Before You Quit Your Job - Kiyosaki

You might believe you just weren't born to be the Henry Ford of your time, but the truth is that anyone can be an entrepreneur, according to Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of 'Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job: 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business' (Warner Business). Given that Kiyosaki believes that everyone has the potential to create a thriving organization, it may seem ironic that one of the major motifs of his book is 'failure.' Failure, however, is part and parcel to becoming a successful entrepreneur, ("Humans are designed to learn by making mistakes," he writes) and only those willing to risk failure should attempt to create their own industries. To help determine whether you should try to become an entrepreneur, he offers 10 lessons he learned on his journey to becoming one himself: Lesson 1: A Successful Business Is Created Before There Is a Business All too often, new entrepreneurs get so excited about a new product or opportunity that they forget to invest the time designing the operation around the product or opportunity. Before you quit your job, study the lives of industrialists and the different types of companies they created, Kiyosaki advises. Better yet, keep your daytime job while starting a part-time business -- for the experience. "Not only will you learn about business, you will learn a lot about yourself," he says. Lesson 2: Learn How to Turn Bad Luck Into Good Luck Rather than wallowing in the anger or sadness of making a mistake, take the opportunity to learn something new from that mistake and turn a bad experience into a good one. Lesson 3: Know the Difference Between Your Job and Your Work Work is what you do to prepare for your job, and doesn't necessarily mean getting paid. "Do your homework," Kiyosaki stresses repeatedly. Creating a lucrative enterprise entails five jobs: delivering a good product, knowing your legal rights, establishing a system, establishing communications and managing cash flow. If you aren't qualified to do all of these jobs, be prepared to work until you are or hire others -- such as an accountant and a lawyer -- who are. Lesson 4: Success Reveals Your Failures "Before quitting your job, know that your most important job is to develop yourself," Kiyosaki says. A business that is initially booming is still inclined to fail if the company does not continue to develop. It's not enough to cover every aspect of launching a business; you must constantly strengthen those elements in order to maintain the prosperity of that undertaking. Lesson 5: The Process Is More Important Than the Goal If you approach a business venture as a learning experience, rather than a get-rich-quick scheme, it will be that much easier to bounce back from mistakes and achieve long-term success. "High expenses are an everyday challenge in business," Kiyosaki says. Consult an experienced accountant before you begin to help you anticipate how much money you will need to both support production and cover additional expenses. If you're not willing to face these challenges, you should not become an entrepreneur. Lesson 6: The Best Answers Are Found in Your Heart ... Not Your Head Make it your company's mission to work for others, not just itself. Working towards a mission that goes beyond simply making money will ensure the best quality of work and greater likelihood of success. "If it had been just about the money, there are easier things the three of us [himself, wife Kim, and Sharon Lecter, the founders of The Rich Dad Company] could have done," he says. Lesson 7: The Scope of the Mission Determines the Product While designing your business, determine how big you want it to be. Deciding whether you want to own a small business or a big corporation will set the stage for how you produce and market your product. Lesson 8: Design a Business That Can Do Something That No Other Business Can Do "Simply put, focus all your efforts on your core strength, your unique product," Kiyosaki writes. Kiyosaki uses Domino's Pizza as an example of a business designed around a unique tactical advantage: offering a pizza in 30 minutes or less. By offering something no other pizza vendor did, Domino's immediately began taking market share from its competitors. Lesson 9: Don't Fight for the Bargain Basement "Ultimately, the most important job of an entrepreneur is to be first in the mind of your customers," Kiyosaki writes. While almost everyone knows that Lindbergh was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic, almost no one remembers who flew second. Market your product as No. 1. "If you are not first in your category, then invent a new category you can be the first in." Lesson 10: Know When to Quit Sometimes it is best to cut your losses. Not everyone should be an entrepreneur, and only those who love it and accept it as an educational process should do so. Understand that becoming an entrepreneur is a process that involves failing. Certainly, Kiyosaki's mission in writing this book is to prevent others from making all the same mistakes he did, but there will be times when quitting will seem like the easiest and best thing to do. "Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."