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THE SHIELD: NUMBING
We are a culture of people who’ve bought into the idea that if we stay busy enough, the truth of our lives won’t catch up with us. Statistics dictate that there are very few people who haven’t been affected by addiction. I believe we all numb our feelings. We may not do it compulsively and chronically, which is addiction, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t numb our sense of vulnerability. And numbing vulnerability is especially debilitating because it doesn’t just deaden the pain of our difficult experiences; numbing vulnerability also dulls our experiences of love, joy, belonging, creativity, and empathy. We can’t selectively numb emotion. Numb the dark and you numb the light. ☀️
Americans today are more debt-ridden, obese, medicated, and addicted than we ever have been. For the first time in history, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that automobile accidents are now the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States. The leading cause? Drug overdoses. In fact, more people die from prescription drug overdoses than from heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine drug use combined. The dealers today are more likely to be parents, relatives, friends, and physicians.👨🏻⚕️🥼℞☤🩺👩🏻⚕️💊
The primary driver of numbing would be our struggles with worthiness and shame: We numb the pain that comes from feeling inadequate and “less than.” Anxiety and disconnection also emerged as drivers of numbing in addition to shame. The most powerful need for numbing seems to come from combinations of all three—shame, anxiety, and disconnection.
The anxiety described by the research participants appeared to be fueled by uncertainty, overwhelming and competing demands on our time, and (one of the big surprises) social discomfort.
Disconnection includes a range of experiences that encompassed depression but also included loneliness, isolation, disengagement, and emptiness.
Anxiety with shame rising. Disconnection with shame rising. Anxiety and disconnection with shame rising.
Shame enters for those of us who experience anxiety because not only are we feeling fearful, out of control, and incapable of managing our increasingly demanding lives, but eventually our anxiety is compounded and made unbearable by our belief that if we were just smarter, stronger, or better, we’d be able to handle everything. Numbing here becomes a way to take the edge off of both instability and inadequacy.
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust. Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him. Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath.
A brand new psychological thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden!
The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.
She never arrives at her destination.
Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.
But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.
And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself―and her unborn child.
A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.
Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.
Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he’s even more excited about—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.
With their chemistry-fueled animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school’s principal that could reveal her secret literary side hustle. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—she hates to admit—is just the man to help her. Surprisingly, he agrees. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who. Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood. In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).
Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes. New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.
On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.
Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.
Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.
But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind. ~ Seneca
You Can Be the Sheep or the Sheepherder
The Commandment of Entry states that as entry barriers to any business road fall, or lessen, the effectiveness of that road declines while competition in that field subsequently strengthens.
I spotted the signs of “everyone is doing it,” because if everyone were rich, “everybody is doing it” would work.
If you want to live unlike everyone, you can’t be like everyone. Don’t confuse that with exceptionality. You have to lead the pack and have “everyone” follow. When the lambs are lining up single-file for slaughter, you want to own the slaughterhouse.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions ••The Commandment of Entry states that as entry barriers fall, competition rises and the road weakens. •• Easy access roads carry more traffic. More traffic generates higher competition, and higher competition creates lower margins for the participants. •• Businesses with weak entry often lack control and operate in saturated marketplaces. •• Exceptionalism is required to overcome weak entry barriers. ••Access to a business road should be a process with a toll, not an event. ••“Everyone” consists of the general populous and is served by the mainstream media. •• If everyone were wealthy, “everybody is doing it” would work. And if everyone is wealthy, then no one is wealthy. ••“Everyone is doing it” is a signal to overbought conditions and the entrance of “dumb money.”
The Commandment of Control
There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence on one’s self. ~ John Gay
Demand the Driver’s Seat Yes or no. You’re either driving the Fastlane or you aren’t. You’re either in control over your financial plan or you aren’t. There is no in between.
Good Money Versus Big Money There is a difference between good money, big money, and legendary money. Good money is $20,000/month.
Think Shark, Not Guppy If you lived in an aquarium, would you rather be the shark or the guppy? Sharks eat . . . guppies get eaten.
Invest in Your Brand Only! Whose money tree are you growing? Are you investing in your brand or in someone else’s?
When you blindly invest your life and time into someone else’s brand, you become a part of their marketing plan.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions •• Hitchhikers relinquish control of their business to a Fastlaner. ••There is a difference between “good” money and “big” money. Hitchhikers can make good money while Fastlaners make big money. Sometimes legendary money. •• In a driver/hitchhiker relationship, the driver always retains control and the hitchhiker is at the mercy of the driver. •• Hitchhikers are party to someone else’s Fastlane plan.
••Make the world your habitat of play in an organization you control. •• Network marketing has little to do with entrepreneurship but more to do with sales, networking, training, and motivation. •• Network marketing fails both the Commandments of Control and Entry, and sometimes, Need. •• Network marketers are soldiers in a Fastlaner’s army. •• Network marketing is a powerful distribution system. As a Fastlaner, seek to own one, not join one.
Crises are such valuable opportunities that a wise leader often prolongs a sense of emergency on purpose.
By hiring psychologists who peddled vaguely scientific tactics they claimed could make customers spend more. Some of those methods are still in use today. If you walk into a Walmart, Home Depot, or your local shopping center and look closely, you’ll see retailing tricks that have been around for decades, each designed to exploit your shopping subconscious.
Take, for instance, how you buy food. Chances are, the first things you see upon entering your grocery store are fruits and vegetables arranged in attractive, bountiful piles. If you think about it, positioning produce at the front of a store doesn’t make much sense, because fruits and vegetables bruise easily at the bottom of a shopping cart; logically, they should be situated by the registers, so they come at the end of a trip. But as marketers and psychologists figured out long ago, if we start our shopping sprees by loading up on healthy stuff, we’re much more likely to buy Doritos, Oreos, and frozen pizza when we encounter them later on. The burst of subconscious virtuousness that comes from first buying butternut squash makes it easier to later put a pint of ice cream in the cart.
Take the way most of us turn to the right after entering a store. (Did you know you turn right? It’s almost certain you do. There are thousands of hours of videotapes showing shoppers turning right once they clear the front doors.) As a result of this tendency, retailers fill the right side of the stores with the most profitable products they’re hoping you’ll buy right off the bat.
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DARING GREATLY: PRACTICING GRATITUDE
Gratitude emerged from the data as the antidote to foreboding joy. In fact, every participant who spoke about the ability to stay open to joy also talked about the importance of practicing gratitude. This pattern of association was so thoroughly prevalent in the data that I made a commitment as a researcher not to talk about joy without talking about gratitude.
Participants described happiness as an emotion that’s connected to circumstances, and they described joy as a spiritual way of engaging with the world that’s connected to practicing gratitude.
Scarcity and fear drive foreboding joy. We’re afraid that the feeling of joy won’t last, or that there won’t be enough, or that the transition to disappointment (or whatever is in store for us next) will be too difficult.
I learned the most about gratitude practices and the relationship between scarcity and joy that plays out in vulnerability from the men and women who had experienced some of the most profound losses or survived the greatest traumas.
Joy comes to us in moments—ordinary moments. We risk missing out on joy when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.
Scarcity culture may keep us afraid of living small, ordinary lives, but when you talk to people who have survived great losses, it is clear that joy is not a constant.
Be grateful for what you have. 🌹
Don’t take what you have for granted— celebrate it. Don’t apologize for what you have. Be grateful for it and share your gratitude with others.
When you honor what you have, you’re honoring what I’ve lost.
Don’t squander joy. 🙂
We can’t prepare for tragedy and loss. When we turn every opportunity to feel joy into a test drive for despair, we actually diminish our resilience. Yes, softening into joy is uncomfortable. Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it’s vulnerable. But every time we allow ourselves to lean into joy and give in to those moments, we build resilience and we cultivate hope. The joy becomes part of who we are, and when bad things happen—and they do happen—we are stronger.
THE SHIELD: PERFECTIONISM
The most valuable and important things in my life came to me when I cultivated the courage to be vulnerable, imperfect, and self-compassionate. Perfectionism is not the path that leads us to our gifts and to our sense of purpose; it’s the hazardous detour. Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving for excellence. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth.
Perfectionism is a defensive move. It’s the belief that if we do things perfectly and look perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around, thinking it will protect us, when in fact it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from being seen. Perfectionism is not self-improvement. Perfectionism is, at its core, about trying to earn approval.
Healthy striving is self- focused: How can I improve? Perfectionism is other-focused: What will they think? Perfectionism is a hustle. Perfectionism is not the key to success.
Perfectionism is correlated with depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis or missed opportunities. Where we struggle with perfectionism, we struggle with shame.
Perfectionism is a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame. Perfectionism is self-destructive simply because perfection doesn’t exist.
Perfectionism actually sets us up to feel shame, judgment, and blame, which then leads to even more shame and self-blame: “It’s my fault. I’m feeling this way because I’m not good enough.”
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Early Treatment
“The Best Practices for defeating an infectious disease epidemic,” says Yale epidemiologist Harvey Risch, “dictate that you quarantine and treat the sick, protect the most vulnerable, and aggressively develop repurposed therapeutic drugs, and use early treatment protocols to avoid hospitalizations.” Our objective should have been to devise treatments that would reduce hospitalization and death. We could have easily defanged COVID-19 so that it was less lethal than a seasonal flu. We could have done this very quickly. We could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”
Dr. Peter McCullough concurs: “Once a highly transmissible virus like COVID has a beachhead in a population, it is inevitable that it will spread to every individual who lacks immunity. You can slow the spread, but you cannot prevent it—any more than you can prevent the tide from rising.”
Dr. McCullough: “We could have dramatically reduced COVID fatalities and hospitalizations using early treatment protocols and repurposed drugs including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and many, many others.” “Using repurposed drugs, we could have ended this pandemic by May 2020 and saved 500,000 American lives, but for Dr. Fauci’s hard-headed, tunnel vision on new vaccines and remdesivir.”
The efficacy of some of these drugs as prophylaxis is almost miraculous, plus early intervention in the week after exposure stops viral replication and prevents development of cytokine storm and entrance into the pulmonary phase,” says Dr. Pierre Kory. “We could have stopped the pandemic in its tracks in the spring of 2020.”
They point out that natural immunity, in all known cases, is superior to vaccine-induced immunity, being both more durable (it often lasts a lifetime) and broader spectrum—meaning it provides a shield against subsequent variants. “Vaccinating citizens with natural immunity should never have been our public health policy,” says Dr. Kory.
“It is absolutely shocking that he recommended no outpatient care, not even Vitamin D despite the fact he takes it himself and much of the country is Vitamin D deficient.”
“The outcome we should have been trying to prevent is hospitalizations. You don’t just sit around and wait for an infected patient to become ill.
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THE VULNERABILITY
THE word persona is the Greek term for “stage mask.” In my work masks and armor are perfect metaphors for how we protect ourselves from the discomfort of vulnerability. Masks make us feel safer even when they become suffocating.
Vulnerability is the last thing I want you to see in me, but the first thing I look for in you.
Common vulnerability arsenal:
Foreboding joy: the paradoxical dread that clamps down on momentary joyfulness;
Perfectionism: believing that doing everything perfectly means you’ll never feel shame;
Numbing: the embrace of whatever deadens the pain of discomfort and pain.
THE COMMON VULNERABILITY SHIELDS
THE SHIELD: FOREBODING JOY
Joy is probably the most difficult emotion to really feel. 😎 Because when we lose the ability or willingness to be vulnerable, joy becomes something we approach with deep foreboding. We just know that we crave more joy in our lives, that we are joy starved.
What the perpetual-disappointment folks describe is this: “It’s easier to live disappointed than it is to feel disappointed. It feels more vulnerable to dip in and out of disappointment than to just set up camp there. You sacrifice joy, but you suffer less pain.”
Softening into the joyful moments of our lives requires vulnerability.
Once we make the connection between vulnerability and joy, the answer is pretty straightforward: We’re trying to beat vulnerability to the punch. We don’t want to be blindsided by hurt. We don’t want to be caught off-guard, so we literally practice being devastated or never move from self-elected disappointment.
We’re desperate for more joy, but at the same time we can’t tolerate the vulnerability.
We’re visual people. We trust, consume, and mentally store what we see. 👀
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research tells us that we judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing.
If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance.
children who are engaging in the bullying behaviors or vying for social ranking by putting down others have parents who engage in the same behaviors.
Cultivating intimacy—physical or emotional—is almost impossible when our shame triggers meet head-on and create the perfect shame storm.
We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness, and affection.
Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them—we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. 💖💖💖
Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged and healed.
But in practicing self-love over the past couple of years, I can say that it has immeasurably deepened my relationships with the people I love.
Shame is universal, but the messages and expectations that drive shame are organized by gender.
The expectations and messages that fuel shame keep us from fully realizing who we are as people.
If we’re going to find our way out of shame and back to each other, vulnerability is the path and courage is the light. To set down those lists of what we’re supposed to be is brave. To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
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Small wins are part of how keystone habits create widespread changes. A huge body of research has shown that small wins have enormous power, an influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the victories themselves. “Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage,”
Concentrate on tiny moments of success and build them into mental triggers.
Keystone habit creates a structure that helps other habits to flourish.
At the core of that Starbucks education is an intense focus on an all- important habit: willpower. Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success.
Students who exerted high levels of willpower were more likely to earn higher grades in their classes and gain admission into more selective schools.
“Highly self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic- performance variable.” Self- discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent.”
And the best way to strengthen willpower and give students a leg up, studies indicate, is to make it into a habit.
Willpower is a learnable skill, something that can be taught the same way kids learn to do math and say “thank you.” As willpower muscles strengthened, good habits seemed to spill over into other parts of life.
“When you learn to force yourself to go to the gym or start your homework or eat a salad instead of a hamburger, part of what’s happening is that you’re changing how you think. People get better at regulating their impulses. They learn how to distract themselves from temptations. And once you’ve gotten into that willpower groove, your brain is practiced at helping you focus on a goal.”
“When you learn to force yourself to practice for an hour or run fifteen laps, you start building self- regulatory strength. A five- year- old who can follow the ball for ten minutes becomes a sixth grader who can start his homework on time.”
Firms such as Starbucks— and the Gap, Wal- Mart, restaurants, or any other business that relies on entry- level workers— all face a common problem: No matter how much their employees want to do a great job, many will fail because they lack self- discipline. They show up late. They snap at rude customers. They get distracted or drawn into workplace dramas. They quit for no reason.
If someone has trouble with self- discipline at work, they’re probably also going to have trouble attending a program designed to strengthen their self- discipline after work.
The solution, Starbucks discovered, was turning self- discipline into an organizational habit.
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Wealth’s Shortcut:: The Fastlane
People would do better, if they knew better. ~ Jim Rohn
The Fastlane Mindposts
Debt Perception: Debt is useful if it allows me to build and grow my system. Time Perception: Time is the most important asset I have, far exceeding money. EducationPerception: The moment you stop learning is the moment you stop growing. Constant expansion of my knowledge and awareness is critical to my journey. MoneyPerception: Money is everywhere, and it’s extremely abundant. Money is a reflection of how many lives I’ve touched. Money reflects the value I’ve created. PrimaryIncomeSource: I earn income via my business systems and investments. PrimaryWealthAccelerator: I make something from nothing. I give birth to assets and make them valuable to the marketplace. Other times, I take existing assets and add value to them. WealthPerception: Build business systems for cash flow and asset valuation. WealthEquation: Wealth = Net Profit + Asset Value Strategy: The more I help, the richer I become in time, money, and personal fulfillment. Destination: Lifetime passive income, either through business or investments. Responsibility&Control: Life is what I make it. My financial plan is entirely my responsibility and I choose how I react to my circumstances. LifePerception: My dreams are worth pursuing no matter how outlandish, and I understand that it will take money to make some of those dreams real.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions ••The risk profile of a Fastlane strategy isn’t much different from the Slowlane, but the rewards are far greater. ••The Fastlane Roadmap is an alternative financial strategy predicated on Controllable Unlimited Leverage. ••The Fastlane roadmap is predisposed to wealth. ••The Fastlane Roadmap is capable of generating “Get Rich Quick” results, not to be confused with “Get Rich Easy.”
Switch Teams and Playbooks
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions •• Producers are indigenous to the Fastlane roadmap. •• Producers are the minority as are the rich, while consumers are the majority as are the poor. ••When you succeed as a producer, you can consume anything you want. •• Fastlaners are producers, entrepreneurs, innovators, visionaries, and creators. ••A business does not make a Fastlane—some businesses are jobs in disguise. ••The Fastlane wealth equation is not bound by time and its variables are unlimited and controllable.
How the Rich Really Get Rich
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. ~ TS Eliot
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions ••The key to the Fastlane wealth equation is to have a high speed limit, or an unlimited range of values for units sold. This creates leverage. The market for your product or service determines your upper limit. ••The higher your speed limit, the higher your income potential. ••The primary wealth accelerant for the rich is asset value, defined as appreciable assets created, founded, or bought. ••Wealth creation via asset value is accelerated by each industry’s average multiplier. For every dollar in net income realized, the asset value multiplies by a factor of the multiple. ••Your industry of specialization will determine the average multiple that determines your wealth accelerant factor. If the multiple is 3, your WAF is 300%. •• Liquidation events transform appreciated assets (“paper” net worth) into money (“real” net worth) that can be transformed into another passive income stream: a money system.
Divorce Wealth from Time
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful, lest you let other people spend it for you. ~ Carl Sandburg
The Five Fastlane Business Seedlings:
1) Rental Systems 2) Computer/Software Systems 3) Content Systems 4) Distribution Systems 5) Human Resource Systems
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions •• To divorce yourself from the Slowlane’s transactional relationship of “time for money,” you need to become a producer, specifically, a business owner. •• Business systems break the bond between “your time for money” because they act like surrogate operatives for your time trade. •• If you have a passive income that exceeds all your needs and lifestyle expenses including taxes, you’re retired. •• Retirement can happen at any age. ••The fruit from a money tree is passive income. ••A Fastlane objective is to create a business system that survives time, exclusive of your time. ••The 5 money-tree seedlings are rental systems, computer systems, content systems, distribution systems, and human-resource systems. •• Real estate, licenses, and patents are examples of rental systems. •• Internet and software businesses are examples of computer systems. ••Authoring books, blogging, and magazines are forms of content systems. •• Franchising, chaining, network marketing, and television marketing are examples of distribution systems. •• Human resource systems can add or subtract to passivity. •• Human resource systems are the most expensive to manage and implement.
Recruit Your Army of Freedom Fighters
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. ~ Proverbs 22:7 (NIV)
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions •• One saved dollar is the seed to a money tree. ••A mere 5% interest on $10 million dollars is $40,000 a month in passive income. ••A saved dollar is the best passive income instrument. •• Fastlaners (the rich) don’t use compound interest or the markets to get wealthy but to create income and preserve liquidity. ••A saved dollar is a freedom fighter added to your army. ••The rich leverage compound interest at its crest, applied against large sums of money. •• Fastlaners eventually become net lenders.
