Vent about the fastlane formula

[Johnny boy]

Fastlane means building a business using some sound principles (CENTS) will be a likelier and more enjoyable path to wealth than almost anything else.

I owe a lot to this forum. I'm 24 years old. Life on the lake is good dawg. Here's a rough overview of our revenue numbers.

2018: like 25k or so
2019: 90k
2020: 150k
2021: pacing 300k
2022: goal is to get to 600k

Profit margin: 45%

Tell me which job is going to let me do that. Pro baseball player? Top lawyer in my city? Brain Surgeon?

It's a lawn care company. Most basic, easiest, simple business ever. Right up there with a lemonade stand.

You're complicating something super basic.

Sidewalk: Idiots who are broke forever and work crap jobs and hate life
Slowlane: COCKY idiots who think they are superior by saving money from their 50k a year salary who have a million when they are 65 years old and love to share terrible advice
Fastlane: Build a business and be able to get into the 1% in your 20's. (currently on my way there)

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Not even going to bother...

There are so many fallacies, misstatements, strawmen, and misinterpretations in your post that I'm not going to even entertain it.

because it assumes succeeding on the first try,

You see, when you start with a false premise as ridiculous as this, a strawman that I never said, in fact, something that I counter-reiterate over and over (entrepreneurship is like baseball needing many swings) your entire argument is already lost.

Believe what ever you want, but I'm not going to debate your fallacies and strawmen arguments.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Thanks @MJ DeMarco for bringing this thread to my attention, I'll be glad to drop my two cents.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

Almost nobody succeeds "on the first try". Did you succeed the first time you tried to walk? Or the first time you tried to swim? Or the first time you started riding a bike? Nobody did. The very idea of "success on the first try" presumes that there is no learning process, and even more, that somehow you are entitled to succeed because you're a very good boy, graduated from an Ivy League university, or whatever. That's precisely what keeps people in the Slowlane, or even worse, on the Sidewalk.

And if it takes you 10 years to fail once, my advice is to fail a little faster. You can go through 3-4 solid failures at a minimum and 12-20 depending on what business you're in, in a single year. Not in 10 years.

The point is that ALL the things that you're worried about "ughhh will this be successful in 10 years? Ughhh will this scale to a meaningful exit? Ughhh this survey says I need to be over 40 to succeed?" are BULLSHIT. NONE of the big hitters that I know even THINK about these things, MUCH LESS spend their time analyzing them. I mean why do you even search for a survey of the age of high-growth entrepreneurs?! I can care less about the statistics. I can care less about those numbers. Honestly. If the statistics said that only 0.00000000001% of entrepreneurs succeed in their 20s, I'd still be an entrepreneur.

What you have to realise is that the Fastlane is first and foremost a mindset. A mindset of being a producer, providing value, and being of service to others. It's not about give me the money, I just want money now, to get my Ferrari, and my bimbos, and head to the beach...

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.

And your odds of attaining true wealth are ZERO if you don't take any risks, because INSERT REASON (like you're not old enough to succeed).

And I don't see why you'd be miserable because you "pissed away" your youth to attain wealth, and didn't get it by 30. Come on, what would you rather do? Piss away your youth sitting in a cubicle, glued to your monitor screen, having the boss spit nuts on your head? Or piss away your youth HANGING and CHILLING with your loser buddies drinking beer, smoking weed, and playing pool at the pub?!

Or would you rather spend your time doing something that can make a difference in the world and for others? Being productive, pushing the envelope, moving society forward?

I just fear that by the time I do finally have my successful exit, I'll be older than I'd like to be. It would just make me feel unhappy and miserable with myself. I don't fear the failure rate but what I do fear is how many times it may have to take for me to get there. So let's say starting at the age I am now, 19, that I begin the fastlane but fail like 5 times, and let's just say I succeed at 35. While this would make me happy in the short term, it would make me feel miserable in the long term b/c with retrospective thinking, I would be like " Man... I wish I would've gotten this much sooner, so that I could've enjoyed my youth more and for a lot longer, but with abundance. I kind of regret sacrificing so much and so hard for this, putting everything on the line often." I.e I would feel very disappointed in the timing of its arrival. I would rather get rich young and ripe in my twenties or get rich never. Given that the odds of that actually happening are stacked against me I will no longer aspire to achieve that. But what I will aspire to achieve instead is financial freedom. The latter is far more feasible to attain than the former because you don't have to have the huge lump sum to have it in the beginning, all you need is just proper delegation of a business that is decently profitable,and then later down the road you make your exit so that you don't have to manage it at all. Except in my case even if I do manage to attain a fortune I'll just probably give it away because it's not going to make me happy, it'll make me miserable unless I happen to be young and ripe in my twenties. If not then I would only keep just enough so that I don't have to worry about bills and that's it. I wouldn't be entirely happy with the outcome of only having financial freedom and not wealth but at least it wouldn't make me as miserable as having wealth in the wrong timing for myself. I get it that the fastlane is about freedom and not money except I know I want to have wealth, but only if I'm young enough to enjoy it to its maximum potential. Otherwise I'd prefer it never comes to my door.Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

Most of the big hitters I know simply do not care about these questions. Like they're not even on their radar. Do you think I'm worrying or even thinking about when I'll have 10 million? Only losers think like that. Cowards. I'm thinking about what my next step should be, and the direction I'm headed in. That's all. I literarily can care less about all these "problems".

Now, why do YOU care about them? Because you're weak. You're afraid. You're afraid that you'll be too old to enjoy your fortune... I don't care if I'll have $1 billion by the time I'm 80. It's never really been about the money, it's about making an impact. I don't need the money to enjoy anything... I mean sure, I need the bare minimum to feed myself and stuff, but most of the other joy comes from building meaningful relationships with others, sharing experiences and making an impact. You want to have the experience of driving a lambo with your girlfriend, or whatever, rent it out! Rent the lambo out for a night, and head into town. See what happens.

And how come you're not young in your 30s or even 40s? At least as a guy, I'd say those are your peak years, when you have both strength and some wisdom. In fact, a lot of men I've spoken with describe those years as the best years of their lives...

As MJ said, you're better off dealing with the mindset issues first. You don't NEED money to be happy, if you're not happy now, you won't be happy when you'll have your millions either. In my experience, success doesn't bring about happiness, but happiness often does bring about success. You just have a different energy when you're happy and joyful, and that energy makes success easier, not harder. And I can bet that YOU think that the money comes first, and it will give you that happiness and joy, but, as woo woo as this sounds, in my experience it's often been the other way around: the joy and happiness comes first, and the money tends to follow.

I work a lot less hard today, then I did 5 years ago. And I make way waaaaay more money, way more easily, and with a lot greater joy. What changed was my mindset. The wallet followed it, like a shadow.

And the other problem you seem to have, is that you're too worried what all of us here think of you. And the thing is, the big hitters here... they're hard. All of them that I've spoken with, even if they're nice people, are hard. Tough. They don't care what you think about them. Tehy don't give a F*ck. Literarily. They don't care what anyone thinks about them. And you're the opposite of that... you're afraid of making a mistake, you're always thinking what all of us will think of you (hence your long disclaimer), and so on. To be successful, start by getting your mind right. Read some good books. Join the meditation thread. Figure out how to be happy. Let go of your fears. And ramp it up on the Fastlane... deliver value, get your joy from the value, and the money will follow. Trust the process.

While I don’t have a course that’s strictly about mindset, if you want to start looking into a different way of thinking and experiencing things, you can check my thread here on the forum: NOTABLE! - Are You Acting In Accordance With Your Values Or Your Fears?

 

[Harman]

I want to chime in.

Thanks for unlocking this @MJ DeMarco

I'm 34 and was locked into the slow lane mindset my entire life. I lived the slow lane life, I was thriving at it. I was comfortable. I wasn't living paycheck to paycheck, had a decent savings built up, contributed to the proper retirement accounts and worked my way into a 6-figure job.

It was bearable.

I'm married, with 4 daughters, yet both my wife and I graduated from college debt free and remained so this whole time.

We were comfortable.

You want to hear my dirty little secret? The one shattered my perceptions of money and wealth?

Reading the book 'Crazy Rich Asians' by Jon M. Chu.

Remember that movie? Well I like reading books so I picked it up and devoured it. The lifestyle and glamour of the Uber-wealthy was incredibly fascinating. How did someone obtain that kind of wealth?

It ain't working a 9-to-5.

It's embarrassing to say but reading that book started me out on this journey to figure out how people gained ludicrous amounts of money and that journey eventually led me to MJ's books, this forum, and where I am today.

I have literally spent the last year reshaping myself, my own identity to remove the slow lane paradigm from my life.

I've started 4 businesses in the last year and 3 have already failed (the 4th is promising!). I will gladly fail 1,000+ more times to get this right because being on this journey ties in so damn poignantly with my man Jordan Peterson (seriously, if you haven't heard of him, stop and check him out). The pursuit of happiness is meaningless, 'happiness is like cotton candy. It's just not going to do the job'. He really pushes the idea that life's great purpose is to pursue MEANING rather than happiness.

There is this over-arching theme throughout MJ's books and, indeed, the heavy hitters on this forum. You see it crop up every time some wantrepreneur posts asking for business ideas, or asking how they can become millionaires. It appears as sage-level advice for those asking how to start. What do they do.

Find a way to help someone.

Everyone here wants to build killer businesses and make a lot of money. But not a single one of them does so without first helping someone.

We are entrepreneurs, and we help people, we solve problems, and the bi-product just happens to be green.

Throwing myself into this world, into this mindset took a lot of time. I'm still learning, every freaking day. I'm reading books on leadership and networking, I'm listening to the right podcasts, I'm talking to more people, and all the while I am actively LOOKING for problems that need solutions; not because I want to make money, but because I WANT to be a problem solver.

I'm 34, I've got a wife and 4 daughters. I have responsibilities to care for them. The 9-to-5 tract won't do that. If I want to be the best provider I can be for them, as well as the best husband/father, I need to make the world a better place in any way I can.

 

[MoneyDoc]

By "sacrifice" I mean delayed gratification . In MJ's wealth exposed story the mid twenties millionaire was explaining to Coney (Probably wrong name) that in order for him to have had the things he has now he had to delay gratification, drop out of college, etc. He had to live breathe sleep and shit his business for a while until he was able to delegate it to the point where he no longer needed to run the business as much. It was thanks to his proper delegation that kept his business alive because he at one time had to spent a few months in the hospital. It was thanks to his general manager that his business did not collapse. And so when it came time to sell his business he gave his general manager one or two million dollars I think to thank him for his integrity. Essentially he was explaining to his old college friend that it took WORK for him to get to where he is and that it wasn't just a luck event that happened. But now that I think back about that story I realize I'm essentially acting like that old college friend in a similar fashion who wasn't sold on how the millionaire was trying to explain how he got rich in the first place. It's not that I'm not sold on it, I just do not have the right frame of mind for it. I lack patience for something I anticipate to likely drag out longer than I'd like it to. I prefer to work towards things where it doesn't take light years to see the fruits of my labor realized (Making an app, getting an A on a test, etc). If it's something like mount everest for example, I have to have the passion for it in order for me to have the patience with the process. If I do something I utterly hate, then I am not going to have patience and will not go deep enough into it. When you do things you hate all you think about is when it will be over, that's where you give a f*ck about the amount of time it's sucking out of your soul. But if I were to do something I'm passionate about then I would surely not care about the time because it's something I would do willfully in perpetuity. The only way I can see myself do the fastlane is if I find what the market wants but doesn't know how to get that I can give to them at scale under my passions. I know the passion part will go against what MJ says about it but it's the only way I can see myself doing it. I'd only pursue entrepreneurship if it's a way I can do more of what I already like / love doing. So that way even if I don't end up rich in the timing I would like it to be I would have least enjoyed the years I spent in it (And if I still happen to feel that the money just isn't as enjoyable when you're middle-aged as opposed to young then I would give it away.) So the only way I can feel that I would've not pissed away my youth is if I did something I'm really passionate about.

You talk about lacking patience.

There's two things wrong with this:

1) Patience is a virtue

2) Do you really know how long it takes to get a 7,8,9 figure exit?

Moiz Ali (early 30s), $100m exit, 18 months

Me (26), ~$2m exit, 15 months.

Ryan Moran (early 30s), $15m exit, 48 months

You've probably never heard of Moiz or Ryan, let alone myself, right? I'm probably like a pawn in the grand scheme of possibilities. The number is irrelevant. What matters is that these exits are far too common. They happen every single day. I had no connections. No money to start with. My family weren't entrepreneurs. I was burned out from being rejected from med school year after year. I was a lazy fat f*ck. I had a bad gambling habit in my early 20s. But you know what, it was all my fault. I was to blame. When you realize that everything that happens in your life is in your control (excluding genetic diseases and being hit by a car), you either do something about it, or you continue living in the sh*thole. There's nothing wrong with living in the sh*thole, but you just lose the right to complain or criticize others.

With all that said, entrepreneurs, in my opinion, have an innate nature to get things done. You either have this, or you don't. When you talk to people that have made it, there's something distinctly different in the way speak, what they speak about, how they utilize their time, etc. Then when you speak with your cousin in the 9-5 world, it's a 180 degree turn. All they talk about is Tik Tok, vaccines, travelling, posting pictures on Instagram, etc. Again, you choose your own destiny. Don't talk about how you don't have patience. You think I have patience? Who really has patience? It's just a matter if you want it bad enough. If you don't, yes, you'll find every excuse possible.

 

[biophase]

Most of us get there when we are older because we didn’t have MJ’s book when we were 18. I guarantee that if MJ had his own book at 18, he would have “made” it at 25.

In fact someone asked him where he would be if his book was around when he was younger.

Interesting question...

I think I would have spared myself a lot of heartache and been able to accomplish my goals by my mid/late-twenties instead of mid-thirties. It's part of the big reason why I write --- because my books are exactly what I needed when I was 20 and had no mentors, no guidance, and no clue.

 

[BlackLynx]

I am in my mid-40s and I have discovered that true success does not lie in the material things you manifest but in conquering your inner world.

It's not about accumulating money or rushing to "retirement". I'll never be retired. I love learning too much to ever be retired in the strict sense of the word.

I could write an entire book on my discoveries but I think it's about learning to die. I want to go out smiling - staring death straight in the face. This forum is filled with 20-somethings. In your 20s you are full of energy, you're basically a fool whose frontal cortex isn't even developed fully yet and death is a far-off concept.

But it's coming for you, too, friends. It's coming for all of us.

It's about arriving at the end of the line with zero regrets, knowing you have lived a life that is full and that you left this world a better place than when you arrived in it.

 

[garyfritz]

I just fear that by the time I do finally have my successful exit, I'll be older than I'd like to be. It would just make me feel unhappy and miserable with myself.
I would rather get rich young and ripe in my twenties or get rich never.
Except in my case even if I do manage to attain a fortune I'll just probably give it away because it's not going to make me happy, it'll make me miserable unless I happen to be young and ripe in my twenties.
I get it that the fastlane is about freedom and not money except I know I want to have wealth, but only if I'm young enough to enjoy it to its maximum potential. Otherwise I'd prefer it never comes to my door.

You seem to believe that life ends at 30, and if you haven't made it by then, there's no point. I mean you'll be DEAD by then, amirite?

Let me give you some perspective from the ripe old age of 65. Life at ANY age has just as much juice as you want to pull out of it. In my 60's I'm still wine-tasting in Tuscany (2018), biking in France (2019), hiking the Rockies, carving canyons on my motorcycle, enjoying every one of the 23 microbreweries in my town, loving good food and good booze and good company, just enjoying life. I'd be doing more than that if it wasn't for COVID and some health issues. As soon as this pandemic is over I'm getting a new Tesla to enjoy some road trips. When it's safe to fly again I have several international trips in mind. I ain't dead yet.

If you head into life thinking "it's all over by 30," then you're setting yourself up for a miserable existence. You're throwing away half (or more) of your life -- for no good reason. Quit telling yourself you've only got a few years to live. Get out there and MAKE an exciting life, and don't attach an expiration date to it.

 

[biophase]

I would rather get rich young and ripe in my twenties or get rich never. Given that the odds of that actually happening are stacked against me I will no longer aspire to achieve that.

I can tell you that you are 100% wrong here. Your 40 year old self will thank the 20 year old you if you were a multi-millionaire at 40 than working a regular job. You think 30 is old. But do you plan to live until you are 80? You are talking about 10 years of your life compared to the next 70.

Funny thing is you are actually talking about MJs work on the weekdays and party on weekends on a grander scale, trading 5 days for 2 days. In your case, you say you want to work for 60 years, party for 10 years. If this is the case, getting a job is absolutely the way to go.

Being young all you think about is what the money can buy you. If you find a business that you actually like, you'll like the actual work in running your business.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

if you're not happy now, you won't be happy when you'll have your millions either. In my experience, success doesn't bring about happiness, but happiness often does bring about success.

So many things in culture are backward ... but this is one of the most poignant.

I unlocked this thread (after originally closing it) because I knew you all would come through with some legendary takes. Not necessarily a counter argument about "the fastlane formula" but a break down of everything wrong with this gentleman's mindset.

I don't see this as a Fastlane, money, wealth, or retirement topic, but one of a broken mindset.

The inside game causes the outside game -- and it makes zero sense to talk outside game when the inside game is messed up.

Kinda like talking about fitness and health, but you devoutly believe sugar plays no impact on these topics, and you can eat as much sugar as you want. And it would be fruitless to train anyone who believes this. Sorry, but you won't achieve "fitness and health" with that belief - your inside beliefs will wreck the outside results.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that.

I never suggested it, YOU DID. It also makes me think you read neither of my books if this is your errant conclusion. A whim is an event, a business is a process.

Anyone that thinks "Fastlane" is a whim is destined to fail.
Anyone that thinks "Fastlane" is something to be "tried" is destined to fail.

And here is a poll which demonstrates how many people normally fail in entrepreneurship.

NOTABLE! - CHAT - How many Business Failures did you have before success?

MODERATOR NOTE: POLL ADDED!! PLEASE VOTE!! How many business's have you all had before you found your breadwinner? My first business was a success by normal standards (200k a year +) but not by fast-lane standards.

www.thefastlaneforum.com

In fact, I wrote about failure and "tries" in The Great Rat-Race Escape, and specifically say that "one swing" (one try, one whim) is futile.




This is why there will be no discussion. Just because you said I said "the sky is green," doesn't make it so -- and I refuse to debate it as if I did. And that doesn't even account for the rest of the fallacies that followed...

 

[Fox]

You are looking at this all wrong.

You are comparing the hard journey of running your own business with some magical alternative where you get to enjoy your youth endlessly and party for the next 10 years in an endless summer of fun.

Look either way you are working. It is either going to be to build your own dream or to build someone else's.

That doesn't mean it can't be fun though. Running and growing your own business is super additive. Once you get a taste over that full freedom of your time, focus, and success rewards there is no going back.

When I was your age I partied it up for another 5/6 years. I had a lot of fun.

By 25 I had a high paying oil job but I had zero control over my time and life.
I decided to leave that behind and have a shot at starting my own biz.

I failed a bunch - a Tinder Bot app that went nowhere, a Conor McGregor cereal box brand, a website for booking Spanish lessons, an IG page for book reviews, all kinds of stupid stuff.

It took me a year to get into web design which was my first source of real income. So like 26/27 at this stage.

I am now 33 and still not millionaire status (maybe next year) but by just being on the Fastlane journey I have gotten to live in Colombia, Mexico, Malta, Georgia, Ukraine and Poland. Like at least 3 month in each and for most over a year. Along with these places I have a million memories of fun adventures and amazing times.

I still work my a$$ off but that is also enjoyable too. Enjoying your life and growing a business are both possible.

Bottom line is @MJ DeMarco has given you a real plan to have a life that you control and reap the full rewards of your effort. When you actually get a million it's not like you are going to blow it anyway. What you are really after is control - and if you don't control your own income/wealth then you don't control your life.

It is possible to both enjoy being young and grow a real business (look at @Johnny boy above and many others on here) but you do need to be on the right path and actually get some real work done too.

You are in the right place but you are looking at things in the wrong way.
Stick around and give it time for things to soak in.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I just fear that by the time I do finally have my successful exit, I'll be older than I'd like to be. It would just make me feel unhappy and miserable with myself. I don't fear the failure rate but what I do fear is how many times it may have to take for me to get there. So let's say starting at the age I am now, 19, that I begin the fastlane but fail like 5 times, and let's just say I succeed at 35. While this would make me happy in the short term, it would make me feel miserable in the long term b/c with retrospective thinking, I would be like " Man... I wish I would've gotten this much sooner, so that I could've enjoyed my youth more and for a lot longer, but with abundance. I kind of regret sacrificing so much and so hard for this, putting everything on the line often." I.e I would feel very disappointed in the timing of its arrival. I would rather get rich young and ripe in my twenties or get rich never. Given that the odds of that actually happening are stacked against me I will no longer aspire to achieve that. But what I will aspire to achieve instead is financial freedom. The latter is far more feasible to attain than the former because you don't have to have the huge lump sum to have it in the beginning, all you need is just proper delegation of a business that is decently profitable,and then later down the road you make your exit so that you don't have to manage it at all. Except in my case even if I do manage to attain a fortune I'll just probably give it away because it's not going to make me happy, it'll make me miserable unless I happen to be young and ripe in my twenties. If not then I would only keep just enough so that I don't have to worry about bills and that's it. I wouldn't be entirely happy with the outcome of only having financial freedom and not wealth but at least it wouldn't make me as miserable as having wealth in the wrong timing for myself. I get it that the fastlane is about freedom and not money except I know I want to have wealth, but only if I'm young enough to enjoy it to its maximum potential. Otherwise I'd prefer it never comes to my door.

Wow -- with this line of thinking, you'll never succeed, or worse, be happy.

I would suggest not starting a business, and first, get your head straight.

Take some courses from @Kung Fu Steve or @Black_Dragon43 and get your head right. Until then, you'll never win this game or be happy.

 

[Simon Angel]

I just fear that by the time I do finally have my successful exit, I'll be older than I'd like to be. It would just make me feel unhappy and miserable with myself. I don't fear the failure rate but what I do fear is how many times it may have to take for me to get there. So let's say starting at the age I am now, 19, that I begin the fastlane but fail like 5 times, and let's just say I succeed at 35. While this would make me happy in the short term, it would make me feel miserable in the long term b/c with retrospective thinking, I would be like " Man... I wish I would've gotten this much sooner, so that I could've enjoyed my youth more and for a lot longer, but with abundance. I kind of regret sacrificing so much and so hard for this, putting everything on the line often." I.e I would feel very disappointed in the timing of its arrival. I would rather get rich young and ripe in my twenties or get rich never. Given that the odds of that actually happening are stacked against me I will no longer aspire to achieve that. But what I will aspire to achieve instead is financial freedom. The latter is far more feasible to attain than the former because you don't have to have the huge lump sum to have it in the beginning, all you need is just proper delegation of a business that is decently profitable,and then later down the road you make your exit so that you don't have to manage it at all. Except in my case even if I do manage to attain a fortune I'll just probably give it away because it's not going to make me happy, it'll make me miserable unless I happen to be young and ripe in my twenties. If not then I would only keep just enough so that I don't have to worry about bills and that's it. I wouldn't be entirely happy with the outcome of only having financial freedom and not wealth but at least it wouldn't make me as miserable as having wealth in the wrong timing for myself. I get it that the fastlane is about freedom and not money except I know I want to have wealth, but only if I'm young enough to enjoy it to its maximum potential. Otherwise I'd prefer it never comes to my door.

As someone who was 19 not that long ago (well, nearly 5 years ago) my advice for you would be to listen and go with what the experienced folks say, even if it doesn't fit your logical/beliefs framework right now.

I never thought I'd have a mentor, but I found them on this exact forum. Their advice was painful to read at times and I didn't always 100% agree with it, but I still did it.

We got on a 3-hour call and I got completely demolished. My mentor said I had SO many limiting beliefs that I had ingrained into my everyday life which were COMPLETELY stopping me from making any substantial progress.

For example, even though I'd never tried, I was convinced I couldn't get foreign clients (from the US) because I live in Eastern Europe, look like an escaped convict, and have a noticeable accent. I also felt like I didn't "deserve" to charge more than X amount per project because of Y reasons. As the others above said, it looks like you also have quite a few limiting beliefs yourself.

After being in the worst financial situation just 7-8 months ago, I took and applied ALL of the advice I received and I am now doing what I like for a few hours per day and making enough money to feel successful and financially free. Oh, and no debt.

Trust me, it's either the above or spinning your wheels unit you're 25 and know better.

P.S. Focus on the present. Speculating about how you MAY feel in the future or how you MAY end up regretting the past after you supposedly got wealthy in the future is a huge waste of time and WILL certainly piss off any poor soul that falls victim to your ramblings.

 

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[Ravens_Shadow]

I found the forum when I was 18. I didn't start my winning business until I turned 23 (started it on my birthday). I'm 27 now. It took me 5 years to pull my head out of my a$$ and nearly 10 years to finally get to the point where I'm financially free. I do not regret my sacrifices.

 

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[Metz]

The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind.

So before I respond, I just want to recognize the absolute size one's balls have to be to start a thread like this calling out the creator of this community on the belief system he won the majority of us over with. Granted, a lot of your own mindset seems to be rife with circular logic and excuse-making though I'll also grant that if you meant what you said and you're actually trying to understand and are stuck getting to the answer most of us have found (i.e. the fastlane is about freedom), good on you. It's a mark of intelligence to hold a stance but then look for arguments that erode at it to either prove or disprove it rather than look for arguments that strengthen it, normally seeking opinion from an audience biased in your favor.

That being said, I took a bit of an issue with the above statement for a few reasons and I'll break it down piece by piece to help explain my rationale.

The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people.

The fastlane is less about speed (though that is a factor) and more about control. Remember how the definition of someone walking on the sidewalk is essentially someone with no internal locus of control. These are the types that believe everything that happens to them is beyond their control: their money, success, friendships, possessions, skills, everything. They're the ones that believe that if they become wealthy, it's because it's all random -- winning the lottery, being discovered by a talent scout (if you're trying to be a musician or something), getting rich by getting in on a few meme stocks before they explode, or your start-up taking off over night. These are people who only care about the result and neglect the process.

Especially with that last one, no one seems to give a shit about the years in obscurity a successful freelancer or entrepreneur had to go through until they pop off and start really building momentum. But that's also the difference between the slow- and fastlanes; the speed in the fastlane when you start growing once you get through those initial barriers (sometimes it can take months but usually it takes years) is exceptionally quicker compared to the slowlane or sidewalk. But again, that's also the lane with the most control. While MJ uses the sidewalk, slowlane, and fastlane as devices to explain his points, speed is used as an illustration but the point is finding freedom. At least that was my interpretation of it.

Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness.

So you're the oldest you've ever been at 19 so anyone five years older than you can seem much older or ought to have their lives together in a certain way or whatever. I'll grant that because of that, this has probably skewed your perception and that's okay, I was the same way. But being in your late 20s/early 30s is still really young in the grand scheme of things. And regardless if you're a fastlaner or not, most of one's 20s is just bumbling around like an overgrown toddler as we try to figure out who we are, what we want out of life, and how we'll go about getting it. Sometimes people who are successful early on crash and burn before they hit 30. Think of all the actors and musicians who got discovered in their teens, became multimillionaires before 20, and are now penniless with drug issues. Perhaps if they had a bit more wisdom, they would've handled that wealth better but who's to say (not to mention there are plenty of people who got a later start and still crashed and burned.. but I digress).

I think it's a bit unfair to compare MJ's story with the 20-something's story he mentions because everyone's journey -- whether in life or the fastlane -- is different. Some people find what clicks for them faster than others. Some people (like myself) built up momentum and were doing well, then life (and poor adaptations to it) happens and you're trying to restart again. But both of them managed to "make it" well before the usual retirement age of 65+ OR the ultimate "never" most people succumb to. Sometimes when you're younger, you have all the ingredients but poor execution.. or you've got great execution but not enough ingredients. The market's always changing, the world's always shifting, some of us adapt better than others, some of us know how to ride those waves better than others. But just like I said before, once it clicks, it clicks. And if you want it to click faster, you gotta hustle it out a lot more and be observant as F*ck, analyzing what's working and what's not. And if you're not going as fast as you'd like, find the roadblocks and clear them. But no matter what vehicle or system you choose to generate wealth, you will never get into the fastlane if you don't try and strive to improve on it. That last part is the rub; people expect to try once and then if it doesn't work out, "f*ck it, this isn't for me."

Again, it's about control and accepting that while there's plenty of bullshit life throws at you, it's your reaction that matters. Are you going to let those factors beat you down or stand up and keep pressing towards your goal? That's what separates the fastlaners from the rest: they understand the only true failure is giving up.

Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind.

This is a very bold claim from someone who has yet to start their entrepreneurial journey. I don't know how you can make such a confident assertion "in retrospect" when you do not have that experience to look back on. But let's talk about misery and suffering for a second and the idea that the trial-and-error of entrepreneurship is "pissing away all your youth to have freedom."

So I'm not nearly as wealthy as I'd like to be so I'm not claiming to have "made it." I got a ways to go but I can feel it in my bones that I'm closer now more than ever (and that's been after years of fiddle f*cking around with the systems I've been building and finally everything's really starting to click). I was in a fraternity in college, a full-time student, AND I worked full-time AND was dabbling in different little side gigs (I got my first contracts as a freelance writer when I was 20). A lot of my friends worked part-time if at all, partied, and took on loans to go to school.. they'd want me to hang out all the time, go to the bars, get stoned, play video games. And sometimes, being young and wanting to enjoy time with my friends, I'd indulge them. But 95% of the time I was either working on my degree, learning new skills, or trying to make my freelance career work.

A few months before my 23rd birthday, I was finally making enough money to be self-employed. A lot of people tried to dissuade me from my path ("you work too much," "lol it's kinda cute you think you'll be successful as a writer," even my own mother would tell me I'd be more successful working at Walmart) but I didn't listen. Between there and when I turned 26, I either doubled or more than doubled my income year-over-year (26-28 was a bunch of stumbling what with depression and poor adaptations but like I said, that's also a part of the game.. success is almost never a straight trajectory). My critics started shutting up after realizing that even on a very modest salary when I began, I got to work from home and with the people/companies I wanted to, I structured my day as I wanted to, I didn't have to worry about commuting or exchanging five days of my life for two drunken, miserable ones to cope with the other five, and that I didn't have to prostrate myself to a middle manager to get a 1% raise. And even though, revenue-wise, I'm not doing as well as what I was a few years ago, I still have all that freedom that my 9-to-5 friends complain to me about how badly they want.

To me (and perhaps a lot of others on this forum), it's not the building of an entrepreneurial system that's miserable but the wageslavery of modern life. It's depressing to think of trading your life's time for fixed amount of pay (like an hourly wage) and being reliant on that sole source of income. A lot of people woke up to how even their salaried jobs can be ripped out from under them what with COVID. All of a sudden what was "safe" and "made sense" and "the right decision" became none of those things. And guess who all my friends and family who struggled came crawling to? The very person they judged, made fun of, and looked down upon because he didn't "spend his youth" the way they wanted me to. And I'm not even 30 yet lol I still got plenty of time.

But again, this is a core premise of the book (and if you look at other really high-quality books on entrepreneurship and building wealth, they say the same thing). It's not about the money, it's about the process. You cannot have wealth without a process to produce value (MJ's argument on production vs. consumption deficits), ideally for as many people as possible (MJ's explanation of scale and magnitude). You cannot get without giving. Yeah, sometimes the process sucks.. a lot of it is spent in frustration trying to solve the problems that crop up. BUT IF YOU DO NOT LOVE THE PROCESS OF CREATING VALUE, NO MATTER ITS UPS AND DOWNS, YOU WILL NEVER BECOME WEALTHY BY YOUR OWN CONTROL.

You gotta take ownership of your life, bud. What terrifies you more: being trapped in the mold society builds for you and encourages you to live a mediocre life only being given the minimum to keep you from revolting.. or trying to forge your own path and that, despite its hardships, you will ultimately find more pleasure, freedom, and fulfillment on the other side? If the choice isn't obvious yet, I encourage you to really do some soul searching, not just for why you're in this community (unless to just troll and judge us -- which I can guarantee you, we've all dealt with it from people much closer to us) but what you want out of life.

But like other people have said, regardless of money, if you're miserable now, you're gonna be miserable regardless of how many commas are in your bank statement. And you gotta dive deep and get really uncomfortable to shift that paradigm. But I suppose that's whether or not you actually want to do the work or just have it handed to you. I hope you're the kind of guy that prefers the former.

 

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[biophase]

I am... Incredibly sorry... I have completely embarrassed myself. I am a moron, and was totally insensitive on my part. I regret making this post. You can delete this if you like. I should've worded my post better. I won't make anything like this again.
;(

It’s not about how you worded your post. But it’s more of an attitude of not trying. What do you think people tell most athletes that try to make it to the pros? Do those people quit because they have less than a 1% chance?

I’m sure many do. The ones that don’t at least have a chance to succeed. If you don’t do something because you are afraid to fail, you are guaranteed 100% to not to succeed.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I know the passion part will go against what MJ says about it but it's the only way I can see myself doing it.

Bingo.

You don't want to sacrifice. You want to have fun. You don't want to get uncomfortable.

You want to be Rey on Star Wars and pick up a lightsaber and be an expert without any hardship.
You want to be a superstar, but not train for it.
You want six-pack abs, but you don't want to sweat and eat right.
You don't want to earn talent, you want to discover it.

Your mindset exemplifies why the 99% remains mediocre and the rat-race will have an unlimited supply of rats.

 

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[Kid]

@FauxPas

You have, unknowingly, shown that you have ability
that is crucial for getting on a fastlane.

That ability is beginning of "critical thinking".

There is also second ability:
You didn't silently bow down and leave
but openly said your opinion.

While posted opinion and critic is wrong, it doesn't
matter because if (or when) you'll learn
to direct criticism or standing up for yourself
in correct way, you'll be much more into fastlane
than majority of people around you.

Step back. Reevaluate. Take a choice.


P.S. To long term Fastlane forum members:
This post is giving benefit of a doubt.
It might be wrong. It might be good approach.
Lets try something that has 10% chance of succeeding.
Rest is up to him.

 

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[WJK]

Warning: this is a criticism of the fastlane that will sound like I'm being a slowlaner retard and challenging some of what is being preached about it. If you are disgusted by things like that then please do not read this post or make non constructive counter arguments against what I'm saying. My only intention is to get feedback from people who are open to criticisms against what they believe in so that they can educate me on any misunderstandings I may have of it. I am in no way shape or form saying that not of what it says isn't true, but what I am critiquing is how the message is being made.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.

You are assuming that you'll build up regrets for spending your youth on building a future? Am I understanding you right?

I confront that situation when I went to a private fashion college in downtown Los Angeles at the grand old age of 19. I was a poor girl, from a rural community. I sat on the front row of every class and I did a lot more work than the teachers asked me to do. I was there to learn. I carried 18 units and I worked 32 hours per week. I also did piecework sewing on the side for my teachers as a side gig. I went to school and I worked. Period. It was my whole life and I got a fabulous education from that experience.

The girls with whom I went to school made fun of me all the time. They picked on me continuously. They told me that I should get a life. I never had any fun. Their daddies paid for their apartments. They had Daddy's credit card and money to spend. They couldn't understand that I didn't have a good daddy to back me up. I was making it on my own. I had to support myself and pay for my education.

Most of them married well after school and got their "Mrs." degrees rather than a good education. I ended up creating a real estate career.

Around the time I was 40, I met up with a couple of these "girls "who had given me such a hard time. Yes, they had married the right man and settled down to raise families. I also had raised my boys, as well as creating a successful real estate career. When I saw these women again, they were amazed at my success. They thought it had just fallen on me. They talked about how lucky I was to have a good career. They had totally forgotten how hard I had worked to put myself in that position. Both were teetering on the edge of getting a divorce. One had experienced her husband running off with the office bimbo. The other was desperately unhappy. Neither could support themselves and their kids. I wished them well and walked away smiling. I had the last laugh in the situation.

I guess I'm telling you that the view from 19 years old's perspective is completely different from the one when you are 40. I can also tell you that all those struggles and all that pain were worth it!

 

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[BrunoRastablasta]

Being in the 1% of all the richest people in the world means being in the group of 70 million people. That's more than the population of the United Kingdom.

So joining "the 1%" isn't impossible and it never was. It's, with the mindset presented at the start, highly improbable.

And for you to have financial success and true wealth, you don't even need to be in the top 1%. You need to be in like top 10-15%. And that's where effort, dedication, and the right process play a part (CENTS and Fastlane in general). This is coming from someone living in an Eastern European country where things are f*cked up so decide where you want to be in life. Someone has to be in those 1, 5, 10 or 15%-- better to be you than someone else

 

[biophase]

By "sacrifice" I mean delayed gratification . In MJ's wealth exposed story the mid twenties millionaire was explaining to Coney (Probably wrong name) that in order for him to have had the things he has now he had to delay gratification, drop out of college, etc. He had to live breathe sleep and shit his business for a while until he was able to delegate it to the point where he no longer needed to run the business as much. It was thanks to his proper delegation that kept his business alive because he at one time had to spent a few months in the hospital. It was thanks to his general manager that his business did not collapse. And so when it came time to sell his business he gave his general manager one or two million dollars I think to thank him for his integrity. Essentially he was explaining to his old college friend that it took WORK for him to get to where he is and that it wasn't just a luck event that happened. But now that I think back about that story I realize I'm essentially acting like that old college friend in a similar fashion who wasn't sold on how the millionaire was trying to explain how he got rich in the first place. It's not that I'm not sold on it, I just do not have the right frame of mind for it. I lack patience for something I anticipate to likely drag out longer than I'd like it to. I prefer to work towards things where it doesn't take light years to see the fruits of my labor realized (Making an app, getting an A on a test, etc). If it's something like mount everest for example, I have to have the passion for it in order for me to have the patience with the process. If I do something I utterly hate, then I am not going to have patience and will not go deep enough into it. When you do things you hate all you think about is when it will be over, that's where you give a f*ck about the amount of time it's sucking out of your soul. But if I were to do something I'm passionate about then I would surely not care about the time because it's something I would do willfully in perpetuity. The only way I can see myself do the fastlane is if I find what the market wants but doesn't know how to get that I can give to them at scale under my passions. I know the passion part will go against what MJ says about it but it's the only way I can see myself doing it. I'd only pursue entrepreneurship if it's a way I can do more of what I already like / love doing. So that way even if I don't end up rich in the timing I would like it to be I would have least enjoyed the years I spent in it (And if I still happen to feel that the money just isn't as enjoyable when you're middle-aged as opposed to young then I would give it away.) So the only way I can feel that I would've not pissed away my youth is if I did something I'm really passionate about.

Ok, but the alternative to all this is that you go get a job and make a salary. How does that fit in with everything you wrote. How would that path make you happy. You would get tiny tiny amounts of gratification on every pay check day, but that would diminish to zero within 6 months. Now you have no chance at anything.

BTW, may I suggest that you use paragraphs in your future writing, it would make your posts much easier to read?

 

[biophase]

Me (26), ~$2m exit, 15 months.

But you wasted your life sacrificing your early twenties already!

 

[Kevin88660]

Warning: this is a criticism of the fastlane that will sound like I'm being a slowlaner retard and challenging some of what is being preached about it. If you are disgusted by things like that then please do not read this post or make non constructive counter arguments against what I'm saying. My only intention is to get feedback from people who are open to criticisms against what they believe in so that they can educate me on any misunderstandings I may have of it. I am in no way shape or form saying that not of what it says isn't true, but what I am critiquing is how the message is being made.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.

I think the fastlane is a set of self evident conclusion and truth, that do not guarantee that you will make it simply reading it.

The pandemic has more or less accelerated the death of the middle class. Working from home means someone in the world can always replace your job without the need of a visa.

You have to be involved in business and entrepreneurship to change the game.

If you want to have paying customer you have the deliver value, and sustainable value with decent margin can exist only when there is some sort of entry barrier.

And if you want to make money fast instead of having a business which is actually a job in disguise, there needs to be scalability. Time is just a variant of scalability.

I find that set of arguments hard to find fault with. It is almost like a first-principle check list.

Granted it isn’t tailored to your own circumstances, resources and unique opportunity at the time and space where you are in right at the moment. There is a whole set of industry specific skills you need to master for the business you choose. This is what you need to figure it out yourself.

If you are in the slowlane you have to win it every time, every year. Good luck getting fired at age 50 and still trying to pay for your kid’s college fee. In fastlane you just have to win it once.

I find it a little bit shocking that you think making it at 33 seems not fast enough.

And regarding your worry that you have to keep on trying and wasting time, my answer is you have to take the long way before you find the short cut. Most of time your projects will fail because these projects are destined to fail despite your best effort because there isn’t a sustainable value proposition that can satisfy both you and the market, and you will never know until you experiment and give your best shot. And eventually when you happen to embark on the right project that is destined to succeed given the right skills, mindset and judgement, these soft skills are mostly accumulated in the years when you are working on projects that are destined to go no where. Given by this logic, you are right that people rarely succeed on first attempt. Your failures were not a waste of time either. Things have to take forever until/before they go superfast.

 

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[e_fastlane]

Warning: this is a criticism of the fastlane that will sound like I'm being a slowlaner retard and challenging some of what is being preached about it. If you are disgusted by things like that then please do not read this post or make non constructive counter arguments against what I'm saying. My only intention is to get feedback from people who are open to criticisms against what they believe in so that they can educate me on any misunderstandings I may have of it. I am in no way shape or form saying that not of what it says isn't true, but what I am critiquing is how the message is being made.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.

I agree with alot of posters on here, so I won't waste space repeating what they said. I just wanted to comment on one thing that others didn't entirely flesh out....

If you are already upset before you even embarked on this journey, you will be sorely disappointed when you "make it" and realize it didn't give you what you thought it would.

The only solution to your issue is if you were born into some kind of generation wealth (.01% family). But then you would have other issues like trying to find meaning in life when everything was handed to you and similar.

"The work" is part of the reward, even if it doesn't feel like it. Decide what it is that you really want to do and fix your inner game. There is no optimal mindset for all goals, but there are optimal mindsets for specific goals. I just recently sold an 8 figure company and I am in my mid 30s. I do not regret spending 12 hour days "working" in my early 20s as it was exciting "figuring things out". In fact, I would say I am JEALOUS that I don't have the same motivation today to spend 12 hours a day on "figuring things out".

Your values may not be aligned with the requirements needed to build a successful business and maybe your temperament isn't conducive to it either. That's perfectly OK, but then you have to be real with yourself and just realize that you will also likely never become wealthy. Not working towards becoming wealthy and doing things you love to do instead (ex:spending all your time with friends/family) is also a perfectly good way to live. You are not a failure just because you didn't become wealthy. You just decided X is more valuable to you than Y.

The only thing to keep in mind is to not let the concept of "easy" dictate your decision. Life is hard for everyone. So if you decide you want something; it being "hard" shouldn't be what makes you decide to try and take the "easy" route of not doing it. You made the right decision when the difficulties of not being independently wealthy (forever working, not affording things, etc) are all very palatable to you because your life is filled with all the wonderful things you chose to do instead of building wealth.

 

[Metz]

Awesome take, took this thread over the threshold into GOLD.

Just doing my part.

AND WITH THAT.. back to work.

 

[Metz]

The problem I have is that I'm basing my happiness on conditions. I feel like I won't be happy to my maximum potential without wealth. And I say that because there's a lot of things I want in life that require f*ck loads of money to afford. I essentially want to get to a point where I feel like I have an endless amount of money, where I can spend on and on and on again and never run out of money. The problem with that is that's not really realistic. Because that's just not rich, that's filthy stinking Rich. As rich as how these guys live:

View: https://youtu.be/qXBB9NQzAxE


If it's already hard enough to get rich, to get super filthy stinking rich must be even more on STEROIDS.

Basically this is what I want in my life: nice house, nice car, private jets, yachts, near endless amount of money and time to spend. That's my fantasy. But am I prepared to do the work to be filthy stinking rich? No, because that would take twice as long as it'd typically take for someone to become rich, but not filthy stinking Rich. And why do I have these desires? Because I know that it's possible to get rich. Before I was exposed to all of the Fastlane shit I wasn't thinking about living lavishly, I was thinking but how to have a decent living because I was subconsciously convinced that being rich was unattainable for me... Until I was exposed to the fastlane. The fastlane created this insatiable lust I have to reach that level of wealth. However because I cannot completely control the outcome of that, I will have to settle with whatever outcome I get with the fastlane. If I get a 100 million exit despite wanting a 10 billion dollar exit, then I'll have to settle for less and just accept that. Otherwise I'll spend my whole life attaining such an outlandish goal.

OKAY, NOW WE'RE COOKING. This we can work with.

So, hear me out, but I'd like to challenge you a little bit.

This "insatiable lust" you talk about.. we all feel it to some extent here. If we didn't feel it before reading TMF , we definitely felt it after. But speaking just for myself, you and I are a lot alike in that I want to be wealthy to the point of obsession. I want to buy a nice house in cash, have a nice car, even a yacht (and I'm not even that big into boats but having something dope like that where I can just zip up and down the west coast entertaining friends and just vibing, cool sign me up). I don't want to work for survival.. I want to make enough where I can "retire" and being smart enough that I can now work because I want to, not because I need to. I want money that makes money.. systems that no longer require my attention all the time, just making money. I can't tell you how excited I was the first morning I woke up to multiple orders on my e-commerce store because that was the first time experiencing getting paid while I was asleep. Not like waking up to a paycheck, but to transactions happening in real-time and I wasn't there for them yet still profiting off them. That was "oh geez, oh f*ck, I want more" moment for me. So I get that, I really do.

B U T.

If you wanna be a billionaire, you gotta make your first million. And before you make your first million, you gotta make your first thousand.. your first hundred, your first ten.. YOUR FIRST $1. When I started my LLC, my first client gave me a paper check that, when I deposited it, I took out two $1 bills. I framed the first one and it sits on my little "reflection nook" above my bookcase (I have a bunch of posters and momentos on there meant to remind me that it's the journey to our ideal self that matters much more than the destination, that I have a lot of power over the outcome of my life, affirming stuff like that); the second one, I gave to my client and thanked her for her faith in me because this was the first brick in the bastion of wealth I was using to get to where I wanna be.

However because I cannot completely control the outcome of that, I will have to settle with whatever outcome I get with the fastlane. If I get a 100 million exit despite wanting a 10 billion dollar exit, then I'll have to settle for less and just accept that. Otherwise I'll spend my whole life attaining such an outlandish goal.

Bruh, assuming a $100 million exit wasn't phenomenal on its own, don't look at the outcome of this current cycle as the final outcome. You know what most entrepreneurs do when they make an exit with money that they can easily retire on? They go back and start new businesses. Because of that hunger, that need to develop, to bring value to people, and the dopamine that comes from those customers recognizing your value and just throwing money at you when you do a good job.

But to keep that hunger from corrupting you -- becoming so hungry that you just chase money and will do anything to get it, even if it meant defrauding your customers, taking on crippling amounts of debt, doing a bunch of unethical, shady shit to get there -- you need to remember the importance of production vs. consumption, of giving first in order to get, in falling in love with the process. That last one is why entrepreneurs will never retire to do nothing for the rest of their lives because we're not built for that the way the scripted fantasize about. "Retirement" is crossing the line of "I don't have to work anymore if I don't want to" and I think it's safe to say that a lot of us really do love the process of working on a system, building shit, problem-solving, helping people. So much so that sitting still is painful if it's done for too long. Sure, the money's awesome when it comes flowing in -- but that's validation from our efforts trying to create. For me, I've always spurned the traditional "work until you're 65 and then retire" mentality. I'd much rather build up a nice nest egg while I'm young, take a year to dick around and do whatever, then come back and start my next project.

You mentioned wasted youth if we try to get to the fastlane. But even before I've "made it," so far in my life, I've:

• Graduated with a degree that frankly I attained because I wanted the education, not because it'll help me with my work. Unless someone wants to explain how a B.S. in German History and Literature is gonna help me with my main business or my side hustle. I also graduated without any debt, something that haunts all my friends that partied and didn't work, taking out student loans and pissing them away to do so. Yeah, I worked full-time while being a full-time student but I don't have $50K+ in debt for a shiny piece of paper.
• Got my first-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Trained for 2 hours for 3-4 days a week not including the time spent training outside of class. When I got my black belt, I had the highest score in a region of ten states in my "promotion class."
• Wrote and published my first book.
• Freelanced at 20, became self-employed at 22 (and in between that, had a gap year from school after my grandmother passed away which threw me into a deep depression, was stuck in a miserable job working in food service, and was like f*ck this, and fought hard to never be in that position again). I think I attributed that moment as my FTE.. with another reinforcing one at the end of 2018 when I struggled again.
• Moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest-based on a coin flip. I knew I wanted a new adventure after college but couldn't decide if I wanted to move west out here or east to New England (both had a lot of aesthetic appeal to me as a writer). So I literally flipped a coin and let fate decide. Perhaps not the smartest way to invest one's future but I did it because I wanted to prove to myself that not only can I survive anywhere, but thrive too. Six years deep living in Washington state, ya boy's thriving. Not at all wealthy as he wants to be, but moving to some random place where I knew no one and didn't have the natural connections school and in-office work brings you in a state that's notoriously introverted (read: the Seattle freeze), I'm doing real good.

And this is all just on the path to my current goal of getting to $10 million to my first "retirement" (nor is it the complete list). Tell me honestly that I wasted the earlier parts of my youth. Granted, I won't listen, but you can try. Could I have solely focused on my business this whole time? Sure, but that wasn't my sole priority.. perhaps it's slowed down my progression, but it was my decision to experience other things too at the time. I don't regret that.. but I also am certain enough to know that wealth is a "when" not "if" circumstance for me, especially with the momentum I'm building up again with a lot more wisdom and skill than my early 20s.

And if you think I'm gonna stop there.. lol. That's a no. Now, do I want to be a billionaire? Eh. Maybe for like a day, but if I get to that point, I want to set up some non-profits, reinvest in causes I believe in (I'm a slut for green tech), stuff like that. But I don't really think too much about it because I'm not even a millionaire yet. Yet being the operative term.

But back to you.

In your last post, it sounds like you're finally getting a bit of an understanding of what work needs to be done.. and in order to build the life you want to live, you need to get to work. You want it fast? Good. Start now and chisel out some time each day to work on your project AND work on yourself. You can have the best system in the world but if you're kinda just shuffling around, feeling shitty about yourself, your outlook, the lack of control you might have despite the much higher degree of it you possess compared to your scripted friends.. you're just setting up obstacles to make your path more difficult. There's no nobility in self-martyrdom.

The wealthy friends I have all have said the same thing: making your first million is hard af.. but making your second million is much easier. Making money, like anything else, is a skill. The more you practice that skill, the better you get at it. Just like something as inane as going to the grocery store. When you first become an adult and need to shop for yourself, you might just buy a bunch of junk food and whatever else you desire. But then you're like.. "Oh, I should probably buy some healthier stuff.." and then you realize you need to learn how to cook, how to meal-prep, how to store things to make them last longer, how to take advantage of sales to save money, what pans to buy, whether or not a chest freezer is a good investment. You learn by doing and the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.. but the easier the task at hand becomes.

So you wanna be a billionaire? Make Elon and Jeff look like amateurs? By all means, do it. I'm honestly rooting for you because they could stand to have some competition. But you gotta make that first $1. And the only thing stopping you from doing that right now.. frankly, is you. And if it's you that's the obstacle.. well.. you're in control of that, big guy.

If you're hungry, go eat.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I am... Incredibly sorry... I have completely embarrassed myself.

A faux pas?

If your premise was true, then you'd have a point.

Very few people succeed on a first try -- I'm guessing the "Fastlane failure rate"for Attempt #1 is 99%. In that respect, you are correct.

 

[Steeltip]

Hey buddy, it seems to me like taking a step back and work on your inner self before you think about what you want your life to be. I remember being 19 and I promise you, you will not want or think the same things in two years let alone five. Your perspective will change a whole lot and I encourage you to think about enjoying the process of learning and growing instead of focusing on the destination. Your absolutely right, money itself will never make you happy. However, you are wrong to think that being rich in your twenties is the only way to enjoy money. Take it from me, you don't need a lot of money just to party and have fun when you are 21. Oftentimes I had the best nights of my life in my early twenties with nothing in my pocket and some good friends and late nights. Even though I didn't even have enough money to buy myself a cheeseburger at the time I wouldn't trade those nights for the world.

I used to have a similar viewpoint as you in terms of only enjoying the money when you're young. But even though having money may be a big reason why you are here. I hope that you find out that the process of reaching for that wealth to be the thing you end up enjoying the most. There are some people on here who are serial entrepreneurs. These are people who enjoy the process so much that they are willing to take on the challenge of starting a business because it gives them their ultimate purpose in life. Shoot, even MJ is an example of this. He doesn't have to work another day in his life yet he still chose to undertake something that he found meaningful.

So if you take anything from this post, then just remember as cliche as it sounds to look at life as a journey, not a destination.

 

[Nicko]

@FauxPas

As someone in their early 50's who's done both (a degree followed by working a series of 'jobs') and then owning and operating my own business for the past 20 years, I can tell you . . . they both involve a lot of hard work. There really is no way of escaping the hard work or the sacrifice no matter which path you choose.

But there's a much greater chance of achieving significantly more wealth, and having the time to enjoy it if you follow the entrepreneurial path. The alternative (working a job for the next 50 years) may bring you some measure of wealth over many, many years but you probably won't have the time to enjoy it until your best years are well behind you.

My old man (Dad to you non-Aussies) worked his @ss off in various jobs, invested in the markets etc and finally retired in his late 60's with a reasonable amount of accumulated wealth. Sadly, he got two or three good years into retirement and then passed away from cancer. And that's a path that way too many of us are on right now.

Just my two cents