The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J. DeMarco

A depiction of various paths that you can lead your life with a spotlight on 'The Fastlane' - a route to wealth that is more rapidly attainable and preferable so that you are able to live out the life you desire for an extended period of time.

Summary

The Millionaire Fastlane depicts an alternate roadmap to wealth besides being reliant on compound interest over decades. The reasoning is that you are able to more accurately and rapidly attain the life you desire, without reliance on external factors. Reliance on external factors is a base of hope, which often doesn’t come to fruition, but is realised too late to change course. Reliance on yourself and accrual of wealth while young allows you an to take increased advantage of its associated benefits, over a longer period of time.

Firstly, you must realise that wealth is not purely monetary and consists also of relationships, health and freedom—all of which are borne from an abundance of time. Next, define your goals so that your choices are already made for you—whichever gets you closer to that which you have laid out.

In order to live extraordinarily, you must willing to make extraordinary sacrifices. Delaying gratification with consistent action. Take accountability for all that occurs. Produce more than you consume; the more value you provide to society, the more value you get in return. Educate yourself continually, learning from the masters—those who have walked the path you venture onto.

Be wary of purchases for you are purchasing them with your money, a derivative of your time—to purchase something unnecessary is to spend your time fuelling the unnecessary. You want an abundance of time and to do so you much detach your income from time. Generate passive income from a self sufficient business. Generate passive income from compound interest on a large initial sum invested in appreciating assets.

Key Takeaways

  1. Define your goals and be self-reliant for action towards them.
  2. Maximise your focus and efforts by distilling them into a single pursuit.
  3. Maximise leverage and impact through scale and magnitude to create mass societal value.
  4. Detach your income from time so that you are left with an abundance of both time and resources.
  5. Seek opportunity in mediocrity, capitalize on the failings of others.
  6. Be selfless in action; take direction from the market’s wants and needs as you are there to meet their needs, not yours.

Favourite Quotes

Wealth cannot be purchased at a Mercedes dealership, but the destruction of your freedom can. [...] The irony of looking wealthy is that it is an enemy of real wealth: It destroys freedom, it destroys health and it destroys relationships.

M.J. DeMarco

If you’re tired of making $11 an hour, raise your value to society.

M.J. DeMarco

If you want to get rich, you have to control and leverage the variables in your financial plan—any financial plan without control immediately disintegrates into a plan of hope.

M.J. DeMarco

Change creates millionaires. Those who see the changes and take advantage of it will become the new millionaires and billionaires. And because change is constant, millionaire opportunities also remain constant.

M.J. DeMarco

To succeed as a producer, surrender your own selfishness and address the selfishness of others.

M.J. DeMarco

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Seneca

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu

Events and circumstances have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.

Henry David Thoreau

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people.

Randy Pausch

Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value.

Albert Einstein