943 Robert Kiyosaki: How to Become Wealthy in a Down Economy (The Rich Dad Poor Dad Guide)

This is episode number 943 with international best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Steve Jobs said, if today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today? I love that question and quote because it gets you thinking. It gets you thinking about where you're at in your life, where you want to be in your life. And if you are in the right direction of your dreams, of your goals, of your desired future self, your greater future self, are you doing what you want to do Yes, there are going to be tasks and things that you don't want to do. I don't want to do everything that I do every minute of the day. But are you in general, happy with the things you're doing? And are you excited about them? Are you uplifted by it all? Or are you down and out and constantly frustrated and depressed and unhappy and unsatisfied? If so, take inventory, start making the changes. And I'm so glad you're here today to learn how to make some changes in your financial situation in a down economy or really any type of economy, but how to optimize this situation. We've got one of the icons in this space, Robert Kiyosaki, to share his wisdom and his personal perspective. He's an entrepreneur, investor, motivational speaker, author, and also a financial knowledge activist. And his book series, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is an international bestseller and has been sold all over the world in massive amounts. It is a comparison between his two dads. One was his poor biological father and the other fictitious rich dad. The poor father was in fact very educated but had no money and the rich father was a high school dropout and was in fact Hawaii's richest man. He's got a new book out which is called who Stole My Pension? And how you can stop the looting. And in this interview, we talk about his talks About his toughest lessons learned in business from experience, lessons that are hard to teach unless you live through them. The importance of choosing your teachers wisely to come out on top of a financial crisis. The difference between wartime and peacetime leaders and business owners. And why this is the best time to make money despite what most people are thinking right now. Yes, this is the best time to make money. We also discussed some of the biggest companies that were started between 2008 to 2010 recession. and some advice Robert has about business in contrast to some of the popular business leaders today. I'm excited about this one. Robert has a unique perspective. He has his opinions, his advice that's worked for him. It's not for everybody. There are other people out there you can learn from, but this is definitely one opinion that has done extremely well in his perspective. And I'm super excited if you'd be a part of this. If you love Robert, if you're a fan of his books, Then make sure to share this episode with a friend, lewishouse.com/943, subscribe to the School of Greatness podcast, and leave us a review. I'm so glad you're here and pumped to get into this episode. Let's dive in with the one, the only, Robert Kiyosaki. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the legend, Robert Kiyosaki in the house. Thank you so much for being here. Super excited about this.

Well, thank you. People say I'm a legend in my own mind, you know? And my reply is, you may as well be a legend in your own mind because you're not a legend in anybody else's mind. Hey, you gotta believe in yourself if.

You wanna create great things in the world. At least you've gotta believe. It's almost 25 years now, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, right? Are you sick and tired of talking about Rich Dad, Poor Dad or is.

It still something you enjoy talking about? No, it's kind of what we're talking about. This is what I'm supposed to have done anyway. know, it was, so I got on my path. Yes. And what I was saying, what you and I were talking about before we started, is I meet a lot of guys who, something tragic happens in their life, but it was the best thing that ever happened to them. Like I had a friend who was a Olympic snowboarder and he did one of those goofy things those guys do and he shattered his body and nobody could heal him. so he became an acupuncturist. And the guy is greatest. He found this real gift. It's not snowboarding or whatever he was doing, is he's a Healer. And he uses acupuncture, you know, and he heals people. He's unbelievably good. But if it hadn't crashed, he wouldn't be where he is today.

Yeah.

What was the big tragedy in your life?

Oh, there's every other. Every other day, this.

What was the big tragedies? What was like the big aha moments where something bad had to happen for you to say, oh, let me wake up and take down this path?

Oh, there's a lot of them. I mean, I really was, as an entrepreneur, my biggest failure was that I was successful on my first venture. This is, I don't know, I was about 25 years old. and I started a nylon and for all called surfer wallet business. And everybody said, well, why, why are you doing that? I said, well, I don't know what else to do, you know?

Right.

And I used to make nylon wall. I went to school in New York at a military school, a sailing school. So I used to sell these nylon wallets out of sales. So when we're looking for an idea for a product, you know, the product sucks. The product doesn't really count. I just needed to start a business. So I was working at Xerox at the time in Holland, Lillo, and I, I gave my I showed this little wallet to my two partners, to criminals. But anyway, so we came out with these nylon wallets. We had them manufactured in Korea and nobody would buy them. So I have 100,000 wallets in a warehouse in New York. I'm in Hawaii and my friend and I are going door to door trying.

To sell these to-- no way.

And everybody kept saying, you shitting me? What are you guys doing? And what happened was because we failed at the wallet business, I was sitting in our offices in Honolulu and then somebody says, hey, jogging had just started. Baby boomers are first getting into hell. And they started jogging. They had the Nike waffle and all these other good shoes. And so this guy in Golden Gate Park goes for a jog. He didn't know what to do with his keys, so he put his key on top of his car tire. He went for a run and guess what? He came back and his car was gone. Wow. And so the headline says, San Francisco Times, what does a jogger do with their key? And I went, oh my God. So since I have kind of a quasi engineering background, I designed with a hook and tear method and built the shoe pocket that went on a runner's shoe. So I had this nylon wallet, not how to run her shoe. I'm in a shoe pocket. So I go around the world again. So I'm going broke so fast. We had no money, we just kept borrowing money, raising capital. Well, it was all good because I was learning how to raise capital.

Yeah.

So finally, we're desperate. We buy a full, those days, it took four months for an ad to come out. So we had to shoot the stupid shoe pocket on a New Balance 320 shoe. And we get it into Runner's World magazine. I think it was 16,000 bucks.

Oh my gosh. A lot of money.

And then we waited for the phone to ring. So we had to wait till like January, February, March, you know, the phone didn't ring. So we want to quit. We're out of money, you know, can't pay the rent, the repoed my Harley. And it was getting so bad. So my, let's get one more shot, just one more shot. So we go to New York City at the sporting goods show at the Coliseum. And I'm sitting at my booth in the basement, 'cause that's all I could afford. And this guy goes walking past and he goes, my company was called Rippers. So I'm putting my big sign up, Reppers, you know? And he goes, Reppers? Reppers? Where have you been? And I turn around and I said, I'm here. No, no, no, no, no. He says, Where have you been? I'm like, what do you mean? He says, I saw your ad. I said, Good. My store is filled with people coming in looking for the shoe pocket. Wow.

I said, Call me.

That's what I said. So I asked him, why didn't you call me? He says, you, idiot. you don't have your address or phone number on the ad.

Oh my goodness. Wow.

And then what happened is Playboy put a pic, you know, they featured this young thing with nothing on but a shoe bucket. And our sales went to the run. I looked like a genius, but this is where it went broke. We couldn't keep up with demand. Wallets took off. Shoe pockets took off. We were borrowing and borrowing and borrowing just to finance inventory. We were shipping all over the world. And we went broke because I kept raising money and one day, but we were already like $850,000 in debt, which is a lot of money back then. Wow.

It's a lot of money right now.

Yeah, well, it's relative. Anyway, so I go back to my partner. Stanley, the accountant, the CPA, the CFO. And I said, how much more do I have to raise? He says, I think 100,000 will do. I said, good. So I go raise another 100,000, right? So I handed the check to Stanley, 'cause he couldn't, you know, accountants, accountants, can't sell. So I give him $100,000. He says, will this take care of the problem? And Stanley said, yes, it took care of his problem. He paid off his investors. So we're still broke, we had no money. Stanley hits the road and that's how it went down.

Stealing Stanley.

I love that guy. He didn't make the biggest favor of all. You know what I mean? I learned so much, man.

What was the greatest lesson you learned from that big success slash failure?

Well, just because they're smart doesn't mean they're not dishonest or crook. And I've run into more crooks. Yeah, I think I hire them on intention.

Until you learn your lesson, right?

No, no, every entrepreneur I've talked to have had somebody steal from them. I go to my doctor and this little cutie working for him, this beautiful young woman, you know, sweet as everybody loved her, da, da, da, da, da, da. And so one day I went and said, well, where is she? Where is she? Well, what she did, because she's tech savvy, she rigged the invoicing on their computer. So, you know, 20, you know, like 90% went to the doctor and 10% went to her.

Wow.

And so she heisted. I said, that little sweetheart, he goes, Smart. And then, so he called the police. And this is the interesting part. Her father was already a rich guy. And he comes in and says, I'll pay you anything, just don't send her to jail.

Wow.

So then that was the next thing you learned. Is it better to send her to jail or take the money?

Wow.

So she's in jail. No, no, just not.

What?

One of the things you can't teach that stuff.

Yeah, you got to experience it. You got to go through it.

It's right in front of you all the time.

Man, what is the lesson you've learned in the last two to three years that you thought you'd already learned that you keep learning? That comes the hard way. Is there anything that you Still learn or have you seen it all?

No, it's as you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the story of my rich dad who had no education, but he grew up in business for real. He took over the family business at 13. So he kind of grew up in the real world of money, where my rich dad was a PhD, poor, helpless, desperate. Went to Stanford, Northwestern, very smart guy, good guy in all this, but as you know, teachers, They teach stuff that I don't know nothing about.

Right.

Well, some of them are forced, I mean, they're forced to teach that, right? Some of them try to educate in other ways and inspire.

Don't defend them. Don't defend them. I don't like them. Anyway, you know what happens? When do I get in the most trouble? Is when I criticize going to school. Because to many people, it's their only hope and salvation.

Yeah.

So if I say, well, I don't think school teaches you much, I may as well piss on the Pope.

You know, they said, I know.

If you don't go to school, and then tell them, well, you know, Steve Jobs dropped out, he did pretty good.

Yeah.

It's dropped out. Dell dropped out.

Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg dropped out. Henry Ford, Walt Disney, they didn't, you know, they didn't hurt. So anyway, religion is, I mean, education is religion to most people. Yeah. So that's why I step on toes and I get dumb.

What did Mark Twain's quote say? Like, don't let schooling get in the way of your education or something like that. And one of the reasons why I started the School of Greatness, I was telling you before we started recording, is that I was in the special needs classes literally every day for as long as I can remember. Since kindergarten until seventh year in college, I had a tutor. I was in the special needs classes with a few kids who had learning disabilities. and it was the most challenging thing for me because I wish they would have taught me things that I'm learning now. And the reason I created the School of Greatness, because I was like, what are the things I wish they would have taught me in school to help me get ahead in my finances, to help me get ahead in my health, my mindset, my, you know, how to deal with a breakup in a relationship, a tragic time, like the emotional side of things, the education that I wish they would have taught us. I was like, I'm gonna go create it. I'm gonna find people like Robert and teach us the ways. So, you know, you're doing that through your work and I'm trying to do that. But I think there's people trying to do good by educating outside of the traditional school system where I think they're more limited.

Right.

And that's why I created the cash flow board game is because I learned about money playing monopoly.

Yeah.

I learned more about life. playing Monopoly than I did in four years of college.

Yeah.

I went to a really good school, you know, the best schools in the world, US Merchant Marine Academy. I came out a rich man, but it didn't teach me much about money. I was only a high paid employee.

Yeah.

So then I joined the Marine Corps. Then I have two professions. I can fly for United Airlines or I could sail for Standard Oil. I didn't want to either because it wasn't challenging anymore. I think if there's a lesson is that I'm looking for the challenge and some people are looking for security. They're two different people. They're very, very, they're extremely different people.

Yeah, and you talk about, you know, rich favors the bold, those that are willing to take risks and willing to put themselves out there. Do you think you can get rich without taking risks and being bold and taking, you know, these big chances? Or can you keep this security mindset and really gain true wealth?

Well, many people have, you look at Cuomo and all those guys, they were born rich kids and their father.

Right.

Now, Trump could have taken that path too. He was born a rich kid. So it's not, I think it's either an entrepreneur or not.

Right.

I think that's the difference.

You know what's interesting? I never thought I was an entrepreneur until I had a big wake-up call, a tragic experience, and it was kind of like a perfect storm. I didn't know how to make a dollar. I was not like selling baseball cards. I didn't do the lemonade stand. I didn't try to hustle all this stuff. as a kid, I literally maybe made a little bit of money in the summers just because my dad put me to work. And I had this dream of playing professional football. And then I made 250 bucks a week. My dad got in a tragic car accident. He was in a coma for three months. I didn't have a college degree. It was 2008. The economy went down. I was living on my sister's couch. She was feeding me. I was making no money. I was living off three credit cards with student loans. And I didn't have my dad as that kind of financial safety net anymore because he wasn't able to help me and bail me out. So it was more like, what do I do? No one was hiring people with degrees at that time, even master's degrees. I didn't even get a bachelor's degree yet. And I was just like, how do I survive? So I don't think if the worst thing in my life would have happened, I want to be here learning how to be hungry. How did I say, I need to go? survive right now and take chances. So, I think that perfect storm mentality made me into this survivor creative mindset willing to risk it all. Whereas if I had my father to kind of protect me financially or say, because he was like, you,'re going to take over the business, you're going to come work for me. And that was my mindset when he kind of left emotionally and mentally. He's still alive today, but not the same from the brain trauma. It made me step up as a human being as a 24 year old and say, I gotta learn some stuff.

And that's what I say to young people today, look at this pandemic, this coronavirus pandemic, you know, it's really tragic because it attacks the old guys. But even worse is the baby boomers had it the easiest of all generations. But now their pensions are gone, their 401 s are gone.

Yeah.

Social Security is broke, Medicare is broke. So I say to younger people, this pandemic, this crisis is the best thing that ever happened to you. You think about that iPhone. You have more power in that iPhone than I had with my Sparrow Univac mainframe computer. And then so when I meet people that say, oh, the economy is bad, I said, the only economy is between this year and that year. There's the economy out here. But this is the best time for your generation. Because you're tech savvy. I'm not tech savvy. You know, you got, this was made for you guys. The old guys like me are being cleaned out by the pandemic.

Unless you have a lot of assets that are bringing you in cash.

The way is clear for you. Now the old guys are gone. They're dead.

Right.

What are you gonna do a bunch? You know, so it's really a great time, but exactly as you were talking about, The bad times are leading to the best times.

That's it.

Yeah.

If you can see it. But some, unfortunately, as you know, there's a lot of your generation are younger. They'll never recover. Yeah. They're going to see this as the worst of times.

I know. And they're going to reflect back to this in five years and 10 years and say, that's the thing that screwed me up or hurt me and be a victim to it as opposed to saying, okay, this is happening and how can I make the most of it? and what's it going to take for me to learn a new skill or get more creative or be hungrier in this time?

Or more important, who's your teachers?

Who are you listening to?

Well, you know, that's why I keep saying to the young, the Millennials, you know, they're a pack of wimps. You know, I meet Millennials who are just horrifyingly weak. They're taught trigger events or whatever, you know, the, the, I don't know what they say today, but they've got to have special rooms where there's no whatever. I'm going holy mackerel. Welcome to the real world, you know? And there's other Millennials who are as tough as nails. I mean, this is the biggest opportunity they've ever had.

Huge.

So it just depends upon what's between this year and this year, what's in your heart. Yeah.

For the, what do you think is the, the num, the next step, the first step or the number one step for the average person with, you know, the kind of the normal job that they might be losing, they have some debt, they got some credit card. What's the next step for them to not only survive but thrive in this market in this time?

Well, I always say quit your job, but that's not, you know, I don't have a job. I've only had one job and I never wanted a job after that because I had to be hungry. That's not to say, you know, but we're all different. We're humans, we're a different being. If I show you this diagram here, you know, this It's why I created my cash flow board game. Because we have four different intelligences. We have mental intelligence, we have, I don't know what that one is, spiritual intelligence. You probably have very good physical to make, you know, football and all that.

Yeah.

Emotional intelligence, but spiritual intelligence. So I went to military school in New York. The first thing is spiritual. You know, I become a marine, it's spiritual.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Because you're putting your life on the frickin line. Yeah. So Nazim Taleb, you know, he wrote the book, the Black Swan. He also wrote Antifragile. He says there's three kinds of people in the world. There's fragile, and that's what our school systems are putting out, fragile. And that's your choice. You wanna be that way? Have a good life. The second type is that, so a fragile is like a champagne flute. You hit it, it shatters. Then the second one is called robust. And a robust person is like the rock. You can pound on them, dump on them. They take it, but that's all they do. They take it. And that anti-fragile is somebody like you where they pound the crap out of you and you get smarter and better because of it. So I love Nassim Taleb. A lot of people call him Dr. Doom. But the way I look at this whole thing, this economy is great public going into a depression. We're not going to get out of this.

Really?

Oh yeah. And so the thing is, is this good for you or bad for you? I'm looking forward to it. The last crash was 2008, and I made more money in 2008 than in my whole life. So this one here, 2020, I'm going to get even richer. But other people are going to get poor. And if they're baby boomers, they're going to blame it on this coronavirus. Oh, my health, you know, that, hey, hit the road, put on some running shoes, change your diet, get some sunlight, you know, get healthy. Don't get, don't be a wimp. But, oh, no, I'm so afraid of dying. I'm going, you,'re already dead. You don't even know it yet. You know, the Marine Corps, you know, in the Marine Corps, we used to.

Call them corpse people.

Right.

Corpse, not core, yeah.

A corpse man, no, a corpse man is a person who's dead but doesn't know it. Wow. They're so afraid of dying, they're already dead.

Yeah, it's about taking action, taking control of your life, taking control of your health, your finances, everything.

This is the best time to be alive right now.

I did an interview with Dave Ramsey last week and he said, you know, the last three or four recessions or down economies, whatever you want to call it, crashes, He said, I made more money during those times than I do in good times. So, I'm hearing him say that. I'm hearing you say that. How did you make more money then and how are you planning to turn this into an opportunity to make more money now for you? What are the things, the actual action steps? Is it investing more in the stock market? Is it real estate? Is it buying other assets? What does that look like for you?

Dave Ramsey says live debt free. When the market crashed in 2008, guess how much money I borrowed.

A lot.

300 million.

No way.

From investors, the bank, or how does that work? Because interest rates were dropping and real.

Estate prices were going to the toilet. And when I walk into my banker, this is what Rich Dad Poor Dad about. Rich Dad Poor Dad is about a financial statement. Income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flow. It's a book on accounting. People don't even know it's a book on accounting. So I walked into my bank with my partner and had all this property that was floating to the surface. and I say, I'll take them off your hands. I just give me the money to buy the property. Wow. That's cajones.

300 million.

Give me the money and I'll buy your properties for you.

That's crazy.

So it depends. And this is my whole thing. I am now 700 million, almost a billion in debt.

Pretty.

You know why? Because I don't pay any taxes. The more debt I have, the less tax I pay. And the average guy goes, how do you do that? 'Cause you had bad teachers. And so it's this whole thing that you got to choose your teachers wisely. That's why I wrote the book, Fake, Fake Money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets. I don't touch that garbage that Wall Street puts out. I don't have a 401k. I don't have stocks, mutual funds, ETFs. Doesn't mean you shouldn't, but I don't need them. Okay? Right. And the other part is, look for young guys. The best teachers are not in colleges. The best teacher are on YouTube. The best teachers are on YouTube. Wake up. You know, those guys, George Gamow, he's fantastic. Patrick Bet-David, fantastic. He's great. Records. The fake teachers are in colleges.

They're telling them to get a job.

Right. The corporate ladder. You know, Patrick Bet-David said it the best. And I love that guy. He says there's two kinds of leaders, wartime and peacetime. And a peacetime leader is a guy like my poor dad. He goes through all the right schools, he has all the pedigrees and credentials, he does all the right things, he climbs the corporate or the government ladder and all that. A wartime leader goes to war. So, Jobs, Steve Jobs, a wartime leader. I'm a wartime leader. Difference is, I went to war. I went to war twice on the front lines. And I changed, what happened? So I joined the Marine Corps, I got a flight pilot in Pensacola, I learned to fly, I went to Camp Pendleton, I strap on my weapons, I go to advanced weapons in Camp Pendleton, I go to Okinawa, and then they send me into Vietnam. And I came out of Vietnam about four months later, back to re-staging in Okinawa, and I thought everybody had changed. I looked at the fellow Marines and I thought they were pussies. And it wasn't that they were pussies, I had been to war.

You got tougher. You got tougher.

It's different when somebody's trying to kill you. Every single mission, I went down three times.

No way. Yeah.

And I came back stronger and tougher. So I come back to Okinawa, I got like a week off, and they're gonna ship me back into Vietnam again. I said, what happened to these guys? And it wasn't that they changed, I changed. So what happens to entrepreneurs who go out and they get their hands to them and they survive? if you survive, you see the world differently. And so that's what happened to you when you get injured and all this.

Yeah.

You see a different world. Whereas who's climbing the corporate ladder right now, they just lost their job. They're sucking their thumb. You know, this is the worst time for them.

Yet for a wartime leader, this, they're excited.

They're excited about it. Yeah. It's the best of times.

Yeah.

If you're an entrepreneur right now, the world's open to you. If you're an employee, your world's dead to you.

What advice? Yeah.

An entrepreneur can create their own success. Yeah. See, watch Patrick Beck David, you know?

He's great.

Later, peace time later. Which one are you? So this is the best of times for the wartime guys. Horrible time for peace time.

Right.

And for the people that are the wartime people, what is the best advice you would give them now for the next year or two years to capitalize on how do they make more money, how do they make their millions during this time? What would you say?

You can't make money now. You should hang it up. I tell all you frickin' millennials, man. I don't know where it is. I got this iPhone. If you can't make money with that, hang it up. Like we used to say, hang up the jockstrap. You're not gonna make the team. You can't make money with an iPhone through social media, through marketing. You have the world at your fingertips and you can't make money? the problem is between this year and this year, it's not out here, it's in here. That's why you've got to choose your teachers wisely.

Yeah.

So let me just say it again, the best teachers are on YouTube. So is the best porno. Make up your mind what you want to listen to. So I'm just being real to you.

I hear you, man. I hear you. What's the best investment people can make then to capitalize on this opportunity is the investment in Education.

Left ear, look, if you're poor right now, it was called look in the mirror. That's what I always said to me. If you're looking in the mirror right now and you see a loser, that's what you are. Can't make money in this economy. You've got to change your thinking. Hindsight is 2020, as I said.

Yes, yes.

If you're looking, you know, you don't have any money, you don't have a job, your boyfriend or girlfriend has left you. And then they go, well, how did I get here? How did I get here? There was a great book called, you know, Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn. So he gets thrown in this concentration camp or a gulag in Siberia. And he says, how did I get here? You know how you got there? because he was a peacetime leader, didn't fight back. So people are being sold the bill, go to school, get a job, pay taxes, save money, get out of debt, buy a house, the house is an asset, and invest for the long term in a well-defined portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs. And I do none of that.

And why do you recommend the opposite?

Because I don't have to do that crap. That's Kool-Aid. Go to school. Go to school. What do they teach you about money? Nothing. Get a job, you pay the highest taxes. Pay your taxes. I don't pay taxes. Get out of debt. Well, debt money is debt after 1971, if you know your history of money. Your house is not an asset. Your house is a liability. And why would it invest for long term in the stock market when I can make my own assets? I don't need the stock market. I'm not saying you shouldn't. But I create my own assets. I create my own cash flow.

Every day I can- you- mean through your business, through your creativity.

I'm an entrepreneur. Most people are employees. They're looking for jobs. I'm just looking for...

So like right now- Should entrepreneurs invest in the stock market? Do you think if you're an entrepreneur.

You shouldn't invest in it? Look, find a stupid teacher who's going to tell you what to do.

I'm asking your opinion. I'm curious as a teacher.

I don't give advice. You know, I wouldn't follow Warren Buffett either. You know why? Because he invests the money. Why would I let him invest my money? I want the fun.

So what's the investment you make the most in?

Look, please hear what I'm saying. Yes. I made a fortune in 2008. 2020, I'm making more money and paying less taxes. It doesn't mean I don't have problems. But I'm prepared for this. My biggest problem right now is because everybody's taking a vacation, I can't get enough product. I'm selling out, you know, my cash flow game is sold out. It's selling out constantly. All over the world. All over the world, I get royalties from my book sales. My book sales are going through the roof right now. You know, I was going to become a captain in the Marine Corps, but I had some disciplinary problems. And those were the best things that ever happened to me. I have disciplinary problems, but I'm very disciplined. And the people who are sick or poor right now, they lack discipline. There's two kinds of discipline. There's internal or self-discipline, and then there's external discipline. So right now, if the world's kicking your butt, that's external discipline. And if you're self-disciplined, the world's kissing.

Your butt right now.

It's up to you. So that's why I love the Marine Corps. That's why I love going to military school and not a university. 'cause I got my ass kicked every single frickin day. First word I had to learn at the academy, mission. Mission is spiritual. What's your mission? And my mission has always been to serve people. Most people, all they give a is making money. That's screwing people. That's called the Federal Reserve Bank, Wall Street and all that. I want nothing to do with them. I just don't play their game. But you have to get smarter enough to play their game. So that's why YouTube has the best teachers. This guy George Gammon, man, he's a great teacher. Patrick McDavid, fantastic teacher. Cardone, fantastic teachers. So choose your teachers wisely. That's what I say, because I had to choose between my rich dad and my poor dad. My poor dad, PhD, poor, helpless and desperate. And that's what he wanted me to do when I came back from Vietnam was get my master's degree, get my PhD, and fly for the airlines. If I had done that, my friends who flew for United, they're broke. You know why they're broke? Because Wall Street stole our pensions. It's called an ESOP, Employee Stock Option Plan. The biggest crisis coming up right now after this pandemic is pensions are gonna crash.

That's right, you got it now.

Thanks, why?

Why are they gonna crash?

Because they're empty. Wall Street looted them. My God, wake up. Wake up. You know, there's a better book than that. It's called the Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin. It's a big book, get it on audiobook and listen to it, you know, a couple of 10 minutes a night or something. The Federal Reserve has only one purpose, is to keep the rich rich. That's their only job. So every time the market crashes, as you notice, money pumps in, they pump the market, they pump the prices up, The rich exit and the poor middle class who listen to Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman, and their advice is good for the middle class. Don't get me wrong. They're told to invest for the long term. Okay, so what's happening to the poor middle class with their 401k and IRA right now are set. That's like saying, okay, put the handcuffs on the Titanic. It's going down. Meanwhile, the rich have got their GE5 flying in to pick them up and get off the boat. They're out.

Right.

Because the problem isn't in the stock market, the problems in the repo market, corporate credit market, the commercial paper market. They don't tell you that. They don't teach you that in school. So suddenly, voila, in September, the shadow banking, which is corporate credit and the commercial paper and the commercial, I mean, corporate credit and commercial paper market started to go bad in September. Suddenly, pandemic.

Oh.

That was interesting. Funny how that appeared, you know? So I'm not saying the pandemic isn't real. I'm saying the real crisis, it's a smokescreen for the real crisis going on right now. They're stealing your wealth through your pensions, your 401k, your IRA, through Social Security, through your taxes, through Medicare. That's why we have socialism kicking in right now. We have Bernie Sanders and AOC, Elizabeth Warren, hardcore socialists. But if you can see, if you really have a financial education, we're going from capitalists, which I am, and nothing wrong with the socialist. There are some people, 20% of the people need to be given money because they're that unable, whatever the reason, they're not able to. So we should give some people money, but not everybody. So we're going from capitalism to Bernie Sanders socialism and Hillary and all those guys. And then we're actually going to communism. And you can see it right now because Boeing is asking for a bailout and all these guys asking for bailouts. But this time, the Fed's gonna take percentage ownership. Really? Yes, that's communism, central control of the economy. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it's coming. But that's what they should teach us in school. And our school teachers, most of them are socialists, most are, some of them are communists. They want the government to tell us what to do. They're really fascist. You know, they're really fascist. A fascist wants to tell you what to do. So you look at this, look at this stuff, what's it called? Social distancing? You know, that's you taking away the First Amendment, the right to assemble. PC, political correctness is freedom of speech. That's what's going on. And then they're printing money under all this scheme. So if you study real world, he's seen us. We've lost our freedom of speech. That's what Stalin took away. And social distancing is the right to assembly, which is why there was a revolutionary war back in 1776. You know, the.

The.

The Americans were. Had to go hide in a church because the British would kill them if they were caught on assembly. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but, you know, most people are taught this.

Yeah.

That's why I love going to military school versus university.

They teach you a lot of history probably.

We're taught military history. You know, history is bullshit, you know, through the victor goes history. You know, so the person that writes his wins a war, writes history to justify their position today. Oh, that's called his story. you know, as a loser doesn't get to tell their story. So anyway, that's where we're at. And, yeah, I just leave it to your generation. You guys are in the best position ever because you're still young, you're tech savvy, which. And the baby boomers aren't. So they're all. A lot of them are feeble and they're gone.

Yeah.

So you guys have the world ahead of you.

And use this time to be creative and take action and be bold. And I think I saw something about in 2008 to 2010, some of the greatest companies or the biggest companies of today were started then, Airbnb, Uber, you know, all these other companies.

Bitcoin.

Bitcoin.

2009.

Wow.

See, I love Bitcoin.

What's your thoughts on cryptocurrency? Why do you love Bitcoin?

Listen, Bitcoin is open source. The Fed can't touch it.

You don't like the Fed?

A creature from Jekyll Island, the Fed. The Fed is not a bank, it's a cartel, by the richest guys on earth. If you guys just wake up, you know. So anyway, the Fed is a cartel, so when I saw Bitcoin come out, It's open source. It's people's money. Gold and silver are God's money. So my whole objective is I go through my system of business, but I'm buying gold and silver. I store it in other countries legally, because you can't just move that stuff. You have to move it legally and declare it. I move my money illegally. I'm going to get out of this country. So I keep my wealth outside this country. Not because of my government, it's because there's so many people, you're going to see lawsuits are going to go up because people are desperate. They don't have any money. So when the economy gets bad, that's why they've been, you know, have you been in an accident? Have you been hurt? Let me, I'll come out sue them for you. So if you don't have the right corporate entity, like LLCs, C corporations, S corporations, offshore accounts, money is going to be stolen. It's the real game. It's not this Dave Ramsey stuff, man. It's not the Suzie Orman stuff. Not that they're bad, I mean, they're friends of mine. I just wouldn't follow their advice. Choose your teachers. Your pensions, you watched in a few years, oh, he did tell us our pensions are gone. You know what's going to happen? They're going to bail them out again. Because if you read this book here, the creature, it says, bailout is the name of the game. Back in the 80s, there was a guy named Neil Bush. Let's see, the Bush family. George, George, Silverado Savings. When Neil Bush got in trouble, George and George bailed them out.

Yeah.

I mean, you say there's two different types of pensions. What's the difference between a normal pension that someone would get and a defined benefit plan pension? Why should people be aware of these things?

Well, defined benefit is industrial age. That was my poor dads. So what happened is I got a job with Ford Motor Company and I got defined benefit, which meant defined benefit means you got a paycheck for life. But they promised you $1,000 a month to get that for the rest of your life guaranteed. Well, the problem was, as you know, right around the '70s, that's when China and Japan and all my Japan and Germany came on. So they had to get rid of pensions because pensions are a drag on the business. So they came up with a thing called ARISA, which today is known as a 401. So a 401 type is a defined contribution. So you have defined benefit, which is industrial age, defined corporation as the 401 contribution. So defined contribution means you only get what you put in. If it's not enough there, aloha. That's not our problem today. So I meet all these millennials who go, oh, I have a 401. And I said, do you like bending over and picking up the soap? You know what I mean? They don't know the difference. Yeah. Because you know what a 401K means? Fees, fees, fees, fees, mutual funds, fees, fees, fees, fees. Your money is stolen right out of your pension. Defined benefit, defined contribution. So defined contribution 401K, is information age pension. It came about in 1974 just as the baby boomers entered the workforce. So today the average baby boomer's 401k has $65,000 in it. The guy with a defined benefit, they have something like a million in it. Wow. The trouble is they're empty. That's what who's told my pensions about my co-authors named Ted Sidel. He was an SEC attorney and he became a whistleblower because he saw how much Wall Street was sucking the cash. Wow. Pensions. So that's who must all my pension. So he then he made, I think, 39 million last year blowing the whistle on all these Wall Street firms. Roll them in sacks and those guys.

What can people be doing when they have this 401k or this pension already that's going to do nothing for them? What should they be doing?

Well, what they should be doing is choosing their teachers wisely. Because I can tell, you know, I don't need money. Like, I write a book, right? And I get royalties from 50 different book companies throughout the world. So let's say I write a book, I make They paid me $10,000 in the right to publish my book. I have zero expenses, but I collect royalties for the rest of my life. I'm still collecting huge royalties off of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So I created my own assets. I don't need an ETF. I created a cash flow board game, which unfortunately sold out right now. But every time somebody buys one, I get a royalty. Whether I work or not. And then I borrow money, I buy real estate, and then I use the accounting laws, appreciation, depreciation, amortization, and pay no taxes. Trump doesn't pay taxes either.

That's why he wants to show his financials. Wow. So you don't pay any taxes right now. Is it because of debt?

Is that the main reason or? Because taxes are incentives. Taxes are, the government wants you to do certain things. For example, if I donated, when I donate money to, let's say, PBS public broadcasting, I got a tax break. Donate money to the church, I got a tax break. That's what taxes are. So they tell you, if you do this, we'll give you a tax break. So if I have 500 employees, I get a tax break. If I have real estate because I'm providing housing, I get a tax break. So I use debt to buy real estate and the more real estate I buy, the less tax I pay. Wow. So that's why Dave Ramsey, his advice is good for that person, but I need debt to buy the real estate so I don't have to pay any taxes. Real estate's going down right now, but that's why I have LLCs and C corporations because then they can't get me. because I'm protected by a corporate entity. And besides, if you read this book here.

The creature, you gotta get the creature.

They're gonna bail me out. So they already bailed me out. They just said, how many employees do we have? So we calculated it up. So they're gonna give me eight weeks of pay to pay my employees. Really? Wow. Free money.

So they'll bail you out. Wow.

I love this country.

You say, don't be a, oh, go ahead.

But you can't do that as an employee. go to school, get a job. Your mindset is different than an employee. That's rich dad and poor dad. Yeah. Or dad, employee, rich dad, entrepreneur. That was the choice I had to make.

What if someone's not, like you said, someone's not entrepreneurial minded or they're, they don't have those skills? Can someone become an entrepreneur or is.

It something you're born with? You shouldn't ask that, you know, all kinds of entrepreneurs, if you know what I mean. Yeah, of course. There's drug dealers or entrepreneurs, hookers or entrepreneurs. There's a young girl who works our neighborhood. She's a babysitter. She's an entrepreneur. So everybody can be an entrepreneur, hopefully be a legal one. Yeah. The trouble is it's hard to make enough money if you're not a good entrepreneur.

So anyway, it's just up here. Find the teachers. Find the right teachers. You say don't be a saver, be an investor. Should people be investing even during these times, if they're not comfortable doing that, or this is the greatest time to invest is what I'm hearing you say, because the opportunity.

Why would you save?

Fear?

No, but that worked before 1971. They printed 4.5 trillion after 2008. They estimate they're going to print another six to eight trillion, maybe 10 trillion after 2020. at the same time, they're going to pay zero interest rate policy. So you're saving money while the feds printing money and they're gonna pay you no interest on it. Why would you save it? So that's all I say. And so that's why when Susie talks about saving and Dave talks about saving, I wouldn't do that. But for the average person, they should do that. So that's why choose your teachers wisely.

Right.

You just have to know money, that's all.

Yeah.

And what's your prediction with real estate over the next few years? You think it's going to keep going down now or do you think it's like in LA, I feel like it hasn't gone down at all. It's like the place is continues to grow, but eventually it's got to, right?

I wouldn't invest in LA for one reason, taxes. You know, I just wouldn't, that's your choice. You know, people say it's a nice place to live, and it is, but I don't like paying taxes. I don't move there. Plus, you have what's called, they try to pull it, I forget the name of it, but you can't raise the rents on people.

I don't like rank controls.

Great place to live, great lifestyle. But we're going to have the biggest crash. We're going to a depression right now. We're going right past recession into a depression. Really? Yeah.

Wow.

You can't have every business closing and the stock market is going up. But like I said, the real problems in the repo, the shadow banking market, that's what they're trying to save because it's broke. They're going bankrupt in there. So the dollar is going to be strong because everybody 80% of the debt is measured in US dollars. So everybody needs dollars to pay off their debt. Okay. But in the meantime, the guys for a week, their houses are going to come up for sale, their Lamborghini, their, you know, their real estate. I wouldn't touch, I wouldn't touch commercial real estate. I mean, office buildings. Office buildings, you know, no one, no.

One can go work anymore. Are there people working from home for a while or. Yeah, whatever.

Now. Now, I go to South Africa a lot. In South Africa, the office buildings became low income housing. Whoa. That's the future. You know all those homeless people? Century City, here they come.

I know, I gotta get out of here now.

I'm gonna, you know, I just think differently, that's all.

Yeah.

That was the jobs thing. Think differently.

Yeah. I got a few final questions for you. I really appreciate you sharing and giving us this tough love, which which I think a lot of people need right now.

I am not politically correct.

It's all good. We all need different teachers and I appreciate your perspective. This is a question I ask everyone towards the end of our conversations. I call it the three truths. It's a hypothetical question, but I'd like for you to imagine for a moment that many years from now, it's your last day on this earth. And you've accomplished everything. You've accomplished all the things you want in your personal life, your dreams, It's all happened. But for whatever reason, hypothetically, you got to take all of your work with you, your books, your content, your board games, all the teachings you've ever given to the world, it goes with you. And you got to leave only three lessons behind for the rest of us to learn from. What would you say would be your three lessons or what I like to call three truths?

Well, I think the most important lessons probably, I think I said this way, My rich guy said all the time, my rich guy always said, you know, knowledge is finite, stupidity is infinite. So stay stupid.

That's a great truth.

Because that's how you get knowledge. He used to always say that to me because my dad always hid behind his diploma, PhD. He didn't know anything. most school teachers don't know much. You know, when people ask me about the Fed, what is the Fed? I said, have you ever watched the Wizard of Oz? And they go, yeah? Well, you know how Dorothy and the Tin Man and the Lion and the Straw Man, they went down the Yellow Brick Road? They were hoping to find the Wizard. And the Wizard was going to give the Lion a heart, or, you know, Dorothy, whatever she wanted and all this stuff. And when they get to the Wizard, or the fed, it was a midget behind of it. There was nothing behind of it. That's the fed. That's the PhD. They're hiding behind this thing called diploma. That's obsolete. And so that's the second lesson. You know, be careful who your teachers are. Make sure your teacher actually practices what they teach. So my tax guy is Tom Wheelwright. His book is Tax-Free Wealth. You really wanna stop paying taxes, get that book. It's 20 bucks. You'll probably save a couple of million dollars over your lifetime. But if you don't change, you know, this left ear and right ear, that gap between there, you're screwed. And then you have my other friend, mother advisor, Andy Tanner. He wrote the book, Stock Market Cash Flow. Instead of investing for the long term, he makes money in the markets going up or down. I'd rather do that than buy, pray and hold and listen to Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey. But it's your choice. Other guys, Kenny McElroy, he writes all my real estate books. He's my real estate partner. We've made fortunes together. You know, this is just fortunes, tax free. Why would you go to school? Just buy some books, study them, get their YouTube.

Make some mistakes on your own, right?

Oh, you don't have to just get stupid. But, you know, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit. Meek means egoless. I'm gonna learn. So I watch YouTube. So I know what goes on in the stock market. That's why I stay out of it. But if you don't know, might be the best place for you. So if you want to end the stock market, that's Andy Tanner, stock market cash flow and 401 chaos. They tell you what's really going on because they're real. They're in the market every day. You know Jim Rogers wrote the Investment Biker and all that. He lives in Singapore. He basically says the problem with the Fed is they don't know what they're talking about. They're idiots. And we listen to them. They're the wizard of Oz. Everybody thinks they know something because they got this piece of paper, like my poor dad called a PhD. Rich dad, poor dad, had a financial statement. You cannot lie in your financial statement because that's fraud. PhDs, diploma, rich people, financial statements. The other thing is this, I don't have a financial planner. I have a family office. the rich have family offices, so we have money to lend constantly. We make so much money. So there's a difference in the mindset, the intelligence of what you learn. So I think the most important thing that you're teaching people in the School of Greatness is basically choose your teachers. What path you want to go down. You know, when your football career ended, it was the best thing that happened to you. Yeah.

Started finding mentors.

Yeah, and that's what you're doing. And so you're a great role model for your generation.

Oh, thank you.

In my generation, they're still baby boomers. What's that? Hello, boomer. What did they say? Hey, boomer. We're idiots. Geez, they still think most boomers are still counting on Social Security and the stock market.

I hear you. I don't know if you said the third one. You said knowledge is finite. stupidity is infinite. So stay stupid, number one, which I love that because I've always felt like I'm the dumbest person in the Texas on my hands. What's that?

Be humble and make mistakes. I learned.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Be careful who your teachers are. And the third one was, don't hide behind a diploma.

You know, if somebody says to you, show me your financials. So, like, that's the story of a family office versus. Everybody has a home office that's different than a family office. So a family office is like a hedge fund. But rich guys have their own hedge funds or their own private equity firms is what it is. So that's where you want to get to. So when you're there, the difference is people ask me for money like on Shark Tank. The first thing I ask them for is not the diploma. Show me your financials. If they don't have financials, I won't invest with them. 'Cause they don't know what they're talking about.

Just 'cause you have a cool degree or fancy paper doesn't mean you can get results.

Oh, God. You see, you can lie from behind a diploma. That's what the Fed's doing.

Yeah.

Trump has financials. So that's all Rich Dad Poor Dad is about, it's about financial statements. and the cash flow game is you physically, again, like I said, it's physically, yeah, it's foreign intelligence, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual. The game makes you fill out your financials on these four intelligences.

Yeah.

Because you have to move the things, you have to fill out the numbers and all this stuff. So it's Max. It's Max learning. Unfortunately, again, it's all that. But anyway, that's how I designed 26 years ago. 20.

I don't know how I know.

Yeah.

They can go, they can go order it and it'll be out hopefully in the next couple of months. They can get it on a wait list.

I don't know, everybody's on vacation.

You have, you've impacted millions of people's lives around the world. I remember actually playing the game with my mom 20, 22 years ago, I don't know, I was a kid, a teenager, and I remember, you know, learning these principles and even though I didn't fully understand it and even though it seemed like, too much for me to understand as a teenager and overwhelming. It planted a seed and so did the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which I learned about at an early age. So I want to acknowledge you for giving, being a teacher in a world of teachers, educate people on a specific way, not the only way, but a way that has worked for you and worked for millions of people around the world for constantly creating value, board games, being creative with your content to educate us in this way. And I'm really just grateful that you continue to show up and serve and be yourself because you are a unique human being and I appreciate you Robert for your own style and approach.

Thank you. But you know why you and I are great teachers?

Why is that?

We didn't do well in school. Yeah.

We have to be curious and learn.

Well, we just like that television. It worked for my poor dad, didn't work for my rich dad. And you see, that's what I mean, choose your teachers wisely. And there's millions of ways you can become rich, but you got to find your way, your teacher, your path.

And you've got this book out now, who Stole My Pension? Make sure to check this out to really educate yourself on what's happening with pensions, 401ks and what you can do with your money moving forward. This is great. that's going to help a lot of people who are going to be trapped if they're not educated on this.

The biggest reason is if you're young is your age. You know, most you guys will have your parents and siblings moving in with you.

And we'll have to pay for them. My mom is 68-69. I'm already having to figure out, okay, how do I support her?

And if she loses her 401k, you're toast.

Yeah.

She's making a few thousand, I think, from her retirement and pension or a couple different things she has from the company she worked for.

In that book, the pilots like me, my pilot friends were making 400k a year. They got nothing.

Wow.

And then the other guy's a UPS driver, a Teamster. He was making 5,000 a month, now making 900 of them. UPS.

Yeah.

Those are major firms. So you read who stole my pension and it gives you a glimpse more into what's coming. Just the next crisis coming up is a baby boomer crisis. Just like the pandemic is a baby boomer crisis. They're picking on the old guys again.

Make sure you guys get this book, also 25th anniversary of Rich Dad, Poor Dad coming up next year. Go get that book. If you have already read it in the past, read it again because we constantly need to be reminded and educated. and we see. What's that?

Repetition is how we learn.

That's it.

We.

We constantly got to learn. Even if we've learned it in the past, you might have forgotten it. You got to relearn and reapply what you learn.

Yeah.

So get that book. We try to stock ourselves and give them away to people.

How many times I've gone through this book.

So you're saying you didn't master it after the first time?

No, I'm a slow learner.

Yeah.

You know, a poor reader and a poor writer. But that's why we're good teachers.

I love it. I've got one final question for you and people can follow you online. They can get the book. We'll link everything up here. You've got some great stuff on social media, on Instagram. So I'd say go follow Robert on Instagram as well. My final question for you, Robert, is what is your definition of greatness?

Yes.

Are you getting up every day? At my age, you gotta worry about that stuff, you know? I mean, I said my plan was to die at 72. I almost died so many times. I went down three times in Vietnam. And my days were numbered from the start. I've had open heart surgery, I've had cancer, I've had pneumonia, I've had malaria. And so, you know, when everybody talks about this COVID-19, I said, been there, done that one, you know, but each one of it inspired me to get healthier. And so this crisis should inspire people to get wealthier or you can be a loser. So I don't know where I'm going with that, but it's just all, everything bad is good and everything good will be bad. Or that's what Nauseam Talib says, you're either fragile, robust or anti-fragile and the people following you are anti-fragile whether they would have been following you.

Yeah, that's it. Robert, thank you so much for your wisdom, for sharing today. I can't wait to learn more as one of my teachers want to continue to learn from you. So thanks for everything, man.

Thanks to all you guys who are.

Following you as a teacher. I appreciate it. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this special interview with Robert Kiyosaki. He's definitely got his own opinions. He's got his own perspective and the way he's done things. to generate wealth during up economies, down economies. We have some other great resources on this as well. Feel free to subscribe to the School of Greatness podcast if this is your first time here. We have other great inspirational leaders, Tony Robbins, Dave Ramsey, and others who have built wealth in other ways. Make sure to check those episodes out as well. Just scroll down on the School of Greatness app over on Apple or Spotify to see the other insights on how to make money, how to build your side hustle, and how to build wealth during this time. If you enjoyed this, please share with a friend. Text a friend lewishouse.com/943 or just copy and paste the link on the podcast app that you're listening to right now and send it to a few friends, a WhatsApp group chat over on Instagram stories. And make sure to tag me and Robert Kiyosaki so we can stay up to date that you're listening and paying attention. I'm so grateful that you took the time today to really educate yourself, to learn, to develop something new, and to try it on. And the best thing you can do right now is start taking action. Keep learning, keep educating. Go share this with someone else. Teach someone else this so that you can learn it even more. And take action and apply something you learned today into your life, into your finances, use this to your advantage. I want you to use me and this information as much as possible. Abuse it. Take advantage of it. Go out there and take action and improve your life. That's our mission at the School of Greatness and I can't wait to see what type of results you create. I love this quote by Steve Jobs. If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you're about to do today? Ask yourself that question. ask yourself, what are the things that you don't like about your life, things that you want to improve about your life, and go out there and start making small daily improvements. I want to remind you that you matter. You're an incredible human being born to do great things in the world. You were born for greatness. It's inside of you. You may not feel great. You're not. May not feel good. You may not even feel average right now, but that's okay. You can change it by doing little. real actions every day to build your belief and build yourself into the great things you want to do and be. I believe in you, I love you and you know what time it is, it's time to go out there and do something great.