MJ DeMarco Quotes

“Accept reality: There are no shortcuts. Real change requires a real process.”

“Anything worthwhile in life will require a worthwhile effort.”

“Create yourself a mathematical equation that scales, then work that equation to death while acting, assessing, and adjusting along the way.”

“Creators produce products, services, books, information, inventions, it doesn’t matter so as long as:

A) Your creation can eventually become separate from your time.
B) You can scale your creation to a level that can change your life.”

“Entrepreneurship is about improving, more so than inventing the next hot thing.”

“Equations that scale make their owners rich.
Equations that do not, make their owners slaves to the system of trading time for money.”

“Failure is natural to success. Expect it and learn from it.”

“He who thinks the idea owns nothing. He who executes the idea owns everything.”

“I’d rather live in regret of failure than in regret of never trying.”

“If you accept conventional wisdom from conventional people living conventional lives, can you expect to be anything but conventional?”

“In many ways, your first customer as an entrepreneur is like your first kiss or your first love.”

“It is easier to live in regret of failure than in regret of never trying.”

“Many people want to change their life, but they are not willing to change their choices, and ultimately this changes nothing.”

“Money is proof you helped your fellow man.”

“Starting a business is a big decision. Treat it with cursory interest, and your business resembles a hobby. And businesses that are run like hobbies pay like hobbies.”

“The sweat of success is failure… if you’re not willing to get wet, you’re not willing to succeed!”

“The ultimate definition of insanity is to prostitute your Monday through Friday for the paycheck of Saturday and Sunday.”

“Thou shalt not invest in a needless business. Thou shalt not trade time for money. Thou shalt not operate on a limited scale. Thou shalt not relinquish control. Thou shalt not let a business startup be an event over process.”

“Toxic relationships drain energy and detract from your goals to be extraordinary.”

“You cannot ask Wall Street to give you a 4000% return in one year.”

“Your choices are made in a moment, and yet their consequences transcend a lifetime.”

“A lottery-degree is a skill or profession that has excess supply with little to no demand which makes a job in the field like a casino bet.”

“A mediocre idea with great execution could be worth tens of millions.”

“A person who lives in moderate comfort will rarely find the motivation to fight the status quo.”

“A six-day workweek makes our slavery (and its discomfort) too obvious, so we’re gifted an extra day of comfort and consumption to engorge our complacency.”

“A strong goal acts like a GPS or a lighthouse for behavior.”

“Action-faking gives you a faux sense of accomplishment, often stimulating a dopamine release with ineffective action.”

“An old education rarely fits a new opportunity.”

“Attach a powerful story to your company or its products, and you will sell more.”

“Before you can impact millions, you have to learn how to impact one.”

“Casinos and universities enjoy massive profits and own the most expensive real estate on the planet.”

“Consumption requires production and can steal freedom.”

“Dead weight, people who belittle your dreams or don’t support you, should be left behind.”

“Don’t fear getting off a horse only to learn to ride a new one.”

“Don’t quit your day job until your business forces you.”

“Don’t risk everything for twenty minutes of pleasure behind the red curtain.”

“Education doesn’t end at graduation; it starts.”

“Entrepreneurship is more than a career, it’s a revolution for your life and family.”

“Every person in your social circle puts you one degree away from their consequences.”

“Everything significant starts insignificantly: with one solitary action, one small win, and one move forward.”

“For compound interest to be effective, you need to start with a large sum.”

“Freedom young is always more valuable than freedom old.”

“Getting married is one of life’s biggest expenses; getting divorced is another.”

“Give your best effort in all that you do with pride and optimism, even work that is boring or tedious.”

“Happiness is a choice, a switch in your head that can be flipped on at any time.”

“Hire your weaknesses, work your strengths.”

“How you do the meaningless is how you will do the meaningful.”

“If you are the same person today as you were five years ago, it’s likely your beliefs are not porous, but concrete.”

“If you cheat your way into an opportunity, you likely will cheat your way managing the opportunity.”

“If you follow conventional wisdom from conventional people living conventional lives, you will get exactly that: a conventional life.”

“If you offer relative-value, the world generally ignores your past transgressions and personal faults, or life demerits.”

“If you’re too focused on what you want, you won’t see what others want.”

“If your daily existence is ruled by money, defined by money, budgeted by money, sorry, you're not financially free.”

“Impact millions of lives, and you will make millions.”

“Imperfection is the scent of a skewing opportunity.”

“In the same way a prison doesn’t give its inmates directions for escape, the rat race doesn’t either.”

“Know why you follow certain rules… tradition, culture, or evidence based?”

“Likes, comments, opinions, and email addresses don’t pay bills.”

“Look at life as a real video game with problems to solve, rewards to be won, teams to build, and freedom to obtain.”

“Math doesn't lie, but people do.”

“Mediocre comfort, just enough to lull you into complacency, is designed to cement you into the same rut week after week, year after year.”

“Monogamy is focusing on one business only, like a world class athlete would train for one sport only.”

“Most people aren’t interested in the truth; rather, they are seeking to confirm biases, which is why they watch the same news programs, visit the same websites, and go to same church.”

“No amount of begging, cajoling, or bargaining can make someone read something they don’t want to read. Even if you have a solution to their problem. A book that challenges their identity, or worse, challenges their excuses will not be read.”

“Nothing great or lasting comes from 'one try'.”

“One event lasting minutes can destroy a process that took years to build, but the reverse does not apply.”

“Passion is a horrible business model.”

“People are positively charged to seek money, like a rat would cheese.”

“People naturally want to do business with people, not faceless corporations.”

“Pure happiness occurs in moments of present moment awareness, or the Now.”

“Question conventional wisdom or have it lead you into a conventional life.”

“Quitting your job or college is an event, launching a profitable business is a process.”

“Rule-breaking gives you a better chance at standing out from the crowd.”

“Someday is a lie, code for never.”

“Starting your business should be a process that takes weeks or months, not minutes or hours.”

“Stop ignoring the real world over the digital world.”

“Stop reading books for the sake of reading books. The best book you should read next is the one that will solve the problem that blocks your progress.”

“Talent is earned, not birthed—no one is born with any particular expertise.”

“The best foundation for decision-making is truth, not belief.”

“The event is a short, visible, and celebratory accomplishment; the process is the enduring sweat and grind that made it happen it.”

“The gap between expectation and reality is disappointment.”

“The largest industry on the planet is the business of shortcuts, anything that is marketed as an aversion to the process, for example, weight loss drugs.”

“The only degree worth pursuing is a degree in relative-value; skills that have a strong demand in the marketplace, usually STEM related.”

“The rat race is similar to an actual laboratory rat race, complete with pre-determined corridors and cheese, or rewards.”

“The regret of failure is temporary; the regret of never trying is permanent.”

“The rich get rich because they enjoy asymmetric returns.”

“The secret to success is no secret, it just never finds a headline.”

“The time value of money states that money today is always more valuable than money later.”

“The truth is, Wall Street won’t make you rich — unless you work on Wall Street.”

“There is no list that will give you the step-by-step plan for success, and if there was, everyone would have it, it solves no problems, or it’s a scam.”

“Time is the great equalizer; all humans possess the same quantity per day.”

“Transient happiness is the temporary joy felt from an external stimulus, buying a new car, or accomplishing a goal.”

“Treat time as you would the king in a game of chess, and money as the queen.”

“Truth isn’t curated to mainstream news: if you’re not actively seeking the truth, you’re not getting the truth.”

“Trying harder doesn’t change the system.”

“Unhappiness, or a dead dream, is the business model of the modern world.”

“Unlike money, time cannot be reclaimed once lost—it is always lost principle.”

“Video gaming is destructive because it allows unlimited anonymous failure while stimulating our dopamine centers with fictional success.”

“Video gaming is endemic to how dismal and hopeless life is for most people.”

“What was the last book you read and when?”

“What you know today is never enough to solve tomorrow’s problems.”

“When a business abandons its customer as a top priority in favor of investors or shareholders, it is stakeholder demotion.”

“Whether you know it or not, your existence has been programmed from diapers to death.”

“You 'live the dream' whenever you have a dream that is alive and pursued.”

“You can gift or recommend a book to a rat, but you can’t make him read it.”

“You can’t spot ideas or opportunities confined in a bubble.”

“You don’t have to be an avid or 'passionate' user of your product or service. You only have to be passionate about the results of your effort: the value you provide to your customers, the difference you make for the world, and your family.”

“You don’t need anyone’s permission to live your dream.”

“You will probably need to learn new skills to escape the rat race.”

“You’ll never get started if you require all the answers to the future problems.”

“Your actions express your priorities.”

“Your boss is your customer, and they can fire you, but you can also fire them. Fire problem customers when the value they bring sinks below their cost.”

“Your great idea is absolutely worthless until execution says it isn’t.”

“Your perception is rarely the reality.”

“A business attached to your time is a job.”

“A business does not make a Fastlane – some businesses are jobs in disguise.”

“A committed Fastlaner has his nose in a book weekly.”

“A job seals your fate into a criminal time trade: five days of life traded for two days of freedom. A job chains you to a set grade of experience. A job takes away your control. A job forces you to work with people you can’t stand. A job forces you to get paid last. A job imposes a dictatorship on your income. These limitations are counter-insurgencies to wealth.”

“A preoccupation to become “highly educated” could be a Trojan horse to your freedom.”

“A successful business isn’t fun and games, especially one that violates the Commandment of Time.”

“All events of wealth are precluded by process, a backstory of trial, risk, hard work, and sacrifice. If you try to skip process, you’ll never experience events.”

“All self-made multimillionaires create their wealth by a carefully orchestrated process.”

“Almost all penta-millionaires made their fortunes in a big lump sum after a period of years.”

“Behind the tangled roots of poorness, you will find a poor valuation of free time, which breeds from bad choices.”

“Beliefs are powerful mechanisms that drive action, whether true or not.”

“Business plans are useless until they are married to execution.”

“Businesses survive. Brands thrive.”

“Businesses that solve needs win. Businesses that provide value win.”

“Change creates millionaires. Those who observe and take advantage of change will be the new millionaires and billionaires.”

“Choice is the most powerful control you have in your life.”

“Competition is everywhere. Just do it and do it better.”

“Compound interest pays my bills. It’s my passive income source. Yet, compound interest is not responsible for my wealth.”

“Consumerism is the leading obstacle to happiness.”

“Debt is the leading cause of strife for the newly married.”

“Debt needs a constant drip of blood, and that blood comes from your gas tank of life: time. And since time is fixed, an increase in indentured time comes from only one source: your free time.”

“Debt that traps you to a job is not good debt.”

“Determination is not a solitary choice but thousands of them. You cannot decide to be determined, it must occur repeatedly, concertedly, and with commitment.”

“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.”

“Everyone always shows up at the end of a boom.”

“Everyone’s freedom is different.”

“Expect a price to be paid. Expect risk and sacrifice. Expect bumps in the road. When you hit the first pothole (and yes, it will happen) know that you are forging the process of your unfolding story.”

“Experience comes from what you do in life, not from what you do in a job. You don’t need a job to get experience.”

“Extraordinary wealth will require you to have extraordinary beliefs.”

“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.”

“Failures that drive you into new directions are often the most productive forces for invention. The heart pacemaker, microwave ovens, penicillin, and vulcanized rubber are all inventions that are the profound results of failures and accidents. Failure cracked the road open, and in that failure, the inventors had the fortitude to recognize it.”

“Fast wealth is created exponentially, not linearly.”

“Focus on one business and one business only.”

“For me, every day is a Saturday because I haven’t sold off Monday through Friday.”

“For me, every day is a Saturday because I haven’t sold off Monday through Friday.”

“Freedom is a component to wealth and happiness. Those who live freer will be happier. Those who have stronger bonds with their communities and families will be happier. Those with health will be happier.”

“Freedom offers protection to health and relationships.”

“Friday evening is glorified because people celebrate the dividends of their trade: five days of work-bondage exchanged for two days of unadulterated freedom. Saturday and Sunday is the paycheck for Monday through Friday, and Friday evening symbolizes the emergence of that payment, freedom for two days.”

“Get your time detached from your business.”

“Happiness stems from good health, freedom, and strong interpersonal relationships, not necessarily money.”

“Hard work and commitment separates the winners from the losers.”

“Hard work/Process creates events others see as luck.”

“Help one million people and you will be a millionaire.”

“Hoodwinking expenses does not create wealth. Exploding income and controlling expenses creates wealth.”

“I awoke to the epiphany that I was the driver of my life and my problems were the consequences of my choices.”

“I cannot imagine running a company in which another entity has the power to instantaneously kill your revenue stream.”

“I consider content-based revenue models the most difficult for success because entry barriers have significantly declined and its success is predicated on high traffic.”

“I made many changes, but I didn’t give up on the dream.”

“I spent five years in college just to sit in a 6 X 6 cubicle and cold-call elderly people out of a damn telephone book? Are you freaking kidding me? I could have done this out of middle school, and I didn’t need to spend thousands on a college.”

“If millions seek you, you will be paid millions.”

“If more money were spent on pleasing existing clients rather than trying to find new ones, the average business would survive longer than five years.”

“If the cookies don’t get into the grocery cart, they don’t get home. And if they don’t get home, they don’t get in my mouth. And if they don’t get in my mouth, they don’t transform into belly fat.”

“If the road trip to wealth were easy, wouldn’t everyone be wealthy? Expect a price to be paid. Expect risk and sacrifice. Expect bumps in the road.”

“If you aren’t where you want to be, the problem is your choices. Your circumstances are the symptoms of those choices.”

“If you avoid failure you will also avoid success.”

“If you can’t control every aspect of your company, you’re not driving! And if you can’t drive, you set yourself up for sudden, unexpected crashes.”

“If you can’t immunize yourself from the temptations of instant gratification, you’ll be hard-pressed to find success in either health or wealth. Both demand a lifestyle shift from short-term thinking (instant gratification) to long-term thinking (delayed gratification). This is the only defense to lifestyle servitude.”

“If you don’t control your income, you don’t control your financial plan. If you don’t control your financial plan, you don’t control your freedom.”

“If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know if you get there? If your destination is undefined, undoubtedly you’ll never arrive and you’ll likely end in a place you don’t want to be. Wealth is found with a roadmap, not a dartboard.”

“If you get someone’s attention, half the battle is won.”

“If you have a passive income that exceeds all your needs and lifestyle expenses including taxes, you’re retired.”

“If you have to think about “affordability,” you can’t afford it because affordability carries conditions and consequences.”

“If you reflect on your choices, you make them in an instant, yet their consequences transcend a lifetime, especially ones made early in life.”

“If you retrace poverty’s footprints you will find that poorness starts at the exact same place. choice.”

“If you want extraordinary results, you’re going to need extraordinary thinking.”

“If you want luck, dive!”

“If you want to change your life, change your choices.”

“If you want to make millions, impact millions.”

“If your past defines your existence, it will be impossible for you to become the person you need to become in the future.”

“In the world of wealth, ideas are worthless yet treated like gold.”

“Instant gratification is a populous plague and its predominant side effects are easily spotted: debt and obesity. Wealth, like health, isn’t easy and is cut from the same fabric. Their processes are identical.”

“Instead of digging for gold, sell shovels. Instead of taking a class, offer a class. Instead of borrowing money, lend it. Instead of taking a job, hire for jobs. Instead of taking a mortgage, hold a mortgage. Break free from consumption, switch sides, and reorient to the world as producer.”

“Interest is quitting after the third failure; commitment is continuing after the hundredth.”

“Ironically, in my attempt to look wealthy, real wealth slid further away.”

“Jobs suck because they’re rooted in limited leverage and limited control.”

“Just because you flipped burgers three hours ago doesn’t mean you can’t be a millionaire next year.”

“Know what you can and can’t afford. There is nothing wrong with buying boats and Lamborghinis if you can truly afford them.”

“Lead generation services often provide a service to consumers while simultaneously aggregating a non-homogeneous industry. This is what I did for the limousine industry. I pooled a highly fragmented industry into one centralized source, brought consumers into the mix, and sold that consumer information to limo companies.”

“Leads are only as good as the person following them.”

“Life does not begin on Friday night and end Monday morning.”

“Luck is introduced when you play. If you don’t play, you can’t win. Unfortunately, Sidewalkers assign luck to events of mystical chance. They don’t see the manipulated probabilities imbued by process which makes the chance possible. If you want luck, dive.”

“Majority thinking yields mediocrity, and for that majority, time is an asset that is undervalued and mindlessly squandered.”

“Make 1 million people achieve any of the following:
- Make them feel better.
- Help them solve a problem.
- Educate them.
- Make them look better (health, nutrition, clothing, makeup).
- Give them security (housing, safety, health).
- Raise a positive emotion (love, happiness, laughter, self-confidence).
- Satisfy appetites, from basic (food) to the risqué (sexual).
- Make things easier.
- Enhance their dreams and give hope.

… and I guarantee, you will be worth millions.”

“Make a freaking impact and start providing value! Let money come to you! Look around outside your world, stop being selfish, and help your fellow humans solve their problems. In a world of selfishness, become unselfish.”

“Manufacture is one tiny battle in a larger war. Distribution is where the war is won. A great product is worthless if it doesn’t get into the hands of people, and that requires distribution.”

“Many money gurus often suffer from a Paradox of Practice; they teach one wealth equation while getting rich in another. They’re not rich from their own teachings.”

“Money doesn’t change people; it just makes them more of what they already are.”

“Money is like a mischievous cat; if you chase it around the neighborhood, it eludes you. It hides up a tree, behind the rose bush, or in the garden. However, if you ignore it and focus on what attracts the cat, it comes to you and sits in your lap. Money isn’t attracted to selfish people. It is attracted to businesses that solve problems.”

“Money isn’t attracted to selfish people. It is attracted to businesses that solve problems. It’s attracted to people who fill needs and add value. Solve needs massively and money massively attracts.”

“Money trees, businesses, and systems aren’t built overnight.”

“Money, properly used, can buy freedom, which can lead to happiness.”

“Most business owners pay more attention to their competition than to their business.”

“Most consumers buying decisions are driven by emotions.”

“Most people are consumers who are two paychecks from broke. Most people won’t invest long hours into their business system while friends are living it up on credit.”

“Most people have a lack of confidence in themselves and their ability and are willing to settle for so much less.”

“My doctor’s preferred method of attack was prescription drugs. I refused because I wanted to fix problems, not mask symptoms.”

“Never start a business just to make money.”

“Ninety percent of all new businesses fail because they are based on selfish internal needs, not external market needs.”

“No matter how big or small, dreams have a price, and that price is money, responsibility, accountability, and commitment.”

“No one cares about your selfish desires for dreams or money; people only want to know what your business can do for them.”

“Once your time is gone, you’re dead. And when your clock ceases to tick, no amount of cash will save you from the end.”

“Opportunity drives through your neighborhood frequently, and when it does, you have to grab that bitch.”

“Opportunity drives through your neighborhood frequently, and when it does, you have to grab that bitch. Evaluate the risk and take action. Unfortunately, opportunity doesn’t care about your timing. Opportunity doesn’t care about your circumstances, your broken-down car, or your life’s turmoil. It comes and goes of its own will, has a mind of its own, and it’s blind to predicaments. Opportunity comes dressed as changes and challenges. Remember, change makes millionaires.”

“Our choices have consequences that transcend decades.”

“Owning a business doesn’t guarantee wealth or detachment from time.”

“Partnerships are marriages. After the love affair and the lust wears off, they must survive on character, synergy, and complementary attributes.”

“People are like roads – they can either bring opportunity or distress into your life. The quality of these roads solely depends on the quality of the person.”

“People care about what your business can do for them. How will it help them? What’s in it for them? Will it solve their problem? Make their life easier? Provide them with shelter? Save them money? Educate them? Make them feel something? Tell me, why on God’s green Earth should I give your business money? What value are you adding to my life?”

“People drown in the misery of their own choices while neglecting to acknowledge they are the cause.”

“People want what they want. People don’t care about you, your business, your product or your dreams; they want to help themselves and their family.”

“People who don’t take responsibility are victims.”

“Pledge to never stop learning.”

“Producers get rich. Consumers get poor.”

“Reshape life’s focus on producing, not consuming.”

“Savers aren’t losers. Savers are winners because they eventually become lenders. Savers are winners because they become owners in companies. Savers are winners because they become producers and build assets.”

“Scale creates millionaires. Magnitude creates millionaires. Scale and magnitude creates billionaires.”

“Self-made millionaires don’t become millionaires by stumbling into money, just as financial failures don’t become failures by stumbling into poorness. Both are the direct result of the financial roadmap chosen and the actions and beliefs that evolve from that roadmap.”

“Short-term feel-good is often long-term bad.”

“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.”

“Society says wealth is “stuff,” and because of this faulty definition, the bridge between wealth and happiness collapses.”

“Solve other’s problems and you will solve your own money problems!”

“Some of the greatest books in the world go unread, while the mediocre stuff sells millions. The difference lies in marketing, public relations, and just good old-fashioned business know-how. Writing a book is not a business; selling the book is.”

“Someday is dangerous and paralyzing. It traps you in land of Nowheresville. Someday is here, now, pristine and clean and begging no allegiance for tomorrow.”

“Sorry, hope isn’t a plan!”

“Stop thinking about business in terms of your selfish desires, whether it’s money, dreams or “do what you love.” Instead, chase needs, problems, pain points, service deficiencies, and emotions.”

“Take responsibility followed by accountability. Responsibility: It was my fault that my purse was stolen. Accountability: In the future, I will take precautions to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

“The amount of money in your life is merely a reflection to the amount of value you have given to others.”

“The average American watches more than four hours of TV each day. In a 65-year life, that person will have spent nine years glued to the tube. Why? Simple. Life sucks. Life needs an escape. Life is no good.
Show me someone who spends hours online playing Mafia Wars or Farmville, and I'll show you someone who probably isn't very successful.”

“The best investment you can make is in yourself.”

“The elevator to success is out of order. You will need to climb the stairs.”

“The fabric of your life is sewn by the cumulative consequences of your choices – millions of them that set you into motion. You act, react, believe, disbelieve, perceive, misperceive, and all of it engineers your existence. If you’re dissatisfied with life, your choices take full responsibility. Blame yourself and the choices you’ve made. Yes, you are as you have chosen.”

“The global recession has exposed the Slowlane for the fraud it is. With no job, the plan fails. When the stock market loses 50% of your savings, the plan fails. When a housing crisis erases 40% of your illiquid net worth in one year, the plan fails. The plan is a failure because the plan is based on time and factors you can’t control. Unfortunately, millions of people have faithfully invested decades into the plan only to discover the ugly truth: The Slowlane is risky and insufferably impotent.”

“The happiest people in the world have a tight sense of community and strong family bonds.”

“The irony of looking wealthy is that it is an enemy to real wealth: It destroys freedom, it destroys health, and it destroys relationships.”

“The key to achieving enormous tasks is to break them down into their smallest parts.”

“The leading cause of indentured time is parasitic debt.”

“The more I help, the richer I become in time, money, and personal fulfillment.”

“The owner of an idea is not he who imagines it, but he who executes it.”

“The problem with accepted norms of retirement is what you do not see. You don’t see youth, you don’t see fun, and you don’t see the realization of dreams.”

“The problem with looking wealthy versus being wealthy is that the former is easy while the latter is not.”

“The reality is that time is deathly scarce, while money is richly abundant.”

“The richest people in the world got rich by focusing on one core purpose.”

“The ultimate judge-and-jury of ideas is the world and the marketplaces that serve them.”

“The ultimate wealth is having the free time to live how you want to live.”

“The universe doesn't care about your past. It is blind to it... One person and one person only weaponizes past transgressions: you.”

“The world’s most successful entrepreneurs didn’t have a blockbuster ideas; they just took existing concepts and made them better, or exposed them to more people.”

“There is neither safety nor security in a job.”

“There’s a profound difference between interest and commitment. Interest reads a book; commitment applies the book 50 times.”

“Think about the last time you bought a pack of gum. Did you fret over the price? Probably not. But if you buy a boat and resort to mental gymnastics over affordability, you can't afford it! Affordability is when you don’t have to think about it.”

“Thinking never made anyone rich, unless that thinking manifests itself into consistent action toward application of laws that work.”

“Thou shalt not invest in a needless business.
Thou shalt not trade time for money.
Thou shalt not operate on a limited scale.
Thou shalt not relinquish control.
Thou shalt not let a business startup be an event over process.”

“Time is the greatest asset you own, not money, not the 1969 restored Mustang, not grandpa’s old coin collection. Time.”

“Time is your primordial fuel and it should not be traded for money.”

“To assume that you will live a long, healthy life is arrogant. To assume that life won’t throw you any curves is naive.”

“To cease learning at graduation is wealth suicide.”

“To consume richly, produce richly first. Unfortunately, most people have it backward: consumption and no production. Producers get rich. Consumers get poor. Switch teams and reorient as a producer first, a consumer second. Make wealth attracted to you!”

“To live unlike everyone else, you have to do what everyone else won’t.”

“To tell a great poker player “you’re lucky” is to hurl an insult.
Likewise, to ascribe luck to a self-made millionaire’s success is to perform the same insult.”

“To trade your time away is to trade your wealth away.”

“Today is the starting line for the rest of your life. Yes, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. The problem with the past is that we remember memories we shouldn’t, and we don’t forget what we should. If your eyes are stuck in the rearview mirror, you’re stuck in the past. If you’re stuck in the past, you’re not looking ahead. If you’re not looking ahead, you can’t hit the mark of your future.”

“Used properly, money buys freedom, and freedom is one parcel in the wealth trinity: family, fitness, and freedom.”

“Value your time poorly and you will be poor.”

“Want to make big bucks? Then start attracting money instead of chasing it.”

“Wealth creation for a Fastlane entrepreneur operates under an exponential scale –those who hold jobs operate under a linear scale.”

“Wealth eludes most people because they are preoccupied with events while disregarding process. Without process, there is no event.”

“Wealth is not authored by material possessions, money, or stuff, but by what I call the three fundamental “F’s”:

1. Family (relationships)
2. Fitness (health)
3. Freedom (choice)”

“What if I told you ‘insane’ was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time?”

“Whatever you decide today impacts tomorrow, weeks, months, years, decades, and yes, generations.”

“When life sucks, escapes are sought. I don’t need television because I invested my time into a real life worth living, not a fictitious escape that airs every Tuesday night at 8 p.m.”

“When you blindly invest your life and time into someone else’s brand, you become part of their marketing plan.”

“When you have a job, someone owns you.”

“When you own your decisions, something miraculous happens. Failure doesn’t become the badge of victimhood – it becomes wisdom.”

“When you trust everyone, you engage in business opportunities that violate the Commandment of Control. You allow others to dictate your financial road trip. And when that happens, you crash and burn. There is only one person you can blindly trust in this world, and that is you.”

“Whether you owe $35,000 for your awesome BMW or for student loans, debt steals freedom.”

“Wow, how disturbing. Was someone arrested? Seriously, someone should arrest the man who put the loaded gun to Eugene’s head forcing him to work at Wal-Mart for a below-market wage! Give this guy a bitch-slap. No one forced him to work at Wal-Mart; he works there because he chose to work there. Hey, Eugene, if you’re tired of making $11 an hour, raise your value to society. Get your ass over to the library. Wal-Mart can’t offer low wages if they don’t have an endless supply of victims like you.”

“Writing a book is not a business; selling a book is.”

“You can’t experience success without failure.”

“You cannot choose to persevere with one choice. You cannot wake up one day and say, ‘Oh today I will choose to persevere.' It must happen every day, not once.”

“You could own the best hotel in the world located on the best beach in California, but if customers are treated like inconveniences and requests go unfulfilled, they won’t return.”

“You don’t want millions to accompany your cane, you want it to accompany your youth.”

“You have the innate power to become an expert at anything not requiring physical talent. Anything!”

“You learn from engagement, from doing, and from getting out and taking repeated action, more so than from any book or professor.”

“Your business is a spouse. Quit cheating and give one business all of your attention. You will get out what you put in, and rationing your time among mistresses is a slow prescription to lackluster incomes and asset values.”

“Your pursuit of wealth stalls when your focus is the road and its destination, and not the road trip.”

“A bad hand is being born in a third-world country without education, sanitation, or clean water. A bad hand is being born with a debilitating disease like cystic fibrosis or cerebral palsy. The sad fact is most people think they’ve been dealt a bad hand when they’ve been given one of the best hands in the world. If you popped out of Mom in America or another industrialized republic, congratulations; you have pocket kings.”

“Act, assess, adjust.”

“An extraordinary life is won on offense; it is then preserved through defense.”

“Any complaining, whining and dissent is a potential opportunity.”

“Anytime someone gives you money, that person has said: Congratulations, you’ve won the value competition.”

“Before impacting millions, you must impact hundreds.”

“Before impacting the masses, we must first impact one - and do so profitably.”

“Before you can do what you love, you have to do what you hate.”

“Comparison is future-oriented and focused on what is missing, creating anxiety. Gratitude is present-oriented and focused on what you have, creating peace.”

“Consensus fallacy—the idea that if many people believe something, some position, or some ideology, it must be true.”

“Debt = production - consumption”

“Divert your focus and you’ll get killed by the entrepreneur who isn’t diverted.”

“Each dollar saved is another freedom fighter added to your slave army. Your army also procreates more soldiers. Altogether, your saved soldiers are fighting for your freedom. On the other hand, every dollar spent on the latest fad is one fighter killed.”

“Entrepreneurship is about problem-solving, creating convenience, satisfying desires, and becoming valuable.”

“Everyone wants change, but no one wants to change themselves.”

“Everyone wants the perfect wife but few want to work towards becoming the perfect husband.”

“Extraordinary results demand extraordinary efforts.”

“Failure is the sweat of success.”

“Fake Entrepreneurs love entrepreneurship benefits, but they don't love solving problems. Instead, they're looking for a plug-and-play, paint by numbers solutions, ironically created by real entrepreneurs.”

“Feed the crowd and you shall never starve.”

“Freedom has a price, and that price is money. Big dreams, from materialistic Ferraris to altruistic nonprofit foundations, cost money. You can’t travel the world by swimming in the oceans. You have to pay your way, and if you think money is evil, you’ve already lost.”

“Great value precedes great wealth.”

“Has life regressed into paying bills and living for a weekend?”

“If confiscating 100 percent of your economic output constitutes slavery, at which point does it cease to be slavery? 80 percent? 50 percent? 39.6 percent?”

“If financial freedom and autonomy are your goals, your beliefs must align with those goals. If they don’t, you’ll either lie to yourself, or sabotage your effort, causing tension and stress. Both make goals unobtainable.”

“If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it.”

“If the devil funded a study reporting that 91 percent of hell’s inhabitants were happy, would you believe it?”

“If you don’t identify where you want to go, the road to get there stays hidden.”

“If you struggle to live on $50,000 a year, you’ll probably struggle to live on $500,000.”

“If you want to live well, produce well. The more production value you thrust into society, the bigger your house, the faster your car, and the juicier your steak. In other words, stop looking to take and start looking to give.”

“If you’re too plumply entertained in hyperrealistic distraction, you’re no threat—no threat to the paradigms and certainly no threat to the meat grinder awaiting. Just sit back, relax, and focus on your movie because this train is leaving.”

“In school, failure is a bad thing. Marked by a bloody F and a parental beatdown, failure is admonished. Fail and you’re grounded! No TV, no iPad! Is it any shock that straight-A students make great employees while the C-students are the guys hiring them? The A-students do as they’re told, follow rules unquestioningly and stay within the lines. Meanwhile, C-student and future billionaire Johnny is a ninth grader’s newest BFF—he’s underneath the bleachers selling his older brother’s Playboys at twenty-five dollars a pop.”

“Just as there are greedy rich people, there are greedy poor people. Rich people don’t have a monopoly on greed or evilness—the human species does.”

“Making money is hard. Keeping it is harder.”

“MODEL: Mediocre, Obedient, Dependent, Entertained, and Lifeless.”

“Most people make their life’s management decisions not as the CEO, but as a preschooler awaiting instructions on when to get their midday nap.”

“Negative influences or destructive people, no matter what their label (family, fraternity brother, coworker) shouldn't carry exemptions to excommunication.”

“Once I focused on what attracts money, and not the money itself, the money flowed.”

“Recluses won’t find purpose living out their days in a sacred bubble. Partake in commerce, start working out, volunteer, go on a mission. Do freaking something.”

“Sand could be worthless or priceless depending on its relativity in the marketplace: Offered in the Sahara, it’s useless. In a valley preparing for a flood? Worthy. Your passion for sand does not make sand relatively valuable in the desert.”

“Simply put, the easier the opportunity, the worse it is. Conversely, the harder something is to solve, the greater the opportunity.”

“Success is simpler than you think: ax the shortcut, honor the process-principle, and do the necessary work.”

“The easier the opportunity, the worse it is.”

“The fiduciary principle:
A resolution that as unscripted entrepreneurs we will serve selflessly to serve the selfish.”

“The magnitude of the problem solved is the magnitude of the money you can make.”

“The truth is, we are livestock. Hosts for a diabolical purpose. Free-range slaves. Like free-range chickens, we roam free in our container (a country), provided the illusion of freedom, but we are still held captive for our eggs—our economic impact. If you leave, you need permission (a visa) and your leave is limited to whatever the visiting container (country) allows, usually ninety days.”

“The university system, once an intellectual crossroad for ideas, is now the largest confirmation bias on the planet, where mass cast opinions are sheathed in safe spaces as undebatable truths.”

“The world’s most renowned entrepreneurs became renowned because of monogamy: They commit to one business, and one business only.”

“Think how ridiculous this is. You work Monday through Friday, or you spend five life rations just so you can earn two. Five for two. Would you accept this negative rate of return in the financial world? Hey, invest five life rations and I’ll give you two back as payment? Oh and BTW, you won’t get back your original investment. Remember, time spent can never be reclaimed or refilled, so it’s not an interest payment; it’s an immediate loss of principal and a dismally negative rate of return.”

“Want to know why everyone is so miserable? The answer is simple: They’ve given up.”

“What daily routine will get you to your goal?”

“Whatever you want to believe, there's a guru cult out there helping you believe it.”

“Whenever life gets routine or mundane, it potentially signals it’s time for a new pursuit.”

“Whenever you say, 'I can't find ideas', what you're really saying is the world is perfect and it needs nothing.”

“YOLO’s price doesn’t live once; it lives and grows on your Visa card.”

“You are exactly as you have chosen.”

“You are owned by your shit, which is owned by your debt, which is either owned or profited by a corporation. So you work for a corporation, everything you buy comes from a corporation, everything you watch is produced by a corporation, and the debt you owe is held by a corporation.”

“You are the appointed CEO of your life.”

“You either choose to act or choose to complain.”

“You either do it or continue dreaming about it.”

“Most people are fine having Saturday and Sunday as the payment for Monday through Friday. Our society is built on dead dreams. You can build the cog or be the cog.”