Kim Kiyosaki on Marriage, Money and Robert – p2 of 3

Posted by: Philippe Matthews in Money & Finance 1 Comment 20085 Views

Kim Kiyosaki

KIM ON THE CREATION OF CASH FLOW

Philippe Matthews
Tell me how the conversation goes when Robert comes to you with this idea about Rich Dad and the Cash Flow game.

Kim Kiyosaki
“He had been working on Rich Dad for years. Neither of us had any inkling, or ever thought this would be the success that it is – not a clue! He wrote this book, we printed a thousand copies and thought we would give it away for Christmas presents for years and it will be done. He wrote it, it’s done, it’s on paper and it’s recorded. He spent a couple of years working on this book and as he was working on that he said, ‘I have this idea about a game.’ And the game is really everything we’ve done in our life in terms of how we invested and how we got out of the rat race. Even all those deals on the fast track, they are all somehow related to us. We have done most of them or all of them, failed on many of them and we have lots of memories but the story on that is when we sold our business in 1994 to an education company and we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do next. I thought maybe I would go do my own business and he start his own business and maybe we would do it separately this time. We went to New York City right before Christmas in 1995 and you know on the Today Show when they go outside? If you look there is sign that reads Dean & Deluca; it’s a coffee shop? Well, we were sitting there one morning and the Today Show was taping and we started talking about this cash flow game and it was there that we decided we were going to do this together. We were going to be business partners and see where this takes us. We built the game in 1996, launched it actually in Singapore in October of 1996 and launched it in the US in November 1996.”

Philippe Matthews
How did you meet Sharon Lechter?

Kim Kiyosaki
“We met Sharon when we were beta-testing the cash flow game. Robert was looking for a patent attorney and he called me one day and had interviewed three. He called me from his car and said, ‘Okay, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I found the perfect patent attorney. The bad news is he is the most f#$% expensive attorney I’ve ever met!’ That was Michael Lechter (Sharon’s husband). One day I was driving to meet with Michael and he was charging $500 an hour! I’m driving down there and thinking, ‘I don’t have anything specific to talk with him about, maybe I should call and cancel the meeting?’ I almost picked up the phone and cancelled it and said to myself, ‘No, no, no; I made the appointment – go through with it.’ I don’t know why I even asked Michael this question but I said, ‘Michael, we’re looking for someone to help Robert complete his book. It needs editing and needs some work. Do you know anyone who writes?’ He said, ‘yeah, my wife Sharon.’ We had met Sharon at a beta test a couple of months earlier and that’s how Robert and Sharon became writing partners. Sharon also helped us out when we were doing the game and would meet with us, give us ideas on the corporate side and helped us set up the business. She gave us a lot of free advice with no agenda.”

Philippe Matthews
Tell me about Robert’s new rich dad and your partnership with Sharon.

Kim Kiyosaki
“Robert has a new rich dad, his name was Frank and he had taken sixty six companies public. We’re having lunch with Frank one day and he has been one of my best teachers. He’s 84 years old and is just as curious as a five year-old, he’s just amazing. Frank turns to us and says, ‘Okay, you’ve got this cash flow business now.’ He turns to Robert and asks, ‘You want to run this thing?’ Robert goes, ‘Heavens no, I don’t want to run this thing.’ He turns to me and asks, ‘Do you want to run it?’ I already know I am not good with day-to-day stuff, I don’t do it well. He says, ‘Well you better hire a president.’ I said, ‘don’t you have to bring somebody in and train them; get them comfortable with the business and get them to learn it?’ He says, ‘No, put an ad in the Wall Street Journal, there’s plenty of people out there, hire somebody.’ One day we were talking with Sharon, sitting down at her dinning room table and said, Sharon would you like to be our partner? That’s how we became partners. We are all equal partners in the business and to this day we still abide by our same policies; decisions are not made independently, we all make them together. Somebody will come and say, ‘Well, Robert agreed to this.’ I’ll look at Sharon and Sharon will look at me and say, ‘No, he did not because we haven’t talked with him about that yet and he would not do such a thing.”

Philippe Matthews
Did you ever feel this was something divinely guided and produced?

Kim Kiyosaki
“I do! This may sound strange but I really felt when we made that decision at the Dean & Deluca Coffee Shop, I got very calm. It felt like the Great Spirit — some people use the word God — I use Great Spirit was saying, ‘Just do it and it will work.’ The book just surprised the heck out of us, we just had no idea.”

Philippe Matthews
How did that level of success affect you?

Kim Kiyosaki
“I would like to think it hasn’t changed us much but there are a couple of things that certainly have changed and I have to say my relationship with Robert and our marriage has become much stronger because we battled through everything from 1985 to now. We can now sit back and take a breather. One big thing that has changed is because we are so much in the public when we do these events; we really have become more private. We really value our time together and our time alone. A lot of our friends are the same friends.”

KIM ON THE ADJUSTMENT TO SUCCESS & WEALTH

Philippe Matthews
With friends, you can change or trade them in, but family is another issue. How has your family adjusted to your wealth and success?

Kim Kiyosaki
“We’ve had some interesting changes just in the last month. My family and I have always been very close. I have two older sisters so there is five of us and when Robert and I were going through our very tough time, they were very concerned and there was definitely tension but they were always very supportive. Robert’s family on the other side, he and his brother were at odds for many, many years. There was a bit of anxiety because Robert had written a story about their dad and some people felt he made fun of his dad which he really was not doing. So, there was some animosity there. Just recently though and this was the neatest thing, Robert’s brother, John and his son Jason who is sixteen years old, last year we were talking with them and said, ‘We’re doing this seminar,’ and Jason got interested because we did this one day event in Honolulu and Jason wanted to come to the event. We brought them both over and Jason got really turned on by real estate and now his older brother is interested and we get this letter from Jason saying, ‘I just want to let you know that at 16 years old, these courses have changed my life. I have a job selling window tinting. I am researching all of the real estate in Honolulu and my life has changed forever!’ Robert’s brother, John who was always in his own world and really not interested is now turning his life around and actually got a position with a property management company to learn property management and learn real estate. That has been pretty spectacular!”

Philippe Matthews
I hear it in your voice that there is a massive passion to teach. Where did that come from? You came from being an “E” on the Cash flow Quadrant but you don’t have an “E” (Employee) mentality.

Kim Kiyosaki
“That’s a really good question because my father was an employee all of his life, he was in sales for a paper company and everybody around me were all employees. I didn’t meet any entrepreneurs or business owners growing up but I think when I got fired twice from my first job; to be honest, I hate being told what to do. That was the problem! They wanted me at the job at a certain time and it was very structured and I am not structured. Thank God I didn’t move to New York City that would have been a huge mistake. The teaching part for me comes from people coming up to me at the events and asking questions. They are so interested in learning and they are so excited that they (Robert & crew) have to sometimes pull me back and tell me the show is about to start and I just want to talk to people. If I can share something that I have learned and make it a little easier for somebody else, great! What happens is it comes full circle because I’m always looking for new teachers and looking for new information and I find that people really do want to share what they know. Not everybody but the majority of them and especially successful people, I find that they do want to give back and they do want to share their knowledge.”

KIM ON RICH MARRIAGE POOR MARRIAGE

Philippe Matthews
I see a book coming from the two of you called Rich Marriage Poor Marriage!

Kim Kiyosaki
“There you go!”

Philippe Matthews
Speaking on that, how important is it to do what you do and be married to the right person?

Kim Kiyosaki
“Good question. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted my life partner to be my business partner. I don’t recommend it for everybody. I know some couples that would probably kill each other but when Robert and I have an argument, it’s always about business – it’s not personal, it’s about business; that’s where our biggest blowups happen. When it works, I think it’s brilliant. I am not the same person I was back in 1986 when we got married. You grow, you learn and a lot of people grow in different directions.”

Philippe Matthews
What happens when two evenly yoked people grow in two different directions and try and maintain a marriage and/or a business?

Kim Kiyosaki
“I would think that would be hell to be honest and I hear that a lot from women and men – ‘I really want to move forward but my partner is not interested and how do I get them interested?’ That’s the million dollar question. It’s like anything when you have a team and especially with marriage, you always have something to talk about. I see these couples at restaurants, older couples, and they are just sitting there with nothing to talk about. Robert and I always have something to talk about, it’s always exciting and we’re always sharing. We don’t have kids by choice. We love our lifestyle, we love to travel and Robert asked me earlier about my reaction toward having kids and I was in my late twenties and said, ‘Not right now, maybe later but it’s not a high priority for me.’ He thought I was lying and trying to trick him. We love our lifestyle but I see couples and all they have in common is their kids and then when the kids move on they are left with ‘Who are you?’ I think the main thing with couples even if you don’t work together is you have to grow together. We have a policy that anytime one of us wants to attend a seminar, we both attend. A lot of times, we will read the same books and then discuss it. When you attend a seminar, it’s really hard to explain it and verbalize some of the things that happened because sometimes a light bulb will go off or a mind-shift change and its hard to explain that in words. But it is really easy when your partner is sitting there next to you, experiencing the same thing you are.”

Watch and listen to what Robert Kiyosaki has to say about the importance of being in the right relationship to be rich!