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.

Give yourself due credit. Cut yourself some slack and muzzle that nasty voice in your head that says you aren’t doing enough.

Reading books, improving yourself, trying new things, open-mindedness, questioning your culture and not accepting the status quo: these things put you ahead of 95% of your society.

Heck, in my area, businesses don't even answer their phone or return calls/emails.

Amazing how some businesses view the customer as an inconvenience, not an opportunity.

Showing up is half the battle. And you my friend, have shown up.

Stick to small wins, and your big wins will come.

Give yourself high praise. Congratulations, if I was there with you, I’d give you a “high-five” and buy you a pint.

Have a great weekend!!! ~MJ 👍 😀

This weekend I watched my wife make homemade vegan cheese.

If you’re not familiar with vegan cheese, it has the same consistency / look of dairy cheese except it is a bit softer. In my opinion, it tastes very similar to real cheese, although I’ve been vegan for 5+ years so perhaps my taste-memory is not as good as it was.

She made smoked Gouda, pepper jack, and mozzarella. Her recipes were about an average 8 ingredients, depending on the type of cheese. The two primary ingredients are organic cashews and water. The other ingredients typically are seasonings such as lime, salt, apple cider vinegar, etc. There is usually also a natural thickener too, like tapioca starch. The recipe also calls for a great mixer, like a Vitamix.

Anyhow, when she was done, we ended up with 3 lbs of cheese.

When we got to the results, I was astonished. Not because it was delicious (it was) but my astonishment was because I saw exactly the amount of ingredients required to create 3 lbs of vegan cheese.

Altogether, it was about $2.75 in raw materials.

Now if you’re not familiar with vegan cheese, it’s as expensive, if not more, than dairy cheese. A 7 oz package retails for an average of $7 bucks (6.99). The kind I like is $8 per package, but let’s use $7. For demonstration sake, it comes out at $1 per ounce sells at retail.

3 lbs is 48 ounces. (3 X 16)

So with $2.75 in raw materials (at a RETAIL level) she created $48 in retail value of cheese.

$48 in retail value was magically created from $2.75 in raw materials and a tool.

This is how value is created.

This is how you take separate items, combine them, and come out with a 1,700% return on investment.

This is how entrepreneurs get rich and I wrote about it on the Fastlane entrepreneur forum.

Any index funds or investments paying 1,700%, while also giving you a modicum of control while not being subjected to the economic whims of the market? Bank accounts? Stocks? Crypto?

Now obviously there are other matters to deal with, like packaging, scale, insurance, and shelf-life. The shelf-life of homemade plant-based cheese is only a few weeks. So from a commercialized standpoint, there are probably a few other ingredients needed.

However, this example is mathematically conducted at the retail level; we didn’t acquire raw materials at wholesale prices.

Question is, what raw materials could you be combining to create value?

What raw materials can you combine to cause the whole to be 1700% more valuable than the parts?

This is anatomy of value creation. This example also demonstrates the primary story used to create value in The Great Rat Race Escape ... singular raw ingredients/parts combined for a better whole outcome.

Value creation need not be not rocket science, it’s basic math.

I heard a story the other day how Chewy (pet eCommerce company) sent condolences to a pet owner who recently had their dog pass away.

This type of action is a value skew.

Value skew is a critical tactic I wrote about in my last 2 books, Unscripted and The Great Rat Race Escape, and it is your key to driving customers and revenue to your company.

Anything you do better than the competition is a SKEW, and only a few skews can create a business.

Skew is a function of expectations.

In Chewy’s case, they violated expectations with their kind gesture.

All industries have a set of expectations.

When you define those expectations with the intent on violating them to the upside, you create skew.

For example, when I call a trade company (plumbing, electrical, etc) I don’t expect anyone to answer the phone. I don’t expect a call back within 24 hours. These are the expectations sadly.

I recently hired a pool management company simply by virtue that they answered their customer inquiries timely, and not 4 days later. This simple act violated my expectations, created skew, and snagged one new customer.

You never know what SKEW will take a potential customer over the edge into your customer column.

1) Define expectations.
2) Exceed expectations and create skew.
3) Profit.
4) Repeat.

Marketing strategy and product are symbiotic. Most gurus, however, like to focus on marketing because marketing can lipstick pigs.

In other words, great marketing can sell crappy products. The art of any scam rests in slick marketing where ultimately, a product fails to perform like its advertising.

This is why marketing is often the focus of many scumbag gurus, because for them, the product isn’t important. It’s a mere box to check-off in a multi-dimensional attack. If you can sell dirt that you claim has magic powers and been blessed by The Pope, who cares?

The means justifies the ends.

Money-chasers often gravitate to these type of “marketing gurus” because they’re more interested in driving sales with mediocre products, versus driving sales with unique value skew and problem solving.

This is why I like to be product-centered.

A great product can sell itself. A great product can grow by virtue of its value and with limited marketing.

Another way of thinking about it is this: Think of your PRODUCT like a type of VEHICLE. How fast it? How aerodynamic? How reliable is it? How much attention does it attract in a crowd?

A great product is like a ROCKET, a poor product is like a TRICYCLE.

The MARKETER becomes the DRIVER.

Sure a great driver can do some great things, but ultimatey the better vehicles will win the race. They will win the long-game. The average driver in the Ferrari is going to beat the great driver on a pedal powered bicyle.

By all means, learn the art of marketing.

It is the POWER behind your vehicle. It is the FORCE behind your vehicle.

Question is, will your marketing be ROCKET FUEL? Or will it be PEDAL POWER?

Since we’re talking about PRODUCT v MARKETING, here is a great example on the power of a PRODUCTOCRACY, owning a product that potentially can sell itself, a product you can be proud of.

A YouTube influencer with over 1,000,000 followers just posted an hour long video discussion on Unscripted, my 2nd book, and how it changed his life. He did a great job, probably better than I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt_ZQpDFL2s

In today’s world, this form of market penetration is called “influencer marketing” — except this occurred without me asking.

I did NOT approach or solicit this man.

I did NOT pay this man.

I didn’t send this gentleman a letter begging him to disingenuously push my books.

By virtue of my product’s value, he felt compelled to share it with his audience.

He spoke for one hour on the book and obviously, this ONE VIDEO will generate a lot of book sales for Unscripted, and for MANY YEARS to come.

This, folks, is the POWER of PRODUCT that can sell itself without marketing. I call the magic phenomena that prints money a PRODUCTOCRACY (Topic not discussed in The Millionaire Fastlane, but only in both Unscripted and The Great Rat Race Escape).

So here's the big question...

How much would I need to spend in TIME and MONEY to get an hour long feature with an influencer with 1M followers?

$4,000? $10K? $25K?

Your product is your VEHICLE.
Your marketing is your FORCE.

Stop shining turds with marketing.
Start shining diamonds with marketing.

Life has a CHEAT code. And it is super-simple to remember.

The 4 CHs will get you everything your ever wanted...

-- CHOICES
-- CHANCES
-- CHALLENGES
and
-- CHANGES

You must make a CHOICE to take a CHANCE while expecting a CHALLENGE to follow or your life will never CHANGE.

Can NEGATIVE appeals, such as FEAR and LOSS AVERSION work in marketing?

YES.

If you lose $1000, most people will feel PAIN in a greater magnitude than if they WON $1000.

Loss Aversion is a powerful, motivating emotion, more than our need for pleasure.

A fear-based, or a loss-aversion appeal in your marketing can convert much better than a generic appeal.

*** 7 steps to help you avoid running out of money during your retirement…

*** How one 3 minute article saved this couple from losing their life savings…

*** How to protect your millionaire success from lawsuits and bankrupting events…

Here are some examples of LOSS AVERSION via the LIFE CHANGING CONCEPTS newsletter:

- People stick with jobs they hate. Because they fear the loss of status and stability. Even when they have the potential to earn more doing something else

-People tend to overvalue what they own. Because they relate selling with losing (the endowment effect). So yes, Tyler Durden was right. The things you own end up owning you

- Investors sell their winning positions but keep the losing ones forever. Because they don't want to realize the loss

- People try to cover their mistakes even when it's inadvertent. Because they fear the loss of credibility. The audit firm Arthur Andersen that caused the Enron Scandal was not convicted of securities fraud — but of shredding tons of documents to cover up its errors and avoid potential fines

- Organizations resist change. Because the potential losers of the change are always louder than the potential winners
How can you use LOSS AVERSION or FEAR appeals in your business?

PS: Credit to TheFronteraBlog and its LIFE CHANGING CONCEPTS newsletter. This newsletter makes you more successful in life with mental models and actionable ideas. I’m a subscriber and a big fan as it often takes a mathematical approach to every day life!

To subscribe, visit here:
https://sparklp.co/p/4212869804 (affiliate link)

… or visit the URL FronteraBlog.com

Have a great week with much progress!

If you haven’t yet considered it, I highly recommend moving to a new city and a new culture on the other side of your country. Or hell, even expating to a new country.

Don’t let “sacred cows” keep you immobile and planted like a tree.

A “sacred cow” keeps you planted with lame excuses like, “oh I grew up here, I can’t move.” Or, “my family is here,” or “My favorite football club is here.”

While family is important, most families are dysfunctional and many of them simply aren’t supportive of an Unscripted existence.

Moving to Arizona from Chicago was one the best decisions in my life.

If you have negative or uninspired history in a particular city, it can add significant mental baggage to your progress. Living in a place where you have struggled, failed, and lived unhappily is a mental burden, no matter how you want to frame it.

...Oh there's my old high school where I was bullied...
...Oh there's the intersection where I got into an accident...
...Oh there's my old best friend's house before he cheated with my girlfriend...
...Oh this is the route to my old job that I hated...
…Oh there’s the McDonalds I used to work at…
…Oh here’s the shitty weather that I can’t stand…
…Oh there’s my old neighborhood where my parents were divorced…
...Oh there's that grocery story where my X-girlfriend works...
...Oh there's that local park where the neighborhood bully beat me up...

Folks, STOP KIDDING YOURSELF.

There is nothing stopping you from moving. I moved to Arizona with $900 in my bank account. I realize that those with family, things are more complicated, but it's not rocket science.

It's a matter of importance and prioritization.

Do you want to own a business? Or do you want a job that keeps you mildly entertained for 50 years?

Making big decisions like this is on par with the big decision to become an entrepreneur.

You only live once. Yes, happiness is largely a choice. However, you can make choices that make the choice to be happy, much easier.

Make happiness a priority. Make choices that make happiness more likely.

Another way of looking at it... if you grew up in a home with a lot of bad memories, what the hell would you choose to stay there? Why do you want to be reminded of bad times? And if your city/home does a good job at reminding you of unhappiness, PACK YOUR DAMN BAGS and MOVE.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/unhappy-then-pack-your-damn-bags-and-move.105971/

I love that people read my books and say they changed their life.
I hate that people read my books and make impetuous, emotional decisions.

Two such decisions that likely aren’t good choices is the decision to QUIT YOUR JOB, or DROP OUT OF COLLEGE simply because you were inspired by my work.

This can apply to any book that moves you, or inspires you.

I posted at The Fastlane Forum 4 definitive conditions that justify a bold action such as quitting your job, or dropping out of university.

If you can meet these conditions, dropping out or quitting is likely a good decision.

If you cannot meet these conditions, you might be making a rash decision based on emotion. Quitting a job or university is an EVENT, starting a profitable business, is a PROCESS. Fastlaners are PROCESS driven.

Here are the first 2 conditions which can help you determine the right decision and the right timing for any QUIT decision. Visit the Forum to get the last 2.

#1 - Existing sales with adequate profit margins. Are you repeatedly selling? Is there a nominal enough of a profit that can pay your bills, much less, change your life?

#2 - Do you have at least a six-month runway (cash flow) to pay your bills while adopting a frugal lifestyle? This can be reduced to three months pending the answer to #3 and scale.

Have a great week!

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/mjs-4-conditions-the-definitive-guide-on-when-to-quit-your-job.106078/

Every choice we make has an opportunity cost. If you pick one thing, you’re actually declining another.

Your actions always express your priorities, no matter what you tell yourself.

Whenever you make a choice, you’re declining something else. Life is about choices, but also about the opportunity cost, what is forgone, from making those choices.

When you play video games for 45 hours a week instead of investing in yourself, you’ve made entertainment and escapism your priority.

Easy decisions are easy for a reason.

Hard ones, hard.

When you put hard before easy, you’ll create your best life.

Unfortunately, many people try to “pick everything” and in doing so, you deprive yourself any progress and consistency to become successful at something.

The following excerpt was recently posted at the forum and it is a great metaphor for making a choice and committing to it — or the worst two of all 1) Doing nothing or 2) Trying everything and becoming a master at nothing.

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Make the hard decision and express your priorities. Or let life’s inertia, easily express them for you.

UPDATE: A lot of people have asked me about the “underground” book document which profiles great books that aren’t super-known best-sellers.

I haven’t forgot!

And let me apologize for the long delay in having this data compiled.

I’m happy to announce that the document will be released on Friday, December 9th.

Some great books are listed in there that have made my "to read" list.

That said, if you'd like to get an early look at some of the books, visit the forum and hit the official thread posted below. There are about 15 books listed in the thread that made the list.

I hope to release a document like this every year. If you have a book you'd like to contribute, feel free to add it on the forum. Or, just surf the thread to find your next book read.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/great-books-that-are-not-best-sellers-share-yours.104414/