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LESSON 5:
THE RICH
INVENT MONEY
Often in the real world, it’s not the smart
who get ahead, but the bold.
Last night, I took a break from writing and watched a TV
program on the history of a young man named Alexander Graham
Bell. Bell had just patented his telephone and was having growing
pains because the demand for his new invention was so strong.
Needing a bigger company, he then went to the giant at that time,
Western Union, and asked them if they would buy his patent and
his tiny company. He wanted $100,000 for the whole package. The
president of Western Union scoffed at him and turned him down,
saying the price was ridiculous. The rest is history. A multi-billion-
dollar industry emerged, and AT&T was born.
The evening news came on right after the story of Alexander
Graham Bell. On the news was a story of another downsizing at a
local company. The workers were angry and complained that the
company ownership was unfair. A terminated manager of about
45 years of age had his wife and two babies at the plant and was
begging the guards to let him talk to the owners to ask if they would
reconsider his termination. He had just bought a house and was
afraid of losing it. The camera focused in on his pleading for all the
world to see. Needless to say, it held my attention.
Chapter Five: Lesson 5
92
I have been teaching professionally since 1984. It has been a great
experience and a rewarding one. It is also a disturbing profession, for
I have taught thousands of individuals and I see one thing in common
in all of us, myself included. We all have tremendous potential, and
we all are blessed with gifts. Yet the one thing that holds all of us back
is some degree of self-doubt. It is not so much the lack of technical
information that holds us back, but more the lack of self-confidence.
Some are more affected than others.
Once we leave school, most of us know that it is not so much a
matter of college degrees or good grades that count. In the real world
outside of academics, something more than just grades is required.
I have heard it called many things; guts, chutzpah, balls, audacity,
bravado, cunning, daring, tenacity, and brilliance. This factor,
whatever it is labeled, ultimately decides one’s future much more
than school grades do.
Inside each of us is one of these brave, brilliant, and daring
characters. There is also the flip side of that character: people who
could get down on their knees and beg if necessary. After a year in
Vietnam as a Marine Corps pilot, I got to know both of those
characters inside of me intimately. One is not better than the other.
Yet as a teacher, I recognized that it was excessive fear and
self-doubt that were the greatest detractors of personal genius. It
broke my heart to see students know the answers, yet lack the courage
to act on the answer. Often in the real world, it’s not the smart who
get ahead, but the bold.
In my personal experience, your financial genius requires both
technical knowledge as well as courage. If fear is too strong, the
genius is suppressed. In my classes, I strongly urge students to learn
to take risks, to be bold, and to let their genius convert that fear into
power and brilliance. It works for some and just terrifies others. I have
come to realize that for most people, when it comes to the subject of
money, they would rather play it safe. I have had to field questions
such as: “Why take risks?” “Why should I bother developing my
financial IQ?” “Why should I become financially literate?” And I
answer, “Just to have more options.”
Rich Dad Poor Dad
93
There are huge changes up ahead. In the coming years, there will
be more people just like the young inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
There will be a hundred people like Bill Gates and hugely successful
companies like Microsoft created every year, all over the world. And
there also will be many more bankruptcies, layoffs, and downsizings.
So why bother developing your financial IQ? No one can answer
that but you. Yet I can tell you why I myself do it. I do it because it
is the most exciting time to be alive. I’d rather be welcoming change
than dreading change. I’d rather be excited about making millions than
worrying about not getting a raise. This period we are in now is a most
exciting time, unprecedented in our world’s history. Generations from
now, people will look back at this period of time and remark at what an
exciting era it must have been. It was the death of the old and birth of
the new. It was full of turmoil, and it was exciting.
So why bother developing your financial IQ? Because if you do,
you will prosper greatly. And if you don’t, this period of time will be
a frightening one. It will be a time of watching some people move
boldly forward while others cling to worn-out life preservers.
Land was wealth 300 years ago. So the person who owned the
land owned the wealth. Later, wealth was in factories and production,
and America rose to dominance. The industrialist owned the wealth.
Today, wealth is in information. And the person who has the most
timely information owns the wealth. The problem is that information
flies around the world at the speed of light. The new wealth cannot be
contained by boundaries and borders as land and factories were. The
changes will be faster and more dramatic. There will be a dramatic
increase in the number of new multimillionaires. There also will be
those who are left behind.
I find so many people struggling today, often working harder,
simply because they cling to old ideas. They want things to be the way
they were, and they resist change. I know people who are losing their
jobs or their houses, and they blame technology or the economy or
their boss. Sadly, they fail to realize that they might be the problem.
Old ideas are their biggest liability. It is a liability simply because they
Chapter Five: Lesson 5
94
fail to realize that while that idea or way of doing something was an
asset yesterday, yesterday is gone.
One afternoon I was teaching how to invest using a board game
I had invented, CASHFLOW
®
, as a teaching tool. A friend had brought
someone along to attend the class. This friend of a friend was recently
divorced, had been badly burned in the divorce settlement, and was now
searching for some answers. Her friend thought the class might help.
The game was designed to help people learn how money works.
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