Book Review #2 - The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime by MJ DeMarco

If Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is a drug to get you started on the Personal Finance & Investing space, The Millionaire Fastlane is a drug to get you started on the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement via Entrepreneurship. Despite the cheesy title, this is not a book explaining the next Ponzi scheme neither a book on how to get-rich-quick easily. This book is about the principles on how to become a high-speed entrepreneur and craft a business to get you into the “Fastlane”.

The book has 322 pages and a total of 45 chapters. It is a super easy read. If I could summarize it, I would say that everything revolves around the following two core ideas:

1. The Three Financial Roadmaps to Wealth and that the only way to build wealth quickly (we are talking about 3 to 5 years) is by following the strategies of the third roadmap: The Fastlane. 
2. The only way to get into the Fastlane is by being a producer: an entrepreneur, an innovator, a visionary, a creator. However, you can't just start any kind of business. You must start a business that respects what MJ DeMarco calls The Five Fastlane Commandments.

The Three Financial Roadmaps to Wealth

The three financial roadmaps to wealth are The Sidewalk, The Slowlane, and The Fastlane. Without even knowing, you are right now going down in one of the three paths. Each roadmap contains key mindsets that provide direction and guide actions within them. A few great examples of the distinctions are on how people in those different lanes percept Debt, their own Time, Education, Money, Wealth and Responsibility & Control. 

The Sidewalk is poverty. You are on the sidewalk when you are living paycheck to paycheck. You don’t even know there is anything different other than the rat-race. All you have is debt in the bank. You give no value to your own time, and sometimes you spend hours in a line to get free samples, and you would drive for 2 hours to get a $20-dollars discount.

You spend your free time watching TV, playing video games and complaining about life. You think leaving money in a savings account is a great idea. You believe your house is the greatest asset one can have. Last time you read a book was in school, and you ask “what is wrong?” every time you see someone around with a book. You blame your family, your boss, your company and the government on everything that goes wrong in your life.

"A Sidewalker exists in a state of one-something-from-broke: One album failure from broke. One business deal from broke. One gig from broke. One layoff from broke. On the Sidewalk, you’re always “one something” from being homeless, bankrupt, or back living in your parent’s basement."

The Slowlane is mediocrity. You are on the slowlane when you are paying yourself first. You can save a percentage of your gross (pre-tax) and net (after-tax) income. You know you will only be able to enjoy life after your retirement at age 65. You believe that the only way to get rich is slowly relying on the stock market and the magic of the compound interest over many decades. You regret that you were unable to when you were 11 years old because that could have been the only chance for you to retire at age 45. You have a few thousand dollars in your 401k account along with a big mortgage that is going to take another 15 years to pay down. You know the value of your time, and you don’t waste it.

You believe there is a direct relationship between time and income and you know there is selling on your income due to the maximum amount of hours that you can work on a day. You know leaving money in a savings account is not a good idea. Your preferred way of investing is via index-funds with a mix of bonds and stocks. You still believe your house is an asset. You like books and you know they are essential for your growth, but you usually "don’t have time" left on your week to read. The only reason education is important to you is to help you to earn a bigger salary. You still occasionally blame your family, your boss, your company and the government when certain things go wrong in your life.

"Admit that the preordained path to wealth, “Get Rich Slow,” is fundamentally flawed because of Uncontrollable Limited Leverage, weak mathematics predicated on time (Wealth = Job + Markets). Leverage controllable and unlimited mathematics to create wealth. There is no leverage within the Slowlane wealth equation, an equation predicated on time (hourly pay, annual salary, annualized return, years invested). If you can’t control the mathematics that predetermine your wealth, nor accelerate them into large numbers, you can’t control your financial plan. Leverage is harnessed by a system that does the work for you."

"The Slowlane is a job: your hard work traded for your employer’s cash. To get rich, you’re told to get stronger (spend money, return to school, and earn more in the job market) so you can lift heavier stones."

The Fastlane is wealth. You are on the fastlane when your sources of income and your lifestyle are characterized by maximum control and unlimited leverage. You don’t have your income attached to your time. You have full control of your wealth acceleration vehicles. You can build and grow your wealth without depending on Wall Street. 

You can enjoy your life now if you want. You see debt as a tool that allows you to build and grow your system. You know that the most effective way to use the stock market and get the compound interests to work for your is by putting a large sum of money in one-shot instead of a tiny amount every month during decades. You regret that you were unable to start your first business sooner. You own multiple business and income streams. You know your greatest asset, far exceeding money is your own time. You are fully accountable and blame only yourself for everything that goes wrong in your life. 

" Decoding the Fastlane roadmap is as simple as joining the team that is custodian to the decryption key. The winning team is Team Producer. Reshape life’s focus on producing, not consuming. When you reframe 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."

"To switch teams and become a producer, you need to be an entrepreneur and an innovator. You need to be a visionary and a creator. You need to give birth to a business and offer the world value."

"The Fastlane is about building a better system, a better contraption, a better product, or a better “something” that will leverage your work. In the Slowlane, you are the source of heavy lifting, while in the Fastlane, you construct a system that does it for you."

The Five Fastlane Commandments

The five fastlane commandments are control, entry, need, time and scale. 

The commandment of control says that a business will only survive in the Fastlane when the owner has control or influence over all aspects of it: brand, customer acquisition, distribution channels, cost structure and so on. If you can't change your product, your price or influence in marketing decisions, you don't have control of your business. If you’re running a franchise, you’re not in control. Your brand, methods, and whole business are subject to the franchiser's business. If you have an affiliate marketing company and all your income comes from Ads on Google Adsense, you’re not in control. Google could change their algorithm to stop displaying your ads, and your business will be over.

"When you control your business, you control everything in your business—your organization, your products, your pricing, your revenue model, and your operational choices. If you can’t control every aspect of your company, you’re not driving!"

The commandment of entry says that as the entry barriers decrease, competition increases and the road weakens. Easy access roads have a lot more traffic. More traffic produces higher competition, and higher competition creates lower margins for the participants. A classic example of this would be any kind of network marketing business where anyone can create a "company" in 10 minutes.

"Want to know if your business violates entry? The answer is simple: Is getting into business an event or a process? Real business startups are processes, not events. If you’re suddenly in business because you bought a distributor kit, or completed an online form, you’re violating entry. If you’re suddenly in business because you took one or two actions, you violate entry."

The commandment of need says that only businesses that solve real-world needs will succeed in the Fastlane. Needs are pain points, service gaps, unsolved problems, or emotional disconnects. According to MJ, ninety percent of all new companies fail because they are based on Founder's "selfish" internal needs and not on external market needs, violating this commandment.

"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."

The commandment of time says that a business attached to your time is a job. Any company that earns income exclusive of the owner's time violates the Commandment of Time. To satisfy the commandment of time, it's likely you need to start a business that uses one of The Five Fastlane Business Money System Seedlings: Rental Systems, Computer/Software Systems, Content Systems, Distribution Systems or Human resources Systems. Those are the most common areas of success for real Fastlane businesses. They are business systems that survive on their own, creating a proxy for your time-for-money trade.

"Not all businesses are Fastlane, and many of them can’t be transformed into money trees. Misled by gurus and life coaches, wannabe entrepreneurs are steered astray under the lure of “Be your own boss” and “Do what you love!” and head down a path of business servitude that is identical to wage slavery."

The commandment of scale says that wealth acceleration is limited when your total pool of customers is restricted to a small geographical area. When you violate the Commandment of Scale, you break The Fastlane Wealth Equation. To achieve scale, you must have leverage to increase either reach (units sold) or magnitude (unit profit). Tiny habitats create tiny wealth. Scale is leverage!

"Think big, but think scale and/ or magnitude. Analyze your Fastlane equation and examine the variables. What are your maximum units sold and maximum profit per unit? What is the size of your customer pool? For example, as an author, I have scale, and with scale, the Law of Effection is accessible. Who is my audience? The whole English-speaking world, tens of millions of people! I’m reminded of scale any time this book is ordered from Australia or New Zealand. My upper limit is the world."

The Paradox of Practice

Before writing this review, I decided to watch one of the most recent interviews with MJ DeMarco on Youtube:

One big highlight I got from the interview that I missed while reading the book was the following: 

• Whenever you are receiving a piece of financial advice from somebody, make sure that they actually did what they are saying to become wealth.

So, next time you are reading a book about Personal Finance, ask yourself:

1. Did the author of this book get rich doing what they are advocating here?
2. Are the strategies that are being recommended good to preserve wealth or to actually build wealth?

A few examples that come to mind:

• Did Tony Robbins get rich following the strategy (passive low-cost index-fund-based investments) he is recommending on MONEY Master the Game? No, he didn't!
• Did Ramit Sethi get rich following the investment strategy he is recommending on I Will Teach You To Be Rich? No, he didn't!

Going back to the second question using MONEY Master the Game by Tony Robbins again as an example:

• Are the strategies that are being recommended on MONEY Master the Game by Tony Robbins good to preserve wealth or to actually build wealth?

The strategy recommended by Ray Dalio – The All-Weather Portfolio (40% Long-Term Bonds, 30% Stocks, 15% Intermediate-Term Bonds, 7.5% Gold and 7.5% Commodities) – in one of the interviews on the book is definitely not a good strategy to build wealth quickly given the average annual return of 7.7% in the last years. However, it is a reasonably good strategy to preserve and maybe grow a little bit year-after-year your net worth if you already have millions invested. 

MJ calls this The Hypocrisy of the Gurus or The Paradox of Practice:

"The Slowlane roadmap is sanctimoniously trumpeted by best-selling book authors who dispense financial advice through TV, radio, and books. The strategies they sell are a travesty of grand illusions. Do you seriously think these people are rich from their preachings? Or, are they selling you the Slowlane while they get rich in the Fastlane?"

"Ask yourself this: Is Suze rich because she followed her own advice like municipal bonds, dollar-cost-averaging and stock market investing? The probable hypocrisy—the Paradox of Practice—is that Suze’s method of creating wealth doesn’t appear to be the road she travels, nor teaches. Is Suze Fastlane rich because she leverages the Fastlane roadmap while she pitches you the Slowlane? Is she worth millions because she followed her own advice? Or because she sold millions of books? Is her wealth equation different from the one she teaches? Things that make you go hmmm…"

My Final Review

MJ does a great job telling his story that is not as pretty as many of you may think. MJ was poor and unsuccessful in everything he did till he was 30 years old. Like several other books, it enforces the importance of TIME vs. MONEY; he has multiple chapters on that including one called Divorcing Wealth from Time.

Even though MJ would likely disagree with me, I would say that in many ways, this book is a perfect mix of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hours Work Week, Eric Ries's The Lean Startup and T. Harv Eker's Secrets of the Millionaire Mind with an amazing complementary material, brand new ideas, and a lot of not-easy-to-apply tips. It is a book about principles, not a how-to book as many could expect from its title.

To conclude, if Retirement Early is something that you are genuinely looking forward, and you feel that all the books out there are presenting the same Wealth Equation again again, "Get Rich Slowly = Get Rich in a Wheelchair when you are 65 or older", then I can tell you for sure that DeMarco's book will be different. He is one of the few authors you are going to find that is saying no to Index Funds, 401k, and Real Estate "Slowlane" investments strategies.

His approach might not be for everyone, but from all the books I have read about Business & Money, it is the one that makes the most sense to me now. I strongly recommend reading it even if you have no desire of starting a business.

" Money isn’t attracted to selfish people. It is attracted to businesses that solve problems. It’s attracted to people who fill needs and add value. Solve needs massively and money massively attracts. The amount of money in your life is merely a reflection to the amount of value you have given to others. Ignore this symbiosis and money will ignore you. "

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18872437-the-millionaire-fastlane

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BDOUAI/