Questions from the book

[TY J]

Hello,

I finished reading the Millionaire Fastlane and really enjoyed it. It was a large collection of already known topics but put together in a brilliant way. It was eclectic. And It even had some few other concepts I was unaware about as well.

It was kind of sad to see that this book did not really go into detail when explaining how MJ Demarco started and maintained his online limo business and the process of doing it.

But I payed alot of attention to "gurus NOT doing what they preach vs. MJ DOING what he preaches"

It seems MJ does do what he preaches which is to invest thyself into self-employment to create an UNLIMITED amount of possibilities (variables) multiplied by UNLIMITED potential of net profit vs being stuck in a job with LIMITED amounts of possibilities (variables) multiplied by LIMITED potential of an annual salary.

I did have some questions however and one may seem rhetorical:

On page 127 it talks about asset valuations of business, real estate, and so forth, saying that a paper valuation of $60 M of a new business will be worth only $10,000 in the bank. How does this work?

On page 258 it talks about how to calculate your dream life and then I have to take a factor of 5 and multiply it by $14000. Where does this 5 come from?

on page 57 it says we shouldn't rely on others. Now, I understand from a perspective of relying on the job market, stock market, and the housing market that it is a bad idea to heavily rely on these but what about banks? Is having other people hold our money at different locations in the same category as relying on others?

Hope you guys can help.

Thanks.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

explaining how MJ Demarco started and maintained his online limo business and the process of doing it.

Do you really think this is going to help you? I'm sorry to break the news to you, but it won't. Perhaps these details were omitted in the book because they aren't relevant today. The transcendent details I included, for example, good customer service.

The answer about HOW I did it is short and simple:

Hard work. Process.

Stop looking for the "magic secret" that will help you bypass hard work and process.

As for the underlying details...

What if I told you that I spent $5,000 a month on CPC advertising at the LookSmart and AltaVista search engine? What value does that hold for you today? Especially when the search engines don't even exist any longer? You going to replicate that? Copy it?

What if I told you that I spent a lot of time optimizing pages for the current SEO trends of the day. What value does that hold for you today? When the SEO game is totally different today? You going to replicate that? Copy it?

What if I told you that I didn't use ANY SOCIAL MEDIA tools to build my business? Oh wait?!?! It didn't even exist then. You going to replicate that? Copy it?

Stop looking for secret formulas. The secret formula is knowing there is none. The secret is recognizing that the business climate changes regularly, online it changes at superfast speeds and because of it, you will need to blaze your own path, not follow the path taken by some entrepreneur 10 years ago.

on page 57 it says we shouldn't rely on others. Now, I understand from a perspective of relying on the job market, stock market, and the housing market that it is a bad idea to heavily rely on these but what about banks? Is having other people hold our money at different locations in the same category as relying on others?

Unfortunately this is part of the game. The challenge is to minimize the game. If we take this kind of approach, we might as well just disavow money for what it really is: A hyper reality. Part of the reason I hold my house w/o a mortgage is its a real asset that can't be hyperinflated away by a bank, government, etc. As for the Q, if you use banks, yes, spread out your assets among them. I trust banks as much as I trust the cable TV people, but that doesn't mean they're evil and not to be used as tools. Reliance stems from your income and wealth, you want to control those pathways. You don't control the stock market. You control you.

On page 127 it talks about asset valuations of business, real estate, and so forth, saying that a paper valuation of $60 M of a new business will be worth only $10,000 in the bank. How does this work?

Just means that paper valuations and actually money in the bank don't always equate. When people say "SO AND SO is a billionaire" usually a great % of that wealth is locked up on paper. For example, Warren Buffet has much of his NW tied into Berkshire, not actual cash laying around in a bank.

 

[TY J]

Hey! Thanks for getting back to me MJ Demarco sir!

Now before I go on, I just want to say Thanks and I don't want to waste your time with heated debates that are never ending. I will do my best to research things I don't know about which I can find and only ask you things that are difficult to get answers to (such as your philosophy - as researching that from other sources than your book could be difficult to find). I am planning to re-read your book to let more sink in so anything I am confused about, the book might answer for me as I re-read.

Do you really think this is going to help you? I'm sorry to break the news to you, but it won't. Perhaps these details were omitted in the book because they aren't relevant today. The transcendent details I included, for example, good customer service.

The answer about HOW I did it is short and simple:

Hard work. Process.

Stop looking for the "magic secret" that will help you bypass hard work and process.

As for the underlying details...

What if I told you that I spent $5,000 a month on CPC advertising at the LookSmart and AltaVista search engine? What value does that hold for you today? Especially when the search engines don't even exist any longer? You going to replicate that? Copy it?

What if I told you that I spent a lot of time optimizing pages for the current SEO trends of the day. What value does that hold for you today? When the SEO game is totally different today? You going to replicate that? Copy it?

What if I told you that I didn't use ANY SOCIAL MEDIA tools to build my business? Oh wait?!?! It didn't even exist then. You going to replicate that? Copy it?

So this may mean you did spend $5000 a month on advertising and time optimizing SEO and using social media when it didn't exist lol.

I understand what you mean by there is no secret formula and no way in the financial position I'm in, am I able to replicate the above mentioned methods to succeed step by step.

This means I will have to find an alternative route with a different steps, and I'm fine with that.

I know by now to search for a secret formula is pretty much futile but if I knew how you did at the time when it was ripe for you, perhaps I could see the process of how you did it as a guide even though it may be out-dated (which I dont think it would be). Even though business changes at super fast speeds, don't you believe it's still good to learn how others did something in the past to get a sense of what was the right moves made?

Anyhow you hit it home by being critical to "The Secret" book analogy with people trying to think their dreams into existence rather than acting and building their dreams into existence. I think people already knew hard work was key to this whole concept but it's been diluted maybe 10 years ago with the new thought at the time of just thinking positive which will automatically = dreams coming to fruition - which is 80% bogus. It's good your book put things back into perspective.

Unfortunately this is part of the game. The challenge is to minimize the game. If we take this kind of approach, we might as well just disavow money for what it really is: A hyper reality. Part of the reason I hold my house w/o a mortgage is its a real asset that can't be hyperinflated away by a bank, government, etc. As for the Q, if you use banks, yes, spread out your assets among them. I trust banks as much as I trust the cable TV people, but that doesn't mean they're evil and not to be used as tools. Reliance stems from your income and wealth, you want to control those pathways. You don't control the stock market. You control you.

Sorry, but what is an example of a real estate unable to be hyperinflated away by a bank or government? Do you mean government or bank cannot influence housing market to increase the price of homes to hyperinflation?

And I agree that not everything is evil and such but what can you do right? If there was a more secure and better way of storing money away rather than going to banks I'm sure people would take that approach, but until then, guess we are stuck with banks.

Just means that paper valuations and actually money in the bank don't always equate. When people say "SO AND SO is a billionaire" usually a great % of that wealth is locked up on paper. For example, Warren Buffet has much of his NW tied into Berkshire, not actual cash laying around in a bank.

I don't know what NW is but I think I understand that Warren Buffet doesn't have actual cash laying around. However how does $60 M in paper valuation turn into $10,000? So to relate, would Warren Buffet who cashed out a paper valuation of his investment at $60 M be worth $10,000 in actual cash value?

Also could you tell me how you got a factor of 5 on page 258? Can I use any factor I want or is it representative to a certain thing?

 

[Kyle Tully]

perhaps I could see the process of how you did it as a guide even though it may be out-dated (which I dont think it would be)

He already said it is outdated.

The process was YEARS in the making. He gives you the big picture in the book.

e.g. "I aggressively marketed my website. I sent out emails. Cold-called. Mailed letters. I learned search engine optimization (SEO). Because I couldn’t afford books, I visited the Phoenix library daily and persisted to read about Internet programming languages. I improved my website, learned about graphics and copywriting. Anything that could help me, I consumed."

How much more detail do you want?

 

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[TY J]

He already said it is outdated.

The process was YEARS in the making. He gives you the big picture in the book.

e.g. "I aggressively marketed my website. I sent out emails. Cold-called. Mailed letters. I learned search engine optimization (SEO). Because I couldn’t afford books, I visited the Phoenix library daily and persisted to read about Internet programming languages. I improved my website, learned about graphics and copywriting. Anything that could help me, I consumed."

How much more detail do you want?

Yes this sounds right. I guess I want more details but then I would be over-reaching so this should be fine.

Thanks for the reminder.

But I still dont know have a clear answer for the other questions I posted.

:|

 

[Yury]

would Warren Buffet who cashed out a paper valuation of his investment at $60 M be worth $10,000 in actual cash value?

No

saying that a paper valuation of $60 M of a new business will be worth only $10,000 in the bank

It's not what it says there.

It says: "If the company you build from scratch has a paper valuation of $60 million and your bank account only has $10,000, are you really a millionaire?"

Simple example: some Twitter-like company, having lots of users and growing and lots of investors queuing to buy a bit of it (hence the $60m valuation in this example). But if the company does not earn anything yet and investors buy they shares from the company itself and not from you, you well might be broke, even if on paper ("if you sold this company today") you might be worth most part of these virtual-so-far $60m.

And often times, STARTUPS GO BUST before you sell your share, so you'll never be a real millionaire in this case.

 

[D11FYY]

Your looking way too much into the book. MJ is giving his opinion in his own way and to 99% of us it works and are happy with the read. Why are you trying to dissect it?
The only thing that I would be interested in from MJ's start up would be to see a screenshot of a earlier version of his website imo it would be interesting to see.

 

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[Yury]

Treat yourself The earliest snapshots seem to be broken but from 2000 and on you can get at least some idea in the Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.limos.com

Like, year 2000, consumers rave about limos.com !
https://web.archive.org/web/20001017072806/http://www.limos.com/

 

[NicoleMarie]

Treat yourself The earliest snapshots seem to be broken but from 2000 and on you can get at least some idea in the Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.limos.com

Like, year 2000, consumers rave about limos.com !
https://web.archive.org/web/20001017072806/http://www.limos.com/

Holy...

 

[D11FYY]

https://web.archive.org/web/20000520044800/http://limos.com/
Love this link lol.
Limo Website Design, New and Used Limos (which no doubt MJ took a commision off of) and SEO.
Entrepreneur from the get go!

Oh btw MJ did you know about Scottish indepedence way before us? UK, Scotland lol. haha.

 

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[JoeB]

Treat yourself The earliest snapshots seem to be broken but from 2000 and on you can get at least some idea in the Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.limos.com
Like, year 2000, consumers rave about limos.com !
https://web.archive.org/web/20001017072806/http://www.limos.com/

Before that it was called www.limo-search.com iirc

I am interested in domain names and I remember reading that the change to limos.com didn't have as big an impact as expected - that's the reason I know - I'm not a stalker.

 

[TY J]

Treat yourself The earliest snapshots seem to be broken but from 2000 and on you can get at least some idea in the Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.limos.com

Like, year 2000, consumers rave about limos.com !
https://web.archive.org/web/20001017072806/http://www.limos.com/

Hey thanks man. I will look in that. I really appreciate your help.

But seriously though, I feel you gave me half answers MJ with regards to the pages in your book.

Please could you finish explaining it?

Thanks.

 

[TY J]

Holy...

HOLY! That is a nice smile you have.

 

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[NicoleMarie]

HOLY! That is a nice smile you have.

Lol thanks.

 

[Yury]

you gave me half answers MJ with regards to the pages in your book.
Please could you finish explaining it?

Dude have some respect for others' time.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

But seriously though, I feel you gave me half answers MJ with regards to the pages in your book.

Please could you finish explaining it?

Yea dude, let me get right on that.

 

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[SJVC]

@TY J You did get a bit burned here but read around the forum and you will find a lot of information.

 

[TY J]

Dude have some respect for others' time.

Ok. I'm sorry if I'm cutting into people's time if what I'm doing is unnecessary.

I mean I spent almost a week reading through the book and was unsure about 3 things and wanted some clarification. It only took 1 response to half answer them which is probably 10 minute of someones time. I do appreciate that MJ does try to respond to people's questions but what about my time? I spend a week on the book with many hours put away and all I have to suffice with is an answer that is not really that clear?

It's really awesome this forum gives people the chance to talk about the book, especially with the author world wide, which is actually the first time I've encountered this. I've read other investment books and such and when I had questions it was hard to reach the author because that person would usually not respond to email or the email address was outdated.

 

[SJVC]

Self- reliance.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

but what about my time?

I've answered your questions. I'm sorry you didn't like the answers. I'm sorry you want someone else to do your learning for you. That someone else won't be me. As for your time, it's clear where you want to spend your time... looking for shortcuts. Shortcuts to success. Shortcuts to education. Shortcuts to learning. None of these have shortcuts other than experience and action.

I suggest you read this thread.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...-out-of-the-millionaire-fast-lane-book.39434/

It will take you a good 90 minutes but I doubt you'll spend the time since 90 minutes is no shortcut.

It's really awesome this forum gives people the chance to talk about the book, especially with the author world wide, which is actually the first time I've encountered this.

And instead you've been disrespectful with the opportunity. In fact, it makes me question why I even bother. I should be just like all those other authors who don't engage with their readers at all and live on their own little island of insulation. As for my reaction, I apologize to the forum folks, but when I feel my time is disrespected, I'm going to reciprocate in the same manner.

Your thread is closed.

Oh and PS:

On page 258 it talks about how to calculate your dream life and then I have to take a factor of 5 and multiply it by $14000. Where does this 5 come from?

That's the multiplier that's gives you a number sufficient enough to fund BOTH your money system and your lifestyle. Here's perhaps some help.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...derstand-fastlane-business-mathematics.41481/