
The Millionaire Fastlane - not_paul_graham
http://leoexplor.es/great-books/2012/09/19/the-millionaire-fastlane/
======
luxpir
Was trying to refrain from making negative comments on this book, having
recently read it, but I can't resist just a few to save some people some
wasted time:

. The style is very 'motivational speaker', written by a self-confessed 4-time
MLM 'business owner' \- lots of fluff and padding - and what is with the
'Laws' he keeps making up? And the long drawn out explanations with terrible
analogies?

. Nice tone of misogyny throughout. Yay!

. Much of the content is obvious and covered in the most basic of entrepreneur
guide material. In fact, this link is so useful because it sums up all the
most useful parts of the book. Trust me, the words surrounding these are of no
further value.

Read it, sure, even skim read it, but don't expect any answers if you're
already up to speed on the basics of scalable business models and the need for
hard work to get where you're aiming for.

~~~
teemo_cute
4-time MLM business owner? Have your actually read the book? For one thing MJ
is against MLM's because it fails the commandment of control and entry (read
the book to find out).

For those of you curious about the book, just read the sample chapters given
in his forum, or listen to the audio book sample. Make your own conclusions.

For one thing this is the book venture capitalists don't want you to read.

~~~
davidw
Looks a bit spammy to me. I recommend this one every chance I get as a
_practical_ book about how to do your own small business as a developer:

[http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-
Launching-...](http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching-
ebook/dp/B003YH9MMI/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?tag=dedasys-20)

One of the things I like about it is that it is not a "get rich quick" book.
Indeed, one of the quotes I highlighted is "strive to build a startup that
generates $500 per month in profit". That really resonated with me, because it
sounded like something that I could aim for, rather than "YOU TOO CAN MAKE
BAZILLIONS!!!". Even if you want to make bazillions, you've got to pass $500 a
month at some point!

~~~
gbrhaz
Thanks for this. I've not seen this book before and, like you, most of these
other books feel way too spammy to me.

~~~
davidw
Glad it helps! I feel a bit spammy myself having posted it so often, but I
think it's a really valuable way of looking at the world and I found the book
helpful in creating my own side project business (that has passed $500 a month
in profits, too:-)

------
onion2k
_A few examples of Fastlane projects: write a book (lots of work, but then it
makes money forever without you having to put in more work), make an invention
(lots of work, but then you get royalties for a long time)._

The median average annual earnings for an author in the UK is about £12,330
($20,300). With the ease of self-publishing platforms like Kindle and the
proliferation of promotions and sales at traditional booksellers (bookshops,
supermarkets, etc) that figure is _falling_. If you want to be financially
wealthy writing a book is a _really_ bad way to go about it.

~~~
corkill
Few people that get wealthy off books do so from the book sale royalties.

They sell seminars, keynote talks, services etc, it is a form of lead
generation and an expert positioning tool.

~~~
MicroBerto
Yet that is the exact _opposite_ of the "Fastlane", because your seminars are
not detached from your time. Sure, it could turn out to be good good _hustle_
income, but he's not saying to do this as your end point.

There is a cap on how many hours anyone can work in a day/year. If you are
charging hourly for your time, you are capped.

If you want to make it more Fastlane, you'd turn it into a sellable seminar
video series that can be created infrequently and sold forever via
memberships, DVDs, etc.

Note that I'm not for or against books or seminars. Not my area of expertise.
I'm just stating that a lot of people in this thread are misunderstanding what
MJ means by Fastlane.

------
mironathetin
"Don’t waste your money on expensive ($3k+) seminars and workshops. Those make
the speakers rich but are rarely worth the money for attendees."

The same is true for books. For example this book.

------
ThePhysicist
What I find odd when reading these kinds of posts and the discussion that
ensues is that most people don't even seem to ask if "becoming rich" is really
that important to begin with: For example, in his post the author gives the
impression that only money can buy you a decent and fulfilling life and that
you should better get rich quick since otherwise "you’ll be too old to enjoy
it".

Personally I think building up modest wealth over your entire career might be
a surer and more reasonable strategy than the "get rich or die trying" model
the author proposes, since the latter involves a good amount of luck and seems
to work only for 1 % of the population.

~~~
giarc
Your comment about asking whether becoming rich is really that important
reminded me of a lesson I learned.

I live in a city that had some major flooding recently. I volunteered to help
pump out water and clean basements. I did this in primarily two
neighbourhoods. A very affluent neighbourhood with multimillion dollar homes.
The other neighbourhood was middle class, 30-50 year old bungalows.

In the affluent neighbourhood, the neighbours all hated each other. It seemed
like at some point, everyone had done something to piss off someone else. We
set up a large pump on a driveway and were told by the neighbour that we had
to move the pump since it was on their side of the driveway (which they were
not using). The neighbour also moved the 4 inch pipe into their neighbours
garden which basically acted as an excavator until we noticed it. It was
actually upsetting to see in times of such crisis.

Other the other hand, and you likely can predict how this story will go, the
middle class neighbourhood was full of community, helping hands and people
willing to go out of their way to assist others. It actually came to a point
where there was too much help. People were driving around with coffee and home
made sandwiches which they couldn't give out because 3 other cars with the
same had just driven by. People were thankful and would rush across the street
to help you move a heavy refrigerator.

I realized over that week that if getting rich means hating your
neighbours/being hated by your neighbours, having no one to reach out to,
maybe I don't want to be rich. At least not financially rich.

~~~
mildtrepidation
_I realized over that week that if getting rich means hating your neighbours
/being hated by your neighbours, having no one to reach out to, maybe I don't
want to be rich. At least not financially rich._

Or at least not in that neighborhood. You have an anecdote... that's all. I'm
sure there are others that match it, but being a dick to your neighbors and
having neighbors that are dicks to you is not a necessary pre- or post-
condition of financial wealth.

You can end up in that situation regardless of how much money you make. What
you should probably take away from that experience is that you value community
and wish to have positive interactions with your neighbors; perhaps financial
wealth shouldn't be a priority for you, but I don't believe this situation
could really inform you on that point.

~~~
giarc
I don't think my point was to say "Getting rich means you will hate your
neighbours" but more of a "Getting rich doesn't bring instant gratification."
A "money can't by happiness" type message.

------
normloman
Saying it once and for all: Not everyone can be rich. And getting rich
requires lots of luck. That's why it's better to be frugal and invest wisely,
than to gamble on writing a best seller or invent the next big thing.

I'm not saying don't invent or write books either. Just don't bet your life on
it.

~~~
corkill
"And getting rich requires lots of luck."

No it requires making something useful to other people that you can sell to
them. You really should read the book.

Airbnb (hardwork and launching 4 times? nah just luck) Dropbox (solving a hard
problem? nah just luck)

"That's why it's better to be frugal and invest wisely" This concept is
explored in depth in the book.

It's called wealth in a wheelchair and is highly dependent on the stock market
and property market (things you don't control performing favourably for you).

~~~
hnnewguy
> _and property market_

And yet, he suggests buying property to rent as a method of the _Fastlane_.
Ask a small-time landlord if renting their property in a halfway efficient
market is making them rich.

I don't have a problem with the first half of the article, discussing the
_philosophy_ of getting rich. It's when he seems to delve into practical
advice (write a book! rent out a house!) that the author seems to lack a sense
of financial matters.

~~~
jaworrom
Every real estate investor/landlord I know has worked up to a 7 figure net
worth pretty quickly. Started with single family homes or a few duplexes,
traded them up/reinvested cash flow, and eventually settled with a few
multifamily complexes. Property management does the work, they collect the
check. It's not easy, mind you, but it is worth the efforts. The rental market
is the most solid investment vehicle out there. The market may go up and down,
but it's always trending upward. Can't say the same about the stock market.

~~~
hnnewguy
> _The market may go up and down, but it 's always trending upward. Can't say
> the same about the stock market._

Yes, you absolutely can say the same about the stock market. In fact, the
historical compound annual growth rate of the market, adjusted for inflation,
is almost 7%. That's over 100+ years. I don't have the data in front of me,
but I'll bet the market returns crush real estate returns over that period.

You'll have to explain how these people managed to accumulate such wealth
"quickly" through real estate, unless it involved flipping houses during one
of the biggest housing bubbles in economic history, of which there were
massive amounts of losers on the other end of these transactions (aka
_bagholders_ ). This era produced a ton of "real estate gurus", but it will
prove to be an anomalous period. But, taking the economic environment in
context , it _was_ a great, clever way to make a fortune; akin to telling
someone to sell Tulips in 1640. I just think the idea that "buy real estate,
get rich" is naive. The real trick is figuring out the next real estate, or
Tulip, early in the cycle.

TINSTAAFL. There is nothing magical about expected real estate returns, and
they are in line with any other investment vehicle when adjusted for risk.

------
MicroBerto
I know many of you will not like this book, but I personally think it's
_exactly_ what the doctor ordered for a ton of people who feel they need to
break free from the "golden handcuffs" of their salaries / day jobs.

It's everything I wish I had read at age 20. Except it didn't come out until I
was about 28 or 29. At that point, I'd just spent the last half dozen years
learning _all_ of those lessons myself.

Behind the marketing fluff and silly title (which has been quite successful
for him), MJ absolutely nails it. People either "get it" or they don't.

For some of you, it might seem like common sense:

* Separate your time from your income stream. *

Build a flexible, scalable business that you control that has a hard path to
entry, yet can scale beyond its own man-hours.

Don't be _too_ put off by the title. There's a ton of people, myself included,
who would benefit from reading it.

------
koonsolo
I think that's pretty risky advice. Just because most millionaires took the
'fastlane', doesn't mean that most fastlaners will become millionares. It
gives a bit too optimistic vision of that fastlane. A risk analysis of taking
the fastlane vs slowlane would be nice. If you have a family to support, I
think the "don't quit your day job" advice is better than anything in this
book.

------
dotcoma
The Millionaire Fastlane: write a book with this title, and have a lot of
clueless people buy it. It's proven to work.

~~~
thejosh
sell foraging gear to gold foragers

------
nathanvanfleet
This has "don't feel bad for poor people" written all over it. People just
don't have the kind of options he's saying they do and I don't appreciate him
creating classes of people, some deserving and some underserving of comfort.

------
PalUk
I've never really believed in a recipe book for millionares. If the books like
this really worked, every second person would be a millionare. I strongly
believe that a millionare is the person who follows his/her own way and does
it well, keeps on doing it when the whole world says: You suck, dude! You
don't have to write or read a book about it. It's simpler -do whatever you
want and if you do it right, you'll make it through.

~~~
Kurtz79
"If the books like this really worked, every second person would be a
millionare"

To be fair to the author, he is not saying that just by reading the book or
following simple rules everybody can be a millionaire.

Hard work and a sound strategy are still required, and not every second person
has the discipline or ability follow up.

There is about an article a day saying something similar on HN, so I think I
will follow his advice and not spend my precious time by reading the book.

------
ergest
From a quick scan of the notes, it seems like this is yet another 300 page
book that says nothing beyond "quit your job and start a multi-million dollar
business of some kind"

------
sahil_videology
This book was useful in changing my outlook on what I really wanted. I
actually realized I did not want to be entrepreneur because I didn't want to
do the hard work (non-engineering work like dealing with lawyers, accounts,
employees, etc.) that it requires to be in the fastlane. I really just want to
be a great engineer. It's not that I couldn't have come to this conclusion
without the book, but the book just made it clear in ways that I hadn't seen
elsewhere. Guess I'll just try to be slowlane defiant.

------
m52go
The title is horrible. This isn't a get-rich-quick book like it sounds, in
fact, DeMarco constantly stresses the long, tedious process required to become
well-off.

People on HN will probably find it redundant and repetitive, but for people on
the street, living paycheck-to-paycheck, on food-stamps, etc., this book can
really open someone's eyes.

MJ's forum, The Fastlane Forum, is an incredible helpful resource for anyone.
If you don't read the book, at least check out the forum. It will be well
worth your time.

~~~
MicroBerto
"Sell em what they want. Give em what they need."

------
lpolovets
I'm the author of the notes. I was surprised to find them here =). Just
wondering, do people find notes like this useful? I am considering summarizing
some startup and business related books at my new blog,
[http://codingvc.com](http://codingvc.com) (I no longer maintain
leoexplor.es). Books I'd like to summarize: Art of Profitability, Venture
Deals, Founder's Dilemmas, etc.

~~~
idlewan
It is.

I'd prefer if bullet points were used sparingly though, you could just make
use of headings and paragraphs. A very long list of points looks unstructured
and is more difficult to read.

~~~
lpolovets
Thank you for the feedback.

------
grdeken
Haven't read the book yet. Read the highlights. Not everyone is going to get
rich. We live in a world of winners and losers. But there's some truth to the
adage that "The harder I work, the luckier I get".

You can still be prudent and take risks. And let's be honest, saving up
millions for my future cancer treatments isn't how I envision using my hard
earned dollars. I see the author's point there...

------
imgabe
> What if you’re not happy living a frugal/basic lifestyle?

I think this is an unnecessarily deterministic view of happiness. It seems to
imply that every person has a set of randomly assigned, unchanging things that
make them happy. If you happened to get assigned happiness from frugality,
then lucky you! But if not, then I guess you'll have to find a way to get
really rich to buy all the thing that make you happy, too bad.

In fact, if you aren't happy living a frugal/basic lifestyle, you probably
won't be happy with an extravagant, wealthy lifestyle either. Happiness comes
from within.

------
akandiah
If you're after a better book on this subject, save your time and read the
classic "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

~~~
ericraio
Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" is great. I would also recommend Dr.
Thomas Stanley's book "The Millionaire Next Door" to this list.

------
speedracr
For anyone else wondering: author of Leo Explores is Leo Polovets @lpolovets

Twitter bio: "Partner @SusaVentures. Before: 2nd non-founding engineer
@LinkedIn → @Google → early engineer @Factual. I love travel, good food,
reading, and helping others. Palo Alto, CA · codingvc.com"

------
mattholtom
Slow lane folks, I sleep like a baby.

~~~
mironathetin
Thats a good one!

------
runarb
Link is down for me.

Archive.org link:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor....](https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor.es/great-
books/2012/09/19/the-millionaire-fastlane/)

------
orasis
Despite the terrible title and cover image, it is actually a very useful book.

I see it as a set of criteria to analyze any project by to see if it can
potentially scale. If you focus your time on business that can scale, you
improve your chance of making big bucks.

------
global360
Balance (work/family/fun) = happiness You can also rob a bank and get rich
quick.

------
xpop2027
Thank you for this.

------
teemo_cute
I'm a member of the author's forum:

[http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/](http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/)

He gives away sample chapters of the book, or if you like listening, the first
chapter is also in audio format.

~~~
toblender
The Audiobook is the way to go. He treats it like a coffee shop conversation.
Really put my ass into gear.

~~~
BaconJuice
Can you provide a link to the audiobook please? Couldnt find it. Thank you.

