wrong by simply listening to the engine. I was amazed.</p> <div class='story_text'>The sad truth is, great talent is not enough.</p> <div class='story_text'>I am constantly shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of Americans earn more than $100,000 a year. I have met brilliant, highly educated people who earn less than
$20,000 a year. A business consultant who specializes in the medical trade was telling me how many doctors, dentists and chiropractors struggle financially. All this time, I thought that when they graduated, the dollars would pour in. It was this business consultant who gave me the phrase, “They are one skill away from great wealth.”</p> <div class='story_text'>What this phrase means is that most people need only to learn and master one more skill and their income would jump exponentially. I have mentioned before that financial intelligence is a synergy of accounting, investing, marketing and law. Combine those four technical skills and making money with money is easier. When it comes to money, the only skill most people know is to work hard.</p> <div class='story_text'>The classic example of a synergy of skills was that young writer for the newspaper. If she diligently learned the skills of sales and marketing, her income would jump dramatically. If I were her, I would take some courses in advertising copywriting as well as sales. Then, instead of working at the newspaper, I would seek a job at an advertising agency. Even if it were a cut in pay, she would learn how to communicate in “short cuts” that are used in successful advertising. She also would spend time learning public relations, an important skill. She would learn how to get millions in free publicity. Then, at night and on weekends, she could be writing her great novel. When it was finished, she would be better able to sell her book. Then, in a short while, she could be a “best-selling author.”</p> <div class='story_text'>When I first came out with my first book If You Want To Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School? a publisher suggested I change the tide to The Economics of Education. I told the publisher that with a title like that, I would sell two books: one to my family and one to my best friend. The problem is, they would expect it for free. The obnoxious title If You Want To Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School? was chosen because we knew it would get tons of publicity. I am pro-education and believe in education reform. Otherwise, why would I continue to press for changing our antiquated educational system? So I chose a title that would get me on more TV and radio shows, simply because I was willing to be controversial. Many people thought I was a fruitcake, but the book sold and sold.</p> <div class='story_text'>When I graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1969, my educated dad was happy.
Standard Oil of California had hired me for its oil-tanker fleet. I was a third mate, and the pay was low compared with my classmates, but it was OK for a first real job after college. My starting pay was about $42,000 a year, including overtime, and I only had , to work for seven months. I had five months of vacation. If I had wanted to, I could have taken the run to Vietnam with a subsidiary shipping company, and easily doubled my pay instead of taking the five J months' vacation.</p> <div class='story_text'>I had a great career ahead of me, yet I resigned after six months with the company and joined the Marine Corps to learn how to fly. My educated dad was devastated. Rich dad congratulated me.</p> <div class='story_text'>In school and in the workplace, the popular opinion is the idea of “specialization.” That is, in order to make more money or get promoted, you need to “specialize.” That is why medical doctors immediately begin to seek a specialty such as orthopedics or pediatrics. The same is true for accountants, architects, lawyers, pilots and others.</p> <div class='story_text'>My educated dad believed in the same dogma. That is why he was thrilled when he eventually achieved his doctorate. He often admitted •;• that schools reward people who study more and more about less and less.</p>
<div class='story_text'>Rich dad encouraged me to do exactly the opposite. “You want to '
know a little about a lot” was his suggestion. That is why for years I worked in different areas of his companies. For awhile, I worked in his accounting department. Although I would probably never have been an accountant, he wanted me to learn via “osmosis.” Rich dad knew I would pick up “jargon” and a sense of what is important and what is not. I also worked as a bus boy and construction worker, as well as in sales, reservations and marketing. He was “grooming”
Mike and me. That is why he insisted we sit in on the meetings with his bankers, lawyers, accountants and brokers. He wanted us to know a little about every aspect of his empire.</p>
<div class='story_text'>When I quit my high-paying job with Standard Oil, my educated dad had a heart-to-heart with me. He was bewildered. He could not understand my decision to resign from a career that offered high pay, great benefits, lots of time off, and opportunity for promotion. When he asked me one evening, “Why did you quit?” I could not explain it to him, as much as I tried. My logic did not fit his logic. The big problem wasthat my logic was my rich dad's logic.</p> <div class='story_text'>Job security meant everything to my educated dad.
Learning meant everything to my rich dad.</p> <div class='story_text'>Educated dad thought I went to school to learn to be a ship's officer. Rich dad knew that I went to school to study international trade. So as a student, I made cargo runs, navigating large freighters, oil tankers and passenger ships to the Far East and the South Pacific. Rich dad emphasized that I stay in the Pacific instead of taking ships to Europe because he knew that the “emerging nations” were in Asia, not Europe. While most of my classmates, including Mike, were partying at their fraternity houses, I was studying trade, people, business styles and cultures in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Korea, Tahiti, Samoa and the Philippines. I also was partying, but it was not in any frat house. I grew up rapidly.</p> <div class='story_text'>Educated dad just could not understand why I decided to quit and join the Marine Corps. I told him I wanted to learn to fly, but really I wanted to learn to lead troops. Rich dad explained to me that the hardest part of running a company is managing people. He had spent three years in the Army; my educated dad was draft-exempt. Rich dad told me of the value of learning to lead men into dangerous situations. “Leadership is what you need to learn next,” he said. “If you're not a good leader, you'll get shot in the back, just like they do in business.”</p> <div class='story_text'>Returning from Vietnam in 1973,1 resigned my commission, even though I loved flying. I found a job with Xerox Corp. I joined it for one reason, and it was not for the benefits. I was a shy person, and the thought of selling was the most frightening subject in the world. Xerox has one of the best sales-training programs in America.</p> <div class='story_text'>Rich dad was proud of me. My educated dad was ashamed. Being an intellectual, he thought that salespeople were below him. I worked with Xerox for four years until I overcame my fear of knocking on doors and being rejected. Once I could consistently be in the top five in sales, I again resigned and moved on, leaving behind another great career with an excellent company.</p> <div class='story_text'>In 1977,1 formed my first company. Rich dad had groomed Mike and me to take over companies. So I now had to learn to form them and put them together. My first product, the nylon and velcro wallet, was manufactured in the Far East and shipped to a warehouse in New York, near where I had gone to school. My formal education was complete, and it was time to test my wings. If I failed, I went broke. Rich dad</p> <div class='story_text'>thought it best to go broke before 30. “You still have time to recover”</p> <div class='story_text'>was his advice. On the eve of my 30th birthday, my first shipment left ,,</p> <div class='story_text'>Korea for New York.</p> <div class='story_text'>Today, I still do business internationally. And as my rich dad encouraged me to do, I keep seeking the emerging nations. Today my investment company invests in South
America, Asia, Norway and Russia. There is an old cliche that goes, “Job is an acronym for 'Just Over Broke.'” And unfortunately, I would say that the saying applies to millions of people.
Because school does not think financial intelligence is an intelligence, most workers “live within their means.” They work and they pay the bills.</p> <div class='story_text'>There is another horrible management theory that goes, “Workers work hard enough to not be fired, and owners pay just enough so that workers won't quit.” And if you look at the pay scales of most companies, again I would say there is a degree of truth in that statement.</p> <div class='story_text'>The net result is that most workers never get ahead. They do what they've been taught to do: “Get a secure job.” Most workers focus on working for pay and benefits that reward them in the short term, but is often disastrous in the long. Instead I recommend to young people to seek work for what they will learn, more than what they will earn. Look down the road at what ; skills they want to acquire before choosing a specific profession and before getting trapped in the “Rat Race.”</p> <div class='story_text'>Once people are trapped in the lifelong process of bill paying, they 1 become like those little hamsters running around in those little metal wheels. Their little furry legs are spinning furiously, the wheel is turning furiously, but come tomorrow morning, they'll still be in the same cage: great job.</p> <div class='story_text'>In the movie Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise, there are many great one liners. Probably the most memorable is “Show me the money.” But there is one line I thought most truthful. It comes from the scene where Tom Cruise is leaving the firm. He has just been fired, and he is asking the entire company “Who wants to come with me?” And the whole place is silent and frozen. Only one woman speaks up and says, “I'd like to but I'm due for a promotion in three months.”</p> <div class='story_text'>That statement is probably the most truthful statement in the whole movie. It is the type of statement that people use to keep themselves</p> <div class='story_text'>busy working away to pay bills. I know my educated dad looked forward to his pay raise every year, and every year he was disappointed. So he would go back to school to earn more qualifications so he could get another raise, but again, it would be another disappointment.</p> <div class='story_text'>The question I often ask people is, “Where is this daily activity taking you?” Just like the little hamster, I wonder if people look at where their hard work is taking them. What does the future hold?</p> <div class='story_text'>Cyril Brickfield, the former executive director of The American Association of Retired People, reports that “private pensions are in a state of chaos. First of all, 50 percent of the workforce today has no pension. That alone should be of great concern. And 75 to 80 percent of the other 50 percent have ineffective pensions that pay $55 or $150 or $300 a month.”</p> <div class='story_text'>In his book The Retirement Myth, Craig S. Karpel writes:
“I visited the headquarters of a major national pension consulting firm and met with a managing director who specializes in designing lush retirement plans for top management. When I asked her what people who don't have corner offices will be able to expect in the way of pension income, she said with a confident smile: ”The Silver Bullet.'</p> <div class='story_text'>"
'What,' I asked, 'is The Silver Bullet?'</p> <div class='story_text'>“She shrugged, 'If baby boomers discover they don't have enough money to live on when they're older, they can always blow their brains out.'” Karpel goes on to explain the difference between the old Defined Benefit retirement plans and the new 401K plans which are riskier. It is not a pretty picture for most people working today. And that is just for retirement. When medical fees and long-term nursing home care are added to the picture, the picture is frightening. In his 1995 book, he indicates that nursing-home fees run from $30,000 to $125,000 per year. He went to a clean no-frills nursing home in his area and found the price to be $88,000 a year in 1995.</p> <div
class='story_text'>Already, many hospitals in countries with socialized medicine need to make tough decisions such as “Who will live and who will die?” They make those decisions purely on how much money they have and how old the patients are. If the patient is old, they often will give the medical care to someone younger. The older poor patient gets put to the back of the line. So just as the rich can afford better education, the rich will be able to keep themselves alive, while those who have little wealth will die.</p> <div class='story_text'>So I wonder, are workers looking into the future or just until their next paycheck, never questioning where they are headed?</p> <div class='story_text'>When I speak to adults who want to earn more money, I always recommend the same thing. I suggest taking a long view of their life. Instead of simply working for the money and security, which I admit are important, I suggest they take a second job that will teach them a second skill. Often I recommend joining a network marketing company, also called multilevel marketing, if they want to learn sales skills. Some of these companies have excellent training programs that help people get over their fear of failure and rejection, which are the main reasons people /j are unsuccessful. Education is more valuable than money, in the long run.</p> <div class='story_text'>When I offer this suggestion, I often hear in response, “Oh that is too much hassle,” or “I only want to do what I am interested in.”</p> <div class='story_text'>To the statement of “It's too much of a hassle,” I ask, “So you would ; rather work all your life giving 50 percent of what you earn to the government'” To the other statement-“I only do what I am interested in”-I say, “I'm not interested in going to the gym, but I go because I want to feel better and live longer.”</p> <div class='story_text'>Unfortunately, there is some truth to the old statement “You can't teach an old dog new tricks.” Unless a person is used to changing, it's hard to change.</p> <div class='story_text'>But for those of you who might be on the fence when it comes to the idea of working to learn something new, I offer this word of encouragement: Life is much like going to the gym. The most painful part is deciding to go. Once you get past that, it's easy. There have been many days I have dreaded going to the gym, but once I am there and in motion, it is a pleasure. After the workout is over, I am always glad I talked myself into going.</p> <div class='story_text'>If you are unwilling to work to learn something new and insist on, instead, becoming highly specialized within your field, make sure the company you work for is unionized.
Labor unions are designed to protect specialists.</p> <div class='story_text'>My educated dad, after falling from grace with the governor, became the head of the teachers union in Hawaii. He told me that it was the hardest job he ever held. My rich dad, on the other hand, spent his life doing his best to keep his companies from becoming unionized. He was successful. Although the unions came close, rich dad was always able to fight them off.</p> <div class='story_text'>Personally, I take no sides because I can see the need for and the benefits of both sides. If you do as school recommends, become highly specialized, then seek union protection. For example, had I continued on with my flying career, I would have sought a company that had a strong pilots union. Why? Because my life would be dedicated to learn a skill that was valuable in only one industry. If I were pushed out of that industry, my life's skills would not be as valuable to another industry. A displaced senior pilot-with 100,000 hours of heavy airline transport time, earning $150,000 a year-would have a hard time finding an equivalent high-paying job in school teaching. The skills do not necessarily transfer from industry to industry, because the skills the pilots are paid for in the airline industry are not as important in, say, the school system.</p> <div class='story_text'>The same is true even for doctors today.
With all the changes in medicine, many medical specialists are needing to conform to medical organizations such as HMO's. Schoolteachers definitely need to be union members. Today in