I still can’t bring myself to title this entry what it deserves to be, THE MILLIONAIRE FASTLANE, after the personal finance book written by MJ DeMarco. The title, the marketing, the claims to get rich quick, all of it scream, “Walk away. Just, walk, walk away.” I fear the cover alone would burn a hole in my hand.
Having experienced approximately one year of employment in the world of radio advertising and marketing (and sub sequentially having it end as being the only job I was ever fired from) coupled with reading a lot of media theory books, I consider myself a hard sale. I don’t see ads on websites, I close pop ups instantly, I’ll pick out product placement in movies and vids, and anyone communicating with me in the tone and language of one who has taken a number of sales courses and considers me or anyone in my immediate surroundings a means to a (financial) end, has the potential to bring out the carnivore in me. Blatant consumerism iced with manipulative, insincere, cleverly cloaked sales tactics breeds a great deal of contempt within me. I believe every grade/primary school should teach children media literacy, everywhere.
Coming from this stance, I would have completely overlooked DeMarco if Pat Flynn hadn’t interviewed him on the Smart Passive Income website. I recently came upon Smart Passive Income in my attempt to learn how to promote and monetize MBSB. I enjoy Pat’s unpretentious style and he seems genuine in what he does – he’s honest about his motives.
In regards to The Millionaire Fastlane, Pat admits to having had the same reservations about it and why. He also finds value in DeMarco’s work. This interested me, so I checked out the interview.
In short, DeMarco’s motivation is purely capitalistic and he uses language that makes me squirm. However, he also shares a lot of the same fundamental views I do regarding autonomy, financial discipline and personal motivation, which at the core, are crucial to how we both have come to live the lives we’ve chosen to lead, not the lives we fell into, despite how incredibly different our lives are. Perhaps this adds to what interests me, the fact that DeMarco challenges my concept of difference. Essentially, you can find parallels and value in places you never expected.
I thought a number of you who feel stuck in your daily grind may find some or all of this beneficial. On the surface, this is about entrepreneurship, but beneath it, I found a lot more. In that light, I thought I’d share.
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