Kim Kiyosaki on Marriage, Money and Robert – p1 of 3

Posted by: Philippe Matthews in Money & Finance 2 Comments 36652 Views

By: Philippe Matthews

Kim Kiyosaki

Author of Rich Woman, Kim Kiyosaki entered the business world in a position with a top Honolulu advertising agency and by age 25 she was operating a Honolulu magazine that served the city’s business community. It didn’t take long for Kim’s entrepreneurial spirit to surface and two years later she ventured into her first business: a clothing company with national distribution.

Not long after launching that company, Kim joined Robert Kiyosaki as a partner in a company that taught entrepreneurial business throughout the world. That business grew to support 11 offices in seven countries, presenting business seminars to tens of thousands of attendees.

In 1989 Kim began her real estate investing career with the purchase of a small 2-bedroom, 1 bath rental house in Portland, Oregon. Today Kim’s real estate investment company buys, sells and manages millions of dollars worth of property. Kim strongly advocates and encourages women to get into the world of investing. According to Kim, “Investing can ultimately lead women to freedom – freedom of never having to be dependent on anyone for their financial well-being.”

Kim and Robert, who married in 1984, sold their education seminar business in 1994 and ‘retired’. In 1997, Kim and Robert – with partner and Rich Dad Poor Dad co-author Sharon Lechter – founded the company that would take the Rich Dad® message and mission of financial literacy – through books, games, and other educational tools – to international recognition and acclaim.

Rich Dad’s Organization is the collaborative effort of Robert and Kim Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter, who, in 1996, embarked on a journey that would afford them the opportunity to impact the financial literacy of people everywhere and carry the Rich Dad mission to every corner of the world.

I had the opportunity to sit down and Q&A with Kim about the power of building the Rich Dad brand, the strength of relationship and the power behind their plight to the top of the wealth food chain.

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
How did you meet Robert and when did you know that this was the guy?

Kim Kiyosaki
“That goes back to 1984. I was working in Honolulu, I had been living there for about seven years and one day at TGIF, a girlfriend and I, Karen was in there having a drink after work and she introduced me to Robert. At the time I was moving to New York City. I was in advertising and thought it was time for me to climb the corporate ladder and that’s what I wanted to do, and I was going to get the corner office on Madison Avenue; I had the whole plan. So when I met Robert that was already in the works and I had actually given notice at my other job. Robert kept calling and sending me flowers and asking me out and I kept telling him, ‘no, no, no; I’m moving to New York City. This went on about six months. He would leave on business trips and send me postcards. Finally one day he called me at work and said he would like to get together and have drink after work and I said, ‘okay, how about tonight?’ He said ‘okay.’ Unbeknownst to me he had been talking to my girlfriend, Karen who was an old girlfriend of his from about seven years earlier and I didn’t know that at the time.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
What was Karen telling Robert about you?

Kim Kiyosaki
“He was asking Karen what is Kim like? She told him, ‘well, she likes champagne and walks on the beach.’ Robert is such a good salesman; after work, I drove up to his apartment building which is an apartment/hotel that was a really nice, beautiful hotel right on the beach outside Wai Ki Ki. I pulled up in my orange Toyota Celica and the valet is there and he opens my door and says, ‘oh, you must be Kim, Robert’s been waiting for you. Let me show you to his apartment.’ I swear to God, I walk up these stairs, Robert opens the door and inside I said to myself, ‘I’m home.’ It was instant even though it was six months leading up to it but I really didn’t give it a chance but when he opened the door I just knew I was home. Afterwards, we went down to the restaurant and had our champagne by the beach, went for a walk and we have been together ever since.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
Did the two of you talk most of the time?

Kim Kiyosaki
“That evening we sat up until about three o’clock in the morning talking and he said, ‘what do you want to do with your life?’ and I said, ‘I want to own my own business,’ and he said, ‘I can help you with that.’ About two months later we started this very small business and we have been business partners ever since as well.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
What business did the two of you start?

Kim Kiyosaki
“At the time, Robert was studying under his mentor Buckmeister Fuller and we really wanted to build our next business. We had this small business where we designed this logo and embroidered it on shirts and the purpose was to fund all of our travels, seminars and educations for one year throughout the US and we would sell these shirts and jackets wherever we went and it was all tied in to Bucky Fuller who was our mentor.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
Was this before or after Robert’s failed Velcro business?

Kim Kiyosaki
“We met February of 1984 and December 1984 is when we left for the mainland. Robert had taken a lot of trips to Asia where they did the manufacturing and he saw the kids in these sweat shops where they were doing silk screening and breathing in these fumes and horrible conditions and he came back and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. It’s against my conscience’ and he sold the company over to his partners and that’s when we took off.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
Robert always tells the story about when he wanted to buy a Porsche, you were the one who told him that he needed to buy an asset to pay for it, is that a true story?

Kim Kiyosaki
“That is a true story. I love to encourage women in investing just because there is not a lot of good education out there for women and women haven’t been geared towards investing. I didn’t know anything about investing until 1989 and Robert came to me and said, ‘it’s time that we start investing.’ Robert is not the one to tell you how to do it; he doesn’t give you the step-by-step but he said we needed to do it. He had done some real estate investing in Hawaii so I ventured out and my very first rental property was this little one bedroom, one bath house in Portland, Oregon and I was scared to death! I did due diligence up and down, one side to the other and tried to find every reason not to do this deal and finally came to the point where I either put the money down or walk away from it; it’s now or never. I put the money down and it put $25 in my pocket every month – that was it and I was thrilled!”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
It appears that Robert’s Rich Dad mindset was at the helm of your decision to take action and do something bold.

Kim Kiyosaki
“The whole philosophy behind Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert’s rich dad’s philosophy and it was just engrained in me even when we sold our company in 1994 and we had some money and asked what do we want to do? My biggest fear was that we would just burn through the money so we started looking at apartment buildings and businesses to buy. The choice was either a taco franchise of which we negotiated the rights to Arizona and was very labor intensive, very people intensive and we had to be hands-on operators and Robert and I are not good operators, we know that about ourselves so, instead, we bought two apartment buildings. That was a lot easier; it gave us the cash flow. I was so engrained about your assets buy your liabilities that when he came to me with this Porsche idea, it was so funny! He went down to Scottsdale Porsche, saw it; it was the car he had been looking for and sniffs the tires, takes it on a test drive which is stuff that guys do. For me, it’s the leather inside not the tires. He came back and said, ‘I really want to get this car.’ I said, ‘great, let’s go find the asset to pay for it.’ We ended up in a limited partnership in Austin, Texas with some people we know well and bought a mini-storage and the mini-storage every month would throw off the cash flow that would pay for the Porsche. The Porsche is paid for free and clear and we still have the mini-storage.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
So you were never one of these women who would tell their husbands to go out and get five jobs?

Kim Kiyosaki
“No! When I met Robert, I was looking for something new. I got fired twice from the same job. I was really good and they hired me back but I was a little overly enthusiastic. I wanted to learn so much and I would get my work done and go help somebody else and my boss and I couldn’t get along so when they fired me somebody else in the company wanted me so they hired me back and it still didn’t work. That’s when I knew I better do my own thing. So, I was looking for something new when I met Robert and he was talking about building businesses and life’s purpose, spirituality which I really hadn’t had and was looking for something.”

In my exclusive TV interview with Robert Kiyosaki, he shared the power of being in the right relationship to be rich is crucial. Watch for yourself and learn the power behind this powerful Rich Dad principle: See (Robert T. Kiyosaki pt3)