The Millionaire Fastlane

by MJ DeMarco

  

  There are few books that have touched, moved and inspired me as much as The Millionaire Fastlane. It has crystallized my thought processes in building, developing and implementing that ‘formula’ in my businesses and in life as a whole. It has also helped me in formulating AND creating multiple scalable revenue streams to the tune of nearly $2 million a year and growing. All without any formal education and a C student in high school. It isn’t easy, but it is simple.

  — R. RUDE, SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI

  To say that your advice and the ‘Fastlane principles’ have changed my life is an understatement. I knew there was a better life out there, but I had become frustrated about how to reach it. After reading your advice, it all started coming together for me. I began to see why I was living paycheck to paycheck. I decided then that I was going to escape it. Four years later, I have almost quadrupled my net worth. I have saved and invested more in the past few years than many of my friends in their 30s.

  — M. GOMEZ, WASHINGTON, NEW JERSEY

  I’ve owned my own business for 40 years and have read countless books… in the hundreds of business books I’ve read—NONE—I mean NONE are even close to delivering the humor, the clarity and the wisdom that MJ has demonstrated in his two books. If you are looking for a better way, this is your LAST STOP. You have arrived. Don’t waste another moment. Get and read the books, NOW!

  — A. BERNADUCCI (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, NEW JERSEY)

  Before reading Fastlane, I was living the perfect suburban dream. Solid job, stockpiling money in a 401(k), mortgaging a house I couldn’t afford, and drowning in student loan debt. That’s when I learned about the Slowlane. I was going nowhere on that 40-year journey, hoping to retire on a shaky 401(k) that probably won’t be worth much with inflation. Every page was a sucker punch to the gut. It shook my beliefs in what was expected of me as an American adult. But it uncovered something deep inside of me: the desire to control my own destiny and create a legacy. So, while I slaved away at my job, I joined MJ’s community and learned. After a year of learning, trials and tribulations, I started my own business. Another year later, I have launched a health food company that is nationally distributed and on the verge of becoming a big player in my category. I’m no millionaire yet, but my blinker is ON and I’m merging into the Fastlane!

  — SCOTT WEST, TAMPA, FLORIDA

  It’s one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. I know people say there aren’t any shortcuts to success, but this book is literally the only shortcut that I truly think exists. Read it if you haven’t already. And if you have, read it again, at least once a year. Every time you’ll find a new golden nugget that you didn’t notice before.

  — AMINMO (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, TACOMA WASHINGTON)

  The Millionaire Fastlane is THE quintessential book for business. Consider it your business Bible.

  — T. PHAM (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA)

  Exceptional is the only word I have. The book woke me up so many times at night because of the impact it had.

  — ECLS18 (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, BC, CANADA)

  If I had to trade in all my knowledge from self-development books and could keep only one, it would be Millionaire Fastlane. The amount of paradigm shifts in the book is stupefying. I feel that if we lived in more backwards times, this would be decreed forbidden knowledge to thwart social mobility and maintain the social hierarchy. Thanks MJ for giving us the manifesto of our age!

  — WAX COMICAL (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, NSW, AU)

  Wow! Has to be one of the most fantastic business books I’ve read, and I’ve read many. It should be made compulsory reading for every young person once they turn 16, as a matter of government policy. The clarity at which MJ drives his points and examples he uses are exceptional. Thanks MJ for bringing such a book to the world. I’m sure it will remain a legend for several decades to come, if not centuries.

  — GENIUS01 (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, VIRGINIA)

  The implications of this book are absolutely empowering and makes freedom in today’s world 100 percent attainable. I thought I had the right conclusions about business and life, but this pulls everything together for a real paradigm shift.

  — CHINGADING (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, SEATTLE WASHINGTON)

  I read every chapter twice. It was like waking from a 20 year coma to a spotlight in my face. The hard truth analogies did as intended, challenging and changing everything I knew about my financial path, or lack thereof. It put real perspective on my world of hourly wage limits and saving for decades as the value of a dollar diminishes. No more trading 5 for 2. MJ, thanks for waking me up.

  — B. COLE (USER, FASTLANE FORUM, VIRGINIA)

  To read more testimonials (over 5,000 of them!)

  about how Fastlane has changed lives, please visit:

  http://bit.ly/2ILqKQ6

  Additional Fastlane Resources

  Advance Your Fastlane!

  In 2007 I founded The Fastlane Forum, a global community dedicated to the advancement of Unscripted® Entrepreneurship. Join over 40,000 entrepreneurs who are transforming their dreams to reality. (And YES, it is FREE.)

  ➡https://www.theFastlaneForum.com

  MJDeMarco

  ➡https://www.MJDeMarco.com

  ➡https://twitter.com/MJDeMarco

  ➡https://instagram.com/MJ.Demarco

  ➡https://youtube.com/FastlaneMJ

  The Millionaire Fastlane

  ➡http://www.theMillionaireFastlane.com

  Unscripted: Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship

  ➡http://www.getUnscripted.com

  Language Translations Available

  The Millionaire Fastlane is available worldwide in the following languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified and Complex) Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Estonian, Korean, Hungarian, Japanese, and more coming soon.

  Copyright © 2011, 2018 MJ DeMarco

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a published review. Commercial book summaries are prohibited unless explicitly licensed and/or authored by the publisher.

  Published by:Viperion Publishing Corporation

  PO Box 18151

  Fountain Hills, AZ 85269

  ISBN 978-0-9843581-0-6

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934089

  Printed in the USA

  The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication. This book is presented for informational purposes only. Due to the rate at which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinions based on new conditions. While every attempt has been made to verify the information in this book, neither the author nor his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, or omissions.

  Preface

  Introduction

  PART 1- WEALTH IN A WHEELCHAIR: “GET RICH SLOW” IS GET RICH OLD.

  [1] - The Great Deception

  [2] - How I Screwed “Get Rich Slow”

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

  [3] - The Road Trip to Wealth

  [4] - The Roadmaps to Wealth

  PART 3- POVERTY: THE SIDEWALK ROADMAP

  [5] - The Road Most Traveled: The Sidewalk

  [6] - Is Your Wealth Poisoned?

  [7] - Misuse Money and Money Will Misuse You

  [8] - Lucky Bastards Play The Game

  [9] - Wealth Demands Accountability

  PART 4- MEDIOCRITY: THE S
LOWLANE ROADMAP

  [10] - The Lie You’ve Been Sold: The Slowlane

  [11] - The Criminal Trade: Your Job

  [12] - The Slowlane: Why You Aren’t Rich

  [13] The Futile Fight: Education

  [14] - The Hypocrisy of the Gurus

  [15] - Slowlane Victory: A Gamble of Hope

  PART 5- WEALTH: THE FASTLANE ROADMAP

  [16] - Wealth’s Shortcut: The Fastlane

  [17] - Switch Teams and Playbooks

  [18] - How the Rich Really Get Rich

  [19] - Divorce Wealth from Time

  [20] - Recruit Your Army of Freedom Fighters

  [21] - The Real Law of Wealth

  PART 6- YOUR VEHICLE TO WEALTH: YOU

  [22] - Own Yourself First

  [23] - Life’s Steering Wheel

  [24] - Wipe Your Windshield Clean

  [25] - Deodorize Foul Headwinds

  [26] - Your Primordial Fuel: Time

  [27] - Change That Dirty, Stale Oil

  [28] - Hit the Redline

  PART 7- THE ROADS TO WEALTH

  [29] - The Right Road Routes to Wealth

  [30] - The Commandment of Control

  [31] - The Commandment of Entry

  [32] - The Commandment of Need

  [33] - The Commandment of Time

  [34] - The Commandment of Scale

  [35] - Rapid Wealth: The Interstates

  [36] - Find Your Open Road

  [37] - Give Your Road a Destination

  PART 8- YOUR SPEED: ACCELERATE WEALTH

  [38] - The Speed of Success

  [39] - Burn the Business Plan, Ignite Execution

  [40] - Pedestrians Will Make You Rich!

  [41] - Throw Hijackers to the Curb!

  [42] - Be Someone’s Savior

  [43] - Build Brands, Not Businesses

  [44] - Choose Monogamy Over Polygamy

  [45] - Put It Together: Supercharge Your Wealth Plan

  APPENDIX A – Reader Reflections

  APPENDIX B - The 40 Fastlane Lifestyle Guidelines

  APPENDIX C - Weighted Average Decision Matrix (WADM)

  Preface

  The “Lamborghini Prophecy” Completes

  The Millionaire Fastlane is the echo of a chance encounter I had long ago when I was a pudgy teenager. It was a Fastlane spark of awareness, an enlightenment triggered by a stranger driving a mythic car—a Lamborghini Countach. The Fastlane was born, and with it the belief and resolution that wealth need not take 50 years of financial mediocrity devoured by decades of work, decades of saving, decades of mindless frugality, and decades of 8% stock market returns.

  Often, this book references the Lamborghini brand, and it isn’t to brag to say I’ve owned a few. The Lamborghini icon represents the fulfillment of a prophecy in my life. It innocently began when I saw my first Lamborghini and it kicked my ass out of my comfort zone. I confronted its young owner and asked a simple question: “How can you afford such an awesome car?”

  The answer I received, unveiled in Chapter 2, was short and powerful, but I wish I had more. I wish that young man had taken an hour, a day, or a week to talk to me. I wish that stranger would have mentored me on how to get what I thought the Lamborghini represented: wealth.

  I wish that man had reached into his car and given me a book.

  Years later, I would relive that same moment in role reversal. To celebrate my burgeoning Fastlane success, I bought my first exotic car—a legendary beast known as a Lamborghini Diablo. If you’ve never had the opportunity to drive a car that costs more than most people’s homes, let me tell you how it works: You can’t be shy. People chase you in traffic. They tailgate, rubberneck, and cause accidents. Getting gas is an event: people snap photos, enraged environmentalists throw you an evil eye, and haters speculate about the length of your penis—as if owning a Hyundai implies being well endowed. Mostly, people ask questions.

  The most frequent questions come from leering and inquisitive teenagers, as I was many years ago: “Wow, how can you afford one of these?” or “What do you do?” People associate Lamborghinis with wealth, and while that’s an illusion (any dimwit can finance a ridiculously expensive car), it’s indicative of a dream lifestyle that most people conceive as incomprehensible.

  Now when I hear the same question I asked decades ago, I have the power to gift a book and perhaps, to gift a dream...

  This book is my official answer.

  Introduction

  The Road to Wealth Has a Shortcut

  There’s a hidden road to wealth and financial freedom, a shortcut of blistering speed where you can achieve wealth in youthful exuberance over elder entropy. Yes, you don’t have to settle for mediocrity. You can live rich, retire four decades early, and live a life that most can’t. Sadly, the shortcut is cleverly camouflaged from your view. Instead of the shortcut, you’re led down a paralyzing road to mediocrity—a dulled cornucopia of financial orthodoxy preened to the slumbering masses, a legion of mandates that sacrifices your wildest dreams in favor of numbed expectations.

  That road? It’s financial mediocrity, known as “Get Rich Slow,” “The Slowlane,” or “Wealth in a Wheelchair.” That tedium sounds like this:

  Go to college, get good grades, graduate, get a good job, save 10% of your paycheck, invest in the stock market, preferably in a low cost indexed-fund, max your 401(k), slash your credit cards, and clip coupons . . . then, someday, when you are, oh, 65 years old, you will be rich.

  This dictation is a decree to trade life, for life. It’s the long way, and no, it isn’t scenic. If wealth were an ocean voyage, “Get Rich Slow” would be sailing around the horn of South America, while the Fastlaner uses the shortcut—the Panama Canal.

  The Millionaire Fastlane isn’t a static strategy that preaches “go buy real estate,” “think positively,” or “start a business,” but a complete psychological and mathematical formula that cracks wealth’s code and unlocks the gateway to the shortcut. The Fastlane is a progression of distinctions that gives probability to the unspeakable: Live richly today while young, and decades before standard norms of retirement.

  Yes, you can win a lifetime of freedom and prosperity, and it doesn’t matter if you’re 18 or 40. What “Get Rich Slow” tries to accomplish in 50 years, and I emphasize “try”, the Fastlane shortcut does in five.

  Why Can’t You Drive the Shortcut?

  If you’re a typical wealth seeker, your approach can be predictably foretold by a timeless question: What do I have to do to get rich? The quest for the answer—wealth’s Holy Grail—throws you into a frame of mind likened to hot pursuit. Sought and chased are a variety of strategies, theories, careers, and schemes that supposedly promise great wealth. Invest in real estate! Start an Amazon business! Trade cryptocurrencies! Play pro ball! “What do I have to do?” screams the wealth seeker!

  No, please stop.

  The answer is more about what you’ve been doing than what you haven’t. There’s an old proverb that has mutated a few times but the gist is this: If you want to keep getting what you’re getting, keep doing what you’re doing.

  The translation? STOP! If you aren’t wealthy, STOP doing what you’re doing. STOP following the conventional wisdom. STOP following the crowd and using the wrong formula. STOP following the roadmap that forsakes dreams and leads to mediocrity. STOP traveling roads with punitive speed limits and endless detours. I call it “anti-advice,” and much of this book follows this prescription.

  This book lists nearly 300 wealth distinctions designed to crack the code to wealth and get you off your current road and onto a new one where you can expose wealth’s shortcut. The distinctions are directional markers to “STOP” your old ways of action, thinking, and believing, and reorient you into a new direction. In essence, you have to unlearn what you have learned.

  Your Reality Doesn’t Change Mine

  This section is for the haters. I present the Fastlane with brash cynicism. This book contains a lot of “tough love,” and w
hile it is opinionated, you ultimately have to seek your own truth. The Fastlane might insult, offend, or challenge you because it will violate everything you’ve been taught. It will contradict the teachings of your parents, teachers, and financial planners. And since I violate all that society represents, you can bet mediocre minds will take issue.

  Thankfully, your belief (or disbelief) of Fastlane strategy doesn’t change my reality; it only changes yours. Let me repeat: Your opinion of the Fastlane doesn’t change (and can’t change) my reality; its purpose is to change yours.

  So let me tell you about my reality. Everyday I pinch myself bruised in gratitude and happiness. My home is a big McMansion overlooking the mountains in beautiful Fountain Hills, Arizona. It has everything but the mortgage. There are rooms in my house that I don’t visit for months. Yes, the home is too large, and that story is a horrifying epic best forgotten.

  I can’t remember the last time I set an alarm clock and jolted awake—everyday is a Saturday. I have no job and no boss. I don’t own a suit or a tie. My cholesterol level confirms that I dine at Italian restaurants too often. I smoke cheap cigars. As of this edition, I drive a twelve year old Toyota Tacoma with over 120,000 miles. While I used to own a variety of exotic cars, mostly Lamborghinis, I traded in that ostentatiousness for eleven jaw-dropping acres in Sedona Arizona. The only “toy” I own is an off-road, rock-crawling UTV capable of scaling Mount Everest, but the Sedona red rocks will do just fine. I almost lost my life street racing a 750-horsepower Viper laced with nitrous oxide. I shop at Costco, Kohl’s, and wherever store is convenient. Yes, that includes Wal-Mart, but only if the parking lot is empty . No, I didn’t drive the Lamborghini to Wal-Mart; that might cause a disruption in the space-time-continuum. Trekkies know better.

  I don’t own a watch more expensive than $149. I enjoy tennis, biking, swimming, hiking, softball, poker, pool, art, travel, writing, and exploring the beautiful Arizona desert in my UTV. I travel whenever and wherever I want. I have no debt and paid cash for my homes. I also paid off mother’s mortgage so she could enjoy retirement while not fretting about cost of living increases.