The Millionaire Fastlane summary

When it comes to money, there are three types of people in the world: Sidewalkers, Slowlaners, and Fastlaners.

To find out which one you are, ask yourself these questions: Do you spend most of your money as soon as you earn it? Does your lifestyle rely heavily on debt? Is your future predicated on luck, risky gambles, or government assistance? If so, you're likely a Sidewalker. DeMarco says this is people's most common mentality with money and life. And hey, if you’re a Sidewalker, you're in the right place to change those habits!

Or are you the type of person with a steady job who insists on saving every dime so it can be invested in the stock market? Do you fret over each little expense and rationalize that saving hundreds of dollars today could be worth millions in 50 years? Is your quest for financial freedom reliant on factors you can't control, like your employer, the economy, and an unpredictable stock market? In this case, you're a Slowlaner. Again, no need for shame – this is the mainstream method prescribed in all those other finance books. But in reality, this mindset is risky and unreliable.

Finally, do you own a business with the potential for asymmetrical returns – the conduit to massive wealth accumulation? This kind of business brings in cash while you're at a movie on a Tuesday afternoon. Can you earn $100,000 in profit next month? Next year? Do you own and build assets that can grow 2,000 percent in one year? If this is you, congratulations on being a Fastlaner – or at least meeting a few of the characteristics toward becoming one!

The point is, each of these paths is like a roadmap. And like all roadmaps, they lead to predictable destinations. The likely destination for a Sidewalker is poverty. In the Slowlane, it’s mediocrity. The Fastlane path is the only mentality that can predictably lead to wealth.

Whichever mindset you identify with, it’s essential to know that you can switch lanes. You can go from the Sidewalk to the Slowlane, from the Slowlane to the Fastlane, or, as DeMarco did, leap from the Sidewalk directly to the Fastlane!

In fact, it was an idea gleaned from DeMarco's final dead-end job that opened the door to his next opportunity. As a limo driver in the suburbs of Chicago, he frequently heard customers ask about booking services in other cities. So he taught himself how to code and designed a website to answer that need.

Unfortunately, he was so busy juggling his website with his driving job that he didn’t put much effort into marketing it, much less enhancing it. That all changed when DeMarco quit his job and risked moving to Phoenix, Arizona, to focus on the business. He had no choice but to succeed – or fail. Once in Arizona, he continued to educate himself and got better at coding, marketing, and sales. To pay the bills, he built one-off websites for others while putting most of his time and effort into growing his new online business.

Things soon took off, and he earned a respectable income rivaling any job paycheck. But then something miraculous happened due to the power of scale inherent in his business. Instead of earning $50K a year, a decent salary at the time, he started profiting $50K a month. Then $100K a month. Then $200K.

Over ten years, DeMarco earned millions and created a viable asset that was also worth millions. His tenure with the company he created ended when he sold the business for a mid-seven-figure valuation. This rapid wealth accumulation allowed him to take a hiatus – what some would call a semi-retirement – and focus on writing. The Millionaire Fastlane is a product of this period.

In short, DeMarco made millions quickly – enough to retire in luxury and never work again for the rest of his life – and it had nothing to do with fanatical frugality, regular savings, and religious investments. It's clear what it takes to make the leap to the Fastlane: start a business that’s capable of creating asymmetric returns.

An asymmetric return transforms a $2,000 business investment into $20 million in a few short years – which is nearly impossible through even the best stocks or bonds. The stock market only averages 10 percent per year, not 1,000 percent – the types of returns available in a Fastlane business.