Book SummaryUnscripted, by MJ DeMarco

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Unscripted

In Unscripted, MJ DeMarco—entrepreneur, investor, and best-selling author of The Millionaire Fastlane—insists that there’s only one way to achieve financial success: Adopt an entrepreneurial mindset.

He claims that most people don’t have this mindset and can’t achieve financial success because they have unproductive beliefs about money that dissuade them from pursuing an entrepreneurial path. However, he argues that though these beliefs are...

Unscripted Summary Part 1: Beliefs About Money Fall Into One of Three Mindsets

DeMarco argues that the beliefs you hold about money determine how much wealth you can accumulate. This is because they influence the way you relate to and manage your finances. According to him, beliefs about money tend to fall into one of three mindsets—consumer, employee, and entrepreneurial.

(Shortform note: While T. Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind) also argues that your beliefs determine how much wealth you accumulate, he claims that all beliefs about money fall into not three but two financial mindsets—rich and poor. He explains why you adopted your beliefs: As a child, everything you heard and experienced regarding money conditioned you to adopt specific beliefs about it. These beliefs now influence the way you manage your finances—either moving you toward financial success or away from it. Eker mirrors DeMarco’s argument by suggesting that you can overcome your conditioning to improve your finances by consciously replacing your “poor” beliefs with “rich” beliefs.)...

Unscripted Summary Part 2: Identify and Overcome Unproductive Beliefs About Money

Since the state of your finances simply reflects your financial mindset, it follows that to achieve wealth, you just need to adopt beliefs that support an entrepreneurial mindset. However, DeMarco argues that before you can cultivate this mindset, you first need to become aware of the unproductive beliefs you hold about money so that you can free yourself from their influence.

(Shortform note: Like DeMarco, James Allen (As A Man Thinketh) argues that you must identify your beliefs to understand why you behave the way you do before you can change your behaviors. Without this understanding, you’re more likely to believe that you have no control over your mindset, and you won’t feel motivated to improve the way you manage your finances.)

He explains that, if you’re not as wealthy as you want to be, it’s because you’ve adopted beliefs that don’t...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #1: Only Lucky People Get Rich

The first belief, “Only lucky people get rich,” implies that wealth is entirely dependent on random and uncontrollable forces. DeMarco argues that this belief convinces you that you’re not accountable for your finances by disregarding two important factors:

1) The many failures entrepreneurs face before they acquire wealth: For example, DeMarco failed several times before building a company that made him millions.

(Shortform note: Many entrepreneurs not only face failure before they acquire wealth but also after they acquire it. However, they often fight back to regain the money they lose. For example, James Altucher founded a web-design company, sold it for $10 million, then lost all his money through a series of bad investments. Instead of giving in to failure, he clawed his way back to wealth by becoming a popular author, blogger, and podcaster.)

2) The role your thoughts, behaviors, and choices play in creating your financial circumstances: For example, the reason DeMarco overcame his failures was that he chose to learn from them and take persistent actions to achieve his financial goal.

According to...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #2: Your Innate Capabilities Determine Your Level of Wealth

The second belief, “Your innate capabilities determine your level of wealth,” implies that you have intrinsic, fixed skills that influence how much money you can earn. DeMarco argues that this belief discourages people from improving their chances of achieving financial success in two ways:

1) Convincing those who’ve easily achieved success before that they’re talented and that acquiring wealth will be equally easy: For example, as a child, you got perfect grades without applying effort. You grew up assuming that you’d acquire wealth just as easily and you don’t see the need to improve your skill set.

(Shortform note: Psychologists expand on why assuming you’re already talented enough to acquire wealth hinders your chances of success. While positive expectations are beneficial—because they encourage you to rise above challenges—unrealistic positive expectations, such as believing that you’ll achieve your goals without applying effort, set you up for failure. This is because they don’t prepare you to take proactive steps to counter the inevitable obstacles that you’ll face. On the other hand, **_[realistic positive expectations acknowledge that the road to...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #3: Frugality Creates Wealth

The third belief, “Frugality creates wealth,” implies that you can build wealth by working a low-paying job and saving every cent. DeMarco argues this belief cripples your chances of acquiring wealth because it prevents you from focusing on the myriad ways you can proactively increase your income. Instead, it restricts your focus to your outgoing expenses in the hope that sacrificing pleasures and budgeting every cent now will magically grow your savings into sizable wealth in the future. However, DeMarco insists that if your income is small, you won’t be able to save enough to create wealth. Further, inflation will reduce the value of any money you do manage to accumulate.

(Shortform note: While DeMarco argues that frugality restricts your focus to outgoing expenses and meager savings accounts, David Bach (The Automatic Millionaire) argues that this approach improves your quality of life now and gives you the freedom to make profitable choices for your future. This is for two reasons: First, savings help you face unexpected events,...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #4: It’s Okay to Spend More Than You Earn

The fourth belief, “It’s okay to spend more than you earn,” implies that you can rely on credit to buy things you can’t afford without suffering any consequences. DeMarco claims that this belief underpins a consumer mindset—because it disregards the persistence required to create wealth in favor of the quick fix of using credit to impersonate wealth. However, relying on credit results in debts that destroy your chances of creating actual wealth—because instead of funneling money toward your financial security (a business, investments, and savings), you must commit all future income toward paying off your loans.

(Shortform note: It’s well known that relying on credit creates debts that restrict financial freedom. However, DeMarco’s conclusion that people rely on credit because they’d rather appear rich than put in the work to be rich is arguably reductive because many people can’t survive without credit. According to one survey, 37% of low-income and middle-income households rely on credit cards to cover basic living expenses, such as groceries and utilities. Further, people who rely on...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #5: You Can Make Money Without Creating Value

The fifth belief, “You can make money without creating value,” implies that all money-making opportunities are equal, regardless of how much value they create. DeMarco argues that this belief disregards one important fact: The amount of money you make is directly tied to the amount of value you create. Because you don’t understand that massive wealth depends on creating massive value, you waste your time pursuing activities that create little to no value and offer no chance of generating wealth—for example, by switching to jobs that pay more or jumping from one get-rich-quick business to another.

(Shortform note: If you’re unsure how to distinguish between low-value and high-value activities, Josh Kaufman (The Personal MBA) offers useful advice. He says that we find value in products and services that fulfill five basic needs: to feel good about ourselves, to connect with...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #6: The Rich Prevent You From Acquiring Wealth

The sixth belief, “The rich prevent you from acquiring wealth,” implies that wealthy people block your access to money-making opportunities because they’re inherently corrupt and selfish. According to DeMarco, because it convinces you that wealthy people are to blame for your lack of wealth, this belief makes you feel like a victim. Because you feel like a victim, you waste time complaining about your finances and feel powerless to improve them.

Use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Challenge a Victim Mentality

DeMarco claims that many people feel victimized by rich people and feel powerless as a result. Research clarifies what he means: Having a victim mentality—when you ignore your role in creating your problems and instead blame others for thwarting you—creates feelings of apathy that reduce your motivation to pursue your goals.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) practitioners suggest that you can overcome the tendency to get caught up in self-defeating thoughts and emotions by questioning the...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #7: There’s a Shortcut to Wealth

The seventh belief, “There’s a shortcut to wealth” implies that wealthy people are born rich or have access to a secret weapon that quickly and easily creates riches for them. According to DeMarco, because it disregards the time and effort required to create wealth, this belief convinces you that you shouldn’t have to work hard and make sacrifices to achieve the wealth you want. As a result, instead of taking constructive actions to improve your finances, you waste time and energy pursuing get-rich-quick schemes that fail to generate the income they promise.

(Shortform note: DeMarco’s opinions on get-rich-quick schemes are warranted—they not only fail to generate the income they promise but often result in financial loss. This is because these schemes are designed to get people to hand over their money in exchange for something that promises to make them even more money. However, while the schemers rake in profits, unsuspecting followers rarely enjoy any financial benefits. Therefore, stay wary of schemes that require upfront payments, make grandiose claims about how much money you can expect to earn, or suggest...

Unscripted Summary Unproductive Belief #8: Relying _Solely_ on Compound Interest Makes You Rich

The eighth belief, “Relying solely on compound interest makes you rich,” implies that you can create massive wealth by funneling small amounts of money toward pension and investment accounts. DeMarco argues that, because it encourages you to depend on unpredictable market forces to generate wealth for you, this belief convinces you to risk the money you do have.

He explains that in theory, investments create wealth by providing a predictable and healthy rate of return over the course of decades. In reality, however, the markets are unpredictable and the rates are too low to make a significant impact on the small, capped sums of money the government allows you to contribute to your investment accounts. You also can’t guarantee that financial managers won’t make poor decisions that lose you money or that the rate of inflation won’t reduce the value of your investments.

(Shortform note: David Bach (The Automatic Millionaire) offers a contrasting perspective on compound interest. He first explains that [you’ll earn far more from...

Shortform Exercise: Cultivate an Entrepreneurial Mindset

DeMarco claims that you can cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset by overcoming eight unproductive beliefs about money. This exercise will help you identify the first step you’ll take toward achieving that goal.

Think about the eight beliefs DeMarco identifies as “unproductive.” Did you find any of these surprising? Why or why not?