Recently I read the book The Millionaire Fastlane (summary)

It was pretty decent, the overarching idea of the book was about how you're probably "driving" in the safe, slow lane by having a decent job, putting money into your 401k, saving up to buy a house, maybe putting some of that money into index funds. And that in order to realistically become a millionaire, you should quit your job and go all in on starting a business. Ideally while you're still young.

This post is not about the book. In fact, this post is not even about money specifically. It's about this idea of switching into the Fastlane to reach your goals faster and more reliably that I'd like to talk about.

This is a specific issue that many guys don't experience, so if you're one of the lucky ones, this post probably won't resonate as much with you.

We're all stunted..

If you look at the average person (man or woman), you'll notice that they're really fucking lazy. They only wanna do what they absolutely have to: Go to school/work to make a very mediocre performance
and then go home as soon as possible to reward themselves for working so hard by playing videogames or scrolling through TikTok. If you're a fellow Gen-Zer that has had internet access during his teen years and got his first phone at 14 (or earlier) you probably suffer from this even more thanks to having your brain fried and re-wired to constantly seek out cheap dopamine from your favorite YouTuber, pornstar or motivational speaker (yes, self-improvement content can be just mental masturbation).

Humans (much like everything in nature) evolved to stick to things that work. You spend 12 hours a day playing videogames while your mom takes care of you and feeds you tendies? Hey, all your subconscious sees is that you're getting well fed and you're even spreading your genes (albeit into the anime bodypillow on your bed)! Better not change this routine that's working for us, what if you fuck it up and we'll die.

..stuck in the slow lane..

There's guys that swear they've been hitting the gym 4x a week for the past 3 years and their build looks like they were just rescued from Auschwitz. A big and strong body requires three main ingredients - proper exercise, sleeping and nutrition. All of these three have to be dialed in so you're gaining mass optimally. Guys decide to hit the gym for the first time in their life and so they drag their ass there, do 5 different bicep exercises, eat like shit and then get drunk in the evening. Rinse and repeat. Maybe over time they pick up a proper exercise program, but more often than not, they don't want to track macros, they don't want to sleep optimally because they "don't have the time" to commit.

People have a tendency to excuse this kind of behavior because "at least it's a start". Yeah it's a start. On the slow lane. You're getting to where you want to be very very slowly, and more importantly, your chances of actually getting there are lower. Anything can happen between now and your destination, so why not make the journey as short as possible so there's less of a time window for random devastating fuckups that could hinder the whole mission?

We're subconsciously afraid of changing things up and commiting to a completely different life routine. Which is also why when newbies stumble upon redpill ideas, they pussyfoot around implementing these ideas, hitting the gym, and doing all the things you have to do. Instead they start asking stupid questions like

  • "Can I get girls if I'm a 5'5" Indian dude?"
  • "Should I even attempt to talk to girls when my jaw is this weak?"
  • "If I work out enough, I won't have to approach girls, they'll just come, right?" (especially popular take between autistic dudes)

They do this this just to prepare themselves enough. To not hurt themselves too much when they actually do go out and try to talk to some girls. And they swear they will, just gotta read through the sidebar one more time bro.

..while winners drive past us..

I was a lot like this. My half-assed attempts at improving my life have yielded some results, but it's only after I somehow ended up at a get-together with a handful of very interesting young men. They were three Cambridge University compsci graduates that were also working at Google. Other than having 0.01 percentile IQ, there was one other interesting trait they had.

They asked me to help them with a certain non-profit so I got a chance to work with them. They were absolutely in the fast lane. They wasted exactly 0 seconds on useless shit. They were locked in, all in on the non-profit until it was done. And it was done in a matter of months, surprisingly fast and really well. I had never seen anything like this. These three flannel wearing nerds were fucking lions at getting what they wanted and I almost couldn't keep up with their energy.

And they managed to do all this while actually having a life, we went on a trip to Mexico as a form of teambuilding.

I talked to them about it after the fact and I mentioned how they've shown me an approach to things I've never seen before. One of them mentioned that everyone at Google is like this. In order to get into Google, you have to show you've got the "Google way of thinking" and that's exactly this proactive, hungry way of getting after what you want.

Ever since then, I've worked with multiple successful startup founders and they all share this common trait.

..so become a winner

The whole point of this post is to commit fully. Don't half-ass shit.

If you're going to work out, get a personal trainer or read everything you can about exercise and dial that shit in. From exercise, through macro tracking, to turning down the lights an hour before bedtime. From this point until you get your dream body, you're a bodybuilder. Say that shit to yourself. "From now on, I'm a bodybuilder".

If you're shit at socializing, from now on until your goals are met, you're a charismatic extrovert. You're gonna dial that shit in and go out every day. If you work from home, you'll take your laptop and work from a cafe. From now on you're the guy that talks to everyone. Say that shit to yourself and go tell that chick you're passing on the street that you like the way she did her eyeliner.

And keep in mind you can be fully locked on multiple things at once. When you've done your workout and prepared your meals, you still have time in the day to work on your other goals.

TLDR: In order to get into the fast lane after your financial, fitness or personal relationship goals, you have to commit fully. Don't ever half-ass anything. You either want it or you don't.