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The Millionaire Fastlane

onion2k 13y ago
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.
- hack_edu 13y ago
  Not to mention how few books remain in print or sell new after only two or three years.
- corkill 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.
  - deeths 13y ago
    The average technical book (for instance) sells 2000 copies. That's not going to provide a whole lot of lead generation for most authors.
  - segmondy 13y ago
    By your logic, few people get wealthy off their businesses, so hey, don't start a business. The reality is you have to figure out what is going to sell. I have no interest in writing books, but if I did, and I wanted to make money. You can bet it's not going to be a technical book. I'll be going after a market that is large and hot, think books like Harry Porter or 50 shades of gray. Make no mistake about it, the business doesn't start until the book is done, the business is not writing the book but selling the book. Most authors just write and then sit and hope it get's popular. You have to hustle and push and sell and sell, so it get's popular. I watched MJ write this book, he mentioned he was going to write it on his forum, then he did. Did he make any money? Nope! Then he got into marketing/sales mode and pushed it, and it sold. Got lot's of review on amazon and sales took off, I don't know his numbers but I betcha it's much much larger than your average technical books. I won't be surprised if he is well into the 5 digits. He also self published, so he's collecting pretty much most of the income. How did I reach 10k? 4 hour workweek has sold about 1,350,000 copies and has almost ~3k reviews, amazon MJ's book has a little bit 1/6th ~500+ reviews on amazon. They both have 4.5/5 stars.
teemo_cute 13y ago
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 13y ago
  The Audiobook is the way to go. He treats it like a coffee shop conversation. Really put my ass into gear.
  - BaconJuice 13y ago
    Can you provide a link to the audiobook please? Couldnt find it. Thank you.
luxpir 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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-ebook/dp/B003YH9MMI/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?tag=dedasys-20 http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching-... 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 13y ago
PalUk 13y ago
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 13y ago
  "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.
runarb 13y ago
Link is down for me. Archive.org link: https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor.es/great-books/2012/09/19/the-millionaire-fastlane/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor....
dotcoma 13y ago
The Millionaire Fastlane: write a book with this title, and have a lot of clueless people buy it. It's proven to work.
- thejosh 13y ago
  sell foraging gear to gold foragers
- m52go 13y ago
  Judge a book by its title, and miss out big-time.
MicroBerto 13y ago
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.
m52go 13y ago
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 13y ago
  "Sell em what they want. Give em what they need."
xpop2027 13y ago
Thank you for this.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
akandiah 13y ago
If you're after a better book on this subject, save your time and read the classic "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.
- _cbb1 13y ago
  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.
mattholtom 13y ago
Slow lane folks, I sleep like a baby.
- mironathetin 13y ago
  Thats a good one!
normloman 13y ago
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.
- Infinitesimus 13y ago
  He isn't proposing that everyone can be rich. Have you read the book? He's proposing that 1. If you don't think it is possible for you, it will never be. 2. Getting rich (financially) requires a LOT of hard work On the subject of saving and investing wisely, he reminds the readers that investment works on compound interest. It is good to invest, but the more you put in, the more you get in return and it is a pretty slow process. It is good to be smart with money and invest wisely, but without high risk, there would be little high reward. It seems like a lot of people are dismissing the book without looking at the contents of it... (sort of brought it on himself with the title) Also, the book is NOT saying getting money is the end-all. He emphasizes the important of health, family and freedom (which may or may not mean money for people)
  - squintychino 13y ago
    He hasn't. He probably skimmed the title and started writing his post then and there.
  - luxpir 13y ago
    OK - my last comment on this - the book has wasted enough time already... For my sins, I read it. And it was painful. But he doesn't say what you remember he did. You took away the wrong message. He belittles the 'slowlane' approach of building up wealth through compound interest, encouraging you to build a business that scales first (then look at compound interest to consolidate). Much of what he says makes sense, if not completely obvious, it's just the endless fluff and ego I couldn't stand. If the guy used normal language, had it edited well [1], didn't impose his ego everywhere through misogyny, dubious self-anecdotes, a continuous stream of prententious and laughable 'Laws' and didn't have a complete lack of self-awareness that he might have just got lucky in the dotcom boom, not overlooking his respectable work learning to code for his own golden-ticket website (a limo hire business), then I might have appreciated the book. But then, that's a different book. I've nothing against the guy, I can see he's charismatic in a way and probably attracts the young and naive in droves, but I just don't think it's the healthiest of outlooks on life and encourages the hero-syndrome of the self-obsessed, rather than the respectable achievements of the generous and giving. I've only ever written one other bad review, for a speed reading book [2], and it tried the same trick: all fluff and no substance. It probably says more about me that I keep checking these books out 'just in case' they have some useful insight. They rarely do. -- [1] It's obviously more of a pleasure to read something that has been made with care, and not full of this kind of awkward phrasing: "I don't espouse my world vision on them" (first example I could find). [2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R29N3MVZ18NRUH http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R29N3MVZ18NRUH
koonsolo 13y ago
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.
nathanvanfleet 13y ago
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.
mironathetin 13y ago
"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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.
grdeken 13y ago
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...
ergest 13y ago
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"
- parasitius 13y ago
  Right. And by your smart ass tine you act like there is a third way. Which will it be? Winning the lottery or your boss suddenly decides to give you a 500k per year salary increase? Really. It us like criticising a book on becoming a sumo champion by saying it is yet another book advocating weight gain for those under 120lbs soaking wet.
imgabe 13y ago
> 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.
speedracr 13y ago
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"
sahil_videology 13y ago
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.
orasis 13y ago
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.
lpolovets 13y ago
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.
- wooyi 13y ago
  It was useful to me. Thank you.
- idlewan 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    Thank you for the feedback.
global360 13y ago
Balance (work/family/fun) = happiness You can also rob a bank and get rich quick.

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.

hack_edu 13y ago
Not to mention how few books remain in print or sell new after only two or three years.
corkill 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.
- deeths 13y ago
  The average technical book (for instance) sells 2000 copies. That's not going to provide a whole lot of lead generation for most authors.
- segmondy 13y ago
  By your logic, few people get wealthy off their businesses, so hey, don't start a business. The reality is you have to figure out what is going to sell. I have no interest in writing books, but if I did, and I wanted to make money. You can bet it's not going to be a technical book. I'll be going after a market that is large and hot, think books like Harry Porter or 50 shades of gray. Make no mistake about it, the business doesn't start until the book is done, the business is not writing the book but selling the book. Most authors just write and then sit and hope it get's popular. You have to hustle and push and sell and sell, so it get's popular. I watched MJ write this book, he mentioned he was going to write it on his forum, then he did. Did he make any money? Nope! Then he got into marketing/sales mode and pushed it, and it sold. Got lot's of review on amazon and sales took off, I don't know his numbers but I betcha it's much much larger than your average technical books. I won't be surprised if he is well into the 5 digits. He also self published, so he's collecting pretty much most of the income. How did I reach 10k? 4 hour workweek has sold about 1,350,000 copies and has almost ~3k reviews, amazon MJ's book has a little bit 1/6th ~500+ reviews on amazon. They both have 4.5/5 stars.

teemo_cute 13y ago

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 13y ago
The Audiobook is the way to go. He treats it like a coffee shop conversation. Really put my ass into gear.
- BaconJuice 13y ago
  Can you provide a link to the audiobook please? Couldnt find it. Thank you.

luxpir 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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-ebook/dp/B003YH9MMI/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?tag=dedasys-20 http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching-... 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 13y ago

PalUk 13y ago

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 13y ago
"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.

runarb 13y ago

Link is down for me. Archive.org link: https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor.es/great-books/2012/09/19/the-millionaire-fastlane/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130623133054/http://leoexplor....

dotcoma 13y ago

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

thejosh 13y ago
sell foraging gear to gold foragers
m52go 13y ago
Judge a book by its title, and miss out big-time.

MicroBerto 13y ago

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.

m52go 13y ago

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 13y ago
"Sell em what they want. Give em what they need."

xpop2027 13y ago

Thank you for this.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

akandiah 13y ago

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

_cbb1 13y ago
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.

mattholtom 13y ago

Slow lane folks, I sleep like a baby.

mironathetin 13y ago
Thats a good one!

normloman 13y ago

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.

Infinitesimus 13y ago
He isn't proposing that everyone can be rich. Have you read the book? He's proposing that 1. If you don't think it is possible for you, it will never be. 2. Getting rich (financially) requires a LOT of hard work On the subject of saving and investing wisely, he reminds the readers that investment works on compound interest. It is good to invest, but the more you put in, the more you get in return and it is a pretty slow process. It is good to be smart with money and invest wisely, but without high risk, there would be little high reward. It seems like a lot of people are dismissing the book without looking at the contents of it... (sort of brought it on himself with the title) Also, the book is NOT saying getting money is the end-all. He emphasizes the important of health, family and freedom (which may or may not mean money for people)
- squintychino 13y ago
  He hasn't. He probably skimmed the title and started writing his post then and there.
- luxpir 13y ago
  OK - my last comment on this - the book has wasted enough time already... For my sins, I read it. And it was painful. But he doesn't say what you remember he did. You took away the wrong message. He belittles the 'slowlane' approach of building up wealth through compound interest, encouraging you to build a business that scales first (then look at compound interest to consolidate). Much of what he says makes sense, if not completely obvious, it's just the endless fluff and ego I couldn't stand. If the guy used normal language, had it edited well [1], didn't impose his ego everywhere through misogyny, dubious self-anecdotes, a continuous stream of prententious and laughable 'Laws' and didn't have a complete lack of self-awareness that he might have just got lucky in the dotcom boom, not overlooking his respectable work learning to code for his own golden-ticket website (a limo hire business), then I might have appreciated the book. But then, that's a different book. I've nothing against the guy, I can see he's charismatic in a way and probably attracts the young and naive in droves, but I just don't think it's the healthiest of outlooks on life and encourages the hero-syndrome of the self-obsessed, rather than the respectable achievements of the generous and giving. I've only ever written one other bad review, for a speed reading book [2], and it tried the same trick: all fluff and no substance. It probably says more about me that I keep checking these books out 'just in case' they have some useful insight. They rarely do. -- [1] It's obviously more of a pleasure to read something that has been made with care, and not full of this kind of awkward phrasing: "I don't espouse my world vision on them" (first example I could find). [2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R29N3MVZ18NRUH http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R29N3MVZ18NRUH

koonsolo 13y ago

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.

nathanvanfleet 13y ago

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.

mironathetin 13y ago

"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 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.

grdeken 13y ago

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...

ergest 13y ago

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"

parasitius 13y ago
Right. And by your smart ass tine you act like there is a third way. Which will it be? Winning the lottery or your boss suddenly decides to give you a 500k per year salary increase? Really. It us like criticising a book on becoming a sumo champion by saying it is yet another book advocating weight gain for those under 120lbs soaking wet.

imgabe 13y ago

> 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.

speedracr 13y ago

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"

sahil_videology 13y ago

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.

orasis 13y ago

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.

lpolovets 13y ago

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.

wooyi 13y ago
It was useful to me. Thank you.
idlewan 13y ago
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 13y ago
  Thank you for the feedback.

global360 13y ago

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