For those of you who have read MJ's book, this is the little quote he pulled of mine:
Quote:
“Is it bullshit? You know, the dream to be young and live the life—to own the exotic cars, to own the dream house, to have free time to travel and pursue your dreams. Can you really get free of the rat race young? I’m a 23-year-old investment banker in Chicago, Illinois. I make a modest salary and modest commissions. By most people’s standards, I have a good job. I hate it. I cruise Chicago’s downtown and I see some guys living the life. Guys driving expensive exotic cars and I think to myself . . . They’re all 50 or older with silver hair! One of them once told me, ‘You know kid, when you finally can afford a toy like this, you’re almost too old to enjoy it!’ The guy was a 52-year-old real estate investor. I remember looking at him and thinking ‘God . . . that can’t be true! It’s gotta be bullshit! It’s gotta be!’”
And, of course, here is MJ's brilliant response:
Quote:
I can verify—it isn’t bullshit. You can live “the life” and still be young. Old age is not a
prerequisite to wealth or retirement. However, the real BS is thinking you can do it by the default
“Get Rich Slow” construct, at least by the time you hit your 30th birthday. Believing that old age
is a precursor to retirement is the real BS. The real BS is allowing “Get Rich Slow” to steal your
dreams.
And his private message to me from around the same time...
Quote:
Your answer is pretty simple. What need is out there that all these connections can solve? It seems you are chasing $$ instead of chasing a need. You have to identify a specific need (problem, inconvenience,performance gap) and fill it. Just because you have access to the gurus doesn't mean that a need exists. You can't force a need, they are uncovered by engaging into the markets by which you want toserve. Of course, certain roads can pick you instead of you picking them ... when life presents a problem or an unmet need, a new road is opened, even if you aren't involved in that particular space.
Quote:
BTW,your introduction made months ago made it into the rough draft of mybook.
Cheers,
MJ
I began writing this post earlier this morning, as a response to the private message from MJ (quoted above). However, for reasons I shall state below, I wanted to make this public.
Dear MJ,
First, let me say that it is a huge honor for my introduction to have appeared in the final copy of your book. I literally picked it up sometime late last year, and was very surprised and flattered to see it. I don't know if you remember me, but I remember you. You changed my life... before you ever officially published your book.
I still remember the day I found your website, many years ago. The memory brings tears to my eyes. I remember calling my older cousin and reading your story to him over the phone, word for word.
Some of the similarities between our stories shocked me. For instance, you lived in the Midwest and spent years on Northern Illinois University's campus (I did not go to NIU myself, but at the time, I often visited my friends there).
I cannot describe how much your words filled me with hope, MJ. I feel like am just like you, man. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant,but it's just that I relate with your story - and your way of looking at life - on a deep, intuitive level. Just like you, I knew I couldn't make millions by hitting home runs, scoring touchdowns, dunking basketballs, or scoring goals. Although I am a classical pianist, I knew I couldn't drive European cars(Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley) by playing European composers for a living (Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bach). Somehow, though, I knew that one day I would have one of my own. I didn't know how, but in my heart, I believed it. I felt it in my bones.
.
Alot of people probably do not understand, but to guys like us, these vehicles are effigies to king-like greatness. They are modern-day versions of an ancient conqueror's chariots. If Genghis Kahn were alive today, would he not drive an Aventador?
Anyway, I am sure we will have plenty of time in the future to compare the intimate details of our stories, talk about the fulfillment of our boyhood dreams of wealth, fast cars, big homes, and the good life.
But for now,let's talk business.
I took your advice, MJ. I stopped focusing on how much money I wanted to make, and I focused on "what need is out there that all of my connections can help solve." I am sure that Robert Greene would recognize this as intense realism, an idea he hones in on in The 33 Strategies of War.
A sharp mind can easily make connections between your and Greene's wisdom. Greene instructs: “A strategist or general isn't going to get too far in life if he's thinking about what he wants or his ideas or his wishes. He has to focus incredibly intensely on the actual givens of the situation.” In the context of the Fastlane, you advise your readers to focus on fulfilling needs,i.e. the actual givens of the situation.
That's what I find so cool about you, MJ. Just as Greene traces the strategies of Napolean to 50 Cent's way of doing business, I can connect the dots between Greene's wisdom and the mentoring you gave me four years ago.
When I wrote the quote in your book, I was a 23-year old investment banker in 2008. Even then, I was self-employed, but I had not yet obtained the success I sought. I was close, though. I had several clients paying me, and was within inches of closing several big deals...
Then, suddenly,a massive economic crisis shook the entire globe. It was a worldwide financial earthquake, rupturing the very foundations upon which our entire financial system stands. The whole structure crashed. It was the worst catastrophe since the Great Depression.
In the clip above (1:33 - 3:00 ), Robert Greene discusses the aftermath.
Quote:
50 came from Queens, NY,which was a pretty middle-class black neighborhood. And if you ever visit it, you're kind of shocked. It doesn't really look like the hood as you imagine it. They're houses with front lawns and fences.What happened in Queens, and what happened in a lot of black neighborhoods, drugs became a source of income in the 60s and 70s. And these large gangs were operating the drug dealing business.
Quote:
Large gangs were operating the drug dealing business. The gangs were hierarchical, like corporations. Like Microsoft. If you were a young man, who wanted to make some money, 14, 15, didn't want to go to school, wanted to get in... you had to start at the bottom and work your way up slowly, making no money, etc.
Then crack happened. Then the whole thing was destroyed. Then, overnight,a young man 50's age could go out – without a gang, without anybody there, and you could make a lot of money dealing suddenly with all of these - the demand, it was insane for this drug. So you didn't have to deal with a gang. You could cut out all of the middlemen and do it yourself. This environment was incredibly chaotic. You had to think on your feet. You had to learn about the large gangs that were still trying to muscle you out of the business. You had to worry about the other hustlers. You had to worry about the police. It was kind of like the wild west.
And a person who could succeed in that environment had to be very open,and not so rigid, think in the moment, and think fast. This fascinates me, because I really, really believe that we are living ina moment that is completely analogous to what was happening all throughout urban America in the 1980s.
And Freakonomics talked about this in one of its chapters in the origina lversion of the book how the drug trade often mirrors what happens in the larger, macro environment. And I think we're living in a world that was like what happened in the original chapter, talked about how the drug trade often mirrors what happens in the larger, macro environment. I think we're living in a world that was like what had happened with the gangs suddenly being exploded, where it's becoming every man and woman for himself. It's extremely chaotic. The old business model is gone. And the people who are going to succeed are those who are not burdened with ideas from the past and who are able to think fast and kind of adapt themselves to a very chaotic environment.
Robert Greene is absolutely, 100% correct. Below, I will give an example from personal experience that will: 1) Empirically validate Robert Greene's statement and 2) reveal how I used MJ'sadvice to make over $150,000.00 in less than a week... three years ago... a few short months after he sent me that life-changing private message.
In 2009, the Public Utility Commission of Ohio(PUCO) passed legislation that deregulated Ohio's electricity market. This meant that the four utilities - First Energy, DPL, Dukeand AEP - were no longer the only players in the game. The new law opened up competition and allowed new, private suppliers could compete with the longstanding, state-mandated monopolies. During this time, electricity prices had hit an all-time low. This can be verified simply by visiting the government's energy sites that track this information. All of this meant that the old utility rates were much higher than the rates offered by the new suppliers. So, looking at this opportunity through MJ's Fastlane lenses,this is what you would see
The biggest electricity users in the country - manufacturing plants,office buildings, and massive corporations with six, seven and even eight figure electricity invoices - were all paying way too much for their electricity. All they needed was someone to tell them.
So,I started a brokerage and signed contracts with the most competitive suppliers in the market. I got a few clients in Duke, but I got my real success in the AEP market. I was one of the first brokers in the AEP market. In fact, I brought some suppliers into that market, and was the first broker selling for some of those players. I was able to do this because every broker and supplier ignored the AEP market, because AEP's rates were too low to compete with in 2009.
But no one seemed to realize that the PUCO granted AEP a 6% rate increase that would go into effect in early 2010. No one except me. So, for a few short weeks,I was the first guy calling on the skyscrapers downtown Columbus, the manufacturing plants, the large corporations, etc. I saw the aftermath in the new world that Robert Greene described above, and -following MJ's advice, I discovered a need and filled it with my connections. Long story short, at the age of 25, I closed a Fortune 1000 account - while living in my grandmother's basement. I literally started from the bottom. I closed several other office buildings downtown, and I almost closed the largest deal in the city (barely missed it). When it was all said and done,I made several hundred thousand dollars in a few short weeks. And the contracts I set my clients up with saved them nearly one million dollars.
I was happy, but not satisfied. I knew that if I had been better and faster, I could have done so much better. I could have made millions. I could have saved my clients tens of millions. All I needed was another shot, I told myself. Just one more shot...
That's why I am writing you now, MJ. I have my second shot. Today, I am sitting on an opportunity that is 100 times bigger than the one I discovered a few months after you PM'd me. Maybe 1,000 times bigger. Maybe 10,000 times bigger.
Today, I am not a skinny 25-year old kid, armed with nothing but his own vision, and inspiration from MJ DeMarco's story. Today, I know I'm right. Today, I'm ready for a fight. Today, I'm ready for an epic showdown with the universe - and I'm going to win. I have a reference letter from the CFO of a pro sports team stating that my company saved them six figures in one year alone. I have case studies across industry sectors - retail, industrial,office, service - attesting to the fact that I can save companies between $50,000 and $1,500,000. Just as I did with electricity, I do not charge upfront retainers or hourly fees. I only get paid if my clients save money. One of my partners sold a .com company for over $100M. I can prove all of this, MJ.
I say all of this not to brag, or to tell you how great I am. I would not have gotten here without my mentors, without the great advice and the hard lessons that I have learned ever since I dropped out of college at the age of 16 and started hustling. I am saying this to tell you thank you - from the bottom of my heart -for the inspiration and hope your story gave me. Thank you for the advice you gave me years ago. And maybe, just maybe, there is a way for us to work together.
And as I said before, this started out as a private message, but I wanted your entire readership to see this, so they can see just another life you changed for the better.
And, at the very least, I want to tell you that it would be a huge honor for you to sit on the board of advisers for my new company. I look forward to a bright future, MJ. Let the Lambo engines roar in the Fastlane - forever!