The Millionaire Fastlane (36 page)

When the plumber comes over to fix the toilet and raves about his three rental properties that have appreciated 15% in the last three months, it's time to get out and stay out. When your personal trainer raves about his Internet stock portfolio that earned 40% in two months, it's time to get out and stay out. When your truck driving cousin calls you and asks about investing in oil because it's $150 a barrel, it's time to get out and stay out. Dumb money-EVERYONE-always shows up at the end of a boom. Who is dumb money? Consumers! Money chasers!

But some shrewd people have mastered the Rule of Everyone. Instead of getting out, they short the other side and profit from the downfall. With every busted boom, new millionaires and billionaires are created because they saw the impending collapse inevitable in every meteoric irrational ascension.

While the stock market imploded in early 2009, who was buying and who was selling? Everyone was selling. I was long gone and sold a year earlier. Warren Buffet was buying. Everyone sells and the richest man in the world buys. Hmmm. Could it be that everyone is wrong? Yes it could.

If you want to live unlike everyone, you can't be like everyone. Don't confuse that with exceptionality. You have to lead the pack and have “everyone” follow. When the lambs are lining up single-file for slaughter, you want to own the slaughterhouse.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• The Commandment of Entry states that as entry barriers fall, competition rises and the road weakens.
  
• Easy access roads carry more traffic. More traffic generates higher competition, and higher competition creates lower margins for the participants.
  
• Businesses with weak entry often lack control and operate in saturated marketplaces.
  
• Exceptionalism is required to overcome weak entry barriers.
  
• Access to a business road should be a process with a toll, not an event.
  
• “Everyone” consists of the general populous and is served by the mainstream media.
  
• If everyone were wealthy, “everybody is doing it” would work. And if everyone is wealthy, then no one is wealthy.
  
• “Everyone is doing it” is a signal to overbought conditions and the entrance of “dumb money.”
  

CHAPTER 32: THE COMMANDMENT OF CONTROL

There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence on one's self.
~ John Gay

Demand the Driver's Seat

Yes or no. You're either driving the Fastlane or you aren't. You're either in control over your financial plan or you aren't. There is no in between. And if you're not driving, you're sitting in the passenger seat and someone else is in control.

Envision your dream car, boat, or plane. Great, now here are the keys. You get it for one hour, unencumbered. Would you grab those keys and take it for a joyride, using every single minute? Or would you plop your butt down in the passenger seat and resign, “Ehh, you take control, I'll sit in the passenger seat and hitchhike a ride.” Senseless? Not exactly. This is how many people approach business: They hitchhike, they give up the driver's seat, and they violate the Commandment of Control. In doing so, they sacrifice control over their financial plan and ultimately make someone else rich.

Hitchhiking a Fastlane

While hitchhikers of life tread the Sidewalk and are victims, the hitchhikers of business violate the Commandment of Control.

N – E – (Control) – S – T

A business hitchhiker seeks refuge from risk and cowers within the confines of a matriarchal organization. This subservient relationship renders a loss of control and leaves you vulnerable to the actions of the driver. When you control your business, you control everything in your business-your organization, your products, your pricing, your revenue model, and your operational choices. If you can't control every aspect of your company, you're not driving! And if you can't drive, you set yourself up for sudden, unexpected crashes.

Fastlane drivers retain control. Those who violate the commandment do not.

In general:

• Drivers
  create
  MLM companies; they don't join them.
  
• Drivers
  sell
  franchises; they don't buy them.
  
• Drivers
  offer
  affiliate programs; they don't join them.
  
• Drivers
  run
  hedge funds; they don't invest in them.
  
• Drivers
  sell
  stock; they don't buy stock.
  
• Drivers
  offer
  drop-shipping; they don't use drop-shipping.
  
• Drivers
  offer
  employment; they don't get employed.
  
• Drivers
  accept
  rents and royalties; they don't pay rents and royalties.
  
• Drivers
  sell
  licenses; they don't buy them.
  
• Drivers
  sell
  IPO shares; they don't buy them.
  

So are you DRIVING a Fastlane? Or HITCHHIKING one? If this hitchhiker description describes you, don't get discouraged or defensive. You can't be a driver in every instance. Heck, even I engage in hitchhiking activities. Fastlane hitchhikers can make good money, sometimes boatloads. However, understand this: The driver retains control and makes the big money. At best, the hitchhiker makes good money.

Good Money Versus Big Money

There is a difference between good money, big money, and legendary money. Good money is $20,000/month.

The cattle call of every network marketing company is, “Hey, wanna make $10,000 a month?” Big deal. Remember your windshield. It's big money only in your head. That's decent money but nothing that's going to put you into a private jet and 40-foot yacht on Newport Beach.

Big money is $200,000/month. Now we're talking-$200,000 every month will make a dent into your lifestyle. When you earn this level of income, life changes.

And then there is legendary money, where you earn more than a million dollars every month. Outrageous? Not at all. When you leverage all five commandments and control your company, one million a month is not impossible.

To hit big money or legendary money, you need to control your system and every aspect of that system. When you relinquish control and defer power to a higher authority, you cede big money to the driver and accept good money as the passenger.

For example, my Web site offered an affiliate program. My best affiliate consistently earned $20,000+/month. Yes,
he was making good money
. He was the hitchhiking passenger, and I was the driver, controlling the affiliate process. However, think about the danger he assumed. At any moment I could have instituted a “new policy” that would have reduced his earnings. I drove his income stream, and he absorbed the risk that I wouldn't disturb, alter, or modify the affiliate agreement. And most importantly, as a driver, I was the one making big money ($200,000/month), while he settled for good money ($20,000/month).

Similarly, you might have heard of a unique group of Internet entrepreneurs called “AdSense” millionaires. Google Adsense is an advertiser network that online content publishers leverage to earn income from their Web sites' traffic. There are affiliates, bloggers, and publishers who earn good money from using Google's AdSense program. Some content providers and bloggers earn six figures monthly. Arguably, this is big money, yet Google (the driver) makes the legendary money.

No Control = Crashes

Think about the dangers of hitchhiking. You get into some stranger's car and you let them drive. Hitchhiking a Fastlane is an incredible risk, especially when your family is the cargo. My experience has repeated itself for countless entrepreneurs who learned the hard way.

Some background: My forum leverages the Google advertising network, which pays revenue for ad clicks that evolve from my forum. It is a hitchhiking relationship-Google is the driver and my forum is the passenger. A thread at my forum discussed an e-book marketing program. As the thread progressed, a joke was made about a former bankrupt NBA player, and (long story short) the folks at Google claimed the content violated their terms. My ads were terminated and the revenue stopped. Now imagine if this forum and the Google revenue were responsible for feeding my family. Imagine if I relied on it. Imagine if I was earning $15,000/month from these ads and in one big swoop, it was gone.

No control. No say. No power. It took me eight days to resolve the problem, but it exposed the dangers of hitchhiking a Fastlane as a passenger versus driving it. For those eight days, my income from that activity was zero. In any driver/hitchhiker relationship, the driver always makes more money than the hitchhiker and retains a critical component to Fastlane strategy:
control.

I can't imagine running a company in which another entity has the power to instantaneously kill your revenue stream. If someone can “flip a switch” and destroy your business, you're playing roulette with your financial plan. The congenital danger of hitchhiking is that you relinquish control to the driver. If the driver crashes into a wall, guess who goes with them.

You.

The problem with being a hitchhiker is you really never know the driver. The driver could be ethical, moral, and just, or the driver could be corrupt and evil. Either way, as a hitchhiker you waive all power to your driver. He who owns the keys owns the power.

Yet millions of people submit to this type of organizational control without pause. They sign franchise agreements, giving control over crucial business decisions, including marketing, ads, and royalties. They join distributorships in which others dictate their compensation structure. Their product funnel is directed by a centralized source. They're told like automatons what they can and can't do. They're held hostage to a corporate patriarch, not realizing that they aren't really their own boss. If you can't change your product, are you the boss? If you can't change your price, are you the boss? If you can't influence marketing decisions, are you the boss?

Years ago, I joined a network marketing company. I had a friend who earned good money. Ultimately, the company changed its product line and compensation structure. My friend's income stream was disrupted and eventually disappeared. The asset he created (his downline and cash-flow stream) vaporized in a matter of months. My friend had no control despite claiming that he “owned his own business.” His mistake was to violate the Commandment of Control.
He never had the keys to his business
, and his empire was nothing but a mirage founded on false foundations governed by a political party in which he had no voice.

When drivers make radical turns and change terms, you have no choice but to go with them. If it's the cliff of bankruptcy or criminal neglect, their sinking ship becomes yours. Do you really want to engage in a business relationship like this?

Think Shark, Not Guppy

If you lived in an aquarium, would you rather be the shark or the guppy? Sharks eat . . . guppies get eaten.

Business is a fierce competition for the consumer's mind and their money. It's an expansive ocean where multiple species wage war over sustenance: money. In this oceanic game, you want to be at the top of the food chain, not at the bottom fighting your way up the top. Build corporate ladders-don't join them. Build pyramid organizations-don't join them. Think manufacture, not retail.

To become a shark, you have to think like one. Sharks think big and guppies think small. As a shark, you have to drill down into your belief system and change your mindset. Think globally, not locally. Think to lead, not to follow. Think to innovate, not to copy. The change and transformation from guppy to shark starts with your thoughts as your focus moves from the few to the many.

When you engage your Fastlane road, be the shark and use the entire ocean as your playground. Ever watch a school of fish? Each fish doesn't act as a single unit. They act in unison as a collective. Unfortunately, most people can't see the danger of this analogy. They're just one fish immersed in a collective controlled by a force greater than themselves. And who is attracted to these schools of fish? The sharks. Be the shark, the predator, not the guppy. Be a driver, not a hitchhiker.

Invest in Your Brand Only!

Whose money tree are you growing? Are you investing in your brand or in someone else's?

Ever sit in traffic and spot a car plastered with decals and stickers of some company? From network marketing companies selling Acai drinks to one of the largest makeup companies in the country, these decals are official decrees to the world from the driver: “Yes folks, I invest my life in someone else's brand.” They are guppies in a shark-infested ocean.

I recently had a middle-aged woman drive up to me in my gym's parking lot. She stopped and asked me about my Lamborghini and its vanity license plate. Then she opened a Pandora's box and asked, “Do you do any network marketing?”

Before I unloaded, I glanced at the car she was driving. She drove a rusty old Hyundai that needed new tires and a paint job. The rear window was missing (unless you believe duct tape suffices as an adequate replacement to glass). The side doors were plastered with decals and magnetized signs exclaiming the greatness of her network marketing company.

“Make a huge income from home!”

I wondered if her company (and her road) were so great, why was she driving a POS Hyundai that costs less than the front left tire on my Lambo? How can she advertise “Make a huge income from home!” when obviously, she isn't earning a huge income from home? I respectfully asked her why she invests in a business that she doesn't control. Why are you painting someone else's “big picture” when you should be painting your own?

She smiled, raised her “dream-stealer” defenses, and rejected my analysis. As if what she was doing was working and reasonable, her mind was closed to my suggestions. That's fine. Keep doing what you're doing and see if that gets you where you want to go. Don't listen to me; you came up to me and I'm the one who's retired and living the dream. I know that sounds arrogant and pretentious, and I apologize, but logic eludes most people.