The Millionaire Fastlane (10 page)

Luck occurs when probability moves from impossible to likely. For our two brothers in construction, who is going to get lucky? The brother who exposes his inventions to the world bends probability in his favor. His lazy brother does not. Force your process out into the world and you can defy the odds of “being in the right place at the right time.”

When I think of luck, I think about poker players. Mistakenly, their craft is construed as luck, while career poker players will affirm it isn't luck, but systematic analytics and player psychology. The best poker players in the world are superior statisticians and interpreters of human behavior. Does luck play a role? Sure, but the role is minor, while player competency siphons the majority's bankroll. To tell a great poker player “you're lucky” is to hurl an insult. Likewise, to ascribe luck to a self-made millionaire's success is to perform the same insult.

To realize luck, engage in processes where better probabilities exist. Luck is introduced when you play. When life is played to win, luck shows its face. Unfortunately, Sidewalkers assign luck to events of faith-luck not engaged by process. If you want luck, engage in process, because process raises events from the ashes.

Renounce the “Big Hit” as Your Financial Plan

Sidewalkers loathe process, so their financial plan omits standard process (such as saving or budgeting) and relies on events. If you believe that luck is the sole source of wealth, you'll gravitate toward events of luck-a diligent quest to finding “the big hit.”

What's a big hit? Big hits are sudden miracles that create wealth fast. Lotteries, casinos, poker tournaments, heck, even frivolous lawsuits and defrauding the government are considered avenues to “the big hit.” In effect, “big hits” are attempts to bypass the wealth journey and start at the finish line. It's the removal of your yellow brick road and the sharpening lessons that come from it.

Sidewalkers seek “big hits” because their belief systems tell them wealth is an event. Unfortunately, big hits are long shots and violations of true essence. Do you believe in miracles? Sidewalkers do.

Why do reality TV competitions such as American Idol attract so many people when most of the contestants suck? These people are searching for that elusive “big hit.” While the talented make it through (they have talent because they have process), the disqualified bemoan off the set, blaming Simon Cowell, the microphone, or some other insignificant factor for their failures. Singing
Someday Over the Rainbow
a few times in the shower doesn't make a process.

Getting Swindled: A Sidewalker's Temptation

Order now for just three easy payments of $39.95 and I will teach you how to make millions working just 40 minutes a week while hanging upside down on a trapeze in your basement. Yes folks, it's that easy.

But wait, there's more!

Order today and, as a bonus, you'll receive photos of this buxom woman right here next to me. Doesn't she look great? When you start making money like me, ladies like her will be ringing your doorbell at all hours of the day. Yes, folks, this system is awesome and it won't be here for long. Act now!

The infomercial guru knows exactly what he's doing. He targets Sidewalkers, who are magnetized to events and the big hit. Why advertise at 2 a.m.? That's when Sidewalkers congregate, because they're either unemployed or watching reruns of Seinfeld. Believe me, Fastlane drivers aren't up at 2 a.m. because of some boob tube rerun; they're forging process and muscling toward their destination.

Sidewalkers are ripe for swindling because they seek events and want to avoid process. When this becomes ingrained into your mindset, infomercial pitches suddenly become the evening's entertainment.

Disembarking the Sidewalk: The Three Anchors

Use logic.

Think for a moment.

If you came across a magic “system” that easily made millions in a few short months, what's the first thing you'd do? Of course you know, and I know! You'd hire a direct marketing firm, package your secret into five CDs and one quick-start video and sell it on the Home and Garden Channel at 3 a.m. on Tuesday night. Yes, that's the first thing I'd do if I had the billion-dollar secret! Screw traveling the world, forget charity, and dump the idea of making more millions. Nope! Let's package this baby and tell the world for three easy payments of $39.95!

Do people believe the pitch or do they desperately seek the easy event? The art of selling moneymaking “systems” on TV infomercials is a strong Fastlane. Unfortunately, the systems being sold aren't Fastlane or as profitable as the act of selling the system itself. How do gurus get away with this madness? Easy. A Sidewalker's mindset is anchored in three beliefs that keep them trapped there and vulnerable to moneymaking scams:

Belief 1: Luck is needed for wealth.
Belief 2: Wealth is an event.
Belief 3: Others can give wealth to me.

Here is where these beliefs fail. First, wealth is not about luck but about process improving probabilities. Second, events of wealth, like lotteries and casinos, are long shots and not process. And finally, only you can deliver yourself to true wealth. There is no chauffeur and there is no moneymaking program sold on TV that will escort you. These deceptions keep Sidewalkers anchored in good company with the majority, awake at 2 a.m. on the couch thinking they're one phone call away from making millions because TV's wealth chauffeur says so.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Like wealth, luck is created by process, not by event.
  
• Luck is created by increased probabilities that are improved with the process of action.
  
• If you find yourself playing the odds of “big hits,” you are event-driven, not process-driven. This mindset is conducive to the Sidewalk, not the Fastlane.
  
• “Get Rich Quick” infomercial marketing is a Fastlane because savvy marketers know that Sidewalkers place faith in events over process.
  
• Moneymaking “systems” are rarely as profitable as the act of selling them to Sidewalkers.
  

CHAPTER 9: WEALTH DEMANDS ACCOUNTABILITY

Responsibility is the price of greatness.
~ Winston Churchill

Hitchhikers Don't Drive!

One anchor to the Sidewalk is to entrust your financial plan to others, to believe that there is a chauffeur to wealth and that someone else can drive that journey for you. This mindset makes you vulnerable to
victimhood
.

Imagine if you hitchhiked across the country. There's a decent chance you'd never make it to your destination. You could climb into a psycho's car that decides to take you on an unintended detour. You could encounter a murderer who slashes your throat and dumps you in a roadside ditch. Hitchhiking is inefficient and dangerous!

Yet, the Sidewalker's manifesto is predicated on hitchhiking: faith unto others, and when things don't work out as intended, blame unto others. After faith in luck and events, blame is the third anchor to the Sidewalk.

Back in the late 80s, when I was a teenager, my mother chummed with friends at a local restaurant. Within that friendship circle several of them put their life savings into an investment innocuously named “The Fund.” These folks-some respected businessmen-raved about this investment, claiming impressive monthly returns. These friends encouraged my mother, as a struggling single mom, to invest. Mom was no dumb cookie. She asked questions and didn't like the answers. Something didn't “feel” right. Logic tickled her inner brain. Ultimately, she passed on the investment and it remained outside her world.

Years later “The Fund” made headline news. An investment company had bilked millions of dollars from investors. The investment company was exposed to be a Ponzi scheme, and several swindled investors committed suicide, including the perpetrator. This investment company was none other than that great investment mother declined years earlier-“The Fund.”

The Law of Victims

The Law of Victims says
you can't be a victim if you don't relinquish power to someone capable of making you a victim
. When you bequeath control to others, you essentially become a hitchhiker with no seat belt. You take the passenger seat in a stranger's car, which could be murderous to your financial plan. And when that happens, you're vulnerable to joining the ranks of victims.

The road to victimhood is through denial: First responsibility, then accountability.

People who don't take responsibility are victims. Some of them are born victims and, instead of trying to improve their hand, they fold and give up. For them, everyone has the solution to their problems but them. And their problems? Not their fault. Nope, someone else is to blame. Instead of looking within, they look outward and project responsibility to some other entity. Victims are Sidewalkers who refuse to take the driver's seat of their own lives and live under a dark cloud of “theys” reflective of a “me against them” attitude.

“They laid me off.”
“They changed the terms.”
“They cheated me.”
“They didn't tell me.”
“They raised my rent.”
“They raised my interest rate.”

Invariably, all these “theys” are self-imposed. If the landlord raised your rent, is it his fault you decided to live there and you didn't read the lease agreement? If the company laid you off, is it their fault you chose to work there? Was it my fault that I was a broke 25-year-old stuck in a blizzard in a limo on the side of the road? It was.

There was a recent labor union rally against Wal-Mart from employees disgruntled with the retailer's poor wages. A 33-year-old employee named Eugene complained about his employer arguing that he spent three years unloading trucks for $11.15 an hour, which was below the retail industry average of $12.95 an hour. His grievance? He can't afford a car or Wal-Mart's health insurance.

Wow, how disturbing. Was someone arrested? Seriously, someone should arrest the man who put the loaded gun to Eugene's head forcing him to work at Wal-Mart for a below-market wage! Give this guy a bitch-slap. No one forced him to work at Wal-Mart; he works there because he chose to work there. Hey, Eugene, if you're tired of making $11 an hour, raise your value to society. Get your ass over to the library. Wal-Mart can't offer low wages if they don't have an endless supply of victims like you.

You see, when a financial adviser promises you 14% guaranteed income from a bank certificate of deposit and you later discover that he scammed you, it's your fault. You didn't do the diligence. You didn't investigate. You ignored the tickle of logic in your brain. You are a victim of your own malfeasance.

The Politics of Hitchhiking

Sidewalking hitchhikers are a major constituency in all countries. These people seek the easy life yet want someone else to pay for it. They're lifetime hitchhikers. They believe the government (or some other entity) should do more for them. They are victims of the system. They are victims of life because life dealt them a bad hand. They vote for whatever politician promises them the world at no cost. Free healthcare. Free education. Free gas. Free mortgages. Wow, give me a ballot!

John F. Kennedy's “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” has maligned into “What can my country do for me?” While I can't comment on the societal deterioration outside of the United States, within the last 20 years Sidewalking has become a way of life in America. Americans once loyally proclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Now we just say, “Give me.”

As I write, the economy is in a tailspin. The housing market crashed, lending dried up, and millions have lost their savings. How did we get here? It isn't complicated: We relied on “others” to make financial decisions for us. We ignored the fine print. We didn't read the contract. We didn't read the legislation. We made government an insurance policy. As a society, history is doomed to repeat if we continue to repeat the same behavior.

I'm a minor participant in the recession. Sure, my home declined in value but that's OK because I don't use my home as a wealth tool! Yet the gurus say “your home is your greatest investment!” Baloney! When the markets crashed, I didn't lose a lot of money because the markets weren't my wealth acceleration vehicle! The Fastlane is about control, and if you live like a Sidewalking hitchhiker, you have no control.

On a public forum in August 2005, I predicted the forthcoming housing bust and outlined my theory with seven reasons I thought so. As it turns out, I was correct, and that truth crystallized because I chose to make financial decisions for myself. I didn't rely on the pontificators at CNBC who rapaciously declared that housing was safe. I didn't rely on the mainstream media. I didn't rely on others. I relied on me. I was driving, not hitchhiking. And the beauty of driving is something that escapes most people: responsibility.

Wealth Demands Responsibility, Followed by Accountability

Responsibility is the forefather to accountability, but one doesn't evidence the other. When you admit responsibility to over drafting your checking account yet do it again next week, you're not accountable. When you admit responsibility to fathering a child out of wedlock, yet continue to engage in that behavior, you're not accountable. When you take responsibility for having your purse stolen but flaunt it on the table in open view, you're not accountable.

Accountability is being culpable to your consequences and modifying your behavior if need be to prevent those consequences. You can be responsible while not being accountable. A Fastlane Forum user does a great job distinguishing between responsibility and accountability:

What kills me is when people make the same piss-poor choice multiple times but then claim to be responsible. It's easy to be “responsible” when responsible means just walking away. I've seen single parents who pledge to be “responsible” for the wild oats they've sown, only to occasionally send a check in the mail. I've seen people walk away from homes, claiming to be “responsible ”for their actions, only to buy another home they can't afford. I've seen people being “responsible” for the actions their drinking and driving caused only to do it again!