by MJ DeMarco
Have You Sold Your Soul for a Weekend?
Your soul is worth more than a weekend. The side effect of Slowlane institutionalization is numbed blindness, followed by ignorance.
In 2007 on a cold January morning, a violinist stationed himself in a Washington, DC, train station and played six classical pieces from Bach. Except this was no ordinary violinist and it was no ordinary violin. This was an incognito Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world, who nights earlier had played to a sold-out concert hall in Boston for nearly $100 a ticket. As Joshua played his $3.5 million violin in the midst of the morning commuter rush, approximately 2,000 people passed through the station, most of them on their way to work.
He played continuously for 45 minutes.
Only six people stopped to listen briefly. No crowd formed. About 20 folks gave money but continued onward at a brisk pace. When he finished, there was silence except for the rhythmic hustle of a busy train station. No applause. No crowd. No recognition.
This experiment, conducted by the Washington Post, uncovers something incredibly powerful—and disturbing. Not even the greatest musician in the world can illuminate the blinding depths of the rat race and those suffocating by its indifference.
Has making a living made you so apathetic that the living has been sucked out of you? Are you so deadened by Monday through Friday that the beauty in front of you has become blind and its melody muted?
The train commuters come and go like zombies—they’re oblivious to the splendor of Monday through Friday. Yet, what if this experiment occurred on Saturday; would its outcome be any different?
This story exposes the Slowlane for its contempt: When you trade your life mindlessly for a paycheck, you risk being blinded to life itself as you cursively walk by it in a busy train station. Life does not begin on Friday night and end Monday morning.
“Thank God It’s Friday”: Born and Bred in the Slowlane
A friend recently berated me because I declined to go out on a Saturday night. “Are you crazy? It’s Saturday night!” he wailed. I told him something a Slowlaner doesn’t understand: For me, every day is a Saturday because I haven’t sold off Monday through Friday.
Wealth’s provenance evolves from the three Fs: family, fitness, and freedom. Freedom’s value to wealth is evidenced on Friday evenings, which just so happened to be the setting for an epic conversation I had with my friend during happy hour. While we sat on the bar’s patio, we heard a chattering cacophony of patrons immersed in spirited conversation. The bar was “happening” and within the rustling soundtrack, you’d never guess a recession was ongoing.
Over the noise, I asked “What do you hear?”
“I hear people having a great time, a celebration,” she said.
I asked further, “Why?”
“Why what? It’s Friday!” she declared.
I probed further. “What’s so special about Friday? If we came here on Monday, this place would be empty and the sound of celebration would be absent. What makes Friday so special as opposed to Monday or Wednesday?”
Knowing that she was trapped into one of my paradoxical interrogations, she humored me.
“Uhh . . . people get paid on Friday?”
I levied the verdict: Friday evening is celebrated because people are rejoicing over the dividends of their trade: five days of work-bondage exchanged for two days of unadulterated freedom. Saturday and Sunday is the payment for Monday through Friday. Friday evening symbolizes the emergence of that payment, freedom for two days. The prostitution of Monday through Friday is the reason “Thank God it’s Friday” exists. On Friday, people are paid FREEDOM in the currency of Saturday and Sunday!
Negative 60%: The Dismal Return of the Slowlane
The ultimate insanity is to sell your soul Monday through Friday for the paycheck of Saturday and Sunday. Yes, give me $5 today and in return I’ll give you $2 back tomorrow.
5-for-2. No?
How about five loaves of bread today and in return, I’ll give you two back tomorrow. No again? Why? This is a smoking deal!
Hopefully you recognize that five of anything in exchange for two is a bad return. The 5-for-2 return on investment is a negative 60%. If you make consistent negative 60% return on investments, you’d go bankrupt quick. What logical person would accept such a horrific deal?
Most likely, you already do. When you accept the Slowlane roadmap as your strategy, you accept 5-for-2. You give five days of work servitude in exchange for two days of weekend freedom. Yes, Monday through Friday is prostituted for Saturday and Sunday. While people easily recognize and reject a negative 60% return on their money, they do it willingly with their time.
If you have children you have to question this normality. Kids grow on Mondays and Tuesdays. I’ve heard they grow on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays too. Yes, they don’t wait for the weekend to grow up. When little Miranda speaks her first word, walks her first walk, dances the first dance, she doesn’t care if you’re in Houston for the quarterly manager’s meeting. Kids and relationships don’t wait for the weekend to grow, and while you’re out trading 5-for-2, guess what—the kids get older and so do you.
People who are bankrupt with time see their freedom, their families and their relationships disintegrate. Time is mismanaged because the Slowlane is predicated on time. Five days of servitude for two days of freedom is not a good trade unless you trade time into a system that can give you a better return on your time.
Instead of 5-for-2 for life, how about a 5-for-2 trade that has the potential to blossom into a better ratio? Like 1-for-2 or 3-for-10? Would you make a 5-for-2 trade knowing that it could transform into a 1-for-10? Would that be a something to invest in?
While I worked my plan, I gave 7-for-0 (I worked seven days and didn’t take a day off) because I knew the roads within my roadmap converged with dreams. I worked for a better ratio in the near future, not in 40 years. I controlled my destiny and eventually my time trade investment yielded a dividend of 40 years.
Now I do 0-for-7. I work zero days and get seven days of freedom.
Sadly, if you are Slowlane grinding, your options to shatter this negative 60% return for your freedom is restricted. Remember, wealth is defined by freedom. If you want proof, look to Friday night when people celebrate freedom as the Slowlane dictatorship takes a weekend furlough.
Normal Is Condemnation to Mediocrity
Revolutionary Road, the 2008 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, does an excellent job portraying the Slowlane’s death grip. A young couple find themselves living in suburbia, going through life’s motions: The husband (DiCaprio) goes to work every morning and immerses himself in a crowd of his peers while his wife (Winslet) fills the role of the good housewife.
Both instinctively know that something is wrong. They’re settling. They’ve accepted normal. They’ve forsaken their dreams for the insane plan of everyone. Throughout the movie we witness their attempts to escape, and with precarious consequences.
The problem is, we’ve been brainwashed to accept the Slowlane roadmap as normal. The defective roadmap gains traction early in life and is sanctified as the “commoners” only probable means to wealth. Sounds logical right? Folks like us just don’t get rich playing pro ball, rapping, acting, or entertaining, so we’re left with the Slowlane. And for some, that just might be OK. But for the rest of us with big dreams, big goals, and big ideas, it just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Here’s a Slowlane story pulled from the pages of the Fastlane Forum (TheFastlaneForum.com):
In the quest for becoming wealthy, my life has become quite uncomfortable. It all started five years ago when I had nothing. I had turned 30 years old and I thought that living paycheck to paycheck was no way to live at all.
I made a vow to myself that I would become wealthy.
In order to do this I took on a second job and saved all of the money from that job while I used the money from the first job to pay for my living expenses. Basically
, the last five years of my life have been as such in order for me to save money:
– living and paying relatively cheap rent for an 8×13 foot room
– using public transportation and a motorcycle for transportation.
– working almost every day with no days off during the week
– rarely eating out
– never buying “toys” or nice things for myself or wife
– almost never going out and having a good time
With the second job and my economical lifestyle I have managed to save about $50,000 in five years. It would have been more, but I lost a good $30,000 when I invested right before the Dow hit its peak in October of 2007. I’ve reached a breaking point.
Five years is a long time to live in a room no bigger than a jail cell. The jobs are mind numbing. I feel like my life is a prison. I have a good lifestyle for saving money, but at the expense of my mental sanity and happiness as a human being. I just feel like I can’t live like this any longer.
The Slowlaner accepts an existence of frugality and sacrifice to a tipping-point where life feels like incarceration.
Does this guy’s life seem awesome or mediocre? Will it merge with a dream?
The Slowlane plan forsakes the now for a faint promise of a wealthy future.
I don’t consider “settle for less” a strategy, which is why the Slowlane is predisposed to mediocrity. Life isn’t great, but it isn’t so bad either. No, it could be better . . . but you’ve got to swap the Slowlane for a new plan.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
➡The Slowlane 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 Slowlane is a plan that takes decades to succeed, requiring masterful political prowess in a corporate environment, frugality, and Wall-Street wizardry.
➡For the Slowlaner, 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.
[11] - The Criminal Trade: Your Job
By working faithfully 8 hours a day, you may eventually get to be the boss and work 12 hours a day.
~ Robert Frost
I Spent Five Years in College . . . for a Phonebook?
Before college graduation, I humored myself and attended a few job workshops. I remember one vividly: an entry-level position at a big insurance firm in Chicago. During our introduction at the corporate facility, the company recruiters told us exactly what to expect:
Over there [pointing to a sea of cubicles] is where our new hires sit. I won’t be coy; in the beginning this job is difficult. We give you three things: a desk, a telephone, and a telephone book. You will spend 10 hours a day cold-calling to build your clientele. I know, not glamorous, but the rewards . . .
At that point I didn’t give a shit about the “rewards”. I immediately went into acting mode. I acted interested. I acted grateful for the opportunity. I acted like it was acceptable.
It wasn’t.
So lemme get this straight: I spent five years and $40K+ in college just so I can sit in a 6×6 cubicle and cold-call people out of a damn telephone book? Are you kidding me? I could have done this without the college degree, without the mountainous pile of debt, and yes, without that five years lost!
Yet, my peers salivated at the opportunity of having a nice base salary, a great 401(k), and a top-tier health plan. No thanks. If I’m cold-calling a stranger and interrupting their supper, it won’t be for my boss, but for me.
Jobs: Domestication into Normalcy
If you want to escape the Slowlane, find wealth and freedom fast, you’ve got to dump the job. Let me repeat. Dump the damn job!
Jobs suck. I mean that generically, not targeted toward a specific job. Whether you’re an electrician or a store manager, you hold a job. Jobs suck because they’re rooted in limited leverage and limited control. Sure, you can have great job (and a fun one too!) but in the scope of wealth, they limit both leverage and control—two things desperately needed if you want wealth.
Here are six sucky reasons your financial plan shouldn’t revolve around a job, the nucleus to the Slowlane.
Suckage #1: To Trade Time Is to Trade Life
Who taught us that trading time in exchange for money was a great idea? Why does this normalcy consistently translate into unrivaled suckage? If you’re shackled to a job, you’re married to a glorified time trade (your life) for pieces of paper that grant you freedom. You sell your freedom to earn freedom. Pretty stupid, huh?
Jobs suck because they ravenously consume TIME. At a job, TIME TRADE is central to how you make money. A job is the basis for that horrific 5-for-2 exchange. But let me translate that word, TIME, differently: LIFE.
In a job, you sell your life for money. If you work, you get paid. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Who officiated this bloodsucking marriage?
Assuming a 20% income tax, here is a list of common jobs and how long it takes to earn (and then pocket) $1 million in after-tax dollars. If you diligently save 10% of your after-tax earnings and stuff it under a mattress, your time to $1 million multiplies by a factor of 10. Do you have 250 years to save your way to $1 million?
Career/Job Average Annual Salary Years to EARN
$1 MM Years to SAVE
$1 MM
Architect $85,000 15 years 147 years
Auto Mechanic $43,000 29 years 291 years
Bartender $26,000 48 years 481 years
Carpenter $50,000 25 years 250 years
Software Engineer $102,000 12 years 123 years
Secretary $37,000 34 years 338 years
Hairdresser $30,000 42 years 417 years
Teacher $61,000 21 years 205 years
Pharmacist $121,000 10 years 103 years
Police Officer $64,000 20 years 195 years
Physical Therapist $88,000 14 years 142 years
Veterinarian $101,000 12 years 124 years
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2017 Occupational Wage Estimates. Figures rounded for simplicity.
Wouldn’t it make sense to get paid regardless of what you’re doing? Get paid while you sleep, while you have fun, while you poop, while you sit on the beach? Why not get paid with the simple passage of time and make time work for you instead of against you? Does that exist? It does, but it doesn’t come from a Slowlane.
Suckage #2: Limitation on Experience
I learned more as an entrepreneur in two months than I did working 10 years at dozens of dead-end jobs. The problem with a specialized skill set is, it narrows your useful value to a confined set of marketplace needs. You become one of many cogs in a wheel. And if that cog becomes obsolete or expendable? Guess what, you’re out of luck.
For example, thousands of auto workers have been displaced because their jobs have been outsourced or replaced by robotics. Experience doesn’t help them, it hinders them. Remember typewriters? How is the typewriter repairman doing these days? How about stockbrokers and travel agents? With the advent of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, how are taxi drivers faring? Dying breeds of jobs move out of favor like fashion fads. One year your skill set has value, the next, it doesn’t.
Second, job experience is usually organized into a core group of activities that is routinely repeated over and over again, day after day. After the initial learning experience, the job becomes regimented and accumulation of new knowledge creeps to a crawl. A job limits learning and mutates into life’s death knell: a trade of life force for money.
Experience comes from what you do in life, not from what you do in a job. You do
n’t need a job to get experience.
Ask yourself this: Which experience is more important? The experience of a menial job designed to pay your bills? Or the experience (and failures) of creating something that could provide you financial freedom for a lifetime without ever having to hold a job again?
Suckage #3: No Control
A job is like sitting in the bed of a pickup truck. You’re exposed to the harsh elements while the driver of the truck sits comfortably in the driver’s seat. And if the ride gets rough? You get jacked around or worse, tossed overboard. There is no control sitting in the back of a pickup truck, and to have this “strategy” at the core of your financial plan is insanely foolish.
If you don’t control your income, you don’t control your financial plan.
If you don’t control your financial plan, you don’t control your freedom.
Millions obediently sing the employee Kumbaya, believing that a job is central to supporting themselves. Sure, a job can support you, but is your goal only “support”? Do you want wealth or mediocrity? If your financial road trip can be derailed by a pink slip, you’re gambling. You aren’t being real; you’re being stupid. There is neither safety nor security in a job.
Suckage #4: Linda’s Bad Breath
I know people who are life-long employees. I hear about their trials and toils. Despite two dozen different jobs over the years, I noticed nothing changes when it comes to office politics. It’s the same story, different people, different day, in a different office. So-and-so is sleeping with the boss and courting favor. Jim is lazy but takes credit for the work. Linda has bad breath and everyone is afraid to tell her. Lacey arrives late and leaves early. Horace steals food and wears the same sport jacket every day. Lazy Lester never replaces the copier paper.