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The Entrepreneurial Spirit, People invest
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People invest for two basic reasons:

1. To save for retirement

2. To make a lot of money

While most of us invest for both reasons—and both are important—it seems that the majority of people lean more toward the first reason. They put money away as savers do and hope it will increase in value over time. They invest but they are more concerned about losing than winning. I have met many people whose fear of losing prevents them from acting. People need to be true to their emotional senses when investing. If the pain and the fear of losing are too great, it is best for that investor to invest very conservatively.

Yet, if you look at the great wealth of this world, that wealth has not come from cautious investors. The great changes in this world have come from investors backing what my rich dad called the entrepreneurial spirit.

One of my favorite stories is that of Christopher Columbus, a brave explorer who believed the world was round and who had a bold plan to find a faster route to the riches of Asia. However, the popular belief of his day was that the world was flat. Everyone thought that Columbus would sail off the edge of the earth if he attempted his plan. In order to test his theory that the world was round, Columbus, an Italian, had to go to the royalty of Spain and convince them to invest in his business venture. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella put up what is called the “front money” and invested in his business venture.

My history teacher in school tried to tell me that the money was raised to further knowledge via exploration. My rich dad told me that it was purely a business venture that needed capital. The king and queen knew that if this entrepreneur named Columbus succeeded in sailing West to reach the East, they would earn a high return on their investment. Columbus and the king and queen who backed him all had the true spirit of the entrepreneur. The king and queen did not invest to lose money. They invested because they wanted to make more money. It was the spirit of venturing or risk with the possibility of great reward. They invested in that spirit.

Why Start a Business

As I began to formulate my plans to start my part-time business, rich dad was adamant about the spirit with which I undertook this new adventure, the adventure of building a worldwide business. He said, “You build a business because of the challenge. You build a business because it is exciting, it's challenging, and it will require all of you to make it successful.”

Rich dad wanted me to start a business in order to find my entrepreneurial spirit. He often said, “The world is filled with people with great ideas but only a few people with great fortunes from their ideas .” So he encouraged me to start a business, any business. He did not care about what the product was or how much I liked the product. He was not concerned about me failing. He just wanted me to start. Today I see so many people with great ideas who are afraid to start, or they start, fail and quit. That is why rich dad often quoted Einstein's saying of , “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” He wanted me to simply start any business just so that I could challenge my own mediocre mind and, in the process, develop my entrepreneurial spirit. Rich dad would also say, “The main reason so many people buy assets rather than create them is because they have not called upon their own entrepreneurial spirit to take their ideas and turn those ideas into great fortunes.”

Don't Do It for Only $200,000

In coming back to the definition of the accredited investor, rich dad said, “All a person needs to do to be an accredited investor is have a salary of $200, 000. That is a lot of money to some people, but it is not enough of a reason to start building a business. If all you dream of is a salary of $200, 000, then stay in the E or S quadrants. The risks are too great in the B and I quadrants for such a small sum. If you decide to build a business, don't do it for a mere $200,000. The risks are too high for a payoff so low. Do it for a much bigger payday. Do it for millions, maybe billions, or don't do it at all. But if you decide to pursue building a business, you must call on your entrepreneurial spirit.”

Rich dad also said, “There is no such thing as a successful poor entrepreneur or business owner . You can be a successful and poor doctor, or a successful and poor accountant. But you cannot be a successful and poor business owner . There is only one kind of successful business owner, and that is a rich one.” '

Lessons in Hindsight

I am often asked, “How much is too much?” or “How much is enough?” The person who asks that question is often someone who has never built a successful business that made a lot of money. I have also noticed that many of the people who ask that question are on the E and S side of the Quadrant. Another big difference between people on the left side of the Quadrant and people who operate on the right side is :

The people on the left side generally have only one financial statement because they often have only one source of income. Those on the right side have multiple financial statements and multiple sources of income. My wife and I are employees of several corporations in which we also have ownership interests. Therefore, we have financial statements as individuals and financial statements from our businesses. As our businesses become successful and generate cash flow for us, we need less income as employees. Many people on the left side do not know what it feels like to have more and more money coming in that requires less and less work.

While the money is important, it is not the primary motivating factor for building a business. I think the question can best be answered by asking the same question in another way. The question asked is similar to asking a golfer, “Why do you keep playing golf ?” The answer is found in the spirit of the game.

Although it took me many years of occasional pain and misery, the challenge and the spirit were always the propelling factors for me wanting to build a business. Today, I have friends who have sold their businesses for millions of dollars. Many of them take a few months off, and then they are right back in the game. It is the excitement, the challenge, the spirit, and the potential for a big payoff at the end that keeps the entrepreneur going. Before I built my nylon and Velcro wallet business, my rich dad wanted me to make sure I was doing it with that spirit.

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