Be a Rich Dad

I know most of you have heard of the worldwide phenomenon, Rich Dad Poor Dad. When you read this, you might think I work for the author, Robert Kiyosaki, but I don't. There's some controversy surrounding his story, how he does business, etc. My family and I are great beneficiaries of the concepts he wrote about many years ago and I thought that my story might inspire others to think differently about teaching your children about career and finances.

When our son was fourteen and we were readying him for his first job, we'd resigned ourselves to him flipping burgers somewhere or working at the GAP. Not bad jobs for a teen, but I kept thinking there was a better solution. Well, I never thought I'd be thankful for hosting a garage sale. I hate to haul the stuff outside, price it, I dread the people who show up hours or even a day early, all to collect a pitiful amount of money, then to have to get rid of whatever you don't sell after the hassle is allegedly done. This time was different. As is sometimes the case, neighbors brought things to sell, hoping to leverage our cash machine. Bum luck, it rained and almost no-one showed up. I ended up disposing of the remains and in doing so, came across a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

If you've ever read it, you'll know, it's an easy read. It really only takes an afternoon. I read it and took the lessons to heart. Teaching my kids the skills of business and financial management, customer service and entrepreneurship was an attractive proposition. I decided then and there that I'd work with our son to buy or build a business he and I could run. I'd teach him what I knew along the way. We ended up setting up an online e-commerce site. FarOutArt.com, representing a group of American-Artisans who built wrought iron, custom furniture; really cool stuff. We set up the website, using Microsoft FrontPage, launched it in a couple of weeks and were cash-flow positive from month one. We experimented with pay-for-click advertising, improving our SEO, trying new products, and for the seven years he and I, then only he, ran it, it always made money and taught us both valuable lessons.

Fast-forward to our son's graduation with a degree in computer animation. He'd had stars in his eyes about working for Pixar and being the next Matt Groening. Unfortunately, once he did get his degree, he couldn't imagine himself sitting behind a screen for hours on end. He came to me and announced that he wanted to start his own business. I told him that might be a good idea. He had the right personality and had learned a few things from FarOutArt.com. However, he told me, he had one problem...he was a new grad with little money. Could I be his silent investor? We talked it over and agreed on a structure and he went off in search of the "perfect" business.

It's been a year-an-a-half since he bought his business in, of all places, Key West, and it's going terrifically. He's happy, it's making great money and he's doing it all, while wearing shorts and a T-shirt to work. On top of that, my wife's now gotten the bug and has recently bought a business herself, also looking to be a tremendous success. What I get from their success is the satisfaction that I helped them branch off in that direction and the lesson that you can work for the man (as I do), pay taxes, then pay yourself or you can work for yourself, pay yourself, then pay taxes. I'm very proud of my family.