Chapter 29: The Right Road Routes to Wealth - The Millionaire Fastlane

CHAPTER 29: THE RIGHT ROAD ROUTES TO WEALTH

He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end.
~ Henry Emerson Fosdick

Is Your Road-to-Wealth a Dead-End?

What is the road as it relates to wealth journey? If you're a Slowlaner, your road is your job: doctor, lawyer, engineer, salesman, hairdresser, pilot. If you're a Fastlaner, your road is a business: Internet entrepreneur, real estate investor, author, or inventor.

Your road is your career or business path, and that road must be the route to wealth. Unfortunately, most jobs can't route to wealth because of their mathematical limitations and, surprisingly, most businesses don't either! A road that starts in Chicago and leads east will never hit Las Vegas. It's a dead end! If you're on an errant business road you have to use your steering wheel and make a course correction: Exit the road, take a turn, or turn around.

This impasse confronts millions of business owners. They fool themselves by journeying the wrong road and then wonder why wealth has eluded them. Instead of fighting eight-hour workdays, they fight 12-hour store hours. Instead of leveraging the surrogacy of a system, they trade time for dollars. Instead of trading five days of work for two days off, they trade 6-for-1, or 7-for-0, in lifelong perpetuity.

If you heed the Fastlane philosophy and start a lemonade stand on the street corner simply because the Fastlane said, “Start a business,” I have failed. That road is the wrong road because it doesn't route to wealth. The road to wealth must route to wealth! How? Your road must go near or through the Law of Effection.

The Road to Effection: The Five Fastlane Commandments

The Law of Effection says to make millions you must impact millions. How can you impact millions? In the Slowlane you explode intrinsic value, become enormously indispensable, and earn millions. In the Fastlane, you engineer a business that touches millions of lives in scale, or many lives of magnitude. If your road doesn't lead through Effection's neighborhood or have an off-ramp onto it, sorry, you're on the wrong road.

The power of the Fastlane wealth equation is ignited by a business that drives to the Law of Effection. Business opportunities are plentiful, and unfortunately most of them aren't Fastlane roads. If you're stuck in a retail store selling $10 haircuts, can you reasonably expect to serve millions? To make millions, you must serve millions. A kick-butt attitude is negated if your road is directionally challenged toward Effection, because Effection is the gatekeeper to wealth.

To light the Law of Effection and illuminate your Fastlane road, cross-examine it against the Five Fastlane Commandments (NECST, pronounced “next”).

1. The Commandment of Need
2. The Commandment of Entry
3. The Commandment of Control
4. The Commandment of Scale
5. The Commandment of Time

NECST is a Fastlane litmus test and validates your road. Does your road (or potential road) route to wealth? Is it Fastlane? Can it be made Fastlane? Can it hit Effection? Can your road route to a multimillion-dollar enterprise, generate passive income, and end at a final liquidation event?

A road meeting all five commandments can make you filthy rich fast. As violations accrue, the road degrades in its wealth potential, and with it, your ability to get near Effection also degrades. While it's possible to violate one or more commandments and still create wealth quickly, you should aim for a road that satisfies all five commandments. Potent roads are potent wealth creators. Sadly, most business opportunities fail the commandments, and, if they fail, they don't deserve your respect or attention.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Not all businesses are the right road. Few roads move at, through, or near the Law of Effection.
• The best roads and the purest Fastlanes satisfy the Five Fastlane Commandments: Need, Entry, Control, Scale, and Time.