The Millionaire Fastlane (31 page)

Now I can look back and see that I didn't do all the easy and fun things like many people were doing, but I did all the right things. And today, we enjoy financial security and financial freedom. We can do what we want. Many of our friends are still working jobs, searching for financial security that they will never know. They had the same chance to make choices that I had; they just made the wrong choices. They all had schooling but they didn't have the necessary education that provides financial freedom. Now they tell me how lucky we are. The best investment you can make is in yourself. So be willing to pay for your education now, or be prepared to pay a much bigger price for your lack of education later. The choices you make today will determine your financial future. Be sure you make the right choice, because you will have to live with the results of that choice.

The rich understand that education doesn't end with a graduation ceremony;
it starts
. The world is in constant flux, and as it evolves your education must move with it or you will drift to mediocrity.

“I Don't Have Time!”

Tailgating the crutch of “I don't know how!” is “I don't have time!” Where on earth will you find time to change your oil? I mean seriously, between the full-time job and the two kids, where is there time? It's in between everything else.

Changing your oil isn't difficult when you attach it to existing activities of repetition and consistency. While time might be linear, it can be manipulated by performing double-duty on one time block, as in the old cliché, “Killing two birds with one stone.” Maximize time and you maximize wealth. Accomplish two objectives in one time frame. Make life your university. Here are some time-cheating, “life university” strategies.

Driving University:
Listen to audio books or financial news radio while stuck in traffic. Traffic nuisances transformed to education.

Exercise University:
Absorb books, podcasts, and magazines while exercising at the gym. In between sets, on the treadmill, or on the stationary bike, exercise is transformed to education.

Waiting University:
Bring something to read with you when you anticipate a painful wait: Airports, doctor's offices, and your state's brutal motor vehicle department. Don't sit there and twiddle your thumbs-learn!

Toilet University:
Never throne without reading something of educational value. Extend your “sit time” (even after you finish) with the intent of learning something new, every single day. Toilet University is the best place to change your oil, since it occurs daily and the time expenditure cannot be avoided. This means the return on your time investment is infinite! Toilet time transformed to education.

Jobbing University:
If you can, read during work downtimes. During my dead job employment (driving limos, pizza delivery) I enjoyed significant “wait times” between jobs. While I waited for passengers, pizzas, and flower orders, I read. I didn't sit around playing pocket-poker; no, I read. If you can exploit dead time during your job, you are getting paid to learn. Dead-end jobs transformed to education.

TV-Time University:
Can't wean yourself off the TV? No problem; put a television near your workspace and simultaneously work your Fastlane plan while the TV does its thing. While watching countless reruns of Star Trek, boldly going where no man has gone before, I simultaneously learned how to program Web sites. In fact, as I write this, I am watching the New Orleans Saints pummel the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. Gridiron gluttony transformed to work and education.

Think about the time you already use. How many hours do you waste in the trivialities of life? This time doesn't need to be lost, wasted time. This time is ripe for Fastlane oil changes.

To start your oil recharge, choose a topic that interests you or an area in your life that needs improvement. Not good at sales or writing? Get to the library and start reading. Before I started writing Fastlane, I bought six books relating to publishing, writing, and authoring. I didn't blindly write and publish a book; I educated myself thoroughly during the process.

Set a goal to read at least 12 books per year, or one per month. If you are aggressive like me, you'll read a book every week. I can't stress enough that the more knowledge you consume, the more torque you create on the Fastlane road trip.

The $50,000 Oil Change

The last time I went to one of those while-you-wait oil change places, an advertised $21.99 oil change morphed into a $110 bill because of extra service suggestions. An oil change shouldn't cost more than 25 bucks, and anything heavier should arouse your suspicions. Twenty bucks is the average price of a book. Used books are less. Library books are free. Continuing education at a community college is $30 per credit hour. Oil changes are cheap. Yet, we continue to strap the chains of debt to our ankles and pay thousands of dollars for our oil changes.

I saw a picture the other day of a student publicly protesting one of the government financial bailouts. She hoisted a large placard that read: “I've got a 4.0 GPA, $90,000 in debt and no job-where's my bailout?” Where's your bailout? Let me tell ya, walk into the bathroom, flip on the light-switch and look in the freaking mirror.

There's your bailout.

I'm tired of sob stories from well-intended students who graduate from college with mountains of debt and can't get a job. Take responsibility. You bought into the myth that college ensures a job. The fact is, when you allow market forces to drive your vehicle you're likely to end on the street with a homemade poster proclaiming the value of your 4.0 GPA and the crushing burden of your six-figure debt.

No one cares. You're in debt because you borrowed. You're in debt because you bought into the lie and relinquished control. You bought the Slowlane. Were you forced to take loans? You don't have a job because you voted for the politicians who penalize producers and reward consumers. Face facts.

An expensive oil change that forces a lifetime of indentured time is stupid. Again, parasitic debt doesn't care about the source; it only wants to eat your free time, preferably seasoned with a little salt and pepper.

The Seminar Fail

What idiot would pay $50,000 to attend a seminar? Many do. This is a common question at the Fastlane Forum. So-and-so is offering a three-day seminar on real estate investment for $50,000. Should I buy it? What? Are you a smoking crack? Do you know what you're buying? Let me tell you. You're paying $50,000 for someone to explain a book that's found at the bookstore for 19 bucks.

A $50,000 seminar is exploitation of what we producers know: People are lazy. People want it handed to them. People don't want to read and connect the dots; they want it done for them. People want to be steered. They want someone to drive their vehicle. People want events, not process, and what better event than a $50,000 seminar!

Seminars can be great for education, but it has to be the right seminar, which is affordable and given by producers and experienced experts, not by professional, career public speakers. Most high-dollar seminars are well-orchestrated marketing machines tailored to extract every dollar from your wallet. Most cheap seminars are day long up-sells to a more expensive seminar. And those well-suited presenters? They suffer the typical Paradox of Practice: rich from public speaking to millions but not rich from what they teach.

A member of the Fastlane Forum reflected on her recent seminar experience with a popular book guru:

First, you won't be “allowed” to network. If you were allowed to network then people would find out quicker that the seminar is just one giant sales pitch for a larger, more expensive seminar to the tune of $50,000. Second, you won't learn a damn thing, except that you should have listened to your gut and not gone. There really is a sucker born every minute. Amazing how people have nothing in the bank but can come up with $50K just for the hope of something better.

And finally, there is a segment in the seminar where they have you increase the balance on your credit cards, because after all, the rich make money and the poor earn it. So then everyone goes and increases their balances, and then guess what-they hit you with the purchase price of anywhere from $16K to $50K, depending on how “serious” you are.

Ridiculous? Apparently not, because people go rushing to the back of the room like cattle to slaughter, credit cards in hand. They leave with a nervous sense of self-satisfaction and a cute little sticker on their shirt that says “I invest in myself.”

A $50,000 oil change is as shocking as a $50,000 seminar. Good seminars are under $1,000 and are given by respectable experts, practitioners, and seminar firms. Good seminars are educational and don't come at the price of a new Cadillac Escalade. Bad seminars are hyped, high-pressure, and exploitative. Bad seminars are about making money and not about helping you.

How can you tell a good seminar from bad? The first tip off is price. Anything unreasonable is a warning sign that the provider is more interested in making money than education. The second is price again. Be wary of FREE. FREE usually means eight minutes of education and eight hours of up-sell to a higher-priced seminar. Thirdly, who is giving it? Is it a professional speaker? Or someone who actually practices what he or she teaches? Read the fine print. “Johnny Guru's strategies have made millions!” and then the fine print says, “Johnny Guru will not be in attendance.” Huh? Would you allow an acting surrogate to perform surgery on you if the real surgeon wasn't available? Fail!

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Fastlaners start their education at graduation, if not before.
  
• A Fastlaner's education serves to advance their business system and their money tree, not to raise intrinsic value.
  
• Fastlaner's aren't interested in being a cog in the wheel. They want to be the wheel.
  
• I don't know how” is an excuse dismantled by discipline.
  
• Infinite knowledge is everywhere and it's free. What's missing is discipline to assimilate it.
  
• You can become an expert in any discipline not requiring physical skills.
  
• Educational recharges can occur within time blocks already allocated for other objectives.
  
• Organizers of expensive seminars take advantage of Sidewalkers and disenfranchised Slowlaners by marketing empty promises as “events.”
  

CHAPTER 28: HIT THE REDLINE

If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.
~ Mario Andretti

Fastlane Winners Are Forged at the Redline

Winners are forged at the Redline. What's the Redline? The Redline is pure, unadulterated commitment.

Money trees, businesses, and systems aren't built overnight. It took Chuma years to construct his pyramid machine. Commitment is money-tree water, sun, fertilizer, and cultivation. I know commitment is a word likely to cause a riotous exodus. If you think Fastlane process is easy, stop now and go back to the Slowlane, which isn't easy either!

Remember, “Get Rich Easy” is a lure with a hook. The creation of a vibrant business is like raising a child from birth to adulthood. Like a parent has to commit to their children, you must commit to your system and your business. It is at the Redline where the limits of a car are tested, and that is where your limits will be tested.

Are You Interested or Committed?

Too many people saunter through life coasting in first gear and then wonder, how did I get here? Who doesn't want to worry about money? Unfortunately, it doesn't take any effort to be “interested” in wealth and financial security. Interest is kindergarten; it isn't enough, and those who have “interest” live in first gear.

To get out of first gear, you must make a concerted effort and a lineage of good choices to exploit the power of the Fastlane. There's a profound difference between interest and commitment.

Interest reads a book; commitment applies the book 50 times. Interest wants to start a business; commitment files LLC paperwork. Interest works on your business an hour a day Monday through Friday; commitment works on your business seven days a week whenever time permits. Interest leases an expensive car; commitment rides a bike and puts the money into your system. Interest is looking rich; commitment is planning to be rich.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, didn't build the most-used social networking site by being interested. He was committed. Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb by interest; he was committed. Interest is quitting after the third failure; commitment is continuing after the hundredth.

While I was building my company, my system, my surrogate, I was committed. I'd spend 12 hours a day for weeks perfecting and building my system. I'd forgo nights drinking with friends. I lived in a cramped studio apartment. I'd eat cheap pasta for lunch and dinner. I was ready to wash dishes to work my plan. While my friends were more concerned with bragging rights for having the fastest car on a racing videogame, I wanted financial freedom. I wanted a fast car in reality, not on a videogame. My friends were committed to being winners in a fantasy world, while I was committed to being a winner in the real world. Fastlane winners are forged at the Redline.

Distance Yourself from “Most People”

How bad do you want it? How willing are you? Are you willing to sleep in your car for it? Are you willing to live in a tiny apartment while your friends own houses? Are you willing to forgo the new BMW in favor of a rust bucket with 150,000 miles? Are you willing to wait tables at Maloney's Bar and Grill when your friends have cushy $50K/year jobs? How willing are you?

Most people aren't willing, and it separates the winners from the losers. The idea of living in the rat race for 50 years has to be more painful than the idea of working your ass off to escape it.
You can have mediocre comfort now or meteoric comfort later
. The Fastlaner trades short-term comforts with the foreknowledge that long-term extraordinary comfort is to be gained.