traded.

Job Factors

Intrinsic value is the value of your time set by the marketplace and is measured in units of time, either hourly or yearly.
In the Slowlane, intrinsic value (regardless of its time measurement) is numerically inhibited because there are only 24 hours in the day (for the hourly worker), and the average lifespan is 74 years (for the salaried worker).

Investment Factors

In your job you get paid for your time but you can't leverage or scale it.
The investment side of compound interest is slow and has a long time horizon (30-50 years)
For your investments to do well with compound interest you require time, a favorable yearly investment yield in the years invested and a repeated invested sum
Like the Slow Laner’s primary income source (a job)
The Slow Laner’s wealth acceleration vehicle (compound interest) is also pegged to time
Like a job, compound interest is mathematically futile and cannot be manipulated
You cannot force-feed the market (or the economy) to give you phenomenal returns, year after year

Key Takeaways

Wealth cannot be accelerated when pegged to mathematics based on time
Time is your primordial fuel and it should not be traded for money
Your time should not be an expendable resource for wealth because wealth itself is composed of time
If you don’t control the variables inherent in your wealth universe, you don’t control your financial plan

Chapter 13 - The Futile Fight: Education

Education improves your intrinsic value in the job marketplace however you're still playing the game of trading your time for money
Financing your education that can entrap you to paying back that debt especially if you cannot find the job/income to pay back the debt

Chapter 14 - The Hypocrisy of the Gurus

Take advice from people with a proven, successful track record of their espoused discipline
Many money gurus offers suffer from a Paradox of Practice; they teach one wealth equation while getting rich in another. They’re not rich from their own teachings

Chapter 15 - Slowlane Victory: A Gamble of Hope

The Slowlane has seven dangers, five of which cannot be controlled. These are health, job, home, company, lifestyle (slowlaners will control), economy, sidewalk
Slowlaners will try to manipulate a few variables by mangaging lifestyle expenses, increasing working hours, working more jobs or changing jobs, going back to school, finding better investments, increasing investments or expanding the time horizon
Each attempt is futile due to the mathematical limitations
Exponential income growth and expense management creates wealth - not just by curtailing expenses
You can break the Slowlane equation by exploding your intrinsic value via fame or insider corporate management
Successful Slowlaners not famous or in corporate management end in the middle… middle class and middle age
Slowlane millionaires are stuck in the middle class
$10 million is the new $1 million
A millionaire cannot live a millionaire lifestyle without financial discipline
Lottery winners fall into the millionaire trap and go broke because they attempt to live a “millionaire” lifestyle, not understanding that a few million doesn’t go very far

PART 5 - WEALTH: THE FASTLANE ROADMAP

Chapter 16 - Wealth's Shortcut: The Fastlane

The risk profile of a Fastlane strategy isn’t much different from the Slowlane, but the rewards are far greater
The formula for the Fastlane is CUL Controllable Unlimited Leverage, have your own business or be self-employed
The lifestyle requires a commitment of blended beliefs, processes, and actions
Debt perception: debt is useful if it allows me to build and grow my system
Time perception: time is the most important asset I have, far exceeding money
Education perception: the moment you stop learning is the moment you stop growing. Constant expansion of knowledge and awareness is critical to my journey
Money perception: money is everywhere, and it's extremely abundant. Money is a reflection of how many lives I've touched. Money reflects the value I've created
Primary income sources: I earn income via my business systems and investments
Primary wealth accelerator: I make something from nothing. I give birth to assets and make them valuable to the marketplace. Other times, I take existing assets and add value to them
Wealth perception: build business systems for cash flow and asset valuation
Wealth equation: wealth = net profit + asset value
Strategy: the more I help, the richer I become in time, money, and personal fulfilment
Destination: lifetime passive income, either through business or investments
Responsibility & Control: Life is what I make it. My financial plan is entirely my responsibility and I choose how I react to my circumnstances
Life Perception: my dreams are worth pursuing no matter how outlandish, and I understand it will take time and money to make those dreams real
The Fastlane Roadmap is predisposed to wealth
The Fastlane Roadmap is capable of generating “Get Rich Quick” results, not to be confused with “Get Rich Easy.”
Refer to the story of Chuma and Azur

Chapter 17 - Switch Teams and Playbooks

We're raised on being part of Team Consumer where really we should be switching to Team Producer. Become a producer first and a consumer second.
Producers are indigenous to the Fastlane roadmap
Producers are the minority as are the rich, while consumers are the majority as are the poor
Producers offer the world value
When you succeed as a producer, you can consume anything you want
Fastlaners are producers, entrepreneurs, innovators, visionaries, and creators
A business does not make a Fastlane - some businesses are jobs in disguise
The Fastlane wealth equation is not bound by time and its variables are unlimited and controllable

Chapter 18 - How the Rich Really Get Rich

The key to Fastlane wealth equation is to have a high speed limit, or an unlimited range of values for units sold. This creates leverage. The market for your product or service determines your upper limit
You have to remove yourself from ULL and move up to CUL
Wealth = Net Profit + Asset Value
Net Profit = Units Sold x Unit Profit
Asset Value = Net Profit x Industry Multiple
In this scenario you can control variables like raising units sold by increasing conversion ratio (customers who buy your product)
You can raise units sold by increasing web traffic
You can raise unit profit
The higher your speed limit, the higher your income potential.
The primary wealth accelerant for the rich is asset value, defined as appreciable assets created, founded, or bought.
Wealth creation via asset value is accelerated by each industry’s average multiplier. For every dollar in net income realized, the asset value multiplies by a factor of the multiple.
Your industry of specialization will determine the average multiple that determines your wealth accelerant factor. If the multiple is 3, your WAF is 300%.
Liquidation events transform appreciated assets (”paper” net worth) into money (”real” net worth) that can be transformed into another passive income stream: A money system.

Chapter 19 - Divorce Wealth from Time

To divorce yourself from the Slowlane’s transactional relationship of “time for money”, you need to become a producer, specifically, a business owner
Business systems break the bond between “your time for money” because they act like surrogate operatives for your time trade
5 Business systems where a higher number has greater passivity.
(1) Rental Systems, (2) Computer/Software Systems, (3) Content Systems, (4) Distribution Systems, (5) Human Resource Systems
Rental systems can include investment properties but also leases, royalty payments and licensing. Photography, art, music, book sales
Computer/Software Systems, websites and software are accessible to millions and when a product is built it's done and requires only maintenance - learning in your spare time to build is part of the process
Content Systems, for example, books, video blogging, e-books - creating content survives time
Distributions Systems, selling products via other retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target and or setting up via franchising or chains
Human Resource Systems, hiring and management of people to run and operate the business - humans are unpredictable, expensive and difficult to control
If you have a passive income that exceeds all your needs and lifestyle expenses including taxes, you’re retired.
A Fastlane objective is to create a business system that survives time, exclusive of your time

Chapter 20 - Recruit Your Army of Freedom Fighters

One saved dollar is the seed to a money tree.
A mere 5% interest on $10 million dollars is $40,000 a month in passive income
A saved dollar is the best passive income instrument
Fastlaners (the rich) don’t use compound interest or the market to get wealthy but to create income, preserve liquidity, and deploy capital
A saved dollar is a freedom fighter added to your army
The rich leverage compound interest at its crest, applied against large sums of money
Fastlaners eventually become net lenders

Chapter 21 - The Real Law of Wealth

The law of effection states that the more lives you affect or breach, both in scale or magnitude, the richer you will be
Scale translates to “units sold” of our profit variable within our Fastlane wealth equation. Magnitude translates to “unit profit” of our profit variable within our Fastlane wealth equation
The Law of Attraction is not a law, but a theory. The law of effection is absolute and operates exclusive of a roadmap
All lineages of self-made wealth trace back to the Law of Effection
The Law of Effection’s absoluteness comes from direct access and control (you are the athelete) versus indirect access (you are the athlete’s agent)
To make millions you must serve millions in scale or a few in magnitude

PART 6 - YOUR VEHICLE TO WEALTH: YOU

Chapter 22 - Own Yourself First

“Pay yourself first” is fundamentally impossible in a job
To own your vehicle (you), start a corporation that formally divorces you from the act of business. Your corporation is the body of your surrogate
The recommended Fastlane business entity is a C corp, an S corp, or an LLC

Chapter 23 - Life's Steering Wheel

The leading choice of poorness is poor choices
The steering of wheel of your life is choices
You are exactly where you chose to be
Success is hundreds of choices that form process. Process forms lifestyle.
Choice is the most powerful control you have in your life
Treasonous choices forever impact your life negatively
Your choices have significant horsepower, or trajectory into the future.
The younger you are, the more potent your choices are and the more horsepower you possess
Over time, horsepower erodes as the consequences of old choices are thick and hard to bend

Chapter 24 - Wipe Your Windshield Clean

Your choices of action manifest from your choices of perception.
What you choose to perceive, or not perceive, will manifest itself to a choice of action, or inaction
You can change your choice of perception by aligning yourself with those who experience the perception as reality
Worst Case Consequence Analysis helps avoid treasonous choices
The Weight Average Decision Matrix can help you make better big decisions by clarifying alternatives and their internal factors
Website: helpmydecision.com
The universe has no memory, only you do
Your past can be accelerative or treasonous. You choose the classification
If your eyes are transfixed to the past, you can’t become the person you need to become in the future

Chapter 25 - Deodorize Foul Headwinds

The natural gravity of society is not to be exceptional, but average
Toxic relationships drain energy and detract from your goals to be extraordinary
The people in your life are like your comrades in a battle platoon. They can save you, help you, or destroy you
Good relationships are accelerative to your process, while bad relationships are treasonous

Chapter 26 - Your Primordial Fuel: Time

Fastlaners regard time as the king of all assets
Time is deathly scarce, while money is richly abundant
Indentured time is time you spend to earn money. Free time is spent as you please
Your lifespan is made up of both free time and indentured time
Free time is bought and paid for by indentured time
Fast laners seek to transformed indentured time into free time
Parasitic debt eats free time and excretes it as indentured time
Lifestyle extravagances have two costs: the cost itself and the cost to free time
Parasitic debt has to be stopped at the source: instant gratification

Chapter 27 - Change That Dirty, Stale Oil

Fast Laners start their education at graduation, if not before. A Fastlaner’s education serves to advance their business system and their money tree, not to raise intrinsic value
Fast Laners aren’t interested in being a cog in the wheel. They want to be the wheel
“I don’t know how” is an excuse dismantled by discipline
Infinite knowledge is everywhere and it’s free. What missing is discipline to assimilate it
You can become an expert in any discipline not requiring physical skills
Education recharges can occur within time blocks already allocated for other objectives
Organizers of expensive seminars take advantage of Sidewalkers and disenfranchised Slowlaners by marketing empty promises as “events”

Chapter 28 - Hit the Redline

Interest is first gear. Commitment is the Redline
Hard work and commitment separates the winners from the losers
Some choose short-term mediocre comfort over long-term meteoric comfort
To live unlike everyone else, you have to do what everyone else won’t
Arm your expectations to hard work, sacrifice, and other bumps in the road
These are the land mines where the weak are removed from the road and sent back to the land of “most people”
Failure is natural to success. Expect it and learnt from it
One home run could set you financially secure for your life, perhaps generations
Home runs can’t be hit in the dug out
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

Chapter 29 - The Right Road Routes to Wealth

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

Chapter 30 - The Commandment of Control

Hitchhikers relinquish control of their business to a Fastlaner
There is a difference between “good” money and “big” money. Hitchhikers can make good money while Fastlaners make big money. Sometimes legendary money
You always want to own the platform and control the distribution, if you are contributing to the distribution you are at risk of being at the mercy of the platform's decision making
In a driver/hitchhiker relationship, the driver retains control and the hitchhiker is at the driver’s mercy
Hitchhikers are subordinated to someone else’s Fastlane plan
Make the world your habit of play in an organization you control
Network marketing has little to do with entrepreneurship but more to do with sales, networking, training, and motivation
Network marketing is a powerful distribution system. As a fastlaner, seek to own one, not join one
Network marketing can have some excellent education value in the realm of sales, motivation, and team building. If you can succeed at networking marketing, you should be able to succeed in a Fastlane venture

Chapter 31 - The Commandment of Entry

The Commandment of Entry states as entry barriers fall, competition rises and the road weakens
Easy access roads carry more traffic. More traffic generates higher competition, and higher competition creates lower margins for participants
Businesses with weak entry often lack control and operate in saturated marketplaces
Exceptionalism is required to overcome weak entry barriers
Access to a business road should be a process with a toll, not an event
“Everyone” consists of general populous and is served by the mainstream media
If everyone were wealthy, “everybody is doing it” would work. And if everyone is wealthy, then no one is wealthy
“Everyone is doing it” is a signal to overbought conditions and the entrance of “dumb money”

Chapter 32 - The Commandment of Need

The Commandment of Need states that businesses solve needs win. Needs can be pain points, service gaps, unsolved problems, or emotional disconnects
Ninety percent of all new businesses fail because they are based on selfish internal needs, not external market needs
No one cares about your selfish desires for dreams or money; people only want to know what your business can do for them
Money chasers haven’t broken free from selfishness, and their businesses often follow their own selfish needs
People vote for your business with their money
Chase money and it will elude you. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts money, you will draw it to yourself
Help one million people and you will be a millionaire
For money to follow “Do what you love”, your love must solve a need and you must be exceptional at it
“Do what you love” sets the stage for crowded marketplaces with depressed margins
When you have financial resources, you can “do what you love” and not get paid for it, nor do you have to be good at it
Slowlaners feed “do what you love” with “do what you hate”. Five days of hate for two days of love
“Doing what you love” for money can endanger your love
Passion for an end goal, a why, drives Fastlane success
Having a passionate “why” can transform work into joy
“Doing what you love” usually leads to the violation of the Commandement of Need
The right road for you is one that will converge with your dreams

Chapter 33 - The Commandment of Time

A business attached to your time is a job
A business that earns income exclusive of your time satisfies the Commandment of Time
To satisfy the Commandment of Time, start with a business that uses a money-system seedling, or introduce one

Chapter 34 - The Commandment of Scale

Your total pool of customers determines your habitat. The larger the habitat, the greater the potential for wealth
A business can be a singles or a home-run-based business. Its strength is determined by scale, which is derived by habitat
Think of local (pool), county/city (pond), statewide (lagoon), regional (lake), national (sea), worldwide (ocean) reach or magnitude = scale
Doctors who own practices and hire other doctors get full access to Effectionand get rich. Effection always is biased around the architect of the system.
The Fastlane wealth equation is disarmed when you violate the Commandment of Scale
Scale is achieved in reach (units sold) and/or magnitude (unit profit)
The Law of Effection is the primary conduit to wealth, which can be road-blocked by scale, magnitude, or source
Effection consequences trickle up to owners and producers. Breaking scale or magnitude indirectly in an uncontrolled entity is not a guarantee of wealth
To gain access to Effection, you have to break the barrier of scale or magnitude in an entity you control
Scale, magnitude, or source deficiencies create governors on the speed of wealth creation

Chapter 35 - Rapid Wealth: The Interstates

The best Fastlanes satisfy all five Commandments: Control, Entry, Need, Time, and Scale. Don't invest in a needless business. Don't trade time for money. Don't operate on limited scale. Don't relinquish control. Don't let a business be an event over process!
There are three interstaes: internet, innovation, intentional iteration
Assuming a need-based premise, the internet is still the fastest interstate, because it overwhelmingly satisfies all Commandments
(1) Internet subscription based SaaS, (2) Content-based that share information like news/magazines to a niche industry, (3) lead generation provides a service to customers while aggregating a non-homogeneous industry (4) Social Networks / Communities / Forums to pull niche interests together and build an audience, (5) brokerage systems bring buyers and sellers together to facilitate transactions (PayPal, Upwork, CarsDirect, and Travelocity.com (6) Advertising where you can merge buyers and sellers together and accept advertising fees in lieu of transaction fees. (7) E-Commerce
Innovation can be any variety of open roads: authoring, investing, or services. Examples include 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 success needs coupling with distribution
Inventing can be taking something old and stale and make it better, or improving/modifying it
A singles-based business is scaled to a home-run business by intentional iteration. With iteration, scale is required
Intentional Interation is the act of repeating a process, usually with the aim of approaching a desired goal or target or result."

Chapter 36 - Find Your Open Road

Opportunities are rarely about investing breakthroughs, but about performance gaps, small inconveniences, and pain points
Competition should not impede your road. Competition is everywhere, and your objective should be to “do it better”
Fastlane success resides in execution, not in the idea
The world’s most successful entrepreneurs didn’t have blockbuster ideas; they just took existing concepts and made them better, or exposed them to more people
Opportunity is exposed in your language and your thought processes, as well as other people’s language
Failure cracks open new roads
Quitting only happens when you give up on your dream

Chapter 37 - Give Your Road a Destination

The Fastlane is the means to your end because dreams cost money
To find out the price of your dreams you need to (1) Define your lifestyle, (2) Assess the cost, (3) Set the targets, (4) Make it real
Define your lifestyle: Write everything you want down, for example cars, housing, holidays/vacation, education for kids
Assess the cost: Determine the monthly cost for each including all associated expenses; taxes, utilites, maintenance, insurance, etc. This should form the basis of your "lifestyle cost". Then add on top for unknowns such as clothes, gadgets, entertainment etc. Say the "gross living cost" is $20k per month, divide by 0.6 to account for potential taxes so $33k per month is needed as the "net living cost"
Set the Targets: Set two targets: the business system income target and the money system target. For money system target multiply the "net living cost" by 12, then divide by 0.05 or 5% so $33k x 12 = $400k. Money system target is $8m. Business System Target = ($20k x 5) = $100k/mo. 40% goes to taxes, 40% to the money system and 20% pays your lifestyle
Conquer big goals by breaking them down to their smallest component
Daily saving reinforces your relationship with money; it is your passive system that buys freedom and another solider added to your army
A money system isnt’ used to grow wealth but to grow income. Growing wealth should be left to your Fastlane road
You will struggle to build a financial empire if you are financially illiterate
“Live below your means” is relevant at any income level
For the Fastlaner, “Live below your means” means to expand your means
A financial adviser doesn’t solve financial illiteracy and literacy is insurance
Financial illiteracy dilutes your control, especially when evaluating the advice of a financial adviser

PART 8- YOUR SPEED: ACCELERATE WEALTH

Chapter 38 - The Speed of Success

Speed is the transformation of ideas to execution
Most people let powerful information expire and become worthless
Successful Fastlane businesses are run multi-dimensionally, like a game of chess.
One-dimensional businesses focus on price only
Execution divides winners and losers from their ideas
In business, execution is process. Ideas are events
Ideas are potential speed. Execution is actual speed
Others share your blockbuster idea. He who thinks the idea owns nothing
He who executes the idea owns everything
Real money and momentum is created when an idea (potential speed) is matched with execution (accelerator pressure)
An idea if neurological flatuelence. Execution makes it smell like a rose

Chapter 39 - Burn the Business Plan, Ignite Execution

The world gives clues to the direction you should be moving
Business plans are useless because they are ideas on steroids
As soon as the world interacts with your ideas, your business plan is invalidated
The marketplace will steer you into directions that were previously unplanned for
The best business plan in the world is a track record of execution - it legitimizes the business plan
If you have a track record of execution, suddenly people will want to see your business plan
If you want your business to get funded, take action and create something that reflects tangible execution
Investors are more likely to invest in something tangible and real; not ideas dissected endlessly on paper

Chapter 40 - Pedestrians Will Make You Rich!

Complaints are valuable insights into your customers’ minds
Complaints of change are difficult to decipher and often require additional data to validate or invalidate
Complaints of expectation expose operational problems in either your business, or in your marketing strategy
Complaints of void expose unmet needs, raise the value of your product or service, and expose new revenue opportunities
Great customer service is as simple as violating your customer’s low expectation in the positive
Poor service gaps are Fastlane opportunities
Satisfied customers can be human resource systems who promote your business for free
Satisfied customers have a dual residual effect: Repeat business and new business via discipleship
Your customer’s satisfaction holds the key to everything you selfishly want
Looking big but acting small sets up customer service expectation violations in the positive
Looking big can scare away potential competitors

Chapter 41 - Throw Hijackers to the Curb!

A business partnership is as important as a marriage
A good accountant and attorney will save you thousands, perhaps millions
Accountants and attorneys have the keys to your castle; make sure you trust them fully because they have the power to right or wrong you
Unmitigated trust exposes you to unmitigated risk
Unverified trust can lead to uncontrollable consequences
Your employees communicate the public’s perception of your company
Fanatical customer service can overcome shortcomings, but fanatical features can’t overcome poor customer service
Customer service philosophy is delivered from human interactions - not ambitious mission statements on a wall plaque in the CEO’s office

Chapter 42 - Be Someone's Savior

Commoditization occurs when you get into business based on a false premise - “I want to own a business” or “I know how to do this, so I’ll start a business doing it.”
If you are too busy copying or watching your competition, you’re not innovating
Use your competition to exploit their weaknesses, differentiate, and skew value
Forget about your competition 95% of the time. The other 5% should be used to exploit their weaknesses and differentiate your business, which is to innovate, skew value, and win over the minds of your customers

Chapter 43 - Build Brands, Not Businesses

Marketing and branding (the queen) is the most powerful Fast Lane tool
Businesses survive. Brands thrive
Businesses have identity crises, brands don’t. Identity crises force business owners into price commoditization
Unique Selling Propositions (UPSs) is a brand key and differentiates your company from the rest
People have a natural desire to be unique and different
Marketing success requires messages to break above the noise, or advertising clutter
Polarization is a great above-the-noise tool if your product targets a polarized audience - usually politics, minority opinions, and even sports teams
Sex sells and always draws eyeballs. (But can tarnish your brand image)
Consumers make buying decisions based on emotions before practicality
If you can arouse audience emotions, convincing customers to buy is easier
People like talking about themselves. If you can incorporate interaction or “try before you buy” into your campaigns, you will have better success
To be unconventional means to first isolate and identify what is conventional, then doing the opposite, or interrupting that convention
Consumers are selfishly motivated. Always target your messages towards the predisposition of “What’s in it for me?”
Features are translated to benefits when you switch positions from producer to consumer, identify the feature’s advantages, and extrapolate those advantages into a specific result
Price implicitly conveys value and worth
Don’t allow your own perception of price lead your brand to mediocrity

Chapter 44 - Choose Monogamy Over Polygamy

Tekel Syndrome sufferers are polygamist-opportunists who opportunity-hop
A weak business commitment commits you to weak assets. Weak assets do not accelerate wealth
The most successful entrepreneurs lived and breathed their business with 100% committed. Successful business monogamy can lead to successful business polygamy, a diversification into many passionate interests and investments
Save the “I have ten businesses” until after you sell one company for millions

Chapter 45 - Put It Together: Supercharge Your Wealth Plan

APPENDIX C - Weighted Average Decision Matrix (WADM)

Factors	Detroit	Phoneix
Weather (10)
Schools (3)
Cost of Living (6)
Business Climate (2)
Taxes (7)
Safety (4)
Entertainment (8)
Near Family (7)