Thread: Are You Driving a Fastlane ... or Riding It?

Take a moment and envision your dream car. Veyron? Lambo? Ferrari?

Now, I want you to imagine a hypothetical situation in which you were given the keys to your dream car to do anything you want, unencumbered for one full hour.

What would you do? Would you grab those keys and take it for a spin using every single minute of that hour? Or, would you plop your butt down in the passenger seat and ask someone else to drive? I can't imagine anyone forgoing the opportunity to drive their dream car and saying "Here, you take control, I'll sit in the passenger seat".

Unfortunately, this is how many of us approach business -- we are Passengers of a Fastlane -- and that limits our wealth potential and usually, makes someone else rich.

One core concept of a pure Fastlane Business Strategy is control. You need control over your business, your organization, your revenue model, and your operational choices.

Drivers of the Fastlane have such control -- passengers do not.

So are you DRIVING a Fastlane? Or are you a PASSENGER in it?

Passengers join MLM companies. Drivers create them.
Passengers buy FRANCHISES. Drivers sell them.
Passengers join AFFILIATE programs. Drivers offer them.

Now, I know this "passenger" description describes many of you. Don't get discouraged or defensive. Passengers of Fastlanes can make good money, sometimes, boatloads! However understand this: The driver retains control and makes the big money. The passengers make good money.

There is a difference between GOOD MONEY and BIG MONEY.

Good money is $20,000/mo.

Big money is $200,000/mo.

When I owned my company, I offered an affiliate program. My best affiliate consistently earned $30,000+/mo. Yes, he was making good money. He was the passenger. I was the driver. As a driver, I was making $200,000+/mo. Good money versus big money.

We all have heard of "AdSense" millionaires. These are affiliates and content marketers who earn GOOD money from promoting Google Adsense. Some content providers and bloggers are doing 6 figures monthly. While this can be argued to be BIG MONEY, Google (the Driver) is making the BIGGER money.

Now we get to the most dangerous reason of choosing to ride a Fastlane as a passenger versus a driver.

This week, I experienced the dangers and consequences of a Fastlane passenger strategy firsthand. Some of you might have noticed ... Here is the story:

A thread here at the forum was discussing the RichJerk program. This became a topic because Google Adsense was serving-up RichJerk ads on the forum's sidebar.

Anyhow, as the thread progressed, I made a joking post about Latrell Sprewell: I posted "Yo, click on some G-00-g-1e Ads cuz I have a family to feed!". For those who don't know Latrell, he was a former NBA Basketball player who declined a multi-million dollar basketball contact and claimed the offer was ludicrous because "he had a family to feed". Funny huh?

Not really.

The folks at Google, either through their spiders or manual review, looked at this joking post and claimed it violated their terms. They shut my ads down and in one swift stroke, destroyed my revenue stream.

The ad space was now serving up blanks and my daily revenue sank to $0.00.

Now imagine if this forum and the Google Adsense revenue was responsible for feeding my family. Imagine if I relied on it. Imagine if my mortgage, my car payment, my child's education relied on this income stream. Imagine if I was earning $15K/mo from these ads and in one big swoop, it was gone.

No control. No say. No power.

It took me 8 days to resolve the problem, but it exposed the dangers of riding a Fastlane as a passenger versus driving it.

For those 8 days, revenue was $0.00. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

I can't imagine running a company where another company has the power to instantaneously KILL your revenue stream. It is dangerous.

Yet, millions of people submit to this type of organizational control without pause. They sign franchise agreements giving control over crucial business decisions; marketing, ads, royalties. They join distributorships in which their compensation structure is control by others. Their product funnel is controlled by a centralized source.

Years ago, I was apart of an MLM. I had a friend making GOOD MONEY. Ultimately, the company changed its product line and comp structure. His GOOD MONEY stream disappeared and the asset he created (his downline and cash-flow stream) disappeared in a matter of months. He had no control, no say, and no power.

So when you embark on your journey to wealth, ask yourself, am I going to grab the keys to the Fastlane and drive it like there's no tomorrow? Or am I going to sit in the passenger seat and let someone else drive the vehicle ....

Drivers have all the fun and make the BIG money.

~ MJ

Speed +!

Good one, and an eyeopener, too.

Remind me to buy you a drink this time at the next meetup!

Originally Posted by Kung Fu Steve

Amazing. When can I get my hands on your book sir!?

Not soon enough ... gotta get my hands on it first.

Originally Posted by terencechang

MJ's montly income definitly motivates me! :-)

Terence, I sold my company last year so I took a pay-cut.

Very good post! Can we add having a JOB to this as well - at any time, for a multitude of reasons, you can find yourself out of one.

MJ, this might have been addressed, but how do you feel about having multiple vehicles to hedge some individual risks? Is it worth it to stick to one thing mainly or for example: have a business /invest on the side/ play poker. (I guess not much time btw all those things + life though)

Originally Posted by Rawr

Very good post! Can we add having a JOB to this as well - at any time, for a multitude of reasons, you can find yourself out of one.

MJ, this might have been addressed, but how do you feel about having multiple vehicles to hedge some individual risks? Is it worth it to stick to one thing mainly or for example: have a business /invest on the side/ play poker. (I guess not much time btw all those things + life though)

I don't like diversification until after the Fastlane. I believe in focus. SteveO has a good thread about focus in the legendary section. Tiger Woods doesn't diversify. He made his fortune in GOLF. Golf allowed him the option to diversify into all types of things ... diversification didn't. If you examine all successful entrepreneurs, they focused on one thing and kicked ass at it. After they "made it", then they diversified because it gave them the freedom to do so.

How many times do you hear about entrepreneurs who slave months and years away to build a huge company, then sell it for gazillions ... then later post sale, awash in millions of cash, that same entrepreneur invests in 10 different companies. FOCUS then DIVERSIFY.

I can diversify because I focused on one thing. Focus allows for diversification.

I am curious. Since you sold your company, you must be either burning your saving account or having other passive income going on that will make you more than 200K/month.

I took a serious paycut, but my lifestyle did not change simply because my expenses always fall below my income, even post sale.

Terence, do a calculation for me: Determine the monthly income generated from $10,000,000 ... at 5%. Once you arrive at the calculation, let me know if you think that is a decent amount of monthly, "do nothing" passive income. I think you will be surprised.

Originally Posted by PhxMJ

Terence, do a calculation for me: Determine the monthly income generated from $10,000,000 ... at 5%. Once you arrive at the calculation, let me know if you think that is a decent amount of monthly, "do nothing" passive income. I think you will be surprised.

So what part of the fastlane ideology suggests going from "big money" to "good money"?
Work your ass off to take a pay cut? What kind of role model is that. Geesh!

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. lol (note to self - now would be a good time to apply jock with cup insert)

Originally Posted by mtnman

So what part of the fastlane ideology suggests going from "big money" to "good money"?

It's called the destination; the point of the Fastlane is to go somewhere fast. That somewhere is freedom from the rat race, or other's might call it, retirement.

Originally Posted by PhxMJ

It's called the destination; the point of the Fastlane is to go somewhere fast. That somewhere is freedom from the rat race, or other's might call it, retirement.

Understood Boss, just messing around.