Book Review: The Millionaire Fastlane

“Stop being a victim by taking responsibility, followed by accountability”.

This is one of the many lines I marked up in the book “Millionaire Fastlane” by MJ DeMarco. The book was an excellent read, but like most books, fell short in a few areas.

The book is basically the story of MJ DeMarco. DeMarco created a website that he eventually sold for upwards of 1.2 million dollars. His premise of the book is there are two options you can go through life: The Slowlane, or the Fastlane. Slow lane consists of getting a “safe” job, putting money away in a 401k, IRA, stocks and other “safe” investments. Stay on your safe, slow path, and when you are 70 years young, you will have a million dollars. This is what a majority of people do. However, DeMarco makes  a very good case on how this is a horrid way to think of being wealthy. Yes, when you are 70 years old, you can retire and live off of a million dollars for the rest of your life. But what extent is “living”?

DeMarco’s claim is that he would rather retire when he is 30 and enjoy being a millionaire by living the high life, vs. waiting and not being able to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

If you are like me, seeing that statement of wanting to retire at 30 probably cross your mind at some point. Who doesn’t want to live that lifestyle when they are 30? Most have no idea how to get there. This is where MJ comes in. He says that the way to do it is to start a business, hustle hustle hustle, get over yourself, just do it, then sell the business for 10 million dollars. Put that 10 million in a 5% yield account and you are now making $41,000 a month PASSIVELY (meaning you aren’t doing anything!). Could you retire off of 41k a month? It’s at least a start, right?

“Oh, I can’t do that. People like MJ got lucky”.

WRONG. MJ hustled. He didn’t take no for an answer. He finally got fed up enough where he moved someplace else, but a small apartment, lived lightly, and made his program work. His time and dedication made it work. People that say MJ got lucky probably are slow-laners.

“But I have a family and a mortgage. I just can’t give it all up”.

And this is where I feel the book falls a bit short. I loved 98% of this book. The 2% I didn’t like was the idea you have to nearly give up everything if you want your dream. This just isn’t feasible for people like me who have a family, and a mortgage, and bills that needs to stay above water. MJ talks about living a a extremely small studio eating Top Ramen while building his website. HOWEVER! This doesn’t give me, or anyone else reason to give up and not try. MJ hustled and made it work. Everyone that I know that puts the time and effort into a project they love has made it work, simply because they never took “NO” for an answer. If their project or business wasn’t doing good, instead of giving up, they changed what they did to yield the results they wanted. They kept adapting, changing and hustling until they got EXACTLY what they wanted, just like DeMarco. Work a full time job? Work on your project at night/early morning. Have a family? Work after the kids go to bed. Weekends? Great time for work too. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way to make it happen. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. It is that simple. The Millionaire Fastlane is a great resource to get there.

All in all, I would give this book a 9.5 out of ten to put on your “To Read” list. It was full of great information, great ideas, and great ways to get into the millionaire fastlane. If you are anything like me and know there is something bigger and better than you prostituting yourself Monday – Friday for 2 days off, this is a must read.

Let me know if you read it what you think by leaving a comment below.

~Z

One thought on “Book Review: The Millionaire Fastlane

  1. MJ DeMarco says:

    Thanks for the review Zach, I appreciate it!! Also, in response to your situation, the marketplace typically doesn’t care about your family situation or your mortgage; give ’em a good product and they will buy – you could have 15 kids and be in debt up to your neck, or single and debt free – the marketplace is indifferent to our personal situation which is why I stress being 100% product/market-centric. Thanks again. ~ MJ

Comments are closed.