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Book Review: the Millionaire FASTLANE by MJ DeMarco

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I finished reading “the Millionaire FASTLANE” written by MJ DeMarco. I think it is a quite famous book worldwide. There are a lot of Korean reader who read the book and recommending this book to people. The Korean localized title of this book is “부의 추월차선” which means “Fastlane of Wealth” and I think it sounds more sophisticated than the original title. My friend recommended this book to me and as I am working on my English skills I bought the English version of the book and started reading. It was well-written book. Well, some part of the book could be just repetition of the same idea, however, I think the author wanted to emphasize the idea by repetition because it is important. I think you can still get most of the book’s idea by reading the first half of the book. Still, the second half is pretty good so if you have enough time I think you can explore the another half.

I am going to regurgitate this book’s idea down below.

3 types of road

  • Sidewalk: People who does not have any financial plan on their life. They make hourly wage living by paycheck to paycheck. They just spend all the money they earn.
  • Slowlane: People who does have financial plan but it is bound to time. They make annual salary working in stable job. They save most of their income believing that compound interest will make them rich. They will probably get rich when they get old and wealth in the old age does not have much use.
  • Fastlane: People who runs the fastlane business. Their business provide significant value to a lot of people around the world. They make huge amount of income because their income equals to unit price of their service times number of units sold. They detach their income from time and treat time as the most valuable asset they have.

Each type is predisposed to the destination inherent. The Sidewalk is predisposed to the poverty, the Slowlane is predisposed to the mediocrity, and the Fastlane is predisposed to the wealth. They also have different perceptions about their surroundings: money, education, and time.

It does not mean sidewalkers cannot get rich. It just means that sidewalkers have less possibility of becoming rich. Sidewalkers can get rich by winning a lottery, and slowlaners can also get rich by gaining a lot of profits from their investments. But the probability is not so high. Winning a lottery is almost impossible and making money by investment means that you have to be right several times. One mistake or one event like depression or economic crisis can obliterate half of your money. It also takes a lot of time. On the other hand, going fastlane can make you a millionaire in relative short time, say 10 years. He says that getting rich quick is possible, although it sounds like a scheme. But getting rich easy is not possible. It takes a lot of efforts and failures to make a fastlane business. And it sounds right. Everyone nowadays are looking at young riches who makes huge money by building a startup company. And they tend to think that building that kind of company is just a luck or easy, and those entrepreneurs got rich overnight. But the fact is they worked their ass off to build a company and most of time that company wasn’t their first company. They failed several companies for several years before they make huge success.

So, getting rich quick is possible but it is not an easy way. But going fastlane will make you more happy because by making you reach your full potential working hard, take full control of your business and your life, and get financial freedom.

The Law of Effection

The Law of Effection is the real law of wealth. Mathematics is the transcendent language of the universe. Math is law.

NET PROFIT = Units Sold (Scale) * Unit Profit (Magnitude)

If you effect million people, you will become a millionaire. If your unit profit is big and you sell your item to million people, you will become a billionaire. Provide values to people and do not follow your selfish dream.

The Road to Effection: CENTS

  • The Commandment of Control: You have to control your business. Giving up control is like getting into a stranger’s car and letting them drive. It is an incredible risk, especially when your family is the cargo.
  • The Commandment of Entry: It has to have some entry barriers.
  • The Commandment of Need: Stop chasing money. Chase needs.
  • The Commandment of Time: Your business has to be detached from your time.
  • The Commandment of Scale: Your business should play big. Local/community is a pool, country/state is a lagoon, worldwide is an ocean. Become a shark swimming in the oceans.

Conclusion

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. It also helped me to get some business insight. It was an exciting book. I think we all have to go to the bigger oceans as an entrepreneur. I started to think that entrepreneurs can be seen as selfless people rather than selfish misers. They provide values to fulfill the needs of society. When I was a young kid, I always wondered why there are some rich people who are still working very hard. It doesn’t make sense to me at that time because they can still make living with bank interst of their net worth. But I began to realize that they are doing that because of fun or as a mission. I think our lives are too short to be spent just chasing money. I think we should pursue something more meaningful other than making money. This book could be seen as a book about making money but I think there is much more important meaning besides that. I will leave that question to you.