Friday, January 16, 2015

Excerpt from Rich Dad Poor dad - Chapter Eight (getting Started)



Chapter Eight
GETTING STARTED
There is gold everywhere.
Most people are not trained to see it.

It really is easy to find great deals.
It’s just like riding a bike. After a little wobbling, it’s a piece of cake.
The problem is that our financial genius lies asleep, waiting to be called upon.
If you don’t, make up your own. Your financial genius is smart enough to develop its own list.
The reason is that they have not taken the time to develop their financial genius.
I offer you the following 10 steps as a process to develop your God-given powers, powers over which only you have control.
1.    Find a reason greater than reality: the power of spirit
2.    Make daily choices: the power of choice
3.    Choose friends carefully: the power of association
4.    Master a formula and then learn a new one: the power of learning quickly
5.    Pay yourself first: the power of self-discipline
6.    Pay your brokers well: the power of good advice
7.    Be an Indian giver: the power of getting something for nothing
8.    Use assets to buy luxuries: the power of focus
9.    Choose heroes: the power of myth
10.                       Teach and you shall receive: the power of giving

Find a reason greater than reality: the power of spirit
When I asked her what fueled her super-human ambition and
sacrifice, she simply said, “I do it for myself and the people I love. It’s
love that gets me over the hurdles and sacrifices.”



Those are my deep-seated emotional reasons. What are yours? If they are not strong enough, then the reality of the road ahead may be greater than your reasons.
but it was the deep emotional reasons that kept me standing up
and going forward.
I’ve learned that, without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A STRONG REASON, THERE IS NO SENSE READING FURTHER. IT WILL SOUND LIKE TOO MUCH WORK.

Make daily choices: the power of choice
Choice is the main reason people want to live in a free country.
We want the power to choose.
Financially, with every dollar we get in our hands, we hold the power to choose our future: to be rich, poor, or middle class. Our spending habits reflect who we are.
My best friend, Mike, had an asset column handed to him, but he still had to choose to learn to keep it.
Many rich families lose their assets in the next generation simply because there was no one trained to be a good steward over their assets.

I just choose to be rich, and I make that choice every day.

Invest first in education. In reality, the only real asset you have is your mind, the most powerful tool we have dominion over. Each of us has the choice of what we put in our brain once we’re old enough. You can watch TV, read golf magazines, or go to ceramics class or a class on financial planning. You choose. Most people simply buy investments rather than first investing in learning about investing.
I love CDs and audio books. The reason: I can easily review what
I just heard. I was listening to an investor say something I completely
disagreed with. Instead of becoming arrogant and critical, I simply listened to that five-minute stretch at least 20 times, maybe more. But
suddenly, by keeping my mind open, I understood why he said what he
said. It was like magic. I felt like I had a window into the mind of one of
the greatest investors of our time. I gained tremendous insight into the
vast resources of his education and experience.

The net result: I still have the old way I used to think, and I now have a new way of looking at the same problem or situation. I have two ways to analyze a problem or trend, and that is priceless.


The only way I can access their vast mental power is to be humble enough to read or listen to what they have to say.
Arrogant or critical people are often people with low self-esteem who are afraid of taking risks.
If you have read this far, arrogance is not one of your problems.
Arrogant people rarely read or listen to experts. Why should they?
They are the center of the universe.

In this case, their so-called intelligence combined with arrogance equals ignorance.
Listening is more important than talking.
They argue instead of asking questions.

Choose friends carefully: the power of association

They often think it rude or unintellectual. So I also learn from my friends who struggle financially. I find out what not to do.

I would say that one of the hardest things about wealth-building is
to be true to yourself and to be willing to not go along with the crowd.
Wise investors buy an investment when it’s not
popular. They know their profits are made when they buy, not when
they sell.

The reason you want to have rich friends is because that is where the money is made.
I’m not saying do it illegally, but the sooner you know, the better your chances are for profits with minimal risk.
That is what friends are for. And that is financial intelligence.

Master a formula and then learn a new one: the power of learning quickly

In order to make bread, every baker follows a recipe, even if it’s only held in their head. The same is true for making money.
I say, “You become what you study.” In other words, be careful what you learn, because your mind is so powerful that you become what you put in your head. If you’re tired of what you’re doing, or you’re not making enough, it’s simply a case of changing the formula via which you make money.

Working hard for money is an old formula born in the day of cavemen.
Pay yourself first: the power of self-discipline
If you cannot get control of yourself, do not try to get rich. It
makes no sense to invest, make money, and blow it. It is the lack of
self-discipline that causes most lottery winners to go broke soon after
winning millions. It is the lack of self-discipline that causes people who
get a raise to immediately go out and buy a new car or take a cruise.

I would venture to say that personal self-discipline is the number-one delineating factor between the rich, the poor, and the middle class.
Simply put, people who have low self-esteem and low tolerance for financial pressure can never be rich.

Pay your brokers well: the power of good advice
And the more money they make, the more money I make.

Information is priceless. A good broker should provide you with information, as well as take the time to educate you.
Just be fair, and most of them will be fair to you.
The real skill is to manage and reward the people who are smarter than you in some technical area.
Be an Indian giver: the power of getting something for nothing
True, I have lost money on many occasions, but I only play with money I can afford to lose.
So wise investors must look at more than ROI. They look at the assets they get for free once they get their money back. That is financial intelligence.

Use assets to buy luxuries: the power of focus
Remember, the easy road often becomes hard, and the hard road often becomes easy.

Choose heroes: the power of myth
I pretended I was a famous baseball player. It’s one of the most powerful ways we learn, and we often lose that as adults. We lose our heroes.
Copying or emulating heroes is true power learning.
By having heroes, we tap into a tremendous source of raw genius.
Teach and you shall receive: the power of giving
“If you want something, you first need to give,”
And when it comes to money, love, happiness, sales, and contacts, all one needs to remember is to give first.

It is true that your world is only a mirror of you.