This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through links.
Part 1
Wealth in a Wheelchair:
“Get Rich Slow” is Get Rich Old
The Great Deception
Normal is not something to aspire to,
it’s something to get away from.
~ Jodie Foster
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
••“Get Rich Slow” demands a long life of gainful employment.
••“Get Rich Slow” is a losing game because it is codependent on Wall Street and anchored by your time.
••The real golden years of life are when you’re young, sentient, and vibrant.
How I Screwed “Get Rich Slow”
The object of life is not to be on the side of the masses,
but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
~ Marcus Aurelius
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
•• Fame or physical talent is not a prerequisite to wealth.
•• Fast wealth is created exponentially, not linearly.
•• Change can happen in an instant.
Part 2
Wealth is Not a Road,
But a Road Trip!
The Road Trip to Wealth
The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
~ Lao Tzu
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
••Wealth is a formula, not an ingredient.
•• Process makes millionaires. Events are by-products of process.
•• To seek a “wealth chauffeur” is to seek a surrogate for process. Process cannot be outsourced, because process dawns wisdom, personal growth, strength, and events.
The Roadmaps to Wealth
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
~ Lewis Carroll
Debt Perception: Does debt control you or do you control your debt?
Time Perception: How is your time valued and treated? Abundant? Fleeting? Inconsequential?
Education Perception: What role does education have in your life?
Money Perception: What is money’s role in your life? Is money a tool or a toy? Plentiful or scarce?
Primary Income Source: What is your primary means of creating income?
Primary Wealth Accelerator: How are you accelerating your net worth and creating wealth? Or are you?
Wealth Perception: How do you define wealth?
Wealth Equation: What is your mathematical plan for accumulating wealth? What wealth equation defines the physics of your wealth universe?
Destination: Is there a destination? If so, what does it look like?
Responsibility & Control: Are you in control of your life and your financial plan?
Life Perception: How do you live your life? Do you plan for the future? Forsake today for tomorrow? Or tomorrow for today?
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
•• To force change, change must come from your beliefs, and your roadmap outlines those beliefs.
•• Each roadmap is governed by a wealth equation and predisposed to a financial destination—Sidewalk to poorness, Slowlane to mediocrity, and the Fastlane to wealth.
Part 3
Poorness:
The Sidewalk Roadmap
When you’re the first person whose beliefs are different
from what everyone else believes, you’re basically saying,
“I’m right, and everyone else is wrong.” That’s a very unpleasant position to be in.
It’s at once exhilarating and at the same time, an invitation to be attacked.
~ Larry Ellison
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
••A first-class ticket to the Sidewalk is to have no financial plan.
••The Sidewalk’s natural gravitational pull is poorness, both in time and money.
••You cannot solve poor financial management with more money.
••You can be income rich and still ride the Sidewalk dirty.
•• If wealth is defined by income and debt, wealth is an illusion, because it is vulnerable to potholes, detours, and “bumps in the road.” When the income disappears, so does the illusion of wealth.
•• Poor financial management is like gambling; the house eventually wins.
Has Your Wealth Been Toxified?
Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
••Wealth is authored by strong familial relationships, fitness and health, and freedom—not by material possessions.
•• Unaffordable material possessions are destructive to the wealth trinity.
Misuse Money and Money Will Misuse You
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.
~ Clare Boothe Luce
1) Money buys the freedom to watch your kids grow up.
2) Money buys the freedom to pursue your craziest dreams.
3) Money buys the freedom to make a difference in the world.
4) Money buys the freedom to build and strengthen relationships.
5) Money buys the freedom to do what you love, with financial validation removed from the equation.
If You Think You Can Afford It —You Can’t. Affordability is when you don’t have to think about it.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
••Money doesn’t buy happiness because money is used for consumer pursuits destructive to freedom. Anything destructive to freedom is destructive to the wealth trinity.
••Money, properly used, can buy freedom, which can lead to happiness.
•• Happiness stems from good health, freedom, and strong interpersonal relationships, not necessarily money.
•• Lifestyle Servitude steals freedom, and what steals freedom, steals wealth.
•• If you think you can afford it, you can’t.
•• The consequence of instant gratification is the destruction of freedom, health, and choice.
Lucky Bastards
Play The Game
I’m a great believer in luck,
and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
•• Like wealth, luck is created by process, not by event.
•• Luck is created by increased probabilities that are improved with the process of action.
•• If you find yourself playing the odds of “big hits,” you are event-driven, not process-driven. This mindset is conducive to the Sidewalk, not the Fastlane.
••“Get Rich Quick” infomercial marketing is a Fastlane because savvy marketers know that Sidewalkers place faith in events over process.
••Moneymaking “systems” are rarely as profitable as the act of selling them to Sidewalkers.
Wealth Demands Accountability
Responsibility is the price of greatness.
~ Winston Churchill
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
•• Hitchhikers assign control over their financial plans to others, which effectively introduces probabilities to victimhood.
••The Law of Victims: You can’t be a victim if you don’t relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim.
•• Responsibility owns your choices.
•• Taking responsibility is the first step to taking the driver’s seat of your life. Accountability is the final.
Part 4
Mediocrity:
The Slowlane Roadmap
The Lie You’ve Been Sold:
The Slowlane
What if I told you ‘insane’ was working fifty hours a week in some office
for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off;
ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering
the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time?
Wouldn’t you consider that to be insane?
~ Steve Buscemi (Con Air, paramount pictures, 2003)
Have You Sold Your Soul for a Weekend?
Life does not begin on Friday night and end Monday morning.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
••The Slowlane is a natural course-correction from the Sidewalk evolving from taking responsibility and accountability.
••Wealth is best experienced when you’re young, vibrant, and able, not in the twilight of your life.
••The Slowlane is a plan that takes decades to succeed, often requiring masterful political prowess in a corporate environment.
•• For the Slowlaner, Saturday and Sunday is the paycheck for Monday through Friday.
••The default return on your time in the Slowlane is negative 60%—5-for-2.
••The 5-for-2 trade inherit in the Slowlane is generally fixed and cannot be manipulated, because job standards are five days a week.
••The predisposed destination of the Slowlane is mediocrity. Life isn’t great, but it isn’t so bad either.