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Why would you complain about being worth $10 million vs $100 million if right now you aren’t even worth $1 million?
It’s a stupid topic.

Take action and make progress.

Stop focusing on fantasies and outcomes and focus on making progress, or you won’t ever get anywhere.
 

e_fastlane

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I don't want to sound negative, but it just sounds like you are the average entitled person that is trying to fill an emotional hole with money. Most people have that little voice in their head that wants more. In general it's just insecurity. You can generally do one of 3 things:

1. Let it eat at you and become depressed. This option usually goes with a whole lot of blaming others and/or society for the hand you were dealt or for not giving you what you want.

2. Recognize it for what it is, an insecurity, and work through your mental issues. You may acknowledge some form of "based on my values, what it takes to acquire this outcome is not worth the sacrifices". Then you decide to live your actual values and dismiss this one for what it is (an unhealthy corruption of your sense making mechanism). Well adjusted people do this all the time. An example of this is that if you ask most people if without incurring some cost they want to be faster/stronger/more athletic/wealthier, of course most peoples answer is a resounding YES. But as soon as you tell most people they need to drastically change their lifestyle to maintain a 6-pack of abs , they will say hell no and decide a reasonably athletic life is more than enough for them to be happy! Commiting to the sacrifices required to maximize their "6-pack value" would be a serious net negative to them!

3. Recognize it for what it is, an insecurity, and work through your mental issues. You may acknowledge that being wealthy is in fact one of your top values and you commit to the sacrifices needed to make it happen. You can harness it to DRIVE you and give you motivation to persist through the shit sandwiches that you will have to be eating along the way on your journey. Ultimately though, you still need to recognize that this insecurity can be unhealthy and work on rooting it out. The resulting "wealth" can never actually make you happy and it's a fools errand to expect an external object to do that. While you are harnessing this insecurity to drive you, you will hopefully recognize that it's the process that fulfills you and should be your value. If it doesn't, then you need to go back to point #2 and start living the life that fulfills you. Otherwise, even if you make millions/billions, you will be the guy people refer to when they say "Money doesn't make you happy, believe me, I know insanely wealthy people that are very unhappy". Don't think you are too smart to be that guy. They all thought the same thing.

These aren't some fixed categories and we can all be on some sort of spectrum between these things.

Fix your inner game and start living your values.
 
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socaldude

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A key element of human nature is passivity. There is no such thing as “passively” perceiving truth. All of these perceptions are the result of your own failure to rise above them and replace them with beliefs that are more consistent with logic or mathematics.
 
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redshift

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Brrr

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By "sacrifice" I mean delayed gratification . In MJ's wealth exposed story the mid twenties millionaire was explaining to Coney (Probably wrong name) that in order for him to have had the things he has now he had to delay gratification, drop out of college, etc. He had to live breathe sleep and shit his business for a while until he was able to delegate it to the point where he no longer needed to run the business as much. It was thanks to his proper delegation that kept his business alive because he at one time had to spent a few months in the hospital. It was thanks to his general manager that his business did not collapse. And so when it came time to sell his business he gave his general manager one or two million dollars I think to thank him for his integrity. Essentially he was explaining to his old college friend that it took WORK for him to get to where he is and that it wasn't just a luck event that happened. But now that I think back about that story I realize I'm essentially acting like that old college friend in a similar fashion who wasn't sold on how the millionaire was trying to explain how he got rich in the first place. It's not that I'm not sold on it, I just do not have the right frame of mind for it. I lack patience for something I anticipate to likely drag out longer than I'd like it to. I prefer to work towards things where it doesn't take light years to see the fruits of my labor realized (Making an app, getting an A on a test, etc). If it's something like mount everest for example, I have to have the passion for it in order for me to have the patience with the process. If I do something I utterly hate, then I am not going to have patience and will not go deep enough into it. When you do things you hate all you think about is when it will be over, that's where you give a f*ck about the amount of time it's sucking out of your soul. But if I were to do something I'm passionate about then I would surely not care about the time because it's something I would do willfully in perpetuity. The only way I can see myself do the fastlane is if I find what the market wants but doesn't know how to get that I can give to them at scale under my passions. I know the passion part will go against what MJ says about it but it's the only way I can see myself doing it. I'd only pursue entrepreneurship if it's a way I can do more of what I already like / love doing. So that way even if I don't end up rich in the timing I would like it to be I would have least enjoyed the years I spent in it (And if I still happen to feel that the money just isn't as enjoyable when you're middle-aged as opposed to young then I would give it away.) So the only way I can feel that I would've not pissed away my youth is if I did something I'm really passionate about.
Even if you find an industry you are passionate about you will quickly find that running a business eventually starts looking very similar regardless of what you are selling. If that weren't the case business books would be irrelevant to 99.9% of the public.

The feeling of success comes from doing something that gives you an appropriate level of "challenge" and "satisfaction".

The first metric, challenge, changes and grows as the business grows. That's where the financial reward eventually plays out and where you get the asymmetric benefits that MJ talks about. Challenges get bigger normally as an operation scales and so you have to solve bigger and bigger problems.

The second metric, satisfaction, comes from different arenas. Yes, there is personal satisfaction (i.e. do you enjoy the work), and that is where most of the "follow your passion" advice comes from and plays into but there is also the satisfaction of your customers. Satisfied customers make you satisfied and make you feel that you are doing something worthwhile, satisfied customers also keep the lights of your business on.

Your ability to also create an environment where these two metrics are high for your staff will attract great people, who will in turn take your business even further. It's a self-fulfilling positive feedback loop.

In thinking about business, I would make it less about yourself and more about the external. You have to want to build something and be committed to the process because you think the world will be a better place for it, not because you want to buy a lambo and make your friends jealous.
 

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I just fear that by the time I do finally have my successful exit, I'll be older than I'd like to be. It would just make me feel unhappy and miserable with myself. I don't fear the failure rate but what I do fear is how many times it may have to take for me to get there. So let's say starting at the age I am now, 19, that I begin the fastlane but fail like 5 times, and let's just say I succeed at 35. While this would make me happy in the short term, it would make me feel miserable in the long term b/c with retrospective thinking, I would be like " Man... I wish I would've gotten this much sooner, so that I could've enjoyed my youth more and for a lot longer, but with abundance. I kind of regret sacrificing so much and so hard for this, putting everything on the line often." I.e I would feel very disappointed in the timing of its arrival. I would rather get rich young and ripe in my twenties or get rich never. Given that the odds of that actually happening are stacked against me I will no longer aspire to achieve that. But what I will aspire to achieve instead is financial freedom. The latter is far more feasible to attain than the former because you don't have to have the huge lump sum to have it in the beginning, all you need is just proper delegation of a business that is decently profitable,and then later down the road you make your exit so that you don't have to manage it at all. Except in my case even if I do manage to attain a fortune I'll just probably give it away because it's not going to make me happy, it'll make me miserable unless I happen to be young and ripe in my twenties. If not then I would only keep just enough so that I don't have to worry about bills and that's it. I wouldn't be entirely happy with the outcome of only having financial freedom and not wealth but at least it wouldn't make me as miserable as having wealth in the wrong timing for myself. I get it that the fastlane is about freedom and not money except I know I want to have wealth, but only if I'm young enough to enjoy it to its maximum potential. Otherwise I'd prefer it never comes to my door.
You're 19 years old. Your logic is rather circular. What are you going to do when you wake up and notice that it's your 40th birthday? It will feel like it happened overnight. You're running down the untested road assuming how you feel in the future. As an older adult, I can tell you that you'll be a different person by the time you are in your mid-20s. And then you will evolve even more as you grow older. Keep this post and reread it in 5 or 6 years -- and then again 10, 20, and 30 years out. Right now you're wet behind your ears. You must get out there and try a bunch of different things. Then, after you prove yourself, you will have the credibility to legitimately comment and being successful. It looks totally different when looking from the inside out.
 

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Keep going. The wise say it's a journey, not an end game.
Agreed, my beliefs aren't matured yet, they are very flexible at the moment. Not to flatter, but we young folks need people like you.
 
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Ecubed

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So before I respond, I just want to recognize the absolute size one's balls have to be to start a thread like this calling out the creator of this community on the belief system he won the majority of us over with. Granted, a lot of your own mindset seems to be rife with circular logic and excuse-making though I'll also grant that if you meant what you said and you're actually trying to understand and are stuck getting to the answer most of us have found (i.e. the fastlane is about freedom), good on you. It's a mark of intelligence to hold a stance but then look for arguments that erode at it to either prove or disprove it rather than look for arguments that strengthen it, normally seeking opinion from an audience biased in your favor.

That being said, I took a bit of an issue with the above statement for a few reasons and I'll break it down piece by piece to help explain my rationale.


The fastlane is less about speed (though that is a factor) and more about control. Remember how the definition of someone walking on the sidewalk is essentially someone with no internal locus of control. These are the types that believe everything that happens to them is beyond their control: their money, success, friendships, possessions, skills, everything. They're the ones that believe that if they become wealthy, it's because it's all random -- winning the lottery, being discovered by a talent scout (if you're trying to be a musician or something), getting rich by getting in on a few meme stocks before they explode, or your start-up taking off over night. These are people who only care about the result and neglect the process.

Especially with that last one, no one seems to give a shit about the years in obscurity a successful freelancer or entrepreneur had to go through until they pop off and start really building momentum. But that's also the difference between the slow- and fastlanes; the speed in the fastlane when you start growing once you get through those initial barriers (sometimes it can take months but usually it takes years) is exceptionally quicker compared to the slowlane or sidewalk. But again, that's also the lane with the most control. While MJ uses the sidewalk, slowlane, and fastlane as devices to explain his points, speed is used as an illustration but the point is finding freedom. At least that was my interpretation of it.

So you're the oldest you've ever been at 19 so anyone five years older than you can seem much older or ought to have their lives together in a certain way or whatever. I'll grant that because of that, this has probably skewed your perception and that's okay, I was the same way. But being in your late 20s/early 30s is still really young in the grand scheme of things. And regardless if you're a fastlaner or not, most of one's 20s is just bumbling around like an overgrown toddler as we try to figure out who we are, what we want out of life, and how we'll go about getting it. Sometimes people who are successful early on crash and burn before they hit 30. Think of all the actors and musicians who got discovered in their teens, became multimillionaires before 20, and are now penniless with drug issues. Perhaps if they had a bit more wisdom, they would've handled that wealth better but who's to say (not to mention there are plenty of people who got a later start and still crashed and burned.. but I digress).

I think it's a bit unfair to compare MJ's story with the 20-something's story he mentions because everyone's journey -- whether in life or the fastlane -- is different. Some people find what clicks for them faster than others. Some people (like myself) built up momentum and were doing well, then life (and poor adaptations to it) happens and you're trying to restart again. But both of them managed to "make it" well before the usual retirement age of 65+ OR the ultimate "never" most people succumb to. Sometimes when you're younger, you have all the ingredients but poor execution.. or you've got great execution but not enough ingredients. The market's always changing, the world's always shifting, some of us adapt better than others, some of us know how to ride those waves better than others. But just like I said before, once it clicks, it clicks. And if you want it to click faster, you gotta hustle it out a lot more and be observant as f*ck, analyzing what's working and what's not. And if you're not going as fast as you'd like, find the roadblocks and clear them. But no matter what vehicle or system you choose to generate wealth, you will never get into the fastlane if you don't try and strive to improve on it. That last part is the rub; people expect to try once and then if it doesn't work out, "f*ck it, this isn't for me."

Again, it's about control and accepting that while there's plenty of bullshit life throws at you, it's your reaction that matters. Are you going to let those factors beat you down or stand up and keep pressing towards your goal? That's what separates the fastlaners from the rest: they understand the only true failure is giving up.

This is a very bold claim from someone who has yet to start their entrepreneurial journey. I don't know how you can make such a confident assertion "in retrospect" when you do not have that experience to look back on. But let's talk about misery and suffering for a second and the idea that the trial-and-error of entrepreneurship is "pissing away all your youth to have freedom."

So I'm not nearly as wealthy as I'd like to be so I'm not claiming to have "made it." I got a ways to go but I can feel it in my bones that I'm closer now more than ever (and that's been after years of fiddle f*cking around with the systems I've been building and finally everything's really starting to click). I was in a fraternity in college, a full-time student, AND I worked full-time AND was dabbling in different little side gigs (I got my first contracts as a freelance writer when I was 20). A lot of my friends worked part-time if at all, partied, and took on loans to go to school.. they'd want me to hang out all the time, go to the bars, get stoned, play video games. And sometimes, being young and wanting to enjoy time with my friends, I'd indulge them. But 95% of the time I was either working on my degree, learning new skills, or trying to make my freelance career work.

A few months before my 23rd birthday, I was finally making enough money to be self-employed. A lot of people tried to dissuade me from my path ("you work too much," "lol it's kinda cute you think you'll be successful as a writer," even my own mother would tell me I'd be more successful working at Walmart) but I didn't listen. Between there and when I turned 26, I either doubled or more than doubled my income year-over-year (26-28 was a bunch of stumbling what with depression and poor adaptations but like I said, that's also a part of the game.. success is almost never a straight trajectory). My critics started shutting up after realizing that even on a very modest salary when I began, I got to work from home and with the people/companies I wanted to, I structured my day as I wanted to, I didn't have to worry about commuting or exchanging five days of my life for two drunken, miserable ones to cope with the other five, and that I didn't have to prostrate myself to a middle manager to get a 1% raise. And even though, revenue-wise, I'm not doing as well as what I was a few years ago, I still have all that freedom that my 9-to-5 friends complain to me about how badly they want.

To me (and perhaps a lot of others on this forum), it's not the building of an entrepreneurial system that's miserable but the wageslavery of modern life. It's depressing to think of trading your life's time for fixed amount of pay (like an hourly wage) and being reliant on that sole source of income. A lot of people woke up to how even their salaried jobs can be ripped out from under them what with COVID. All of a sudden what was "safe" and "made sense" and "the right decision" became none of those things. And guess who all my friends and family who struggled came crawling to? The very person they judged, made fun of, and looked down upon because he didn't "spend his youth" the way they wanted me to. And I'm not even 30 yet lol I still got plenty of time.

But again, this is a core premise of the book (and if you look at other really high-quality books on entrepreneurship and building wealth, they say the same thing). It's not about the money, it's about the process. You cannot have wealth without a process to produce value (MJ's argument on production vs. consumption deficits), ideally for as many people as possible (MJ's explanation of scale and magnitude). You cannot get without giving. Yeah, sometimes the process sucks.. a lot of it is spent in frustration trying to solve the problems that crop up. BUT IF YOU DO NOT LOVE THE PROCESS OF CREATING VALUE, NO MATTER ITS UPS AND DOWNS, YOU WILL NEVER BECOME WEALTHY BY YOUR OWN CONTROL.

You gotta take ownership of your life, bud. What terrifies you more: being trapped in the mold society builds for you and encourages you to live a mediocre life only being given the minimum to keep you from revolting.. or trying to forge your own path and that, despite its hardships, you will ultimately find more pleasure, freedom, and fulfillment on the other side? If the choice isn't obvious yet, I encourage you to really do some soul searching, not just for why you're in this community (unless to just troll and judge us -- which I can guarantee you, we've all dealt with it from people much closer to us) but what you want out of life.

But like other people have said, regardless of money, if you're miserable now, you're gonna be miserable regardless of how many commas are in your bank statement. And you gotta dive deep and get really uncomfortable to shift that paradigm. But I suppose that's whether or not you actually want to do the work or just have it handed to you. I hope you're the kind of guy that prefers the former.
I always knew I wanted more in my life. My family life as a youth was tumultuous with abuse and lack of resources. We were white trash. Well, I was the step headed Mexican that took care of the house and siblings so I felt even more poor than them. I use to day dream about inventing something, designing clothes, becoming a celebrity or just plain being rich. I never had a plan. I was raised in a environment where we expected hand outs. Hell, we deserved them because others can afford it. Living off welfare and donations my whole life was embarrassing but I see now more than ever that it was truly embarrassing not because of the welfare part but because of my parents attitude toward it. As if the world owed them when they never worked hard for any type of advancement or improvement in their lives. It's disgusting because small parts of this entitlement has creeped into my life and I've been expecting something for nothing all these years.
I just tuned 37 and I bartended at a club for years. Years. When I first started in my early 20's, let me tell you, youth and money go hand in hand in that business. However, I still never gained experience. Not the experience to be a successful free individual. Freedom is key.
I remember being at my ex boyfriend's house up in the beautiful hills of Tucson, Az. At the time he had just bought the most expensive home in that area. We we're going to be getting ready to leave for Vegas on his private jet and I was killing time in the pool looking out over the city. I distinctly remember saying nothing last forever (I had already resolved to myself that Mike would eventually move on. It was a way to guard my feelings) but then I said out loud, "but I'm here now!" Instant gratification. I didn't care about tomorrow, next month, year or decade. And now it's a decade later and I'm exactly where I was then before that scene. I say this because he gave me anything I wanted, offered money to open a store, pay for school, shit, gave me money not to work. I don't say these things to excite jealousy but to show how wasteful I was without any plans. Again, I always knew I wanted a better life but what was I putting into action to obtain that reality. Even with meeting Mike, I was exactly like my parents. Back then, I had the mentality that I deserved what I recieved because I had a horrible childhood and I deserve to live NOW as I want.
I've had lots of money as a youngster. (I still think I'm young thank you) I've had countless opportunities to build myself up to where I want to be and guess what. I squandered all of them. And so I forge forward because opportunities will come again but this time I have experience and a plan.
To anyone out there thinking you're squandering your youth to be where you want to be at my age, think again. Please think again. You're head isn't even on right in your 20's and I know how I sound because I heard it all when I was that age. But true secret, we're all having so much more fun in our 30's and 40's and it came with experience, failures, and success from all walks of life.
 

kleine2

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Warning: this is a criticism of the fastlane that will sound like I'm being a slowlaner retard and challenging some of what is being preached about it. If you are disgusted by things like that then please do not read this post or make non constructive counter arguments against what I'm saying. My only intention is to get feedback from people who are open to criticisms against what they believe in so that they can educate me on any misunderstandings I may have of it. I am in no way shape or form saying that not of what it says isn't true, but what I am critiquing is how the message is being made.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.
So you used the slowlane arguments against the fastlane.
It's risky. It's not easy. It takes time.
That's all true.
But with the Fastlane approach you have more control and more potential and you learn more and experience more in life.
It's not like taking the bus versus the subway. It's a different kind of path to follow.
 

advantagecp

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So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom.

You have a lack of perspective which comes with your immaturity. Don't take it personally, I was the same way. It's normal. Remember when you were a little kid and your world revolved around Pokemon cards or some kind of toy or whatever the hell you were into at the moment?

Those things seem ridiculous to you now.

And in 35 years most of the things that seem important and interesting to you now will be just as insignificant. You seem to not understand that you are an evolving person and that you will change as you age. I assure you that when you are 60 you can have activities and goals which will be just motivating as those which you have now.

One thing that will remain constant though, is that having a reasonable excess of money and free time will be of great value. Entrepreneurship is one way to get there.
 
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DeletedUser84644

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Ok, but the alternative to all this is that you go get a job and make a salary. How does that fit in with everything you wrote. How would that path make you happy. You would get tiny tiny amounts of gratification on every pay check day, but that would diminish to zero within 6 months. Now you have no chance at anything.

BTW, may I suggest that you use paragraphs in your future writing, it would make your posts much easier to read?

My bad writing is the result of not taking English class seriously when I was in school (A very horrible mistake that comes to haunt me now). That's one thing I definitely need to work on.

I wasn't saying that I would prefer to take the path of the slowlane over the fastlane. All I'm saying is that I will concentrate my focus on attaining financial freedom (Making money independently of time) instead of becoming rich (having F*ck loads of money) because you don't have to be rich to have financial freedom, but you do need to have a decently sized enough lump sum so that you can sustainably be retired.

The nice thing about it is that you don't have to wait until you make your exit to achieve it. If you delegate your business properly you can enjoy a near complete liberation of your time, and then when you're finally ready to make your exit you end up freeing up your time 100% by putting that money into income producing assets.

Now you're probably going to say that I can have wealth before I make an exit. While that is true, the problem is, is that I risk not having money for if my business goes belly up. I mean obviously capital appreciation is the best way to get rich, but, I also need to save like 90% of the income I make out of the business to be sure that I will have the large enough lump sum I need so that I can generate money independently of my time. I.e the exit will just be the icing on the cake. But since most real fortunes are realized through capital appreciation and not from business profits it makes me feel like that it will take a while for me to be rich.

Anyway I will forget about getting rich and instead focus on financial freedom using the fastlane because I've been thinking too much about the money and not the freedom when it really should be the other way around.

Again let me stress that financially freedom is something that I DO WANT regardless of how long it will take for me to get there, because if it's going to take my time for me to have more time than I would rather have more time than more money (not as in I prefer being broke). I'm very likely going to have financially freedom first before I even have wealth, which is fine. I have patience for financial freedom more than wealth because we all have to get there eventually. However I won't let myself be complacent and wait until I'm 65 to have it either. I'll do everything I can to have both as soon as possible, but wealth is something I'm only willing to accept if I'm young enough for it (Unless if I happen to change my mind later on.)

My goal here is to eventually get to a point where I make $40,000 a month after taxes without having to work for it. I wouldn't care how long it would take. Although I wouldn't consider that rich. Rich for me would be making 1 million a month.
 
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Ing

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I had some businesses in my 20s.
Would have been nice to have a forum like this than. in 1985!
 

AlexisLara

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Warning: this is a criticism of the fastlane that will sound like I'm being a slowlaner retard and challenging some of what is being preached about it. If you are disgusted by things like that then please do not read this post or make non constructive counter arguments against what I'm saying. My only intention is to get feedback from people who are open to criticisms against what they believe in so that they can educate me on any misunderstandings I may have of it. I am in no way shape or form saying that not of what it says isn't true, but what I am critiquing is how the message is being made.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.
You're a scripted dude .
At the end of the day, it's just a game of self-awareness. What you really want in life?
Some people like 9-5 , they think building a business is a miserable, suffering process & ton of sacrifices like you.
Some with entrepreneurial tendency , they feel suffocated , it's like they can't breathe if they have a job.

Good luck!
 
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WJK

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Looks like this thread's purpose came to fruition. I'm 17 myself and I don't expect myself to be a millionaire at 21. No, I never think of being rich in my early 20s because those are unrealistic expectations. I know nothing about how life works. Instead, I'm focusing on learning, providing value, and building connections right now.

And yeah, failure is inevitable. Minor or major, I've faced minor failures already on this 4-month Fastlane journey. Does that mean I give up? NO.

I think you can become financially free in 9 years or less with the Fastlane, provided you use CENTS and verify a productocracy. Finding a business like that will take time and wisdom, but once you verify both, it's just a matter of time before you scale the sh*t outta it.
Keep going. The wise say it's a journey, not an end game.
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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If you succeed, you will gain confidence, money, connections and resources to do more with your life.

If you fail, you will gain experience and become a stronger, more intelligent, better person.

That’s a win-win.

Nothing but pure upside to that bet.

I’ll take it every time.

Keep iterating. Keep growing.
 

MJ DeMarco

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So before I respond, I just want to recognize the absolute size one's balls have to be to start a thread like this calling out the creator of this community on the belief system he won the majority of us over with. Granted, a lot of your own mindset seems to be rife with circular logic and excuse-making though I'll also grant that if you meant what you said and you're actually trying to understand and are stuck getting to the answer most of us have found (i.e. the fastlane is about freedom), good on you. It's a mark of intelligence to hold a stance but then look for arguments that erode at it to either prove or disprove it rather than look for arguments that strengthen it, normally seeking opinion from an audience biased in your favor.

That being said, I took a bit of an issue with the above statement for a few reasons and I'll break it down piece by piece to help explain my rationale.


The fastlane is less about speed (though that is a factor) and more about control. Remember how the definition of someone walking on the sidewalk is essentially someone with no internal locus of control. These are the types that believe everything that happens to them is beyond their control: their money, success, friendships, possessions, skills, everything. They're the ones that believe that if they become wealthy, it's because it's all random -- winning the lottery, being discovered by a talent scout (if you're trying to be a musician or something), getting rich by getting in on a few meme stocks before they explode, or your start-up taking off over night. These are people who only care about the result and neglect the process.

Especially with that last one, no one seems to give a shit about the years in obscurity a successful freelancer or entrepreneur had to go through until they pop off and start really building momentum. But that's also the difference between the slow- and fastlanes; the speed in the fastlane when you start growing once you get through those initial barriers (sometimes it can take months but usually it takes years) is exceptionally quicker compared to the slowlane or sidewalk. But again, that's also the lane with the most control. While MJ uses the sidewalk, slowlane, and fastlane as devices to explain his points, speed is used as an illustration but the point is finding freedom. At least that was my interpretation of it.

So you're the oldest you've ever been at 19 so anyone five years older than you can seem much older or ought to have their lives together in a certain way or whatever. I'll grant that because of that, this has probably skewed your perception and that's okay, I was the same way. But being in your late 20s/early 30s is still really young in the grand scheme of things. And regardless if you're a fastlaner or not, most of one's 20s is just bumbling around like an overgrown toddler as we try to figure out who we are, what we want out of life, and how we'll go about getting it. Sometimes people who are successful early on crash and burn before they hit 30. Think of all the actors and musicians who got discovered in their teens, became multimillionaires before 20, and are now penniless with drug issues. Perhaps if they had a bit more wisdom, they would've handled that wealth better but who's to say (not to mention there are plenty of people who got a later start and still crashed and burned.. but I digress).

I think it's a bit unfair to compare MJ's story with the 20-something's story he mentions because everyone's journey -- whether in life or the fastlane -- is different. Some people find what clicks for them faster than others. Some people (like myself) built up momentum and were doing well, then life (and poor adaptations to it) happens and you're trying to restart again. But both of them managed to "make it" well before the usual retirement age of 65+ OR the ultimate "never" most people succumb to. Sometimes when you're younger, you have all the ingredients but poor execution.. or you've got great execution but not enough ingredients. The market's always changing, the world's always shifting, some of us adapt better than others, some of us know how to ride those waves better than others. But just like I said before, once it clicks, it clicks. And if you want it to click faster, you gotta hustle it out a lot more and be observant as f*ck, analyzing what's working and what's not. And if you're not going as fast as you'd like, find the roadblocks and clear them. But no matter what vehicle or system you choose to generate wealth, you will never get into the fastlane if you don't try and strive to improve on it. That last part is the rub; people expect to try once and then if it doesn't work out, "f*ck it, this isn't for me."

Again, it's about control and accepting that while there's plenty of bullshit life throws at you, it's your reaction that matters. Are you going to let those factors beat you down or stand up and keep pressing towards your goal? That's what separates the fastlaners from the rest: they understand the only true failure is giving up.

This is a very bold claim from someone who has yet to start their entrepreneurial journey. I don't know how you can make such a confident assertion "in retrospect" when you do not have that experience to look back on. But let's talk about misery and suffering for a second and the idea that the trial-and-error of entrepreneurship is "pissing away all your youth to have freedom."

So I'm not nearly as wealthy as I'd like to be so I'm not claiming to have "made it." I got a ways to go but I can feel it in my bones that I'm closer now more than ever (and that's been after years of fiddle f*cking around with the systems I've been building and finally everything's really starting to click). I was in a fraternity in college, a full-time student, AND I worked full-time AND was dabbling in different little side gigs (I got my first contracts as a freelance writer when I was 20). A lot of my friends worked part-time if at all, partied, and took on loans to go to school.. they'd want me to hang out all the time, go to the bars, get stoned, play video games. And sometimes, being young and wanting to enjoy time with my friends, I'd indulge them. But 95% of the time I was either working on my degree, learning new skills, or trying to make my freelance career work.

A few months before my 23rd birthday, I was finally making enough money to be self-employed. A lot of people tried to dissuade me from my path ("you work too much," "lol it's kinda cute you think you'll be successful as a writer," even my own mother would tell me I'd be more successful working at Walmart) but I didn't listen. Between there and when I turned 26, I either doubled or more than doubled my income year-over-year (26-28 was a bunch of stumbling what with depression and poor adaptations but like I said, that's also a part of the game.. success is almost never a straight trajectory). My critics started shutting up after realizing that even on a very modest salary when I began, I got to work from home and with the people/companies I wanted to, I structured my day as I wanted to, I didn't have to worry about commuting or exchanging five days of my life for two drunken, miserable ones to cope with the other five, and that I didn't have to prostrate myself to a middle manager to get a 1% raise. And even though, revenue-wise, I'm not doing as well as what I was a few years ago, I still have all that freedom that my 9-to-5 friends complain to me about how badly they want.

To me (and perhaps a lot of others on this forum), it's not the building of an entrepreneurial system that's miserable but the wageslavery of modern life. It's depressing to think of trading your life's time for fixed amount of pay (like an hourly wage) and being reliant on that sole source of income. A lot of people woke up to how even their salaried jobs can be ripped out from under them what with COVID. All of a sudden what was "safe" and "made sense" and "the right decision" became none of those things. And guess who all my friends and family who struggled came crawling to? The very person they judged, made fun of, and looked down upon because he didn't "spend his youth" the way they wanted me to. And I'm not even 30 yet lol I still got plenty of time.

But again, this is a core premise of the book (and if you look at other really high-quality books on entrepreneurship and building wealth, they say the same thing). It's not about the money, it's about the process. You cannot have wealth without a process to produce value (MJ's argument on production vs. consumption deficits), ideally for as many people as possible (MJ's explanation of scale and magnitude). You cannot get without giving. Yeah, sometimes the process sucks.. a lot of it is spent in frustration trying to solve the problems that crop up. BUT IF YOU DO NOT LOVE THE PROCESS OF CREATING VALUE, NO MATTER ITS UPS AND DOWNS, YOU WILL NEVER BECOME WEALTHY BY YOUR OWN CONTROL.

You gotta take ownership of your life, bud. What terrifies you more: being trapped in the mold society builds for you and encourages you to live a mediocre life only being given the minimum to keep you from revolting.. or trying to forge your own path and that, despite its hardships, you will ultimately find more pleasure, freedom, and fulfillment on the other side? If the choice isn't obvious yet, I encourage you to really do some soul searching, not just for why you're in this community (unless to just troll and judge us -- which I can guarantee you, we've all dealt with it from people much closer to us) but what you want out of life.

But like other people have said, regardless of money, if you're miserable now, you're gonna be miserable regardless of how many commas are in your bank statement. And you gotta dive deep and get really uncomfortable to shift that paradigm. But I suppose that's whether or not you actually want to do the work or just have it handed to you. I hope you're the kind of guy that prefers the former.

Awesome take, took this thread over the threshold into GOLD.
 

npsome

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Warning: this is a criticism of the fastlane that will sound like I'm being a slowlaner retard and challenging some of what is being preached about it. If you are disgusted by things like that then please do not read this post or make non constructive counter arguments against what I'm saying. My only intention is to get feedback from people who are open to criticisms against what they believe in so that they can educate me on any misunderstandings I may have of it. I am in no way shape or form saying that not of what it says isn't true, but what I am critiquing is how the message is being made.

With that out of the way; The fastlane is not as fastlane as it's being preached to be and here's why: You have a very good chance of failing (90%), especially for people who have never ran or built a business that's worth millions, billions, or in some cases, trillions of dollars. Even more so for the vast majority of people who have been taught to think and be employees all their lifes. Those who succeed on their first try in entrepreneurship are the exception, regardless of what skills or resources they've had at the time. And that success comes with a lot of painful sacrifice, hardship, and time (A lot of time for the ones who had to fail multiple times). Which works exactly as how it should because not everyone can be rich, and the immense difficulty that comes with trying to achieve such goal is why there are so few people that are rich. But here's the problem, there's one precious asset that you have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of that's the most painful one to sacrifice, and that is time. The fastlane is sold as you being able to get out of the rat race in not so many years if you pursue entrepreneurship, in 10 years or less, except that's not really how it works in reality because it assumes succeeding on the first try, it also assumes that the business venture you choose can be scaled to a meaningful exit in less than that time as well. And the ones that do succeed tend to be in their forties or older according to this Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship - American Economic Association

So it's objectively clear that your odds of actually attaining true wealth doesn't happen until you're a lot older, in terms of probability if you're starting at a very young age (Late teens or early twenties). The fastlane works best for people who are middle age, not young or old people. Now even if people didn't do the fastlane, odds are, they're likely to be in the top 10% in their middle age (From their job). So what does this all mean? It's not as fast as it's being preached for young people. Hell just look at MJ's case, he had to fail several times in order to get there, while he was still young when he finally did get there at the age of 33, that's not as young as being in your twenties with wealth like the guy in MJ's wealth exposed story. So really this makes a young person like me wonder what's the point of even trying to get rich if in the end you won't end up having it while young anyway? You may as well just not pursue it with too much seriousness. Yes financial freedom should be strived for, but not to the point where you're constantly going through a ton of misery and suffering to get there to only realize that you've pissed away most or all of your youth to have freedom. While that's great at first, but in retrospect it will make you miserable and unhappy, and utterly regretful of what you had to sacrifice to get there. You'll have wished you spent more time enjoying life and not so much of it in being in a constant miserable grind. Even if you're a passionate Elon Musk you'll still be miserable. In conclusion this completely disproves the sold notion that you can have wealth at a young age in not so much time when in reality the average rich person got rich a lot later in life, simply because most young people do not have what it takes to succeed in business due to lack of experience and knowledge, it's the exception, not the rule. Doing so makes you a unicorn. MJ does mean well with what he preaches, but he is factually wrong to suggest that you can just get rich on the whim like that. No matter what methodology you use to get rich, it takes a lot of time. The "fastlane" granted is a lot faster than the stock market, but it's not as fast as it's being incorrectly preached. So in the end the fastlane is worth a try but only for so much and so long, otherwise it will break you.

Yeah, I have a ton of conflicting desires. I guess I'll stick to the program and see what my 25 year old self thinks about all of this. We'll see how I feel about it when I achieve Fastlane success I guess. Even if I'm not 100% happy with the outcome, I won't regret taking a path that frees from doing things I don't want to do. I'll accept the outcome that I get and make the best of it.

First off, it took a lot of courage for you to post your message and thoughts, so I commend you for that. I am new to the forum and still figuring out my approach, however, MJs message truly resonates with me. I think one suggestion for you is to probably re-read his books and reflect. I think his message of focusing on the process (learning, trial and error) v/s an event (getting rich) is critical. I can tell you as an older person :) the worst thing your older self will feel is if you don't take some risk when you are young, healthy and have a ton of energy. Also you have lower risk compared to once you are settled down with kids. You can always get a job if you fail in business but its harder to start a business once you are in a steady paying job and have family commitments. Not impossible but harder. In the end you can be happy either way as long as you know the path you're taking and don't have false expectations. Example, there are so many teachers who love teaching and really don't care about getting rich. They are making a difference everyday so as long as they don't have false expectations about lifestyle and live within means, they are happy and fulfilled.
 
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Simon Angel

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I am in my mid-40s and I have discovered that true success does not lie in the material things you manifest but in conquering your inner world.

It's not about accumulating money or rushing to "retirement". I'll never be retired. I love learning too much to ever be retired in the strict sense of the word.

I could write an entire book on my discoveries but I think it's about learning to die. I want to go out smiling - staring death straight in the face. This forum is filled with 20-somethings. In your 20s you are full of energy, you're basically a fool whose frontal cortex isn't even developed fully yet and death is a far-off concept.

But it's coming for you, too, friends. It's coming for all of us.

It's about arriving at the end of the line with zero regrets, knowing you have lived a life that is full and that you left this world a better place than when you arrived in it.

We start dying the day we're born.
 

peddletothemetal

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OP used the word "sacrifice" a lot, but I wonder what he's so worried about sacrificing, like what his alternatives are. Ok probably you'll have to sacrifice playing computer games all evening for years or whatever, but are you really going to pretend that's a meaningful sacrifice?

Maybe it's the other way. Sacrificing a dull and meaningless life for an exciting one that might have mattered in the end.
 
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peddletothemetal

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if I did something I'm really passionate about
There's plenty of businesses that meet your parameters, you just need to do the research required to dial in on it. Not all businesses are a 3 year valley of death style business, many can be making money in less than a month, and plenty of businesses have sprung out of a passion.

In the end there's nothing physical blocking what you want, just psychological, and hopefully some of the responses in this thread will give you enough to hop to the next step (research).
 

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Not even going to bother...

There are so many fallacies, misstatements, strawmen, and misinterpretations in your post that I'm not going to even entertain it.



You see, when you start with a false premise as ridiculous as this, a strawman that I never said, in fact, something that I counter-reiterate over and over (entrepreneurship is like baseball needing many swings) your entire argument is already lost.

Believe what ever you want, but I'm not going to debate your fallacies and strawmen arguments.

Sounds like this guy is a corporate headhunter who is loosing clients.
 
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Saad Khan

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Anyway I will forget about getting rich and instead focus on financial freedom using the fastlane because I've been thinking too much about the money and not the freedom when it really should be the other way around.
Looks like this thread's purpose came to fruition. I'm 17 myself and I don't expect myself to be a millionaire at 21. No, I never think of being rich in my early 20s because those are unrealistic expectations. I know nothing about how life works. Instead, I'm focusing on learning, providing value, and building connections right now.

And yeah, failure is inevitable. Minor or major, I've faced minor failures already on this 4-month Fastlane journey. Does that mean I give up? NO.

I think you can become financially free in 9 years or less with the Fastlane, provided you use CENTS and verify a productocracy. Finding a business like that will take time and wisdom, but once you verify both, it's just a matter of time before you scale the sh*t outta it.
 
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Ing

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4 weeks ago I met a man at an offroad riding event.
He s about my age (55) and describes himself as an entrepreneur.
I had some hours of speaking and enjoyed it.
He has about 5 multiple million dollar businesses.
He makes about 4 days holiday a week and works a shitload. Drives 1000s miles a week to swing from work to joy.

I m sure, he had to work not one more minut, when he wanted.

“Its not ever about money“ his words.

I think he s the first real fastliner I met in real life.
 
D

DeletedUser84644

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So before I respond, I just want to recognize the absolute size one's balls have to be to start a thread like this calling out the creator of this community on the belief system he won the majority of us over with. Granted, a lot of your own mindset seems to be rife with circular logic and excuse-making though I'll also grant that if you meant what you said and you're actually trying to understand and are stuck getting to the answer most of us have found (i.e. the fastlane is about freedom), good on you. It's a mark of intelligence to hold a stance but then look for arguments that erode at it to either prove or disprove it rather than look for arguments that strengthen it, normally seeking opinion from an audience biased in your favor.

That being said, I took a bit of an issue with the above statement for a few reasons and I'll break it down piece by piece to help explain my rationale.


The fastlane is less about speed (though that is a factor) and more about control. Remember how the definition of someone walking on the sidewalk is essentially someone with no internal locus of control. These are the types that believe everything that happens to them is beyond their control: their money, success, friendships, possessions, skills, everything. They're the ones that believe that if they become wealthy, it's because it's all random -- winning the lottery, being discovered by a talent scout (if you're trying to be a musician or something), getting rich by getting in on a few meme stocks before they explode, or your start-up taking off over night. These are people who only care about the result and neglect the process.

Especially with that last one, no one seems to give a shit about the years in obscurity a successful freelancer or entrepreneur had to go through until they pop off and start really building momentum. But that's also the difference between the slow- and fastlanes; the speed in the fastlane when you start growing once you get through those initial barriers (sometimes it can take months but usually it takes years) is exceptionally quicker compared to the slowlane or sidewalk. But again, that's also the lane with the most control. While MJ uses the sidewalk, slowlane, and fastlane as devices to explain his points, speed is used as an illustration but the point is finding freedom. At least that was my interpretation of it.

So you're the oldest you've ever been at 19 so anyone five years older than you can seem much older or ought to have their lives together in a certain way or whatever. I'll grant that because of that, this has probably skewed your perception and that's okay, I was the same way. But being in your late 20s/early 30s is still really young in the grand scheme of things. And regardless if you're a fastlaner or not, most of one's 20s is just bumbling around like an overgrown toddler as we try to figure out who we are, what we want out of life, and how we'll go about getting it. Sometimes people who are successful early on crash and burn before they hit 30. Think of all the actors and musicians who got discovered in their teens, became multimillionaires before 20, and are now penniless with drug issues. Perhaps if they had a bit more wisdom, they would've handled that wealth better but who's to say (not to mention there are plenty of people who got a later start and still crashed and burned.. but I digress).

I think it's a bit unfair to compare MJ's story with the 20-something's story he mentions because everyone's journey -- whether in life or the fastlane -- is different. Some people find what clicks for them faster than others. Some people (like myself) built up momentum and were doing well, then life (and poor adaptations to it) happens and you're trying to restart again. But both of them managed to "make it" well before the usual retirement age of 65+ OR the ultimate "never" most people succumb to. Sometimes when you're younger, you have all the ingredients but poor execution.. or you've got great execution but not enough ingredients. The market's always changing, the world's always shifting, some of us adapt better than others, some of us know how to ride those waves better than others. But just like I said before, once it clicks, it clicks. And if you want it to click faster, you gotta hustle it out a lot more and be observant as f*ck, analyzing what's working and what's not. And if you're not going as fast as you'd like, find the roadblocks and clear them. But no matter what vehicle or system you choose to generate wealth, you will never get into the fastlane if you don't try and strive to improve on it. That last part is the rub; people expect to try once and then if it doesn't work out, "f*ck it, this isn't for me."

Again, it's about control and accepting that while there's plenty of bullshit life throws at you, it's your reaction that matters. Are you going to let those factors beat you down or stand up and keep pressing towards your goal? That's what separates the fastlaners from the rest: they understand the only true failure is giving up.

This is a very bold claim from someone who has yet to start their entrepreneurial journey. I don't know how you can make such a confident assertion "in retrospect" when you do not have that experience to look back on. But let's talk about misery and suffering for a second and the idea that the trial-and-error of entrepreneurship is "pissing away all your youth to have freedom."

So I'm not nearly as wealthy as I'd like to be so I'm not claiming to have "made it." I got a ways to go but I can feel it in my bones that I'm closer now more than ever (and that's been after years of fiddle f*cking around with the systems I've been building and finally everything's really starting to click). I was in a fraternity in college, a full-time student, AND I worked full-time AND was dabbling in different little side gigs (I got my first contracts as a freelance writer when I was 20). A lot of my friends worked part-time if at all, partied, and took on loans to go to school.. they'd want me to hang out all the time, go to the bars, get stoned, play video games. And sometimes, being young and wanting to enjoy time with my friends, I'd indulge them. But 95% of the time I was either working on my degree, learning new skills, or trying to make my freelance career work.

A few months before my 23rd birthday, I was finally making enough money to be self-employed. A lot of people tried to dissuade me from my path ("you work too much," "lol it's kinda cute you think you'll be successful as a writer," even my own mother would tell me I'd be more successful working at Walmart) but I didn't listen. Between there and when I turned 26, I either doubled or more than doubled my income year-over-year (26-28 was a bunch of stumbling what with depression and poor adaptations but like I said, that's also a part of the game.. success is almost never a straight trajectory). My critics started shutting up after realizing that even on a very modest salary when I began, I got to work from home and with the people/companies I wanted to, I structured my day as I wanted to, I didn't have to worry about commuting or exchanging five days of my life for two drunken, miserable ones to cope with the other five, and that I didn't have to prostrate myself to a middle manager to get a 1% raise. And even though, revenue-wise, I'm not doing as well as what I was a few years ago, I still have all that freedom that my 9-to-5 friends complain to me about how badly they want.

To me (and perhaps a lot of others on this forum), it's not the building of an entrepreneurial system that's miserable but the wageslavery of modern life. It's depressing to think of trading your life's time for fixed amount of pay (like an hourly wage) and being reliant on that sole source of income. A lot of people woke up to how even their salaried jobs can be ripped out from under them what with COVID. All of a sudden what was "safe" and "made sense" and "the right decision" became none of those things. And guess who all my friends and family who struggled came crawling to? The very person they judged, made fun of, and looked down upon because he didn't "spend his youth" the way they wanted me to. And I'm not even 30 yet lol I still got plenty of time.

But again, this is a core premise of the book (and if you look at other really high-quality books on entrepreneurship and building wealth, they say the same thing). It's not about the money, it's about the process. You cannot have wealth without a process to produce value (MJ's argument on production vs. consumption deficits), ideally for as many people as possible (MJ's explanation of scale and magnitude). You cannot get without giving. Yeah, sometimes the process sucks.. a lot of it is spent in frustration trying to solve the problems that crop up. BUT IF YOU DO NOT LOVE THE PROCESS OF CREATING VALUE, NO MATTER ITS UPS AND DOWNS, YOU WILL NEVER BECOME WEALTHY BY YOUR OWN CONTROL.

You gotta take ownership of your life, bud. What terrifies you more: being trapped in the mold society builds for you and encourages you to live a mediocre life only being given the minimum to keep you from revolting.. or trying to forge your own path and that, despite its hardships, you will ultimately find more pleasure, freedom, and fulfillment on the other side? If the choice isn't obvious yet, I encourage you to really do some soul searching, not just for why you're in this community (unless to just troll and judge us -- which I can guarantee you, we've all dealt with it from people much closer to us) but what you want out of life.

But like other people have said, regardless of money, if you're miserable now, you're gonna be miserable regardless of how many commas are in your bank statement. And you gotta dive deep and get really uncomfortable to shift that paradigm. But I suppose that's whether or not you actually want to do the work or just have it handed to you. I hope you're the kind of guy that prefers the former.
The problem I have is that I'm basing my happiness on conditions. I feel like I won't be happy to my maximum potential without wealth. And I say that because there's a lot of things I want in life that require F*ck loads of money to afford. I essentially want to get to a point where I feel like I have an endless amount of money, where I can spend on and on and on again and never run out of money. The problem with that is that's not really realistic. Because that's just not rich, that's filthy stinking Rich. As rich as how these guys live:
View: https://youtu.be/qXBB9NQzAxE


If it's already hard enough to get rich, to get super filthy stinking rich must be even more on STEROIDS.

Basically this is what I want in my life: nice house, nice car, private jets, yachts, near endless amount of money and time to spend. That's my fantasy. But am I prepared to do the work to be filthy stinking rich? No, because that would take twice as long as it'd typically take for someone to become rich, but not filthy stinking Rich. And why do I have these desires? Because I know that it's possible to get rich. Before I was exposed to all of the Fastlane shit I wasn't thinking about living lavishly, I was thinking but how to have a decent living because I was subconsciously convinced that being rich was unattainable for me... Until I was exposed to the fastlane. The fastlane created this insatiable lust I have to reach that level of wealth. However because I cannot completely control the outcome of that, I will have to settle with whatever outcome I get with the fastlane. If I get a 100 million exit despite wanting a 10 billion dollar exit, then I'll have to settle for less and just accept that. Otherwise I'll spend my whole life attaining such an outlandish goal.
 

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The problem I have is that I'm basing my happiness on conditions. I feel like I won't be happy to my maximum potential without wealth. And I say that because there's a lot of things I want in life that require f*ck loads of money to afford. I essentially want to get to a point where I feel like I have an endless amount of money, where I can spend on and on and on again and never run out of money. The problem with that is that's not really realistic. Because that's just not rich, that's filthy stinking Rich. As rich as how these guys live:
View: https://youtu.be/qXBB9NQzAxE


If it's already hard enough to get rich, to get super filthy stinking rich must be even more on STEROIDS.

Basically this is what I want in my life: nice house, nice car, private jets, yachts, near endless amount of money and time to spend. That's my fantasy. But am I prepared to do the work to be filthy stinking rich? No, because that would take twice as long as it'd typically take for someone to become rich, but not filthy stinking Rich. And why do I have these desires? Because I know that it's possible to get rich. Before I was exposed to all of the Fastlane shit I wasn't thinking about living lavishly, I was thinking but how to have a decent living because I was subconsciously convinced that being rich was unattainable for me... Until I was exposed to the fastlane. The fastlane created this insatiable lust I have to reach that level of wealth. However because I cannot completely control the outcome of that, I will have to settle with whatever outcome I get with the fastlane. If I get a 100 million exit despite wanting a 10 billion dollar exit, then I'll have to settle for less and just accept that. Otherwise I'll spend my whole life attaining such an outlandish goal.
@Metz, you can answer this one.

You haven't even started the journey, yet you're complaining. If you really want to make billions, sell high value items in bulk like Tesla.
 
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I'm not complaining. I'm being transparent about how I'm thinking. I acknowledge fully that such a frame of thinking is outlandish.
Not trying to bash you, but think about it. You don't know what you REALLY want right now.

Stop taking society's word for wealth. It's intoxicating, poisonous.
 
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DeletedUser84644

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Not trying to bash you, but think about it. You don't know what you REALLY want right now.

Stop taking society's word for wealth. It's intoxicating, poisonous.
Yeah, I have a ton of conflicting desires. I guess I'll stick to the program and see what my 25 year old self thinks about all of this. We'll see how I feel about it when I achieve Fastlane success I guess. Even if I'm not 100% happy with the outcome, I won't regret taking a path that frees from doing things I don't want to do. I'll accept the outcome that I get and make the best of it.
 
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OKAY, NOW WE'RE COOKING. This we can work with.

So, hear me out, but I'd like to challenge you a little bit.

This "insatiable lust" you talk about.. we all feel it to some extent here. If we didn't feel it before reading TMF , we definitely felt it after. But speaking just for myself, you and I are a lot alike in that I want to be wealthy to the point of obsession. I want to buy a nice house in cash, have a nice car, even a yacht (and I'm not even that big into boats but having something dope like that where I can just zip up and down the west coast entertaining friends and just vibing, cool sign me up). I don't want to work for survival.. I want to make enough where I can "retire" and being smart enough that I can now work because I want to, not because I need to. I want money that makes money.. systems that no longer require my attention all the time, just making money. I can't tell you how excited I was the first morning I woke up to multiple orders on my e-commerce store because that was the first time experiencing getting paid while I was asleep. Not like waking up to a paycheck, but to transactions happening in real-time and I wasn't there for them yet still profiting off them. That was "oh geez, oh f*ck, I want more" moment for me. So I get that, I really do.

B U T.

If you wanna be a billionaire, you gotta make your first million. And before you make your first million, you gotta make your first thousand.. your first hundred, your first ten.. YOUR FIRST $1. When I started my LLC, my first client gave me a paper check that, when I deposited it, I took out two $1 bills. I framed the first one and it sits on my little "reflection nook" above my bookcase (I have a bunch of posters and momentos on there meant to remind me that it's the journey to our ideal self that matters much more than the destination, that I have a lot of power over the outcome of my life, affirming stuff like that); the second one, I gave to my client and thanked her for her faith in me because this was the first brick in the bastion of wealth I was using to get to where I wanna be.

Bruh, assuming a $100 million exit wasn't phenomenal on its own, don't look at the outcome of this current cycle as the final outcome. You know what most entrepreneurs do when they make an exit with money that they can easily retire on? They go back and start new businesses. Because of that hunger, that need to develop, to bring value to people, and the dopamine that comes from those customers recognizing your value and just throwing money at you when you do a good job.

But to keep that hunger from corrupting you -- becoming so hungry that you just chase money and will do anything to get it, even if it meant defrauding your customers, taking on crippling amounts of debt, doing a bunch of unethical, shady shit to get there -- you need to remember the importance of production vs. consumption, of giving first in order to get, in falling in love with the process. That last one is why entrepreneurs will never retire to do nothing for the rest of their lives because we're not built for that the way the scripted fantasize about. "Retirement" is crossing the line of "I don't have to work anymore if I don't want to" and I think it's safe to say that a lot of us really do love the process of working on a system, building shit, problem-solving, helping people. So much so that sitting still is painful if it's done for too long. Sure, the money's awesome when it comes flowing in -- but that's validation from our efforts trying to create. For me, I've always spurned the traditional "work until you're 65 and then retire" mentality. I'd much rather build up a nice nest egg while I'm young, take a year to dick around and do whatever, then come back and start my next project.

You mentioned wasted youth if we try to get to the fastlane. But even before I've "made it," so far in my life, I've:
  • Graduated with a degree that frankly I attained because I wanted the education, not because it'll help me with my work. Unless someone wants to explain how a B.S. in German History and Literature is gonna help me with my main business or my side hustle. I also graduated without any debt, something that haunts all my friends that partied and didn't work, taking out student loans and pissing them away to do so. Yeah, I worked full-time while being a full-time student but I don't have $50K+ in debt for a shiny piece of paper.
  • Got my first-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Trained for 2 hours for 3-4 days a week not including the time spent training outside of class. When I got my black belt, I had the highest score in a region of ten states in my "promotion class."
  • Wrote and published my first book.
  • Freelanced at 20, became self-employed at 22 (and in between that, had a gap year from school after my grandmother passed away which threw me into a deep depression, was stuck in a miserable job working in food service, and was like f*ck this, and fought hard to never be in that position again). I think I attributed that moment as my FTE.. with another reinforcing one at the end of 2018 when I struggled again.
  • Moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest-based on a coin flip. I knew I wanted a new adventure after college but couldn't decide if I wanted to move west out here or east to New England (both had a lot of aesthetic appeal to me as a writer). So I literally flipped a coin and let fate decide. Perhaps not the smartest way to invest one's future but I did it because I wanted to prove to myself that not only can I survive anywhere, but thrive too. Six years deep living in Washington state, ya boy's thriving. Not at all wealthy as he wants to be, but moving to some random place where I knew no one and didn't have the natural connections school and in-office work brings you in a state that's notoriously introverted (read: the Seattle freeze), I'm doing real good.
And this is all just on the path to my current goal of getting to $10 million to my first "retirement" (nor is it the complete list). Tell me honestly that I wasted the earlier parts of my youth. Granted, I won't listen, but you can try. Could I have solely focused on my business this whole time? Sure, but that wasn't my sole priority.. perhaps it's slowed down my progression, but it was my decision to experience other things too at the time. I don't regret that.. but I also am certain enough to know that wealth is a "when" not "if" circumstance for me, especially with the momentum I'm building up again with a lot more wisdom and skill than my early 20s.

And if you think I'm gonna stop there.. lol. That's a no. Now, do I want to be a billionaire? Eh. Maybe for like a day, but if I get to that point, I want to set up some non-profits, reinvest in causes I believe in (I'm a slut for green tech), stuff like that. But I don't really think too much about it because I'm not even a millionaire yet. Yet being the operative term.

But back to you.

In your last post, it sounds like you're finally getting a bit of an understanding of what work needs to be done.. and in order to build the life you want to live, you need to get to work. You want it fast? Good. Start now and chisel out some time each day to work on your project AND work on yourself. You can have the best system in the world but if you're kinda just shuffling around, feeling shitty about yourself, your outlook, the lack of control you might have despite the much higher degree of it you possess compared to your scripted friends.. you're just setting up obstacles to make your path more difficult. There's no nobility in self-martyrdom.

The wealthy friends I have all have said the same thing: making your first million is hard af.. but making your second million is much easier. Making money, like anything else, is a skill. The more you practice that skill, the better you get at it. Just like something as inane as going to the grocery store. When you first become an adult and need to shop for yourself, you might just buy a bunch of junk food and whatever else you desire. But then you're like.. "Oh, I should probably buy some healthier stuff.." and then you realize you need to learn how to cook, how to meal-prep, how to store things to make them last longer, how to take advantage of sales to save money, what pans to buy, whether or not a chest freezer is a good investment. You learn by doing and the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.. but the easier the task at hand becomes.

So you wanna be a billionaire? Make Elon and Jeff look like amateurs? By all means, do it. I'm honestly rooting for you because they could stand to have some competition. But you gotta make that first $1. And the only thing stopping you from doing that right now.. frankly, is you. And if it's you that's the obstacle.. well.. you're in control of that, big guy.

If you're hungry, go eat.
You're one determined soul dude, keep hunting.

I'm sharpening my claws. I may not be hunting yet, but you damn bet I will.
 
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