Rich Dad Poor Dad is a starting point for anyone looking to gain control of their financial future

partner is. Most people don’t know that my partner is my cat. If they 
accept the offer, and I don’t want the deal, I call home and speak to 
my cat. I make this ridiculous statement to illustrate how absurdly easy 
and simple the game is. So many people make things too difficult and 
take it too seriously.
• 
Finding a good deal, the right business, the right people, the 
right investors, or whatever is just like dating. You must go 
to the market and talk to a lot of people, make a lot of offers, 
counteroffers, negotiate, reject, and accept. I know single 
people who sit at home and wait for the phone to ring, but it’s 
better to go to the market, even if it’s only the supermarket. 
Search, offer, reject, negotiate, and accept are all parts of the 
process of almost everything in life.
• 
Jog, walk, or drive a certain area once a month for 10 minutes.
I have found some of my best real estate investments doing 
this. I will jog a certain neighborhood for a year and look for 
change. For there to be profit in a deal, there must be two 
elements: a bargain and change. There are lots of bargains, but 
it’s change that turns a bargain into a profitable opportunity. 
So when I jog, I jog a neighborhood I might like to invest in. 
It is the repetition that causes me to notice slight differences.

---

Chapter Nine: Here Are Some To Do’s
170
I notice real estate signs that are up for a long time. That 
means the seller might be more agreeable to deal. I watch for 
moving trucks going in or out. I stop and talk to the drivers. I 
talk to the postal carriers. It’s amazing how much information 
they acquire about an area. I find a bad area, especially an 
area that the news has scared everyone away from. I drive it for 
sometimes a year waiting for signs of some thing changing for 
the better. I talk to retailers, especially new ones, and find out 
why they’re moving in. It takes only a few minutes a month, and 
I do it while doing something else, like exercising, or going to 
and from the store.
• 
Shop for bargains in all markets. Consumers will always be 
poor. When the supermarket has a sale, say on toilet paper, the 
consumer runs in and stocks up. But when the housing or stock 
market has a sale, most often called a crash or correction, the same 
consumer often runs away from it. When the supermarket raises 
its prices, the consumer shops somewhere else. But when housing 
or the stock market raise their prices, the same consumer often 
rushes in and starts buying. Always remember: Profits are made 
in the buying, not in the selling.
• 
Look in the right places. A neighbor bought a condominium for
$100,000. I bought the identical condo next door for 
$50,000. He told me he’s waiting for the price to go up. I told 
him that profit is made when you buy, not when you sell. He 
shopped with a real estate broker who owns no property of her 
own. I shopped at the foreclosure auction. I paid $500 for a 
class on how to do this. 
My neighbor thought that the $500 for a real estate investment 
class was too expensive. He said he could not afford the money, 
or the time. So he waits for the price to go up.

---

Rich Dad Poor Dad
171
• 
Look for people who want to buy first. Then look for someone who
wants to sell. A friend was looking for a certain piece of land.
He had the money but did not have the time. I found a large 
piece of land, larger than what my friend wanted to buy, tied 
it up with an option, called my friend, and he said he wanted 
a piece of it. So I sold the piece to him and then bought the 
land. I kept the remaining land as mine for free. Moral of the 
story: Buy the pie, and cut it in pieces. Most people look for 
what they can afford, so they look too small. They buy only 
a piece of the pie, so they end up paying more for less. Small 
thinkers don’t get the big breaks. If you want to get richer, 
think big.
• 
Think big. Retailers love giving volume discounts, simply 
because most business people love big spenders. So even if 
you’re small, you can always think big. When my company 
was in the market for computers, I called several friends and 
asked them if they were ready to buy also. We then went to 
different dealers and negotiated a great deal because we wanted 
to buy so many. I have done the same with stocks. Small 
people remain small because they think small, act alone, or 
don’t act all.
• 
Learn from history. All the big companies on the stock 
exchange started out as small companies. Colonel Sanders did 
not get rich until after he lost everything in his 60s. Bill Gates 
was one of the richest men in the world before he was thirty.
• 
Action always beats inaction. 
These are just a few of the things I have done and continue to do 
to recognize opportunities. The important words are “have done” and 
“do.” As repeated many times throughout the book, you must take
action before you can receive the financial rewards. Act now!

---

---

173