Top 10 Success Principles to Learn from Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Toru Kiyosaki is the best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and he has revolutionized the financial industry through his work in sharing his thoughts on financial education. His book, Rich Dad Poor Dad advocates the importance of financial literacy and has gone on to sell millions of copies in more than 51 languages across the world. It has been listed on the New York Times bestsellers list for over six years.

Besides that, Kiyosaki went on to publish other related books in the same series including Retire Young, Retire Rich, You Can Choose to Be Rich, Unfair Advantage, and have also co-written a few books with Donald Trump. He is well known for his financial concepts and also the creator of Cashflow board and software game.

When it comes to achieving financial freedom and making more money to become rich in life, Robert Kiyosaki is the person you should learn from.

In this article, you will discover the top 10 success principles from Kiyosaki himself.

1. Set Out to Gain Experience

Kiyosaki started his career without having much money, just like everyone else. And he believed that it was his experience that brought him where he is today. He once told in his one of his classes that he bought his first investment property in Hawaii. It was a small $18,000 condominium and he paid the deposit of $2,000 using his credit card. He did agree that it was not a wise move, but that experience was what made him a great real estate investor today.

Thus, set out to gain more experience. While it is true that you can learn and gain new knowledge through reading books, attending seminars and learning from other people, you cannot gain new experience simply through reading. Kiyosaki also gave a good example of cycling. He said that one cannot learn how to ride a bicycle by reading a book. The only way you can acquire that skill is to hop on the bicycle and learn to ride it.

The same goes for swimming. You cannot learn how to swim by watching a video lesson from YouTube. You need to do it yourself and experience the process yourself to learn the skill. And Kiyosaki believed that it is the same in building a successful business, earning money, investments and becoming financially educated. You need to do it, experience the process, only then you are able to learn it.

Tony Robbins, the famous success coach has a great quote, he said, “Success in life is the result of good judgment. Good judgment is usually the result of experience. Experience is usually the result of bad judgment.” Sometimes, you need to take action and to experience it in order to learn something new.

2. The More You Give, The More You Receive

Kiyosaki is a strong believer in the principle where the more you give, the more you will receive. He used his dad in his book as an example. He said his poor dad only wants to have more and does not want to give. His poor dad believes that the more he gives, the more he will lose. And this is why his poor dad does not want to work more, but desires to receive more.

On the contrary, his rich dad believes that the more he works and the more he gives, the more he will receive. In the business world, the more value you create for your customers, the more customers you will have. A lot of people get it wrong by thinking that if they want to receive more, they need to squeeze every penny out of their clients and their business, which is a wrong way.

According to Kiyosaki, your primary aim is to create more value for your customers through your business. You create an excellent product or give exceptional service to your customers so that in return, they will buy more and become your loyal customers. Unfortunately, most people only think about themselves and how they can make the most of their customers. They want to create the cheapest product and wish to get the most from their customers. This will not work out in the long run.

Hence, aim to be a giver. Learn to create more value and how to solve other people’s problems. Kiyosaki said that whether you are rich or you are poor, it all lies in your attitude towards money. He said he made a lot of money, but he also gives a lot of money back to the world. Just like what Anne Frank said, “No one has ever become poor by giving.”

3. Your Thinking Determine Your Success

How you think will ultimately determine how you live, and like all other successful people, Kiyosaki believes that how we think will determine the results we get in our lives too. He told his story on the Oprah Winfrey Show that like all other business people, he was broke before he became successful. When the bill collectors called, instead of letting those events shrink him and lived in fear, he used them as a motivator to work harder and to pay himself first.

Most people believe that adversity will take them down and block them from going further, but Kiyosaki said that he would think differently and used the adversity as his stepping stone to higher success. Therefore, if you are not living the life you want right now, the first thing you need to do is to change the way you think. When your thinking changed, you will make a different decision and act differently. And eventually, your life will change.

Brian Tracy also said that you will become what you think about most of the time. Highly successful people look at their lives and think differently. Instead of looking at things as a problem, they look at them as an opportunity to learn and grow. And this is how you should think too.

Kiyosaki said that your biggest asset is you. And how you think is the most important key to changing your life. This is why he constantly emphasizes that if someone wanted to get rid of the rat race and become rich, he must change his thinking and learn to be financially educated.

4. Focus is Key

In one of his seminars, Kiyosaki shared his view on focus. He said that focus simply means “Follow One Course Until Successful”. And that is exactly what he did when he first started. He also said he joined a real estate investment seminar in 1997 and he followed what he has learned from that seminar until he became a master before he decided to become an entrepreneur.

The problem with most people is that they do not have the focus to stay on the course. Most people set goals, attend seminars and learn how to be successful in whatever they do, be it in business or in investment, but they do not follow through. A lot of people want to lose weight and they set it as a goal to hit the gym, to exercise and to eat healthy food. However, only those who stick to the plan are able to achieve the goals.

It is the same in every area of your life. If you want to get rich and be financially free, you must do what Kiyosaki suggested and stayed focus on your course until you achieve the result you desire.

Stop jumping from one opportunity to the next or changing from one business to another business. If you want to be successful, you must stick to your plan, pour in the effort and give it enough time for the result to come.

When you plant a tree, you need to put in the effort to water it, make sure it has enough sunlight and the soil is suitable. However, the tree will not grow immediately the next day. You must give it enough time to sprout and to grow. What most people will do in this case is that they will give up and move on to grow another tree. And when they face the same situation, they will quit and move on to another tree again.

Never let this happen to you. Stay focused and follow one course until you are successful before you switch to another plan.

5. Hard Times Bring New Opportunities

Kiyosaki admitted that he made more money when the economy is tough. This is because he believed that the window of opportunity will open when things are tough and everyone looks at it as a dire situation.

When things are tough, people will be in a panic mode and wanted to sell everything, including good businesses that are making a lot of money. Kiyosaki said that he bought five golf courses during the economic downturn because people wanted to sell quickly and they are selling it way below the market price. And he bought them. And a couple of years later, when the economy turns good, he receives great offers to buy the golf courses and this is what makes it a great deal.

The famous author of Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill once said, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Highly successful people believe that failures, tough times, adversities, and setbacks are great ways to learn and they contain opportunities to earn and grow higher.

Kiyosaki says that economy is a cycle, it will go up and it will go down. When things are good, the economy will be strong and perform better. When things are tough, the economy will go down and opportunities will be everywhere. And this is why he stresses that financial education is important. You want to learn how to spot the opportunity and make a great deal especially during tough times where the opportunities are everywhere.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Lose

Every successful people fail at least once in their lifetime. Henry Ford went broke five times before he finally became successful in his automobile business. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple was fired from the board of directors and the company he started, but he eventually made it back to Apple and built it into one of the most innovative companies of the decade.

And Robert Kiyosaki said that he has failed many times in his businesses too. He also mentioned that his friend, Donald Trump who has co-authored a few books with him also failed many times and was billion-dollar in debt before he bounced back and became even more successful. So do not be afraid to lose.

Kiyosaki shared that babies learn to walk by standing up, falling, and then stand up, and fall again. It is during the falls that the baby learns the most. And it is the same in life and in business. However, the society and school have conditioned people to believe that failing is bad. When you make a mistake, your teacher will punish you, but you will never punish a baby who falls when she learns to walk, right?

This is the problem with the majority. They are afraid to make mistakes and as a result, they let their fear of failure to stop them from moving forward. So from now on, treat your failure as your feedback to improve yourself and in what you do. Michael Jordan, the basketball superstar is famous for his failure quote, saying, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.”

7. Be Financially Educated

Kiyosaki shared a lot of his ideas and concepts on the subject of personal finance. He is an advocate and believes that if someone wanted to be financially successful, he must first equip himself with the necessary financial education.

One of his principles that can change your financial status is to understand what you are working on. In his books, he categorized jobs and careers into four main categories, and they are the employee, the self-employed, the businessman, and the investor. And you need to understand which category you are in if you want to become rich.

According to Kiyosaki, most of the employed people work for earned income that is being taxed the most. And he said that a large part of the earned income will be gone to pay the taxes before it reaches the employee’s hand. He also mentioned that there are three types of incomes.

And when it comes to hard work, the general masses only understand and will work hard for earned income, which is the first type of income according to Kiyosaki. The second type of income is the portfolio income where the majority of it comes from capital gains. For example, when you invest in the stock market and you profit from it, you earned the portfolio income. And the third type of income is the passive income.

What truly makes people rich is the passive income. Kiyosaki suggests his audience to learn and build passive income rather than working hard in a job to earn an income and then get to pay the most tax. This is why he believes that financial education is important because if you are working hard for the wrong thing, you may end up putting in a lot of effort, but only to receive a small amount of result.

8. Build and Grow Your Assets

One of the most important success lessons everyone should learn from Kiyosaki is to build and grow their assets. Most people have the wrong perception of assets and liabilities. They thought that a house is an asset. When you buy a house and move in there yourself, your house is not producing any passive income for you. Instead, you have to put in money for your house such as buying furniture and renovating it.

According to Kiyosaki, assets are things that will bring you money. Things will be different when you buy a property for investment. When you rent out the property, the tenant will be paying you the rental and the rent is a form of passive income. Another great example is your car. A lot of people thought that owning a car is an asset, which is really not. Your car will never bring in passive income for you, and thus, Kiyosaki considers a car as a liability and not an asset.

Therefore, learn to build and grow your assets. Acquire things that will generate you more money rather than take your money away. A well-designed business always increases the number of its assets. And this is exactly what you must do. Aim to acquire more assets that will generate you passive income.

9. Saving Money is Obsolete

When it comes to becoming financially successful, what most people will do is to save money. Kiyosaki said that this is not a wise move because you simply cannot keep up with the fluctuations in the value of the currency, which will weaken their buying power. The inflation rate will be higher than the interest you receive from saving money in the bank.

Prices for most things will increase due to inflation. Take oil as an example. In 1997, the oil price per barrel was probably around $10, but after a decade, the oil price has increased to over a hundred dollar per barrel. This is the effect of inflation. And this means that your purchasing power will be greatly decreased as the days go by. And when you saved money in the bank, you are actually losing.

What Kiyosaki suggested is hedging money. Instead of saving all your money, you must hedge it against inflation. When you buy real estate, you are hedging against inflation because when the value of money goes down, the prices for construction materials will go up, and as a result, property prices will go up too. Another good suggestion from Kiyosaki is to invest in gold and silver rather than saving all your hard-earned money in the bank.

10. The Rich Don’t Work for Money

Another popular concept from Kiyosaki’s book, Rich Dad Poor Dad is that the rich do not work for money, rather, they use their money to work for them. Robert Kiyosaki often says, “Money works for me”, and not the other way round.

When you ask people why they are doing all the work, they will tell you that they are working for the money. Most people spend most of their time working to earn a living and to pay the bills. The downside of this approach is that you are exchanging your time for money. And in order to make more money, you will have to sell more of your time working harder and longer hours.

On the other hand, rich and successful people do not work for money. Instead, they build businesses and they make investments so that they receive passive income with little or no work. Rather than spending their time working for money, the rich make full use of their money to work for them.

However, do not misunderstand by thinking that rich people do not work. According to Robert Kiyosaki, rich people just work differently than most ordinary people. They work to acquire more assets that provide them passive income. And this is what you must do too if you want to be financially independent.

Therefore, set goals and work hard to acquire more and more assets. Stop selling your time for money because you only have 24 hours a day. This is why you must think of a way to make your money work for you.

These are the top 10 powerful success principles you can and should learn from Robert Kiyosaki, the finance guru. In fact, there are much more you can learn from him, his books, and his seminars, these ten principles here are a great start for you to master the fundamental of your financial success. Although the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad has been published since 1997, most of the principles are still very relevant in today’s world and what you can learn from the book can be life-changing.

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