Chapter 34: The Commandment of Time - The Millionaire Fastlane

CHAPTER 34: THE COMMANDMENT OF TIME

I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live only about a hundred years.
~ Thomas Edison

Break the Binds That Tie

The final Fastlane commandment is the Commandment of Time. The Commandment of Time requires that your business detach from your time. Can your business substitute for you and blossom into a money tree? Passive income is a Fastlane objective that comes from the Commandment of Time.

N – E – C – S – (Time)

Remember this: Owning a business doesn't guarantee wealth or detachment from time. Some business owners are married to their businesses because their businesses violate the Commandment of Time. The business ostensibly becomes a job and a lifelong prison sentence. While giving up your heart and soul for a business is perfectly normal in startup, growth, and maturation stage, it isn't a prescription I'd want to endure for 40 years.

The Commandment of Time asks:

• Can this business be automated and systematized to operate while I'm absent?
• Are my margins thick enough to hire human resource seedlings?
• Can my operation benefit from the introduction of a money tree seedling?
• How can I get this business to operate exclusive of my time?

Jobs are time trades for income, and yes, so are some businesses. The goal of the Fastlane is a disconnection of your time from income, even if that income isn't millions. Would you rather work 10 hours a week and earn $60,000, or work 70 hours a week for $140,000? I'd take the former over the latter every time.

Ashlyn Gardner loves the arts and literature. Following the prophetic advice of gurus, she sets off to “do what she loves”-she opens a coffee shop featuring art of local artisans and hosts weekly literature readings. Like a new love relationship, her new business starts with a bang and is the source of excitement and eagerness.

However, after two years, her business normalizes and the luster fades into hardship. Ashlyn realizes that she doesn't own her business; it owns her. She is up at 4 a.m. to open and has to be there at 8 p.m. to close. The 24/7 of business is a perpetual nag. Employees come and go, and the good ones demand pay she can't afford. Her social life dies and her boyfriend breaks up with her because she never has time. Her gym membership expires and, with it, her weekly yoga class.

Seeking to reclaim her time and her life, Ashlyn considers hiring a general manager. Unfortunately, hiring a GM would put her margins in the red. She won't work the business for free and the cost to her life isn't worth the profit she makes. Three years into the business, she closes up shop and looks to return to the ranks of employee over employer.

Ashlyn didn't fail at business. Her coffee shop was successful and earned her a modest living. Where did she fail? She failed the Commandment of Time and upon entering this business, like most business owners, didn't think it through past the excitement of the newness.

A Money Tree That Never Grows

A successful business isn't fun and games, especially one that violates the Commandment of Time. Often people get into business with the wrong idea of what it will be like. Fueled by gurus and life coaches, many are misled, believing that “be your own boss” and “do what you love” is enough motivational fire to sprout success. Unfortunately, these would-be business owners merge onto roads that may as well trail a path through desert. And sorry, money trees don't grow in the desert.

Think about Ashlyn and her quaint coffee shop. Was she her own boss? Sure, but it wasn't enough. Ashlyn's coffee shop didn't necessarily fail, but it failed her. She was motivated by her passion for art and literature. She was motivated to be her own boss. While such dispositions are healthy, it isn't enough to change a deficient road. You can't sprout flowers from arid soil.

As a Fastlaner, your road should be traveled with the intention to make it automated. You want passivity and a living money tree. When you fail the commandment of time, the failure is cause by one of two obstacles. They are:

1. You don't have access to the seeds because your road started with a deficiency.
2. The seeds won't grow in infertile soil.

If your business is based on one of the money-tree seedlings, it should be capable of growing a money tree. Content systems, computer systems, software systems, distribution systems, and human resource systems are all seedlings to money trees. If your business isn't based on one, can one be added to make it passive?

For Ashlyn's coffee shop, she recognized she needed the seed to a money tree-human resources-in the form of a general manager. She couldn't justify the cost, and the seed was inaccessible. Her road started deficient and wouldn't grow a planted seed. Had she ignored her finances and hired a general manager anyway, hence planting the seed, she would have discovered later that it was infertile and incapable of harvesting a money tree.

The problem with most business roads is that they are infertile breeding grounds for money trees simply because they fail the Commandment of Time. The seeds aren't accessible and those seeds that are accessible won't take to the soil.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• A business attached to your time is a job.
• business that earns income exclusive of your time satisfies the Commandment of Time.
• To satisfy the Commandment of Time, start with a business that uses a money system seedling, or introduce one.