Before You Quit Your Job

Summary Written by Chris Taylor

The Big Idea

The Anatomy of a Mistake

"There are actually two primary aspects to the fear of making a mistake – fear of the consequence of making a mistake and fear of looking bad (perception)."- Before You Quit Your Job, page 50

One of the biggest “aha” thoughts from Before You Quit Your Job was the fundamental difference between employee and entrepreneur mindsets when it comes to making mistakes. Employees are paid to not make mistakes. Make too many mistakes as an employee and you can expect to be looking for work elsewhere. And yet, learning from mistakes is exactly how we learn and grow. No child walks successfully during their first attempt. If Thomas Edison had quit after his first try at the light bulb, we may all still be sitting in the dark. Instead, he learned, adjusted and tried again… another 9,999 times. While employees get paid to not make mistakes, entrepreneurs make money by doing the precise opposite – learning from mistakes. (Just ask Ford, Edison or Jobs.)

Entrepreneur or not, true success and accomplishment comes from trying, failing, learning, and trying again. And yet (somewhat understandably), few businesses want you failing on company time.

We know we need to try (and fail) at new things in order to grow, and yet our current work environment may not be the best place to fail in a spectacular way. So what’s the solution?

Insight #1

Work For Free

"Many employees do not understand working for free. They expect to get paid for everything they do. That is why they fail. They continue to think like employees. They want that steady paycheque."- Before You Quit Your Job, page 60

What’s the difference between work and a job? Can you define it? Kiyosaki uses the analogy of high school to differentiate the two.

“Do your homework so you can get a good job.” Many of us heard that line in our formative years. The implication is that by putting in the effort during the homework phase, we would be better suited for a high paying job when we finished school. The idea is simple – put in the unpaid work up front, so you can collect the rewards later.

Everyone’s willing to work for money. There is a far smaller percentage of the population who is willing to work for the vision of what’s to come. And yet it is those few who grow the most and realize the greatest rewards down the road. The thought is this:

Find or create an environment in which you can make mistakes without jeopardizing your job

(aka income). If you want to hone your public speaking skills, join Dale Carnegie or Toastmasters, rather than stumble through staff presentations at work. Join a network marketing company and learn the fundamentals of the sales cycle and relationship selling. Take a college course on finance – one with lots of hands on application. Volunteer time to a charity and try some new management ideas out there. The topics (and suitable programs) are virtually endless – the point is to find an opportunity for practice and failure (read: growth) outside of your 9-5. And then, once you’ve found it – do it in a big way. Which brings us to our second point…

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Insight #2

Fail Faster

"‘If you don’t fail faster, you’ll fail anyway,’ smiled rich dad. ‘Look, you’re in the middle of a learning process. The process requires that you make many mistakes and learn from those mistakes. The faster you make mistakes, the faster you get through the process and out to the other side. Or you can quit. Then the process spits you out.’"- Before You Quit Your Job, page 88

What do you think is the best way for a child to learn to ride a bike – a single attempt, once a month, interrupted by 29 days of analysis and review? Or would it make more sense to keep at it, training your body and mind until you get it down?

Once you find a “safe” place (i.e., you won’t lose your primary income, no matter how much you fail) in which to hone whatever skill it is you’re looking to develop, go big. Be willing to crash and burn – to fail over, and over, and over again – until you get it right. As Rich Dad points out in the quote above, there is a certain number of times you’re going to have to fail before you can learn to succeed; you may as well as get those failures out of the way as quickly as you can. Don’t give yourself “downtime” to doubt, question, and beat yourself up over it – just keep getting back on the bike until you’re able to make it down the block all by yourself. You did it when you were five, you can certainly do it now.

For those considering running their own business in the future, I would say that Before You Quit Your Job is a “must have” handbook that should be read and reviewed several times over before taking the plunge. It’s advice and information is truly invaluable.

For those who have never considered running their own business, Before You Quit Your Job is still a great read, and a fabulous insight into the world of entrepreneurship. We all have passions and forward reaching ideas, just like we all have thoughts, beliefs and experiences that hold us back. Before You Quit Your Job is a Robert Kiyosaki’s personal story of overcoming those doubts through careful planning and the right mindset. Definitely worth a read.

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Robert T. Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki is best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad – the #1 personal finance book of all time – which has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. Rich Dad titles hold four of the top ten spots on Nielsen Bookscan List’s Life-to-Date Sales from 2001-2008 alone. Robert has been featured on shows such as Larry King Live, Oprah, The Doctors, Bloomberg International Television and CNN.With perspectives on money and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has earned a reputation for straight talk, irreverence and courage. His point of view that ‘old’ advice – get a good job, save money, get out of debt, invest for the long term, and diversify – is ‘bad’ (both obsolete and flawed) advice, challenges the status quo. His assertion that “your house is not an asset” has stirred controversy but has been proven to be accurate in our economy’s current financial crisis. A documentary film based on the contradictions of ‘old financial advice’ is planned for release in 2010.In 2006 Robert teamed up with Donald Trump to co-author Why We Want You To Be Rich – Two Men – One Message. It debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestsellers list.Robert writes a column – “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer” – for Yahoo! Finance. He was also recently featured in TIME Magazine’s popular “10 Questions” column where Robert answers questions ranging from investing with few resources to the impact of education on one’s financial success.Robert’s latest book, Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money, pioneered online book publishing as a free online interactive book with contributions from 1.1 million readers in over 167 countries. Frequent updates and postings appear on www.conspiracyoftherich.com.

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