9 Priceless Lessons By Robert Kiyosaki Every Entrepreneur Should Follow

While Robert Kiyosaki is mainly known for his popular book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he’s also an investor and the founder of several businesses. His estimated net worth is $80 million and his teachings have already helped millions of people to improve their financial literacy. For many years, he’s influencing and teaching millions of people worldwide. His products and services teach how to handle money correctly and build wealth, even if you start from scratch.

Even though most of Kiyosaki’s advice is directed towards finances and wealth accumulation, I found some universal lessons which are relevant — no matter if you’re an entrepreneur, employee, investor, or recent graduate.

Focus On Growing Your Income And Spirit.

One of the main reasons for financial struggles is that most people only think about their expenses. The majority of the population constantly looks for ways to save money but doesn’t bother about making more money.

While saving certainly is a good idea, only increasing your income can make a significant impact on your wealth in the long run.

Wealthy people don’t save money. They all invest wisely and let their money work for them while they’re busy building even more income streams.

Most people would drive to a faraway supermarket to save a few bucks on groceries but wouldn’t take a few hours to find out how they could increase their income. Saving is easier than building new income sources and the majority would choose comfort over hard work for a lifetime.

Saving money might be more comfortable than looking for further income streams. Yet, making your money work for you is how you’ll not just save a few bucks but build significant wealth.

“It’s more important to grow your income than cut your expenses. It’s more important to grow your spirit than cut your dreams.”

Instead of decreasing your expenses, take some time, and ask yourself whether you could build additional income streams.

Maybe you have some time in the evenings or on weekends to help out with the business of a friend? Or perhaps you have some skills and knowledge you could teach others and get paid for it? Or what about completing a few courses on high paying skills such as content or copywriting and offering these as a freelance service?

If you’re open to change and ready to get to work, new money-making opportunities will come your way and you’ll just need to say Yes and get shit done.

Work For Knowledge, Not Money.

“Don’t be addicted to money. Work to learn. don’t work for money. Work for knowledge.”

Particularly young people often get trapped in a doom loop of working for money. They graduate, believe they already know everything, and look for high-paying jobs. Eventually, they find those, but soon realize that money alone isn’t as satisfying as they thought.

Not only Robert Kiyosaki but many of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time share how working for free and gaining experience and knowledge was one of the most valuable things they did at the beginning of their career.

Knowledge (particularly applied knowledge) is one of the most powerful resources of our time and inevitable to build wealth and live a happy life.

If you’re too focused on making money, you might lose valuable opportunities because you won’t even see them. Money always follows knowledge and smart decisions, not the other way around.

To maximize your chances for (financial) success, take some time to learn from people who’re ahead of you. Support them on their path, even if it’s voluntary, so that they later have a good reason to support you.

There’s nothing more valuable than getting insights into the brain of someone who’s living your desired life. Grab the phone, call people, and always look for opportunities to support others. Once you have enough knowledge and experience, building your business, career, and sustainable wealth will be so much easier than learning the hard lessons by yourself.

Follow One Course Until Success.

According to Robert Kiyosaki, focus is an acronym for follow one course until success.

He particularly encourages young people to do one thing at a time and not work on too many projects at the same time. In our current society, the shiny object syndrome is one of the main reasons why so many people end up unfulfilled. They constantly see new opportunities and challenges, hop on them, but quickly lose interest because they think there’s something even better.

When Kiyosaki started investing, he did it over and over again, made many mistakes, but didn’t give up until he finally understood the basics and succeeded.

Once he felt confident about his investment skills, he was curious about entrepreneurship and tried out different business models until he found one that was promising. Again, he focused on that one thing until it worked out.

Great things and worthy results hardly come through the first attempt. Most people give up way too early and thus never experience significant wins.

Sometimes, the key to success is in biting through and continuing with one single thing instead of starting with new ideas every few months.

Don’t Be Afraid Of Losses.

At school, we’re taught to avoid mistakes. While we ignore the correct answers, mistakes are in a constant hot spot.

According to Kiyosaki, fear of failure is one of the main reasons why most people don’t succeed in life and business. While avoiding mistakes is vital at school, real life is different. Without errors, you won’t learn anything new.

Most successful entrepreneurs made mistakes and suffered various failures until they eventually succeeded.

“In the real world, the smartest people are people who make mistakes and learn. In school, the smartest people don’t make mistakes.”

When I started my first business besides my studies at the age of 19, I realized how different real life was to what I learned in 13 years of formal education.

Even though I studied business administration, I had no idea about the reality of doing business and learned most of my lessons by making mistakes and finding out how things don’t work.

If you’re afraid of losing, winning will be hard. If you, however, don’t worry about failure and just keep going with perseverance and smart decisions, you won’t have much to lose.

Find A Game Where You Can Win.

Most people fail in business (and life) because they focus on the wrong activities and goals.

While I already mentioned sticking with one thing until it works, the complete reality is that you need to focus on something that matches your strengths and talents.

Succeeding in something that you don’t enjoy (and aren’t good at) is so much harder than playing a game where you can apply your strengths.

There’s no point in forcing success at something that is outside of your talent zone. Of course, you can learn everything, but working on your weaknesses takes way more time and energy than investing in your strengths.

“Find the game where you can win, and then commit your life to playing it; and play to win.”

It took me more than two years and lots of failures until I found my game in business, but once I knew what to do, I quickly experienced growth. And to my surprise, I heard numerous similar stories of fellow entrepreneurs once I openly shared my struggles.

Sometimes, you need to sacrifice the good for the great and let go of wrong expectations in order to focus on something that is not only promising but also exciting for your soul. It’s not only easier but also more fun to do something you’re good at.

Don’t Rely On Formal Education.

Even though I went to business school, I knew nothing about starting and running a business until I actually did it.

“The trouble with school is they give you the answer, then they give you the exam. That’s not life.”

Real life and particularly real business are so much different than what we learn at schools and universities.

If you rely on formal education, you might get a job, but only through self-education can you make a fortune and build successful businesses.

While schools teach you to avoid failure, most great businesses have been built after numerous mistakes.

My dear friend Dejan Stojanovic even calls himself a Failure Enthusiast. A few years ago, he created a community of people who aren’t afraid of mistakes but instead encourage each other to keep going. He brought all these people together and broke the silence of not talking about failures. Instead, he encouraged people from various backgrounds to share their fuck ups so that the community could learn from each other.

Now, he started The Failure Talks, a series of interviews with successful entrepreneurs and leaders who don’t only talk about success but also the downsides of business.

Once you take a closer look, you’ll see how successful entrepreneurs hardly rely on formal education. The good news, however, is that we have more knowledge at our fingertips than ever before. Thus, educating yourself is not only simple but also for free if you take the time and learn from various sources.

Be Careful About How You Spend Your Time.

Wealthy people and successful entrepreneurs both know that their time is one of their most valuable resources. Instead of wasting time, they spend money to solve problems.

The majority, however, does the opposite: Most people spend hours solving minor challenges and drain their energy because it’s cheaper than paying for (professional) support.

“The only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time.”

If you spend your time on the wrong activities, you’ll find yourself in the wrong places. If you, however, prioritize your time and energy, you’ll only do activities that are meaningful and effective. This, in return, will help you to achieve your desired goals much quicker.

Never Hope For Something.

According to Robert Kiyosaki, hope drains energy. Action, however, creates energy.

Too many people spend their time daydreaming and hoping for things to happen instead of making it happen. They have ideas, hopes, and dreams, but no action plans. Yet, without execution, even the best idea isn’t worth anything.

While hoping for something and not receiving it will kill your motivation and energy, taking massive, determined action and using the law of attraction will help you to achieve your goals.

Manifestation is real, the law of attraction is real, working your ass off is real but hoping for something just isn’t.

Instead of relying on hope, do this:

“Find out where you are at, where you are going and build a plan to get there.”

The Best Knowledge Results From Personal Experience.

According to Kiyosaki, personal experience is the best investment you can make. He believes that we mostly learn from our own mistakes and openly shares how he made wrong decisions, got into debt, and was criticized for his actions.

“Every time I did an investment, be it real estate or business, I got smarter because experience makes you smarter.’’

Of course, it doesn’t make sense to make wrong decisions just to see whether they’re really wrong or not.

Whenever possible, avoiding obvious mistakes by reaching out to mentors or coaches is certainly a good idea. Yet, if you’re not sure whether a decision is right or not, making the experience yourself will lead to most insights and to lessons you might not be able to learn otherwise.

By investing in your experiences and knowledge (e.g., through new courses, education, retreats, new partnerships, etc.), you’ll learn to assess both risks and opportunities and make better decisions in the future.

Final Thoughts

Just like the majority of all life and business advice, the lessons we can learn from Robert Kiyosaki aren’t sophisticated. You’ve probably heard about most lessons various times, but as always, the question is whether you apply them or not.

Without application and action, the most priceless advice isn’t worth anything. If you, however, apply one piece of advice at a time, you might soon realize how these small steps accumulate and lead to changes in your life, business, and bank account.