HN Books @HNBooksMonth

The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime - MJ DeMarco

http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Fastlane-Wealth-Lifeti...

The title sounds cheesy, but it's a really good book in reality.

Worked hard for 10 years in various web development shops, started a company with two of the smartest people I met during that time, sold it, worked through golden handcuffs, and had a nice exit. Now I live off of interest from fixed income investments and am currently looking to pivot my career from web development into computer graphics/games/VR since I think a revolution is coming. I love programming and don't need to work but really want to build cool stuff. In broad strokes I'm where I set out to be when I graduated in college -- I didn't know the tactics but I knew the strategy. I'm in my early thirties.

This is probably the most important book you'll read at your age:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Fastlane-Wealth-Lifeti...

⬐ macguyver

jabbathehut, you've just described my situation as well. Worked hard for 8 years at various VC/self-funded startups as founding hire, went solo in between startups, and don't need to work either - although for me, it is more of a combination of passive income and frugal living - I like to work and solve problems. I recently lived in South America for six months and realized after the novelty wore off that I really wanted to make cool things that will change the world in a big way. In fact, I ended up spending most of my time working on this while living there, so I came back to the US to move things faster.

May I ask where you're based out of? The computer animation/games/video revolution is definitely coming and I see very valuable applications of the technology outside of the gaming space. The immediate opportunity/problem I'm working on solving is in a growing global niche market. The idea came from a problem I had in this space. Users (including myself) are paying lots of money but there's nonexistent innovation and almost every user I spoke with is in interested in trying this. I'm fairly location independent, and I'd love to meet up/chat to talk more; if you're interested, please feel free to email me at yuzshan [At] gmail [d0t] com

PS I'm also in my early thirties. Great book by the way.

I read The Millionaire Fastlane recently, and it was fantastic. The author talks at length about the potential folly of saving your whole life in order to have fun at the end. Who knows how long you will be around or what your health will be like when you finally "retire"? The book has lots of great insights and strategies for the startup crowd. There's a Mixergy interview with the author available here: http://mixergy.com/mj-demarco-limos-interview/

Book link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Fastlane-Wealth-Lifeti...

⬐ jonpaul

I completely agree with this. Once you get over the cheesy metaphor, the book really is packed with a ton of information on starting a business and actually achieving wealth at a young age. Also, the author (MJ Demarco) has made himself accessible for anyone that wants to contact him and ask questions.

I can't recommend this book enough.

I also recommend this one: http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Fastlane-Wealth-Lifeti...

⬐ 13rules

I second this one ... one of the better books I've read in the last year. Validated some of the ways I thought about myself and my business, as well as gave me some new ideas and approaches to thinking.

I really like the strategy layed out in MJ Demarco's Millionaire Fastlane. A lucrative startup idea should have five things:

Need - There has to be a need for what you're delivering. Don't blindly do what you love or are passionate about, do what the market requests. The market doesn't care at all about what you love, they care how you can solve their needs.

Entry - It shouldn't be easy to start the business/to step in the market. If it's to easy to get into the market, it's probably way harder to succeed in that market. There's a reason why it's almost impossible for blogs to earn serious money, it's simply too easy to start one. Everyone can start one. If everyone can start up a clone of your business, it's not likely to succeed. However, if it takes some real work/investment to startup your business, it's probably a better business.

Control - You must be in control over your own business success. If somebody else can shut down your business, you're not in control. If your business is relying on API access or affiliate income from somebody else, it's not a very substainable business.

Scale - The business must be able to scale to the masses. If you're running a sandwitch cart, it doesn't matter how good your sandwitches are. You can't suddently sell 100 000 sandwitches in a day in your neighboorhood. However, if you're selling access to something online the whole world is your market and it doesn't cost you much more to sell 10000 subscriptions than it does to sell 10.

Time - The business success needs to be seperated from your time. If the business can't grow seperated from your time , it's not really a business. It's just a job you have created yourself. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't spend a lot of your time on your business, it just means that what your business earn shouldn't be connected to how much time you spend running it.

Read the book, it's really good (71 five stars/1 four stars/0 three-two-one stars). http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Fastlane-Crack-Wealth-Life...

⬐ vaksel

I don't think you need scale...there are plenty of successful companies with few clients, that make a ton of money because they are charging $100K/mo for their services.

⬐ kristofferR

That is true, it's explained in the book. You either need to create massive value for a few or good value for many.

⬐ timmaah

But you give up a certain amount of "Control".

⬐ jashmenn

Can anyone else vet for this book? I don't mean to be overly cynical, but the Amazon description is awfully "salesy". Even the reviews don't really pass my sniff test [1].

I'm opening to read this sort of entrepreneurial-inspiration, but I would just like a couple other people to chime in and say what they thought of the book.

[1] One of the top rated reviews "PLEASE READ THIS BOOK! I have worked with major celebrities and athletes that have went broke on earning 1 Million a year,this is the first author to really explain why. "

(72 5-star reviews and not a single 1-star? Surely there is someone who disagrees with the author?)

⬐ kristofferR

I can see what you mean, Millionaire Fastlane looks quite "salesy".

I recommend that you watch the Mixergy interview with him, he actually addresses this point right in the beginning of the interview. http://mixergy.com/mj-demarco-limos-interview/