Over the weekend and for the 3rd time, I played Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 board game at the Billionaires in Training (B.I.T.) gathering organized by Generis Solutions. Even though, it was my third time, I still learnt something new. The circumstances or should I say the situations that played themselves out in the course of the game continue to be so real to human existence that they just continue to keep me in awe. So, I thought to myself, if the principles are so true to life, why not share them with my beloved readers.
Here they go:
- Opportunities are everywhere: I’ve blogged on something close to this topic before (you can check the archive to read up on it) and the more I played the game, the more I realised opportunities are available to us more often than we realise. They are available to us more often than a lot of other situations of life. So, the problem is not lack of opportunities, the problem is lack of awareness and identification of the existing opportunities. I am sure some of you may ask ‘How do I become aware of or hear about these opportunities? There’ll probably be so many ways but I’ll just highlight 2 that I practice:
§ Seek for Information: Seeking for information involves personal effort. Always go out of your comfort zone to seek for information. Pay for it, if you must i.e. buy magazines, attend seminars e.t.c. Visit blogs like this one and many others as there is so much information available to you, if you just seek. Remember, the Bible says: ‘Seek and ye shall find’.
§ Network: Information on opportunities comes from people. After a gathering, don’t just leave, wait behind to say hello, meet new people and exchange pleasantries and business cards.
- Opportunities come more frequently than our monthly salaries / paychecks: This tells me that, for every salary that I get paid, there is an opportunity somewhere (no matter how small) to which I can put that money to good use rather than squandering it only to be looking forward to the next paycheck.
- You need Cashflow and not Capital Gains to become financially free: Being financially free is not about having loads of money or being able to afford a house in Banana Island. I learnt that 2 people can be financially free on different levels i.e. one person can be extremely rich and be financially free and the other person can be living a moderately comfortable life and be financially free. In other words, as individuals, we can either live potentially rich lives and still be in the rat race or we can live comfortable lives and be financially free. The most important thing is that the passive income that flows to us monthly must be more than our monthly expenses – QED.
So, if your monthly passive income (salary not included) is:
§ N300,000 & your monthly expense is N170,000, then you are financially free and living within your means
§ However, if your monthly passive income is N1,000,000 & your monthly expense is N1,200,000, then, you are still in the rat race irrespective of the amount that comes in monthly.
Hence, we all should be aiming at increasing our Cashflow to exceed our expenses.
- In addition to Godliness, get financial education: In the game, there were opportunities to give to charity (some termed it ‘paying our tithes i.e. giving back to God; others termed this ‘giving back to the community / the service of humanity’). Any way we look at it, it’s an act that pleases God and should necessarily attract more blessings to an individual’s life. However, some strange things happened; while some gave towards charity and kept getting wealthier and eventually got out of the rat race, there were still some others, who although gave to charity, their fortunes dwindled and still never made it out of the rat race. Which begs the question, ‘does serving and pleasing God alone guarantee a life of wealth & financial abundance? Remember, this is the kind of life God has called you to live. A life of prosperity. As cautious as I want to be in answering this question because it seems so spiritual, in reality, my answer is ‘NO’. Yes, it is good to serve God and I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord maketh rich, however, this in my opinion, is the way it works – the more we serve & please God, the more He maketh us rich by increasing our income or the money that flows unexpectedly into our hands; the more we please Him, the more He places the right people before us to network with; the more we regard Him in our everyday circumstances, the more He empowers us with the potential to become rich. Now, God is also a God of freewill.
- Start small: Don’t just wait for the Big Deal that would give you that big break, start small. Get involved in small deals and seemingly small profit opportunities; little drops of water make a mighty ocean. After a short while, the small deals would make room for you to partake in big deals. If you don’t have money to partake in a deal, you can earn money as selling the information to someone else. I’ll like to term this ‘Information Brokerage’ i.e. earn money as an ‘Information Broker’. That’s what all these agents do. Most of them don’t have the money to buy or rent the houses on offer or they don’t have need for it but they bring the information to our doorsteps and get paid about 5%-10% for doing just that. After a while, the accumulated funds from your information brokerage services would afford you the opportunity to take part in new deals.
- Start with what you have & Start investing NOW!
By the way, the next B.I.T. is coming up
: on the 13th of December, 2008
: at Generis Solutions, 3rd floor Oluwatobi House, 71, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos
: @ 12pm
Passionately committed to raising You to great financial heights,
Derin
