Mastering Wealth and Success: Robert Kiyosaki's Top 10 Rules for Financial Freedom

You wake up tomorrow morning and you're on the street and you have nothing. You don't have a single contact in your network. All you have is the knowledge and experience that you've had throughout your career. How do you build up from there? If I had to do it again, I'd go work for McDonald's. And the reason I go work for McDonald's, you know, whether it's $7 an hour or $15, I don't really care. They have the best business systems in the world. So right inside little McDonald's, you can learn everything you need to learn about business except for the management side of it. I spend most of my time with entrepreneurs. I don't I spend my time with people who complain about the economy. So nothing would really change. I'd just go back to being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have one thing in common. They keep going. They'll change the rules. They'll reinvent the rules. You know, they don't just take one answer. So a real entrepreneur, it really makes no difference which country you're in. You know, I have a friend from France. He started buying vineyards in Napa and Sonoma. So he went back to the French government and he says, "I want to ship my wine in bulk to California." And the government says, "You can't do that." He says, "Okay, I can't ship it in barrels?" The guy goes, "Yeah." He says, "Okay, I'll ship it in bottles." But he still figured out how to do it. His wine with his California wine and all this. And so he went back to the French government and said, "Try this, see if it's not better." And so now they're all confused because he didn't break any rules. So I'll say it again. Entrepreneur is a mindset first, a skillset, and rules.

Hey, it's Evan Carmichael, and I make these videos because in my first business, I quit on my business partner. I struggled to keep going. I was making $300 a month and felt like a complete failure. And the thing that saved me, that pulled me up, was studying the stories of famous entrepreneurs. I got the motivation from them. I also got the strategies of what to do next so that I can go off and achieve my dreams. And quite honestly, I still need the stories today myself to continue my motivation to take it to the next level. So today, let's learn how to master wealth with Robert Kiyosaki and his 10 rules for financial success. Enjoy.

I am very shy. Very, very shy. You know, I came back from Vietnam and I could kill people, but I couldn't talk to people. And one day I said to my— when I decided to follow my rich dad's footsteps, I just said to him, I want to be an entrepreneur. He says, you got one problem. I said, what's that? He said, you're shy. I said, "What's wrong with being shy?" He says, "You got to sell. You got to handle rejection. Number one skill, can you handle rejection?" Answer is no, I couldn't handle it. So I said, "I still don't want to learn how to sell." So this is in 1973, I was 25 years old, and my rich dad said, "How's your love life?" I said, "It sucks." I said, "You getting laid?" They said, "No." I said, "It's because you can't sell." You guys got it? So when I talk about what skill do you need, when the shit hits the fan, you better start selling. So I went to work for Xerox in 1974 so I could learn how to sell. It took me 4 years. And I was number 1, okay? And today I'm a best-selling author. You know, most PhDs tell me I can't write. Yes, I said I can't write, but I can sell. If you can't sell, you don't make money, period. End of statement. You know, just because you have a product doesn't mean jack shit. But the important thing is you start. I don't care what product you start with, but you start. You know, I started off with nylon wallets. Success wiped me out. You know, we couldn't sell, couldn't sell, all of a sudden it took off, then I couldn't finance, I couldn't finance, couldn't finance because the sales kept going through the roof. Now, trouble is I kept borrowing and I couldn't sustain the sales. Next lesson. But that's how we learn. 'Cause I'm one of those kids that didn't like school. You know, school is good for people who like school. But here was my poor dad, head of education, PhD, on the governor's board of Hawaii and all this stuff, and his kid, me, and I'm flunking out of school 'cause I can't read, I can't write. It's not that I couldn't read, I couldn't write, I was bored out of my mind, you know? I was just, hey. So what I did instead was, that's when I met my rich dad, who was my best friend's father, and he used these things called a game. See, games are the best teaching tools. See, when I'm playing this game, this is how the rich taught their kids battle strategies called chess. My rich dad taught me to be a rich man playing Monopoly. We played Monopoly hour after hour after hour. The formula for great wealth in Monopoly is 4 greenhouses, 1 red hotel. So today in Arizona, I own 8,000 green hotels, I mean greenhouses, and several red hotels. I just play Monopoly for real. So that's the power of a game because a game engages me mentally, physically, because I actually have to move things, emotionally, because when somebody knocks me out, I better wake up, you know, I made a mistake. And spiritually, because it's spirit that wins. Now if you just saw Golden State play the— play the— oh, you know, everybody's— I mean, I love LeBron James, I love Cleveland, you know, but one guy cannot take on a team. And I think LeBron scored 60% of all the points. In assists and all that, but a better team beat them. So when you look at business, business is the same thing. Business is a team sport. I have to have good accountants, good attorneys, good marketing guys, good tech guys, great staff, I have to have great leaders, you know. The trouble with most entrepreneurs are self-employed. So they quit their job and, you know, in America today the SBA, the Small Business Administration says there's 28 million 28 million small business owners, 28 million. 24 million are classified as non-employers. In other words, they're a one-man team. You know, they'd be like this guy said, okay, I'm gonna take you on. Are you crazy? But that's what most entrepreneurs are trying to do. 'Cause that's what they're taught to do in school, to be the rugged individual. You know, in school I was very successful as long as I could cooperate. At test time. But in school, cooperation at test time is called cheating. In the real world, the guys that have the biggest team win. So all I focus on is putting the best team together. Meanwhile, a lot of time the A students in school, they're the doctors and lawyers, they're sitting there all by themselves, they're sitting ducks. But they're entrepreneurs. Do you know what I mean? It's just a mindset, tactics, strategy. I went to military school, I'm a former Marine. So I think like a military operation, which I love chess. So most entrepreneurs, you know, they have this job and they go, okay, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur, and this guy should massacre them. That's very good. Because they went to school, they learned to get a job, and they take tests on their own. They have to be the smartest. That's like the LeBron James. I don't wanna be the smartest guy on my team, but I wanna have the best team. And that's why I win most of my games. That's great. I think like this and the doctors think like this. Yeah, I got you, man. For some reason, I get the sense I'm going to win. That's right.

Also, to make sure you're actually taking action after watching this video, I've designed a special free worksheet just for this video. The worksheet will highlight all the lessons learned in this video, as well as pull out our 3 favorite learnings and quotes that will inspire you to actually do something. The worksheet will also give you space to write down what your key takeaways are and your specific plan of action to make sure you're getting results. If you want the worksheet designed specifically for this video, absolutely for free, there's a link in the description below. Go click on it and start building the momentum in your life and your business. I'll see you there.

So the other thing with when people say live below your means, You don't like to live below your means, do you? No. No. And I think when you say to somebody, live below your means, you wipe their spirit out. It's like saying to somebody, if you want to lose weight, go on a starvation diet. It doesn't make you healthier to starve yourself. So I would rather get financially educated. That's why I read your books, because I want to— this is my greatest asset. I want to feed my brain so that I can expand my means without getting into excessive debt or where I start to lose. Because debt, like I say, is a two-edged sword. But telling somebody to live below your means is almost inhumane. I never felt good doing it. I wanted to strive to do better every day. I want to do better every day. I liked a good life. Like I tell the story of taxiing underneath your jet, you know, I was in my jet, but it was a little Learjet. I look up and there's a 727 and I taxi under it. I said, holy mackerel, you know, it's, it's big boys and their toys. But nonetheless, it inspired me. I said, okay, I'm in a Learjet now. It's time to step up. And it doesn't mean the jet will make me happier. What makes me happier is the wanting to get better, to get smarter, to do better.

If you did not have the Rich Dad in your life, what would you be doing today?

It's hard to say if I didn't have my rich dad because as a young kid starting at probably about the age of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, I really wanted to be rich. So I think number one is desire, you know, and then you naturally seek your role models and teachers. And in my lifetime I've had multiple rich dads. You know, my rich dad was my best friend's father starting at the age of 9. And then today I still seek mentors and wise men and wise women because that's how you get wiser is by hanging out with smart people. Everyone says finding good real estate is hard when you're getting started. What's the value of good network and good partnerships? Well, I'll say it again. In 1973, I came back from Vietnam and I was a pilot out there. There. And I took a real estate course. It was $385, 3 days long. And that was a lot of money back then. I was only making $500 a month. So $385 was all I had. And the instructor at the end of the program said to me, he said, or to the whole class of about 30 of us, he says, your education begins now that you leave the class. You don't get educated while the class So his assignment was that everybody, 30 of us, we had to pair up in teams, get up in teams, 2 or 3 to a team, and we had to look at 100 properties in 90 days. And he says, don't buy anything, just look at 100 properties, do an evaluation of each property, write up, write a short blurb about it, why it's good, why it's bad. And he said at the end of 90 days and 100 properties, then you make up your mind if you're going to buy something. He says if you haven't found one property in 100 deals, you start again. You know, you start again with another 100. And that's what most, that's why most people are not rich, is they're not willing to go through that process of looking at 100 deals to find one deal. And there's sometimes, and you and I know, you look at a lot of frogs to find one princess. You know, but when you find that one princess, everybody goes, oh, well, how do you get so lucky? Well, I looked at a lot of dirt dogs out there, you know, and that's like anything in life. You don't marry the first man or woman you meet. Hopefully you kiss a couple of them, you know, before you do. My last paycheck, I still remember it clearly. It was one of the worst and the best days of my life, and I was in Puerto Rico. I was in— I was working for Xerox. And my boss gave me my last, it wasn't a paycheck, it was a bonus check. I think it was about $30,000, taxable, that's the only problem with that. So I get this check and I went, holy mackerel. You know what I mean? So I was excited, but I was also disturbed. And so this other guy comes up to me, his name was John, and John says to me, he says, you're gonna be back. I said, why? He says, 'Cause you're gonna fail. I looked at him and said, look, A few expletive words because that's what he did. He left Xerox, failed, and he came back. I said, look, you failed and you came back, but I'm going to fail and I'm never coming back. And that's the attitude. Do you know what I mean? If you say, well, if I fail, I'll go back to mommy and daddy, then that's what you'll do. So if you fail, that's when I became an entrepreneur because I had no money. I had no money for years. You know, I didn't have a paycheck. But that's what my rich dad encouraged me to do. He says, when you don't have this paycheck, you get hungrier, smarter, and it's a test of your character. Will you become a crook? Will you become dishonest? Will you cheat and steal? Or will you become a better human being? So really, that's the benefit of becoming an entrepreneur, is you really find out who you are when you don't have anything. If you're an entrepreneur and you're going to be a big entrepreneur, leadership skills and communication skills are more important than a law degree. So I have another book that just came out. It's called The 8 Lessons in Military Leadership. In the military, I went to military academy and all that. I left, you know, from day one you're learning leadership. You know, day one at the academy, I have to stand in front of 20 18-year-old kids and go, "Section 10, hut!" And naturally they're gonna say, "Screw you," you know? So that's when you learn to be a leader. Now, as you said to me when we first met, the trouble with the military, you get a little rough. So I had a hard time when I came back from Vietnam and I went to work for Xerox and, you know, people don't like the idea of calling them an asshole and a fuckhead, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, the word is a curse word in the military. Yeah. It's just magic. Hey fuckhead, you know, do this. You know, but they don't— I'm going to call the HR person. I better make some changes here. You know what I'm talking about? Of course I know. You can't talk straight in corporate America. In the military you can. You have to. Yeah, you have to. And they love it. Yeah. You actually get promotions if you do in the military. Well, when I got called names, I said, oh, the guy likes me. So that's why for all you guys who are military veterans, you know, you have probably the number one skill to be an entrepreneur, which is leadership, the ability to listen, to not take it personally, and still get the job done. It is the best training in the world. You know, the saddest thing about leaving the military was leaving the guys behind there. They were some of the best in the world, and they weren't all college graduates. They were just my gunners, my mechanics, you know, all this stuff. Camaraderie is priceless. Oh geez, it's priceless. Camaraderie is priceless. And so all I did when I started the Rich Dad Company was to have that same sense of teamwork inside Rich Dad. That's why there's no ranks and all this stuff in this company. Everybody gets to say what they want to say. People are free to do what they want. I stay out of their way and we get the job done. So the Midas Touch is 5 things you must remember. Number 1 is the thumb, which is strength of character. You fail, stand up. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't— just stand up, own it, keep going on. Strength. This is focus, you know, the index finger. This is where I'm going. And I talk about how I went to flight school, you know, preparing to fly in Vietnam. You know, people are shooting at you, you're still going to stay focused on your target, even if you get killed in the process. This one everybody knows. This is what you stand for, you know. So Donald The thumb stands for the absolute wealth. And what I stand for is very simple financial education. Keep it simple, you know, teach people to manage their money. So I stand for that and I don't ever get off that track. The ring finger is for relationships. If somebody is struggling financially, be it a company, a country, or marriage, it's because you have a bad relationship. And the thing that Donald and I always say is that you can't do a good deal with the bad partner, and God knows I've had some bad partners. And they're just incompetent, but they want to pretend they're smart. And then the little one is the little finger. Every entrepreneur must do something that nobody else does. For example, in the United States, Walmart, their whole system of business is designed to give you the lowest price possible, everything. Whereas a little mom-and-pop store, they'll say, well, we put things on sale. That's not the same thing. FedEx says overnight. That was their whole thing. They built the whole company around that little promise. Domino's Pizza in America was pizza in less than 30 minutes. So the entire business was built around one simple little promise. And those are the things that make entrepreneurs extremely rich or extremely poor if they don't have those 5.

Is there a time to bail out on a project though?

I mean, when— I don't— that's not in my vocabulary.

Yeah.

Look, I have an unfair advantage, you know. I went to war. And at war, I'm alive because other guys died for me. When you see stuff like that, you know, how can I quit? Most guys are just wimps, pussies, cowards. They don't have it. So they should get a job. Very important diagram my rich dad showed me when I was a little boy was a diagram known as a cash flow quadrant. And the quadrant is made up of the 4 different people who make up the world of business. So my rich dad said, in the world of business, there's E's, and E's stand for employees. An employee, he says, you can always tell who they are by their core values and what the employee, whether the president or the janitor of the company, will always say the same words. The words are, I'm looking for a safe, secure job with benefits. That's what makes them an employee, because their core values are security. The other one of the 4 is the S, or the small business owner or the self-employed. And again, their core values will cause them to use the same words, which are, "If you want it done right, do it by yourself." S means they're also solo. They're generally one-person act, or they operate by themselves. On the right side of the quadrant are the Bs, and what Rich Dad said the B stood for was big business, people like Bill Gates. Forbes defines big business as 500 employees or more. And their words are different. They say, I'm looking for a good system, a good network, and the smartest people I know to help run my business. So they're unlike the S, they don't want to run the company by themselves, they want smart people to run their companies for them. And then the fourth of the quadrant is the I, and I stands for investor. These are people who have money work hard for them. These people are people that have people work hard for them, and these are the people that work hard for the rich here. And the thing of note here is that most people who go to school are programmed for the E and the S side. For example, it was my poor dad who always said to me, "Son, go to school so you can get a nice, safe, secure job." And so my poor dad wanted me to be an employee. Now, this is the time I was a kid. Get a safe, secure job, steady paycheck, and benefits. Okay, I didn't want to be an employee, and I said, "Mom and Dad, I want to be a rich man." And I fight with my dad, so my mother finally said, "Son, if you want to be rich—" my mother was a registered nurse— she said, "You want to be rich? The richest people I know are doctors." So my mom wanted me to come over here, be a specialist or small business person. I said, "There's only one problem with that, Mom. Doctors are really smart." And she says, "You got a good point there." I'm not going to be a doctor. So I, you know, so I went to school. I have a Bachelor of Science degree. I can drive ships and I can fly planes. I flew for the Marine Corps. But that, I've never used any of that education because I wanted to become a business owner. So it was my rich dad who basically said to me, you know, become a business owner and learn to be a professional investor. So one of the big differences here between these people is that it's called taxes. In 1943, the US federal government passed a law that said employees had to pay tax before they got paid. So when you go to get your paycheck from your employer, you open it up and voilà, the government's always taken a sizable chunk of it. And the harder you work and the more money you make, the more money they take from you. So that's why it's not that good to be an employee because you can never get ahead because the more you work, the more money you make, the greater they pay in taxes. Now the doctors and lawyers and attorneys, you know, accountants were all laughing and saying, "Oh, these guys, they're getting paid a lot of taxes." So naturally, the federal government changed the laws again. So in 1986 in the US, a thing called the '86 Tax Reform Act, and it basically took a lot of the benefits away from people who are self-employed, small business, doctors, and lawyers. So today in America, unfortunately, these guys pay the highest percentage in taxes. It is tragic. And a lot of people think they're investors, but what they're really doing is they're just giving their money to people like mutual funds companies and all that. So they're not— they're investing, but they're not really investors. See, the big tax breaks are on this side. You know, the laws are pretty tight here, but this area is very, very gray. So by being a business owner on the right-hand side of the quadrant, you can make a lot more money and pay a smaller percentage of taxes legally. And the key word is legally. In the investor quadrant, it is possible to make millions of dollars and pay 0% taxes legally. And so it was my rich dad who said to me, he says, you know, Robert, If you really want to be rich, learn to build businesses. It made more sense to him to work hard to build a business, something you owned and something you could pass on from generation to generation to your kids. Whereas my poor dad said work hard, but my rich dad said, why would you work hard for something you'll never own and you can get fired from right away? Again, that was a difference in values. So my rich dad suggested I learn how to be a business owner. And learn how to be an investor. And that's one of the big differences. On this side of the quadrant, these people here work for security. They work for money also. On this side over here, their key value that they want is they want freedom. They don't want to have to work at a job anymore. They don't want to have to work for the rest of their lives. So one of the beauties of business for the 21st century allows people to make the transition from the E and the S side to the B side especially. And so you can become a big business owner. And the difference between an S and a B, small business and big business, is most of these guys can't quit working. Most small business owners, if they stop working for more than a month, the business collapses. You know, they don't really have a business. Most of these people own a job. So the beauty of business for the 21st century, it allows these people to make the transition to the B side so that you don't have to keep working hard for money and the money can actually come in passively. Then once you have your business up and running, then I always recommend you then begin investing with your excess cash, paying less and less in taxes. And that's the reason the rich are getting richer.

Because you made it this far in the video, I want to celebrate you. Most people start and don't finish. Most people never actually follow through. Most people say they want something, but they don't ever do the work to actually get it. But you are different. You are special. Believe Nation, you made it here all the way to the end, and I love you. So as a special celebration, if you put a hashtag #believe down in the comments below on this video, I will showcase you and celebrate you somewhere on the screen in a future video because you are awesome. If you want to learn how to get rich in network marketing with Robert Kiyosaki, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.

Let me tell you why I endorse network marketing, or why I call it the power of it. The reason for it is, as an entrepreneur, this word here, network marketing,