HOW TO ACHIEVE A

RICH MINDSET
PREPARING YOURSELF TO BE RICH

How to Achieve a Rich Mindset | Preparing yourself to Be Rich

Introduction
When I returned from Vietnam in 1973 I knew things were going to be tough. I had no
job, no money, and no assets. I was starting with nothing.
All I had in 1973 was the dream of someday being very rich and my rich dads
guidance to become an investor.
While reading this eBook, notice when your thoughts are often 180 degrees out from
the guiding thoughts of my rich dad. Rich dad said, One of the reasons so few people
become rich is that they become set in one way of thinking. They think there is only
one way to think or do something. While the average investor thinks, Play it safe and
dont take risks, the rich investor must also think about how to improve skills so he or
she can take more risks.
Rich dad called this kind of thinking, Thinking on both sides of the coin. He went on,
saying, The rich investor must have more flexible thinking than the average investor.
For example, while both the average investor and rich investor must think about safety,
the rich investor must also think about how to take more risks. While the average
investor thinks about cutting down debt, the rich investor is thinking about how to
increase debt. While the average investor lives in fear of market crashes, the rich
investor looks forward to market crashes. While this may sound like a contradiction to
the average investor, it is this contradiction that makes the rich investor rich.
As you read through this eBook, be aware of the contradictions in thinking between
average investors and rich investors. As rich dad said, The rich investor is very aware
that there are two sides to every coin. The average investor sees only one side. And it
is the side the average investor does not see that keeps the average investor average
and the rich investor rich.

Do You Want to Be More

Than an Average Investor?
This eBook is much more than just an eBook about investing, hot tips, and magic
formulas. One of the main purposes for writing it is to offer you the opportunity to gain
a different point of view on the subject of investing. In 1973, rich dad began teaching
me how to acquire the same financial power he possessed, a power I first became
aware of at the age of 12. While standing on the beach in front of my rich dads latest
investment 40 years ago, I realized that when it came to investing, the difference
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between my rich dad and my poor dad went far deeper than merely how much money
each man had to invest. The difference is first found in a persons deep desire to be
much more than just an average investor. If you have such a desire, then read on.
In this eBook, Id like to discuss what I think is a very important subject, which is how
to prepare yourself emotionally to become rich.
My rich dad said, The moment you start working for a paycheck and get in debt,
money takes over your life mentally, emotionally, and spiritually because nobody
wants to be thrown out on the street. Nobody wants to be called a deadbeat. In the
olden days, they put you in stocks or irons and publicly humiliated you for not paying
your bills. It is that same emotional fear that keeps people in the Rat Race. They
continually work hard, pay taxes, pay bills, buy liabilities they think are assets, and
never get a step closer to getting ahead.
Once, when I was 9 years old and working for my rich dad, I had demanded (at my
poor dads insistence) a raise. Not only did rich dad refuse to give me a raise, he
started having me work for nothing. One of the reasons he refused to pay me the ten
cents an hour I had been earning was to have me step back and look at the overall
picture of money: how it was generated, where it comes from, and things like that. Its
very important to understand that money is more than just money. Money is survival
itself. When somebody says to me, Money is not that important, I say, Well, neither is
air, water, and food, but it is important when you dont have it.
I constantly run into people who are arrogant or ignorant about money. They say, Aw,
money is not that important to me. Thats like saying freedom isnt important to them.
Everyday they get up and go to work because they have bills to pay. I owe, I owe,
so its off to work I go. Thats what happens to most people because theyve never
been prepared mentally or emotionally to be masters of money. Because theyre not
mentally and emotionally prepared, they become a slave to money.

The Power of Mistakes

Part of preparing yourself emotionally to be rich is to evaluate what you learned from
school. Most people believe that going to school is what you need to do. The problem
with going to school is you pick up some very bad habits that prevent you from being
wealthy.
One of those things is being risk adverse. When people go to school, theyre taught:
Dont make mistakes. My rich dad would say to me that there is magic found in every
mistake. If you made a mistake, inside that mistake you can learn something. For
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How to Achieve a Rich Mindset | Preparing yourself to Be Rich

example, we wouldnt have learned to ride a bicycle if we werent willing to fall off a
few times. In falling off, magic happens. We learn to ride a bicycle and the world opens
up for us. Instead of walking, we can now join our friends and ride all over the world.
We would never have had that magic if we followed the tenet taught in school that
making mistakes is bad and means youre stupid. The reality is that the people who
make the most mistakes, make the most money, period. The people who make the
least mistakes make the least money. When somebody says to me, I dont want to
take a risk. Investing is risky. I want to play it safe. What theyre saying subconsciously
is, I dont want to make a mistake.
Mistakes are how we learn. People looking for security are afraid to make mistakes.
Theyve been taught to play it safe, not take risks, and not trust anybody. But they dont
realize that the reason they have a hard time is because they try and do everything
on their own so no one will see them make a mistake. Thats why what we learned in
school oftentimes holds us back. Emotionally, school has taught you, do not take a
risk. Be a coward instead of conquering your fear.
The reason I make as much money as I do is because Ive failed more times than
most people have failed. My rich dad would to say to me, Show me somebody who
has never failed, and Ill show you a failure. The way you can expand your world is by
taking small risks and learning from them.
Unfortunately, what most people do when they make a mistake is they blame
somebody else, or they pretend, and they go into denial or they justify it. They waste
a very valuable experience, the experience of making a mistake. The reason I have so
much money is early on in my life I was willing to take risks and lose it. Even today, Ill
take a risk knowing that Im going to make a mistake. When somebody says, What
are the chances of you making a mistake? I say, Pretty high. But if I learn from the
mistake, Im going to be smarter than somebody who did not make the mistake.
The problem with most people who did well in school is how they handle mistakes
when they eventually make one. When my poor dad made a financial mistake at age
50, he couldnt handle the failure and he never evolved. Ive seen that happen so many
times in business where really smart people get stuck because of their paradigms,
their risks, and their fear of making mistakes. They dont want to go any further for
fear of making a mistake and so they stay there. They dont go further because they
dont want the risk.
In the real world, you need to have street smarts as well as school smarts. The streetsmart person will often go a lot farther than somebody who is just school smart.
In school, your report card is your financial statement. It is an indicator of how well
youre doing. If you get all As, it means you did well in school. Once you leave school,
your report card is your financial statement. Since youve never been taught how to
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read a financial statement, you really dont know how well youre doing financially.
Most people by the time theyre age 45 should have at least $1 million dollars. The
reason I say at least $1 million dollars by age 45 is because if you work from 25 to
65 years old, 45 is half way. If you dont have $1 million dollars in net assets sitting in
that asset column, you still have 20 years to correct, and you can start accumulating
that money. Unfortunately, most people will not find out until theyre 65 years old. They
have nothing in their asset column, and thats going to be the biggest mistake of all.
Heres my question for you: How do you think an average investor handles mistakes?
Chances are they retreat. They tuck their tail and run saying that investing is too
dangerous. That is a real shame, because if they could have looked at the mistakes
made and learned from them, they could have been far more likely to become a rich
investor must faster.

Be, Do, Have

A very important aspect of preparing yourself emotionally to be rich is understanding
who you have to be before you worry about what you need to do to get what you want
to have. Most people want to have money, but they dont know what to do and thats
because they dont know who they need to be. If I want to climb Mount Everest, it has
nothing to do with the doing-ness. Climbing Mount Everest is really about who I have
to be to climb the mountain. It is all about your state of mind. To me, being rich is first
and foremost, a state of mind.
My rich dad said, The biggest mistake the poor and middle class make is they think
that if they have more money, it will solve their problems. My poor dad always said,
Ill just work harder. Ill be a better employee, and next year Ill get a $100 pay raise
per month. My poor dad thought that having more money would solve his financial
problems. The problem was his being. At his core, he was a poor man. He was a very,
very poor man with poor thoughts. Unfortunately, he didnt understand it was his
thoughts that were holding him back. He didnt know what to do. Ultimately, no matter
how much money he had, he was never wealthy. The moment he was fired, he found
out he had nothing. There was nothing there for him. He had nothing in his asset
column. He failed to realize that being rich is a state of mind.
The biggest mistake that poor people make is thinking they need to work really, really
hard and do the right things. Sure, after a while, they may have a lot of money, but if
they havent changed their being, from a poor person to a rich person, then theyll lose
all their money. Ill say it again. Poor people who do not change their being will still be
poor even after they accumulate a lot of money.
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How to Achieve a Rich Mindset | Preparing yourself to Be Rich

I have a friend who made $2 million this year in the stock market. He is more afraid
than he was before because his being-ness is afraid of losing the $2 million he didnt
have before. He was afraid when he didnt have it and now hes afraid when he has it.
His being is still that of a poor person. Youve got to make the shift from being a poor
person to being a rich person. If not, youre going to lose what you get. Thats why we
have lottery winners wholl win $25 million and in less than 5 years, theyll be deeply in
debt because their being remained that of a poor person.
When youre poor, you value a high income. In other words, you want a high paying
job. You want to make a lot of money. You want to lower your expenses. Thats why so
many books today tell you to cut up your credit cards and get out of debt. This speaks
to those who want high income and low expenses.
Becoming a rich person means shifting your thinking. You dont want high income.
You want low income. Its exactly the opposite thinking. You want high expenses.
What the poor and middle class want is high income, low expenses. Ultimately, what
the rich wantbecause theyre more financially intelligent and not as addicted to
moneyis high expenses and low income. Those are some of the shifts a person
needs to make if theyre going to be rich and keep the money they make.
The average investor doesnt work on himself or herself to become rich. The
average investor just keeps looking for the right deal or opportunity. The average
investor does not work on his/her mindset and growing his/her investor IQ. The rich
investor knows that the most important ley of any investment is the investor not the
investment. The rich investor works on his/her mindset and intelligence first. That is
exactly what you are doing by reading this eBook.

Two Kinds of Money

Problems
A person needs to be financially literate to make the shift from wanting high income/
low expenses to wanting low income/high expenses. You need to be able to read a
financial statement.
What the rich know is that they need to drop their income as far as they can. They
want to spend as much as they can to raise their expenses. They know if they dont
spend it, the government is going to take it away.
I want to be clear here. The rich do not spend their money on trinkets and doodads.
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Rather the rich spend their money buy assets that produce more money.
There are only two kinds of money problems. One problem is not enough money
and another problem is too much money. I oftentimes hear people say, Well, when
I make a lot of money, my money problems are over. That is exactly a poor persons
being-ness and thinking-ness. The reality is when you have a lot of money you have
a different set of money problems. The problem is too much money and if you dont
understand the tax and corporate laws, you will end up giving your money away.
Often, my accountant will call me up and say, Robert, youre making too much money
again. You need to step up your expenses and move that money someplace else.
You see, if you dont spend it, the government is going to take it from you. What the
rich do is they move that extra money into additional assets like real estate and other
companies. That is why the rich get richer. They create expenses as much as they can
to keep their income low.
The average investor tries to make money through working hard and raises while
lowering his/her expenses. The rich investor has learned to spend more money, but on
buying assets which will make more money.

Face Your Fears

When it comes to money, emotional intelligence is far more important than academic
intelligence. Emotional intelligence is how you handle yourself at all times, both good
and bad. When youre afraid, do you go forward or do you pull back? Most people back
down when theyre afraid. Thats not intelligent. An intelligent person thinks logically,
unemotionally, and says, I need to learn to do this.
I flunked out of high school because I couldnt write. I flunked typing and I flunked
accounting. I was the worst salesman in the world because I was so shy and afraid of
rejection. My rich dad told me, You have a choice. You can choose to overcome those
fears and short comings or you can be a prisoner to them forever. While advising
me on similar situations, my poor dad would say, Look, just play it safe. Dont upset
anything. Be comfortable. Take care of yourself. Be gentle.
Because of what my rich dad taught me, when I came back from Vietnam I went and
took a job. The only job I ever took was learning how to sell. Rich dad said, If you want
to be a business owner, you need to know how to sell and communicate ideas to other
people. Whether it is to your employees, your accountant, your banker, your investors,
or the people around you. You need to know how to sell. Thats why he encouraged
me to learn how to sell. It wasnt that he wanted me to become a salesman. He
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How to Achieve a Rich Mindset | Preparing yourself to Be Rich

wanted me to overcome my fears. So for two years, I was the worst salesman Xerox
ever had.
After a while, my rich dad asked, How are you doing? I said, Im going to get fired. I
hate sales. People keep saying no to me. I hate rejection. Im not any good. To which
rich dad said, The truth is youre scared. Youre a coward. Youve got a choice. Thats
what kept me going. I kept selling and selling and soon I realized that what I thought
of myself is more important than what others thought of me. I kept going. I found
mentors to help me. I gained the skills. I learned from masters.
Then, one day I had a magical breakthrough. I wasnt afraid anymore. I still had the
fear, but the fear didnt contain me. There wasnt a wall in front of me anymore and I
started making other breakthroughs. I went from the worst to number one in sales
and this whole new world opened to me because I overcame my fear.
I still dont like rejection, but now it doesnt control me. I say no to a lot of people, but
it doesnt mean I dont like them. It doesnt mean I think less of them. In fact, Im often
more impressed when people come up to me and continue on after I tell them no.
Overcoming my fear is one of the biggest breakthroughs Ive ever had in my life.
When my wife, Kim, and I first got together, I told her, I want to become rich. I dont
want to marry somebody rich, but I want a partner who wants to become rich too.
When we first got married, she was more courageous than I was. Over the years, shes
kept me strong. When I first started chasing her, she turned me down for six months.
Six months. Shes the most beautiful woman I ever saw and the first time I asked
her out she said no. Most people would have quit. I asked her three more times
after that and she still said no. Two months later and she was still saying no. Six
months later, she was still saying no, but by then I didnt care because if I didnt ask,
the answer was no anyway. Finally, one day she says, Yes, Ill go out with you. I cant
believe youre such an idiot. I said, Thank you, and weve been together ever since.
Been happily married, and without her, I would never have had this life. Its all about
overcoming your emotions and not quitting.
The same goes for me and writing. Every time I sat down to write my book I could
hear my two English teachers saying to me, You cant write. Youll never be smart. I
had to sit at that computer day after day after day. But I was determined that it wasnt
going to get the best of me. Now my book has become the best-selling personal
finance book of all time. If I had given into those fears and those self-doubts, I would
never have had a book on the bestseller list.
The thing about getting ahead in life is not backing down to your fears and doubts.
Each one of them is a challenge and a lesson. Rich dad said to me, If you only do
what youre good at, you limit yourself. The way to get better is to go after what youre
not good at, and thats how you expand yourself.

The average investor embraces fear. He/she has bought into the belief that a good
and reasonable excuse to not face risk is just as good as trying. The average investor
has learned to justify and embrace his fear. The rich investor identifies risk, and asks
how he/she can minimize the risk. The rich investor is also more willing to accept
limited risks as a way to improve his/her learning.

How Prepared Are You?

Finally, one of rich dads greatest lessons on preparing to be rich was a simple one.
However, most people dont recognize it. Rich dad taught that the way the world, the
universe, God, or whatever word you want to use, set things up, it is impossible to lose.
In other words, life is a no-lose universe. The only way to lose is to focus on it. People
who focus on loss, especially financially, ultimately lose. Thats why I think emotional
intelligence is so important.
If you do not control your emotions and are continually afraid of losing, you will lose.
It might not come in the form you expect, but eventually, you will lose. Rich dad taught
me that financially, it is absolutely impossible to lose if you step back and look at the
big picture. Tax laws are set up for you not to lose. Corporate laws are set up for you
not to lose. Its almost impossible to lose unless you have the concept or belief of
losing.
When I hear somebody say, Investing is risky, or What if I lose my money? or What
happens if I fail? I know they arent ready to become rich. They are focused on losing.
Some of the highest spiritual moments in my life have come facing death. One of
the greatest experiences was when I was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War.
We were fighting for a city called Quang Tri. I was there and we were coming to the
realization that we were going to lose the war.
I remember sitting on the deck of my aircraft carrier at night. You watched the sea
roll below you and see the moon and the horizon. Id sit there quietly listening to the
waves lapping on the bough of the ship. Id think to myself, Lord, if tomorrow is my
last day, so be it. All I ask is I live it to the fullest. I have four other guys in the aircraft
that count on me to be the very, very best. I have prepared for three years for this
moment. I have practiced. If I am not the best, then maybe I should not fly, but if I am
the best, if I am prepared as possible, then let me fly to the best of my ability.
I would always make peace with my soul before any mission. I always asked myself,
Have I lived my life to the fullest? I didnt ask whether I had done right or wrong. I
wanted to know if I had lived life to the fullest. Once I made peace that it was okay to
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How to Achieve a Rich Mindset | Preparing yourself to Be Rich

die, at that moment I could fly with abandon. In other words, I didnt care if I lived or
died. I also knew that the pilots who said, Im afraid of dying needed to be taken right
off the mission. This was because their emotions had overcome their sensibilities.
Their emotions had overcome their ability to do a good job. When I tell people
what it takes to become rich, I let them know they must be a leader. In other words,
employees only think about themselves or their family.
As a business owner, I think about multiple families, multiple people. If Im not the best
leader possibleif I havent studied, if I havent practiced, if Im not on the cutting edge,
if Im not doing my jobI should not be the leader of a business. The reason most
people are not successful in business or investing is because they dont take on a
leadership role. A leader must be prepared.
I prepared for 3 years to be ready for the battle at Quang Tri. My job was to be my best
for that moment. One of my gunnery sergeants told me, In battle, theres no second
place. Forget about politics. Forget about whether the war was right or wrong. Forget
all of that because at that moment your job is to make sure that your four men plus
yourself come back alive. You make sure that what youre doing is an integral part of a
bigger operation. Do your job. Theres no second place in battle. You either win, or you
lose. Ive carried that mentality into business and investing.
Are you willing to do the same?

A Final Word
When you look in a mirror, what do you whisper? Do you berate yourself with
comments like Im overweight and Im getting old? Or do you stand tall and say I
look great! A mirror reflects much more than what your eyes see. A mirror reflects
your inner thoughts and your beliefsyour soul. Listen to the thoughts that come from
your soul. Are they negative? Youll never embark on the road to riches if you let such
thoughts constrain you.
If youre harboring negative thoughts, you need to understand what they really mean.
For example, if you tell yourself, I cant stop working and start my own business. I
have a mortgage and a family to think about, you might really be saying, I dont have
time, and Im too tired to learn anything new.
Its time to dig deep down and unearth your personal truths. Dont let buried thoughts
sap your energy and motivation. Unearth them, and free yourself to move forward.
Sometimes we let negative statements play over and over in our minds like endless
mantras. Once you know the truth beneath your negative statements, talk back to
them. Start an argument with yourself! Think of ways to counter each one.
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You are making an important investment by reading this eBook, regardless of

whether you agree with it or not. In todays ever-changing world, the most important
investment you can make is an investment in ongoing education and searching for
new ideas. So keep searching, and keep challenging your old ideas.
You have the power to create a world of not enough money as well as a world of an
abundance of money. Creating a world of an abundance of money does require a
degree of creativity, a high standard of financial and business literacy, a mindset for
seeking opportunities rather than for seeking security, and the ability to be cooperative
instead of competitive. Rich dad guided me in shaping my thoughts by saying, You
can choose to live in a world of not enough money or a world of too much money.
That choice is up to you.

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