Most of us are taught to get a good degree, get a good job, work hard, save, invest, and hopefully retire rich by 65. However, this is a flawed approach according to self-made millionaire and semi-retired entrepreneur M.J. DeMarco. In The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime! DeMarco presents a roadmap for anyone to become truly wealthy in 10 years or less. In this free version of The Millionaire Fastlane summary, you’ll learn the 4 components of wealth and what it takes to get on your fastlane.
How MJ DeMarco discovered the Millionaire Fastlane
Unlike most people, M.J. DeMarco didn’t climb the corporate ladder after graduation. Instead, he pursued the entrepreneurial route and retired young and rich at 33 years old. How did he manage to do that?
When DeMarco was a teenager, he met a young inventor driving a Lamborghini. He realized that it was actually possible to get rich young. So, he started to research self-made millionaires who were (i) <35 years old, (ii) didn’t have extraordinary talents, yet (iii) could live a truly lavish lifestyle (instead of scrimping and saving).
After college, he was determined to get on the Fastlane. By 26, he had failed in several businesses, his girlfriend had left him, and he was broke and depressed. Meanwhile, his friends were advancing in their careers and his mum urged him to get a proper job.
He decided to start afresh in Phoenix with just $900. While he was working as a limo driver, he got the idea to build a website to connect limo companies with potential clients. He taught himself search engine optimization, graphic design, copywriting, and marketed his website aggressively with cold calls, emails, and snail mail. He started to make hundreds, then thousands in revenue.
As the business grew, so did customer complaints. While DeMarco’s friends were out having fun, he was working to resolve customer issues. In 2001, he sold the website for $1.2mil. However, business suffered under the new owners, and DeMarco eventually bought it back for $250,000. He refocused on customers, streamlined and automated the processes until the income continued to grow even when he worked less. In 2007, he sold the company for $8 million and retired at a relatively young age of 33. He had reached his destination via the Millionaire Fastlane.
What is The Millionaire Fastlane?
The Fastlane is about a new way of thinking and behaving that changes your financial results.
Wealth creation is not a one-time event.
Behind every success, there’s a long and often-arduous process. You may see an athlete being offered a $50mil contract, but you don’t see the years of practice, failures and injuries. You may see a business being sold for $20mil, but you don’t see the years of hard work, sleepless nights and rejections.
The process of wealth creation is exponential, not linear. You may struggle for several years, only to see a sudden explosion in growth like what happened with M.J. DeMarco.
Becoming wealthy is like taking a road trip.
To arrive at your destination, you need 4 main components:
• Your Roadmap = the beliefs that guide your actions, like a compass.
• Your Vehicle = You. Since your level of wealth depends on the person you become, you must personally drive the vehicle.
• Your Roads = Your financial pathways. There are many ways to make money as an employee, self-employed or business owner.
• Your Speed = Execution, or how rapidly you move from idea to implementation.
Here’s a visual summary of the ingredients you need to get on your road to wealth:
In The Millionaire Fastlane book, M.J. DeMarco explains each of these 4 components in great detail. Here’s a quick summary:
1) The 3 Roadmaps to Wealth
Your belief system is like a compass that guides your life. Your beliefs shape your choices, which in turn shape your outcomes. There are 3 financial roadmaps to wealth: the Sidewalk, Slowlane and Fastlane.
Each roadmap comes with a different belief system that shapes how you think and act. These define your end-destination, perspectives about debt, time, education, money, wealth, responsibility and life in general.
Each roadmap is also governed by a mathematical wealth equation that defines how you earn money and multiply your wealth.
Of the 3 roadmaps, only one allows you to retire comfortably, and that’s why you should get on the millionaire fastlane. In a nutshell:
• People on the Sidewalk live in the present and go with the flow. They spend more than they earn, and sacrifice tomorrow for today’s pleasures. They end up living in poverty.
• People on the Slowlane have a job. They work hard for 50 years and hope they can save enough to retire comfortably. They end up living a life of mediocrity.
• People on the Fastlane build businesses that satisfy 5 commandments (NECST). This allows them to make millions within 10 years, then use the large amounts of money to generate true, sustainable wealth that gives them financial freedom.
In our complete version of The Millionaire Fastlane summary (get the full 21-page summary here), we elaborate on the details of each roadmap, including the wealth equation, belief systems, financial habits and their impact.
Choose the Millionaire Fastlane: your Roadmap to Wealth
The Fastlane allows you to create huge amounts of wealth quickly because you have both control and leverage. It’s about:
• Building a business system so you needn’t do everything yourself. Creating such a process isn’t easy, but it’s extremely rewarding.
• Being a producer, not a consumer.
• Understanding and applying the Fastlane equation: Wealth = Net Profit + Asset Value.
• Knowing how to use compound interest => not to build wealth, but to increase your income and liquidity.
• Using 5 types of seedlings that can grow into money trees: rental systems, computer systems, content systems, distribution systems, and human resource systems (HRS).
• Following the Law of Effection, which says that the amount of money you make is proportionate to the amount of value you give.
If you’re ready to dive into these points in detail, do check out our full book summary bundle for The Millionaire Fastlane. You can also learn more about the Law of Effection in The Go-Giver summary.
2) The Vehicle: You
Remember: getting rich quick ≠ getting rich easy. You cannot outsource the hard work of preparing and driving the vehicle yourself. Because that’s the very process which will transform you into the person you must become.
There’s way too much content to be covered in this online abstract of the The Millionaire Fastlane summary. Basically, M.J. Demarco explains all the key elements of personal/professional growth you will need, including:
• Own your vehicle (start your business);
• Steer the vehicle (make good choices);
• Clean your windshield (see things differently);
• Put the headwind behind you (manage toxic relationships);
• Maximize your fuel-efficiency (free up your time);
• Change the stale oil (reinvent yourself); and
• Hit the Redline (Be 100% committed).
3) The Roads to Wealth
The 5 Fastlane Commandments (NECST)
Not every business gets you on the Fastlane. The right route to wealth must address satisfy 5 Fastlane Commandments:
• The Commandment of Need: Your business must fulfill a real need that people will pay for. This could be a pain point, unsolved problem, service or emotional gap.
• The Commandment of Entry: Your business must have barriers to entry, i.e. it takes time and skill to set up. Otherwise, it will be overcrowded.
• The Commandment of Control: You must have control over your business. If someone can destroy your business overnight, then you lack control. For example, Amazon can easily suspend a seller’s account or change its affiliate marketing terms at any time.
• The Commandment of Scale: To have leverage, you must be able to scale up your business exponentially or infinitely.
• The Commandment of Time: Your business must be able to survive and operate without you, i.e. it’s delinked from your time and works even if you’re asleep or on holiday. Otherwise, it’s just another job.
Find Your Highways & Move Toward your Destination
Businesses that fulfill all 5 commandments are like highways or interstates with high speed limits. Such a route can make you wealthy quickly, such that you’ll earn not just a good income (e.g. $20,000 a month) but big money (e.g. $200,000 or $2 mil a month).
DeMarco explains 3 options to consider: Internet business, Innovation, and Intentional iteration. For example, a hot-dog stand by the beach isn’t a Fastlane business. However, selling an international hot-dog franchise certainly is.
He also explains how to define your destination in terms of your financial goals, and to develop financial literacy so you can actually get rich (and stay rich). We break down each of these points in greater detail in our complete 21-page summary of The Millionaire Fastlane.
4) Speed of Wealth Acceleration
The 3 ingredients above help you to prepare for your road trip to wealth. However, nothing happens until you step on the accelerator.
To get really good at something, you must live and breathe it. So, focus on 1 thing at a time. Dabbling in 20 opportunities will dilute your focus and bring mediocre results. Once you’ve built your wealth, you can diversify into other investments or ventures.
In this last section, M.J. DeMarco helps to simplify the Fastlane business by drawing an analogy to the chessboard. He explains the roles and critical factors for each business function, and how you can leverage them to build a winning business.
One of the key ideas is this: An idea is worthless until it is executed. And, you won’t know if an idea or plan works until you test it in the market.
So, execution is King. This is followed by marketing (Queen) because it shapes consumers’ perceptions and builds brand loyalty. Customer service (Bishop) is all about helping and supporting customers to resolve their issues, products/services that solve problems for customers are your Knight, and your Castle is held by the people you work with (including your partners, employees, accountants and attorneys).
Applying The Millionaire Fastlane Insights
You won’t get results from knowledge alone. Make a firm decision to start taking concrete actions to begin your road trip to wealth! Do check out our full book summary bundle which includes an infographic, 21-page text summary, and a 32-minute audio summary. These include in-depth explanations, tips and recommended steps for each of the 4 Fastlane components above—Roadmap, Vehicle, Road, and Speed—to help you to generate results in real life.
This book is written in 45 short chapters, each with specific distinctions to change how you think about wealth, and examples to bring the ideas to life. You can purchase the book here or visit mjdemarco.com for more details.
About the author of The Millionaire Fastlane
The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime! was written by M.J. DeMarco, who’s a semi-retired entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and author. He is currently the founder of Viperion Publishing Corp. and The Fastlane Forum (an entrepreneurial community). Previously, he founded Limos.com (1997-2007) which he sold in 2001, reacquired and resold in 2007.
The Millionaire Fastlane Quotes
“Millionaires are forged by process, not by events.”
“If you want to change your life, change your choices. To change your choices you must change your belief system.”
“Poor financial management is like gambling; the house eventually wins.”
“Wealth isn’t embodied in a car but in the freedom to know that you can buy it.”
“Time is an asset that is undervalued and mindlessly squandered.”
“To live unlike everyone else, you have to do what everyone else won’t.”
“The amount of money in your life is merely a reflection to the amount of value you have given to others.”
“No matter how big or small, dreams have a price, and that price is money, responsibility, accountability, and commitment.”
“The owner of an idea is not he who imagines it, but he who executes it.”
“Your choices are made in a moment, but their consequences will transcend a lifetime.”
Click here to download The Millionaire Fastlane summary & infographic
