Get Ready For Love! Radio - Interview with Robert T. Kiyosaki & Mari Smith

An Intimate Conversation with Robert T. Kiyosaki,
Best-Selling author and leader of the Cash Flow Revolution
Guest Host: Mari Smith, MillionDollarRelationships.com

Viveca: Welcome to the Get Ready For Love show. I’m Viveca, your host. Our topic this month is “Where Is Love?” We’ll go hunting and sharing and enjoying love’s contributions starting with Mr. Robert Kiyosaki.

So, it’s great to be back with everyone. This show just can’t happen soon enough! I have been waiting to speak to the man who is starting the evening with us since this show began over a year ago in May. I’m also pleased to have as a guest host Ms. Mari Smith, the founder of MillionDollarRelationships.com.

Viveca: So before we bring Robert on, I just want to share a little bit with you my story, because in thinking of this topic, “Where is Love,” I really started thinking more and more in terms of it’s in the people that we’ve touched that we don’t even know we’ve touched. With Robert, I feel like I know him. I saw him once, I think, eight or nine years ago. One of my best friends said, “You’ve got to come to this CASHFLOW game with me!”

I was doing nothing right at that moment, and off I went to the game, and it was just incredible. From there, I read the book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad.”

And, Mari, to let you know where I was – and Robert, I was just brokenhearted and bewildered financially. I had lost my first business and I was 200K in debt. I had no idea how to get out of there. I had worked the 80-hour workweeks. I had spent everything on the business. I was even embarrassed talking to IRS agents, because they would say, “Don’t you own something?” I owned nothing, no car, no house.

I had no idea of what to do, and Robert’s book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” – there’s even pictures in there, and the game – showed me a way out. So I have just had the highest regard for this human being.

Robert, I want to thank you for how you’ve contributed to my life. Welcome to Get Ready For Love Radio. How is everything out there in Arizona?

Robert Kiyosaki, Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad

Robert K: Well, right now, I am on a cell phone, and I apologize for that, because the lights in my entire neighborhood are out.

Viveca: And you know what else, Robert? I remember I saw you speak, and one of the things you said that night that I saw you was that you had had a trauma with your first business, and that you had spent a year trying to figure out what happened, and that your Rich Dad came to you – and I hope I’m not remembering incorrectly – and he said, “Hey, that’s great! Do it two more times and you’ll know what you’re doing!”

Robert K: That’s correct. He said that most entrepreneurs lose three businesses. I had lost only one, so I had two more to go.

Viveca: Well, that’s where I was, and you helped me get back off – off my seat, because I was scared to even do anything!

Robert K: Right. Well, that’s what happens in our traditional school system, where they are taught that you have to have the right answers and you don’t make mistakes. That’s their definition of “smart.” But as we know, in the real world, there are no right answers. You know, real life is a multiple guess test. Then if you don’t make mistakes, you don’t get ahead.

Then what happens is, because people are so dysfunctional when it comes to making mistakes, they can’t admit they made them! Like, you know, when they interviewed Bush, they said, “Have you ever made any mistakes?” And he says, “Yes, but I can’t remember any of them! (Laughter all around)

Viveca: Well, that was the opposite of me. I was so paralyzed by my mistakes, I couldn’t do anything!

Robert K: Yeah, I mean, because you’re so ashamed to say, “I made a mistake!”

Viveca: I hid from people I knew. I was just – I was under a rock until I heard you!

Mari S: Well, I just wanted to say that actually, I love how Robert phrases mistakes as “learning experiences,” right? They’re just ways to learn! We learn and move on.

I first came across Robert at a financial seminar in 1999 where I also met my husband. And I had zero money! I was so badly in debt! I had just recently come to San Diego from Scotland. Really, through Robert’s CASHFLOW, I actually immediately started playing games regularly, which made a profound difference in my thinking and the words that I would say to myself. I really got the distinction leverage: How can I do more with less?

I think it was Buckminster Fuller that said, “If you don’t understand leverage, you work too hard!” Is that right, Robert? I know Buck. He was a big mentor for you.

Robert K: Yeah, Fuller – well, he never said, “If you don’t understand leverages, you work too hard.” He explained that everything was leverages, and if you wanted to get ahead, you have to use it.

Unfortunately, our schools don’t teach us much about leverage. They will tell you to continue to work hard, but they don’t tell you how “leverage hard.”

For example, you know, most people invest in mutual funds. There’s not much leverage in that, whereas if I invest in real estate, my banker may give me 9,200 percent of the money. That’s leverage.

Now, if you use leverage, you have to be more intelligent, also, you know. A lot of people have borrowed too much and they’re in danger now. But the use of leverage gets you ahead. You know, using this phone is a form of leverage. Everything is leverage.

Mari S: Yes, I did. I got my husband, and I got my act together financially at this seminar!

Robert K: Right. The other thing that is great about that board game is it aligns the love up, you know. Like the biggest – the biggest fights in most families are about money. I’ve often wondered why our school doesn’t teach us anything about money. One of the things that people should do is actually play the CASHFLOW game before they get married.

Viveca: I’m playing it with the special man in my life this weekend, Robert! (Laughter)

Robert K: That’s good, because if the guy doesn’t get it, you know, he may want to reconsider! (Laughter)

Viveca: I’ll check in with you. I may give him one more game, you know. The first game was tough on me, too!

Robert K: Oh, yes. Well, what I’m saying is, they have to want to learn it, you know. If they say it’s not important, you know, I’d be very careful of that, because money affects everything in our lives. In some places, money is not important. Well, that could be true, but it affects everything that is important.

Mari S: Um. You know, in my business, Robert, I actually organized CASHFLOW games for singles.

Mari S: It is an awesome way to meet like-minded, quality individuals, and immediately know that, you know, they have something in common. They’re more likely to be entrepreneurial-minded; interpersonal growth, learning and finding out more about financial literacy.

I love, Robert, how you talk a lot about: “Words are the most powerful tools available to human beings.”

Mari S: “It is the words that we tell ourselves.” What are some of the words we should be telling ourselves?

Robert K: Well, let me explain “words,” as vocabulary. When we leave school, we have the vocabulary of a schoolteacher. If it is at a law school, we’ll learn law vocabulary, or med school, we’ll learn medical vocabulary. The English language consists of approximately two million words, and we have command, on an average, of about five thousand out of two million. There are a lot of words we could learn to use.

So if you want to get rich, you have to learn the vocabulary, or the words of money. And what “Rich Dad Poor Dad” was about is most people misuse the word, like “asset” versus “liability.” Most people call their houses an asset, when technically, it’s a liability. That’s when people get in trouble.

My Poor Dad always said our house was an asset, and he was a schoolteacher. My Rich Dad often said, “Your dad may be academically smart, but he has a low financial I.Q.”

Viveca: I’ve had more arguments with people over that! I want to also congratulate you, because I think I looked at your site and “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” one of my faves, has been 209 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Congratulations on that!

Viveca: Now, can you share a little bit for our listeners who don’t know you yet or your story about the contribution that you received from your fathers, and who your fathers are.

Robert K: Well, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” is a true story. I grew up in Hawaii, and my real dad was the head of education. He was a superintendent, and he also ran for lieutenant governor of the State of Hawaii. But I call him my Poor Dad, even though he was a highly educated, hardworking, good, honest man, because no matter how much money he made, he had nothing to show for it, and he ultimately died poor. He often said, “Well, schoolteachers will never be rich.” Again, those were his words, so it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. My Rich Dad was a man who started with nothing, but he ultimately became one of the richest men in Hawaii.

So “Rich Dad Poor Dad” is really a simple story of what two fathers tell their two sons at age nine about the subject of money. As we know, we don’t learn much about money at school, so we learn it at home.

For example, my Poor Dad always said, “Go to school, get a job, work hard, save money and get out of debt”; my Rich Dad, “If you save money and get out of debt, you’ll still never be a rich man.”

So that’s where the whole – the paradigm between two different mindsets takes place.

Robert K: He was a great man. I gave my Poor Dad a hard time, but nonetheless, he – he also subscribed to the idea that we had to make mistakes -- and that’s how we learned, even though he was an acadamian. And he was very encouraging. I went to high school twice because I can’t write! So it’s ironic that I would have a best selling – New York Times best seller, you know, all over the world.

Robert K: And it was because both my dads taught me that mistakes were just indications of what I did not know and I had to learn!

Viveca: See, that’s what I learned from you – that I had had a problem, but I wasn’t a failure. It wasn’t even a problem. It was just a learning experience.

Robert K: Well, if you – you know, what happens to most people is they pretend they don’t make mistakes, or they don’t admit they made mistakes, or they blame somebody else for their mistakes, or they lie about their mistakes, and that mistake just gets worse; whereas if you confront the mistake and learn from it, the mistake will help you grow into a better, smarter, more mature person. But unfortunately, our society hides from its mistakes, and that’s why we don’t learn something.

If you look at this Iraq War, I’m a Vietnam veteran. We haven’t learned a thing. We have not learned a thing. We are repeating the same mistake we did in Vietnam. That is sad, because thousands of guys have died so far. So it makes – it’s absolutely disgusting.

Viveca: On a different note, I’m looking at your book. People laugh when I tell them this, Robert. I go, “It even has pictures!”

Viveca: Because I learned from the game (Cashflow 101) you don’t have to read well, you don’t have to write well, you don’t have to do a lot of things well. I used to play your game with a young woman who was dyslexic. She always got out of the game.

Robert K: Right. With the CASHFLOW game, it was designed as an educational tool. Again, you know, education is visual, auditory and kinesthetic, feeling. The problem with school, it is designed for people who are primarily auditory, people who like to sit there and listen. So a guy like me didn’t do well in school, because I like to do things.

So a game incorporates all three of the primary learning modalities. You could be weak in one modality like listening, but you can be strong kinesthetically.

Viveca: And I’m a kinesthetic. I hadn’t thought of that. That’s another reason why your game is really effective for me. How many positions do you think your game has? How many playing positions?

Robert K: I don’t know about that. I think a better question would be is what was designed to be taught in that game.

Viveca: One thing I discovered playing it was that when I play just banker, I would observe people – and see myself. And I learned so much even from that position, because once I had to play -- and I was kind of upset, because I wasn’t playing the game. I realize I’m in the game.

Robert K: Yeah. Thank you for saying that, because the reason for creating the game was for you to learn, but also for you to teach.

Robert K: There’s something about when you tell somebody else to do something or teach somebody, you learn it, even – you reinforce what you have learned.

Mari Smith went from single & broke to marrying the love of her life & building financial security with her husband in less than three years. Now you can too!

Mari S: You know what I love about the game is that it lets me take bigger risks than I would normally take in my real life! (Laughter all around)

Mari S: Yeah, I’m “borrow, borrow, borrow!” As long as it’s to borrow -- not to borrow to buy doodads, right? We want to borrow to buy assets!

Mari S: That’s the difference between good debt and bad debt, right, Robert?

Robert K: That’s right! That’s a good lesson! You learn that if you borrow for good debt, you can get ahead. But if you borrow for bad debt, you fall behind.

Robert K: The reason that most people fall behind financially is they don’t know good debt from bad debt. Most are loaded with bad debt, again, because they think it’s an asset. They call their house an asset, their car an asset, and that’s inaccurate.

So the cash flow game was designed to teach accounting, which is the most boring subject on earth! It’s also to teach investing, which is the most frightening! That’s why it became a very interesting game. I think you have to play, you know, four to ten times, and then it begins to sink in, because it changes the way you think.

Viveca: We have a game here tonight, Robert. We have our little rats out. (Cashflow 101)

Mari S: And Robert, you used to play Monopoly with your Rich Dad, right? Didn’t you get some of your lessons from that?

Robert K: Well, my Rich Dad – you know, my Poor Dad said, “Put that game of Monopoly away and do your homework.” My Rich Dad would just play Monopoly with me by the hours.

Like I said, the formula for great wealth is probably on that game board. And we all know the formula – four green houses, one red hotel! (Laughter all around)

And then – but this was a kicker! My Rich Dad actually took me out and showed me what were his representative green houses. So at age nine, I began to realize that my Rich Dad was playing Monopoly for real, whereas my Poor Dad, the schoolteacher, thought Monopoly was a waste of time.

Ten years later, I came back to Hawaii, and my Rich Dad had the big red hotel smack dab in the middle of Waikiki Beach. So that’s when I realized that you really didn’t need a good education. All you needed to do was play Monopoly!

Robert K: So what I have are – you know, my wife – you know, talking about marriage and love and all that, my wife has her own corporations and I have my own. She doesn’t need me as a husband. I mean, she makes more – if she stopped working, she’d make about $600,000 a year without working. That’s more than most men make!

Robert K: That comes from all of her assets, her own corporations and all this. And the most important thing -- and when we talk about love, the reason we have more love is because she and I are playing the same game together. We help each other get rich. It’s really a fun game!

Viveca: On that note, I hear the little sounds of the music coming on. We’re going to have a little break and we’re going to return. We’ve got a lot more to cover here this evening, Robert.

Viveca Stone, Founder, Get Ready For Love! Radio (c) a hot new show that talks Love with best-selling authors, doctors, humanitarians, artists, personalities, spiritualists, humorists, you! Join in Live or listen to Archives anytime, 24/7, at www.GetReadyForLoveRadio.com

Note from Viveca: This interview took place during the 1^st Presidential Debate. There were tense moments and I had to feel my way. War is upsetting whether it happens back then, over there or a couple houses down your street.

Just a couple of days before speaking with Robert I came home and there were police cars everywhere. I saw a man and a woman talking separately to the police - my first thought were that there had been a robbery or a madman was on the loose – perhaps hiding in my backyard.
“No, the police woman said, there’s nothing to worry about.

Later that day I spoke with the neighbor across the street. “They were at it again. She said. He’s out of work, now she is too. All they do is fight. It was scary today. I heard the kids screaming. I told them (the police) they’d better do something about it this time.

I never knew. They had a beautiful house, two SUVs, well dressed & polite children. Everything looked good but …

That’s when I decided not to speak with Robert about his new book, Who Took My Money, but to stick to “the basics” of Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cashflow 101. These two works got me on my way and out of pain. They gave me hope, information and direction. They can do the same for you, your family, friends and, your neighbors …

The Interview Continues ... Click here for Segment #2

by 2005, 50% of your income will go to Social Security ... The reason people are struggling
financially ... it's not about gender ... I married my business partner ... women are not weaker ...

But First ... Jumpstart your wealth education & financial results * SCROLL DOWN - order your copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad