I wrote this in the weekly newsletter for Fastlane Forum members and it bears repeating here:

Want to live your best life with ZERO regret?

Perform this thought experiment: Fast-forward to the hour before your imminent death. You lived to 85, but your time is up. Ask yourself...

❓Will you regret the decisions you made, or didn't make?
❓Did you proactively decide to pursue your best life?
❓Did you live BOLDLY, or did you take the safe, risk-less way out?
❓Did you do what OTHERS expected? Or what you wanted or desired?
❓Did you fall into the trap of cultural expectation and inertia?
❓Did you live a life of someone else's design?

Years ago, I performed this thought experiment, and it crystallized the type of life I wanted to live, and it allowed me to make decisions that would yield my best life, yesterday, today, and in the future.

And I knew a life as a Fastlane entrepreneur was the best way to make my "regretless" life happen.

Succeed or fail, if you can die with zero regret, you've lived your best life.

Would greatly appreciate it if you guys can REPORT this ass-clown for impersonating me and trying to scam unsuspecting people, privately asking people about their financial information, and God knows what.

Thank you for your help on this.

Also, please REPORT as "someone you know" not as a celebrity or famous person. I am "unverified" and IG doesn't consider me a celebrity or someone worth verifying. THanks!

https://www.instagram.com/mj.demarrco/

BTW: My real IG is https://instagram.com/mj.demarco

Public libraries were instrumental to my success, from learning new things from code to marketing, to access to company data/registrars. Here in the USA, they are often funded by property taxes, so private landowners (middle- to upper-class folks) are helping you learn for free.

With Libby (a mobile app) you can download free eBooks from your local library, without leaving your home, giving you a true "try before you buy" experience.

If the book is good and has provided value to your life, then you can support the author and buy the book!

Update: Many folks asked for a status update on the "great books that are NOT best-sellers" list... that document is still being aggregated. In fact, I had over 500 responses! (And too many were, in fact, best-sellers, so we've been eyeballing and reviewing every response.)

My intent is not just to throw these recommendations in a spreadsheet, but to create a nice curated document for everyone, to truly spread the word about some great books you likely never heard of.

That means Atomic Habits, Can't Hurt Me, Rich Dad, and 4 Hour Work Week will be NO WHERE to be found in this great list of books.

It truly is sad that there are some great books out there that don't get the attention they deserve, simply because they don't have a big marketing budget behind it, or a big publishing house forcing it into bookstores, or because they don't overtly support a mainstream narrative destined for free publicity.

Timeline? I hope to have something by the end of August.
Stay tuned!

Spend anytime in self-improvement circles and you'll see that people love to brag about the number of books they read.

Last year I read 50 books!
This month I read 10 books!

This doesn't impress me. In fact, this type of bragging usually indicates that this reader is not an "action-taker" but an "action-faker".

Want to know what's impressive? 

Implementing the books you read.

Stop impressing yourself by the quantity of books you read.

Start impressing yourself by quality of the books you implement.

Attached is just one of many testimonials I've read about my work. 

This guy IMPLEMENTED my books, he just didn't read it and go read 100 more books.

He just didn't my books for the sake of reading them ... HE IMPLEMENTED THE WORK IN HIS LIFE.

Question is, how many books have you read, but NOT implemented?

Reading and implementing ONE BOOK is more impressive than reading ONE HUNDRED and doing nothing.

Had a lot of people ask me about using book summary services like Blinkist. PLEASE DO NOT.

These services are utter trash and serve people looking for shortcuts, people who are unlikely to have massive success because they are not process oriented.

These services serve those who want the PILL to lose weight, but not the hard exercise or sacrificial diet change. These services serve those who want the EVENT to success, but not the PROCESS.
These services serve those who want a HELICOPTER to the mountaintop, but they don’t want the HIKE.

Good books require a thoughtful, deliberate reading, not a drive-by summary put together by some disinterested low-level employee.

Just to give you an example on how trashy these services are, the summary on my first book, The Millionaire Fastlane, was SO POORLY DONE, I wouldn’t have bought my own book. I would have read the summary and had an immediate verdict of "Meh." In fact, they didn't even bother to summarize the cornerstone of my entire philosophy, which is CENTS. Nope, the fools left it out.

Subsequently, I formally requested that Blinkist remove the summary, and from doing any future summaries on my work. I saw other summaries and came to same conclusion … you’re getting to SMELL the meal, but you won’t get the benefit of EATING it.

Stop the merciless search for the shortcut. Shortcuts are a Fastlaner's business model.

An entrepreneur on the TheFastlaneForum.com recently complained that he couldn't identify any ideas.

After a few questions, it become clear why. The entrepreneur had a ME-BIAS.

In neuroscience, your reticular activating system (RAS) is basically a form of confirmation bias to see what your brain has prioritized into its consciousness. For example, if you buy a new car, you'll suddenly see that car everywhere. If you believe X, your brain will start to see evidence of X being true.

This same concept applies to business opportunities.

People who complain about "not seeing ideas" have a selfish, narrow-minded ME-BIAS and their RAS does the rest. Instead of thinking, "What can my business do for the world? Or my community?" they errantly think "What can this business do for me?" The ME-BIAS. Opportunities must tightly fit into their tiny box of me, me, and me, often relating to loves, passions, interests, and personal desires. It's a limited internal focus vs a broader market viewpoint. In the end, opportunities are limitedly filtered through the ME-BIAS, creating very limited ideas for life-changing pursuits.

Well it's no shock you can't find an idea when you've backed yourself into a corner of having that idea meet your ME-BIAS.

When you drop a ME-BIAS, suddenly the world opens up to you, and opportunities are everywhere.

In my community, I know I could start a landscaping company and immediately earn five figures monthly simply by executing better. If I had a ME-BIAS, a landscape maintenance business would NOT be seen as an opportunity. And yet if I was just getting started as an entrepreneur, running that business for 3 or 4 years could change my life, financial-wise, leadership-wise, hiring-wise, management-wise, and for so many other opportunities for personal development.

In the ultimate irony, dropping your ME-BIAS ends up indirectly serving you ... you do indeed feed the ME.

The more entrepreneurial success stories I hear/read, the more it is clear that your first idea is rarely the one that succeeds or gains traction. There is always a pivot from an ACT, ASSESS, ADJUST (Unscripted, Book 1) all based on market resonance.

The point is, you have to engage the market with meaningful action.

Even a horrible idea flung out into the marketplace might reflect back with a better idea, a better need, and a better value skew.

In fact, success in life can always boil back to the 3As: Act, Assess, Adjust. It's like rowing a boat in a river: The market is the river. Your actions are the rowing. Sure, you can fight the current, but the market currents will always give you clues on the best routes. Bottomline, GET INTO THE RIVER and see where it might take you. Don't confuse this with "market research" ...

"If I asked what my customer's wanted, they would have said faster horses" -- Henry Ford.

Asking what customers want, and thrusting a product into the market are two different things.

The value of social media depends on how you use it.

You can use it to build an audience.
Sell a product.
Grow an influence.
Sell gazillions of copies of your books like Colleen Hoover used TikTok to do so.
You can use social media to learn new knowledge and skills.

Or you can use social media to collectively argue, to complain, and to junk your mind on fleeting hits of dopamine masquerading as entertainment, like a daily heroine fix.

The choice is yours. Like life itself. Choice.

How are you choosing?

Choose wisely, or social media will own your mental bandwidth. And your life.

In a follow up to the last post regarding social media use, over the last year, my wife has been on a learning crusade.

Thanks to YouTube, she has gained great expertise in the following subjects, to the point she could probably start a business venture within one of these domains: Landscaping and lawn care, baking gourmet breads, bird-watching/migration, tree care (arborist skills) creating delicious plant-based cheese of many flavors, gardening, growing herbs, and several other subjects. I amazed at the year of learning she has had.

The point is: The world’s knowledge is at your fingertips all day, everyday. If you have a decent internet connection and a phone, you can grab it. Question is, what are you going to do with it? Or will you waste it on a funny video of a cat skateboarding?

Life is full of opportunity.

However, if you don't engage in life, you'll never see opportunity. You'll never see problems that need solutions. You'll never spot inconveniences, "hates" and "I wishes." Boring lives that play out on the couch scrolling thru social media and binging Netflix doesn't see opportunity.

A forum member recently posted a thread about how life is filled with opportunity, but only if you're actively engaged in it. As a recent parent to a newborn, suddenly he spotted ideas in this space of toddlers and infants. The same can be said about ANYTHING -- start a new hobby, a new skill, a new job, anything NEW in life, and you'll start to see opportunities, more and more.

So getting a job while you figure out your "Fastlane" isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could be a GREAT thing.

FACT: The more actively engaged you are, the more opportunities you'll see. Boring people often remain, well, boring.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/want-ideas-stop-being-boring.105155/

I posted a great article on the forum about a child entrepreneur (who had little to no help from his parents) who accomplished more than most adults do in their entire lives. The story has a tragic end, but it really shows what is possible when we're not blinded to our past, our preconceived biases, and a variety of other excuses.

This small boy was led by his thirst for knowledge and problem solving, and he did some great things in a small town with very little commerce or industry. It's a long read but worth it (article linked in the thread below.)

Have a great weekend.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/the-child-entrepreneur-who-did-more-than-most-of-us.105235/

Marketing is psychology with commercialized intent. I also can be called behavioral economics. Study these two disciplines and you're also studying marketing.

Example: Conversion is always a function of FRICTION.

The more perceived friction your audience/visitor experiences = the less conversion you can expect. If a simple word/phrase in your marketing copy sounds like WORK, such as "complete this form" you can expect an increase in FRICTION and a corresponding reduction in conversion.

Additionally, if your general appearance, or offer comes across as "WORK", friction will also increase. While long copy can be incredibly effective, it also can raise perceived FRICTION. Few people like walls of text ... so more details increases friction risk at the expense of clarity.

This is why concise writing is also important in marketing, a concept I frequently struggle with myself.

Reduce friction = 💰📈

Have great week! -MJ

We truly live a great time. Forbes released their Top Creators of 2022 and it lists influencers who are making a fortune (8- and 9-figures), many of whom have attached Fastlane ventures to their craft. Examine the fields in which these influencers operate and, shall we say, it is quite eye-opening.

You truly never know what will resonate with culture!

The list includes gamers, comedians, make-up artists, and variety of other odd-ball stuff.

While I’ve never been a big fan of social media because it is misused and it can have Control Commandment issues, it truly is a great place to test your ideas, and even your oddities. If you can build an audience, two of the biggest obstacles of entrepreneurship is weakened, if not entirely removed… and that is TRUST and REACH. Once you command an audience and funnel that audience into your own ideas and ventures, you become less dependent on the social media Goliaths.

Have a great weekend!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2022/09/06/top-creators-2022/

One key to exceeding your innate talents is a concept called Deliberate Practice.

Deliberate Practice gives you the power to perform better with lesser talent than people with greater talent. It is why some gifted athletes fail to perform to expections, and some lesser talented ones exceed.

Deliberate Practice is an intense focus on critical elements of your craft, often deconstructed into more straightforward, singular processes.

In golf, that would be putting, sand traps, driving, short-game, club selection, etc.

If you're focused on building a influential YouTube channel with a goal of 1M followers, Deliberate Practice and its associated singular processes would consist of the following: lighting, audio, background, voice inflection, body language, editing, voice scripting, vocabulary, marketing, and more. It also can include the Practice of delegation, for example, hiring someone to do the editing.

Treat each element of your craft with deliberate attention, focus on the element's improvement, and the whole will improve. I'm pretty confident you will be happy with your growth and the results that come from it.

No matter your goals, narrow them down into TASK oriented objectives vs OUTCOME oriented. Task-oriented goals are things you can directly control and influence, OUTCOME-ORIENTED goals are subject to variability (sometimes luck too) and can’t be directly controlled.

For example, having a goal of “Getting 2 million subscribers to my YouTube channel and become a major social media influencer” is an outcome-oriented goal, something that isn’t directly controllable.

Instead, focus on the TASKS that can influence the outcome. Focus on the TASKS that *might* yield the outcome. In this case, a task-oriented conversion of this outcome-oriented goal could be, “Release 250 videos within 2 years, with 1 video every 3 days."

TASKS give the OUTCOME the potential to occur.

Nothing wrong with BOLD, ambitious outcome-oriented goals; just don't forget to translate those into TASK-oriented steps, optimally, measurable and numerically based.

And finally, apply the 3As ... ACT, ASSESS, ADJUST.

In this example, ACT: Release video, ASSESS: Views? Comments? Feedback? ADJUST: Analyze the "assess" and tweak your strategy. Repeat.

BEWARE OF IDEA-REGRET...

I recently received an email from a reader who had a great idea for a simplistic game back in 2017. He never did anything about it. To his dismay, he just saw his game idea on the AppStore with millions of downloads.

It left him quite regretful.

Likewise, a friend of mine had a great idea for a hair product. She even made a working prototype, but never followed through. That was a few years ago.

Fast forward to today and my wife saw her product on the store shelves at a major retailer just recently. Someone else executed on the idea, and now enjoys the Fastlane.

FACT #1: I think we all have stories like these, great ideas that we never focus on, we never take seriously, and we never pursue as "life" gets in the way with jobs, bills, and mindless entertainment. I have dozens of IDEA REGRETS, (Bumble being one of them as I confessed in The Great Rat Race Escape) however, I did pursue some ideas which turned out well.

FACT #2: If you have a great idea, likely someone else does too.

YOU EITHER DO IT - or someone else will.

And they get the glory, and the profit.

You get left with the idea-regret.

THE LAW OF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!

😝🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Changing our behavior for better outcomes is difficult.

One tactic that has always worked for me is to tweak the Accessibility and Ability function that is at the foundation of behavior. Make your actions (or non-actions) easier for good behavior change, or harder for poor behavior change.

I called this The Law of Chocolate Chip Cookies in The Great Rat Race Escape.

If you don’t have cookies in the house, you won’t eat them. The behavior becomes difficult and requires a trip to the store.

However, the moment you put those cookies in your grocery cart, is the moment you lost the war. Eating cookies becomes easy. Amazing how so many people want to change their diet, but they try to change it in their kitchen, not at the grocery store.

“Oh I need to stop eating ice cream because I’m lactose intolerant”

“Oh really, then why does your freezer have 6 cartons?”

My office has a standing desk and a treadmill which I’m using as I write this. I have a personal goal to walk at least 10,000 steps per day, which for someone who works at a computer all day, can be a tough job.

With the office treadmill, I’ve tweaked the ACCESSIBILITY and ABILITY function of behavior and made the behavior easy.

Know where behavior wars and battles are won and lost.

Figure out what you can do to encourage the good behavior, and discourage the bad behavior you want by examining the ACCESSIBILITY — make it easy, or make it hard, and you push the lever on changing your outcomes!

UPDATE!!

Lot of people have asked about the status of the best underground book compilation, basically great books that have helped readers, but aren't overhyped best-sellers that every Tom, Dick, and Harriet are recommending.

Just giving you an update that this document is still not finished, but it is near completion as it still needs to be properly formatted.

Stay tuned!

Facebook, Adobe, Intuit, Google, Microsoft, Apple; what do all these companies have in common?

Not their size, it’s that they don’t give a shit about you.

Ever try to contact Facebook or Google with a serious problem?

To them, you’re only a number, and you know it.

Everyone knows it.

This is why large, megalithic zero-customer service companies are always ripe to have market share stolen. Don’t fear their competition. If I deal with these companies, if at all, it as necessary evils, and that is it. I deal with these companies as disposable entities and with zero expectations.

Use them and abuse them.

If one of these companies acquires a smaller, private company, it’s a victory for the private owners, but not a victory for their customers, for example, Adobe acquiring Figma or Intuit acquiring MailChimp. While this is frustrating, it means smaller private companies will always hold an advantage over their larger, bureaucratic competitors. This can be applied to many industries, not just huge tech companies.

People want to deal with people--with their neighbors and their peers--not unaccountable corporate behemoths who don’t have the common decency to advertise a contact email or a telephone number in a customer intensive business.