M.J. DeMarco's Blog, page 2
March 28, 2024
Environmental hacking: My life’s most reliable “life-hack” is also the easiest to use (or neglect).
Three years ago, after 25 years, I traded Arizona’s sun for Utah’s mountains, upgrading my home from a plentiful 4,400 square feet to a sprawling 13,000. The game-changer? There were several, from an indoor basketball court to a home theater to the most important of all: a home gym.
At last, I could exercise in peace!
There were no more teenagers glued to their smartphones while “working out,” no more meatheads glaring at me for using the leg press, and no more scantily clad fitness influencers parading around like they were on a modeling runway.
Finally, it was just me, my workout, and the freedom to exercise shirtless without an audience. I could also blast my music as loud as I wanted.
As you can expect, my workouts became more consistent. I no longer had to commute to a gym, so working out was as simple as walking downstairs. It was the first time I had not had a gym membership in 30 years.
But something interesting happened.
While my frequency of workouts increased, the intensity and duration suffered.
It was easier to quit, to cut a workout short, or just wander upstairs and go back to work, fire up a protein shake, or just flake out.
Yes, I still made gains, but I hit a plateau pretty quick.
Then, a twist: a new gym opened just 12 minutes away in an area that desperately needed one. While I had no interest in rejoining the crowds of teenagers and camera-ready fitness YouTubers, this gym boasted a red-light therapy machine, a lap pool (sorry, I won’t be Wim-Hoffing in my own pool in the winter) and a dry sauna.
Boom!
Those three features— a red-light machine, a blazing hot sauna and a year-round pool—turned me from a skeptic into a buyer on the spot.
Quick refresher: Any feature or benefit that flips a switch for potential buyers, transforming curiosity into commitment, is a value skew. And the more value skews you present to potential customers, the more buyers you get.
MJ DeMarco, The Great Rat Race Escape
What skew can you add to your business to attract more buyers? Please don’t confuse “value skew” with “throw more money into unlimited features” but high leverage activities that can change buyer perceptions.
While this newsletter isn’t about value skew (keep reading) it is worth repeating—more value skew = more buyers.
Here is a sample list of value skews you can leverage in your business. Remember, the more “value skews” you put into the competition, the more runners you can get to cross the value threshold. (This concept is not discussed in my first two books, but in my 3rd book, The Great Rat Race Escape )
Anyhow, back to my gym story…
After joining my new gym, I went every day, even to stretch or jump rope.
Then, something amazing happened—my workout intensity and duration went from 5s and 6s to 9s and 10s.
I got over my plateau and leveled up, becoming stronger and fitter.
Why?
Environmental hacking:
I altered my environment.
While I wouldn’t say I like crowds, being surrounded by highly fit people, both men and women, elevated my intensity and motivated me.
What if your desk was next to your favorite entrepreneur or business mogul? What if I sat next to you?
Wouldn’t you do better work? And have better productivity?
This is the ultimate life hack for transformative change: Shift your environment.
If you ever watched “My 600lb Life,” where morbidly obese people try to lose weight and fail, you’ll notice one commonality: They fail to change their environment.
After consulting with Dr. Now, people return home to a dietary shitshow enabled by family members. You cannot lose weight when your dinner options are donuts, pancakes, and buckets of fried chicken.
In other words, don’t expect to cure your alcoholism while owning a tavern.
So, if you’re feeling stuck and your motivation is gone, overhaul your environment!
My leap from Chicago to Arizona, to selling a company that no longer inspired me, to stepping back into a gym after two years away testify to this principle’s power.
But don’t think you must upend your life with a cross-country move.
It’s the more minor shifts that can pack the biggest punch. Try reorganizing your desk, changing your work location, or simply tidying up. Whenever I write, I clean up my workspace; a cleaner workspace = cleaner writing.
Consider switching jobs or even roles within your current job. Maybe it’s time to embrace significant personal changes, like starting or ending a relationship.
Change a living situation.
It could be as simple as biking to work, writing by the sea, or swapping the gym for home workouts. Yes, you might do better working out in solitude versus a crowded gym.
YouTuber Casey Niestat’s goal of running a marathon in under three hours, chronicled in a compelling video, vividly illustrates this principle. Despite the video’s main message of perseverance and incremental progress, a crucial turning point came through an environmental shift.
After years of stagnation, Casey broke his plateau by teaming up with an Olympic marathon runner. Transitioning from solo training to mentorship transformed his performance.
Check out the video—it’s an inspiring watch.
So, what’s the takeaway?
Manipulate your environment to fuel your success—it is one of the simplest and most potent life hacks you can use.
How can you alter your surroundings to accelerate your growth?What aspects of your environment are holding you back?What can you modify, shift, or remove?What’s stopping you from these changes?What’s the best environment and worse?Know thyself— then change your environment and change your life.
MJ DeMarco, Author / Entrepreneur
This article was from The Life in the Fastlane Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
March 14, 2024
Poison Pens: Pick up a red pen, expect to read in red ink…
Thanks to The Fastlane Entrepreneur Forum, I’ve interacted with millions of aspiring entrepreneurs over the last 15 years. Yes, MILLIONS!
Here’s what I learned: Most won’t succeed as they dredge through life with a cadre of poison pens—limiting beliefs and destructive premises that fund poor decisions and hence poor outcomes. For example, if you hate your job but falsely believe “Starting a business is risky,” you’ll stay stuck in that job, choosing unknown risk over known pain.
What poison pens are ruining your life?If you carry these poison pens, they then become responsible for writing your story, page by page, day by day.
Limiting Belief = Poison Pen = A Bad Life StoryArming yourself with these pens to write your story while expecting a different outcome is like picking up a Stephen King novel and expecting a romance over some diabolical horror show.
Here are the 8 most destructive poison pens that will turn your entrepreneurial endeavors into the same: a diabolical horror show with a predictable ending: The death of your entrepreneurial dreams.
#1) THE MARKET IS SATURATED
The market is NEVER saturated if you offer a better product and a better value. People who ask such questions aren’t looking to create value, they’re looking to chase money; which is why they ask about “saturation.”
RETHINK: Think of the market like a raging river; it naturally gravitates toward value and value is the path of least resistance; the water doesn’t care how fast or how much it is flowing; it simply goes where it needs to go.
#2) I DON’T HAVE TIME
Actually, you do have time, but starting a business isn’t as important as Netflix, sleep, video games, TikTok, or the Yankees’ 75th game of the season. Translation: My entertaining comfort is more important than my freedom.
RETHINK: There are 168 hours in a week and if you have a 40 hour workweek, there are 128 hours left for your dream. How can you make time by removing what truly isn’t important your life? Or, what adjustments can you make that will help you invest more time in your rat-race escape?
#3) I DON’T HAVE MONEY!
Money certainly helps but it isn’t a requirement. Value is blind and doesn’t ask you for a bank account balance. If you have skills, you can charge a premium price—money—for those skills. When people refuse to acquire skills, they refuse to acquire money.
RETHINK: What skills can you hone to increase your value? Where is your money going? What side-hustles can you start that will raise your value per hour worked?
#4) I DON’T HAVE SKILLS!
No one is born with skills, you must acquire them with grit & focus. I wasn’t born an entrepreneur or an author. I honed these skills over years through deliberate practice. Do you think Tom Brady was born with a football? Or Messi with a soccer ball? For me, financial freedom was more important to me than the latest Call of Duty release.
RETHINK: Again, what is your priority? Winning a damn video game? Or winning at life and living a dream? Put forth the same effort into your entertainment vices into learning and skill development. And then one day, you might win the real game—life.
#5) I DON’T HAVE ANY IDEAS!
Wow, it is so awesome you live in a perfect Utopia where there are no problems, no faulty products, no inconveniences, no poor customer service experiences; nope, life is just perfect!
What a joke! This poison pen reflects someone who has no clue, and no chance.
RETHINK: What irritates the F* out of you? Solve it! Be better!
#6) I HAVE KIDS!
That’s right. I forgot that in all of recorded human history, no one has ever started a business and succeeded when they had kids. This poison pen is medicating your cognitive dissonance for your inaction and makes you “feel good” about doing nothing.
RETHINK: It’s because you HAVE kids is why you need to commit to a better outcome for them. Every minute you spend in a job you hate is a minute away from them. Remember, 168 hours are in a week.
#7) I CAN’T QUIT MY JOB
That’s OK. You don’t need to quit your job because it can help you with skill development, ideation, funding, and network expansion. Your life isn’t your job; your job is to set yourself free from the rat-race tyranny & the “work, buy and die” paradigm. Isn’t that worth your time?
RETHINK: What needs to happen before you give yourself the “green light” to quit your job? Personally, I recommend growing sales and a verified productocracy. I never advise quitting without some prior validation in the business arena.
#8) BUT, I AM [IDENTITY LABEL]!
BLANK represents a faulty identity issue. I have ADHD. I’m divorced. I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’m the wrong gender or race.
Again, value is generally color blind; if you have what I want, I won’t care that you wet your bed as a kid. How much does it cost and when can I get it?
RETHINK: Think about the last few things you bought… did you ask the person who sold you those items about their grades? Did you ask them for their bank account balance, their sexual preferences, or their emotionally absent parents? Value is the ultimate non-discriminating entity!
CONCLUDE: When someone posts at my forum and I see these “poison pens,” I know they are a lost cause; unless they swap their poison pen into a growth pen, a belief system capable of writing a new story.
What poison pens can you ditch so your life can take on a new story arc?
MJ DeMarco, Author / Entrepreneur
This article was from The Life in the Fastlane Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
February 12, 2024
The Ultimate Scripted Truth: Super Bowl Ads Only Promote Obesity, Sickness, & Disease.
Did you watch the 2024 Super Bowl? If you did, the Super Bowl ads were a MASTERCLASS in Scripted programming which wants to normalize destructive behavior—behavior that will make you the perfect lifetime customer for your big pharmaceutical conglomerate.
Here’s a list of all the Super-Bowl commercials that involved a product you can eat or drink…
** Pringles potato chips (Nothing like potato chips with 4,103 ingredients listed!)
** Lindt chocolate
** M&Ms
** Mountain Dew (40g of sugar not enough, here’s a 4 days worth of caffeine!)
** Popeye’s Chicken (Murderous, factory farmed trash)
** Nerds Candy
** Oreo Cookies (But they’re vegan!)
** Mayonnaise (Mmmm inflammatory dairy!)
** Doritos
** Bud Light (I’d rather drink urine from my golden retriever)
** Michelob Ultra (The athlete’s choice, eh?)
** Reese Peanut Butter Cups
** Coors Light
** Starry Soda (Nothing like 39g of sugar in one sitting)
** Dunkin Donuts (What an awesome FASTLANE to diabetes!)
** Poppi Soda (Healthy soda? Sure, right after I smoke my healthy cigarette!)
Consuming every single one of these products will contribute to shortening your life, or will contribute to sickness and disease.
And then ironically, throw in a Pfizer commercial who will happily help medicate you, and manage the disease you self-inflicted.
Living UNSCRIPTED means living outside of your media and culture despite its attempts at normalizing destructive behavior.
There has never been a better example of the programmatic duress one faces when trying to live uniquely, and in the “1%” in terms of health and wealth.
What a time we live in.
MJ DeMarco, Entrepreneur and Author
January 12, 2024
The Most Important Business Pivot is the One Made Before Starting
The idea of a business pivot is very popular in entrepreneurial subculture. The business pivot in normal nomenclature is the art of shifting gears during your business based on user feedback and data analysis.
However, what if the the most important business pivot was the one you made before even starting?
My stepson was a Generation Z young adult with no interest in business or entrepreneurship. I’ve tried to get him interested in owning his business and controlling his destiny for years.
No luck.
Everything changed after he graduated from college and got a full-time job.
Early morning wake-ups, traffic, low pay, corporate politics, passive-aggressive bosses, and boom! Suddenly, he wants to start a business.
As I like to say, words rarely can wake people up. Warning people about the fire doesn’t work; they need to stick their hand into it and get burnt.
In any event, when my stepson finally came to me for some feedback on a business idea, I showed him the following graphic:
My stepson’s first business idea was related to agriculture—terribly hard to scale with equally difficult customer acquisition hurdles. His best-case scenario is a middle-class salary.
The best business to start (above) is Idea #1 and #4. The low rewards of the other ideas are not worth your effort.
You see, no matter what business you decide to launch, you will struggle and grind. The question is, will that work and grind change your life or pay your bills?
I mentioned this last year in an earlier newsletter in a parable of a mountain hike. You cannot avoid the treacherous hike up the mountain, but you can ensure your effort is handsomely rewarded.
People are running small corner cafes who work as hard as I but earn 100X less. Effort is not an issue; the answer lies in the graphic above.
Think that guru with a $3,000 course to sell you has the answer?
Wrong.
Here’s what you don’t see.
If you need a billionaire to convince you, Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone Group, which is a global private equity firm, said it best:
“I had reached an important conclusion about starting any business; it’s as hard to start and run a small business as it is a big one. You will suffer the same toll financially and psychologically as you bludgeon it into existence… so if you’re going to dedicate your life to business, which is the only way it will work, you should choose one with the potential to be huge.”
If you play the big-boy/big-girl game of business, be in the business of big rewards. Or work for the rest of your life, an outcome no better than a job.
MJ DeMarco
This article was from The Life in the Fastlane Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
December 22, 2023
Getting Rich; How to Really Do It; I Wish I Saw This When I Was 20.
For years, the idea of getting rich seemed impossible. When I was trying to figure things out, I wish someone showed me *THIS* when I was 20.
Back then, I thought becoming a millionaire, or better, 8-figure+ multimillionaire, is was just a fantasy. A task that felt extremely out of reach.
When I shifted my perspective from YEARS to DAYS, and YEARS to UNITS, everything changed.
These four charts below are the most profound understanding you can give your future self. If only someone had given me these charts as a kid—they prove amassing wealth quickly is surprisingly straightforward.
Getting rich, or wealth, is always perceived as a climb to Mt. Everest. But what if it was only just a daily walk in the park?
It becomes simplified when you break down wealth accumulation down to the day—sell something 50 times a day for only 5 years. Lessor goals are even easier—a millionaire is just 9 units daily for 3 years.
Getting rich: Number of units to sell daily to reach $1M
Getting rich: Number of units to sell daily to reach $5M
Getting rich: Number of units to sell daily to reach $10MBetter, none of this includes your company valuation, which is just icing on the cake. You’re getting paid to build a financial fortress on top of your income.
If you’re selling Y, X times per day, your company is likely worth 7 figures or more.
Think about that.
Your business effort not only COMPOUNDS in income potential per these charts, but also in asset valuation. If you company earns $250K per year, it is likely worth. In other words, your effort is reward an asset valuation, on top of the income earned. It’s like getting paid a bonus for getting rich.
As for what to sell X times per day, that also has been complicated to the Nth degree.
Look at this Etsy seller.
They’re not from Silicon Valley; they’re not tech wizards flush with VC funding. They’re not spending 3 years learning how to code.
They sell a product for $120 (now on sale), and with 13,000 reviews, they consistently sell.
If only 5% of their customers left reviews, we’re talking about 260,000 units sold.
That’s not just a number.
That’s a masterclass in reaching your financial dreams, one sale at a time. If they earn $10 profit on each board (it likely is more) they have created $2,600,000 in real wealth. And their business is likely worth $1,000,000 or more.
THIS MY FRIENDS, IS HOW YOU GET RICH.
You sell 10 things a day for 3 years. Need something simple to remember?
Sell X daily at Y profit for Z years.
Boom.
Or you can work until you are 87 years old and hope for 8% portfolio growth, all while avoiding inflation, stock market crashes, and other economic calamities. Look at this chart below. UNITS and DAYS versus YEARS and SAVINGS RATE.
Getting rich: Number of years to invest monthly to reach $10MWhen you compare these financial strategies for wealth accumulation, the comparison is laughable. It’s comparing an Elon Musk rocket to a 3-year-old’s tricycle.
There never has been an easier choice. And never a better option to free yourself from the tyranny of work, invest, wait, hope, and pray.
I hope you enjoyed these charts and, one day, you witness precisely what they represent. Feel free to share them.
MJ DeMarco, Entrepreneur and Author
This article was from The Life in the Fastlane Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
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December 7, 2023
Has your life become unrecognizable?
Is your life unrecognizable compared to 6 years ago?
Going forward, what’s your likely destination? Joy, or regret?
If it isn’t, it’s time to re-evaluate your goals and your strategy.
Six years is enough time to totally transform your life.
In six years, you can become a piano maestro.In six years you can get so good at your sport you can make it to an Olympic games.In six years, you can start with nothing and build a 7,8, or 9 figure empire. People on the forum have literally done this. Here, here, here, here, here, and here — and most of them didn’t need 6 years. (The last 2 are INSIDER threads, subscription required)In six years, you can go from a nobody to an influencer with a gazillion followers and earn $2,000 for a 15-second plug. James Jani literally chronicled his YouTube start on the forum and now boasts nearly 2,000,000 followers. (He barely needed 4 years!)Or, in six years, you can look back and realize that you haven’t done a damn thing other than hope, pray, and wait for all the cards to fall your way.
I bring this up because I mentioned a crypto thread on the forum last week which was started 6 years ago. November 8th, 2017, to be exact. And now, with Bitcoin reclaiming yearly highs and earning back a portion of the 75% it lost the last 3 years, people like to proudly boast about their gains, while (likely) nothing else has changed in their life.
In reviewing that thread, I saw a lot of starry-eyed “investors” looking to get rich, and when BTC rises, people boldly proclaim their WINS, but oddly, disappear when it LOSES. Six short years have passed, and there are still people in that thread “waiting” for their big break.
184 pages of hope.
312 weeks of waiting.
2,190 days of praying.
Others have simply disappeared, their dreams of a better life likely dead with their crypto investments.
They are still waiting and hoping. And they will continue to wait and hope. Sadly, in all that time sitting around, they could have already accomplished miraculous things.
Six years holds an immense potential for transformation and profound personal or professional metamorphosis. Six years ago, you probably never heard of Alex Hormozi, or Mr. Beast, or Emma Chamberlain, or Sam Parr, or the companies that emerged: Figma, ConvertKit, Morning Brew, Canva, or Notion.
Six years can be a period of monumental change or growth.
Or a period of terrible waste.
Either way, TIME WILL PASS.
It waits for no one.
So why not JUST DO IT and put that time to use and create something memorable and life changing?
Question is, what will your next 6-years hold? Staggering change? Or will your best win of those six years be the $15,000 in gains you proudly made in Bitcoin, notwithstanding the inflationary purchasing power you lost in those 6 years?
Sure, investment gains of $15K is a win.
Waiting around 6 years for it, while nothing else in your life has changed?
Not a win.
The years will pass, irrespective of your choices. The question then becomes not if time will elapse but how you will utilize it so your future time won’t be consumed by regret?
Will it be a testament to your potential, a chronicle of dreams realized, or a reminder of chances not taken?
As I wrote in The Great Rat Race Escape, the canvas is blank, and the brush is in your hands. Will you paint a masterpiece of personal and professional fulfillment, or will the canvas remain untouched?
Don’t let another 6 years go by waiting, hoping, and praying.
START DOING.
MJ DeMarco
This article was from The Life in the Fastlane Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
October 19, 2023
Two shocking “gut-punches” you can use for life-long happiness.
My wife hates that I have an affinity for watching and reading about true crime stories. Turns out I’m not alone.
Anyway, there’s an odd reason I’m hooked on watching murder documentaries, and they lead to the two strategies I use to continually be happy and raise my baseline for happiness.
No, I don’t have some twisted fascination with crime. But it reminds me to not sweat the “small stuff,” and most everything is small.
When I watch true crime documentaries, I look beyond the human tragedy (which my wife cannot do) and instead experience immense gratitude and perspective, two things that scientifically can lead to happiness.
True crime shows me how lucky I am to have my loved ones while being able to pursue my best life. It gives me a punch of perspective, a mental knife that cuts through the fog of trivial complaints and zooms in on what truly matters.
I recently did a Cameo video, a pep-talk for a man who was enduring struggles in his life. In that video, I tried to share these two ideas of gratitude and perspective, as they were the strategies that guided me during my rough times, as they do today when I’m complaining about tax increases, corrupt politicians, and rude people.
Take war, for instance. There’s someone, right now, literally fighting to survive. Conversely, you might be in a metaphorical battle to get that promotion or launch your startup. Recognize this for what it is—a privilege.
Think about that.
You’re fighting for a dream, while others are fighting for food, shelter, and water. They’re fighting to survive. If you’re currently able to fight for your dreams because you’re not busy fighting for your life, well, you’re doing spectacularly well.
The same can be said about health. I might dread the idea of my early morning walk, but hey, I *can* walk without the threat of being bombed, mugged, or kidnapped. Whenever I lose perspective, I mutter to myself, “Well, you don’t have pancreatic cancer,” which, by most measures, is a death sentence. This simple, morbid statement is another mental punch that knocks sense into me.
Another cognitive gut-punch I use is freedom, which most of us take for granted. When faced with the angst of some trivial matter—someone cut me off, scammed, or misled me—I tell myself that I’m not pacing in a prison cell convicted of manslaughter or subject to reeducation in some gulag while doing back-breaking labor. I’m still free to think, speak, and exist as I am, as are you. This simple autonomy is a cornerstone of your well-being that we too often overlook.
And let’s not forget the little black mirror we all carry—our smartphones. I preach a lot about social media toxicity but remember, the entire repository of human knowledge is literally in your pocket. Hell, if you had Elon Musk or Taylor Swift’s telephone number, you could immediately reach them from your pocket. Again, think about amazing truth. Between this knowledge and access, previous generations would’ve killed for this privilege. Don’t squander it with endless doom-scrolling on TikTok.
So when life beats you down—bills, tax increases, poor ad results—remember the THREE WARMS: If you have a warm bed after a warm shower following a warm meal, congratulations; you have a lot to be thankful for. You have an opportunity not just to survive but to pursue your dreams. Your best life.
None of this is some woo-woo I made up. The psychological benefits of gratitude and perspective are well-documented. One seminal study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that participants who kept weekly gratitude journals were more optimistic, felt better about their lives, and exercised more than those who focused on neutral or negative aspects. The grass is already greener in your pasture. This research, led by Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, lends scientific credence to the idea that focusing on what you’re thankful for can positively impact well-being (source).
Another study delved into how the mere act of reframing a situation—again, perspective— to see the silver lining could foster better mental health. Published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, this study suggests that optimistic thinking styles, like positive reframing, are associated with various health benefits, including lower levels of depression and even better cardiovascular health (source).’
In a world where the narrative is often tuned to what we lack or how we could be better, flipping The Script is not radical but revolutionary. The powers-at-be want you to be angry, divided, and depressed as it makes you controllably monetizable. Don’t be a slave to their whims.
So here’s the mic-drop that only perspective and gratitude can deliver: If you’re physically, mentally, and geographically able to pursue your dreams—your best life— you’re already living the dream.
Best wishes,
MJ DeMarco, Entrepreneur, Author
PS: Here are some questions to ponder regarding perspective and gratitude in your life.
1) How can you practice gratitude daily beyond acknowledging our current treasures in life?
2) How do you balance a heightened sense of perspective for happiness so it does not deter you from achieving more?
3) How does the digital age contribute to our skewed perspective, and how can we counterbalance that?
September 27, 2023
Discipline: Go from Dummy to Expert in a Matter of Months…
Imagine having a map to buried treasure, a journey that can change your life in unimaginable magnitude. And yet, after close examination of the map, you decide to sit home and do nothing because the journey looks difficult, or the journey doesn’t come with a mentor that will hold your hand.’
This scenario best describes how most people approach life, and their refusal to embrace their personal power. The fact is, DISCIPLINE has replaced LUCK as the sole thing that stops you from succeeding.
A century ago, education and knowledge was a privilege secured from birth, and having the LUCK to be born in the right family in the right city.Today, the world’s knowledge is at your fingertips and readily accessible with a computer or a smartphone.
Per market researcher eMarketer, 63% of adults on the planet have smartphones— but those phones aren’t making them smarter, they are making them dumber.
A great startup story of this truth comes from Moiz Ali, the founder of Native Deodorant which sold to P&G for nine-figures in 2020. Codie Sanchez tweeted (X’d) a great write up of the story which featured the following statement from Moiz.
“I know nothing, and in six months, I’m going to become one of the world’s leading experts on deodorant. I’m just going to spend my time learning, and I’m going to figure it out.”
Moiz Ali, Founder, Native
You see, DISCIPLINE is the only thing required to unlock a treasure trove of resources, resources which can change your life forever.With the right commitment and focus, you can go from dummy to expert in a matter of months.
Or, you can continue to spend 5 hours a day on TikTok, X, and Netflix while complaining you don’t have the skills to change anything. Sorry, you don’t have the discipline to change anything and until you do, nothing will change.
So how do you become disciplined? Someone asked this in the Unscripted Telegram Network to which I posited, the better question is to ask, “What PREVENTS you from being disciplined?”
If you want to be more disciplined, examine the enemies of discipline… and then remove or defeat those enemies.
Poor Environment: A great example was when I lived in Chicago – I couldn’t be disciplined there so I moved to Arizona, an environment which narrowed my focus and strengthened commitment.
Distractions: Distraction is now a business model. Everything is engineered to harvest your focus and attention which is revenue for many companies, and a distraction for you. The more successful these companies are with their high-paid psychological operatives in stealing your attention, the less successful you become. Remove distractions; delete TikTok, cancel the Netflix, and dump the Roblox subscription.
Lack of Purpose: If you were sitting on the railroad tracks and a train was steaming toward you, how hard would you find it to be disciplined? How hard would it be to have a purpose (I don’t want to get run over by a train!) You see, when you discover your purpose, no matter how vague or specific, discipline becomes as urgent as jumping off the train tracks. Purpose comes with two AWESOME COMPANIONS: companion: discipline and happiness.
The power to change your circumstances is within your control, and within your access.
Unprecedented times.
Take advantage now and let your smartphone make you smart, or allow the world’s psychological manipulators to make you dumb.
MJ DeMarco, Entrepreneur, Author
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
September 13, 2023
Fact: Your system is more important than your effort.
The most important concept for obtaining financial freedom has nothing to do with your effort. Take note as I tweeted this, posted it in the Telegram Group, the forum, and here as the newsletter.
Let me repeat: YOUR SYSTEM is more important than your EFFORT.
I realize that might be controversial, but it isn’t when you consider that the fastest man on earth is NOTHING when hindered by a poor system.
The most powerful factor in wealth creation has nothing to do with motivation.
It has nothing to do with effort, persistence, discipline, or the usual suspects commonly pushed.
While these help, the most important thing is likely something you never considered.
It’s this…
The most powerful tool for wealth creation is within the SYSTEM you put yourself in. Your choices dictate the system.
For example, if you elect to get a job as an electrician, that’s a system.
A doctor? A system.
A cashier? It’s a system.
Nurse? You’ve given yourself a system.
Likewise, electing to be an entrepreneur also endows you with a system.
Starting a sandwich shop on the corner? System.
Starting a software company? System.
Joining an MLM to sell overpriced goods and far-fetched fantasies? System.
Starting a YouTube channel? System.
Self-endowed systems go beyond jobs and business. An aspiring actor is part of a system. Artists. If you become a politician and are elected, congratulations; you’re now part of a system. Enter office with a net worth of $1M, leave 15 years later with $250M.
Ultimately, the SYSTEM determines how your EFFORT, motivation, and discipline compounds into momentum, or lack of it. The SYSTEM determines if you have access to asymmetrical leverage–which creates wealth- or no leverage at all.
What leverage does your system offer? Or does it?
The best analogy of the SYSTEM/EFFORT Concept is equate your system to a vehicle.
Many jobs are like a tricycle.
If you throw Usain Bolt on a tricycle, you’d beat him in a race. Did he suddenly get slow? No, the problem is a poor system suddenly marginalizes his EFFORT.
So many people work harder and longer than myself. And they’re more talented. Their work ethic isn’t the issue; it’s that the system they’ve adopted hinders their effort.
Want to get paid what you’re worth? Change your damn system and get off the tricycle.
This is why Fastlane Entrepreneurship is the most potent SYSTEM; it’s a system swap where your effort compounds and gives asymmetrical leverage a chance. A great effort in the JOB SYSTEM gives you a 4% raise. A great effort in a BIZ SYSTEM gives you a 4000% raise.
SYSTEM > EFFORT > MOMENTUM (via Compounding)
Choose wisely.
MJ DeMarco
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
August 13, 2023
5 Crucial Life Lessons that Could Save or Make You Millions.
If you liked my rewrite of the old “Mexican Fisherman” parable, (The Mexican Fisherman has Filed for Bankruptcy) you’ll like this rewrite. It has 5 crucial life lessons that could save, or make you millions. Here it is:
A grandmother congratulated her granddaughter on graduating college. She told her, “I want to give you a graduation present. It is an old painting we’ve had in the family for years. It is yours, but before you decide what to do with it, I want you to understand what it is worth.”
The granddaughter examined the picture, which was slightly larger than a paper notepad and featured a portrait of a Victorian woman. Its frame was golden and gaudy, certainly not something she’d hang in her apartment.
Her grandmother continued, handing her daughter a list, “Here are four locations that will help you find its value. The first option is the estate sale I’m holding next week. You’ll be on your own for the last three places. Don’t make a decision on what to do with the picture until you’ve visited all four places.”
The following week, the grandmother had her estate sale, the first item on the list. As instructed, the granddaughter used the opportunity to offer the picture for sale. A bold sign declared below the picture, “Make offer.”
After three days, the top offer was $250.
The following week, the granddaughter took the painting to a local pawn shop, the second item on her grandmother’s list. After some haggling, the pawn shop offered her $500.
Afterward, the granddaughter felt a bit jaded. She hoped her graduation gift from her grandmother would be an iPhone, not a portrait of some old woman who had been dead for centuries.
She proceeded to the next stop on her list, an art gallery in the city.
She walked into the shop and showed the curator the portrait. The curator’s eyes widened, and she quickly grabbed her loupe to examine the picture closer. The curator studied every inch of the picture, her eyeballs glued to the magnifying glass as if reviewing a fine diamond. The granddaughter was getting impatient and was bored out of her mind.
After 20 minutes of thorough examination, the curator finally spoke, “May I ask where you got this?” The granddaughter replied nonplussed, “It was gift from my grandmother. It’s been in the family for a while.”
“I see,” the curated paused and then smiled. “I can offer you $10,000 for this.”
The granddaughter’s eyes gaped like saucers. “$10,000?”
“Yes,” the curator said, “Would you like me to write you a check?”
The granddaughter thought about all the great things she could buy with $10,000. A new iPhone. A down payment on that new Audi she had her eye on. She was about to accept the offer when she remembered her grandmother’s instructions. “Don’t make a decision until you’ve visited all four places.”
The granddaughter thanked the curator for the offer and walked out, saying she would be in touch.
The granddaughter reviewed the last location on her grandmother’s list the next day. It required a 5-hour drive to New York City, and she arrived late. The establishment’s name sounded familiar when she glanced at it initially, but it wasn’t until she stood outside the building that she realized what it was. It was Sotheby’s, the international auction house.
She walked in and promptly explained that she wanted an appraisal. When she showed the small picture to the receptionist, her face froze. She quickly picked up the phone and mumbled something to someone on the other end.
“Hi I’m Damien, President of Acquisitions,” said a well-suited man minutes later in a thick French accent. After exchanging pleasantries, Damien asked, “Now let’s see what you got here.”
Like the curator did the day before, Damien examined the picture, eye to canvas, with his loupe in excruciating detail accompanied by a series of verbal “oohs” and “ahhs.”
Finished, Damien finally said, “This is a portrait by Edgar Degas, a renowned French impressionist painter. It is a highly sought piece in the art community. We sold his “Les Choristes” painting for $37 million in 2019. If you consign this to us here at Sotheby’s, the minimum starting bid would be $1,000,000.”
Damien smiled and continued, “in our current robust market, this should fetch a tidy sum, much more than that.” He paused. “Shall I draw up the contract?”
The granddaughter left without a contract and visited her grandmother, shell-shocked and giddy at the discovery.
“Did you know how much this is worth?” the granddaughter asserted.
The grandmother replied calmly, “I know how much you’re worth. I wanted you to understand that your value, like this picture, depends on you being in the right place. If you don’t feel valued in your job, by your boyfriend, or by your friends, don’t get upset, it just means you might be in the wrong place. Don’t sell out any part of your life just because the offer before you is convenient and tolerable.“
The parable has several takeaways, and here they are if you missed them:
1) Context and Environment Matter
Your value and the value of your offer depends on the environment and context in which you place it. Selling cold water in Phoenix, Arizona, differs from selling it in Anchorage, Alaska. Most marketing campaigns fail not because of poor messaging but because of poor context and environment. You could create the best beef jerky in the world, but attempting to sell it at a plant-based convention is like taking an Edgar Degas masterpiece to a pawn shop. Are you, or your offer, in the right place?
2) The Curse of Ignorance Causes Poor Decisions
Lack of knowledge can be costly. The best decision-making is done when you have thoroughly researched a topic or a decision and have all the information. What decisions should you not make until more information is obtained?
3) Value is Subjective and Indifferent to Your Personal Tastes
A topic discussed in The Great Rat Race Escape: Not everyone loves coffee. Just because you think coffee is the best drink in the world, doesn’t mean everyone has to agree with you. Just because you think a piece of artwork is atrociously ugly doesn’t mean a billionaire in Austria hates it too. What personal tastes do you hold that might be distorting your view of the market?
4) Don’t Fear Bigger Numbers: The Leap of Zeroes
What seems like a lot of money to you ($10,000) might be nothing to someone else. A limited view of money will limit your ability to attract what you’re worth. $10,000 to the granddaughter felt like a life-changing amount. To the auctioneer who deals with billionaires, it’s petty cash. Twenty five years ago $10K was a lot of money to me. Now, it feels like nothing. Is your limited view of money distorting your true value, or the value of what you can bring to the table?
5) Going the Extra-Mile Might Deliver a Light-Year Result
Decades ago, when I sold my first company, the first offer was $250,000. I was patient and went the extra mile and sought more suitors. The final proposal was nearly 5X more. Patience and diligence yielded a $1M return in less than three months.
Where can going extra mile yield a 5X return in your life?
MJ DeMarco
Want to discuss this topic? Visit the Fastlane Entrepreneur forum and chat about it!
