Rich Dad Poor Dad is a starting point for anyone looking to gain control of their financial future

Rich dad believed
that the words
“I can’t afford it”
shut down your brain. 
“How can I afford it?” 
opens up possibilities, 
excitement, and dreams.
“I don’t want them to know 
the feeling of want” are his everyday words. He has nothing set aside 
for their college or his retirement, but his kids have every toy ever 
made. He recently got a new credit 
card in the mail and took his kids to 
visit Las Vegas. “I’m doing it for the 
kids,” he said with great sacrifice.
Rich dad forbade the words, “I 
can’t afford it.” In my real home, that’s 
all I heard. Instead, rich dad required 
his children to say, “How can I afford 
it?” He believed that the words “I 
can’t afford it” shut down your brain. It didn’t have to think anymore. 
“How can I afford it?” opened up the brain and forced it to think and 
search for answers.
But most importantly, he felt the words, “I can’t afford it,” were 
a lie. And the human spirit knows it. “The human spirit is very, very 
powerful,” he would say. “It knows it can do anything.” By having a 
lazy mind that says, “I can’t afford it,” a war breaks out inside you. Your 
spirit is angry, and your lazy mind must defend its lie. The spirit is 
screaming, “Come on. Let’s go to the gym and work out.” And the lazy 
mind says, “But I’m tired. I worked really hard today.” Or the human 

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spirit says, “I’m sick and tired of being poor. Let’s get out there and get 
rich.” To which the lazy mind says, “Rich people are greedy. Besides it’s 
too much bother. It’s not safe. I might lose money. I’m working hard 
enough as it is. I’ve got too much to do at work anyway. Look at what
I have to do tonight. My boss wants it finished by morning.”
“I can’t afford it” also causes sadness, a helplessness that leads 
to despondency and often depression. “How can I afford it?” opens 
up possibilities, excitement, and dreams. So rich dad was not so 
concerned about what we wanted to buy as long as we understood that 
“How can I afford it?” creates a stronger mind and a dynamic spirit.
Thus he rarely gave Mike or me anything. He would instead ask, 
“How can you afford it?” and that included college, which we paid 
for ourselves. It was not the goal, but the process of attaining the goal 
that he wanted us to learn.
The problem I see today is that there are millions of people who 
feel guilty about their desire or their “greed.” It’s old conditioning
from their childhood. While they desire to have the finer things that 
life offers, most have been conditioned subconsciously to say, “I can’t 
have that,” or “I’ll never be able to afford that.”
When I decided to exit the Rat Race, it was simply a question 
of “How can I afford to never work again?” And my mind began to 
kick out answers and solutions. The hardest part was fighting my real 
parents’ dogma: “We can’t afford that.” “Stop thinking only about
yourself.” “Why don’t you think about others?” and other similar
sentiments designed to instill guilt to suppress my “greed.”
So how do you beat laziness? Once again, the answer is a little 
greed. It’s that radio station WII-FM, which stands for “What’s In
It For Me?” A person needs to sit down and ask, “What would my 
life be like if I never had to work again?” “What would I do if I had 
all the money I needed?” Without that little greed, the desire to have 
something better, progress is not made. Our world progresses because 
we all desire a better life. New inventions are made because we desire 
something better. We go to school and study hard because we want 
something better. So whenever you find yourself avoiding something

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you know you should be doing, then the only thing to ask yourself is, 
“What’s in it for me?” Be a little greedy. It’s the best cure for laziness.
Too much greed, however, as anything in excess can be, is not good. 
But just remember what Michael Douglas said in the movie Wall Street: 
“Greed is good.” Rich dad said it differently: “Guilt is worse than greed, 
for guilt robs the body of its soul.” I think Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: 
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized 
anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”