The Ten-Year Career

The Fast Track

A Young Entrepreneur and Business Man’s Guide to Getting on the Path to Great Wealth and Success in Life

By D. M. Lukas

Why You Need This Book…

This book is a culmination of over 5 years of hard work and study. It took over 5 years because I had to find, learn, perfect, and execute flawlessly all of the principles I am going to teach you.

We live in exciting times…As I write this book; the U.S. and the world are going through extraordinary economic times. Most people have never gone through times like this. Many of the Gen X and Gen Y generations (of which I am part of) have never seen or gone through a time when there wasn’t growth. The word of the day seems to be “crisis.” So why do I say, exciting? Because no matter what type of economic situation exists, there is always opportunity. Even during the depression, people became very wealthy. Now, I won’t say that people have not fallen on hard times…because they have. And even if you are wealthy and successful; nowadays, one wrong move can really change that!

That is why you need this book. Since 1971, the dollar has lost over 80% of its value. The U.S.’s current unemployment rate is 9.5% and climbing, and in just a short few months, our government has promised, guaranteed, and voted to print over $12 TRILLION dollars! Just to put that in perspective, the entire U.S. output, i.e. what we make and produce as country is just over $14 trillion. The interest to pay this new debt alone is almost $1 trillion per year going forward.

With all of this happening, a few things seem likely to happen. First, world markets and economies are going to continue to go through wild swings. Second, some industries (automakers for example) are going to go through radical change and may be wiped out. Third, in order to pay for our new debt, taxes will have to go up in future years, and lastly, with so much new money being printed out of thin air and financed primarily with debt, we are headed for some inflation. (Inflation is when prices of goods and services, such as gasoline, milk, or utilities go up. At the same time, interest rates may go up as well, causing things such as cars and homes to become more expensive. This is caused because the dollar loses its value, either due to printing too much money or other world currencies gaining over it.)

The good news is that those that are prepared, have the skills, stay logical, and think outside the proverbial box; have an incredible chance to seize opportunities, gain wealth, and reach their goals and dreams.

The Fast Track and its accompanying website, www.fasttrackwealthguide.com, were written and developed to give you everything you need to get on the path to great wealth and success. Success is a process and the following pages give you a concrete process for these times or any other. I wish you the best in your journey and will do everything I can to help you on the way.

-D.M. Lukas

The Fast Track

Introduction:

“It is so easy to get rich in America…simply because nobody is trying!” I know, I know, the first time I heard that statement, I thought, “What are you talking about?” Then after some thought and about 5 years of getting out into the “real world” I realized that it is absolutely true.

You see, most people get up, aimlessly go to work, come home, watch some T.V., go to bed and then get up the next day and repeat the process all over again. I wonder if they ever stop to think, “Is this what I really want my life to be like everyday?” Most people go to work dreading it, just wanting to “get it over with” and rightfully so, as for many, there is no incentive to work harder, go above and beyond, and strive for the next level. The reason lies in the way that many people are paid.

Results vs. Time

Most people are paid for their time; meaning they go to work, make sure they get 8 hours on their time card, get the hourly wage for those hours and go home. For many the incentive to do much more is just not there. Let’s take a look at the situation.

You have Jim and Barry. They both work for the same company, doing exactly the same job, and sit in cubicles right next to each other. Jim works extremely hard, takes short lunches, no breaks, and does twice the daily work of Barry for the department. Barry, on the other hand comes to work, walks around and talks with everybody for the first hour of the day, does a little bit of work, goes to lunch, comes back, and takes a couple of breaks in the break room. This cycle of Jim and Barry goes on and on everyday until the end of the year comes and its time for the annual review. Since Jim and Barry work in the same department, the company looks at how the department does as whole as part of the evaluation. In this case, the department has done very well, no doubt thanks to Jim’s extra efforts. But the company looks at them and the rest of the department, says good job, and gives everyone a 3% raise (barely beating inflation). Jim cannot believe it, all of his hard work and for what, the same measly 3% that Barry got? Jim goes back to his desk and vows never to have this happen to him again. So what does he do? He works just enough to get his basic work done, takes breaks as much as possible, maybe a little longer lunch, just like Barry. Sadly, this happens all of the time in business. People do just enough to NOT get fired. It happens frequently with people being paid for their time because there is no incentive to do more than the bare minimum not to get fired. Even worse, many times it is the Barrys of the world who get the promotion. So how do you prevent this from happening to you? It is simple. Be paid for your results. This does not mean that you do not have an hourly wage or salary, but it does mean that you need to have some aspect of your pay or income come from your hard work and the ability to be more productive and outshine your peers. If your work, in some way, has impact on the company’s bottom line, you are not as expendable. Conversely, if you own your own business and are not spending every moment on activities to help your bottom line, you are losing. The previous few statements are important, fundamental principles in this book. It is this competitive edge that drives us to excel, attain more, grow more, take on new challenges, and keep life and work interesting. Ask yourself, if I am supposed to work 40 years, do I want it to be boring? Let me ask you something else…Why does it have to be 40 years? That is the standard we all hear about, right? Work 40 years and save, save, save for retirement, and you may be able to live comfortably in retirement, barring no major economic crashes like the one we are experiencing now. But comfortable? I don’t want to be comfortable. I want to be wealthy, rich. I want to play, travel the world, start a foundation, give my family everything they always wanted and beyond. Furthermore, I don’t want to wait 40 years to do it. I want to be doing it now! How about you, do you want to be doing it now?

You may be saying, “but I cannot do it now, I don’t have the money, time, freedom, whatever”….Ok, ok, maybe not right now, but how about 5 years from now or even 10. It still sounds a lot better than 40! That is what this book is all about. How by just doing a few things right early on in your life and career, or even changing a few in your current situation, you can make exponential strides in reaching your goals and getting what you want. In short, you will be on the Fast Track! Now, you are probably saying, but I don’t know how to do that. What type of things is he talking about? Well, I want you to understand one thing very clearly. Pay attention.