Rich Dad Poor Dad
Robert T. Kiyosaki
America, the teachers union is the largest and the richest labor union of all. The NEA, National
Education Association, has tremendous political clout. Teachers need the protection of their
union because their skills are also of limited value to an industry outside of education. So the rule
of thumb is, “Highly specialized, then unionize.” It's the smart thing to do.
>When I ask the classes I teach, “How many of you can cook a better
hamburger than McDonald's?” almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask, “So if most
of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald's makes more money than
you?”
The answer is obvious: McDonald's is excellent at business
systems. The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on building a
better
hamburger
and
know
little
to
nothing
about
business
systems.
>A friend of mine in Hawaii is a great artist. He makes a sizable amount of
money. One day his mother's attorney called to tell him that she had left him $35,000. That is
what was left of her estate after the attorney and the government took their shares.
Immediately, he saw an opportunity to increase his business by using some of this money to
advertise. Two months later, his first four-color, full-page ad appeared in an expensive magazine
that targeted the very rich. The ad ran for three months. He received no replies from the ad,
and all of his inheritance is now gone. He now wants to sue the magazine for
misrepresentation.
This is a common case of someone who can
build a beautiful hamburger, but knows little about business. When I asked him what he learned,
his only reply was that “advertising salespeople are crooks.” I then asked him if he would be
willing to take a course in sales and a course in direct marketing. His reply, “I don't have the
time, and I don't want to waste my money.”
The world is filled with
talented poor people. All too often, they're • poor or struggle financially or earn less than they
are capable of, not f because of what they know but because of what they do not know. They
focus on perfecting their skills at building a better hamburger rather than the skills of selling and
delivering the hamburger. Maybe McDonald's does not make the best hamburger, but they are
the best at f selling and delivering a basic average burger.
Poor dad
wanted me to specialize. That was his view on how to be paid more. Even after being told by
the governor of Hawaii that he could no longer work in state government, my educated dad
continued to encourage me to get specialized. Educated dad then took up the cause of the
teachers union, campaigning for further protection and benefits for I these highly skilled and
educated professionals. We argued often, but I know he never agreed that overspecialization is
what caused the need for union protection. He never understood that the more specialized you
become,
the
more
you
are
trapped
and
dependent
on
that
specialty.
>Rich dad advised that Mike and I “groom” ourselves. Many corporations do
the same thing. They find a young bright student out of business school and begin “grooming”
that person to someday take over the company. So these bright young employees do not
specialize in one department; they are moved from department to department to learn all the
aspects of business systems. The rich often “groom” their children or the children of others. By
doing so, their children gain an overall knowledge of the operations of the business and how the
various departments interrelate.
For the World War II generation, it
was considered “bad” to skip from company to company. Today, it is considered smart. Since
people will skip from company to company, rather than seek greater specialization, why not
seek to “learn” more than “earn.” In the short term, it may earn you less. In the long term, it
will pay off in large dividends.
The main management skills needed
for success are:
1. The management of cash flow
