Somebody says MJ Demarco is a fraud / scam

[InMotion]

:smilielol: Vigilante...your killin me. Do you have a folder with all these videos just waiting for the right time. Funny stuff.

 

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[Ivan]

My new business will sell luck-increasing ice cream and pictures of Lambos.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

He was born at the right time.
He was interested in cars.
He wanted to eat an ice cream at the right time
He bought an ice cream at the right time
He met the right person at the right time (the guy with the Lamborghini)
He later on chose the right job and that not because he knew that job would help him put because out of a necessity, which is where he got the idea for Limos.com.
He made the website at the right time when the internet was a new and undiscovered market and investors bumped a lot of cash in it.
He than sold it in 2000 shortly before the dotcom bubble burst.And that also allowed him to buy it back from the investors who lost alot of money on the deal. After the market recovered he sold it again shortly before the financial crisis happened.

And those are only a couple of events in which he got lucky. If one of these events, and many others, which were almost impossible to predict, wouldn´t have happened he would propably have gone bust or he would still be sitting there reading autobiographies. For example he sold the company exactly at the right time because after the dotcom bubble burst the company went bust (he lost 700000$ because his stock options that he demanded from limo.com because he only took 500k$ cash and 700k$ in stock options, became worthless so it is obvious that he didn´t know that the dotcom bubble would burst). If he would have waited another month he propably would be homeless right now. In total he made a maximum of 5 Million $ which is not all that much considering that he lives for a few decades without any income, which is why he wrote that book. The more I look into it not only do I see how lucky he was but also that he is a fraud.

This is why I don't read YouTube comments.

But for my the sake of my own pleasure, I'll bite.

So ... did I get lucky?

Hell yea.

• I got lucky when I successfully negotiated a great price on a great domain name back in the days of the internet gold rush. (So lucky I made that call! I mean shit, everything was selling for $1M++!)
• I got lucky when I decided to read programming/internet books in the back of a limo, instead of F*cking around playing pocket-poker or doing nothing. (I literally would be kidnapped and dropped off at the library after work, everyday!! Lucky!!)
• I got lucky when I decided to apply that knowledge into repeated action toward solving a need in the market place.
• I got lucky when I stayed home to work, instead of going out drinking with friends.
• I got lucky when I pioneered the lead gen industry, not just in the limo space, but on web.
• I got lucky when I sold my company in 2001. (Lucky I was home to answer the phone when the calls came!)
• I got lucky when I repurchased my company back into my possession at a fire-sale price. (Financial analysis? Eh, F*ck no, I just rolled the dice since I knew luck was on my side!)
• I got lucky when I survived the dot-com crash when everyone else was filing bankruptcy.
• I got lucky to grow my company to enjoy 60+ months of consecutive profitability, much of which was in excess of 6-figures.
• I got lucky to save most of everything I earned instead of squandering it on stupid dragon shirts from Nordstrom and fancy 6-figure watches.
• I got lucky when I sold my company again in 2007 to a private equity company.(again - superlucky!)
• I got lucky to create one of the web's most visited entrepreneur forums, one that receives 1/2 million entrepreneurial hits per month and now probably makes more money in one month that you make in 1 year.
• I got lucky when I self-published Fastlane, able to sell tens of thousands around the globe. (The average self-pub book sells 400 copies; super-super-super lucky!)
• I got lucky to be able to sit on my a$$ and collect royalties from having Fastlane translated and published worldwide in multiple languages.

Now excuse me while I pack my things -- I'm so FN lucky I decided to screw this business crap, I'm moving to Vegas! (And yes, I'll be paying with cash! No mortgage! See, I got lucky again!)

Best regards,
MJ

PS: To whom it may concern: Consider yourself lucky you're not sued for defamation -- calling someone "lucky" and someone a "fraud" are two totally different things. But then again, why should I bother suing some douchebag who probably couldn't rub two-pennies together, let alone pay a lawyer $250/hour for a defense.

Trying to seek a legal cause against someone like this would be like trying litigate a turnip.

LOL.

 

[Talisman]

Sit your fat a$$ on the couch watching I Love Lucy re-runs, and see how lucky you get, if that's all you think it is.

 

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[dknise]

It's no coincidence that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Bill Joy were born within 6 months of each other.

The "fact" that timing has anything to do with luck is bs.
MJ "getting into the web at the perfect time" is bs.

Why didn't Bill Gates choose to pioneer the transportation industry with a new kind of vehicle? Luck for timing?
Why didn't MJ DeMarco choose to develop a revolutionary operating system instead of pioneer the web? Luck for timing?

No. The answer is obvious. Innovations are taken on by motivated individuals who exist at that time. Had they been born at another time, it is likely they would have excelled at something else.

Why am I not "pioneering" the web or an operating system? The answer is ENTIRELY OBVIOUS, and it is not LUCK. You choose what to focus on in the moment because of the situation at that time.

I'm facepalming so hard right now haha

 

[Vigilante]

You know who is really a super lucky son-of-a-bitch? Bill Gates. That friggin guy was just in the right place at the right time and whammo. If it wasn't for him getting lucky with Microsoft, that guy would probably be flipping burgers at McDonalds.

You want to hear the other kick in the a$$? Since 2007, Bill Gates has only given away 47% of his net worth to charity. He was also instrumental in the creation of The Living Pledge which is an effort to get the richest people in the world to publicly commit to giving away half their net-worth in their lifetime.

What a selfish, lucky bastard. He needs to pay his fair share.

 

[Twiki]

Look, there's no question that Bill Gates and lesser successes have skills and abilities that are beyond luck. And that Bill Gates is a heroic figure not only for the philantropy stuff but also his insane drive and desire to win and totally dominate in business.

But there's also no question that Bill Gates was lucky in the sense that his mother was on the board of the Seattle United Way, and also sitting on that board happened to be an IBM executive (and future CEO of IBM), and that connection helped Gates get his new MS-DOS operating system on board IBM desktop computers and made it the standard. That fortunate circumstance doesn't take anything away from his accomplishment... an example being he was obviously smart enough to keep ownership of the MS-DOS code instead of selling out to IBM.

PS. Actually Gates did try his hand in the transportation industry with his Traf-O-Data business that he started as a kid, before Microsoft. That didn't work out, so in that case it was a matter of wrong place, wrong time for that particular innovation. But things worked out in the end.

PPS. From what I understand, people who are by nature high achievers, self-directed go-getters, are also more inclined to experience the illusion of control. This might explain why the concept of luck (which is inherently beyond control) is so irritating to go-getters. Still, the illusion of control is probably better, or at least more fun, than the illusion of being a powerless victim of circumstance!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Look, there's no question that Bill Gates and lesser successes have skills and abilities that are beyond luck. And that Bill Gates is a heroic figure not only for the philantropy stuff but also his insane drive and desire to win and totally dominate in business.

But there's also no question that Bill Gates was lucky in the sense that his mother was on the board of the Seattle United Way, and also sitting on that board happened to be an IBM executive (and future CEO of IBM), and that connection helped Gates get his new MS-DOS operating system on board IBM desktop computers and made it the standard. That fortunate circumstance doesn't take anything away from his accomplishment... an example being he was obviously smart enough to keep ownership of the MS-DOS code instead of selling out to IBM.

PS. Actually Gates did try his hand in the transportation industry with his Traf-O-Data business that he started as a kid, before Microsoft. That didn't work out, so in that case it was a matter of wrong place, wrong time for that particular innovation. But things worked out in the end.

Our conversations about luck should end ... the only thing that's relevant to Fastlaners is probability.

As individuals, all we can do is play our hand as it is dealt, and then, try to improve it.

Problem is, most people don't even sit at the table to play, let alone try to draw cards.

 

[Twiki]

Problem is, most people don't even sit at the table to play, let alone try to draw cards.

As Mrs. Thomas from "What's Happening" would wisely say: "Mm hm... this is true."

I guess it's like a real-life casino, some people choose to play games of chance that require no skill, just mindless feeding coins into a machine, entranced by the blinking lights and noises promising an easy jackpot, while others seriously work at getting better at skill-based games like poker and blackjack etc... while others just go to the all-you-can-eat buffet, getting stuffed on shrimp cocktail from a wheelbarrow.

 

[DeletedUser2]

I Got Lucky


I was born



Everything else since then has been a shitload of work.



Z

 

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[million$$$smile]

Luck?
Ok, so you win the lottery for 20M, then within 10 years you've lost all of it. Is that good luck on one hand and bad luck on the other or just plain dumb luck on both ends???

No, events come and go, but stepping up to the plate and DOING something with those events is the difference.

Even old prospectors knew that "gold is where you find it" especially when your actively looking for it...

Randall

 

[awkwardgenius]

Diligence is the mother of good luck.
-Benjamin Franklin

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
-Ray Kroc

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
-Stephen Leacock

I was smart enough to realize I was getting lucky.
-Bo Peabody,

Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.
-James Cash Penney

The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
-Harry Golden

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.
-Douglas MacArthur

Care and diligence bring luck.
-Thomas Fuller

The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act.
-Barbara Sher

When you get as lucky as I got, you have to work as hard as possible to earn that luck.
-Daniel Radcliffe

Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.
-Serena Williams

Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

Luck can be assisted. It is not all chance with the wise.
-Baltasar Gracian

This world is run with far too tight a rein for luck to interfere. Fortune sells her wares; she never gives them. In some form or other, we pay for her favors; or we go empty away.
-Amelia Barr

Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.
-Iain Duncan Smith

The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.
-B. C. Forbes

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?
-Jean Cocteau

There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.
-Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.
-Emily Dickinson

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.
-E. B. White

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.
-Anne Tyler

A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.
-James A. Garfield

I say he was lucky because...He bought an ice cream at the right time.
-Kommentator56

 

[MrDoctor]

While Mr. Youtube was sitting on his computer at home commenting on baseball videos, the players were the ones on the team, at the plate, and taking the swings.

 

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[Jonleehacker]

In Jim Collins' book - Great by Choice (he's the author of Good to Great) he studies hundreds of companies over many years of data. And his results determined that companies who went bankrupt suffered no more bad luck than very similar companies in the same industry and same time period, that did well.

And vice versa, of the companies that had amazing results, similar companies in the same industry of the same time period, all had about the same number of good luck and bad luck events and circumstances.

The conclusion of the book was that luck was an irrelevant factor in business success, it was how the company RESPONDED to the luck event that made all the difference. What was more amazing was that it didn't matter whether the big event was bad luck or good luck. Bad luck events could be used as springboards to excellence by smart companies.

Preparation, vision and intelligence where the keys, luck was not a factor.

It's a great book, worth a read for anyone interested in business.

 

[Tommy92l]

HOLY SHIT.... had no idea the forum brought in this kind of traffic.

 

[AntiGuru]

Was it Brian Tracey who said "Luck is where opportunity meets preparedness" ? Most people don't recognize opportunity staring them in the face and most people aren't prepared for it if they did.

Everybody gets their share of good luck and bad, that's life. It's what you do with that luck that counts. Losers whine while winners do their thing and deal with their circumstances.

 

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[100k]

I doubt that if just 1 of those things wouldn't have happened that M.J would not be successful here today.

But, I do like to play the devils advocate from time to time, and things like being born at the right time, where you are born in the world (lucky he was not born in some 3rd world country where there was war and got a some what decent chance at life), but like it's been said, M.J put in countless hours to become an expert and he also failed many a times and bought into many "money schemes" like many entrepreneurs do, but he was taking tiny steps towards his destiny, if it had not been a limo website, It would have been an ebay site.

Stop hating troll.

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity". (Quote from sum lucky guy).

 

[Twiki]

In Jim Collins' book - Great by Choice (he's the author of Good to Great) he studies hundreds of companies over many years of data. And his results determined that companies who went bankrupt suffered no more bad luck than very similar companies in the same industry and same time period, that did well.

And vice versa, of the companies that had amazing results, similar companies in the same industry of the same time period, all had about the same number of good luck and bad luck events and circumstances.

The conclusion of the book was that luck was an irrelevant factor in business success, it was how the company RESPONDED to the luck event that made all the difference. What was more amazing was that it didn't matter whether the big event was bad luck or good luck. Bad luck events could be used as springboards to excellence by smart companies.

Preparation, vision and intelligence where the keys, luck was not a factor.

It's a great book, worth a read for anyone interested in business.

Well, if someone is saying that chance is an irrelevant factor that doesn't matter, that it's how a business or person responds to that chance event that really matters... essentially that is the same thing as saying that chance/luck is in fact a relevant factor but only when considered in combination with the varying reactions to that event (which would have to be the case anyway, since the chance event and the reaction, or non-reaction, to that event cannot be separated).

It's an idea that goes back to Machiavelli's description of Virtu and Fortuna... and it's interesting that even back then clearly the Master recognized that those who would be Prince must be full of Virtu (not virtue, but rather a vital and vigorous will to power) while despising Lady Fortuna, the primal force of nature and chaotic destroyer of men's rational objectives, exercising their will in order to "beat her into submission" (who ever said Machiavelli was P.C.???), or overcoming her with their boldness, while other, weaker men allow themselves to be taken advantage of and dominated by her. Pardon the sexist stench of this passage, just reflecting the thinking of that old time period... the underlying concept still seems to apply.

 

[Skys]

This is why I don't read YouTube comments.

But for my the sake of my own pleasure, I'll bite.

So ... did I get lucky?

Hell yea.

• I got lucky when I successfully negotiated a great price on a great domain name back in the days of the internet gold rush. (So lucky I made that call! I mean shit, everything was selling for $1M++!)
• I got lucky when I decided to read programming/internet books in the back of a limo, instead of F*cking around playing pocket-poker or doing nothing. (I literally would be kidnapped and dropped off at the library after work, everyday!! Lucky!!)
• I got lucky when I decided to apply that knowledge into repeated action toward solving a need in the market place.
• I got lucky when I stayed home to work, instead of going out drinking with friends.
• I got lucky when I pioneered the lead gen industry, not just in the limo space, but on web.
• I got lucky when I sold my company in 2001. (Lucky I was home to answer the phone when the calls came!)
• I got lucky when I repurchased my company back into my possession at a fire-sale price. (Financial analysis? Eh, F*ck no, I just rolled the dice since I knew luck was on my side!)
• I got lucky when I survived the dot-com crash when everyone else was filing bankruptcy.
• I got lucky to grow my company to enjoy 60+ months of consecutive profitability, much of which was in excess of 6-figures.
• I got lucky to save most of everything I earned instead of squandering it on stupid dragon shirts from Nordstrom and fancy 6-figure watches.
• I got lucky when I sold my company again in 2007 to a private equity company.(again - superlucky!)
• I got lucky to create one of the web's most visited entrepreneur forums, one that receives 1/2 million entrepreneurial hits per month and now probably makes more money in one month that you make in 1 year.
• I got lucky when I self-published Fastlane, able to sell tens of thousands around the globe. (The average self-pub book sells 400 copies; super-super-super lucky!)
• I got lucky to be able to sit on my a$$ and collect royalties from having Fastlane translated and published worldwide in multiple languages.

Now excuse me while I pack my things -- I'm so FN lucky I decided to screw this business crap, I'm moving to Vegas! (And yes, I'll be paying with cash! No mortgage! See, I got lucky again!)

Best regards,
MJ

PS: To whom it may concern: Consider yourself lucky you're not sued for defamation -- calling someone "lucky" and someone a "fraud" are two totally different things. But then again, why should I bother suing some douchebag who probably couldn't rub two-pennies together, let alone pay a lawyer $250/hour for a defense.

Trying to seek a legal cause against someone like this would be like trying litigate a turnip.

LOL.

but,
how do you really feel about it?

 

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[Skys]

In Jim Collins' book - Great by Choice (he's the author of Good to Great) he studies hundreds of companies over many years of data. And his results determined that companies who went bankrupt suffered no more bad luck than very similar companies in the same industry and same time period, that did well.

And vice versa, of the companies that had amazing results, similar companies in the same industry of the same time period, all had about the same number of good luck and bad luck events and circumstances.

The conclusion of the book was that luck was an irrelevant factor in business success, it was how the company RESPONDED to the luck event that made all the difference. What was more amazing was that it didn't matter whether the big event was bad luck or good luck. Bad luck events could be used as springboards to excellence by smart companies.

Preparation, vision and intelligence where the keys, luck was not a factor.

It's a great book, worth a read for anyone interested in business.

Isn't that the book where most of the companies he used as an example went bankrupt?

 

[Brentnal]

WTF is the point of this post?

Obviously no one here is going to agree with you, first off your username screams TROLL, and your opinion is asinine.

I will say though, yes everything you posted is true. There is absolutely no reason you should ever come back to this message board because it will provide you no value.

Somebody said this to me on youtube i i didn't write this i have his book i just wanted your opinions thats all

 

[Brentnal]

OK. Now that you have revealed yourself for who you are, I thought you might enjoy reading the attached article. Calling someone a fraud on the internet is not without consequence.

i didn't say he is a fraud somebody else did can't you read the title :dupe:

 

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[Brentnal]

Out of circulation. Some audio copies available on eBay. If you get "lucky" maybe one might land on your doorstep. Or you could just take action and order one. Either way.

thanks ill read the millionaire fastlane first and maybe ill read that one to

 

[Brentnal]

But, sure, he got lucky.. be a hater.

Ik ben geen haater lees die titel man iemand heeft dit tegen mij gezegd ik wou aleen maar weten wat jullie ervan vonden

 

[CEBenz]

Somebody says MJ DeMarco is a fraud

I can't believe this thread is still going.

MJ and Zen, love your responses.

I'd type more but I'm busy building my luck.

 

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[Brentnal]

Notice how he focuses on the events and not the processes

Chapter one right haha

 

[santa]

There's actually been some good points raised in this thread (outside of the initial starting point and its offensive tone)

Our conversations about luck should end ... the only thing that's relevant to Fastlaners is probability.

As individuals, all we can do is play our hand as it is dealt, and then, try to improve it.

I was thinking this is indeed an issue with SEMANTICS.
Luck is the wrong word. I was thinking about the word CIRCUMSTANCE (though "probability" is probably even better).
You cannot ignore the circumstances something has come from in my opinion. You don't look it as luck or unlucky.But see how that may have influenced things.
For example British Millionaire Richard Branson- if you read about some of his childhood and the eccentric things his mother did, you can see how that may have shaped certain characteristics in him, that he may have used to create successful businesses. It's not "luck" but it is context/circumstance etc
There's patterns with Bill Gates too.
Same with elite athletes- you think it's coincidence a significant proportion of the best players in soccer come from poor south american backgrounds. There's patterns there.
Spot the PATTERNS and use them to you advantage


That gladwell book is actually very good IF you can look at it with the right eyes.

 

[mayana]

The way that you know that the person who posted this on YouTube is, and will forever remain, a Slowlaner, is that they think that everything is an event, and don't see the process behind it.

A key example is the website. Naturally, MJ had to make the website at the right time. The key word is "make" - something which requires process. He also had to analyze timing - another process. Without these processes, there would have been no event to speak of.

I know the OP has made several forum posts, but this reeks of troll (what 16 y/o uses the word "baffle"!?!?)

 

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[TK1]

I love this thread...i would add the keywords 'spam' and 'scam' to the title so in future all the google searches for people wanting to figure out if the book is good stuff or fake go straight here...

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/ge...tion-before-someone-else-does.html#post267601

[video=youtube;jEOCXLcEBt0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEOCXLcEBt0[/video]

 

[Brentnal]

The way that you know that the person who posted this on YouTube is, and will forever remain, a Slowlaner, is that they think that everything is an event, and don't see the process behind it.

A key example is the website. Naturally, MJ had to make the website at the right time. The key word is "make" - something which requires process. He also had to analyze timing - another process. Without these processes, there would have been no event to speak of.

I know the OP has made several forum posts, but this reeks of troll (what 16 y/o uses the word "baffle"!?!?)

deleted