By Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter, Warner Business Books, September 14, 2005, 0446696374

The 10 lessons are: A successful business is created before there is a business [be prepared]; Learn how to turn bad luck into good luck [learn to fail]; Know the difference between your job and your work [a business is many jobs]; Success reveals your failures [communications and teams]; The process is more important than the goal [cashflow is king]; The best answers are found in your heart…not your head [clear mission]; the scope of the mission determines the product [solve a problem]; Design a business that can do something that no other business can do [clear advantage]; Don’t fight for the bargain basement [choose your customers]; Know when to quit [you gotta wanna].

Kiyosaki gives good advice. However, it is like many books on being an entrepreneur. If I didn’t want to be an entrepreneur, and I read this book, it wouldn’t have changed my mind. I want to be an entrepreneur, and Kiyosaki explains why I want to, which doesn’t really tell me anything. The rest is standard business stuff, which is better presented in Jim Collins’ books.

[pxxix] In my opinion the biggest difference between an entrepreneur and an employee is found in the differences between the desire for security and the desire for freedom.

My rich dad said, “If you become a successful entrepreneur, you will come to know a freedom very few people will ever know. It is not simply a matter of having a lot of money or free time. It is the freedom from the fear of fear itself.”

“Freedom from the fear of fear?” I asked.

Nodding, he continued, “When you look under the covers of the word security, you find fear hiding there. This is the reason most people say, ‘Get a good education.’ It’s not out of the love of study or scholarship, it is out of fear-the fear you won’t get a good job, or be able to earn money. Look at how a teacher motivates students in school-it is motivation by fear. They say, ‘If you don’t study you will fail.’ So they motivate students to study by the fear of failing. When the student graduates and gets a job, once again the motivation is fear. Employers say verbally or nonverbally, ‘If you don’t do your job, you’ll be fired.’ The employee works harder out of fear, the fear of not putting food on the table, the fear of not having money to make the mortgage payments. The reason people crave security is fear. The problem with security is that it does not cure fear. It simply throws a blanket over the fear, but the fear is always there, like the boogeyman chuckling under the bed.”

[p229] Your attorney will not agree with your accountants. Assembly line workers will not agree with the engineers who designed the assembly line. Management is at war with labor. Technical people are fighting with creative people. Analytical people do not get along with people people. College-educated people feel they’re smarter than people who did not go to college. Add to this interoffice politics, or worse, sexual affairs within the company, and you will never need to watch TV again. In most cases, a business does not need a competitor. A normal business has so many competitors inside the business it’s amazing that anyone gets any work done at all.”

[p230] “Learn to hire slow and fire fast,” said rich dad. “Take the hiring of people very seriously and slowly. Screen them carefully. And if it is time to let them go, do it quickly. Too many managers allow people too many chances. If you can’t fire them for some reason, then move them and isolate them. Don’t let them contaminate the rest of the people in the business. Maybe you can help them find jobs at a company where they might be happier and more productive. Or just pay them to leave. It will be less expensive in the long run. Remember to do it humanely and legally. All people need to be treated with the appropriate dignity. Many times, when I have let people go, they were happy to move on. I have found that if people are acting up or underperforming, it is not because they are lazy; many are simply unhappy for a number of reasons. If you as a leader can find a way to make them happy, find it.”

[p258] One of my favorite entrepreneurs is Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer and Pixar. Not only do I like his style, I love the culture of his business. One of the most important things an entrepreneur can build is a business with a strong culture. As stated earlier, at The Rich Dad Company we work hard to foster and protect a culture of learning and free expression.