this book, had two fathers. A
well-educated father who had
a Ph.D. yet died broke; he called
him "poor dad." The other one
was not that well-educated but
was rich; he called him "rich dad."
Robert's dream of becoming rich
started when he was young. His
"poor dad" wanted him to study
more and secure a job at a large
company. "Rich dad" was his
friend Mike's father, he wanted
Robert to take risks and learn
that not all lessons were taught
in school. He wanted Robert to
know that some lessons had
to be taught by going through
hardships. These kinds of lessons
can't be acquired by simply
going to school and getting
good grades. It's important to
have a good education, but life is
not just about that.
Lesson 1: The rich don't work for
money, money works for them.
There's an old story about a man
who owned a donkey. Whenever
he wanted the donkey to work
harder, he would put a carrot in
front of the donkey's eyes, so the
donkey was motivated by the
carrot. It kept walking, hoping
to reach that carrot one day. This
worked well for the man but was
not ideal for the donkey. The
carrot in the story is like money.
People keep working, hoping
that someday they will become
rich. Money is an illusion; you'll
never reach it if you're working
only to take the carrot. Instead,
try to make money work for you.
When you first start the journey
of making money, don't work to
gain money. Fear and desire are
consistently controlling how we
act.We have a fear of not having
enough money; this makes us
work harder each day. Then we
gain a desire as we imagine all
the beautiful things money can
do and buy. Our fears and desires
put us in a never-ending cycle of
wanting more. We work harder
to make more money, and as a
result, we spend more. "Rich dad"
called this the Rat Race. Instead
of falling into that pattern, avoid
the trap of fear and desire. That's
how most people who want to
be rich fall; you have to make
money work for you.
When you get a job, don't go
into work thinking you'll simply
take your paycheck at the end
of the month. You'll barely pay
your bills and then repeat the
cycle all over again. Even working
harder at a second job is still only
working for money. If you keep
doing this, you're never going to
be rich.Confront yourself, are you
just looking for security at a safe
job? Are you working to make
more money because you think
that this is going to make you
rich or satisfy you? If the answer
is yes, unfortunately, you're
never going to make it. You'll
die broke. If your answer is no,
then you've taken the first step.
Never let your fear of not having
enough money or the desire to
make more money encourage
irrational behaviours.
We have business schools
that do not teach us how to
lead a business or start one.
Instead, they teach us how to
be a bean-counter, how to fire
people, and give orders. They
hardly ever teach you how to
be a leader. Every day when you
wake up, ask yourself if you are
doing all you can. If you haven't
reached your fullest potential,
don't go day by day thinking
about money or how to work
more to get a better raise. Don't
hold thoughts in your head like.
"My boss doesn't pay me enough.
I deserve a raise, I deserve to earn
more money." When you stop
blaming other people for your
problems and accept that the
problem is your way of thinking,
then you'll be able to correct to
more positive thoughts. That was the first lesson that "rich dad" taught Robert.
When Robert and his friend Mike were teenagers, "rich dad" made them work at his convenience store for free. They kept working, not thinking about how much money they weren't making. During their working hours, they were able to free their minds and create new ideas to make money work for them. At the store, they watched the store clerk cut the front pages of comic books in two; she would keep one half and throw the rest of the comic away. At the end of the day, the distributor would come and take the top half of the books and give new comics to the store.
The boys waited for the distributor to arrive and asked him if they could keep the old comic books. He said yes, but they had to agree not to sell them. The boys agreed and started a business. They charged kids to read comic books. Ten cents per book for two hours, and then it would be returned. Technically they were not selling them. They worked their business out of their garage and paid Mike's sister 1 dollar a week to run it. They made about 9.50 dollars a week. They had finally learned how to make money work for them.
