Your Latest View Of What Makes CENTS

[RogueInnovation]

What is your latest view of MJs book's and how you see his points.
MJ has his own meaning to his points of course, but it can be helpful to see everyone elses perspectives in order to see where things are going right and where they are a bit off and why.

So share what you think CENTS (CENTS) means

Personally,
I think CENTS means that while you COULD theoretically "have enough money in the slowlane" that idea is cut short by the fact YOU DO NOT HAVE CONTROL, or time enough to enjoy what you have. And what is "enough money" without control of your destiny, or your time? Everything you gain from the slowlane can be cut out from under you and you aren't yet just having a life on your own terms.

So how do you change that?

Well, you COULD set up a business
But be wary!
Because you could fall into the same trap of wasting your time and relying on others for everything to go right. So make sure your business is under your control, and time effective so you can avoid the BS.
For example, you could build an ineffective business that relies highly upon the whims of others for its stability and security, and theoretically it could be even worse than a slowlane job. So the point is not to simply move away from slowlane because you don't like it, but to move away from ALL INEFFICIENT AND OUT OF CONTROL endeavors.

After this point, consider what makes a business a business.
SCALE and NEED, and have an ability to recognize what needs are and how to satisfy them at scale. This allows you to set reasonable prices and collect good will from many people without "clawing" at them to please please help you out, while giving them what they want at a good price.

And then be sure you can't be crushed or stopped by barriers of entry, and smartly maneuver yourself around in a way that has you always likely to survive.

If you do that, then the money that might have been enough in the slowlane is more secure in your own hands, and you have liberated your time and energy. And from there, you can decide what you want.

That's only my view though, so lets hear yours.

 

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[theag]

You are confusing things. CENTS has nothing to do with the slowlane. Maybe reread the book.

 

[hungryhippocampi]

I tend to think of CENTS as the ingredients for cooking up a solid business. Leave out Control and my cake may fall. Leave out the commandment of Entry or Exceptional Execution and it may not even resemble a cake at all but look like mud pie. Leave out Need and it may smell/taste so bad I wouldn't be able to get my own mother to try it. Etc,etc.

 

[ZF Lee]

You are confusing things. CENTS has nothing to do with the slowlane. Maybe reread the book.

Or TMF . TMF is a simpler and more 'basic' read.

For me, a Slowlane might be where we all start from to begin our Fastlane.

Before a car can speed up, it has to go from 0kph to 10kph, to 50 kph and so on.

We can bring our experiences and/or capital from a Slowlane job to help us out in the Fastlane. But we need to understand that still, it may not be enough. We face many different challenges like marketing, product development and accounting which we may not know in our early life.

We can get all kinds of answers, and solutions.

For example, for distributing products, some find it better to use Amazon. Some products are better off sold in retail. Others maybe cooked in a restaurant or chopped by a butcher.

All the solutions we find along the way SHOULD be guided by the CENTS commandments.

CENTS for me, is like a beacon in the dark. To get to the beacon, you can fly, walk, drive and run....all kinds of solutions or choices to take. Can we get to the CENTS beacon, even just a few of them?

And from there, you can decide what you want.

Yes, that is a good aim to look for. Freedom of choice is very liberating!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

CENTS has nothing to do with the slowlane.

Yea, I'm confused too. It has nothing to do with the "Slowlane."

CENTS is a framework for starting a business.

Or, it's a guide to analyze your current business, somewhat like a "strengths and weaknesses" test.

 

[AllenCrawley]

So your take away is how you can make the most of the slowlane? Hmm...

 

[Process]

No. Just No.

1. Control(Boss gets rid of you, Economy Crashes = Layoffs, Stupid HR BS, majick qualification game, regulations = layoffs)
   
2. Entry(More and more cheap labor, outsourcing and automation)
   
3. Need(Computers do more and more tasks, cheap labor, college debt slaves willing to work free just to "get foot in door")
   
4. Time(Can't get massive raise by just offering more value, can't have boss log into a website or call a phone number to get your work services, 16 hours a day)
   
5. Scale(You gonna clone yourself and stay home playing games? Hire people to do your job...wait thats a business! not a slowlane...)

I like some of your musings, but wonder sometimes...

I sincerely hope you're being real about your success buying the house in cash a few weeks ago. Anyhow, it doesn't effect or affect me.

 

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[Hyrum]

I think CENTS means that you COULD theoretically have enough money in the slowlane
But that is cut short by the fact YOU DO NOT HAVE CONTROL

Isn't that what the C in CENTS stands for? So by your very definition, slowlane violates the commandment of Control. CENTS is more than just having enough money in your bank account.

Or, it's a guide to analyze your current business, somewhat like a "strengths and weaknesses" test.

This is what I did when I first read TMFL, and discovered that although my business was fine with Control, Entry, and Need, it violated Scale and Time. And I'm still working on those last two. I plan on asking a lot of questions this weekend to see if I can crack it.

 

[dimraj]

So your take away is how you can make the most of the slowlane? Hmm...

LOL

 

[RogueInnovation]

In life you want to be efficient and in control

I mean its true in anything really
From riding a bike, to coding a program
If you aren't in control, and you just accept the chaos as a factor out of your ability to comprehend, then how can you get better at it
You can't

What I'm suggesting here is,
View cents as not the REPLY to a problem
But rather an independent assumption of how to define a success
Then use that definition to observe pros and cons and remove fallacy in your thinking

Then looking at your options from a view of "which is most like the patterns of success" you will see that slowlane paths inherently lack efficiency and stability so are kind of lethargic and sh#tty.
But if your eyes look at EVERYTHING from this lens, you don't need to decide to be an entreprenuer, you can just PICK the path with control and efficiency.

You shouldn't fight your inner BS like it is correct and you just need to steer it out of the dark
You should be like "hey, dumbass, this has no control, its unstable, see that over there? Its stable do that"
Most people choose slowlane cuz they think it is more stable than being an entrepreneur, but is it really?

I mean do you wanna have a go at dodging a knife or do you want to bleed to death slowly for sure. I mean, start by defining success, then equally judge everything, slowlane included.

I mean, just cuz slowlane can get you some money, it doesn't bypass the fact you can be fired, or have life throw a curve ball, and it wastes your time, so a prudent person would see about fixing it.

 

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[RogueInnovation]

No. Just No.

1. Control(Boss gets rid of you, Economy Crashes = Layoffs, Stupid HR BS, majick qualification game, regulations = layoffs)
   
2. Entry(More and more cheap labor, outsourcing and automation)
   
3. Need(Computers do more and more tasks, cheap labor, college debt slaves willing to work free just to "get foot in door")
   
4. Time(Can't get massive raise by just offering more value, can't have boss log into a website or call a phone number to get your work services, 16 hours a day)
   
5. Scale(You gonna clone yourself and stay home playing games? Hire people to do your job...wait thats a business! not a slowlane...)

I like some of your musings, but wonder sometimes...

I sincerely hope you're being real about your success buying the house in cash a few weeks ago. Anyhow, it doesn't effect or affect me.

This is actually the result of that my man

See, I had to totally reexamine why I'm doing all this
And let me tell you, when money isn't your driving force, things get murky
I mean, what do you try to achieve and why???

I asked that a lot these past weeks,
And after a lot of soul searching, I discovered something interesting

It is actually more motivating to be after CENTS, than money
I know that might sound bizarre but hear me out here
What is money if you lack control over it, if you lack time?
Its just a way to blow off steam and pray you don't get f#cked some day.

But what is money when you have control? When you have time?
Then it is whatever you decide to create with what you have on hand.

What kind of money is worth more? Obviously the latter.

So with that said I realised I kind of despise inefficiency, and I think unnecessary chaos is totally preventable and should be dealt with. And once I realised that I knew I didn't need to chase money, my goal had changed into "make efficient and harmonious choices".

If you want more money, fair enough
Line up the ways to do so on a piece of paper
Then detail each method of making money and its efficiencies, inefficiencies, and write down what you can control and what you cant.
You should start to come up with LOGIC on the best way to make money from what you already know

I'm terrible at explaining this I guess, but you don't want confirmation biases influencing your decisions. You want your actions based off of optimization, efficiency, objectivity.

It isn't merely enough to avoid being poor, you must want efficiency for its own sake, control for its own sake, meeting true needs for its own sake, and getting it out at scale for its own sake.

And that isn't just YOUR business, its everything
You wanna do ACTUAL good for people, and you want it to have an impact, but you don't want chaos, and wasted time undercutting ever good thing you ever do.

So I mean, it is MORE than just a business checklist to me.
To me it is the description of what I want beyond money.
It is what I pursue, because it makes money better.

Like, my real desired skill is "what to do with my money and how it is used as a tool"
1) you want it stable, good foundations make for taller buildings and better environments
2) you don't want ineffective action, you want streamlined and near perfect action with little waste
3) you want to remove delusions about problems facing you and get to the real insightful core of it
4) you want to be influential at scale with those insights

Its hard to describe what I see, but it is like
There is this shining goal ahead of me, but it isn't money
Its these principles better understood and implemented

 

[Process]

This is actually the result of that my man

See, I had to totally reexamine why I'm doing all this
And let me tell you, when money isn't your driving force, things get murky
I mean, what do you try to achieve and why???

I asked that a lot these past weeks,
And after a lot of soul searching, I discovered something interesting

It is actually more motivating to be after CENTS, than money
I know that might sound bizarre but hear me out here
What is money if you lack control over it, if you lack time?
Its just a way to blow off steam and pray you don't get f#cked some day.

But what is money when you have control? When you have time?
Then it is whatever you decide to create with what you have on hand.

What kind of money is worth more? Obviously the latter.

So with that said I realised I kind of despise inefficiency, and I think unnecessary chaos is totally preventable and should be dealt with. And once I realised that I knew I didn't need to chase money, my goal had changed into "make efficient and harmonious choices".

If you want more money, fair enough
Line up the ways to do so on a piece of paper
Then detail each method of making money and its efficiencies, inefficiencies, and write down what you can control and what you cant.
You should start to come up with LOGIC on the best way to make money from what you already know

I'm terrible at explaining this I guess, but you don't want confirmation biases influencing your decisions. You want your actions based off of optimization, efficiency, objectivity.

It isn't merely enough to avoid being poor, you must want efficiency for its own sake, control for its own sake, meeting true needs for its own sake, and getting it out at scale for its own sake.

And that isn't just YOUR business, its everything
You wanna do ACTUAL good for people, and you want it to have an impact, but you don't want chaos, and wasted time undercutting ever good thing you ever do.

So I mean, it is MORE than just a business checklist to me.
To me it is the description of what I want beyond money.
It is what I pursue, because it makes money better.

Like, my real desired skill is "what to do with my money and how it is used as a tool"
1) you want it stable, good foundations make for taller buildings and better environments
2) you don't want ineffective action, you want streamlined and near perfect action with little waste
3) you want to remove delusions about problems facing you and get to the real insightful core of it
4) you want to be influential at scale with those insights

Its hard to describe what I see, but it is like
There is this shining goal ahead of me, but it isn't money
Its these principles better understood and implemented

Yeah I see what you are saying now. Let me explain in my own words in italic.

It is better to have control of one's day to day life for the long term than to have a certain sum of money. Money is not inherently worth anything, so losing out on life chasing it is not a good trade. No one's penis will get bigger, nor will they miraculously become happier.

Use it as a tool to measure and invest in ways of systematically spreading the changes you seek to make in the world. It's not a substitute for anything. It's a bargaining chip, a potential force multiplier, and rough measuring stick.

By all means, if you have the cash and income to support living in the way you genuinely want, you don't need someone else's validation to do that. Just be real to yourself and correct the inherent mistakes on charting your own way.

Use the Unscripted Entrepreneur framework to big things. We'd all love seeing that come into being step-by-step. Share the pitfalls and the wins you face. That's this forum's core service.

 

[Supa]

The only one who's actions may or may not make CENTS, on the lane you are talking about, is the owner of the company one is working for.

He got the CONTROL to kick you out for whatever reason he wants to. He may bother about ENTRY and NEED before creating a new product, that you, while your 8 hours at his company, are going to build/market/sell in the coming months, all while he can spend his TIME however he wants to, maybe working on how to SCALE that new product to more and more people, and at the same time earning from the product he created, partly due to your work.

The field a slave is working on may has nice trees, in which shadows he's save from the hot summer sun, and having another "coworker" bring one a bottle of water from time to time as part of that person's work duties. And maybe an whole hour of being allowed to sit down below one of those trees and take a nap or eat something, observing the mostly friendly guards ... I mean managers and the like, making some small talk with your coworkers and checking if the work's done properly.

That's fine right? He thinks, sitting there below the green leaves, sipping away at his cold refreshing bottle of water, looking over there at the field next to the one he is working on.

The field next to the fence, surrounding the one he's sitting on.

 

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