Friday, June 09, 2006

Teach to be rich, by Robert Kiyosaki

In his seminar Teach to be rich, Robert Kiyosaki talks about the four quarters of life and how each person will "win" in one of the quarters:
  • PRE-GAME SHOW
  • 25-35 ---> first quarter
  • 35-45 ---> second quarter (people get married, their career takes off, etc.)
  • HALF-TIME (mid-life crisis?)
  • 45-55 ---> third quarter
  • 55-65 ---> fourth quarter
  • OVERTIME (people over 65 who still have to work and cannot retire, because not enough savings)
  • OUT OF TIME
The last phase is bad. As Kiyosaki said, in the first part of our lives, we spend our health to gain wealth, whereas in the latter part, we spend our wealth to try to preserve our health.

In this case, Kiyosaki became wealthy (financially independent) at age 47. He stressed that he did not become RICH at that age, only that he no longer had to work for a living. Then, at age 50, he published his best-seller Rich Dad Poor Dad.

He said that we all "win the game" of financial independence in either one of the four quarters. In the case of his wife Kim, she won in the first quarter (became financially independent at age 35).

He also talked about a conspiracy whereby the educational system was designed to keep citizens in the dark regarding financial knowhow, so that they would be forced to become good employees and work for companies (and, of course, pay taxes).

He briefly mentioned Paris Hilton, who had a net worth of $300 million the minute she was born. Most people are not that lucky.

His wife Kim's story is interesting and inspiring.

At 14 years old, when she saw how her mother overly depended on her husband, who eventually divorced her, she vowed never to depend on her future husband. She also saw how her mother stayed in an unhappy marriage just because, as her mother said, "at least, I don't have to worry financially").

Kim then joked that she doesn't need Robert (Kiyosaki). "I want him, but I don't need him!"

(Robert Kiyosaki had a glowing face as his wife was doing her presentation. He was obviously so proud of her).

Kim then proceeded to say that half of all marriages end up in divorce, and usually the mother is responsible for raising the children, so she really needs to be financially smart).

"We have not been prepared and educated as women. It takes education. Put a little money down (in an investment) and your education goes through the roof!" she said.

In 1989, Kim learned about investing for the first time. She didn't even know what the word meant. Scared to death, she hung tightly on to the $5,000 down-payment check for a piece of property before finally letting it go, and thereby acquiring her very first property.

She said that after she finally understood investment principles, her self-worth and self-confidence went up dramatically.

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Robert then talked about our need to win. "We all need to win. In which quarter will you win the game?"

According to him, we all have genius in us.

Genius stands for "Genie-in-us."

But that genie can only be liberated and unleashed if you are in the RIGHT ENVIRONMENT.

In the same way that birds can fly and cheetahs can run really fast, each creature on Earth has a talent, a genius that naturally comes out in a specific environment.

Our job is to FIND that special environment where we unleash our genius.

Tiger Woods' environment is obviously golf. In any other environment, he would not shine.

Mick Jagger's environment is The Rollingstone.

Oprah's environment is TV.

Kiyosaki says that "intelligence" means being able to find the environment where your genius comes out.

In this case, he knew early that the corporate environment was not his thing. He knew he could not succeed in a corporate setting.

This seminar was different from his books (Cashflow Quadrant, Rich Dad Poor Dad, OPM, etc.) in the sense that he actually encouraged people to find their true career, the special environment where their unique talent and genius would naturally emerge and allow them to create (almost effortlessly) enormous economic value.

I liked that.