I’ve just finished listening to MJ Demarco’s “the Millionaire Fastlane” and loved it! I believe his book is spot on about the attitudes and beliefs entrepreneurs need to succeed. It is a must read.
Demarco doesn’t believe in “Get Rich Quick” and even has disdain for gurus charging thousands of dollars to give people the secrets of making money. Demarco’s wisdom rings true for me. He says the most important thing is to identify a need in the market. His favorite sayings are “There are no shortcuts to success” and “Do the f@#&g work”!
According to MJ “I grew up in Chicago and was a portly kid with few friends. I wasn’t interested in teenage girls or playing sports only donuts, video games, and bowling. My exertions at the time were epitomized by a long broken broomstick; I used it as the TV’s remote control since the real one was broken and I was to lazy to move. When I did move, the local ice cream shop was often my target; a sugary delight was a motive I could always count on.”
The day things changed for him was when he saw a young man hop into a Lamborghini Countach. He mustered up the courage to ask the man what he did? The man replied that he was an inventor as he was driving off. I can relate to this. The Countach is the dream car for many teenage boys. One time when I was prospecting in a Sacramento business park I ran into a business named Exotic Dream Machines that had about a half-dozen Lamborghini “clones” parked in the lot. My imagination ran wild!
I wanted to put the MJ Demarco story in context so I did some research to piece together a timeline. I believe that you will find this insightful..
- 1969 – MJ Demarco was born in the Chicago area (May 24th, 1969)
- 1988 – He graduated high school
- 1992 – Graduated college with 2 business degrees ( Northern Illinois University)
- 1994 – Yahoo founded
- 1996 – Still at home living with mom doing a bunch of odd jobs
- 1997 – Moved to Phoenix with just $900, drove a limo and did website design
- 1997 – Founded “limo-search.com” after a rider asked him about companies in NY
- 1998 – Revised business revenue model to “pay-per-lead”
- 1998 – Purchased “limos.com” for $10K using credit cards
- 1998 – Google founded
- 1999 – Mark Cuban sells Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 Billion
- 2000 – Sold business for $1.2 Million
- 2000 – Limos.com raised $12 million in capital
- 2000 – Tech bubble burst (the dot bomb)
- 2001 – Repurchased website back for $250K
- 2007 – Sold company again for $3.3 to $7.9 million
- 2011 – Published “ The Millionaire Fastlane” which would sell over 250,000 copies
Demarco is a great teacher but here are some additional lessons when you read between the lines:
Courage Matters – Until 1996, Demarco was living with his mother in Chicago. He would pack all of his belongings…a mattress, old Falcon and $900 and move to sunny Phoenix. Starting a new life is not for the faint of heart. In Phoenix, he rented a low cost apartment for under $500 per month and kept his expenses low.
Addressing a Genuine Need Matters – As a limo driver, Demarco had an insider’s insight into the limousine industry. When he was asked by his passenger in Phoenix whether he knew of a limo service in New York, he had the wherewithal and curiosity to build a website to test the concept.
Curiosity Matters – Most people I know would not have paid much attention to the customer’s off hand question. But Demarco saw it as a potential problem to solve. I believe that finding a good “unmet need” in the marketplace is half the battle. As they say “luck is opportunity meets preparedness”.
Learning Matters – As a limo driver, Demarco had lots of downtime between customer assignments. Rather than waste it, he spent that time reading business books and biographies. Warren Buffet claims that he spends 80% of his day reading. Bill Gates reads roughly 50 books per year. There might be something to this reading thing.
Niche matters – Demarco focused on a very specific niche…limo searches. He did not try to “boil the ocean” as one of my friends used to say. This focus allowed him to develop a great service for limo companies and customers. Today, we would call this a “directory site”.
Business Model Matters – His first website named “limo-search.com” was generating traffic, but he wasn’t monetizing it that well. He changed the revenue model to a “pay-per-lead” at a time when lead generation wasn’t that well known. The new model dramatically improved his revenue and business.
Brand and Domain Name Matters – He was able to purchase the domain “limos.com” for about $10,000. He didn’t really have the cash so he put the domain on a credit card. He claims that this was a turning point in the business. “Limos.com” is an outstanding domain name and acquiring it was a stroke of good fortune. Having a solid domain property would set him up well to grow and sell the business.
Timing matters – Demarco started his business in 1997. Yahoo was the dominant search engine at the time and Google wasn’t founded until 1998. He sold the business just prior to the Dot Com crash in 2000. This was an exuberant time when people were raising lots of money for internet start-ups. In fact, the group that bought his business would raise $12 million to expand the business. Had he tried to sell the business after the crash… there might be a different story.
In no way does MJ believe entrepreneurship is for everyone. There is a lot of uncertainty when starting a business and many fail. But one of his students is a 20 year old YouTuber named James Jani. Jani’s channel has 845K subscribers and makes well over $50K per month in Google Ad revenue. Demarco inspired James and James inspired me. I feel another blog coming on.
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