The Millionaire Fastlane (30 page)

Time losers are also inconvenient savers.

The inconvenient saver desperately clutches onto every dollar, fearful it may never return. Extreme inconvenience is never a match for saving money. For example, a friend of mine wanted an exercise bike and found it on sale at a store miles away her home. I told her just to buy the darn thing locally and pay the higher price, which was an extra $29.

Nope, she was an inconvenient saver.

Instead, she drove one hour to save $29. Total time spent? Two and a half hours. Subtract gas and the total valuation of her time is about $5 per hour. Last I checked, she doesn't work for $5 per hour, but has no problem wasting her free time at this rate. The inconvenient saver gladly wastes time to save money. From plane tickets with multiple stops to shared-shuttle airport service, inconvenience is no match for saving a few bucks an hour.

If these people had three months to live, would they be outside Best Buy in a sleeping bag waiting? Six months? Six years? At what threshold will these people pack up their sleeping bag on the sidewalk and say, “Gee, what the hell am I doing sleeping on a sidewalk outside of an electronics store? Is this a smart use of my life?” Sidewalkers sleep on sidewalks.

Fastlaners exalt time as their primary consideration in decision-making because it's our most valued asset.
Fastlaners are frugal with time, while Slowlaners are frugal with money
. Sidewalkers and Slowlaners use money as the sole criterion indecision-making: Which job pays the most? Where is the cheapest item? How can I get some free chicken? Money is scarce and time brings up the rear and sweeps up the mess. If you want to be rich, you have to start thinking rich.

Time is king.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Fastlaners regard time as the king of all assets.
  
• Time is deathly scarce, while money is richly abundant.
  
• Indentured time is time you spend to earn money. Free time is spent as you please.
  
• Your lifespan is made up of both free time and indentured time.
  
• Free time is bought and paid for by indentured time.
  
• Fastlaners seek to transform indentured time into free time.
  
• Parasitic debt eats free time and excretes it as indentured time.
  
• Lifestyle extravagances have two costs: the cost itself and the cost to free time.
  
• Parasitic debt has to be stopped at the source: instant gratification.
  

CHAPTER 27: CHANGE THAT DIRTY, STALE OIL

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
~ Albert Einstein

Change the Oil Every 3,000 Miles

The first lesson of car ownership: Change the oil every 3,000 miles. Neglect the lesson and your car dies well before its useful life. Frequent oil changes keep your car running efficiently; unchanged oil goes stale and turns the ride rough. Rough rides stall to the shoulder of the road.

The Fastlane road trip demands fresh oil changes. But what is oil? Oil is education. Knowledge. Street smarts. But be careful … it must be the right oil and for the right purpose.

Sidewalkers don't bother with oil. After 3,000 miles, they're done. Graduation is the last oil change. Slowlaners oil their vehicles for the explicit purpose of raising intrinsic value. Advanced education and certifications: What's going to command a bigger salary? Fastlaners oil their vehicles until they hit the junkyard.

Graduation Is Not the End; It Is the Beginning

Face it. What you know today is not enough to get you where you need to be tomorrow. You must constantly reinvent yourself, and reinvention is education.

Unfortunately, graduation traditionally signals the end of education. Regardless of your graduating age, adulthood begins. The party is over and real life begins. To cease learning at graduation is wealth suicide. Your most effective earning years happen AFTER graduation, so wouldn't it be smart to continue the educational process long after formal schooling?

Jim Gallagher graduated 11 years ago and is unemployed. Jim is a stockbroker, but because of Internet technology his expertise has become endangered and flirts with extinction. Jim's education for that specific job-set has become dated and no longer applies to the current world. The world has moved on, yet Jim and his education have not. Jim contemptuously takes a menial sales job at a local furniture store. His financial plan stalls because he operates with the same stale oil last changed 11 years ago. Jim fails to change his oil so Jim's road trip to wealth also fails.

Education, your oil, is a critical component to your wealth road trip. When you continually inject yourself with new education, new skills, and new competencies, new roads open and things run smoothly. The right education has incredible horsepower.

Education's Role

Education is virtuous under both Slowlane and Fastlane roadmaps, but their roles are profoundly different. In the Slowlane, education is used to elevate intrinsic value, while in the Fastlane it is used to facilitate and grow the business system. Also, Fastlane education is secured by methods that do not produce parasitic debt or conformity. The purpose of education within the Fastlane is to
amplify the power of the money tree and the business system
. You're not a cog in the wheel;
you learn to build the wheel
.

For example, if I go to a training seminar that gives me skills to “hire top-gun sales people,” I'm engaged in activities that specifically enhance the fertility of my business and my money tree. If I read a book on a new computer technology that illustrates how to create new interactive Web site features, I'd be learning to facilitate the system. Again, Fastlane education is to foster growth of the business system. Conversely, Slowlane education is designed to specifically enhance the intrinsic value of the person receiving the education. It is to become a gear in the system.

A Fastlane Forum user had an opportunity to pursue an MBA and he asked if it was worth it. My answer typically would be no, but this scenario was different. First, the MBA had no money cost, only time cost, as the government was paying for it. Second, this gentleman espoused the Fastlane ideology so his purpose was not intrinsic value elevation, but expansion of his knowledge to facilitate a Fastlane system. I voted yes.

“I Don't Know How!”

If an oil change puts your car on a lift for months or years, what's the point? Your continued education must not come laden with conformity or parasitic debt, but must facilitate your Fastlane system. How?
Make the real world your university
. Yes, you are your own university.

Ask any successful entrepreneur and they will validate this truth: You learn from engagement, from doing, and from getting out and taking repeated action, more so than from any book or professor.

But “I don't know how!” you cry.

Oh, stop. Public enemy No. 1 on the most used excuses list is, “I don't know how!”

Well, why don't you know how? I'll tell you why.

You don't know because you haven't taught yourself how, nor have you wanted to “know how” badly enough. You see, it is easier to relent under the weight of “I don't know how” than it is to actively pursue the knowledge. In today's information society, there is absolutely no excuse not to find out how.

I graduated from college with two business degrees, marketing and finance. Neither of them was related to computer science. I graduated with no computer programming experience. Yet I made my millions on the Internet.

Funny, after 13 years of expensive institutional education, I NEVER took a formal class about the Internet or Web technologies. Heck, my computer classes were limited to introductory business courses. If I didn't go to school to learn the Internet, how the heck did I learn and become educated within this skill set? I sought to change my oil frequently. I educated myself. I read books. I hit the library. I spent hours on the Web and read articles, tutorials, wikis. I sought and consumed knowledge.

Years ago, when I started my career with Internet media, I could have easily quit and leaned on the obvious: I don't know how! I don't know how to program a Web site! I don't know how to design graphics! I don't know how to manage a server! I don't know how to write marketing copy! These excuses are like a plastic bag ready to smother your dreams, but only if you stick your head in the bag. Instead, my vision of a Web site didn't end with “I don't know how,” but started there. So, get your head out of the bag!

Had I not refreshed my skill set (my oil), my journey would have stalled. My religious pursuit of knowledge kept me efficient in an ever-changing world and primed me for Fastlane opportunities. Education didn't end with graduation, it started. And best of all, my self-taught education was a twin-turbo acceleration into the Fastlane; my skills didn't come loaded with parasitic debt or conformity.

Education Is Freely Available

The greatest travesty of the free world is the under use of knowledge. Walk into your local bookstore and inhale. Smell that? That's the smell of infinite knowledge. Walk into your local library and look around. Amazing. Wall-to-wall books, free for the taking. Imagine if you could digest every book, every paragraph, and every sentence. Would “I don't know” be a detriment to your success?

I'm astonished that education is freely available, yet most choose not to take it. Education is unplucked fruit from a tree, and all it needs is a ladder. Yet, people cling to the limiting belief that “I can't afford education.”

Sorry, but it's an excuse to be lazy.

Education is free for your consumption. Infinite knowledge is at your fingertips and the only thing preventing you from getting it is you. Yes, YOU. Turn off the TV, pick up a book, and read it. Quit playing Guitar Hero and hit the library. Quit playing Gameboy grab-ass and hit the books. A committed Fastlaner has his nose in a book weekly. He attends seminars. He trolls business forums. He's on Google, searching different topics and strategies.

You have the innate power to become an expert at anything not requiring physical talent. Anything! No book in the world can make me a professional basketball player or a professional singer, but books can transfigure novices to experts in nonphysical disciplines. You can become a currency-trading expert. Real estate. Business. Web programming. Sales. A public speaker. The expertise for any discipline not requiring physical coordination is out there. What does it take? Your commitment of pursuit, and then the biggie: applying it.

When I remodeled my house, the walls of my grand foyer needed to be faux painted. Faux finishing is a complicated painting technique that's used to create lavish surfaces with depth and luminance. I had two choices: Call a professional or learn to do it myself. Since I was retired, I viewed this as a fun challenge, so I opted to do it myself.

I hit the Internet and watched a few hours of video tutorials. Then I hit The Home Depot and bought supplies. Over the next several days I practiced on cardboard boxes. Within a week I became proficient at faux painting. I built myself a skill in one week. Days earlier I was in the sphere of “I don't know how!” and days later, I possessed a new skill that I could aptly sell if I wanted. The best faux painters earn $10 per square foot. In one week, I built myself a skill that opened a tiny road into the Fastlane equation.

Skills and expertise are waiting just for you. No one drops a book on your lap and gifts knowledge. You have to seek it, process it, and then use it.
The acquisition and application of knowledge will make you rich.

So where do you find infinite knowledge inexpensively? Like the air you breathe, it's all around you, like an apple tree waiting to be plucked.

Bookstores:
Books possess the greatest return for your educational dollar. Buy them, borrow them, or steal them. Just read them.

The library:
The greatest free repository of knowledge and the disabler of the “I can't afford to buy books” excuse. I got my start at the library. Internet forums: Find like-minded congregations and learn from those who have succeeded. Find tailwinds!

Internet classes:
Can be pricey, but convenient.

Internet blogs/podcasts/screencasts/Web casts:
Another excuse destroyer. Seminars: Good seminars bring good value, assuming they are sponsored by the right entities and not get-rich-quick gurus.

Television:
Cable TV has turned television educational. Deviate from the mindless reality TV garbage and tune in to channels with educational value: History, Discovery, Science, HGTV, Military, and National Geographic.

Continuing education classes:
Offered mostly by community colleges, these classes offer a wide array of formal training in specific disciplines. Free magazines: Visit
TradePub.com
and
FreeBizMag.com
and sign up for free magazines subscriptions pertaining to your topic of interest.

Unfortunately, while infinite knowledge surrounds us, most people ignore it. Take for example this comment about education from successful real estate investor Lonnie Scruggs (
LonnieScruggs.net
):

I used to work two jobs. EDUCATION changed my life. Before I learned how to put my money to work, I was doing all the work. I was so uneducated back then that I thought the answer to financial freedom was working two jobs. And that's what I did for many years. Finally, I realized there weren't enough hours in a day and I couldn't work enough hours in a month to reach financial security. There had to be a better way. I started looking for that way. When I realized that education and knowledge was the answer, I made up my mind to get an education. Before that, all I had was some “schooling.” Now I realized I needed some education.