| Thursday, February 18, 2016: A Special Day for Paulo and Me: Listening to Robert Kiyosaki in Person It was the Primerica insurance salesman that recommended that Paulo and I read ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ 16 years ago, when he could see he was getting nowhere with his sales pitch about saving for the future and investing in RRSP’s. It was the year 2000. We didn’t own a lot of real estate at the time, but we thought we were doing pretty well owning four mid-size houses. We had just moved back from Japan and the Regina Board of Education or shall I say the ‘Bored of Education’ wouldn’t hire me back since I had already bailed on them once to go teach English in Japan. We had a 4 year-old daughter and a 2 month-old baby boy. Paulo was a new immigrant to Canada at the time, and spoke very minimal/broken English, so we weren’t exactly making big bucks. In fact, Paulo couldn’t find a job to save his soul because there was nothing going on in Regina, as far as the economy was concerned, …. except for UNDERVALUED REAL ESTATE! Robert Kiyosaki and his little book, ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ changed our lives, completely! We had started our first little business called Maids of Honor; a residential cleaning company. Paulo donned his khaki-colored pants and navy blue shirt (the same as the women) and away he went to clean houses everyday. We were living on less than $1000 per month. It was somewhat demeaning and the headaches of growing a business were endless. We had SO much to learn. Meanwhile, we started to follow the philosophies of ‘Rich Dad’ and were secretly building a portfolio of rental properties while practicing our business skills. We always used to joke that some day we would write a book called ‘How to Clean up in the Cleaning business!’ I only ever read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” once, but once was enough for us to ‘get it’. We never attended education seminars, nor had a coach, nor read a many other books while building our portfolio, so we can honestly say that this was this book that became our manual. We will forever be grateful to Robert Kiyosaki for writing it, and to the Primerica guy for recommending it. We (the ETP students of Fasttrack) all got the invitational email from Darren Weeks no more one month before the big day. Robert Kiyosaki invited the students to visit his office in Phoenix. The whole day was a total surprise. Some of our fellow students had met Robert Kiyosaki in the years before, and from what they said, he was so brutally honest, straight-forward and infamous for giving people a ‘reality-check’ that some of them were a little nervous to see him again. One of my friends warned me, ‘Be careful what you wish for’ when I told him I was SO excited to see Robert Kiyosaki. So I was expecting wild fire! But wild fire was not what I saw. Not at all! I saw a humble, gentle man who was spiritually-connected with the universe but still very concerned with proper financial education of our youth and the state of poverty. His voice was gentle and sounded wise (most of the time) but he did not disappoint with a few outbursts of profanity and gestures against the tax man and the parasites who come out of the woodwork trying to get a free ride. He couldn’t resist a few good rants. It was awesome!The day started out with a lovely tour and breakfast at Ken McElroy’s fabulous office. Ken McElroy is author of ‘The ABC’s of Property Management’ and is one of Robert Kiyosaki’s advisors. His office was very impressive and unique. We especially liked the room-sized Monopoly game on the wall of their personally-owned buildings and their ‘Think Tank’ room. So cool!You know when you go to a live concert and the warm-up band is pleasantly and surprisingly awesome, even though you have never heard of them before? The morning speaker was absolutely brilliant! It was Dr. Radha Gopalan, MD. Strangely enough, Robert Kiyosaki sat at the back of the room listening to him speak, which I thought was nice of him to show up early to listen, but what I didn’t realize at the time, was that Dr. Gopalan’s words were of significance and importance to his own upcoming speech. They are friends and business partners in a way, as Dr. Gopalan’s book is endorsed by Robert Kiyosaki. Dr. G. is the doctor that saved Robert Kiyosaki’s life about 10 years ago when he was experiencing some genetic heart problems.It would be difficult for me to explain the Dr.’s two-sided theory of the importance of both Western and Eastern medicine in a few short paragraphs so I think it would be better for everyone to read his book ‘Second Opinion” – ‘8 Deadly Diseases – Western Medicine/Eastern Medicine/ You Power – Together They Could Save Your Life.’ His concepts were fascinating and extremely compelling. His experiences as a Western medicine cardiologist, and Eastern medicine acupuncturist, a certified yoga instructor AND a heart attack survivor himself qualifies him to give honest and informed advice about health and happiness. I could sense that everyone in the room literally had goose bumps and the chills as he told stories about some of his heart transplant patients and how their conditions and recoveries were affected by their spirituality or lack of it. Great speaker! Great information!Robert Kiyosaki spoke after lunch. His message was very complete and thorough, as to be expected by an experienced entrepreneurial educator but what surprised me was his softer side. He totally gave Oprah a run for her money with spiritual advice. I was expecting him to speak about financial strategies, the predictions of the upcoming stock market crash, the world economy, the upcoming American election, the dysfunction of current world politics and so on, but he didn’t speak of any of these things. Nothing! Nada! He spoke about the purpose of having goals (such as having a lot of money or a successful business or living on an island or whatever it is) and that goals are nothing more than a thing to keep you in motion; to push you out of your comfort zone and give you direction so that you can find the lessons and really experience the opportunities along the way. It was an unexpected message.However, he did capture all of the main principles in his original book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. He delved into the lack of financial education provided in our current education systems and is still disgusted that Nixon took the U.S. dollar of the gold standard in 1971 to provide quantitative easing and how the U.S. Government is printing paper money by the truck load. “Currencies, as we know them, could all change over night. This is why you can’t and shouldn’t save money”, he said. “Money is a very high risk investment these days”. And finally, my favourite Robert Kiyosaki ‘quote of the day’: “Money is a very sick subject”, he said. “When you work for money, you lose your soul. The rich do NOT work for money.” He’s right. The rich DO NOT work for money. It’s absolutely true.It was a bit sad for me to hear him admit that he needed to get some new goals; that his old goals just weren’t keeping him motivated to stay in motion any longer. In fact, he even admitted that the amount of money that he has achieved in his lifetime has almost become a problem. He admitted that having too much money and fame can be somewhat bothersome; having to manage it and protect it. He sounded a bit tired of it all, but then again, he had JUST returned from an 8-week tour of Japan promoting his new book “Second Chance” and could have been a bit tired that day. But having said that, I believed him when he said he was coming to the end of doing what he has been doing and his hope is that we, his students continue to keep teaching and helping others. He’s done with the traveling and the speaking and the book-signings and ‘the selfies’.It would be impossible to report everything Robert Kiyosaki said in those few hours. I just re-read the original “Rich Dad Poor Dad” on the plane ride to Arizona and I assure you he spoke to every lesson in the book: having goals, getting out of your comfort zone, being persistent even when things get very uncomfortable, taking a job to master the skill and then moving on to another job/skill, and that sales are the most important skill if you want to be a successful entrepreneur. He touched on the subject that the middle class believe that the ultra rich have ‘rigged the system in their favour’. And lastly, he spoke about finding your true purpose in life and how to stay healthy by deflecting the negative ‘shit’ that happens along the way. Basically, he said it just like that, although he added this; “When you deal in the spiritual plane, the negative and the bad doesn’t exist. To the people who have ever screwed me, I say ‘Thank you’”. He was quite clear in his message that negative b.s. will come your way and that it is really a gift from God. It can only hurt you if you perceive it as being negative. “Assholes are there for a reason. They test your soul. The key is how you perceive it”. His final words on the subject were “Find the lesson – because the faster you see and learn the lesson, the faster you go forward.”His final message to the entrepreneurs in the room was to go forward and teach and HELP others. He will retire soon and he knows that his students are the ones who must continue teaching his lessons. He’s 69 years old now and is looking for something else to keep him in motion. He admits he doesn’t have any idea what that thing is but it does appear as if he is ‘hanging up this hat’.As usual, the ETP students celebrated with a few drinks and many laughs in the evening. There is no denying that this group of like-minded folks definitely has a good time together and it was a special treat for the 40 Canadian students to meet the 40 Mexican students and make some new and lasting friendships. The Mexicans are a ‘lively’ and ‘enthusiastic’ group and we were thrilled to have finally met many of them. By Kathy Berner |
