1 The Millionaire Fastlane
At first I thought about writing about this book in one of my other posts about books I’ve read, but in the end I’ve decided that I have too much to say, so here is a separate post for it. This book is definitely not the same genre as Siddartha or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but from time to time it’s good to read something that’s a bit more on par with reality than a philosopher travelling on a motorcycle and pondering on what defines quality.
The book has a cheesy title, but as explained by the author, that is simply the only way to draw people to even look at a book in today’s fast-paced and greedy society. The title portrays an important concept that the author discusses, mainly that of process vs. event.
Too many people these days are simply interested about the end event, in this case having money, and lots of it. Society is drawn by tv infomercials advertising a $99.99 program that is supposed to give them the ticket to financial freedom, and models with bikinis on a beach. Everyone is missing the important concept of process. Events are not possible without an associated process that leads to them, but this is not realized by many. It’s not possible to skip over the process, and just instanly have many, you actually have to work, and word hard, to achieve your desired event. Nothing comes easy.
The book also discusses the problem with society’s standard model of “go to school, go to college, get a job, save money, live frugally, retire at 65”. This reminds of something I’ve once seen, it goes like this:
“When you are young, you have time and youth, but no money. When you are middle aged, you have money and youth, but no time. And when you are old, you have time, and money, but no youth.”
The book discusses how with any standard job, you are bounded by what everyone else is bounded by, be it poor or rich, and that is time. We’ve all got 24 hours of it in any given day, no more, no less. Your current job most likely pays per hour, per week, per month, or per year, all of which are measured in time, which has an upper bound, and hence and upper bound on the amount of money you earn is set. The solution is to become a producer, and start your own business, be it online, or physical, where people are able to buy what you have produced. Now, as you see, this kind of model is not upper bounded by time, you can sell 1 or a million units a day of your product. Since it is not upper bounded by time, the financial rewards are also not as limited as in the standard model the society has been indoctrinated to follow.
Again on the topic of time, if you want to achieve wealth, and financial freedom, you must make sure you income is not associated with the amount of time you put in. Obviously, and the beginning when you are setting up your business, that will take a lot of time, effort, and sweat, but try to make something synonymous to a money tree. Something that gives you income regardless of whether you are sleeping, watching TV, or travelling around South America.
On a final note, many say that money doesn’t buy happiness, but it provides you with financial freedom and time, which you can then use freely to arrive at happiness, whatever you define it as. Definitely a book worth a read you’d like to change your “lane” of life.