Recently I ordered Robert Kiyosaki’s book, “Retire Young, Retire Rich: How to Get Rich Quickly and Stay Rich Forever!”. It’s been a good read so far (intro and chapter one), mostly because of it’s forceful “think-about-it!” nature.
Robert outlines the turning point of his life when he began the road towards financial independence. I’m simply going to quote a lot of things because I found them to be helpful for me to read through and ponder the statements.
We all have doubts. The difference is what we do with those doubts. (p. 3)
Well said. It’s silly for each of us to think that we are alone in the process and that the feelings that we experience are solely in our own minds, never experienced by another person. Not true! The difference between failure and success is how we manage our thoughts of doubts – do we allow them to control us or do we control those thoughts?
Robert had a friend that was a driver in his life and asked some of the tough questions and said some of the things that needed to be said when it was more comfortable to let them go unspoken. Most of the quotes are from this Larry fellow. Here’s a barrage of his comments:
* Why don’t we write a plan on how we all can become financially free? (p. 4)
* …It is time to stop talking, stop dreaming, and start committing. Let’s write it down. Once we write it down, you know we have to do it. Once we write it down, we’ll support eachother on this journey. (p. 4)
* Come on, you’re being a wimp. Instead of setting simple one-year goals, let’s go for it. Let’s set a big multiyear goal. Let’s go for freedom. (p. 4)
* Let’s write down the goal, create a plan, and then focus on the idea. (…) I want a better plan. I don’t want to spend my life working just to pay bills. I want to live, I want to be rich. I want to travel the world while I am young enough to enjoy it. (p. 5)
Robert breaks in with some thoughts from his rich dad:
The biggest challenge you have is to challenge your own self-doubt and your laziness. It is your self-doubt and your laziness that define and limit who you are. If you want to change what you are you must take on your self-doubt and your laziness. It is your self-doubt and laziness that keep you small. It is your self-doubt and laziness that deny you the life you want. There is no one in your way except you and your doubts about you. It is easy to stay the same. It is easy not to change. Most people choose to stay the same all their lives. If you will take on your self-doubt and your laziness, you will find the door to your freedom. (p. 5
Woah. Well said. And he continues:
The reason that most people do not do what they can do is because they do not have a strong enough why. Once you find the why, it is easy to find your own how to to wealth. Instead of looking inside of themselves to find their own why they want to become rich, most people look for the easy road to wealth, and the problem with the easy road is that the easy road usually ends in a dead end. (p. 7)
If you find yourself arguing with a good idea, you may want to stop arguing. (p. 7)
And this brings Robert, and myself to a critical realization:
I realized that I was arguing against failing again, not against the dream. (p. 8)
More on this subject another time. I think the next post may be about the Why.
-cb