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Does money control your life? Are you working at your job because you love it or because it pays the bills? How do you react to a negative balance in your bank account? Most of us, react emotionally to money. What if we could learn to act differently?
The Rich Don't Work For Money
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
At nine, Robert Kiyosaki and his friend Mike became interested in being rich. When Robert asked his dad, whom he calls his Poor Dad, how to get rich, he responded, "if you want something, you have to work for it." However, he couldn't tell two nine-year-old boys exactly how to work for it. Poor dad suggests they speak with Mike's dad. This was a surprising suggestion because unlike some of the rich school kid's parents, Mike's dad didn't have a nice house, cars, and other things. Poor dad explained to the boys, "Having nice things does not mean you are rich, Mike's dad and I share a banker and he told me Mike's dad is well on his way to becoming a very rich man. Robert refers to this man as Rich Dad.
Robert and Mike set off to meet with rich dad and asked him if we would teach them how to become rich. we sat Rich dad agreed to teach them by making an offer "I will not teach you with lectures as they do in school, instead you will come work for me and I'll teach you. You will work at one of my convenience stores every Saturday for three hours and I'll pay you 10 cents per hour. That's my offer, take it or leave it. Mike and I used to play softball on Saturdays but we took rich dad's offer anyway; choosing to work and learn instead of play.
Ms. Martin, the day-to-day manager of the convenience store, was a kind patient woman but she believed in hard work and kept the boys moving. For weeks they reported to Ms. Martin, worked their three hours, and she would drop three little dimes in their hands at the end of the work day. Even at nine in the 1950s, 30 cents was not that exciting. Comic books were ten cents by then so Robert would usually buy a few comics and go home. By my fourth week, Robert was ready to quit. He felt like a slave for ten cents an hour, He told Mike how angry he was and that he wanted to stop and Mike smiled. "Dad said this would happen, he said he would meet with you when you got fed up." Feeling set up made Robert even angrier.
Robert arrived at Mike's house at 8 am on Saturday, "take a seat and wait in line" rich dad said before disappearing into his office. Robert sat next to some of the people I saw a few weeks earlier when he took rich dad's offer. When rich dad finally called him into his office, Robert told him off. "You are not keeping up your end of the bargain, you said you would teach me if I worked for you but you haven't taught me anything. You are a crook like everyone in town thinks you are. I've worked hard and given up my Saturdays and baseball. You even made me wait and didn't show me respect. I deserve to be treated better".
"In less than a month you sound like most of my employees or people who used to work for me" rich dad responded "Life, the best teacher of all, continues to push you around until you learn the lesson and grow your wealth. If you don't learn the lesson you will spend your life blaming a job, low pay, or your boss for your problems. Then you will either stay and take it or continue to look for a better opportunity and higher pay hoping it will solve the problem; in most cases, it won't. If you realize you are the problem, you can change yourself, learn something, and grow wiser. This pivotal point of view is what separated rich dad from poor dad. It's what Robert Kiyosaki calls lesson number one: The poor and middle-class work for money, but the rich have money to work for them.
Learning to have money work for you is a completely different course of study. In fact, to learn how to not work for money you first need to work for free. The poor and middle class will never understand working for free. They will see it as unfair. Most people are controlled by the fear of not having enough money or the greed of wanting more than they need. Rich dad calls them the rat race. Money is running their lives but they don't want to admit it. It is better to confront your emotions with truth and act logically. For example, when a person says "I need to find a job" It is most likely the fear of not having enough money motivating them. I person who feels the same emotion but is thinking logically would say "What is the best solution to this fear long-term?". Jobs are important but they won't handle the fear and will lay a trap for you to remain in the rat race.
"Keep working boys," Rich dad said as he prepared to leave. "But the sooner you forget about needing a paycheck, the easier your adult life will be. You will work in the store for free on Saturdays, keep using your brain and soon your mind will show you ways of making money far beyond what I could ever pay you. You will see opportunities other people never see because they are looking for money and security.
A couple of Saturdays later, Mike and Robert saw Ms. Martin do something they had never seen before. She cut the top half off the comic book covers and threw the rest away. They asked the comic book distributor if they could keep the comics that were being thrown away. He said yes as long as they work for the store and they don't resell them. Soon they had a big library of comics in a spare room in Mike's basement. They opened their library up to the neighborhood kids and charged them 10 cents for admission every day for two hours and they could read as many comics as they wanted. It was a bargain since one comic was 10 cents at the store and they could read five or six in two hours. The business only lasted three weeks before being closed down due to a fight but rich dad was excited to see they learned the lesson. They learned to make money work for them at nine years old.
As an entrepreneur, you may be building your career or business using the financial knowledge you grew up with. What if success requires a different way of thinking about money? What if your way of thinking is putting your future at risk? Rich Dad Poor Dad is a good source to begin shaping your thoughts about money. I'm sure you have read this book before but have you put into practice? Have you created a culture within yourself and your team to consistently improve your financial education?
So what does this mean for you, an entrepreneur? Well, this explains why some people are wondering why you can't just be happy at your safe and secure job. They are projecting their fear of not having enough money on you. It's a fear that they think you should share. I always found it interesting to point out that if not for some brave entrepreneur that safe secure job wouldn't exist. The obvious takeaway is to change your thinking about money but you should also apply this level of thinking to your business. Your business shouldn't work for money. Instead, you should use your business to invest in opportunities that make you money outside of normal operations.
If you want to generate wealth, you have to stop working for money. For however long it takes, work only for knowledge and opportunities. Don't make decisions simply based on your emotions. I know it is easier said than done.
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Works Cited
Robert Kiyosaki. "The Rich Don't Work For Money" Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, 1997. pp. 23 - 51
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