Those who aspire toward riches should know that, in order to achieve their goals, they will need to abandon much of the conventional wisdom passed on to them by parents, teachers, and others. You may, however, already be on the right track-- that is, if you were lucky enough to have a role model who knew what it really takes to become rich.
In the words of Robert Kiyosaki of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" fame, "It doesn't take money to make money. I often hear people say it takes money to make money. I disagree. We had no money when we started and we were also in debt. It also doesn't take a formal education."
He then mentioned Bill Gates as someone who never completed a college education. Which would you rather have, a collection of doctorates or Bill Gates' money?
Robert Kiyosaki says that the only true prerequisites to being rich are that one must be determined and a quick study. Beyond that, it's all about what you know. One of the first things you need to know about becoming rich is where you fall on the Cash Flow Quadrant.
Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad," actually his childhood best friend's father, is the one who introduced him to the Cash Flow Quadrant, a handy diagram that visually illustrates the ways in which individuals with different personalities relate to money. It consists of a square split into four quadrants, labeled 'E' (Employee), 'S' (Self-employed), 'B' (Business), and 'I' (Investor). If your aim is to become rich, you're going to have to set your sights on the 'B' and 'I' quadrants of the diagram.
One of the aforementioned traits necessary for becoming rich, being a quick study, has nothing to do with going back to school-- the subject you must be able to learn about is actually a quite specific one: you must learn about real estate investing. Kiyosaki claims that investing in real estate is the best way to get rich because it ties into so many aspects of modern life-- almost every office building or storefront you glimpse while driving down the street, for example, represents money in the pocket of some canny investor.
But he doesn't just mean you have to learn the nuts and bolts of investing. You do have to learn about those things, at least to the point that you are able to intelligently choose a professional to help you with your investments. But more importantly than that, you have to learn how to think like an investor, and possibly a bit like a business person too.
That is a far cry from thinking like a Self-employed person. According to Kiyosaki, a self-employed person is someone who owns a job, not a business. You don't own a true business, he said, unless you can leave it for a year and return to find it still making money for you. Businesspeople, he said, know better than to try to do everything themselves. In order to save time and money, they hire people to do the things they can't do or don't have time to do. That's why hiring a qualified real estate professional to guide you in your decisions can be a good investment in and of itself.
In the end, it doesn't really matter if you dive headfirst into the study of investing yourself, or you simply hire a qualified expert to help you make your decisions. The important part is that if you really want to strike it rich, you must be willing to move from the 'E' and 'S' squares of the Cash Flow Quadrant into squares 'B' and 'I,' which are where the real money is.
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