Robert Kiyosaki's Top 10 Rules for Success

One of the most important things you have in your life is time. It's one of your greatest assets, or it's your liability.

Robert Kiyosaki is the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, a book translated into 51 languages that has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. I'm here today with Robert Kiyosaki. He is the bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, which has been translated into more than 50 languages and is the number one personal finance book in the history of the world. He went from launching a company called Rippers that later collapsed.

The wallet one was a start. It was a nylon wallet business. And we went, we went broke.

And declaring corporate bankruptcy in 2012 after a $24 million lawsuit to creating the Rich Dad Company and building his net worth to around $100 million.

Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Company co-founder.

And here's our take on his top 10 rules of success. Need motivation?

Watch a top 10 with Believe Nation.

If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #believe in the comments below so I can feature you here in a future video. And if you're new, welcome to Believe Nation, the only channel that helps you believe in yourself daily, one video at a time. Okay, let's kick it off with rule number 1: make mistakes.

Think about this. You want— you say, let's say Tiger Woods is your hero and you want to be a great golfer. So you can go to a lecture by Tiger Woods. Would you learn anything? Nothing. You have to pick up that golf club and you have to make mistakes. And in school they say if you make mistakes, you're stupid. Well, I promise you something. Tiger Woods has hit more bad balls than I ever will. That's why he's the greatest golfer in history. And our stupid school— I won't use the F word here— foolish school system, they tell you if you make mistakes, you're stupid. But if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn anything. So if you went to a Tiger Woods lecture on golf, but you didn't pick up a golf course, You're not any smarter.

Well, number 2, learn how to sell.

So my poor dad said, ah, don't worry, you know, get your PhD and you'll be fine. My rich dad said, and this is what I was talking to you about, I said, I want to be an entrepreneur. My dad wanted me to become a, you know, I was a pilot, he says, go fly for the airlines. I said, shh, I'm through flying. I loved it, but I'm through. And I asked, I wanted to ask my rich dad, you know, my best friend's father, said, how do I be an entrepreneur? He says, you don't have the skills. I went, "What?" He says, "The skills to be an entrepreneur are different than an employee." Well, like a pilot is a different skill set than an entrepreneur. You know what I mean? So they're completely different. So I said, "So what's the first skill set?" He says, "You have to be able to sell." I went, "Oh no." And the reason I say that was in my family, Poor Dad's family, salesmen were scum. My dad was actually a Marxist. He's a good man, but a Marxist believes in, the abolition of private property, taxation, and labor unions. You study Marx, I had to study Marx at the academy. And so, you know, Marx says abolition of private property, workers of the world unite, which is labor unions, and taxes are essential for the spread of communism. That was my poor dad. And my rich dad didn't pay any taxes. So I'm rich, I had a lot of property. My poor dad had none. So, You can tell a person by what they do more than what they say. So I'm studying with my rich dad how to acquire real estate. So he says, "You're gonna be an entrepreneur, number one skill is to sell." I went, "Oh no." I'm about 24 years old now, getting out of the Marine Corps. Goes, "I don't wanna sell." So my rich dad looks at me, he says, "How's your sex life?" I said, "Nonexistent." He says, "'Cause you can't sell." Wow. And then the second thing, is you have to learn to raise money. You're gonna be an entrepreneur. And you know, like, that was just terrifying. I was a Marine pilot who came back. I was happy to be alive. Lost a lot of friends out there. Just happy to be alive. But now I have to learn how to raise capital. So that's why I took, I got a job with Xerox because of the best sales training. And then I got, and then I went to take courses in real estate so I could learn how to use debt to finance properties, which is what you do. Yep. So it's skills that make you rich, not your degrees.

Rule number 3, invest into the future.

That's why I say if you're 30 years old and you're not rich, you better do a self-examination because it's in your head that's stopping you. See what you're doing, I'll just, I'll give, I know exactly what you're doing. You can see the future and you invest it into the future. That's how people get rich. You have to see the future and you invest into the future. Most people, you know, don't, all the future is what they're gonna have for lunch.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. That's as far as they can see. So your skillset is you can see the future in technology, but most important thing is you already taken action. That's your biggest skillset.

Rule number 4 is figure out who you are.

So number 1, figure out who you are. If you're an employee, you know, your self-talk is going, I need job security, I need a steady paycheck and all that. It's a trap. If you're an S, you know, E-S, self-employed, your mantra is if you want it done right, do it by yourself. On the B side, which is big business, 500 employees or more, and I stands for insider. I'm an insider. So I had to make a decision when I was getting out of the Marine Corps. I wanted to go on the B and the I side. My mom and dad want to be E and S. So you've got to decide what you want to be when you grow up.

You know, also, if you want to take real action after this video, I made a free worksheet just for you. It covers the top lessons from today, gives you space to write your biggest takeaways, and helps you build a simple action plan. It's 100% free. Just click the link in the description below to go grab it. I'll see you there. Rule number 5 is choose your teachers.

What I was saying, you've got to choose your teachers. You see, because you go to school, you don't know, and most, most, most school teachers are good people, you know, they mean well, they're employees, they need job security, they need a pension, and that's going to affect your brain because that's who they are spiritually. They're cowards. No, they're really— but choose your teachers wise. Where that comes from I was in Sunday school, so I'm 7 years old, and this teacher, she was like 20 years old, and she says, why were the three wise men wise? And I raised my hand, I said, they were rich. She goes— because this is the Methodist Church, you know, and money is root of all evil. She says, no, no, no, she says, why do you say they were rich? I said, because one had gold, hard to get, you know, frankincense and myrrh. They were rich. She goes, "No, that's not the answer I'm looking for." I said, "Well, why don't you ask for the answer you're looking for then?" She says, "So why?" I said, "Why were the wise men wise?" And they said, "They sought the best teacher." And you know, freedom of religion and all this, they sought Jesus Christ. And so I went, "Wow." I'm 7, I went, seek the best teacher. 'Cause I was kind of disappointed in my old man, poor dad. You know, he was a PhD, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern. And all he was saying to me, I said, hey dad, what I'm gonna learn about money? I'm 7 years old. He says, well, if you stay in school, get your PhD, you'll be rich. I said, dad, you have a PhD, don't bullshit me, you're poor. And I said, "PhD stands for poor, helpless, and desperate. You know, you need your job, you're desperate. Mom's always crying 'cause we don't have enough money, and you're telling me to get my PhD?" So that's why I said, "You gotta choose your teachers wisely." So I was now about 10 when that happened. And my poor dad says, "Go talk to your best friend's father." and that was Rich Dad. So I chose my teacher at age 10.

Rule number 6 is build infinite cash flow.

My job is to invest with no money. It's just that you get good enough so that you don't need money in a deal. So a lot of times we'll buy, you know, like a 300-unit apartment house, we'll fix it up, get the net NOI up, the net operating income up, and we get that high enough, we go back to the bank and we refinance the building. So let's say, We have $1 million in it. We get the net operating income up. We have to fix it up, increase the rents and all this stuff. NOI is high enough, the banker will give us our $1 million back. So guess what? When that $1 million comes back to us, we're now infinite because none of our money is in it. And not only that, when that money comes back to us, because it's debt, we borrowed it off the building, it's tax-free. I mean, it's just this game, you know what I mean? And so that's, the better you get, the more we wanna play games. Just be legal, honest, and tell the truth. You know, that's all I ask. But a lot of people cut corners and they do stupid things. So Kenny and I have most of our buildings where infinite returns it. We have no money in it. It's pouring cash flow. And with the cash flow, since it's debt money, I don't pay tax on it. And then I legally, That's what Tom Wheelwright does. He keeps me out of trouble, out of jail.

Yeah.

And I buy gold, silver, and Bitcoin. So I invest in real money, gold, silver, Bitcoin.

Rule number 7 is study money.

If you understand how money is created, money is credit and debt. That's all it is. Money, credit, money. I mean, credit, debt, and taxes. That's what money really is. But they don't teach you that in school. So today, the reason the world economy is crashing goes all the way back to '71. But what happened in '71, they could just make fake money and they can keep printing fake money.

And this is the US dollar.

The US can keep printing fake money for a number of years yet. And the only way they could keep the economy expanding, they had to find people stupid enough to get into debt. So as you know, one of the most— I didn't have this as a kid, you know, it's called a credit card. Now everybody has credit cards, but they never teach you how to use it. Why did they have a credit card? It's because they needed more money. So they keep expanding the economy. They keep finding people stupid enough to just get into debt. They give them credit cards and all this and say, well, you give auto loans. But I think the most dastardly thing for your generation was in 2009 when President Obama went to the banks and said, look, we need to get the students more into debt under the guise of you need to get a good education.

Rule number 8 is break bad habits.

If you have money, you have more power. If you have attractiveness and sex appeal and all that, you have more power. So I think one of the most misunderstood words here is power. And that's why we have Rollo on this program. It's about power. So, and whether you, and I don't know if you want it or you don't want it, but I always say most people want more money. People want to be more attractive, to be more sexually attractive or have great relationships and things like this. But also you want more power, the ability to do, 'cause many people today are trapped, you know what I'm saying? When people lack power, their lives are kind of different. So power is simply the ability to do. And one of the biggest abilities is can you change an addiction into a good habit? Can you take a bad habit into a good habit? So for example, ever since meeting Rollo and the gang, I was able to break my habit of overeating. I overeat every time I'm under stress. You know, what do I need to do?

I need to eat.

And thanks to Dr. Nicole Srednicki, an ultra-healthy human, and you know, then "Carjacking the Rich" and Rollo, I've been able to get my body back down to Marine Corps weight, and I'm 74. And so I have the body of a 25-year-old now when I was in the Marine Corps. But I had to get over the addiction of eating. That was tough. You know, thank God I didn't drink that much or smoke. But that's power.

Rule number 9 is understand taxes.

You go to school, get a job, you become an employee, but you learn nothing about taxes. Then you become a little entrepreneur, you start your little falafel shop business or whatever you start, right? So self-employed, small business. And then you have big business, 500 employees or more, or I for investor. So Tom, how much tax do employees pay?

Well, typically if they're making a good salary, and this is by the way the same rates around the world, typically it's gonna be about 40%.

40%. And after the Trump tax cut, did that change much?

Not much, it didn't.

So if you're, you know, oh, I'm gonna start my own little business, I'm gonna start my little pizza shop or my coffee shop, How much do these guys pay?

Well, now it goes up because you're paying both your share of the taxes plus the employer share of the taxes because you've got both sides. So now it goes up as high as 60%.

So when you hear a young person, an old guy like me, saying, "I'm gonna start my own business," they don't like about taxes, do they?

No, and in fact, this is the place where people get in trouble because over here, this, the money's being taken out of your paycheck.. But here you're responsible for your taxes. And so what happens is, is that you go, let's say you're successful with your pizza shop, right? All of a sudden tax time comes around. Oh no, I've spent all my money and I don't have money to pay the taxes. And people go out of business real fast here.

Well, it is surprising because a lot of the millennials do want to start up their own small little business, right?

And what they don't—

they're not aware of is that they're going to be in the 60% tax bracket.

Because taxes are your single largest expense. So if you're gonna start your own business, you gotta be aware of taxes here. Now big business has 500 employees or more, how much do they pay?

Typically around the world about 20%.

Now why is it that big business people pay less than small business?

Well, basically the government wants, the government wants us to do certain things and they'll give us incentives if if we do them. And what they want out of a big business is they want employment. So they want to create employment because that creates stability in the country. Jobs. Jobs, right? And so the more jobs you create, actually the more tax benefit you get.

Well, look at Amazon right now.

They're looking at moving their company. How many tax benefits do you think they're getting?

Oh my heavens, they pay very, very little tax. Amazon does. And they pay, you know, you talk about all those different kinds of taxes. Not only do they pay very little income tax, but they're also paying very little sales tax and employment taxes and all those others because they're getting benefits from multiple types of government, the federal government, state government, city government.

Is that how Elon Musk started his battery factory in Nevada?

Well, yeah, I mean, Elon Musk, he gets huge research and development tax benefits, which by the way, that's a tax benefit that is available Most countries more than the U.S.

Right. So if you're gonna stay small, I mean, it's a good place to start, but you're gonna really wanna come over here eventually. And then the professional investor, see, these guys are passive. These guys invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds. They save money. They're passive guys. They pay the highest taxes. But how much does a professional investor, like Shark Tank, how much do these guys pay?

So they can pay as little as 0%. Right. They can actually completely eliminate their tax.

And number 10, the last one before a very special bonus clip, is be a lifelong learner.

My attitude is this: if you're going to be a real entrepreneur, you have to be a lifelong learner. I am studying, learning constantly.

I never stop.

And that's my competitive advantage. But also my core advisor team, we never stop together. You know, I have my accountants, my attorneys, my bankers and all that, we study together.

That's what we do when we get together.

We don't play golf, we don't drink beer, we study. Because study is the way you win. But you have to know what you're studying, because you know what you put in here, garbage in, garbage out, right?

The other thing you have to be careful is who's your teacher, who's your mentor.

You know, I took golf lessons once at the Biltmore. And it was the most horrible golf lesson I ever had. Because not was the golf, the teacher and I just did not get along. So they brought a new golf instructor in and I learned to love the game again. You know what I mean? So as an entrepreneur, be very careful who your teacher is. Because they can either kill your spirit or increase your spirit. A good teacher will inspire you. To learn more. A bad teacher will tell you you're stupid and you should study more. I think most of your viewers out there, sitting inside their head are the words from their mother and father: go to school, get a job, pay taxes, save money, buy a house because it's an asset, get out of debt, and invest in the stock market. Stock market. That creates poor people. It's a hypnosis train going through your brain. So when people say, "How do I change my life?" Well, you change those words. I wouldn't go to school because you learn nothing about money in school. Ask— I wouldn't get a job because if I have a job, I'm an employee and then I'd pay taxes and I don't pay taxes. And I don't save money, and I use debt to get rich, and I don't invest in the stock market. That's why I'm rich. And so the young people who are listening right now are saying, "But that's what my mom and dad said." But that's what mom and dad say all over the world. So to the young people, I just say, challenge or question what you've been taught because from the Bible, I'm not religious. Yeah, yeah. The Word becomes flesh. So if you say, go to school, they say, but I learn nothing about money. Get a job, you become an employee.

Yeah.

If you're an employee, you work for money. I pay taxes. Then they tell you to save money. Why would you save money when the government's printing money? You know? And get out of debt. Well, debt is money. I use debt to get rich. Most people use debt to get poor and invest in the stock market. I don't invest in the stock market. So when you wonder why so many people struggle financially, because they haven't challenged the hypnosis, the words, go to school, get a job, work hard, save money, get paid taxes. Until you question those hypnotic trances, You don't change.

And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be.

Believe.

For 10 more amazing rules from Grant Cardone, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe and I'll see you there.

I'm going to get in the best shape of my life in 2026. What are you going to do? I'm going to get my finances in the best shape of their life in 2026.

I'm going to make sure every one of my businesses or divisions are pumping.