As I’m writing this there is a special on Georgia Public Television featuring Robert K. Robert K is an investor who has made it his life mission to educate as many as he can in the importance of financial literacy. He’s written a series of books on this subject that go by the name of Rich Dad Poor Dad. There’s the original Rich Dad Poor Dad book plus dozens of others such as Rich Dad’s guide to investing, Rich Dad’s Prophecy and so forth. The ongoing theme in the books is that Robert K had two dads, one who told him to get a good education so he could get a good job working for a company and his Rich Dad who told him to get a good financial education so he could build companies.
I read his original book back towards the end of 2004. At the time I was working at the corporate headquarters of The Home Depot doing technical support for all the employees in the stores. After reading the book I had one those Eureka moments, or an awakening. I started planning a different path for my life.
The first thing on my new agenda was to sell my beautiful sports car that I had purchased less than a year earlier. I purchased the car mostly on credit and I was paying for it month by month so I didn’t actually own the car, the bank owned it. I wanted to sell the car because I knew it was a huge liability to me, a term that had been introduced to me in the book. The car was burning a hole in my pocket. Not just because of the monthly payments but also all the costs associated with maintaining a sports car. For example when I had to replace one tire that had a nail in it, it was about $220 to replace just a single tire. I knew that I wanted to be free from this financial liability as soon as possible.
The second thing I put on my to do list was to get a roommate. I was paying a lot of money to live where I was living and I wanted to put someone in an extra room I had so that I could get some easy extra income coming in, or passive income, another term I learned from the book. Lastly I knew I wanted to make plans to start working for myself. This is not to say that my goal was to work for myself. If that was the case my goal would be met already.
My goal is to produce passive income that generates money independently from me. Working for myself was just the first step in that direction. I knew that I could not accomplish that goal working at Home Depot or any other corporation because I would not have enough time; time to educate myself and time to implement what was necessary to accomplish that goal.
If you want to read a good book on entrepreneurship Rich Dad Poor Dad has had such a great influence in my life. His writing style makes the book equally beneficial to both financial gurus as well as the novice who knows little about money. Before reading it I didn’t know about things such as passive income, assets, liabilities and I didn’t fully realize the difference between employees, self employed persons, business owners and investors. I didn’t fully realize how important it is to be financially educated. I’m still not as financially educated as I should be but I’m slowly chipping away at the areas of this subject matter that are foggy to me.
After reading the book my mission suddenly became clear to me. It brought to the surface feelings that had been lying dormant just beneath the surface. As I said, I highly recommend Rich Dad Poor Dad. It’s entertaining even for the non entrepreneurial type. The book can be purchased online by clicking here.
