After busting the 2 big myths to wealth acceleration in his book The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime, MJ DeMarco goes on to share the mindsets and perspectives one needs to have in order to get on the “Fastlane” to wealth.

I want to earn a million dollars, but I don’t want to be a victim of poor money management and instant gratification (the “Sidewalk”), nor subscribe to a lifelong pursuit of austerity only to end up being too old or ill to enjoy my wealth (the “Slowlane”). I want to get there reasonably fast, in less than 10 years, maybe 5 (the “Fastlane”). How does one do it? So now is the part of the book where it gets interesting. But even if you only read the previous sections about the Sidewalk and Slowlane, it’s already pretty paradigm-shifting already. In my book, at least.

Sharing them here as reference for myself, and for anyone who might find it useful. This is not a book review, just raw notes lifted directly from the book, with some minor edits, interpretations and categorisations of my own.

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Which lottery will you choose?

• Sidewalk: $10mil awarded immediately, but odds of winning 1 in 6 million (0.0000016%)
• Slowlane: $0.5mil awarded in 40 years, but odds are 1 in 6 (16%)
• Fastlane: $10mil awarded in 6 years, but odds are 1 in 7 (14%)

Fastlane mindsets

• Debt: Debt is useful if it allows me to build and grow my system
• Time: Time is an asset, more than money. Time is not a liability.
• Education: Always be learning and growing.
• Money: Money is everywhere, and it’s extremely abundant. Money is a reflection of value I created, lives touched.
• Income: I earn via business systems and investments.
• Wealth accelerator: Make something from nothing. Create assets and make them valuable to the market, or take existing assets and add value to them.
• Wealth equation: Wealth = Net profit + Asset value
• 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.
• Life: My dreams are worth pursuing no matter how outlandish, and I understand that it will take some money to make those dreams real.

The Fastlane is Wealth’s Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution allowed us to levers speed and efficiency of machine-based manufacturing over manual labour. Likewise, financial freedom via the Fastlane is like the industrial revolution for wealth. The default road to wealth is manual labour, a fight against time and intrinsic value. The rapid road to wealth is to industrialize the wealth process, to systematize it like our ancestors systematized production. The Fastlane is a business system, the Slowlane is a job.

Fastlane risk is the same, but rewards are better

The risk profile of a Fastlane strategy isn’t much different from the Slowlane, but the rewards are far greater, predicated on controllable unlimited leverage. It is capable of generating “Get Rich Quick” results, but often confused with “Get Rich Easy”.

Be a producer than a consumer

Produce more than you consume, in order to get on Fastlane to wealth. Mindset shift needed to move from being a consumer to a producer.

Some businesses masquerade as jobs

A business does not make a Fastlane—some businesses are jobs in disguise. If the wealth equation of your business is bound by time and its variables are limited and uncontrollable, then the business is a job. A Fastlane business is time-unbounded, unlimited and controllable.

Some Fastlane formulae

• Wealth = Net Profit + Asset Value
• Net Profit = Units Sold x Unit Profit
• Asset Value = Net Profit x Industry Multiple 

You have reasonable control over “unit profit” and “units sold”, by tweaking web traffic, conversion rate, prices. Controllable unlimited variables will make you rich, whereas on a job, you have to negotiate for a salary raise. If your market, your upper speed limit, is millions, you have potential high leverage. Retarded numbers retard wealth.

Assets that you control that rise in value is the Fastlane

The primary wealth accelerant of the rich boils down to one concept: Appreciable and controllable assets. Asset value is simply the worth of any property you own that has marketplace value. Slowlaners and Sidewalkers buy and sell depreciating assets (cars, electronics, clothes, bling), while Fastlaners buy and sell appreciating assets (businesses, IP, inventions).

Industry multipliers

Industry multipliers determines the valuation of your asset, depending on prevailing market conditions, rise and fall of the economy and your sector.