Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[heavy_industry]

A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life—money, power, jobs, university admission—should be distributed according to skill and effort.

press.princeton.edu

What is your thoughts about meritocracy? Is it effective to have a worldview that meritocracy should be the standard in work/sports/organizations?

I stopped reading this garbage after this sentence:

"Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. "



The best course of action is to be smart and work hard, and let nature take its course. Those that truly deserve to win, will win.

How the world is, and how it should be, is completely irrelevant for a determined entrepreneur that knows how to focus on his mission.

 

[Raedrum]

My random toughts of the day, about prospecting:
Calling might be intimidating, but this is often more effective than email or wathever, and excuses about that are just excuses

 

[Kak]

The people who did dropshipping in 2016 moved to digital marketing in 2018, then crypto in 2020.

What do they do now?

Or realtor.

Or freelancing.

 

[Antifragile]

a little real estate humor for you

 

[mikecarlooch]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSljO3DqDDU


So this is what the script looks like..

 

[Kak]

The (kind of sad) truth about life is that with enough money, you can pay anyone to fix, build, or create things for you. You don't have to know how to do those things.

HOWEVER, you do have to know how to manage, delegate, lead, sell, organize, finance, calculate, think creatively, diligently, cautiously, take appropriate risks, etc.

I fail to see the problem with this. This is exactly why I say that leadership is the most important skill in business.

You can build literally anything as long as you can lead enough people to agree with you that it is a good idea.

Every business, when it grows large enough, ends up driven by leadership and creative finance.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

@MJ DeMarco is about to become a millionaire for the second time!!!

If the millionth post is something boneheaded like "is this Fastlane?" I'll puke.

Likely will happen overnight.

 

[heavy_industry]

MJ is going to be eating a tomahawk ribeye on a motorcycle. He will also finally embrace the FIRE lifestyle and start clipping coupons. He will brag about having two computer screens and a bowflex. He’s also moving back to Chicago.

Will also close the forum and move the community to a subreddit.

 

[JAJT]

Some places people wait for hours before their turn.

Talking about not valuing your time!

I have never once cared about the price of gas in my life for two simple reason:

1. The average price is entirely outside of my control.
2. The price fluctuations within the average doesn't amount to much.

It took YEARS of directly telling friends and family to stop telling me about gas prices for them to finally get the hint. It's like a cult. I would get calls, texts and in-person comments about how they saw gas 5-10 cents cheaper over at wherever or how I need to get gas before they raise it 5-10 cents for the long weekend.

What finally got them to stop was embarrassing them with math.

- My gas tank: 60L
- Cost savings/loss when the price goes up/down by $0.10: $6

And usually the notable price difference worth calling/texting everyone they knew was really more like 5 cents, not 10, so most of the time these comments were trying to convince me to stop what I was doing, get in my car, and fight every other idiotic driver on the road to save $3. Sorry, I may not be rich but I'm also not stupid.

And when I get the dumb "well $3 is still $3" I ask them if they'd run over to the closest gas station and fill my car up for me and I'll pay them $3 for the effort. Somehow $3 isn't "still $3" when it's their time and effort being exchanged for it.

 

[perchboy]

My mom: you got only a 67% in business class!!!?

I know you like business and are running one right now so you need better business grades so you can go to business university!

And then what mom?

And then you can be an accountant!

 

[Subsonic]

Made 270€ in 6 hours of work today with no margin and no taxes.

The beauty or getting referrals for window cleaning.

 

[Antifragile]

This is a very nice surprise.

Unscripted has done very well for years, but the last time it hit #1 in any category was during release, or some kind of promotion.

Wish I had some secret sauce to share. My guess is an influencer recently recommended it.

View attachment 50338

It should be no surprise, years later I still haven't seen a better book on entrepreneurship.

Just the other day I was talking to my VP and he was quoting parts from it to help his son get into the game early. Yes, it may sound crazy that I'd share this book with my staff as you'd think it could cost me (people leaving) but I think it's helping people make better decisions for their lives. This isn't damn slavery. It's a choice, a decision to make. And top notch people, those who are Entrepreneurs at heart and producers - they will get ownership from me too.

Anyway, congrats @MJ DeMarco! Well deserved and should stay there for a long long time.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

What a nice ad for MJ's books, we need a link to this tweet in the slowlane chapter.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1684929680133226496

View: https://twitter.com/MJDeMarco/status/1684929680133226496?s=20

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

If you get into a car accident and the other person's insurance contacts you for details, tell them to get them from your insurer. They're fishing for evidence to blame it on you. F*ck em.

 

[monnffffiiiiiii]

Most entrepreneurs I know became entrepreneurs when they realized they were unemployable.

They didnt become entrepreneurs by choice, but by necessity.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I hear a lot of people recommend this book...



Not many people know WHO wrote this book ...

As well as why billionaires and certain figureheads love pushing it...

Connect the dots...

 

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[Kak]

At @thechosen1 the next time you want assistance on your business, don’t go getting butthurt and delete the entire thread.

That really is spitting in the faces of everyone who spent time replying to you. Those responses are not just for you, but for everyone.

More than an hour of my time was now utterly wasted... The well thought through responses just evaporated.

Let me give you constructive criticism. You have a problem with constructive criticism. Might I suggest some Ray Dalio Principles.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

More than an hour of my time was now utterly wasted... The well thought through responses just evaporated.

Not anymore, I undeleted it. (But locked it per his request).

I also removed the ability for any user from deleting threads. This is no longer an option.

I'm frankly tired of threads getting deleted after countless people spend their precious time trying to help, even if that help isn't well received.

I understand if he didn't want to grab anything useful from that thread, that's his option and perogative, but as you said, the responses could have helped others.

 

[BizyDad]

Tbh, I am F*cking scared right now. I've been trying to figure out ideas for so long, had some that I think would do quite well and they did - I just wasn't the person to realise them [People had already been brilliant before me ): ] Wanted to start learning how to code an Chrome extension, but as soon as I saw the first frame of code and heard the dude describe it - everything just blanked and I thought "tf is the point?!! I saw a guy on the Fastlane Forum talkin about "LEARN COPY NOT CODING" this won't help me achieve anything"

Now I'm just lurking as @Andy Black puts it - paralyzing myself with more and more info on what to do whenever you have a business goin, when I haven't even really started.

I've been trying to follow the idea guide by @NeoDialectic, but still no results yet. I'm starting to feel like I'm slipping, getting scared out of financial freedom and I don't know what to do to keep myself motivated and keep fighting for what I could achieve...

*SOS flare shoots*

Take a breath. It is going to be ok. Tomorrow is a new day to give yourself to your pursuit.

You will figure it out. And it is going to take as long as it needs to take.

Don't fret that you aren't going faster.

Don't fret that you feel you haven't started.

Fretting is simply wasting time focused on things you don't need to be focused on.

Maybe you blew it today. Whoops. So what? Tomorrow is a new day to give yourself to your pursuit.

Just focus on getting better. Making better choices. And slowly but surely you will make progress on your mission to help improve people's lives in some shape or fashion.

And maybe this will help

GOLD! - MINDSET - RANT - It Ain't Over Till It's Over

Been reading a lot of "woe is me" around here lately. People feeling stuck. People feeling trapped. So I don't know who needs this reminder today... Today isn't the end. Wherever you're trying to get to, or whatever goal you have, getting there is not the end either. Failing is not the end...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Or maybe this

GOLD! - IDEA - So Many Ideas, How To Choose? A Simple Guide To Getting Unstuck

Over in @Antifragile 's thread about scaling up in business, @mikecarlooch and I had an exchange. You can read it yourself starting here. Basically, he was saying he has a bunch of ideas and doesn't know where to start. I've had this chat with several people lately, and thought I could expand...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Reminder, I think this was posted here somewhere...

The amount of time it takes a computer to crack a password...

 

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[Antifragile]

I remember when I was at university, I used to sit in the front row. I asked questions all the time and monopolized professors’ time.

My g-f used to say she was embarrassed to sit next to me. That I had no shame.

True, I still don’t have shame. But hear me out. Education gets a bad rep here. Mostly because I think kids who are “forced to do it” are also doing it wrong. And because the system itself is antiquated.

All schools induce passivity: teachers tell you what to learn, and then test it.

If you are still young, try thinking of your education as a project, and your teachers are working for you, rather than vice versa.

This has big implications that are underrated.
1. Teachers actually want you to move past them and use them as reference only
2. You get to discover yourself and become good at being you (only when older you’ll see how that helps unlock massive business opportunities)
3. You discover fields where you are freakishly talented and those are your CENTS businesses potential.

This way, you can be cautiously in a hurry.

• The advantages of youth are: energy, time, optimism and freedom.
• The advantages of age are: knowledge, efficiency, money and power.

 

[Jrjohnny]

I just had this unique way of thinking about future you and present you and I wanted to share it:

Let’s say you have two really big jars, full of candies.

Each one has 10000.

The one on the left is present you, and the one on the right is future you..

Everytime you indulge into instant gratification, it takes from the future you jar.

But theres a twist.

You want to play video games?

It takes 2 out of the future you jar, but only 1 makes it into the present you jar.

Okay, whatever.

You finish playing games for an hour, now you feel empty, or sad.

Because your missing a candy.

you go back, this time, you take 3 out of the future you jar, but only 1 makes it into the present you jar.

Now you repeat this.

Now you have 9,000 in the future you jar, but only 10,100 in the present you jar.

All the other candies are outside of the jars, on the table just gone, but they can come back.

Now, you want to do drugs.

You take another 200 from the future you, and put 1 in the present you jar.

You have a one night stand without safety.

That’s another 150 gone, but only 1 back.

You decide you finally have enough,

Your down to 10,150 but 8,500 in the other jar.

You decide to go to the gym for the first time, it takes 1 out of present you, but makes 2 for future you.

You go 10 times, it takes out 5, but puts back 25.

It keeps compounding.

Now you keep feeling happier and more energetic.

You decide to read, that takes 0 out, but it puts back 2 into future you.

You decide to do entrepreneurship, you start a business and everything starts going better.

Soon, you wont have to sacrifice anything, it’ll just come to you.

You put in 100, but got back 1000.

Now the jars are at: 9,000 and 11,500.

It’s creating more candies.

Want to know something?

Each new candy is a new opportunity for you to chase.

Don’t sit around and settle for that, chase for more.

Thrive for better.

You’ve all got this.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I had a dream where I met @Kak.

I was walking in a forest at night and I saw Kak with his 9 huge, muscular pitbulls and I greeted him.
We were walking towards the grocery market and entered it.
Kak just let his dogs roam free or something I don't know but either way they weren't there anymore.

Kak then went into an escalator and a mom with her baby carriage and like 4 other people wanted to enter it too, but Kak said "Sorry, I'll be taking pictures here now" and entered it all alone and rode off wtf

Posts like these make me thankful for the random chat thread.

 

[MitchC]

PayPal are scum.

We already knew that but I just want to rant about this feature they added a while ago because they tweaked it today, clearly split testing it and trying to get more people to use it.

When you transferred your money from PayPal to your bank account, which I do daily because I don’t trust them because they are scum, it was always instant and free.

Then they added this new feature, pay 1% for instant or wait 3-5 days.

Is the massive % they take from all my transactions not enough for them. They have to hold my money hostage and demand another 1% to not F*ck my cashflow up.

The good news is it seems to me like both of these options take exactly the same amount of time to process and it’s just a trick. I’ve never actually paid the 1% fee. But it still makes me sick and wish I could never use PayPal again every time I see it.

 

[MTF]

The tiny island country of Anguilla is an unexpected beneficiary of the AI boom. The territory's top level domain (TLD) is .ai.

Every time a company wants to register a website that ends in .ai (here are 768 of them), they've got to pay a fee to Anguilla.

The 16,000 person island now makes $3 million per month on these registrations. That's 1/3 of the government's budget.

Another winner in this space? Tuvalu, which reports suggest earns $10 million per year for its .tv domain. "That revenue has allowed Tuvalu to pave its roads, expand electricity access for its residents, and even pay its first annual United Nations membership in 2000."

Micronesia (.fm), Montenegro (.me), Djibuti (.dj), and others have benefited as well.

from Alts.co newsletter

 

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[monnffffiiiiiii]

I finished TMF in Nov 2019 and joined the forum a few months later.

I have since tried to build around 20 businesses, from a meat delivery service to a beer company, to a social media app, to an Airbnb concierge, to a Tinder coaching service, to a transportation app, and a bunch of others I don't even remember.

I wrote books I never published and built websites I never launched.

I've made every mistake in the book, lost thousands of euros, fought with friends-turned-business-partners, and ofc, all of my ideas failed.

I also worked for a startup for a while, which also failed.

The only thing that earned me some money was writing online and selling digital products.

If I could go back in time and tell myself something, it'd be this:

1. You're not going to build a business fresh off the boat.

There is an "E" in CENTS for ENTRY, and ENTRY basically means SKILLS.

People are paying you when you can do something they cannot.

So LEARN SOME SKILLS. Anything.

• Learn to cook and sell food.
• Learn to clean and sell cleaning service.
• Learn beekeeping and sell honey.

A classmate from university was selling cakes online.

Earlier I went to buy stuff from a shop called "Mega China" owned by a guy who don't even speak the local language - his skills is to import a million different items from China and stack them on shelves.

Business is simple. Make/buy something -> sell it.

But it demands skills. Which skills?

Let's ask Naval Ravikant: Learn to sell, learn to build, if you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

Learn to sell:

• Sales: I found bowtiedsalesguy to be the best resource by far.
• Marketing: I found Positioning by Ries and Trout and Different by Youngme Moon to be the best marketing books out of the +20 I've read.

Learn to build:

• This means choose your market well. Some people decide to learn how to code, others learn how to grow fruits and vegetables. And others learn how to build cars and rockets. Choose something (1) you can be better than the competition at making, (2) that interests you, (3) that people want to buy.

From experience doing my stuff and hanging out with entrepreneurs, the smaller you start, the better. Chanel started with one hat, Facebook with one line of code, and AB-Inbev with one beer.

2. The second thing is mindset.

It took me three years to go from walking into a shop and see what I could buy to walking into a shop and see what I could sell.

I no longer go shopping. I go "research selling", which means I go to shops to see what people buy there.

While simple in appearance, this mindset shift took some time.

3. Don't forget to enjoy life.

I've spent most of the last three years working and doing nothing else because I was obsessed with making money.

It went fast - too fast - and I regret it today.

You earn money to do life, not the other way around. Getting rich isn't a race and retirement is a lie. Even after you "make it", you will never *not* be working.

Boredom is more painful than painful work. I know no rich people that do fvck all all day. They all work. But they do work they enjoy.

That's the ultimate flex: having no obligations whatsoever, and only do the work you enjoy.

Conclusion

I'm a workaholic so, in retrospect, these past few years (albeit painful sometimes) have been fun.

Maybe it was the ultimate purpose since the beginning. Unfortunately, I tend to forget it sometimes.

So my hopes for the next few years are not to forget to have fun and to nurture the relationships I have neglected.

And of course, to build a small profitable online business.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

View attachment 51778



I like creative ads. Do you have any favourites?

LOL, I was looking for a car on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck.

 

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[Kak]

Sorry but that’ll be a NO.
Elon was trying to up his rep and got banned. That’s why he had to buy Twitter. He learned the commandment of control the hard way.

This is starting to feel like schizophrenia. I don't remember typing this on my Antifragile account.

Or this on one of my BD accounts:

I'm MJ will give me (us) a fair trial

But I gave myself gold on both of them.

 

[Jrjohnny]

Not too long ago, my cousins and I cleaned up their neighbours overgrown forest of a backyard.

There were trees, bushes standing 10 ft tall, and more.

Hasn’t been trimmed in over 20+ years.

We decided to do it for free; it took 6 people, electric tools, bloody hands, dirty gloves, blisters, sweat, ancient dirt flying at you, and 2 hours of gruesome work.

But finally, after pulling out everything, cutting out 11 ft high dead trees, and more.

We cleared out everything. We could finally see the sun.

The space was only 200 sq ft big, the garage on the other side was invisible.

We had fun, I counted it as one of my first “landscaping contracts”

Guess what? Today I got 20 bucks in my mailbox.

If I kept reading about how to landscape, I wouldn’t know what I know now, and I wouldn’t have made what I have made.

+$20, +500 points of experience, +1 more memory, but most importantly, +1 happier person.

 

[Andy Black]

Hey @MJ DeMarco @Andy Black and fellow fastlaners, I have an issue I don't know how to network with well, as a young entrepreneurs I don't have much value to give, how can i ask for mentorship/advice from people, without making it seem a time waste for them? Any suggestion any thread would be of great help

Give, don't ask.

Don't even ask what you can give, or ask for permission to give. People are busy. Don't make them think. Make it easy for them to say yes.



What if you posted this:

Hi MJ.

I loved your LinkedIn post last week about <subject>.

I turned it into a carousel which is attached.

Here's the slides:
<show the slides so MJ doesn't have to open the doc to see them>.

I can make any changes you'd like, and if you want to upload it to LinkedIn then here's the instructions:
<give simple step-by-step instructions>

Hope that helps!

Shubham

<doc attached>