Robert had two daddies, his true father and the father of his bestfriend Mike. Both of them were intellectuals but they had different points of view in life. His real father believed that education was the center of everything. He was a university professor by profession and relied to the government for his needs, while the other father was business minded. Although the second father also believed in the importance of education, he did not only rely on the educational system. For him, school does not teach you how to make money; they only teach how to be an employee. That’s why his second dad chose to be a businessman and built his own empire.
Robert loved and respected his two dads but he decided to follow the footsteps of the business-minded man rather than to follow the advice of his real father. You must earn education, then have a career. At first, Robert became a member of the US Navy, then became an employee of Xerox company. But it did not satisfy him until he quit his job and became a businessman. He gained his first lesson when he was still a child while working for Mike’s dad, with less payment until his service became free. Robert’s mentor told him that the greatest reason why many people lack financial success is because they are playing safe. They fear to lose their job and they will be still an employee until they get older.
For Robert, being an employee means you are a corporate slave, no matter how high your salary is or even if you are the vice president of the company. He looks upon executives as highly-paid slaves. He believes that you can also be your own boss if you want to change your life situation. If you are an employee, you only make someone rich, not yourself. He said, why don’t you mind our own business? Maybe Robert became very frank or brutal with his words, but that is the reality of life that you can never read in other business books.
In his book, Robert told his story, how he escaped from being an employee and turned into business and got involved in real estate. For him, the house is not an asset; instead it is a liability. You must earn from it before you call it as an asset, like what he is doing. He buys a house or a building with a reasonable price, then sell it with a good profit. Maybe to others, this is a complicated task but for Robert it is not hard as what we think. All we need is to sense when to grab the opportunities and besides that we are also able to manage risks.
If you want to know Robert Kiyosaki’s business principles, you should read his book and buy his other writings.