The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Lessons Learned from The Fastlane

Rem

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
81%
Sep 14, 2009
1,216
984
48
Maine
Bump!

I was reading through this thread and really like it :thumbsup:

I would add to the already awesome lists, is the key to happiness and success is to give. It sort of lines up with filling people's needs. The more you give the more you will begin to see a void filled. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. If you give, you will also receive great rewards.

When you give you are also thinking about what others need and want. If you become a person who always has what others are lacking you will be successful. So learn to give.

Next, this has already been mentioned but would like to restate it. Visualize yourself already successful. If you want to have a million dollars and live in a million dollar home driving a nice car then picture yourself already in possession of those things. And do it daily.

Lastly, don't spend all 10 hours of your day visualizing. You have to act. Start now.

These are the things I have learned and am putting them to use now. Wish me luck!! :tiphat:
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PaulRobert

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
146%
May 15, 2009
1,024
1,500
31
New Jersey
While there have been multiple lessons that I have learned from many people here and from personal experiences these two come to mind first.

Once You Take the First Step- Once you take the first step and take action, a journey begins and there is no turning back. As you accomplish your first goal, there is another one right after it and you keep going. As you progress, your journey begins to grow and what you have already accomplished feels like nothing. I remember taking that first step and I will not lie, I was scared, I was fearing of the unknown, now as I have completed multiple goals, I embrace the unknown and prepare for whatever may happen. I also remind myself of this- F.E.A.R.

F-False

E-Events

A-Appearing

R-Real

A Unique Formula- I have also learned that everyone has to create their own unique formula to wealth. No formula is alike. Each formula will only work for the person that creates it. Just because someone has created an online service and made millions doesn't mean that you can do the same thing and expect the same result. Your formula can be in E-Business but you must create the formula and go from there. Once you create this formula and begin to generate income, you have made a unique formula that works for you. After that, repeat process. These formulas can change though, and should, to keep up with demand and your clients. As of now, I building the foundation of my formula and testing out new waters.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,080
169,500
Utah
What you know today is not enough to become the person you can be tomorrow.

Translation: Keep learning and refining your skills set.
 

Runum

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
101%
Aug 8, 2007
6,221
6,298
DFW, Texas
What you know today is not enough to become the person you can be tomorrow.

Translation: Keep learning and refining your skills set.

LOVE IT MJ! +++ speed:fastlane:
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PaulRobert

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
146%
May 15, 2009
1,024
1,500
31
New Jersey
Persistence is Key: You must be persistent at what you are doing and at what you want. If you give up on your first or second try, you will always stay in the same place. Whether it is calling up that VIP contact, or coding for a site, you must be persistent and not give up. Just don't make yourself look desperate. :smxB:

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things."- Randy Pausch
 

throttleforward

Platinum Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
278%
Oct 30, 2009
1,193
3,314
Washington DC
Fear can disguise itself as action. Constant research, failure to commit to an idea, overplanning, etc. are all examples of actions that, on the surface, appear to be moving you toward your goals, but are in fact just manifestations of your fear. Analysis is good, as long as you recognize when "enough is enough".

Money is a representative vehicle of value. Therefore, if you are not focused on providing value TO your customers, you can't expect VALUE (MONEY) to come FROM your customers. If the focus is on providing value, the money will come.

Business owners make thousands of decisions, often within a very short period of time. If you aren't expecting this, you will quickly become overwhelmed as things like what hue of blue to use for a particular word in your logo become mentally consuming. Be 'the decider' and get things done.

Believe in karma (see paragraph 2). Come on this forum and ask questions, receive advice, and enjoy the conversation - but remember to contribute yourself.
 

PaulRobert

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
146%
May 15, 2009
1,024
1,500
31
New Jersey
Determination and Persistence are accelerants to get you onto the Fastlane. :fastlane:
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

theBiz

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
46%
Jul 9, 2009
1,162
535
NY
I think the #1 best thing learned here for me was the value of time, you can never get more time no matter what you do, so if you plan to get rich do the math. $20 an hour enough? 100/hour ? 500/hour? 1000/Hour?

Are you ever going to make $1000 per hour with your current business model? Probably not, this really made me sit down and challenge businesses and how they make money.
You are not going to make 1k per hour changing a doorknob for someone. I say per hour just to stress the time part but regardless it comes down to monthly income not hourly.


Without a fastlane business model it is impossible to become rich. When you do the math you realize.... you need to be serving alot of people every hour and making ALOT of money in order to become rich and live how you want.
 

exon

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Jun 29, 2009
99
40
Croatia
Right, when sums all together it's only about time and how much people can you serve at the time.

Although you could make fastlane business even with changing a doorknob for someone.

If you have 10,000 workers that do the job for you all over the world and they can change 10,000 doorknobs in one hour and make $100,000 in profit for one hour...

If you want to make it hapend, try to avoid mistakes that I made in past:

I always repeated this mistake in my past businesses. I always thought that I know best and with that atitude I never alowed my employees to make their own mistakes, to develop themselves and to learn. Although I was good and fair (sometimes to fair) to my employees they didn't love me --- mostly because I didn't gave them a chance to grow, to be a part of business, to feel important...


So here are another few lessons learned from The Fastlane:

1) Do not try to do it all yourself.
2) With this atitude there is no chance for exponential growth.
3) If you think Big - then also act Big.
4) Always hire people who know more than you.
5) Don't try to be a good businessmen or manager - try to be a good entrepreneur. (It is much easier to be just one)
6) Learn to delegate and teach other to delegate
 

theBiz

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
46%
Jul 9, 2009
1,162
535
NY
I agree with the doorknob thing but it is going to be a guaranteed headache IMO.I do not want to see the negative in the situation but I think we can all agree some business models are just better/smarter.

3) If you think Big - then also act Big.

Can you go more into detail, I did this in the beginning and it did not work. I tried to act big and fell flat. It was only when i thought big and acted super small before things worked. I did things myself, made sure they worked... then scaled. In the beginning i thought go big right away but if your system does not work you can not act big... in my experience.

4) Always hire people who know more than you.--- Agreed 100%


5) Don't try to be a good businessmen or manager - try to be a good entrepreneur. (It is much easier to be just one)

Anything more to say on this?


My biggest issue with growth is trust with employees. Is there any advice you can give on this subject.

Employees trying to steal other employees and copy you and start their own etc...
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

FDJustin

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
11%
Apr 30, 2010
715
79
Canada
Employees trying to steal other employees and copy you and start their own etc...

That is the secret, isn't it? I posted something in these forums once, about a man and his strategy that is so nicely highlighted in this question.

Who was he? I don't remember. His last name is Koch, owner of invista and aggressive corporate man.

What was his strategy called? I forget.

But... The idea was simple. He would have meetings and allow any employee to contribute, with incentive. If something an employee comes up with is implamented, and it turns out to be good, they will get a share of the profit. There is an entire book he wrote- maybe two.

Think about that for a moment. You want to trust your employees? You can never trust them 100%. But you can run your business in a way that most of them will be satisfied and feel like they belong to your company. As for the other few who might just leave and try to copy you..?

Someone is always going to compete. I suppose some bright people might join up just to learn the ins and outs to do their own thing. When they defect (don't ever call it defect to an employee, that sounds so cool you might just do it for that reason alone :p) I would personally treat them the same way I would any other competition.
... I suppose you can get a lawyer to work with you on policy for things like NDA's and such to minimize any leaking of trade secrets you might have.

Just remember,"They wouldn't be called human resources if they weren't meant to be exploited!"

I'll leave what I said earlier about not knowing in tact, but before hitting post I did some searching until I could figure out the name and stuff. So here's a link that will explain things in light detail. I'm pretty sure he has a book on the strategy you could try and hunt down if you like. Charles Koch 1935 Biography - Learning the business, Market-based management, Sources for further information
 

exon

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
40%
Jun 29, 2009
99
40
Croatia
@theBiz

Yes, doorknobs business is going to be a guaranteed headache -- I just wanted to point out that almost everything could be fastlane business.

3) If you think Big - then also act Big.

In my example - when I was thinking big and acting small this happend:

Think Big - 500,000 unique visitors/mo.
Act Small - shared hosting (instead of dedicated server)

I made a great marketing campaign and get what I want - when I get what I want my site crash down and my account was deleted. I was acting small when I was chosing hosting server before start. (Now I have dedicated server with 12GB DDR3 RAM and 2x1,500GB HDD... and prepairing new marketing campaign :smx4:)


My biggest issue with growth is trust with employees. Is there any advice you can give on this subject.

Employees trying to steal other employees and copy you and start their own etc...


I remember that MJ said once something like this: "there isn't any gizmodo tool invented yet that would prevent human stupidity and laziness" - so, same here.

I think there is no universal answer or advice to this issue. Try to develop system where you can keep overall control, but do not involve in everything what they do. Give them chance to feel important, to be part of company and chance to make mistakes. - This was part where I did wrong.

If they want to copy you and start their own business - Then they are just your competitors - and they could be better than you also - thats capitalism.

But if they steal some trade secrets or whatever secret - than that is criminal - and they must be aware of that as well as the consequences.

I agree with everything FDJustin wrote
 

theBiz

Silver Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
46%
Jul 9, 2009
1,162
535
NY
thank you everyone i appreciate all the knowledge.

I guess the smartest thing you can do to not worry about employees as much is do not drive a ferrari to the office! I know a few big shots who tell their employees their struggling and things are rough. No increase in salaries, and no one wants to be him, but behind closed doors im sure that's a real big bank account.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

tmetz168

PARKED
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
0% - New User
Mar 15, 2011
7
0
I can add some more. If we wanna be successful remember the process. We all need the process to have an event.
Multimillionaire Trader ----> event
Working on urself (belief,strength,temperament, weakness), Working on the trading system, understanding fundamentals and manymore ----> process :)
 
D

DeletedUser1

Guest
Something I've learning. The difference in being 'Rich,' and the difference in being 'Wealthy.'

A rich person is someone that comes into money fast, and not being in alignment with the power they possess, they normally spend that money on a lot of gratuitous non-scenes, and end up broke again within a very short time, also forgetting to pay taxes. We've seen this happen to a lot of instant celebrities and sports players.

A wealthy person invest in themselves, in their business, and are looking for ways to improve, expand, and grow. They have a service mentally. They share the wealth through charitable channels, and creates foundations. They are not in it to make money, they are in it to offer a service, and the wealth just seems to attach itself to them.
 

Likwid24

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
295%
Mar 26, 2011
2,098
6,193
46
Staten Island, NY
Don't be the Rule. Break the Rule and be the Exception!

Some of the most successful people in the history of the world were told many times throughout their life that what they were trying to do can't be done. If you believe it can be done, then don't let anyone or anything stop you.
 

Chitown

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
165%
Apr 14, 2009
708
1,168
Culver City
Speed + !
compilation of 30 short&quick FL Tips that I have learned here and use them every day:

1) If you think something is impossible - Give Up or consider inventing from failures.
2) The only enemy to victory is you.
3) Focus only on the end result & goal.
4) Problems are challenges that need to be overcome.
5) Other people's opinion's do net make your reality.
6) Focus only on one (1) thing and kick a$$ at it.
7) 10 businesses that make $100/mo. aren't better than 1 that make $1.000/mo.
8) You have to eat, live and shit your thing.
9) Talent is not required, but desire and discipline are.
10) Every customer service must be S.U.C.S..
11) Service is better than product.
12) B2B is better than B2C. Companies care more about their ROI than average Joe.
13) Don't be Guru'd.
14) Answer to what you want to be must always represent a dream, vision and hope.
15) There is no experts in predicting markets.
16) Opportunity dosn't care about your timing.
17) Good money is $20.000/mo.; Big money is $200.000/mo.
18) You must do something for what you thing is good and enjoy.
19) "How can I make moey?" mindset will lead you no where.
20) Build system that generate money by filling needs and sole problems.
21) No product = no shipping + no product and/or shipping headaches.
22) Always have full control over your system. No matter are they made by partners, hire-outs or in-House.
23) Do what you love and money will follow is BS.
24) Anything build on sand comes crumbling down.
25) Never stop learning.
26) Get rich quick is good / Get rich easy is evil.
27) What do I have to offer the World?
28) Use "Pay Per Drink" revenue model.
29) Don't listen to those who have less.
30) Impact Millions.
 

DutchForce

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
150%
Mar 24, 2013
2
3
For my clearly the most important statement in the post by Jorge is "Being rich is no moore that a sucession of goods choices ".This is more evident when MJ statement one of him more important sentences "Being rich is not a event is a process" idea that is reinforce when later MJ sets the difference between Get rich easy vs Get rich quickly and he explain that a secuence of actions with direction produce the momentum that suddenly generates a desired event (wealthy) so you have to go out and gain experience in the real world.
!Success for everyone¡:smxB:
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

SeanyHang

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
287%
May 24, 2013
167
479
34
New Jersey
Awesome post! As someone who's newly a member to the forum this is really helping me dive in and soak up as much useful information as possible. +++Speed
 

Kencan98

Fair Enough?
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
97%
Aug 6, 2013
90
87
Long Island, NY
I have to admit that I didn't learn much from the book. With that said it was the best book I've ever read and the only book besides one in high school that I read cover to cover. I completed it in a few days and took notes the entire way and I'm about to start the second time through today.

It was the best book I ever read because I was shaking my head the entire way through saying "Yup...Exactly" but then I started asking myself "If I already know this and agree with it, WHY AREN'T I DOING IT?"

The worst part is that I've been in business for myself for a pretty long time and I have nothing at all to show for it because I ignored Fastlane completely and stuck with what the "teachers" say. Do what you love, 90 page business plans, etc and while I made money I still consider it a complete waste of time.

The book changed how I do business the second I started reading it. And it will be my "go to" guide for everything from this point on.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
S

stranger

Guest
As my friend said "DON'T WORRY ABOUT "COMPETITION", BECOME THE COMPETITION".
 
P

pauljones

Guest
i like this.

- Usually, if everyone is in a certain market, the opportunity has gone
- Being rich is just a consequence of good choices

Usually, if everyone is in a certain market, the opportunity has gone

what do you mean by this?

what i am staggered by is how many people have closed minds to a different method/mindset. They have made up their minds and that's it.
 
P

pauljones

Guest
i.e be the ideas man and the business owner?

5) Don't try to be a good businessmen or manager - try to be a good entrepreneur. (It is much easier to be just one)

Even better, no employees.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top