The mindsets that build wealth

                        

By Bayo Ogunmupe

    To succeed in life, stop playing not to lose and start playing to win. Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are always afraid to lose and they often lose. Failure is part of the process of success. When you are avoiding failure, you are also avoiding success. Robert Kiyosaki, a famous entrepreneurship expert and co-author of many books with U.S President Donald Trump says he had two dads as a child. he had his own father and the father of his best friend. These his two fathers were very different when it came to dealing with finances. Robert learned what not to do to be rich from his own dad and what to do to be rich from the other. One helped him avoid staying poor, the other helped him get rich.

    Kiyosaki's book: Rich Dad Poor Dad is a modern classic of personal finance. It's my favorite finance book which I read again and again. Through it Kiyosaki delivers his captivating lessons on finance. If it weren't so captivating, the book wouldn't have sold 32 million copies in three years. The first lesson to help you escape poverty and build wealth is that fear and greed are keeping you in the rat race, only self education will get you out of it. You are afraid to exit the rat race because you think people will brand you "weird." You are allowing fear and greed to dominate your decision making, which is why you are still sticking to the old mantra, "Go to school, get a job, play it safe, when in reality no job is safe anymore. Whenever you get a raise at your job or a manna from heaven, the wise choice would be to invest the extra money in assets that build wealth like stocks or bonds.

    Maybe you find a good stock with 60 percent chance of doubling your money  within a year; but a 40 percent chance of losing it all. However, most likely  because of your greed and fear, of playing not to lose the money altogether, you will keep yourself from investing. Instead, you might spend the extra money to improve your lifestyle, like buying a car, with payments eating up the money. This way you're guaranteed to lose 100 percent. This shows the importance of educating yourself financially. Sadly we receive neither entrepreneurship nor financial education in school or college, so it's up to you to educate yourself for life. It is for this reason that many Nigerians don't save anything for their retirement.

    Two, adopt the mindset of "work to learn" instead of "work to earn." And be smart with your money. Take a job in a field you know nothing about, such as sales, customer service or communications; in order for you to develop new skills: you never know what they might be useful for in the future. Each month, make sure you buy books, attend courses and seminars on personal finance and start building your financial intelligence. The first step toward building wealth lies in the mindset of managing risks instead of avoiding them. Studies about investment will teach you that's better not to play it safe because that means missing out on big potential rewards. Start small that you can treat the money as if it's gone, so that you will worry less about losing it. Kiyosaki suggests creating an "I want" and "I don't want" list; like I want to retire at 50 or I don't want to end up broke like my poor uncle.

    Three, finally, use your money to acquire assets, not liabilities. Assets are stocks, bonds, real estate that you rent out or lease and anything that generates money that increases in value over time. Liabilities are cars, electronics with maintenance costs and periodical payments. This includes a house with a mortgage and of course debt. Anything that takes money out of your pocket periodically is a liability. There is no rush to change your situation, just stay at whatever job you're holding and "mind your own business." In this case it is your job that pays the bills and your business is what makes you wealthy. Then, build your business and use it to invest in assets which eventually become the primary source of your income. The most important thing is that you start today. As you are your own biggest asset, so the first thing you should put money into is yourself. Kudos to Kiyosaki who wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad to tell the story of a boy with two fathers to help you build a life of wealth and freedom.