The Millionaire Fastlane (38 page)

Drive Effection's Neighborhood

A “wealth-seeking” friend of mine asked if I thought buying a coffee franchise was a good idea. I said, “No.” My answer shocked him because he played the “be your own boss” drum. I didn't like the idea because the gateway into the Law of Effection was barricaded.

The problem? His goal was financial freedom. If this was his goal, owning a coffee franchise in the local community wasn't going to do the trick. With a coffee shop, he has no access to the Law of Effection. Selling 100 lattes a day simply won't make an impact in either scale or magnitude. And since he didn't want to own 20 of these franchises, but just one, he was barricading himself from the Law. Road closed.

If you can't access the Law of Effection, you won't get rich. The conduit to all wealth is via the Law of Effection. For the Slowlaner, the LOE has to be hit by massive intrinsic value explosion: Sing in front of millions, entertain millions, play ball in front of millions. For the Fastlaner, the LOE is leveraged by scale or asset value explosion: Sell millions, help millions, serve millions, impact millions.

Law of Effection Barricades

There are three barricades that prevent entrepreneurs from realizing the Law of Effection: Scale, Magnitude, and Source.

The strongest barricade to Effection is scale. If you can't serve millions, you won't make millions. Returning to my friend's coffee shop, his “units sold” variable within the Fastlane wealth equation is restricted because his cafe is confined to a local community. His sales are mathematically caged to a stiff number-scale is absent. He will never sell coffee to someone in New Zealand. A business that lacks scale acts like a car with a speed governor that prevents acceleration.

My friend's only option to break scale would be to purchase more franchises in more locations. If he owned 29 franchises across the state, he suddenly would be serving 6,000 coffees per day. Scale becomes prevalent, and attached to scale is the Law of Effection. Of course, the optimum Fastlane strategy is not buying franchises, but selling them.

If my friend doesn't want to own multiple franchises he can't break the barricade of scale. Without scale (units sold) or magnitude (high unit profit) he drives a business that will produce a weak asset value. His wealth equation becomes retarded and the Law of Effection quarantined, remanding him to a middle-class work-life existence. With a middle-class income and a weak asset valuation, he defects to a wealth equation emblematic of the Slowlane.

The other barricade to Effection is Magnitude. Because our coffee shop owner is restricted in scale, his other option is scale by magnitude. Unfortunately, the magnitude road is also closed. Unit profit cannot be manipulated. Every sale won't generate a profit of greater than a few bucks and raising prices reduces units sold. A $100,000 profit on each coffee sold is impossible.

While direct access to the Law of Effection is a foolproof road to wealth, indirect access isn't so clear, since Effection always trickles up to owners and producers, not down to employees or consumers. For example, if you work as a doctor at a private-care facility, you could argue that you have magnitude and therefore, you should be rich. In fact, all doctors should be rich since they have magnitude, right? Not exactly. The fault in this presumption is that
the Law of Effection honors only those in control.

That private health-care facility? The facility's owner receives the full benefit of Effection, not the doctors he hired. The doctors on staff aren't guaranteed access to Effection, because they don't control the system. Can they be rich anyway? Sure, but that decision is left to intrinsic value evaluations to be made by the owner of the system. Doctors who own practices and hire other doctors get full access to Effection and get rich.

Effection always is biased toward the architect of the system.

How to Access the Law

If you want access to the Law of Effection, drive a road that can break through scale or magnitude while controlling its source. If you can't be the source, serve the source. Thankfully, you can easily determine which roads run parallel to the Law of Effection. Whatever your road, regardless of roadmap, can it directly scale to impact millions (scale)? Can it tremendously impact a few (magnitude)?

• If you invent a gadget that millions can use, you have direct scale and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is a possible.
  
• If you are chosen as a finalist for American Idol, you have direct scale and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.
  
• If you build a Web site that serves single moms, you have direct scale and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.
  
• If you are two management positions away from a CFO position at a Fortune 100 Company, you have indirect scale and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.
  
• If you are an attorney and take cases that involve wrongful deaths, you have indirect magnitude and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.
  
• If you create a successful retail store and franchise it to 300 entrepreneurs around the country, you have both scale and magnitude and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.
  
• If you invent a machine that detects skin cancer, you have magnitude and scale and the law is accessible. Fast wealth is possible.
  

Think big, but think scale and/or magnitude. Analyze your Fastlane equation and examine the variables. What are your maximum units sold and maximum profit per unit? What is the size of your customer pool? For example, as an author, I have scale, and with scale, the Law of Effection is accessible. Who is my audience? The whole English-speaking world, tens of millions of people! I'm reminded of scale any time this book is ordered from Australia or New Zealand. My upper limit is the world. My road has no speed limit and that grants access to the Law of Effection.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Your total pool of customers determines your habitat. The larger the habitat, the greater the potential for wealth.
  
• A business can be a singles or a home-run-based business. Its strength is determined by scale, which is derived by habitat.
  
• The Fastlane wealth equation is disarmed when you violate the Commandment of Scale. Scale is achieved in reach (units sold) and/or magnitude (unit profit).
  
• The Law of Effection is the primary conduit to wealth, which can be road blocked by scale, magnitude, or source.
  
• Effection consequences trickle up to owners and producers. Breaking scale or magnitude indirectly in an uncontrolled entity is not a guarantee of wealth.
  
• To gain access to Effection, you have to break the barrier of scale or magnitude in an entity you control.
  
• Scale, magnitude, or source deficiencies create governors on the speed of wealth creation.
  

CHAPTER 34: THE COMMANDMENT OF TIME

I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live only about a hundred years.
~ Thomas Edison

Break the Binds That Tie

The final Fastlane commandment is the Commandment of Time. The Commandment of Time requires that your business detach from your time. Can your business substitute for you and blossom into a money tree? Passive income is a Fastlane objective that comes from the Commandment of Time.

N – E – C – S – (Time)

Remember this: Owning a business doesn't guarantee wealth or detachment from time. Some business owners are married to their businesses because their businesses violate the Commandment of Time. The business ostensibly becomes a job and a lifelong prison sentence. While giving up your heart and soul for a business is perfectly normal in startup, growth, and maturation stage, it isn't a prescription I'd want to endure for 40 years.

The Commandment of Time asks:

• Can this business be automated and systematized to operate while I'm absent?
  
• Are my margins thick enough to hire human resource seedlings?
  
• Can my operation benefit from the introduction of a money tree seedling?
  
• How can I get this business to operate exclusive of my time?
  

Jobs are time trades for income, and yes, so are some businesses. The goal of the Fastlane is a disconnection of your time from income, even if that income isn't millions. Would you rather work 10 hours a week and earn $60,000, or work 70 hours a week for $140,000? I'd take the former over the latter every time.

Ashlyn Gardner loves the arts and literature. Following the prophetic advice of gurus, she sets off to “do what she loves”-she opens a coffee shop featuring art of local artisans and hosts weekly literature readings. Like a new love relationship, her new business starts with a bang and is the source of excitement and eagerness.

However, after two years, her business normalizes and the luster fades into hardship. Ashlyn realizes that she doesn't own her business; it owns her. She is up at 4 a.m. to open and has to be there at 8 p.m. to close. The 24/7 of business is a perpetual nag. Employees come and go, and the good ones demand pay she can't afford. Her social life dies and her boyfriend breaks up with her because she never has time. Her gym membership expires and, with it, her weekly yoga class.

Seeking to reclaim her time and her life, Ashlyn considers hiring a general manager. Unfortunately, hiring a GM would put her margins in the red. She won't work the business for free and the cost to her life isn't worth the profit she makes. Three years into the business, she closes up shop and looks to return to the ranks of employee over employer.

Ashlyn didn't fail at business. Her coffee shop was successful and earned her a modest living. Where did she fail? She failed the Commandment of Time and upon entering this business, like most business owners, didn't think it through past the excitement of the newness.

A Money Tree That Never Grows

A successful business isn't fun and games, especially one that violates the Commandment of Time. Often people get into business with the wrong idea of what it will be like. Fueled by gurus and life coaches, many are misled, believing that “be your own boss” and “do what you love” is enough motivational fire to sprout success. Unfortunately, these would-be business owners merge onto roads that may as well trail a path through desert. And sorry, money trees don't grow in the desert.

Think about Ashlyn and her quaint coffee shop. Was she her own boss? Sure, but it wasn't enough. Ashlyn's coffee shop didn't necessarily fail, but it failed her. She was motivated by her passion for art and literature. She was motivated to be her own boss. While such dispositions are healthy, it isn't enough to change a deficient road. You can't sprout flowers from arid soil.

As a Fastlaner, your road should be traveled with the intention to make it automated. You want passivity and a living money tree. When you fail the commandment of time, the failure is cause by one of two obstacles. They are:

1. You don't have access to the seeds because your road started with a deficiency.
   
2. The seeds won't grow in infertile soil.
   

If your business is based on one of the money-tree seedlings, it should be capable of growing a money tree. Content systems, computer systems, software systems, distribution systems, and human resource systems are all seedlings to money trees. If your business isn't based on one, can one be added to make it passive?

For Ashlyn's coffee shop, she recognized she needed the seed to a money tree-human resources-in the form of a general manager. She couldn't justify the cost, and the seed was inaccessible. Her road started deficient and wouldn't grow a planted seed. Had she ignored her finances and hired a general manager anyway, hence planting the seed, she would have discovered later that it was infertile and incapable of harvesting a money tree.

The problem with most business roads is that they are infertile breeding grounds for money trees simply because they fail the Commandment of Time. The seeds aren't accessible and those seeds that are accessible won't take to the soil.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• A business attached to your time is a job.
  
• business that earns income exclusive of your time satisfies the Commandment of Time.
  
• To satisfy the Commandment of Time, start with a business that uses a money system seedling, or introduce one.
  

CHAPTER 35: RAPID WEALTH: THE INTERSTATES

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
~ John Wooden

The Crossroads

If you want to get across the country, drive the fastest roads, not the slowest. Seems logical, except when it comes to financial independence. Instead of driving the fastest roads, most people drive the slowest, and in some cases, a road that won't even get them there.

Starting a business is a big decision. Treat it with cursory interest, and your business resembles a hobby. And businesses that are run like hobbies pay like hobbies.

Back in my mid-20s, I dabbled in a variety of businesses with no lasting success. It was the crossroads of my life and my latest job-flavor-of-the-month was driving limousines. Sure, I took the job because I had bills to pay, but I had other motives: infiltration. I thought I wanted to own a limousine company. Having never been involved in the limo business, I figured I'd get a job in the business and learn the ropes. After a year in the business, my opportunity-my crossroads-arrived. The owner of the limousine company put the company up for sale and offered it to me for no money down. Here was my opportunity-a chance to own a limousine service! Except there was one problem.

I was torn. Just weeks earlier, I decided to move to Phoenix and was preparing to move. Now this. Should I stay? Also, after watching the current owner dredge the constant demands of the business for over a year, I realized something very potent: I didn't enjoy it. The business was 24/7 with a lot of early mornings. Me? I'm one cranky bastard in the morning.