This YouTube interview (Hannah Hammond with Robert Kiyosaki) discusses high-value practical skills and mindsets for entrepreneurial success. Kiyosaki emphasizes sales as a trainable skill (citing IBM and Xerox training), lists three core skills—sales, public speaking, and capital raising—and argues that one’s social circle ("you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with") and continuous learning determine success. Anecdotes include Xerox training, a sales colleague who became a billionaire, and using real estate and capital-raising practice to grow wealth.
Chapters
What do you think are the top attributes of a incredible salesperson like Elon Musk or Donald Trump? Like what? What do you think that edge is to. To be able to sell anything?
Well, it's a skill set. I interviewed two companies. It was IBM, had good, good sales training, and so did Xerox. And then Xerox flew me from Hawaii to Leesburg, Virginia. And they lock you in a room like this, and they have cameras on you, and they train you to sell. So you're pitching the deal, you know how to buy a copy or whatever you're selling. And then they would replay the camera. You did this, you did this, you did this, you did this. It was unbelievable training, you know, so when people say, how do I get sales skills? I said, well, one way is join a network marketing company like Amway or something like that, because they'll train you to sell. No, I don't want to sell. I don't want to sell. Well, then you'll probably be an employee the rest of your life.
Yep.
Not an entrepreneur. Yep.
You taught me that. 3. Three main skills is sales, public speaking, and capital raising.
The other thing is, what makes you rich are your friends. So, you know, like my. I met my best friend at Xerox, and this boy could sell. He was a Mormon missionary.
Wow.
And we're. He's. He looks like Richard Gere, you know, extremely handsome guy. He didn't have his mba. I didn't have my mba. So the guy was. Recruiter is hiring us. So he says to me, you don't have an mba, what makes you think you can sell? I said, hey, I've been driving a helicopter gunship against lma. I got, you know, people are shooting at me all day long. I can do that. I can sell. He goes, you're hired. He asked my friend Larry, so what makes you can sell? He goes, And Larry was. Larry's from Phoenix, and he was assigned to Northern Ireland. And he says, I have the highest conversion rate of Catholics to Mormonism in the Mormon Church. If I can convert a Catholic to mark Mormonism, I can sell you. So you're hired, and that's what it takes.
What. How did that shift into entrepreneurship? Was your first business that you had, the wallet business, was that a failure or success?
Well, it was. We. We failed and succeeded. But, you know, Larry and I became the best of friends. He just sold his business for 2 billion, you know, so he became a billionaire. My God beat me to it. We, We. We pushed each other along. You have to have good friends and so when we made millions together, we achieved a million. And we did it through real estate, you know, not through. We had to invest our money constantly. So we're practicing raising money, investing in real estate. So we made million together, but it beat me to a billion. But your friends are crucial. So. So if your friends are all employees, I don't give you much hope, you know, because that's who you are. You are, you know, you are your friends. And so that's. That's an indicator. And if you don't like your friends, you better change, you know, make some changes.
You're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. It's so amazing because when you surround yourself from people who are grand thinkers, you know, like you and Donald Trump and Elon Musk and like those, I mean, and so much in between. But real, true leaders, it makes. What I've learned is that it allows me to see how small I'm thinking. And I think I'm thinking big.
Yes.
But I realize I'm not. And so when I'm around people like you, I'm like, oh, my God, there is so many more levels to this game. And not just business, but relationships, spirituality, like every area of life that you could possibly be in. There's so many more levels that. That you don't know if you're only surrounding yourself by a peer group that only thinks to a certain ceiling.
Right. You are your friends. You are what you spend your time on doing. My friends and I study a lot, and then what you spend your money on.
Yeah. Being a constant student of life. I mean, you are always sending me training, you know, what's going on in the economy and these insights on certain this and that. And I'm always doing it, too. Every time you call me, I'm at a conference or a mastermind or a seminar. And we're just a constant student of life and always learning. And you share that about your. Your ESBI quadrant is cash flow quadrant. Your cash flow quadrant is everybody that once you stop learning, you stop growing. And I think that we're either growing or we're dying.
And not only that is like, recently I had to let go of my company because the fight we had in the company was they didn't want to study. I said, how can you not study? We don't want to study. We don't want to study to send us our paychecks. I can't go up against that mindset. I'm not here to force somebody to be what they're not wanting to be. But unfortunately, the company was dying because the internal wasn't growing.
