Unscripted: The Great Rat-Race Escape: From Wage Slavery to Wealth: How to Start a Purpose Driven Business and Win Financial Freedom for a Lifetime

by M.J. DeMarco

Has your life been conscripted by an economic religion?

Learn how to free yourself and your life through the power of unscripted entrepreneurship.

Grab your front-row seat in the story of a lifetime. Witness how one family escapes the rat race - the world's economic religion - and how you can too.

By all appearances, Jeff and Samantha Trotman are living the American dream. But behind the white picket fence, they endure an American nightmare. With little time for each other, a pile of debt, and Ferrari taste on a Ford budget, the ruse of affluence is killing them. Two respectable jobs and a lovely suburban house paint a pretty picture, but behind the ink is a broken marriage rife with meaningless work and dead dreams. And now, with an unplanned pregnancy, they’re facing a mid-life crisis 20 years early.

With little time and looming bankruptcy, the Trotmans are forced to face the red-pill truth they long They were living, but they weren’t alive. Determined to resurrect their life and their marriage, the Trotmans plot a rat-race escape - only to find themselves more thickly in it. As tensions rise and hope fades, follow along step-by-step as the Trotmans pivot to a new strategy and a new starting a business as entrepreneurs. While they navigate their journey, you’ll learn 120 wealth-building strategies and principles that your mainstream financial guru won’t dare reveal - actionable concepts that will help you profit your way into the unscripted one percent, an emerging economic class of entrepreneurs who enjoy a lifetime of freedom emancipated from miserly living and Wall Street's "save, pray, and wait" paradigm.

Discover how one family escapes the wage-slaving grind and wins a lifetime of financial freedom, leaving behind the tyranny of meaningless jobs and mediocre living - and how you can do the same. Not in 50 years, but five or 10.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship, Money, Self Help, Finance, Personal Finance

Audible Audio

Published June 28, 2021

About the author

MJ DeMarco is a semi-retired entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and international best-selling author who’s books have been translated in over 15 languages worldwide. He is the current founder of Viperion Publishing Corp., a media company focused on online and print content distribution. He also is admin/founder for The Fastlane Forum, the web’s leading destination forum for start-up, finance, and entrepreneurial business discussions.

Prior to embarking into the world of writing and authorship, he was the former start-up Founder/CEO of Limos.com (1997-2007), a global ground transportation aggregator and marketplace that he successfully built and grew into a profitable multi-million dollar company, all with no money, no formal training, and with just a few employees. In 2001, he sold the company in an exit event but later reacquired the company via bankruptcy reorganization. He later sold the company again in 2007 to a Phoenix-based private equity company.

By refusing to accept society's default template for mediocrity (THE SCRIPT: jobs, 401(k)s, frugality, give your life savings to Wall-Street) MJ was able to retire young in his thirties without sacrificing the good life. Yes, that means he isn’t playing Wall-Street's “hope, wait, and pray” game where you nervously invest all your savings into the stock market, all while commiserating over the Starbucks you couldn’t drink because saving $4.12 was more important. (Do people seriously believe that sh*t?)

Currently, MJ owns a publishing company which produces, distributes, and licenses his work around the world while contributing daily to TheFastlaneForum.com: an entrepreneurial community featuring over 40,000 entrepreneurs. He lives in Scottsdale Arizona and enjoys road trips, softball, travel, fitness and nutrition, working out, and recklessly exploring the Sonoran desert on his UTV.

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few things that vex me about this book:
- There seem to be way too many 5 star ratings and reviews on Goodreads as of 16 Oct 21
- The drab fictional story interwoven throughout the chapters M.J. Demarco uses to structure his arguments and self-congratulate himself
- M.J. Demarco’s integrity about listing fake employees on his website
- M.J. Demarco’s ego which resulted in him crashing his 850-horsepower Viper in a street race
- The way in which M.J. Demarco tries to reinvent the wheel by using his own personal terminology for common financial, accounting and business terminology

The part that made me laugh the most was the following section where he tries to defame Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki and Timothy Ferris; the giants upon the shoulders which M.J. tries to stand on:

“My brother tried to start a business for nearly ten years. Was always talking about some nonsense. First, it was some hocus-pocus about attraction and positive thinking, then one of those pyramid things, then he started talking about some rich dad. After losing a bunch of money in real estate, he just stopped working altogether.” Janice paused, lost in thought, then shook her head. “He was always looking for some fastlane to success and yet he was convinced he could do it only working four hours a week.” Excerpt From: MJ DeMarco. “Unscripted - The Great Rat Race Escape.” Apple Books.

He also takes a pretty good stab at the FIRE movement too and their approach to minimising costs in order to seek early retirement.

Overall, I would strongly suggest others to read his first book (The Millionaire Fastlane) rather than this dribble.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, this stopped me from listening to The Economist, because I usually interrupt my book to listen, but this time I didn't want to. MJ DeMarco is a master at entrepreneurship. I've heard all of his books, and I've enjoyed them all, including this one. The book has a fun fictitious story, along with 120 principals/strategies that are helpful from everything from getting started, marketing and money management. It's a great book, with great advice. I love his references to rats and scientists :-)

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read MJ’s first book last year and was a huge fan. This one felt a lot more drawn out to me. Lost interest halfway through and skimmed the rest. Major takeaways:

• Stock markets don’t create wealth
• We’ve all been tricked
• To make money, you have to bring people value
• Trading Monday-Friday for Saturday and Sunday is a -60% ROI.
• Build a business that doesn’t require increasing time to increase revenue

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read his previous 2 books, read this one as well. Not only to turn your entrepreneurial jive back to to 11, but to have a more structural approach of unscripting your live and start an assymetrical earning system (a.k.a. a succesful business) and of course the occasional smirk.
New readers even have no reason to not pick this one up. Its invaluable wisdom is told as a fictional story of Jeff and Samantha in a way that painfully mirrors most (unhappy) lives out there of the 9-to-5 employee (or rat). That pain though, will spur (most of you) into action (we still need rats). I'd recommend this over any other guru book about there.

What are you still doing here, go read The Great Rat Race Escape and get your life back!

[Alexej Gerstmaier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most actionable business book I have ever read. His best book.

My favorite passage:

“Ultimately, entrepreneurs fail because they drip-feed themselves with information that has nothing to do with the problems they're facing.”

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of insights, rich with powerful ideas and concepts, concise, rare, original, enjoyable, and packed with life-changing and mindset shifting content.

This book is one of those books that you need to read and re-read times and times again till all the principles and strategies will be literally engraved on your brain. For me (with 2 business failures so far, and currently getting prepared for my future tries) this is like a field-manual/handbook on entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Just like his previous book on the Unscripted series, this one is another gem on the topic.

Enriched with timeless wisdom on how to navigate starting a business from idea generation and idea validation with real customers, growing the business from the ground with little money, trying different marketing strategies till getting it right and achieving asymmetrical ROI, quitting your day job after making equal or more money monthly in your business than your job, and growing the business to a multimillion-dollar enterprise and finally selling it at a whooping industry multiple of company's revenue. Setting yourself free from selling your time for money and spend the rest of your life on whatever you desire without worrying about money.

You will learn all of that and much more through a novel framework (fiction & non-fiction combo).

The best 20€ investment I made in 2021. You will get a positive asymmetrical return on investment by buying and reading this masterpiece. Possibly your mindset will shift and your life will change. You will be educated on how real wealth is created and more importantly how the process looks like.

Bottom line: The first Unscripted book and this one are the best books I've read ever.

[Thanos Antoniou · Rating 5 out of 5]

If MJs previous books didn't drive the point home for you, this one definitely it does that in the best way possible.

It didn't conceptually deviate heavily from the previous books but it systematized and made it more digestable for a larger audience. Furthermore, the fictional/storytelling part of the Trottmans, even though I found it a bit edgy and preachy in the first few chapters chapters, I found myself more and more gripped for their story and how they apply the principles and the strategies that the book is describing as the book was progressing.

To finish it off properly here, this is not a book for anyone and is definitely isn't light reading. However, it can be a great toolkit at the right hands of the individuals interested into bringing change in their lives.

[Hassan Kassim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Longer, convoluted and the weaker of his 3 books but nonetheless you'll find a lot of useful stuff in here.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing second read after The Millionaire Fast Lane; I loved the fictional story & characters that were intertwined with the non-fiction format. I've never read a business book written this way and it worked! The end did however get slightly repetitive.

[Andrew Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite entrepreneurial book to date. Brutally honest, well illustrated examples (storyline), and packed with actionable advice. Must read again.

[Sergiy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is great for anyone who hasn’t read the previous two books of the author. The overall message is consistent among all three of them

I liked the story of the married couple that is described here, especially the middle part of it when they actually started to do some actions towards their goals. The story starts quite slow but eventually has a happy ending. The ending feels extremely rushed specifically the part when they scaled their business from creating the product by themselves and having 1-2 employees to the stage where they sold their business. It lacks the details that other parts of the story have. Despite that, the overall narrative is great and uplifting

I’m giving the book 3 stars since more than half of the content is repeated from the previous books, same ideas just different words

Main takeaways:
- If confiscating 100 percent of your economic output makes slavery, at what point does it stop? 80 percent? 50 percent? 39.6 percent?
- Stop reading books for the sake of reading books, read them to solve your immediate problems
- Easy goes hard principle: the easier it is to start a venture, the harder it will be to succeed at it
- Easy is hard because easy is crowded
- Passion is a horrible business model
- Passion doesn’t pay the bills
- Focus on the critical path: a set of actins that will lead to the desired result
- Any activity outside of the critical path is an action-fake
- Structure your day to day environment to make sure it aligns with your actions along the critical path - environment hacking
- Wealth should be created outside of the capital markets
- The capital markets should be used for maintaining wealth and generating a stream of cashflow

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed the book, but couldn't careless about veganism or his anti religion rants.

[Tomasz Zieba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of unnecessary vegans BS there but it's overall a good book about entrepreneurship.

[Mark Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another 5-star winner by DeMarco, so this is my third 5-star rating on 3 of his books to date. What can I say? DeMarco knows his business and marketing angles and strategies, and his writing style is easy to absorb.

However, here he intertwines a fictional story of a couple going from the Rat-race lifestyle to financial independence by starting a business, and the reader learns business and marketing principles all along the way.

This may be his best book, but I would recommend reading his previous two books in order from Millionaire Fastlane, and then Unscripted to capitalize on the information. DeMarco uses the same terminology over and over again, which is great, but he does changes some of them along the way. For example, he uses "Money Systems" for this book, wherein in Millionaire Fastlane, he used "Money Trees." This is just my opinion and personal recommendation.

My take-aways:

1. DeMarco explains there are TWO rat-races (I thought there was just one, nope)...one race is the vocational employees struggling to survive, and the other are the professionals struggling to do their "Latte Factors" and investing in 401ks, instead of a business. MAKE no mistake, you MUST have a business in order to escape the rat race because if you do not, you cannot thrive on the law of asymmetrical returns which is really DeMarco's thrust for everything he discusses.

2. DeMarco focuses on how the reader can create a business or improve an already existing business by focusing on solving a problem and doing an area with a NEED.

3. 3 Types of the Unscripted.

4. Expand your Means.

5. The Profit Locus Focus.

6. Bath Math - The 3 Rat Race Anchors.

7. KEEP POLITICS OUT of your marketing. I just love this as I have intuitively known this for years. I have a colleague who has a law practice and he always gets into political debates on Facebook. Not good! He is dividing up his TAM (Total Assessable Market).

8. The 1/2/3 Marriage Strategy is simply awesome advice!!!

9. Go WIDE not just deep with your marketing.

10. Confirmation Bias and why Porous Beliefs are helping you succeed in life.

11. Tam v. Tum analysis for your business.

12. All Surplus $ from you business MUST go into MONEY SYSTEMS eventually in order to raise a "financial army" to get you to wealth in life. Every dollar your army earns in one more soldier fighting for your wealth. Just a great metaphor to look at your business profits!

These are just a FEW of the take-away (golden nuggets) that DeMarco delivers on. He is the kind of writer that once you taste his first work, you know you will be in "good hands" with his other, and future, works.

I 100% recommend this gold mine of a book to anyone!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you disregard the catastrophizing/overdramatized title and the author's somewhat cynical, resentful, and, at times, derogatory demeanor, this is actually a very valuable and thought-provoking book. Indeed, I did not pick this book up on the basis of the author's likability (and I am sure the author did not publish this book to be liked); I picked it up for business advice.

There is just something about those anecdotal works that stems from raw experience rather than an overreliance on academic credentials or 'established facts' (for lack of a better term). Oftentimes, they are simply more relatable, and somewhat complex ideas get dumbed down, which you may then use as a gateway to read more dense and 'established' works.

But there is an inherent danger with ''red-pillish'' works of this nature; they are oversimplified and, at times, bigoted. Complex ideas with gray zones get dumbed down into black-and-white terms. In this generation of ''too long, didn't read,'' this is a major problem. And sometimes, they do more harm than good in the wrong hands.

In my interpretation, the author appears to romanticize the idea that, as a business owner, you're having a more meaningful life than your average 9–5 employee, which, as the title hints, he characterizes as ''wage slavery.''

As a business owner myself, I am very enthusiastic about what I do, and I love the control I have over my creative work and ventures. I could not see myself being employed ever again (probably).

BUT, I also acknowledge that SOME people may actually enjoy their employment and find it meaningful. Is this the case for the majority? Probably not. But they DO exist. Just labeling them as rats on wheels is taking things way out of proportion. Simply put, some people do not feel the need to conquer the world or build an empire, and they are perfectly content with that. And it does not make them any less valuable, competent, and autonomous as human beings.

My recommendation is this: read the book, but stay strictly with the author's business advice and disregard the topics that are clearly out of his competency. After all, he is an experienced businessman, and you will learn about common pitfalls to avoid.

[Shishir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read DeMarco's first two books and absolutely loved them. I can genuinely say that they impacted my life and thinking. So I was really excited about reading this one as well.

I have mixed opinions about this one. At a high level, the author narrates a fictional story about a family that goes from struggling financially to running and exiting a successful business, while achieving financial and time freedom in the process.

What I liked:
- I liked the story about the family's struggles and eventual success
- I liked some of the concepts the author elaborates on. He goes into detail about some of his thought process around entrepreneurship and how certain situations can be handled.

What I disliked:
I'd say about 50% of the conceptual content of the book is a repeat or elaboration of his first two books. I don't hate it because he does elaborate on some things which was helpful, but if you have recently read his other two books like I had, this one may feel a little repetitive.

What I hated:
Around chapter 94, DeMarco suddenly starts prosletyzing about veganism. He had hinted his preference earlier in the book, but at this point he goes all-in on it. DeMarco has a tendency to use strong language and hard opinions to land his point, and I don't mind since I've benefited from this in his previous books.

What I hated here is listening to a sermon on veganism in a book on business. If he feels that passionate about his preference, he should write a book dedicated to the topic. Additionally, calling himself "scripted" for being a meat eater is a subtle dig towards all his readers who prefer eating meat.

[Howsikan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the single most important book on business there is. If you want financial freedom (not the penny pinch until your sixty kind) but immeasurable wealth, The Great Rat Escape provides a roadmap. MJ DeMarco starts by talking about mindset. Without the right thought processes around business and money, you won't go anywhere. He then does the math and shows why entrepreneurship is *the* way to financial freedom, not savings. And after that, he provides advice and points out the hurdles you'll face along the way.

While all of what I said sounds eerily similar to his other book Unscripted (which I read most of), what makes The Great Rat Race Escape is the novel. Weaved in with the chapters on concrete business advice is the fictional story of Jeff and Sam Trotman, a couple who wants to escape the misery of nine to five work. This story is important. It personalizes entrepreneurial struggle and gives you a sense of "I can do it too".

The Great Rat Race Escape taught me a lot about entrepreneurship. It taught me not to look down on small businesses that aren't yet scaled to millions of dollars (MacGyverism). It taught me to not be afraid of selling physical products (Hardlines), and it taught me that a single event can destroy an entire process.

If you're at work, hate it, and want to do something more with your life, this is the book to read.

[Leah Boomsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Single most impactful book to change your life

Having read DeMarco's other books, I didn't expect this one to have such an impact, but it did. Like the earlier DeMarco books, this lays out his unique life-changing perspective on rapid wealth and Fastlane tactics. But unlike the other books, this one brings the concepts to life through a narrative story woven into each section. The result is a step-by-step approach that was extremely easy to follow. And, having an existing business that fits the CENTS model, this book was precisely the catalyst I needed to set the direction for my company for the next 3 years with an exit and wealth event in mind.

Excellent book.

[David Rosage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this authors works and loved how the book had a running fictional story mirroring the key points of the book in action. I loved the concept of creating a “specialized unit of value”. One cannot become wealthy by trading ones time but needs something that can grow outside the constraints of their available time. I also really like the concept of working to build something of great value to sell creating a retirement event( building a valuable company and selling it) rather than traditional advise of saving 10 percent and waiting till your 65 to enjoy it (which also works albeit much slower).

[Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adding unscripted with a punching storyline as real as it gets!

After fastlane millionaire and Unscripted, both which I enjoyed and served as a guide for me to get out of rat race, this book is kind of a revised Unscripted with a story line to elaborate how real and hard it can get to go fully Unscripted in terms of mental preparedness and physical toll. I’m an IT engineer, the only skills I have is technology applications and troubleshooting. I struggled to create a business in my line. I think the only trait I need now is perseverance and stay healthy. Good read though!

[Paul Marin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read TMF and Unscripted, This is the best complement

In my town we have an old saying when someone does not understand some concept: “if you want I may draw it for you!” Of course, it is just a sarcastic way to infer that the person trying to grasp the new information is not very bright. Here, MJ DeMarco is drawing a clear picture on what he means on the previous books. If you don’t get it this time,... well. What can I say! And by the way, you’ll get some entertainment in the process which is a good thing with this pandemic lifestyle we’re living.

[G. C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book that teaches you exactly what it promises: how to start a business in order to win financial freedom and escape the rat race. It does so by showing you in form of a fictional story of a couple who start a business in order to set themselves free, at the same time as MJ showing and explaining 120 (I think) methods and ideas to use. Highly recommended, and it stands on its own, i.e. you don't have to have read TMF or Unscripted before this one, but you might be indulged to read them after.

[Mohammad Abbas · Rating 5 out of 5]

True to DeMarco's style, the book is sprinkled with dramatic few chapters at that start that are designed to capture the readers attention. Beyond those, this book is filled with sound advice for anyone looking to take the entrepreneurial route and escape the so-called rat race.

Like his previous works, DeMarco challenges readers to rethink their approach to wealth and success, pushing for entrepreneurial ventures and value creation as paths to true freedom. While some may find his tone a bit dramatic at times, there's no denying the practical wisdom embedded in his words.

[Isiah Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has good insights in the beginning but not going to lie, it took a bit too long and got boring and repetitive. I believe most of the value was in the beginning. The most important thing I could remember was when he weighed how quicker it was to earn money using an online business as it would a controlled leverage against time. With a 9-5 it would always be fixed and we would never earn enough money to be honest.

[Dylan Hobrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

my life has changed..

Thank you!!!

I’ve been doing really well with mister Demarcos books
It’s going well
Value
It’s something that I’ll have for life. Alongside with my education.
I’ll never put it down.

It truly is the fast lane.
Creating value
It’s the dream
Create urgency

It’s my life. The one I choose.

Currently I’m watching entrepreneur organization YouTube videos. Their playlist. Alongside reading this book.

[Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and Valuable!

Like MJ DeMarco’s other two books, I’ve read all three in a row and enjoyed and benefited from understanding the inner workings of how the wealthy get and stay wealthy.

The example in the book helps me understand how to model and execute on his teachings by painting the story of Jeff and Sam.

I’ll be joining his fastlane forum having read his books with no fear, as he has built a productocrasy that’s won me over!

[Israel · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Don't be the rat, become the scientist!'.....MJ Demarco does it again with another classic. I appreciate the consistency in his material and really enjoyed the newly added fictional story format starring the characters Jeff & Sam. Like his other books that I've read, this one is highly recommended. 5 stars

[Salvatore Farieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another highly recommended, 5-star book by MJ DeMarco. He goes over plenty of principles of successful entrepreneurship and incorporates a fictional story to get the points across. Extremely well done. All of his books are a must read.

[Aung Aung Nyein Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lighthouse to my dark world

Thank you so much to MJ for writing this book. Everyone who wants to escape from scripted life must read this book. It gives you tools and strategy to crack your code.

[Tai Odunsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This business, self help, motivational, purpose-driven, hidden vegan manifesto, interrupted on occasion by the struggles of a married couple with entrepreneurial ambitions...is good enough to call MJ "my guru".