Chapter 32: The Commandment of Control - The Millionaire Fastlane

CHAPTER 32: THE COMMANDMENT OF CONTROL

There is no dependence that can be sure but a dependence on one's self.
~ John Gay

Demand the Driver's Seat

Yes or no. You're either driving the Fastlane or you aren't. You're either in control over your financial plan or you aren't. There is no in between. And if you're not driving, you're sitting in the passenger seat and someone else is in control.

Envision your dream car, boat, or plane. Great, now here are the keys. You get it for one hour, unencumbered. Would you grab those keys and take it for a joyride, using every single minute? Or would you plop your butt down in the passenger seat and resign, “Ehh, you take control, I'll sit in the passenger seat and hitchhike a ride.” Senseless? Not exactly. This is how many people approach business: They hitchhike, they give up the driver's seat, and they violate the Commandment of Control. In doing so, they sacrifice control over their financial plan and ultimately make someone else rich.

Hitchhiking a Fastlane

While hitchhikers of life tread the Sidewalk and are victims, the hitchhikers of business violate the Commandment of Control.

N – E – (Control) – S – T

A business hitchhiker seeks refuge from risk and cowers within the confines of a matriarchal organization. This subservient relationship renders a loss of control and leaves you vulnerable to the actions of the driver. When you control your business, you control everything in your business-your organization, your products, your pricing, your revenue model, and your operational choices. If you can't control every aspect of your company, you're not driving! And if you can't drive, you set yourself up for sudden, unexpected crashes.

Fastlane drivers retain control. Those who violate the commandment do not.

In general:

• Drivers create MLM companies; they don't join them.
• Drivers sell franchises; they don't buy them.
• Drivers offer affiliate programs; they don't join them.
• Drivers run hedge funds; they don't invest in them.
• Drivers sell stock; they don't buy stock.
• Drivers offer drop-shipping; they don't use drop-shipping.
• Drivers offer employment; they don't get employed.
• Drivers accept rents and royalties; they don't pay rents and royalties.
• Drivers sell licenses; they don't buy them.
• Drivers sell IPO shares; they don't buy them.

So are you DRIVING a Fastlane? Or HITCHHIKING one? If this hitchhiker description describes you, don't get discouraged or defensive. You can't be a driver in every instance. Heck, even I engage in hitchhiking activities. Fastlane hitchhikers can make good money, sometimes boatloads. However, understand this: The driver retains control and makes the big money. At best, the hitchhiker makes good money.

Good Money Versus Big Money

There is a difference between good money, big money, and legendary money. Good money is $20,000/month.

The cattle call of every network marketing company is, “Hey, wanna make $10,000 a month?” Big deal. Remember your windshield. It's big money only in your head. That's decent money but nothing that's going to put you into a private jet and 40-foot yacht on Newport Beach.

Big money is $200,000/month. Now we're talking-$200,000 every month will make a dent into your lifestyle. When you earn this level of income, life changes.

And then there is legendary money, where you earn more than a million dollars every month. Outrageous? Not at all. When you leverage all five commandments and control your company, one million a month is not impossible.

To hit big money or legendary money, you need to control your system and every aspect of that system. When you relinquish control and defer power to a higher authority, you cede big money to the driver and accept good money as the passenger.

For example, my Web site offered an affiliate program. My best affiliate consistently earned $20,000+/month. Yes, he was making good money. He was the hitchhiking passenger, and I was the driver, controlling the affiliate process. However, think about the danger he assumed. At any moment I could have instituted a “new policy” that would have reduced his earnings. I drove his income stream, and he absorbed the risk that I wouldn't disturb, alter, or modify the affiliate agreement. And most importantly, as a driver, I was the one making big money ($200,000/month), while he settled for good money ($20,000/month).

Similarly, you might have heard of a unique group of Internet entrepreneurs called “AdSense” millionaires. Google Adsense is an advertiser network that online content publishers leverage to earn income from their Web sites' traffic. There are affiliates, bloggers, and publishers who earn good money from using Google's AdSense program. Some content providers and bloggers earn six figures monthly. Arguably, this is big money, yet Google (the driver) makes the legendary money.

No Control = Crashes

Think about the dangers of hitchhiking. You get into some stranger's car and you let them drive. Hitchhiking a Fastlane is an incredible risk, especially when your family is the cargo. My experience has repeated itself for countless entrepreneurs who learned the hard way.

Some background: My forum leverages the Google advertising network, which pays revenue for ad clicks that evolve from my forum. It is a hitchhiking relationship-Google is the driver and my forum is the passenger. A thread at my forum discussed an e-book marketing program. As the thread progressed, a joke was made about a former bankrupt NBA player, and (long story short) the folks at Google claimed the content violated their terms. My ads were terminated and the revenue stopped. Now imagine if this forum and the Google revenue were responsible for feeding my family. Imagine if I relied on it. Imagine if I was earning $15,000/month from these ads and in one big swoop, it was gone.

No control. No say. No power. It took me eight days to resolve the problem, but it exposed the dangers of hitchhiking a Fastlane as a passenger versus driving it. For those eight days, my income from that activity was zero. In any driver/hitchhiker relationship, the driver always makes more money than the hitchhiker and retains a critical component to Fastlane strategy: control.

I can't imagine running a company in which another entity has the power to instantaneously kill your revenue stream. If someone can “flip a switch” and destroy your business, you're playing roulette with your financial plan. The congenital danger of hitchhiking is that you relinquish control to the driver. If the driver crashes into a wall, guess who goes with them.

You.

The problem with being a hitchhiker is you really never know the driver. The driver could be ethical, moral, and just, or the driver could be corrupt and evil. Either way, as a hitchhiker you waive all power to your driver. He who owns the keys owns the power.

Yet millions of people submit to this type of organizational control without pause. They sign franchise agreements, giving control over crucial business decisions, including marketing, ads, and royalties. They join distributorships in which others dictate their compensation structure. Their product funnel is directed by a centralized source. They're told like automatons what they can and can't do. They're held hostage to a corporate patriarch, not realizing that they aren't really their own boss. If you can't change your product, are you the boss? If you can't change your price, are you the boss? If you can't influence marketing decisions, are you the boss?

Years ago, I joined a network marketing company. I had a friend who earned good money. Ultimately, the company changed its product line and compensation structure. My friend's income stream was disrupted and eventually disappeared. The asset he created (his downline and cash-flow stream) vaporized in a matter of months. My friend had no control despite claiming that he “owned his own business.” His mistake was to violate the Commandment of Control. He never had the keys to his business, and his empire was nothing but a mirage founded on false foundations governed by a political party in which he had no voice.

When drivers make radical turns and change terms, you have no choice but to go with them. If it's the cliff of bankruptcy or criminal neglect, their sinking ship becomes yours. Do you really want to engage in a business relationship like this?

Think Shark, Not Guppy

If you lived in an aquarium, would you rather be the shark or the guppy? Sharks eat . . . guppies get eaten.

Business is a fierce competition for the consumer's mind and their money. It's an expansive ocean where multiple species wage war over sustenance: money. In this oceanic game, you want to be at the top of the food chain, not at the bottom fighting your way up the top. Build corporate ladders-don't join them. Build pyramid organizations-don't join them. Think manufacture, not retail.

To become a shark, you have to think like one. Sharks think big and guppies think small. As a shark, you have to drill down into your belief system and change your mindset. Think globally, not locally. Think to lead, not to follow. Think to innovate, not to copy. The change and transformation from guppy to shark starts with your thoughts as your focus moves from the few to the many.

When you engage your Fastlane road, be the shark and use the entire ocean as your playground. Ever watch a school of fish? Each fish doesn't act as a single unit. They act in unison as a collective. Unfortunately, most people can't see the danger of this analogy. They're just one fish immersed in a collective controlled by a force greater than themselves. And who is attracted to these schools of fish? The sharks. Be the shark, the predator, not the guppy. Be a driver, not a hitchhiker.

Invest in Your Brand Only!

Whose money tree are you growing? Are you investing in your brand or in someone else's?

Ever sit in traffic and spot a car plastered with decals and stickers of some company? From network marketing companies selling Acai drinks to one of the largest makeup companies in the country, these decals are official decrees to the world from the driver: “Yes folks, I invest my life in someone else's brand.” They are guppies in a shark-infested ocean.

I recently had a middle-aged woman drive up to me in my gym's parking lot. She stopped and asked me about my Lamborghini and its vanity license plate. Then she opened a Pandora's box and asked, “Do you do any network marketing?”

Before I unloaded, I glanced at the car she was driving. She drove a rusty old Hyundai that needed new tires and a paint job. The rear window was missing (unless you believe duct tape suffices as an adequate replacement to glass). The side doors were plastered with decals and magnetized signs exclaiming the greatness of her network marketing company.

“Make a huge income from home!”

I wondered if her company (and her road) were so great, why was she driving a POS Hyundai that costs less than the front left tire on my Lambo? How can she advertise “Make a huge income from home!” when obviously, she isn't earning a huge income from home? I respectfully asked her why she invests in a business that she doesn't control. Why are you painting someone else's “big picture” when you should be painting your own?

She smiled, raised her “dream-stealer” defenses, and rejected my analysis. As if what she was doing was working and reasonable, her mind was closed to my suggestions. That's fine. Keep doing what you're doing and see if that gets you where you want to go. Don't listen to me; you came up to me and I'm the one who's retired and living the dream. I know that sounds arrogant and pretentious, and I apologize, but logic eludes most people.

When you blindly invest your life and time into someone else's brand, you become a part of their marketing plan. You become a swab of paint in their big picture. You resign yourself to the slim possibility of making good money vs. big money. Not investing in my own brand was one of my most serious mistakes as a young entrepreneur. Hitchhiking a Fastlane is an epidemic that deceives many would-be entrepreneurs. I say “would-be” because hitchhiking isn't entrepreneurial, because at the heart of entrepreneurship is creation and innovation. Hitchhikers aren't pioneers; they don't create or innovate. They sell, operate, and manage.

If the driver decides to close up shop, you're out of luck. If the driver decides to discontinue a product and it's your sole source of income, you're out of luck. Fastlaners control their brands, their properties, and their financial plans. They don't blindly give it to others and hope for the best.

Network Marketing As A Fastlane … Only If . . .

Network marketing is a Fastlane but only if you own the network marketing company. As a Fastlaner, you want to create these companies, not join them.

I have a lot of Facebook friends who are spiritedly engaged in network marketing (MLM). I don't espouse my world vision on them, because they have to see it for themselves. If they truly believe that $20,000/month is a great income, let them believe it. If they truly believe that their income stream will be passive forever, let them believe it. If they truly believe that they are in control, let them believe it. These people have to see the truth on their own.

It took me four network marketing companies to expose the truth. And that truth? The only people in the company who were living in houses on the Pacific Ocean with stables full of exotic cars were the founders and inner circle-not the distributors who signed up years later.

I don't hide my discontent for network marketing, although the reason for my discontent is misconstrued. Network marketing is a hitchhiking strategy that disguises itself as an entrepreneurial activity. My discontent lies in the misconception; millions fall for the pitches such as “Be your own boss!” “Own your own company!” or “Passive residual income!”

While there is a small sliver of validity to these claims, they cloud the real essence of MLM, which is sales, distribution, and training-not entrepreneurship. I was involved in four MLM companies. Not once do I remember dictating product decisions, research and development, marketing restrictions, rules, cost analysis, or any other activity fundamental to owning a business. As a network marketer, you don't own a business-you own a job managing and creating a sales organization. That's like stuffing money under the mattress and calling it an investment.

Years ago, I had friends who did well in MLM, and some of them still do. Heck, I even did OK. But two things always nagged at me. First, I had no control. I was at the mercy of the company, its policies, its procedures, its product line, its cost structure-and whatever mandate they set forth, I'd be stuck with it. I remember when my company discontinued its best product and my income plummeted through no fault of my own.

My friend who was making a nice living at MLM? He quit due to opposition over corporate decisions, and from what I hear, every few years he jumps from opportunity to opportunity. He continually repeats the cycle: Climb aboard some hot opportunity, run it dry, and move to the next. Last I checked, he isn't rich, nor is he retired. He's not stuck in a rat race, but a rabbit race from one carrot to the next.

The second nag at my mind was clear: I didn't feel like an entrepreneur. I felt like a worker bee stuck in a chaotic hive. I felt like an employee of a large company that was benefiting from the fruit of my hard work, even when hours of that hard work yielded few dollars. My essence knew I was violating a multitude of commandments and rules: the Rule of Everyone, the Commandment of Entry, and the Commandment of Control.

My dislike for the model lies in the misdirection conveyed to would-be participants; they think they're entrepreneurs when they're just salespeople and sales managers in a Fastlaner's plan.

Can these folks make a huge chunk of change? Of course, I don't argue that fact! Top salespeople in Fortune 500 companies also make a lot of money. Lottery winners also make lots of money. We're talking odds here, not absolutes. MLM distributors are commissioned employees disguised as entrepreneurs and working for a Fastlaner in a regime they don't control, but the Fastlaner does. Network marketers are soldiers in the Fastlaner's army.

So let me be clear to all those MLM folks out there ready to hang me: I love network marketing as an entrepreneur. If I ever invent a product that needs distribution, network marketing would be my first consideration. Furthermore, MLM has excellent educational value: sales, motivation, team-building, and networking. Network marketing can accelerate your future.

As for my friend, he is a hitchhiker of a Fastlane. What he doesn't realize is that to fully exploit the Fastlane road, you don't join a network marketing company, you create it. You must be the creator of the company that people are dying to join. You must be the controller of policy and product, and the producer.

The Fastlaner creates and invests in his own brand; the hitchhiker climbs aboard someone else's and hopes to piggyback a ride. If you don't control your system, your money tree, and your brand, you control nothing. You must sit on top of the pyramid and serve the masses. Stop climbing pyramids and start building them.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Hitchhikers relinquish control of their business to a Fastlaner.
• There is a difference between “good” money and “big” money. Hitchhikers can make good money while Fastlaners make big money. Sometimes legendary money.
• In a driver/hitchhiker relationship, the driver always retains control and the hitchhiker is at the mercy of the driver.
• Hitchhikers are party to someone else's Fastlane plan. Make the world your habitat of play in an organization you control.
• Network marketing has little to do with entrepreneurship but more to do with sales, networking, training, and motivation.
• Network marketing fails both the Commandments of Control and Entry, and sometimes, Need.
• Network marketers are soldiers in a Fastlaner's army.
• Network marketing is a powerful distribution system. As a Fastlaner, seek to own one, not join one.