The Business School For People Who Like Helping People

Some friends of ours let Jessi borrow Robert Kiyosaki's book The Business School For People Who Like Helping People. She read it and loved it. Jessi then let my mom borrow it. She read it and loved it. My mom returned it to us to return to our friends (are you still following?) and that's when I saw it, read it and loved it. I think now we can return it.

As with all Kiyosaki books, this one is about starting your own business. Instead of it being a how-to book, Kiyosaki stays with his tried and true style of convincing you WHY you should do it and hopefully motivate you enough that you actually go and do something about it. It works for me, though others hate it.

As a side bar: A how-to style get rich book won't work. The fortune is in doing something creative - providing a good or service that hasn't been thought of yet. When you do that, you create value and people are willing to pay for it. Someone holding your hand, telling you exactly what to do, does not create value. Beside, unless you're the one writing the book, chances are enough other people have done it that even if there is value, it's small.

OK, on with the book review. In this book, Kiyosaki talks about the benefits of network marketing.

1. There's true equal opportunity - everyone is qualified to try and all types of have been successful. The low start-up costs and included training make this possible.
2. Life changing business education - this one is huge. You are taught how to run and operate your own business. More on the benefits of a business later.
3. Friends who pull you up, not push you down - your business partners want you to be successful because that feeds their success. It truly creates an atmosphere of helping.
4. The value of a network - the trick is not just to only sell yourself, but to train others to sell. When you do that, the results are exponential (Metcalf's Law).
5. Develops your most important business skill: sales - in order to be successful in a business you MUST learn how to sell. Networking companies train you how to do that.
6. Leadership - as you succeed, you get put into leadership roles. You also learn how to speak to large crowds and motivate people.
7. Not working for money - if you choose a business that offers residual income, you are building wealth, not income. In other words, you no longer have a direct 1-to-1 trade off of trading time for money. Even the tax advantages alone make it worth it.
8. Living your dreams - Networking companies encourage you to dream and reach those dreams. This goes right with #3 & #7. They also allow you to start part-time and build at a pace that is right for you.
9. Marriage and business - Jessi and I know this to be true. Unlike working for company alone most of the day, Jessi and I get to run our business together. We lift each other up.

One of the concepts Kiyosaki keeps refreshing is the cash flow quadrant.

I've talked about this before, and the diagram is relatively self explanatory, so I'll get to the take-away. In Built To Last, Jim Collins talks about clock building. Some companies tell time. Other companies build clocks. Both have the same end result when asked what time it is, but building clocks allows people to continue to tell the time on their own... when you are gone. That's what being a true business owner is all about: You create an independent system that works for you. Network marketing is about creating a duplicate-able process, a system that self duplicates. This is what #4 talks about - the power of that leverage.

Like most of his books, this is a quick read that is definitely worth it. You'll enjoy it and definitely learn something new.