Wisdom of Rich Dad

            

Robert Kiyosaki, best-selling author of the “Rich Dad” series, and former Marine gunship pilot during the Vietnam War, explained how his worldwide success as a financial leader stemmed from his Marine Corps experience.

“If you’re going to be successful in business, you have to find a place to develop character,” said Kiyosaki. “The Marine Corps did that for me.

“The toughness, the discipline, the training – it carries on, and it made a man out of me,” said Kiyosaki.

According to Kiyosaki, 95% of success comes from character development, which stems from strengthening values such as courage, integrity and honesty.

“A lot of the guys who are good businessmen, from WorldCom and Enron, lacked character, and that’s why they fell,” said Kiyosaki.

Regardless of the levels of success he has achieved, the Wall Street Journal best-selling author continually strives to improve himself.

“Training is continuous. It doesn’t end after you leave the Marine Corps,” said Kiyosaki. “I value it (the training) more now than I did when I was in.”

Kiyosaki developed his hard-nose style of leadership from his experiences with senior staff noncommissioned officers and flag generals he encountered.

“A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

“You don’t have to pull rank if you’re a good leader,” said Kiyosaki, and jokingly followed up, “but if you’re a weak leader, pull rank!”

The former devil dog’s instincts still happen to kick every now and then. When Kiyosaki encounters commonplace civilian habits that would normally warrant verbal thrashings in the Marine Corps, it’s hard for him to maintain his composure.

“I had this one 22-year old punk come in for a job. The guy put his feet up on my desk,” recalled Kiyosaki. “Can you imagine putting your feet on your CO’s (commanding officer) desk?”

Running into former Marines from time to time, Kiyosaki says that he’s never met any Marine who’s had something bad to say about the Marine Corps.

“That tell’s you something about that training,” said Kiyosaki.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 4:26 am and is filed under Robert Kiyosaki. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.