My Take (Down) of Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson

[Vigilante]

With great fanfare came great expectations. On the heels of the forum gathering this spring, a lot of trusted posters here were talking about Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson. So I picked it up.

I made it through the first several chapters before I put it down, never to return to it.

Let me say that
1. Masterson is smarter than me and
2. Masterson has built larger businesses than me and as a result
3. Masterson is richer than me

So, if that is your criteria for validation, the rest of what I have to say might not be worth much to you. I told @AllenCrawley when he aptly pointed out why I had a visceral reaction to Masterson that my posting about it on the forum was likely to draw some friendly fire. So be it.

Here's my problem with Ready, Fire, Aim.

99.9% of the people on this forum, including me, couldn't follow what he has laid out as a "blueprint" to take you from $0 to $100,000,000. You can't do it. It's billed as a road-map, but it is going to lead you to a dead end.

Why?

Masterson's reitterated premise is that his companies operate from $0 to $1,000,000 at a loss.

Stop there.

That's his first step.

So... before we move past first base, in order to score, can you do that?

He doesn't articulate in his book how you do that. How HE does that is he has people willing to throw money at him. He uses OPM (Other People's Money) or now he could finance it himself. His companies take between a year to five years to reach a million dollars. That means, he spends a year to five years... operating at a loss. Can you?

Most of the people and success stories from thefastlaneforum.com are self starters, that broke free of the corporate grind by out-thinking, outworking/out-hustling, and surviving the startup bootstrap phases to create value where a void existed in the market.

Masterson's book reminds me of the tongue-in-cheek way to retire a millionaire.
Step 1. Start with a million dollars

If you can go out and get angel funding or VC funding for a pre-launch company, than his road-map would likely work perfectly. I couldn't get past the fact that his "how to" book was marketed to the masses, and yet his road-map is passing through the eye of a needle.

A few months back, I contacted him on behalf of the forum with an invitation to do an AMA here, and received no response. There is still an open invitation (and a lot of fan boys) waiting for him here if he would like to take us up on the invitation.

His book likely has a ton of solid advice, actionable inspiration on topics such as systems, infrastructure and strategy. You can still gain value from it, like a lot of other books where you cull the wheat from the chaff and take what usable insight you can gain from it. He's smarter than I am, and his books are worth reading.

And, I wasn't looking for a step by step road map for how to build a business, even though the subhead of his book is "from $0 to $100m..." but since he presented his material as a replicatable, specific treasure map that any leprechaun could follow to the pot of gold at the end, I stopped reading his book a few chapters in when I determined that too many leprechauns likely died trying to follow his Oregon Trail.

Flame away.

 

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[Likwid24]

I'm about 75% through the audio book right now and I Kinda like it. Most of what he says is on point with what I'm doing.

And as of right now, I'm on year 4 and still operating at a loss. We finally hit over 1 million in sales this year and will still show a loss at the end of the year. I mean, me and John are taking salaries because we need to survive, but at the end of the year there will be nothing leftover for profits.

The reasons being:

1- A lot of up front costs such as patents, molds, and some mandatory trade shows can be expensive. We are just learning how to cut costs and efficiently attend all these shows.

2- Mistakes - Which you will make. We got crushed a few times to air ship freight so that we got it too big box retailers on time to avoid fines and avoid ruining our relationships with them. Not to mention some of our current contract situations that we screwed up for the start. You live and you learn. You will make these mistakes. Especially being new to an industry.

3- We're putting everything we make into new products. That means new patents, new molds and lots of testing and research. The key to keep your company going and get it to the next step (According to Masterson), is getting new products out there and getting them out there fast. We expect to have at least 5 new products by 2016. Possible more.


I think he's on point with losing money your first 5 years. I mean , if you have faith in what you are doing, and you see your company moving in the right direction, then its worth it. You need to borrow, or do whatever you need to, to get money to keep it going. If you have good products, and a good game plan, eventually you'll get to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Look at Zappos. How much did they lose their first 5 years? And how much did they sell for in their 10th year?

 

[Vigilante]

So far removed from my current stage and where I actually want to go ...

This.

His book is on building empires.

I'm the guy who starts something, takes it from concept to reality, and births it. Someone else can pay for it's college education.

I guess I am an early stage entrepreneur.

Masterson has built multiple 9 figure businesses. He knows what he is talking about.

I on the other hand, don't know what he is talking about.

 

[RHL]

I made it through the first several chapters before I put it down, never to return to it.

Alright, if you're going to be lined up on the prison wall for this, I might as well stand with you. Here's my copy of RFA:

It's been within 20 or so pages of that spot since April. The last time it took me this long to finish a book was City of God which, FWIW, is 2400 pages long and full of extremely esoteric material. One day when I was determined to make major headway, I got a surprise call to have lunch with a friend who lent me his copy of The 48 Laws of Power. I read that entire book in about 12 hours when I got home, was up until 2, had to rush to prepare documents for a meeting at a dealership at 12:00 the next day. That was my experience with TMF and RDPD also, I read each twice in the first week after I got them, they were so good they disrupted not only my thinking, but my actual life schedule.

So, I'm actually going to critique this book at a slightly different angle than Vigilante. The book has some merit, sure, but part of what's going on here, IMO, is a sort of false syllogism starting from principles outlined in TMF . The syllogism goes like this (and forgive the formatting, I never took symbolic logic or anything, but I think this makes my point):

If: Only people who have made 7+ figures know how to teach others make 7+ figures

Then it must follow that: Anyone who has made 7+ figures should know how to teach others to make 7+ figures.

And it just ain't so. Just because, in the case of many hucksters selling business success books, "those who can, do; those who can't, teach" doesn't mean that those who can do (Like Masterson) can inherently teach as well.

So, to Masterson (Ford).

For one thing, after buying the book, I felt like his primary concern as I started it was not to help me as a young-ish business owner, but to get me interested in subscribing to ETR. This is one of my ultimate pet peeves with some business books: If I paid money for your product, I don't want to feel that all I bought for my money was the chance to be upsold to your next level of commitment immediately, and if I don't bite, I don't get much value. Give me some value first, and if you manage that, I'll usually happily commit at the next level. He spent way too long establishing his credentials, which ended up being way less effective than MJ's "Here's the deal with my success, and if you don't buy it, your opinion doesn't change my reality." It was way, way too many words to distill out what Andy has, I think, correctly quoted as the nugget of the first 1/3 or so of the book-Focus on Selling, set up teams and systems that put you at the forefront of selling, get sales immediately. It's really good advice, and forged from really prescient experience, but it could have been presented so much better. I almost feel like reading the beginning of CantWait2's oft-bumped gold post delivers the same message more effectively.

Every night I bring the book up to bed, and every night, without fail, I fall asleep with the light on and the book in a pile on my face. Every time I fly or take a train, I take the book. It's traveled over 10,000 miles with me. It moves 1-2 pages, then I get caught up in something else. I know there's going to be more good in there, but I also feel as I've been reading that I'm probably going to have to power through another 100 pages to get another three bullet points of salient advice.

After the meetup, I bought the book, and thought I must be taking crazy pills to be having such a hard time. It was mentioned with reverence so frequently, that I felt like I must just not be approaching it the right way, or with the right mindset. I was thrilled to see this thread. I'm glad I'm not the only one who "didn't get it."

So I just disagree with the damn title. You NEED to aim, right down a fastlane.

Wait... you're saying you can't just start a blog, launch an Amazon store, or create a monthly subscription box and be Fastlane automatically? WTF why didn't you write a book?

 

[MTF]

That's funny. I've just finished reading this book as well and I have very similar views. I've already mentioned it in my thread on the inside:

I started reading Ready, Fire, Aim (again, as I didn't finish it the first time). I now remember my main issue with it - author's claims that very few businesses make any profit when they have less than $1 million in revenue. I have no idea to which businesses he refers. Actually, it's pretty hard to come up with businesses that need to reach $1-10 million in revenue before they start making a profit. Maybe I'm too accustomed to "lifestyle" businesses and small, not bloated businesses with little overhead. Still, that's why I remembered it felt aimed at big business.

I have zero entrepreneurial credibility when compared to Masterson or you @Vigilante, so I wasn't entirely sure if I missed something. Operating at a loss under $1,000,000 in revenue sounded ridiculous and wasteful to me and not applicable to virtually every single entrepreneur (except for the ones starting huge capital-intensive businesses).

I'm happy to hear I'm not the only person who doesn't care about his four stages of business growth.

In addition, I'd like to mention that Masterson doesn't deliver on his promise that his process will help you build a business that will run without you. Yes, it can happen, but according to him it won't happen until you reach Stage 4 ($50 million to $100 million in revenue and beyond).

If you're lucky to even get there, it will take you 10 years. And ONLY then he says that the main opportunity for this stage is "getting the business to run itself." He also says that entrepreneurs who reach this stage are "in the top one-one-hundredth of the top one-one-hundredth of the world's population."

In other words, if you want to follow his blueprint, then MAYBE (if you launch the right type of business, because I'm pretty sure most businesses will never reach $50 million in revenue a year) you'll be able to enjoy your freedom after 10+ (or more) years of running your business.

I can understand how his advice can be applied if someone wants to start a huge company right away (you can't really start, say, a telecom company with 10 bucks), but I'm pretty sure that his advice won't apply to 99.9% of people here.

He does share some useful tips. However, the concept on which his book is based is not aimed at your average entrepreneur who can't afford not making any profit until he crosses $1 million in revenue (which, according to Masterson, takes 1-2 years). And actually, according to him it's possible you still won't make a profit until you reach $10 million in revenue (which can take up to 5 years).

 

[csalvato]

To add to that a bit, here is how I interpreted his notion of operating "at a loss":

1. When you start making huge revenue, all of that goes into covering living expenses and back into marketing.
2. You operate at break even or at a loss to hit that $1MM breakpoint, supporting yourself and your team so that you can hit a critical mass. It doesn't mean you're losing money.
3. You're just not putting a profit on the books of the business. You, personally, can still be living a very comfortable life.

 

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[MTF]

Not trying to derail the focus of the topic, but has anyone read Peter Thiel's "Zero To One"? That's another author who seems to write from a completely different level than most of his readers. He discusses how to build empires that disrupt existing technology and carve a better future for the world.

I have. It was a pretty inspirational book, but each time I read business books by visionaries (Bold by Peter Diamandis being another such book), I can't shake off the feeling that an average person would do much better launching a "boring" business first and only going after these big ideas when he already has money, experience, and time to work on them.

IMO it's much easier to support your lifestyle with an e-commerce store than start a business that will "disrupt" an entire industry. In the second case, your chances of failure are extremely high. Moreover, you can start making a profit with your online business from day one, while it usually takes years to get the "BIG" business off the ground.

I can appreciate the general sentiment (bold thinking, creating massive value). However, these books should come with a warning: if you don't have any source of income, you're likely to live on bread and water for the next few years if you decide to go after a huge problem.

The issue here is pretty similar to the "make money doing what you love" discussion. I'm passionate about electric cars, but I'm not going to start a company in this industry because it will take years to make any money on it (if I even succeed in the first place). I'd rather make money with a boring, not world-changing business and live a comfortable life now than risk everything to MAYBE start making some money in a few years.

I'm aware that a successful world-changing business would probably make a person a billionaire, but if you prioritize happiness over money, then it doesn't really matter if you make six figures a year from your simple small (but freedom-enabling) business or billions from a business that requires you to sacrifice your entire life.

Maybe it sounds a bit demotivating, but very few people are Elon Musk or Peter Thiel. These guys are both geniuses and started their businesses at the right time, with the right teams of equally genius people, with the backing of equally genius investors. They also possess crazy tenacity, are willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING for their business, and in general care much more about the change in the world than money. If that's you, Zero to One is for you.

 

[Likwid24]

I think you actually hit on what I got as the point of the book..... Don't waste your time on anything other than sales until you hit $1M (that includes the rest of the book). When you hit $1M, come back and read some more.

Would be interested in @Likwid24 's thoughts as he is now at stage 2.....

This is just the quick response because I'm in a major rush. Have a flight to catch in a little bit.

So since I'm in phase 2 right now, yes I still think this is a great book. He mostly talks in the beginning about getting new products out there. Now that you have your hit product(s), you NEED to introduce new products. You also need to build systems and start hammering all the kinks out of your business.

This was our plan from the start, but reading the book reassured me that I was doing the right thing and on my way to phase 3 eventually.

Sorry for the short response, but like Jon says - I really am crazy busy right now.

 

[jon.a]

Step 1. Start with $1,000,000

I thought Step 1 was to start with $2,000,000?

 

[Andy Black]

Andy. How do you operate for 1 to 5 years at a loss?

If you can't do that, what difference does the rest of it make?

Step 1. Start with $1,000,000

His operating model for all startups is at a loss to breakeven through the first run rate of $1m in annual revenue.

I must admit, I didn't spot that part in it.

My wheat from the chaff is that summary of Stage 1: Make sales. Get going.

All I can remember of the rest of it is that if your business grows to, say, 7 employees then they can all still report to you. When it's 49 employees then it's a different beast (with 7 reports to each of 7 managers reporting to you), and then when there's another layer and it's 7 * 7 * 7, then it's another beast again. Those stages are so far removed from my current stage and where I actually want to go that I just noted it as interesting and filed it away.

@RogueInnovation had a great post somewhere about business planning and goals, neatly summed up as "Get going. Keep going."

I like it when things are simplified for me. "Get going. Keep going. Make sales."

 

[csalvato]

I took "operating at a loss" to mean that after you pay yourself you are at break even, in an ideal situation -- then you can start banking profits.

Regardless of that, the rest of the strategies have nothing to do with operating at a loss. They have to do with means and methods of finding an OSS.

Ready Fire Aim has been an instrumental framework for my current business which is starting to take huge jumps.

 

[IceCreamKid]

my posting about it on the forum was likely to draw some friendly fire. So be it.

Friendly fire is a good thing. Even if the idea is unpopular, it gets people thinking and pushes new thought processes forward.

Csalvato recommended the book to me. I had similar thoughts as you after I finished it. The idea of operating for up to 5 years at a loss/breakeven didn't resonate with me and I highly doubt that most Americans can operate at a loss/breakeven for even 5 months.

Don't get me wrong, the book had other nuggets but I simply couldn't shake off the notion of operating for such a long time at a loss/breakeven. If the reader is willing to look past that though, there are some excellent strategies that they can use as the baseline for their business. I guess I'm just a stubborn guy who couldn't look past it.

Not trying to derail the focus of the topic, but has anyone read Peter Thiel's "Zero To One"? That's another author who seems to write from a completely different level than most of his readers. He discusses how to build empires that disrupt existing technology and carve a better future for the world.

 

[Andy Black]

A book I really liked was "The 7 Day Startup" by Dan Norris. It seems aimed at the level of most of us in here, and tries to get us to find a need and take action.

Dan is the first I've heard mention "Product - Founder Fit".

What business suits our current business skills and experience, and our current strengths?

 

[ddall]

Vigilante,

Great topic, and thank you for sharing your contrarian opinion. It is people like you who are willing to go against the prevailing hive mind mentality that ultimately stirs rational dialog and debate from which we can all challenge our internal biases and hopefully learn/grow.

With that said, I would agree with others that the book provides value and insight ( well at least the first two stages for me personally) in terms of the initial stages of empire building and would also agree with you regarding the average forum member seeking more insight into a lifestyle business akin to the 4HWW.

I too took his 'not profitable during first stage' point to be similar to Jeff Bezo's mantra of 'get big, quick' aka scale by reinvesting everything into the business (ok true Bezo's had mega funding, but the principle of investing to scale, maintaining cash flow/reserves and not taking out profits/dividends hold). For example, with ecommerce, it might be that each product sale is profitable when examined in a revenue minus COGS perspective, however ALL income is spoken for with additional expenses used to grow (Inventory, marketing, etc) so NO profit is realized, aka withdrawn from the business. In the book, Masterson talks about cash flow and selling being most important

Of course perhaps I'm interpreting this to fit my own present experiences and paradigm, but as someone who is bootstrapping his business working fulltime and investing all income generated from the business back into expansion and growth, I echo the stage 1 model in not realizing (taking money out) any profit.

I think, in fact, many of the principles in the book are congruent with general FL forum thinking.

 

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[Andy Black]

I listened to it a couple of times in my car. Apart from the gushing first chapter, I quite liked it. Not a roadmap, and the later chapters were less relevant for me. I then bought the book but couldn't get through it.

My take-away, and kinda my bible at the moment, is his identification of the problems of starting businesses like most of us in the forum have... and what to do about it.

I wrote it up in a post here, and it's below too.

I like that it's so simple. Make sales. Get things going. It's the stuff most of us seem to get stuck on.


Stage One - Infancy (Zero to $1M in annual revenue)


Main Problem:

• You don't know what you're doing. (lol... I can relate)

Main Challenge:

• Making the first profitable sale.

Main Opportunity:

• Continuing to sell until you have achieved a minimum critical mass of customers.

Skills needed:

1. Getting things going.
2. Selling.

My notes:

• You're trying to find a product that people need and are willing to pay for, then find the Optimum Selling Strategy (OSS) for that product.
• Once you're selling profitably, then focus on that product and scale, scale, scale.
• Stage 2 is when you plateau with this product and then start building other products to sell to your customer base.

 

[Andy Black]

He knows what he is talking about.

I on the other hand, don't know what he is talking about.

Haha. Legend.

 

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[throttleforward]

You have to read beyond the words he wrote to conclude that. It requires editorial license in order to conclude when he talked about operating to $1m at a loss, he wasn't talking about operating to $1m at a loss. He was. He just uses other people's money (investors, loans) to do it.

My editorial license says the quickest way to $1m is to start with $1m. That's an equally loose (and equally unstated) supposition.

Based on that, if my company makes $500k margin, and I pay myself $500k salary and have no other expenses, I am operating at breakeven? That's not the traditional definition of operating at breakeven.

It's been a while since I've read the book (which I liked), but if I recall he did not start any venture without either a partner, or an existing business platform to fund development. I don't recall him sitting around a coffee table with a laptop, no money and no partners and ginning up a business.

From that standpoint, he didn't provide much advice on how to bridge that gap (a position that the vast majority of the forum is in and needs guidance overcoming) - but I found nearly all his other insights to be valuable, especially his admonition to focus on marketing and sales (and eventually new product development).

 

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[theag]

I'm a big fan of the concept in the book and read / listened to it multiple times and consider it my long term game plan. I have to say I absolutely cant remember him saying that you have to lose money until you reach $1M. I always took it simply as breaking even (= taking a modest salary to cover personal living expenses) until you reach scale, in both revenue and employees that operate the company for you, and THEN start to profit.

 

[Iwokeup]

To add to that a bit, here is how I interpreted his notion of operating "at a loss":

1. When you start making huge revenue, all of that goes into covering living expenses and back into marketing.
2. You operate at break even or at a loss to hit that $1MM breakpoint, supporting yourself and your team so that you can hit a critical mass. It doesn't mean you're losing money.
3. You're just not putting a profit on the books of the business. You, personally, can still be living a very comfortable life.

That was my takeaway as well.

 

[Vigilante]

To add to that a bit, here is how I interpreted his notion of operating "at a loss":

1. When you start making huge revenue, all of that goes into covering living expenses and back into marketing.
2. You operate at break even or at a loss to hit that $1MM breakpoint, supporting yourself and your team so that you can hit a critical mass. It doesn't mean you're losing money.
3. You're just not putting a profit on the books of the business. You, personally, can still be living a very comfortable life.

You have to read beyond the words he wrote to conclude that. It requires editorial license in order to conclude when he talked about operating to $1m at a loss, he wasn't talking about operating to $1m at a loss. He was. He just uses other people's money (investors, loans) to do it.

My editorial license says the quickest way to $1m is to start with $1m. That's an equally loose (and equally unstated) supposition.

Based on that, if my company makes $500k margin, and I pay myself $500k salary and have no other expenses, I am operating at breakeven? That's not the traditional definition of operating at breakeven.

 

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[Andy Black]

Not trying to derail the focus of the topic, but has anyone read Peter Thiel's "Zero To One"? That's another author who seems to write from a completely different level than most of his readers. He discusses how to build empires that disrupt existing technology and carve a better future for the world.

I don't think it's a big derail.

I literally finished "Zero to One" yesterday. I found it a lot easier to read than I thought I would, and I enjoyed it and got a few insights from it too. I also think it's very far removed from where I am currently, especially since I also don't give a fig about "startups" and exponential growth. If it comes then grand, but I'm not designing it in.

It's still worth reading... he's done a lot of thinking and writes very clearly.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I haven't read this book so I cannot comment on it, however...

His books, Automatic Wealth and Ready, Fire, Aim, were recognized on the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Best Sellers lists

These *lists* can be manipulated and sadly, don't mean shit other than the accolade it puts to your name.

TMF has never made a list (and probably never will) because I failed to sell 20,000 in a short period of time, which essentially is how a book becomes a NYT best-seller. In other words, you blast your list and do a huge launch promotion (sound familiar?) and bam, here's your NYT designation. After you sell 22,000 in the first month from pushing your list, marketing, PR, etc, sales dry up-- because well, the book just doesn't sell very well from word of mouth.

Ones that do sell via word-of-mouth become name brands, books like RDPD, Millionaire Next Door, 50 Shades etc. Those that don't usually fall to obscurity.

Insofar as TMF , I'd guess it has probably sold more than both of his books combined, despite lacking "titles" and "designations". It has sold consistently for years and reached 20,000 in sales years ago. Not sure how many readers take time to review a book, but it's probably in the neighborhood of .01% (one hundredth of a percent)...do the math.

Nonetheless, this book is on the recommend list simply by the fact many here have recommended it, and that, bears noting. It has been on my "to read" list for sometime, just haven't gotten to it.

 

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[ZCP]

That was my takeaway as well.

+1 that book has really helped my service business as it got me back to I selling as my main focus.

As with any book, their are wisdoms that apply and wisdoms that are for others.

 

[ZCP]

The best use for this book is to prop up your sales booth at the trade show. That way you get 2 things out of the book:

1. A stable sales booth at the trade show, and
2. You get to work SELLING your way to 1M. (The only actionable advice I can find in the whole book).

The book reads more like memoirs of a 100M$ mentor. That mentor would be saying "son don't bother me until you sell your way to 1M".

@Vigilante congrats on stopping reading, I couldn't and.....wasted a few more days of my life.

I think you actually hit on what I got as the point of the book..... Don't waste your time on anything other than sales until you hit $1M (that includes the rest of the book). When you hit $1M, come back and read some more.

Would be interested in @Likwid24 's thoughts as he is now at stage 2.....

 

[James Thornton]

In 2010 I signed a 6 month lease to open a shop in an expensive mall. No clue if it would work, blinded by passion.

My expenses those 6 months were 6x what I started with. Luckily I made sales!

Went on to have a mildly profitable couple years, then bailed out because they were raising rent 30% per year.

The problem? It was super slow lane. 7 days per week (72 hours) and 0% scalable.

My next blind leap was ecommerce, which also made sales (even today). Also slow lane, and getting shut down in a week.

So I just disagree with the damn title. You NEED to aim, right down a fastlane.

 

[Hackdroot]

Possible though that someone like you that reads it in early stages then referrs back to it later when things start to scale huge.

Yes. That is a situation I could see happening. But for those already established companies, I just have a hard time picturing some CEO/owner of a 50mil/yr company coming into a board meeting and saying "you know guys, I read this book the other day....."

But then again, if I knew anything about how those successful types thought and behaved I probably could write my own book and not be spending the afternoon discussing the merits of other successful authors.

 

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[theag]

but that's not what he said

Maybe, but like you said, that doesnt change my takeaway.

 

[Vigilante]

This was my understanding as well. I don't remember Masterson saying you have to break even to get to the first $1m.

Nor is that the sort of business I want to run. I'm not a fan of enormous runways. I like highly profitable internet businesses. I am willing to take a loss, for a while, but I'm not one of those "start up" guys who runs a multi-million dollar business at a loss for several years then to be bought out and collect my profits. But, I don't think that's what Masterson is necessarily saying.

It would be nice to get some clarification from him, but I don't think we will.

Typically, what I have found when you have the chance to circle back on things like this (and in this case... years later) what you would get is "well, that's not what I was saying." You'd end up with a watered down version anyway. Nobody likes confrontation, especially when it comes at the expense of what they wrote in their manifesto book.

So, to each his own. He wouldn't really give a shit about contrarian opinions at this point anyway (he doesn't need to).

So... if you are a fan of his work, and got some life changing material from it, awesome.

I was disappointed that I couldn't get past the false start insomuch as I am sure I missed the forest through the trees.

I resonate more with the automate and outsource / 4HWW crowd than I do with the empire building, run a funnel with trip wires at a loss until you can scale it big and close them on other stuff crowd. I am not a believer that a business can't be profitable from it's inception if it has elements of Need, Entry, Scale, Time and Control. I believe in a different gospel, but his scales to millions faster and more methodically (in certain circumstances) so what do I know.

Most people on Amazon have favorably reviewed this book (although, it only has 105 reviews so it is definitely a cult classic vs. a NYT best seller. Compare that with TMFL which has eight times that number of reviews.) None of his books have really mastered the SCALE aspect of the Millionaire Fast Lane. There's probably a reason.

 

[csalvato]

I haven't read this book so I cannot comment on it, however...



These *lists* can be manipulated and sadly, don't mean shit other than the accolade it puts to your name.

TMF has never made a list (and probably never will) because I failed to sell 20,000 in a short period of time, which essentially is how a book becomes a NYT best-seller. In other words, you blast your list and do a huge launch promotion (sound familiar?) and bam, here's your NYT designation. After you sell 22,000 in the first month from pushing your list, marketing, PR, etc, sales dry up-- because well, the book just doesn't sell very well from word of mouth.

Ones that do sell via word-of-mouth become name brands, books like RDPD, Millionaire Next Door, 50 Shades etc. Those that don't usually fall to obscurity.

Insofar as TMF , I'd guess it has probably sold more than both of his books combined, despite lacking "titles" and "designations". It has sold consistently for years and reached 20,000 in sales years ago. Not sure how many readers take time to review a book, but it's probably in the neighborhood of .01% (one hundredth of a percent)...do the math.

Nonetheless, this book is on the recommend list simply by the fact many here have recommended it, and that, bears noting. It has been on my "to read" list for sometime, just haven't gotten to it.

I wasn't comparing the books or their quality. As you know MLF is one of my favorite books for starting entrepreneurs to get into the mindset.

I was simply pointing out an error in facts about RFA, since factually speaking it was a NYT best seller.

It is unfortunate that those lists are manipulated though.

 

[Vigilante]

I have to admit I haven't read the book yet but I understand the principle he is talking about, Amazon and Youtube would be two perfect examples, for over 20 years Amazon has traded at a loss but I don't think anyone would scoff at that business. Trading at a loss doesn't actually mean losing money, it also doesn't mean not paying yourself a wage and it is one of the best ways to rapidly expand a big company which sounds like what Ready Fire Aim's goal is.

http://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-nearl...t-make-money-investors-dont-seem-care-1513368

Ah ok cool. I get it now. Thanks!

 

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