Robert Kiyosaki has built an empire on his "Rich Dad Poor Dad" books. He wrote another one called "The Cashflow Quadrant" and for the most part they are quite simplistic and obvious. But he did help Pete and I with two important concepts.
The first one was to help poor chemist linear-thinking Pete to understand his crazy entrepreneurial minded wife. He understood for the first time that he was raised by *poor dad* and I was raised by *rich dad* even though our families had roughly the same amount of money when we were growing up. He has made enormous strides in understanding with his head even when his emotions didn't agree. There were many times that I would work long hours and we were making very little, and at one point no money, and it was hard for him to see the vision I had. But he let his head rule and trusted me. I am so grateful to him for that. And proud of him too.
The second concept that we both really understood and a light went on for me years and years ago, was the idea that there is a difference between owning a job and owning a business. He says that a business owner can leave for a year and come back to a business that is better than you left it. I kind of disagree with him. I think you can run your business and still be a business owner not a job owner. But I had never really thought about that difference before and it was an epiphany for me and changed how we planned and thought about our company.
We really began our business with all of this in mind, setting it up so that we owned a business from the beginning. We made the final transition from owning a job to owning a business about 4 years ago for ourselves and I am nowhere near ready to retire! This is too much FUN!
One thing that his book really helped us with is in setting up the systems for our independent contractors and territory owners. We wanted to give them the opportunity to be business owners if that is what they wanted. We have people that want to own a job and that is completely fine with us. They work as a couple and go out and do testing and get accounts and love being together and enjoy what they are doing. But we have also set it up so that if they want to have several employees and manage multiple areas that is available too.
There are always ups and downs in any business, and ours is no exception, but it is an awful lot of fun and very exciting to see people succeeding in a business I invented completely from scratch. I love being a business owner.
Most days. :D
She forgot to mention that almost 3 years ago, I became to sick to "own a job" and so had to shift my thinking into that of a "Rich Dad" mind set to survive. The toggle is huge and I am not all the way there yet... But I am working hard at it!
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