Leaders Are Teachers

This looks like the final chapter of the book. Robert mostly talks about the traits of a leader and how the intent of the book was to help inspire you to become one. In his view, being a leader is like being a role model where people look up to you and how as a leader people would be inspired to move forward despite having fear and uncertainties. He then also talks about the mentality of a leader and how you have to throw old bad habits away. For example, if you want to be an entrepreneur then the employee in you must die and he also used his personal weight loss accomplishment as an example on how if he wanted to be thin he knew the fat and lazy person in him must go.

Robert then mentions about how leaders have a vision and can successfully get people who couldn’t see it before to do so. In the end, he talks about how his rich dad was able to teach him a lot which gave him a vision of his future while at the same time it was entirely up to him in regards to how his future would mold out. That is essentially his idea of a great leader and basically a great leader can teach people to see.

Donald Trump basically summarizes how he hopes that the book has provided one enough insight and guidelines to start taking action in life and how both Robert and himself hopes that they have empowered you to succeed.

My personal quick thought about a leader is kind of the same where basically it’s someone who has the ability to make the people around him/her better. I’ve met a lot of hard working and successful people in various industries and professions, but finding people who can truly inspire and lead others to be the best is a rare find. It looks like that is it too for the book. I’ll wrap up my thoughts about the book and all tomorrow.

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Why Do You Recommend Starting Your Own Business?

Looks like this is the second last chapter in the book which means it is coming to an end soon. For Robert’s view, he mainly expresses how being a business owner provides him with the ability to control his own future and how being an entrepreneur allows him to experience new things everyday. To learn to become an entrepreneur, he recommends finding a network marketing company with a great training program to join as it is one of the least expensive ways to learn the ropes of running your own business and to commit to it for at least 5 years. For people who have more money and are prepared to take a bigger plunge, he suggests looking into purchasing a franchise as you will be trained on how to run a business. He does mention that this is a very expensive route though such as how a McDonald’s franchise requires you to have at least one million dollars.

When one starts a business, being persistent is the key to success and to help keep you on track Robert Kiyosaki emphasizes the benefits on having a personal coach or mentor. Of course, he then plugs in his company and how it offers these types of services. He brings up a past point on how people that want more security receive less freedom which works the other way around as well. Overall, he recommends starting a business as it provides you with the freedom to control your own life.

Donald Trump begins by immediately mentioning how not everyone is fit to be an entrepreneur and there are many times that he has told this to people who he felt didn’t have what it takes to be one as he would feel personally responsible if he encouraged someone to do so and then learned that they ended up failing. In general, his main point in recommending one to become a business owner is that while it requires a lot of work, with it comes with vast rewards. Not just from a financial view, but he talks about how it is a great feeling knowing that you built something and watching it grow as it represents yourself as well.

For me, I guess the best thing about being an entrepreneur is like they say you have control over your future. Now when you say this to people they think control only in the sense that basically people like it because you set your own hours and so fourth. Instead, it’s the accountability as well where I personally hate it when people whine or make excuses such as their job is boring, they don’t make enough money, etc. Being an entrepreneur means that if you ever complain about something, just look in the mirror as you have no one to blame but yourself. Of course, it is definitely not for everyone.

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Now this was definitely a surprising piece of news. Apparently AllAdvantage is back in a new form called AGLOCO. I still remember AllAdvantage back in the early Internet days before the dot com crash as there were a ton of people making a lot of money from it and I talked about it before on my blog. In a nutshell, the concept sounds similar where users download a toolbar called a “viewbar” that will serve as a way to display ads and other information to its users. This is what the viewbar looks like:

This is an example of how a user will conduct their normal everyday browsing with the viewbar installed:

Similar to before by the sounds of it, one of the main benefits is that you can refer people to use the toolbar and in return you will also receive more revenue. For people who have actually done it before, you know what I am talking about in terms of the type of income that is possible. They even had this nifty calculator on the site for estimation purposes:

Unfortunately back then, the business model of the company wasn’t great as the company was paying out more money than it earned. This time around, they have a different strategy in place to hopefully overcome that. For the people willing to use it though, it is free of course.

I guess for me this is a kind of exciting due to the nostalgic factor in it and I guess this can be a good way for anyone who missed out on it the first time to experience what many have done before. It is still in a beta testing phase, but you can still register. Basically, when you sign up you will get a referral ID like this http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBB2309 which you should then pass off to your network of people. Instead of BBBB2309 yours will be a different ID after you sign up. You can sign up for AGLOCO here. Will it be a bust or success? I’m not sure, but that doesn’t mean people can’t make some decent money out of it just like last time.

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Why Do You Recommend Network Marketing?

Robert starts out with his take on the Network Marketing industry. He mentions how when he first learned about the industry, he was against it. After learning about the industry and its business model more thoroughly, he began to see the good points of it. Kiyosaki tries to address people’s concerns first on how everyone associates network marketing as a pyramid scheme. He uses an example that I have seen used many times on how a corporation is actually a typical example of a business that utilizes a pyramid structure. For example, on the top you would have the CEO of a company and on the bottom you would have all of the other employees and how the people at the top make most of the money. In a true network marketing company, he explains how it is the other way around as the business relies in trying to bring people to the top or else it will fail.

He then talks about how starting a network marketing business can allow you to do tax write offs as it would be a business operation for yourself and the key reason that he seems to recommend it is that companies usually have a great training program and are devoted in helping to train you to become successful whereas in a typical corporation you would probably be fired if you didn’t produce results in a timely fashion. As an added bonus, you will frequently get to meet like-minded people and is one of the more affordable ways to start a business compared to traditional methods.

Donald Trump seems to be a little more cautious in his recommendation as while he sees it as a great way for someone to start their own business he stresses the importance of finding a company that has a great product that you can personally vouch for first. He also mentions that the business is inherently a social one and so shy people or individuals who are afraid to meet new people should think twice before diving into a company.

I referenced my past post about network marketing a little earlier and I think my opinion about the industry is fairly similar. That example used by Robert about corporations being a pyramid scheme due to its structure is something that I have seen used many times and it often creates large debates between a lot of people from what I have seen. Although for most people I think that example isn’t used so much as a method to try and degrade the way corporations operate, but rather to help open up people’s mind about network marketing in general.

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Why Do You Invest In Real Estate?

Looks like I am reaching towards the end of the book and this last section is suppose to be about getting started by using different industries and professions as an example. As the title implies, the first one is about real estate. Robert starts off by reminding us his view on how there is no such thing as a risky investment, but rather there are bad investors. His main reason on why he likes to invest in real estate is because it gives him control over his investment as opposed to say mutual funds, which he thinks is bad. Some other reasons on why he likes real estate is because investing in it can provide a lot of tax advantages and while the industry has its ups and downs constantly, it is very unlikely that it will ever go away as people need homes to live in.

He then says that his main secret on why he likes real estate is because the industry is slow in the sense that it doesn’t change rapidly like say being involved with an Internet business. Now the interesting thing was that he mentioned how he isn’t exactly a technology savvy person and yet he still has a web site which makes him millions of dollars. The big kicker was that he said he doesn’t even use an e-mail address. At this day in age with so many devices which obtain e-mail capabilities and how some sites only distribute information online or require a user to have valid e-mail address, I think that is a little over the top.

Afterwards, he goes into depth in trying to describe about Warren Buffet’s term of investing into something that has intrinsic value which he says is the other reason he loves real estate so much. Trying to summarize it here, basically most people approach an investment with a buy low and sell high mentality such as buying something for $50 and then selling it for $100. Instead, one should look at an investment from an intrinsic value point of view.

For example, let’s say I just bought a web site and its operations for one-hundred thousand dollars and I am just hoping that the value of the site will go high enough for me to sell to make money. Instead, before investing I should of looked at the complete picture and invest in it based on all of the benefits that I could get in purchasing that site. Just off the top of my head, if I just bought a news site, some examples would be that I now don’t have to pay money to get the same news elsewhere which saves me money, it is currently staffed with industry veterans that can help make the site even bigger, the site could expand its revenue by introducing new forms of advertising mediums and I can get tax breaks in more ways now. Basically, it is more like treating your investment like a business rather than a typical stock.

In the end, Robert once again talks about his dislike for mutual funds and writes down on how when one invests in a mutual fund, 80% of the return goes to the company and you receive 20% of it. At the same time, you are taking 100% of the risk and capital while the mutual fund company gets a free ride and lives by collecting the fees associated with the investment.

Donald Trump mostly just talks about his passion for real estate in general and how he even loved to build tall objects with building blocks as a child. He pretty much agrees with Robert’s point of view in regards to the real estate industry and how it will never become obsolete as the value of Earth has constantly gone up. He mentioned a point which was very interesting on how the original price of Manhattan was only $24. He also says that it is a very energetic industry which also makes him very passionate about it.

I would say this is the first chapter thus far that made me think a lot and taught me things that I didn’t really think too much before about the real estate industry as it isn’t exactly my forte. I am the complete opposite though when it comes to technology and the Internet as I feel at home with it. I still can’t get over the fact that Robert says he doesn’t even have an e-mail address. I can see for like older folks who live a simple life as there are many who still don’t even have a computer, but this is a guy that runs a business, uses a computer and even has web site……. How is that even possible nowadays? I guess I’ll just have to meet someone like that in real life before I can really believe that.

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