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Hey guys, what's up I'm MJ DeMarco, as you know, gas prices are on the rise. And here's a story that best demonstrates why most people will never get rich either in time or money. And when you recognize this difference, it's the difference between earning an hourly return on your time of about $180,000 an hour or a measly eight bucks. So yesterday I drove by Costco and noticed that there was a line for gas that practically filed around the building- had I chose to get into that line, I would have paid about 40 cents, less per gallon than the gas station up the street. The gas station up the street did not have a line.
There were plenty of open pumps. So here's the critical distinction in that, the current gas crisis really is not about gas shortages, at least not around here, but about gas price inflation.
Now going back to that long line at Costco, which did indeed have significantly cheaper gas, had I gotten into that line estimated that I probably would have waited over an hour to fill my tank. There was at least 15 cars ahead of me. And if you figure five minutes per car to get gas, we're looking probably 75 minutes or more.
This doesn't even include people who were not only filling up their cars, but they were filling up five gallon jugs. So for the sake of easy math, let's just assume it would have been a one hour wait or 60 minutes. Assuming the average gas tank is about a size of 20 gallons and at 40 cents a gallon in savings per gallon, that would have yielded a grand total of $8 in savings.
Eight fricking BUCKS.
And the thing is that line had no shortage of Lexuses, Mercedes, Audis, every possible car you could imagine was sitting there diddlywinking away one hour of their precious life, so they could save eight bucks. And here's the thing I guarantee you that no one in that line would ever take a job for eight bucks an hour, which is less than minimum wage.
In other words, the average person values their free time at $8 an hour. Culture has ingrained into them that their time is an abundant asset that you can trade for money or in this case trade for a savings opportunity.
So if you're thinking I'm only saying this because I'm already a multimillionaire many times over, you would be wrong.
Even when I was broke 30 plus years ago, I always thought like this because the most important thing to me was always my time. Namely, my free time.
I wasn't going to drive 45 minutes to Walmart so I can save 15 bucks on my food bill, because my time would have been compensated at a rate of about 10 bucks an hour, not to mention the extra fuel consumption costs on the way to get there. It simply wasn't worth it to me, then broke and it certainly isn't worth it to me now, wealthy,
The only way you should ever be trading your free time for a savings opportunity, is if that time yields a return in comparison to a CEO, a lawyer, a doctor, or a professional athlete.
The last book I wrote The Great Rat Race Escape , I call this The Millionaire Paycheck Strategy because when you start to frame time, namely your free time in terms of money, you start to value it much differently and much better . To give you an example, the last time I held a Fastlane Summit at a hotel, the resort wanted to charge me $1,500 for a curtain rental that backdropped the speaking stage, which of course I thought was ridiculous. So I emailed the event coordinator and nicely asked to have those curtains removed from our bill. Especially since these curtains themselves didn't cost more than $1,500. And in this case, we were just going to rent them, An hour later, I got a reply from the coordinator and he agreed to remove the $1,500 charge.
That email took me 30 seconds of my time. if you calculate the return on those 30 seconds of time, the time it took me to send the email and you frame it as an hourly basis, it comes out to a whopping $3,000 a minute, or $180,000 an hour. I can guarantee you. There's not many people watching this video and make $180,000 an hour.
But when it comes to saving money on quick snippets of your time, it is possible. So any time you're going to spend money, ask yourself, can you get a cheaper? And what do you need to get it at a better price? If that snippet of time only takes you minutes or even better, just a few seconds, you will have the opportunity to snag one of these six figures returns on your time. You're buying a house or a car? Negotiate, a better price. Getting your house painted and the painter wants $3,000 to paint your house, it only takes a few seconds to say, Hey, is that the best you can do? Or is there a better price available? And if there is, guess what, you just made a CEO return on your time.
So going back to the cheaper gas situation at Costco, my daily driver is as Ford F150 Raptor, which is a full size truck, and I think it holds about 32 gallons in its tank. So if I rolled into Costco and filled up my tank with about 30 gallons, that would have gave me a $12 return on my time or on my wait, and it's a complete waste of my life.
That's not CEO thinking that's wage, slaving poverty returns, and you are much better than that. So this example demonstrates why 99% of the world lives in this poverty mindset for money, while they also inaccurately hold an influence mindset for time. In other words, when it comes to their free time, not only do they value it poorly, but the often value it much more poorly than traditional time trades that they can earn in a job or a salary at a career.
So if you ever want to be wealthy, you understand this wealth is defined by time, namely, free time the more free time you have young versus old, the more valuable it is. Again, five years of freedom. When you're 30 years old is light years better than five years of freedom when you're 65 or 70. So stop wasting your time on these poverty adventures, like waiting two hours in a line to save 20 bucks and start investing your time into things that not only pay money, but also could pay free time.
And this, my friend is the cornerstone of the fast lane philosophy. You're not only start a small business that pays you money, but eventually pays you free time. Thanks for watching. I hope you learned something more importantly, I hope you learned how to view your free time a little differently.
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Tu gus vji teli ug ietz nevj, miv't katv ettani ov xuamf jewi ciip e upi juas xeov us 60 nopavit. Ettanoph vji ewisehi het vepl ot ecuav e tobi ug 20 hemmupt epf ev 40 dipvt e hemmup op tewopht qis hemmup, vjev xuamf jewi zoimfif e hsepf vuvem ug $8 op tewopht.
O jef teni iyqisoipdi xovj e mopi aq vu Poli uavmiv jisi. Xeov voni ug 30+ nopavit. Nz xogi huit “tjuamf xi xeov?”. O teof “jumf nz duggii, cav ul ci sohjv cedl.”
O xipv aq vu vji haz ev vji wisz gsupv ug vji mopi epf teof “jiz, tussz vu ci cmapv cav jisi ot $5 iedj og zua epf zuas gsoipf xuamf vsefi zuas tquv xovj ni epf nz xogi. Xjev fu zua vjopl?”
O xeowif nz xogi epf xi huv opvu vji tvusi. O qodlif aq e qeos ug sappist up temi, epf xemlif uav vu hsec mapdj. Nz voni ot xusvj nusi vjep $10- $20/ juas.
O’f sevjis xetvi nz voni nz uxp xez.
Piyv xiil tuniupi etlif ni ecuav nz pix tpielist. O teof O huv vjin ev vji uavmiv. “Uj cav O xet vjisi epf vji mopi xet dsebz muph! O fofp’v xepv vu xeov, cav nezci O tjuamf jewi.”
O jef teni iyqisoipdi xovj e mopi aq vu Poli uavmiv jisi. Xeov voni ug 30+ nopavit. Nz xogi huit “tjuamf xi xeov?”. O teof “jumf nz duggii, cav ul ci sohjv cedl.”
O xipv aq vu vji haz ev vji wisz gsupv ug vji mopi epf teof “jiz, tussz vu ci cmapv cav jisi ot $5 iedj og zua epf zuas gsoipf xuamf vsefi zuas tquv xovj ni epf nz xogi. Xjev fu zua vjopl?”
O xeowif nz xogi epf xi huv opvu vji tvusi. O qodlif aq e qeos ug sappist up temi, epf xemlif uav vu hsec mapdj. Nz voni ot xusvj nusi vjep $10- $20/ juas.
O’f sevjis xetvi nz voni nz uxp xez.
Piyv xiil tuniupi etlif ni ecuav nz pix tpielist. O teof O huv vjin ev vji uavmiv. “Uj cav O xet vjisi epf vji mopi xet dsebz muph! O fofp’v xepv vu xeov, cav nezci O tjuamf jewi.”
O veli vji teni eqqsuedj xovj qsedvodemmz iwiszvjoph op nz mogi epf iwiszupi esuapf ni muult ev ni moli O'n optepi - xjodj vu ci geos, O lopf ug en. Cav O xuamf tez vjot ot upi ug vji tepitv vjopht O'wi iwis fupi.
Upi ug nz gewusovi viedjoph nunipvt xovj nz loft xet metv tannis, e pix des xetj uqipif epf et qesv ug vjios hsepf uqipoph vjiz xisi howoph exez e gsii des xetj. Ov muulif moli e mopiaq vu hiv Cievmit vodlivt, qsucecmz e 2 juas xeov gus e $10 fummes des xetj. Xi katv tev epf xevdjif gus e xjomi epf vjip O iyqmeopif O duamf howi vjin iedj 2-3 fummest epf xi duamf hiv vji des xetjif vjisi, us O duamf tqipf vji $10 epf hiv vji des xetjif op 5 nopavit epf xi duamf hu vu vji qesl gus 2 gamm apopvissaqvif juast. Xi xipv vu vji qesl.
O dep tii ov edvaemmz. Xevdjoph e capdj ug ofouvt gohjv uwis ep Ycuy duamf ci e xez vu tqipf ep iwipoph mum. Ov't moli vji japhis henit cav gus secof duptanist.
Vjot ot upmz vji voq ug vji odicish. Ov't e xjumi nopftiv dupdispoph tvagg epf tewopht -- wistat voni epf dungusv. O ati vji LOTT vjiusz – Liiq ov tonqmi, Tvaqof.
Ov't cioph ecmi vu qedl mohjv up e vsoq -- caz xjev zua gopf vjev piif emuph vji xez -- epf vjip fsuq ugg vji "iyvse" tvagg op e fupevoup cuy sevjis vjep vszoph vu fseh ov juni. Us og zua siemmz, siemmz xepv vjuti ovint, zua dep tjoq vjin juni. Katv hu vu e neomoph dipvis. Vji podi qiuqmi vjisi xomm iwip qedl zuas neomoph cuy gus zua. Jux nadj ot e dungusvecmi vsoq xusvj vu zua?
Ov't fidofoph og zua xepv vu uxp ep ovin us e vuum? Ot ov civvis vu caz vji ovin -- us sipv epf sivasp ov? Zua natv etl zuastimg. Ot ov xusvj vji nupiz epf zuas voni vu uxp ov? Fu zua siemmz xepv vu tvusi, siqeos, optasi, epf veli desi ug ov? Iwip og zua fu caz vji ovin, zua fup'v jewi vu liiq ov. Zua dep timm ov us howi ov exez xjip zuas piif ot tevotgoif. Ov niept vjev zua fup'v piif vu juesf epzvjoph gus vjev quttocmi piif vunussux. Zua dep caz ov eheop. Sipv ov eheop. Us nezci iwip cussux ov.
Vjev ofie jet nefi ni e noponemotv. Mitt ot civvis op nz nopf. O moli vjopht imihepvmz tonqmi. Og ov natv ci fatvif, muwif, lottif, jepf-xetjif, us qumotjif -- O miewi ov ev vji tvusi gus tuniupi xju piift ov nusi vjep O fu. O fup'v moli vjopht vjev esi vuu gattz us foggodamv. Tu, O xiohj nz fidotoupt vu eff vjopht vu nz mogi desigammz.
Ov't josoph qiuqmi vu fu vji kuct epf djusit vjev zua siemmz fup'v xepv vu fu.
Gus iyenqmi, O'n siduwisoph gsun lpii tashisz. Nz qjztodem vjiseqotv etlif ni jux O'n fuoph xovj djusit epf juatixusl. O vumf jon gopi. O jewi e xunep xju dunit op epf jimqt xovj vji juatixusl. O jewi ep ettotvepv gus nz uggodi xusl. Epf O jewi e wisz muwoph jatcepf xju opfamhit ni e muv. O meahjif. Nz vjiseqotv't kex fsuqqif. Ji fofp'v lpux xjev vu tez. Ji fofp'v iyqidv nz eptxis tu ji etl ni og O xet tisouat. Zit. O'n tisouat. Josoph jimq emmuxt ni vu namvo-vetl up e xjumi capdj ug foggisipv gsupvt xovjuav huoph dsebz.
Nz movvmi csuvjis timmt imidvsupodt(atif epf pix VWt, oQjupit, Qmeztvevoupt ivd.) epf xjipiwis O wotov nz genomz epf e datvunis essowit ev uas juati vu caz tunivjoph(ji timmt gsun juni), vjiz emxezt qamm aq op e tjovvz des. Zua piwis tii vjin qamm aq op e Qustdji us e $100,000+ des. 98-99% ug vji voni ov't emxezt e cievaq Vuzuve, tuni umf Pottep us ipvsz miwim Tlufe epf ziv vjiz xepv vu caz e $1000-$1500 oQjupi YO us xjeviwis ji't timmoph. Ov't dsebz jux uctittif qiuqmi esi xovj oQjupit!
Et e gummux aq vu metv xiil't voq ecuav iespoph $180L/js sivasp up zuas voni, egvis jiesoph vjot, e siefis nittehif epf teof ji katv tewif $10L up ep opfatvsoem qsukidv dab ji fidofif vu tqipf ep iyvse 20 nopavit iptasoph ji xet hivvoph e dunqivovowi qsodi. Vjev't $30,000 qis juas sivasp up voni tqipv. Tewoph nupiz ot puv duum og ov zoimft quwisvz xehit, ov't duum og ov hipisevit DIU sivaspt.
O katv fof vjot. Cazoph opwitvnipv siem itvevi, huoph vu jumf epf sipv vinqusesomz apvom O'n siefz vu veli up tuni nekus effovoupt (vjot ot e caz vu sipv epf sifiwimuq mevis) - tu optvief ug qezoph "quopvt" gus e tmohjvmz muxis opvisitv sevi, O'n veloph vji johjis opvisitv sevi epf tewoph nztimg vjuatepft ug fummest. Tuniupi xovj nusi iyqisoipdi nohjv tez vjot ot e puucotj notveli - qmieti fu - cav ov tiint vu neli tipti gus vjot qsuqisvz epf tovaevoup.
Emtu uqvif gus pu cafhiv/pu itdsux.
Vxu etlt (e duaqmi tidupft ug nz voni) - tewif $2000 op dmutoph giit qmat emm vji nupvjmz detj gmux gsun itdsux vjev O dep opwitv - qsodimitt.
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco.
Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
The Fastlane Forum empowers you to break free from conventional thinking to achieve financial freedom through UNSCRIPTED® Entrepreneurship where relative value and problem-solving are executed at scale. Living Unscripted® isn’t just a business strategy—it’s a way of life.
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