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Why does everyone want to get there so fast?

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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Bump.

I remember sitting with MJ at a bar in 2007 and I told him that I've always wanted a Ferrari. He told me that I'll never get one because I don't have the drive to make money anymore.

I don't remember that conversation!! :confused:
 
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Pinnacle

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My point is to enjoy the journey because most of your life will be inside that journey.

I value journeys. Very much. They build your character, resolve, your guts and instincts. Journeys have been invaluable in helping me process through entrepreneurial and spiritual challenges. They've provided me with steps to follow when met with a new challenge with familiar characteristics.

But journeys seem to be all anyone talks about in relation to this topic. What is the point of destinations if all that should matter to a person is the journey? There are those who are only in it for the event (the destination) and hold no respect for the process (the journey). I get that, and I know, respect, and honor that. But there is no shame in valuing destinations as much as journeys, albeit in a completely different way.
 

biophase

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Bump.

I don't remember that conversation!! :confused:

It was at Blue Martini in Scottsdale. We went there in my Benz and your Lambo, then we went to the casino afterwards and you lost your Iphone.
 

andviv

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then we went to the casino afterwards and you lost your Iphone.
Good thing you only bet your iPhone and not the Lambo that time! (jk. I know he meant the other type of 'lost')
 
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InMotion

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Why does everyone want to get there so fast?

I would rather burn out than fade away!!! If I thought I would be relatively broke for 35 years until I retired....I would rather be dead.
 

Jake

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I would rather burn out than fade away!!! If I thought I would be relatively broke for 35 years until I retired....I would rather be dead.
For some reason this reminded me of a friend of mine. We attended "A" school together prior to him shipping off to BUD/S. He wanted to be a SEAL his entire life and would literally rather die than not realize his dream. He told me one time if he felt he wouldn't be able to make a swim for some reason he would drown himself. He'd rather be dead. He's now a SEAL. Well, last time I heard from him he was.
 

santa

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But journeys seem to be all anyone talks about in relation to this topic. What is the point of destinations if all that should matter to a person is the journey? There are those who are only in it for the event (the destination) and hold no respect for the process (the journey). I get that, and I know, respect, and honor that. But there is no shame in valuing destinations as much as journeys, albeit in a completely different way.

It's a fair point, it could be described as a balance. I believe it's in reaction to the direct overemphasis on the future destination in our culture. Nothing wrong with having goals etc, but having the satisfaction/peace of mind/happiness in the process towards them is often neglected.
Also there really is no "true" destination- well except eventual death you could argue. Everything is always journey based in reality, why? Because everything is always changing.

He'd rather be dead. He's now a SEAL. Well, last time I heard from him he was.

That type of "do or die" attitude has been used by some with great success to achieve their goals. Growing up I knew someone who's brother commited suicide attributed to (at least on face value) a similar structural thought process. So for me just got to be careful not to take it to the ultimate extreme
 
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InMotion

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It's a fair point, it could be described as a balance.

While I used to agree with that.....

No one super "successful" was balanced. Their life outside their business was a mess, at least till they slowed down.

Most people who want to live a balanced life will not make any real money; but that's OK because to each his/her own.
 

theBiz

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Someone here posted a death chart... how many days we have left, that is why. I want to enjoy some of my days here.. its true as im sure i would do the exact same things but i could delegate out some of the tasks or make more "power moves" rather than executing all of the small things.

I really hate learning something new everyday, it would be nice to get expert insight/execution on some things rather than reading for 4 hours straight sometimes.

Not sure how long it takes you to get a biz up and running but we all know the tasks and it would just be nice to not have to execute/ go through the learning curve or all the tasks.
 

andyredsox

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When you're young, you wanted to do things at a fast pace.

When you get to where you want to go, you will realize it's not about how soon you get there, it's about how you get there ( and all the challenges that you gone through) that matters.
 
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jon.a

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I don't mind being parked, that's where I am in life right now so it's fitting.

I'm in NO LANE.

I'm sitting here idling "watching the snow fall" :)

I see the the sidewalkers and slowlaners going about their "sim" lives and think "okay, too bad for them"
I see a few fastlaners speed by and think, "go get it!" (I need to get out more to see more fastlaners)

I'm watching everything closely. I'm in the same mode that I was in when I was mid-career in the Navy, I'm watching and listening to everyone. Prepared to emulate those who are successful and not follow those who are not.

I know that if I keep my eyes and ears open and think before I act, I'll hit it again someday soon.
 

andyredsox

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Wherever you are at the moment, just steady your pace. Make sure you're at constant rate.

Never slower but ready to speed up.

Learn lessons from the fastlaners and look left and right for others on the same speed and listen to their story.

It's your choice how soon you get there.

The important thing is you know where you're going.
 

Rawr

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Bump



How about this idea:


Your life is the process.

Your imagined life at "what if event" - is exactly that - an event imagined.

Yes tv and media celebrate events, but the process is the real deal, and by improving the process now, this hour, this day, your events will get better as well.


To more specifically answer your question Bio, I think there is no fun difference in the perception of 30k to 70k. But there is in 30k to 1mil. But at 70k I'd wager you can have a pretty cool life.
 

CEBenz

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Biophase,

I think part of it stems from the absolute misery some have convinced themselves is their day job. Whether it is or isn't that bad depends on the person and the circumstances.

Some are tired of being broke.

And I think we're sold the destination rather than the journey. Remember our society is about events rather than processes. What you're talking about requires a shift in thought from events to processes.

For me, I don't need a big fancy house (someone would end up having to clean it). A decent size shop building would be awesome. Outside of that, there's 3 cars I want. One hasn't been made..... Yet. But I expect it will be. The other 2? A 2007 Rosso Andromeda Lamborghini Murcielago with manual transmission and a Ferrari 575m w/ GTC handling package, also in red. None of this requires being a millionaire. I'd probably finance the cars so as to keep funds rolling over in the business. I Figure $200k a year would get me there. After that, it's open season on whatever I want to do and enjoy. I figure human needs will provide me a plethora of options to create value so, it should be fun from day one.
 
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FiveOone

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Your business grows and you may increase your standard of living if you want.

This is the reason i want it now rather than later, and im sure its the same for alot of others aswell.

I mean absolutely no disrespect but maybe it is hard for you to understand why people want everything so quickly because as you said so yourself, you had a simple and easy life on 30k a year. I mean your business could have fallen in a heap and it wouldn't have really mattered. It wouldve sucked, but at the end of the day you still had your freedom and a cruisy lifestyle.
30K, 300K, 3Mil? Whats the difference if you are truly happy either way?
 

GetShitDone

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I am aiming for a billion (call me crazy) and that pretty much means that I won't stop for a very very long time. I have no interest in making a few mil at 25 and retiring for the rest of my life. It's boring, unproductive, no impact on the world, etc.

To me: I only have ONE life.. and I want to make my DENT in the universe before I go. Hell, of course it's about the money but not JUST the money.. it's about the learning process, having a life worth living, CHANGING the world around you rather then becoming a by-product of it, helping the generations to come after mine, etc.

I want to be a multi millionaire fast because my goal is to be a multi billionaire. I guess it's all based on perspective.
 

biggeemac

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I agree.....the whole "i want a million dollars by the time im x years old" is a maturity thing. I'm 37 and right now, my goal is to create my OWN income so I can move freely throughout the country without being locked into any given city. I am an I.T. worker, so naturally, I have to be locked into large metropolitan areas. My family is in Oregon, California, and Arizona, but I live in the Dallas area. I moved here from the SF Bay area....because I couldn't afford to keep me and my kids there.....too expensive......Oregon rains too much.....and I wasnt really feeling Phoenix. I had to leave the job that I loved and my friends and basically take one for the team. My focus now is to not have to look at "where the jobs are at" as a motivator of where I live. I want to live wherever I damn-well choose. And I cant do that as long as I'm dependent on someones business to support me and my family. This is the reason I want to get there so fast.......that, and because I am mentally exhausted at the end of the day.
 
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CommonCents

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Money is nothing but a measuring stick of how much value you bring to others. The faster and more you bring value to more people, the faster you will accumulate boatloads of money.

Nothing wrong with having deadlines and goals. I feel goals and deadlines are very important especially when broken down into short term mileposts. But make sure the big long term $$ goals don't make you take your eye off the process of bringing value and fall down looking for get rich quick 'shortcuts', because they are a mirage, they don't exist.
 

biophase

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This is the reason i want it now rather than later, and im sure its the same for alot of others aswell.

I mean absolutely no disrespect but maybe it is hard for you to understand why people want everything so quickly because as you said so yourself, you had a simple and easy life on 30k a year. I mean your business could have fallen in a heap and it wouldn't have really mattered. It wouldve sucked, but at the end of the day you still had your freedom and a cruisy lifestyle.

30K, 300K, 3Mil? Whats the difference if you are truly happy either way?

Umm no, because my business was making the $30k a year. You last statement is exactly correct though. If you are happy at $30k a year, you should be happy at $300k, $3m. You should be happy in your journey from $30k to $300k a year and loving it.

For people who want to make $10k-$50k in a year to get out of a bad situation, I think that is fine. I am talking more about the people who want to do $1m in 12 months. That's not to move out of their parents home or to survive.
 
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biophase

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my goal is to create my OWN income so I can move freely throughout the country without being locked into any given city. ...I want to live wherever I damn-well choose. This is the reason I want to get there so fast.......that, and because I am mentally exhausted at the end of the day.

See, I like this goal alot more because there is a change to the quality of life in the goal. The monetary value of this goal could be only $2500 a month. Who knows. I think someone with a goal like this has alot better chance to succeed and also well surpass it. And it's not because you are aiming so low.

If you achieve this easily doable goal say within a few months. You move somewhere that you like and enjoy, your outlook changes, you've gained business experience, you have new life experiences, probably have new ideas and wham! Your next business idea is born and you are in the right mindset to launch it.
 

InMotion

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Lots of opinions but I think its freedom all around. Some see freedom in 1 million in the bank. Some see freedom as 20k per month (whatever the number) with some passive aspect. I am the million in the bank type of person. Its not only a goal it frees up time, you have resources available. Building a sale able asset is more doable when you don't need to live on the income generated from the business. Wealth builder vs. life style maybe?

To each their own.
 
D

Deleted5250X

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After reading through all the post, it seems that most people want to get to a Million Dollars in the year for one reason, security. Most people look at a Million and think if I could earn 5% interest I could make $50,000 per year in passive income. $50K is the equivalent is what most people will make at a job, and a job is easy. They want the million because they want to have an easy life, and have the same standard of living as they currently maintain. It's not about the business to them, it is about the money, it is about the event.

You struck the nail on the head in your first post when you pointed out that people only looking for the big pay day will miss the smaller opportunities that could have grown into larger ones. My contention is that people do not miss these opportunities because they have a lofty goals; instead people miss these opportunities because they are not looking for opportunities they are looking for security or looking to maintain their current standard of living. Perhaps this type of person wants to sacrifice to reach their goals, but they only want to sacrifice for one year.

I think there is a solution to the problem. Like MJ preaches, we need to look for the process behind the event; we try and point out process, but we often continue to praise the event. Everyone on here is looking for "needs" and wants help spotting them. Finding a "need" is marketed as an event, when it should be a continual process. Spending hours learning to program is part of "process", but on this forum we turn it into an event; the programmer who learned how to program at night and built his iPhone application, that is an event not process.

I recently became a big fan of Mark Cuban and I think everyone should read his book. It gives you incite into process. Process is the snow cone business you started when you were nine. Process is scalping baseball tickets during high school. Process is trying to start a used textbook business from your dorm room in college and making $600 in one hour selling them on the first day of class. Process is trying to sell glow necklaces during Fourth of July Fireworks. Obviously none of these are scalable, but it makes you realize that the only difference between small ventures and large ventures is scalability. I think it is all part of the process. Personally I think some of MJ's money chasing was part of the process that made him successful. He was constantly looking for ways to make money.

MJ can you chime in, was chasing money in your early 20's part of the process that made you successful?
 
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FiveOone

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Umm no, because my business was making the $30k a year
Of course. I shouldve picked that up sorry.
Would you attribute some of your success in business to having relatively small goals such as the $50 a day goal in the beginning?
The positives i see from say the $50 a day goal are that its definitely achievable for someone starting a business from scratch and provides a stepping stone of sorts to $100 a day to $250 a day and so on. Although these short term types of goals are probaly not seen as fastlane, if you start to hit more and more of them they definitely have the potential to lead to one that is.

Thanks for your time Biophase.
 

Skys

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Well. I am bullshit. Somebody gave me some credits for my post in 2012.
I am still not an entrepreneur.
I am in sales. For a company, just out of the start up phase.

I am making 2k a month.
I did pay all my debt tho and lost a lot of weight. But, still living paycheck to paycheck.

I laughed at my sentence: "I am in the process of starting". What the f. is that. You either started, or you didn't. There is no process of starting.

I was full of crap. So, be careful who you take advice from or give some "credit".
 

DennisD

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But ultimately, your day to day would be the same (this is assuming that you work for yourself).

I guess it's really about the goal thing. If you're making cash JUST to make cash, I don't see the point.
I want to be worth 100m before I'm thirty. (me being 26 right now)

How would my life be different? Not just a better car, a better house, etc..
it's what I want to DO with the cash that makes me want it.

I have a few different weekly shows I want to produce that I just can't afford to produce right now. Equipment, actors , animators, crew, sets, writers, they all cost $. If I were to magically gain a few million bucks right now, my day to day would involve less hustling for clients and more creating/hustling for myself.

The time is factored in because I have these projects in mind RIGHT NOW and I want to do them while the opportunity is still prime.

IDK why other people want cash just to have cash. I want cash because it brings opportunity.
 
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DennisD

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I really do think that the timeline pressure can break your business. Sometimes people make poor decisions because of just the bottom line and wanting to increase growth. If you focus on profits (which people tend to do with money goal deadlines) vs. value and customer service it will hinder your business.

Truth.
I've made a TON of crap decisions to make some quick money that ruined my long-term prospects.
If I had just stuck with the process instead of trying to sell out faster, I'd be where I need to be by now.
 

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