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:<p>. 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?<p>. Nice tone of misogyny throughout. Yay!<p>. 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.<p>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.
<i>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).</i><p>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 <i>falling</i>. If you want to be financially wealthy writing a book is a <i>really</i> bad way to go about it.
"Don’t waste your money on expensive ($3k+) seminars and workshops. Those make the speakers rich but are rarely worth the money for attendees."<p>The same is true for books. For example this book.
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".<p>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.
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.<p>I'm not saying don't invent or write books either. Just don't bet your life on it.
I know many of you will not like this book, but I personally think it's <i>exactly</i> 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.<p>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 <i>all</i> of those lessons myself.<p>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.<p>For some of you, it might seem like common sense:<p>* Separate your time from your income stream. *<p>Build a flexible, scalable business that you control that has a hard path to entry, yet can scale beyond its own man-hours.<p>Don't be <i>too</i> put off by the title. There's a ton of people, myself included, who would benefit from reading it.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.<p>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.<p>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.
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, <a href="http://codingvc.com" rel="nofollow">http://codingvc.com</a> (I no longer maintain leoexplor.es). Books I'd like to summarize: Art of Profitability, Venture Deals, Founder's Dilemmas, etc.
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".<p>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...
> What if you’re not happy living a frugal/basic lifestyle?<p>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.<p>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.
For anyone else wondering: author of Leo Explores is Leo Polovets @lpolovets<p>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"
Link is down for me.<p>Archive.org link: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor.es/great-books/2012/09/19/the-millionaire-fastlane/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor....</a>
Despite the terrible title and cover image, it is actually a very useful book.<p>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.
I'm a member of the author's forum:<p><a href="http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/</a><p>He gives away sample chapters of the book, or if you like listening, the first chapter is also in audio format.