“All self-made multimillionaires create their wealth by a carefully orchestrated process. They have and use the entire formula. Despite what you may have read or heard, wealth is not an event. ” – MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane
Making money, just like all other forms of success in life are not events.
Money doesn’t just fall from a tree as much as you won’t suddenly become better than Roger Federer at tennis overnight.
An event is a moment in time. Whereas a process is concentrated action, discipline and focus over a period of time.
For example:
- Process => years of studying to graduate from college not to mention working hard to get into a target school in the first place. Event => the actual graduation ceremony.
- Process => Tiger Woods training his golf skills every day for 13 hours since he was a child. Event => winning his 14th Major Championship and being widely regarded as one of the best golfers of all time.
Whenever you see an athlete at the top of their game. Or an actor/actress giving an Oscar-worthy performance. Or any master chef performing their craft of cooking in front of a rapt audience of millions on TV.
Remember: these things did not happen overnight.
You are seeing the culmination of years of toil, tears, hard work and sacrifice.
Sacrifice of time.
Sacrifice of fun and entertainment.
Sacrifice of friends and a social life.
This is what I mean by process.
Whereas an event is like an iceberg where you can only see the tip of it. You cannot see the solid foundation that lies underneath and underpins the entire impressive structure. But it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
When people only focus on other peoples’ successes as though they were just events they are deluding themselves.
What they are seeing is the just the tip of the iceberg.
Without process, there is no event
As some of you may know, I’ve been re-reading The Millionaire Fastlane recently and I love how MJ DeMarco puts it:
Wealth is a process, not an event. Ask any chef and they will confirm that the perfect dish is a series of ingredients and a well-engineered process of execution: a little of this, a little of that, done at the right time at the right place, and wham, you have a tasty meal. Wealth creation has the same method of execution – a fabricated accumulation of many disassociated ingredients into an assembled whole that has value and is worth millions.
Wealth eludes most people because they are preoccupied with events while disregarding process. Without process, there is no event. – MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane
So why is it that many people dream of being wealthy one day, yet do absolutely nothing about it? As Gary Vaynerchuk likes to say, “stop watching f@#*ing House of Cards or Netflix or YouTube.”
Action points/notes to self
- Success doesn’t just happen overnight.
- Hard work may not be sexy or sell but it is the only way to achieve long lasting success in life.
- Without process, there is no event.
Question time
Have you ever fell into the trap of mistaking the event of success versus the process that underpins it and makes it possible?
What do you think of MJ Demarco’s take on this?
Do you agree that without process, there is no event?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this so please leave a message in the comments.
Until next time.
Godspeed,
Tony Lee Jacobs
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