Rich Dad, Poor Dad; Chapter 9: Getting Started

El capítulo 9 del libro Rich Dad, Poor Dad, del que ya hemos hablado anteriormente en este blog, se titula "Getting Started". En dicho capítulo el autor muestra los pasos que él considera necesarios para ser financieramente libre. Aquí os copio unos fragmentos de cada uno de los pasos, que he preferido mantener en inglés, idioma original del libro:

1. I need a reason greater than reality: the power of spirit

If you ask most people if they would like to be rich or financially free, they would say "yes." But then reality sets in. The road seems too long with too many hills to climb. It's easier to just work for money and hand the excess over to your broker.

A reason or a purpose is a combination of "wants" and "don't wants." When people ask me what my reason for wanting to be rich is, it is a combination of deep emotional "wants" and "don't wants."

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. I have lost money and been set back many times, but it was the deep emotional reasons that kept me standing up and going forward. I wanted to be free by age 40, but it took me until I was 4? with many learning experiences along the way.


As I said, I wish I could say it was easy. It wasn't, but it wasn't hard either. But 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.

2. I choose daily: the power of choice

That 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. Poor people simply have poor spending habits. 

INVEST FIRST IN EDUCATION: In reality, the only real asset you have is your mind, the most powerful tool we have dominion over. Just as I said about the power of choice, each of us has the choice of what we put in our brain once we're old enough. You can watch MTV all day, or read golf magazines, or go to ceramics class or a class on financial planning. You choose. Most people simply buy investments rather than

first invest in learning about investing.

3. Choose friends carefully: the power of association

First of all, I do not choose my friends by their financial statements. I have friends who have actually taken the vow of poverty as well as friends who earn millions every year. The point is I learn from all of them, and I consciously make the effort to learn from them.

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

When it comes to money, the masses generally have one basic formula they learned in school. And that is, work for money. The formula I see that is predominant in the world is that every day millions of people get up and go to work, earn money, pay bills, balance checkbooks, buy some mutual funds and go back to work. That is the basic formula, or recipe. 

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.

5. Pay yourself first: the power of self-discipline

If you cannot get control of yourself, do not try to get rich. You might first want to join the Marine Corps or some religious order so you can get control of yourself. It makes no sense to invest, make money and blow it. It is the lack of selfdiscipline 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.

It is difficult to say which of the ten steps is the most important. But of all the steps, this step is probably the most difficult to master if it is not already a part of your makeup. I would venture to say that it is the lack of 

personal self-discipline that is the No. 1 delineating factor between the rich, the poor and the middle class.

6. Pay your brokers well: the power of good advice

My rich believed in paying professionals well, and I have adopted that policy also. Today, I have expensive 

attorneys, accountants, real estate brokers and stockbrokers. Why? Because if, and I do mean if, the people are professionals, their services should make you money. And the more money they make, the more money I make.

7. Be an "indian giver": this is the power of getting something for nothing

When the first white settlers came to America, they were taken aback by a cultural practice some American Indians had. For example, if a settler was cold, the Indian would give the person a blanket. Mistaking it for a gift, the settler was often offended when the Indian asked for it back. The Indians also got upset when they realized the settlers did not want to give it back. That is where the term "Indian giver" came from. A simple cultural misunderstanding. 

In the world of the "asset column," being an Indian giver is vital to wealth. The sophisticated investor's first question is, "How fast do I get my money back?" They also want to know what they get for free, also called a piece of the action. That is why the ROI, or return of and on investment, is so important. 

8. Assets buy luxuries: the power of focus

We go to school to learn a profession so we can work for money. It is my opinion that it is also important to learn how to have money work for you. I love my luxuries as much as anyone else. The difference is, some people buy their luxuries on credit. It's the keep-up-with-the-Joneses trap. When I wanted to buy a Porsche, the easy road would have been to call my banker and get a loan. Instead of choosing to focus in the liability column, I chose to focus in the asset column. As a habit, I used my desire to consume to inspire and motivate my financial genius to invest. 

Too often today, we focus to borrowing money to get the things we want instead of focusing on creating money. One is easier in the short term, but harder in the long term. It's a bad habit that we as individuals and as a nation have gotten into. Remember, the easy road often becomes hard, and the hard road often becomes easy.

9. The need for heroes: the power of myth

When I was a kid, I greatly admired Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Yogi Berra. They were my heroes. As a kid 

playing Little League, I wanted to be just like them. I treasured their baseball cards. I wanted to know everything about them. I knew the stats, the RBI, the ERAs, their batting averages, how much they got paid, and how they came up from the minors. I wanted to know everything because I wanted to be just like 

them.

I have new heroes as I grow older. I have golf heroes such as Peter Jacobsen, Fred Couples and Tiger Woods. I copy their swings and do my best to read everything I can about them. I also have heroes such as Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, George Soros and Jim Rogers. In my older years, I know their stats just like I knew the ERAs and RBI of my baseball heroes. I follow what Warren Buffett invests in, and read anything I can about his point of view on the market. I read Peter Lynch's book to understand how he chooses stocks. And I read about Donald Trump, trying to find out how he negotiates and puts deals together. 

Just as I was not me when I was up to bat, when I'm in the market or I'm negotiating a deal, I am subconsciously acting with the bravado of Trump. Or who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past. when analyzing a trend, I look at it as though Peter Lynch were doing it. By 

having heroes, we tap into a tremendous source of raw genius. But heroes do more than simply inspire us. Heroes make things look easy. It's the making it look easy that convinces us to want to be just like them. "If 

they can do it, so can I." When it comes to investing, too many people make it sound hard. Instead find heroes who make it look easy. 

10. Teach and you shall receive: the power of giving

Both of my dads were teachers. My rich dad taught me a lesson I have carried all my life, and that was the necessity of being charitable or giving. My educated dad gave a lot by the way of time and knowledge, but almost never gave away money. As I said, he usually said that he would give when he had some extra money. Of course, there was rarely any extra. 

If I could leave one single idea with you, it is that idea. Whenever you feel "short" or in "need" of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for money, a smile, love, friendship. I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do, but; it has always worked for me. I just trust that the principle of reciprocity it is true, and I give what I want. I want money, so I give money, and it comes back in multiples. I want sales, so I help someone else sell something, and sales come to me. I want contacts and I help someone else get contacts, and like magic, contacts come to me. I heard a saying years ago that went, "God does not need to receive, but humans need to give." 

So that's why I say, "Teach and you shall receive." I have found that the more I sincerely teach those who want to learn, the more I learn. If you want to learn about money, teach it to someone else. A torrent of new ideas and finer distinctions will come in.