The Business of The 21’st Century
It’s been years since I read any of the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” books, however I still remember vividly the impact it had on myself and my outlook for business. A friend of mine, Simeon Garriott recently gave me the latest in Robert Kiosaki’s series “The Business of 21’st Century”, which I finished in 2 days as it’s a thin book. Again, it floored me on some of my long-term opinions and shed some light on where the future is going in the business world.
Much of this book repeats the struggles and lives of Robert and Kim Kiosaki. The main lessons Mr. Kiosaki imparts is that the wealthiest people in the world create networks, and build communities. Assets that are advantages specific to network marketing type of companies:
1. A Real-World Business Education.
2. A Profitable Path of Personal Development.
3. A Circle of Friends Who Share Your Dreams and Values.
4. The Power of Your Own Network.
5. A Duplicable, Fully Scalable Business.
6. Incomparable Leadership Skills.
7. A Mechanism for Genuine Wealth Creation.
8. Big Dreams and the Capacity to Live Them.
9. A Business Where Women Excel.
Mr. Kiosaki states that job security is gone, and where as before a University degree used to guarantee you a solid income and lifelong career, that is no longer the case. You must rely on yourself to create a life of prosperity, which is not found in a job. He lists out the four quadrants of employment: employee, self employed, business owner, and investor, and from there lists the path to wealth creation:
1. Build a business.
2. Reinvest in your business.
3. Invest in real estate.
4. Let your assets buy luxuries.
Robert boldly states that the reason why so many people fail to achieve great wealth in any business is they neglect to reinvest continually in the business. They also lack patience, as he believes a business takes at least 5 years to get anywhere. He also suggests not to get rid of your day job so your survival isn’t dependent on the business.
Robert states that people are trapped by real estate, and he strongly suggests people buy real estate as an asset, which helps generate income. He advises against flipping houses, because you can be trapped by this large expense based on market conditions.
Thirty years of research discovered that people live in six different “time zones”: Two focus on the past, two focus on the present and two focus on the future. Of the two types of Past oriented, the PAST POSITIVE likes to think about the good old times (birthdays, successes, nostalgia). Then they’re those that keep family records and maintain rituals. The PAST NEGATIVE people focus on past failures, regrets, etc.
Between the two types of Present oriented people: One is hedonistic, focus on pleasure and avoid pain, seek knowledge, seek sensation. The other type is fated, they believe it doesn’t benefit them to pan because their life is fated due to their religion or poverty or other circumstances.
As for the two types of Future oriented people; the first type is most of us, who work instead of play, who resist temptation. The second type believes that life begins after the mortal body dies. If there is major economic inflation, or instability in your family, it is hard to be future oriented, because no one can guarantee a predicted outcome.
The people living closest to the equator tend to be present oriented, because when the environment stays the same, it gives you the impression of always the sameness. Protestants countries have higher gross national products than Catholic countries because of the belief of “you work hard to succeed to be God’s chosen people”.
Phillip’s family comes from Italy, which recently had a political movement called “Le Lega” which got 14% of the national vote. Their mandate was to separate Italy into two halves with the division just under Tuscany. The people in the North say that the people in the South are lazy, have lots of babies, and take 3-hour dinners. Where as the South think the Northern people are German Austrian, they eat yogurt instead of Spaghetti, and take paper-bagged lunches. Studies have shown that people in the North are future oriented, where as people in the South of Italy are past or present hedonistic. A Sicilian poet had once come up to Phillip while he spoke in Sicily about education funds, etc. and told him that in Sicilian dialect, future verbs don’t exist. The lexicon includes was, and is, but no will be! Hence, nothing gets done in Sicily.
Phillip’s friend Robert Levine wrote a wonderful book called the “Geography of Time”. Levine is a social psychologist, who went around the world doing experiments to study the “Pace of Life”. Robert would sit in cafes and measure how fast people walked, or go to a post office to do a mundane tasks and measure how long it took to complete the task. He used this formula to score a “Pace of Life” for the different countries and cities. In the United States, sixty cities have been included in his study. The highest-ranking pace of life cities, their men had the most coronary problems.
Every human being begins life as present hedonist, but family and schools try to turn them into future oriented. In the US, a child drops out of school every nine seconds. This statistic is even worse for kids from minority backgrounds, and more boys than girls. The average boy by the time he’s twenty-one will have spent 10,000 hours playing video games. Meaning they haven’t learned social skills, or developed emotional intelligence. They live in a world that they have created, and very soon into a 3D world. Their brains are digitally rewired, which means they’ll never fit into a traditional school, which is analogue. Someone is speaking to you, without even nice pictures. It’s boring, you control nothing, it’s passive, and school is all about delayed gratification. All addiction is present hedonistic: food, sex, drugs, gambling, etc. All the propaganda is aimed at future oriented, with warning of disaster at bay. This works on future oriented kids, even though present oriented kids are aware of the consequence, it does not translate to a change in their behaviour in staying away from drugs, sex, alcohol, etc.
Children don’t wear wristwatches anymore, because they say it’s a single functioning device. Americans aren’t counting in minutes; they count in seconds, as in the seconds it takes to boot up the computer. If it’s more than one minute, they get irritated at the delay. We must not underestimate the power which technology has changed the way our kids view time and live in time.
A recent study with USA Today showed that more than 50% of Americans say they get busier every year, sacrificing friends, family and sleep to achieve more success. When asked what would you do if you an extra day to your week, they still would chose to work to achieve more success than spending it with friends, family or on sleep. A study 20 years ago found that only 60% of families have sit down dinners together, the same study a year ago found only 20% of families now have sit down dinners together. You can’t have family values, when you never have family meals together.
Many of life’s puzzles can be solved when we simply understand our own time perspective and that of others. Many of the conflicts you have with others will dissolve when you understand it’s a simple difference in your respective time perspectives. Watch at www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg
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