Part 1 – My Exclusive Interview with Bob Proctor: The Mentor to Millions of Millionaires By Philippe SHOCK Matthews

It was Mark Victor Hansen who reintroduced me to the wealth building phenom, Bob Proctor. Although, I remember seeing Bob speak at my church when I was only ten years old at Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, I never knew I would grow up and have the opportunity to share the platform with him and have him endorse my first book, How to Make Millions When Thousands Have Been Laid Off! http://bit.ly/d9Lm4D.

Recently known as the star of the Secret, Bob Proctor is an author, lecturer, counselor, business consultant, entrepreneur, and teacher of positive thinking, self-motivation and maximizing human potential through the Law of Attraction. In that endeavor, he follows in the footsteps of such motivational giants as Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale and Wallace D. Wattles. But Proctor carries the message of these great teachers a step higher and explains in terms understood by tots and tycoons alike how a person goes about recognizing their potential and how to apply this effort in setting and achieving life goals.

My first question to this wealth-building guru came from a question that was posed to me some years ago that I could not answer until this interview.  The question was why do some people believe it’s a sin to be rich and holy to be broke?  Bob Proctor quickly responded with, “I think we’re programmed.  I think it’s for a lot of reasons that we believe a lot of other nonsense.  It’s genetic and environmental programming. People don’t think and live with what they are programmed to believe.  Moreover, there’s so many poor people around that it would seem to make sense – they can’t all be bad people.  I think we’re conditioned genetically.  It’s not an accident that you look exactly like your uncle Harry.  The genetic conditioning is very strong and on top of that you have environmental conditioning.  Unfortunately, we’re programmed to take everything and reverse it.  It’s like we live from the physical to the spiritual when we should be going from the spiritual to the physical.  We live through our senses.  If you go by your senses, you’re going by the appearance of things and the truth is very rarely in the appearance of things.”

Bob’s book, You Were Born Rich is not just a title but an affirmation.  What a concept to believe and know we are all born rich.  “We’ve got deep reservoirs of talent and abilities within us,” Bob explained.  “There’s so much power locked up in us and it’s never used.  We’re rich resources – everyone is, most people are just a little short of money but riches…the most erudite scientist alive won’t guess at what you and I are capable of doing.”  In You Were Born Rich, there’s a chapter that asked the question, How Much Is Enough?  When I posed that question to Bob, he launched with a belly laugh and replied, “Well it depends on what you’re doing. To accumulate money just for the sake of accumulating money is a fool’s game and you will usually end up pretty unhappy, probably a sick person. Money is an instrument and it’s used for two things.  One is to make you comfortable and the other is to extend the service that you offer beyond your own presence.  You’ll hear people say, I really don’t want money, I just want to do good, well Wattles [Wallace D. Wattles] pointed out many years ago if that’s the case you should get rich first because the good you can do without the money is limited to your own presence.  So money is an instrument that enables you to extend what you’re doing far beyond where you are.”

He believes that money is a servant and we shouldn’t serve money.  “It is a wonderful servant but makes an absolutely terrible master.  Money will do whatever you tell it to do.  It’s greatly misunderstood.  Almost everything we’ve been taught about money is false.  Money has nothing to do with race, religion, gender, geography, it has nothing to do with formal education, it has nothing to do with your background, and it has nothing to do with your intelligence.  There are some very intelligent people who are broke and there are people who are not very bright at all who are multi-millionaires!  Money is based on one thing…decision.  You decide you’re going to have it or you decide that you’re not.“  Bob’s wisdom of wealth led one of the attendees at his wealth building seminars to offer: “Bob Proctor… brings all the great wisdom of Napoleon Hill, Wallace Wattles and others into a coherent whole that anyone can take home and apply…”

The Book That Changed Bob’s Life

Perhaps the reason Bob Proctor is so insightful into the factors that limit peoples’ success is rooted in the fact that he lived an aimless, purposeless existence for the first 26 years of his own life. Born in a little town in northern Ontario, Canada with the low self-esteem that often befalls a family’s middle child, he performed poorly in school, dropped out and did a hitch in the navy. Afterward he drifted from one dead-end job to another until a friend recognized potential in Bob that he had no awareness of himself. The friend introduced Bob to the concept of self-development through Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich. With the spark generated by Hill’s words, Proctor found the initiative to start an office cleaning business, which he grew to international scope in his first year of operation. From that experience – after seeing what he had been able to accomplish with just a rudimentary knowledge of personal motivation and goal setting – he hungered for more information. His quest took him to the Nightingale-Conant organization where he exhausted every opportunity to study under his mentor, Earl Nightingale. His intense study earned him an invitation to join the organization where, once on board, he rose swiftly through the ranks. Moreover, while the Nightingale-Conant organization assumed the forefront in wide-scale distribution of personal development programs, Bob felt the need to take his ideas and methods directly to the individual, to the one-on-one level, which had proved so successful for him.

In the mid 1970’s, Bob established his own seminar company and secured a contract to work with a few hundred agents of Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America in Chicago. During his first seminar Bob made the suggestion that any agent present could write $5 million in business that year if the agent made a decision to do so. The fact that the seminar took place in July with the year half over and that no agent in that region had ever written so much business in the 100-year history of the company made Bob’s suggestion appear to be outrageous. However, when the performance level of the entire division increased substantially with more than one agent actually accomplishing the deed, Bob’s reputation as a change agent was established. Over the ensuing years, Bob has shared his special message and expertise with hundreds of business entities worldwide and, through a program of live seminars, with thousands of people of all ages in all walks of life.

Meanwhile, in addition to his international best-seller You Were Born Rich, he found time to author other works as well, including Mission in Commission, The Winner’s Image, The Goal Achiever, The Success Series, The Success Puzzle, The Recruiting Puzzle, and Being Your Very Best. The experience of hearing and seeing Bob Proctor lecture is a memorable one, packed with the information, inspiration and wisdom to transform the lives of everyone in his audience. Unlike many programs, which convince you, that you can do anything you set out to do, Bob Proctor’s programs complete the creative cycle by explaining what you must do, why you must do it and, more importantly, how you must do it.

You Were Born Rich

His extraordinary teaching ability has won Bob acclaim around the globe and has carried the Canadian-born motivator to the far reaches of the earth. He is as well known in Australia and Malaysia as he is in Alberta and Mississippi. Testimony to his ability to reach people and teach them how to become successful is his work in the insurance industry. In this bastion of self-starters and personal motivation – where competition, denial and rejection are awesome negative forces – Bob regularly conducts corporate sponsored seminars here and abroad for some of the world’s largest insurance companies. To his credit, he has generated a long list of phenomenal individual success stories.

One of Bob’s most powerful principles in his book, You Were Born Rich is the principle of letting go and letting God.  He explains, “If we take it and relate it to goals, where people get hung up on goals is that they’re trying to figure out how it’s going to happen before they set the goal and anyone who has every accomplished anything of any consequence has never known how it’s going to happen.  I always point out that how is God’s job and what is your is your job.  You decide what you want done, and God does the work with and through you.  Clarence Smith is a man who I haven’t seen for years but he’s a brilliant guy who I asked what was faith to him and he said, ‘faith is the ability to see the invisible, to believe in the incredible and that will permit you to receive what the masses call impossible.’  The ability to see the invisible…there’s a power flowing into your consciousness and you have creative faculties in your consciousness that enables you to build an image of anything you want – anything…no limits! No one can alter it, no one can shorten it, and no one can change it.  You have the ability to picture anything you want – to see the invisible – you see it before its moved into form.  To believe in the incredible…its incredible to believe that there’s a power that’s resident in every cell of your being and when you take that image and mentally let it move into the subjective form of your mind, that part of you will instantly and automatically alter the vibratory rate of your body, change your behavior and change what you attract into your world.  It will manifest the image you hold in physical form. It’s an absolute law!”

If it’s so simple then why don’t we take action and make it happen Bob?  “Well, we don’t think.  We don’t see it because we’re trained to see just through our eyes.  I remember spending five years working with Earl Nightingale many years ago and he said, ‘if more people said what they were thinking they would be speechless.’  When you hear that it sounds pretty funny, but if you think about it, it’s true.  Most people mistake mental activity with thinking but it’s not.  They’re going to old movies and if you stand back objectively and observe peoples behavior, it’s obvious that they’re not thinking or they never would do what they are doing.  On the other hand, if you listen to their conversation, it’s obvious that they are not thinking or they would never say what they’re saying.  I think it was the late and great doctor Ken McFarland that said, ‘two percent of the people think.  Three percent think they think and ninety five percent would rather die than think.’  Thinking is the highest function we’re capable of and if you want to do something and you think about how you can, the way will be shown.”

Bob sees himself as an educator with a gift to reveal to others the secrets that turned his life around and the incredible power and potential they hold within themselves. An unabashed entrepreneur, his philosophies are set forth in his international best seller You Were Born Rich, where it encourages people to prepare for their own success by revising their attitudes toward wealth. Paraphrasing, he says it’s good to be wealthy and that money is good as long as the individual rules the money and not the other way around. Further, he explains how to employ self-imagery, incorporate, and develop each individual’s spiritual side in the quest for wealth and success. Bob’s deeply held beliefs and common sense approach to teaching creates a new set of mental reflexes to guide people to properly set goals and thereby improve their lives. “Many of our decisions are made purely on the mental reflexes we’ve built up through similar decisions made hundreds of times over the years. In fact, we spend a great deal of our lives on autopilot,” he says. Bob does his best to get people off autopilot and into success.

Helping employees grow, improve and adapt to change, Proctor’s wide-ranging work with business and industries around the world extends far beyond the pep rally syndrome. Instead, it encompasses working with business entities to develop strategies that will assist employees at all levels to grow, improve, and adapt to the ever-changing nature of all commercial enterprises in today’s business atmosphere.

Bob believes that you must have vision in order to create wealth but there are many ways to envision something, especially wealth.  “It has to be service oriented because wealth is a reward received for service rendered,” Bob explains, “You have to have an image of doing something that’s extraordinary and I think everyone wants to.  I believe we’re spiritual beings and the essence of the human is spirit and spirit is always for fuller expansion and expression.  That means there’s something within you that wants to express itself in a greater way and that will keep you wanting more than what you got, wanting to do more – jump higher, run faster, make it bigger… It’s not to have it or to do it, it’s to create the awareness that you can.  You have to have a vision of what you want.  Most people compromise, they’re not going after what they want at all, they’re going after what they think they can do.  Going after what you think you can do is never going to inspire you so you’ll probably quit.  We should ask ourselves ‘what do I want?’ and throw away all of the limits.  It doesn’t matter what it cost, what help you’re going to need or what’s required – just what do you want? When you decide on what you want and you take that in your mind, you will attract everything that is required for the manifestation of that image.”

So, there’s a difference between want and need?  “I think a person should look after their needs because if they don’t take care of their needs, they’re going to have a very difficult time focusing on their wants.  However, taking care of our needs is such a puny, little thing to do – anybody can take care of their needs.  If a person is not thinking, they may have difficulty.  There was a time when I didn’t think and I had a difficult time taking care of my needs but as soon as I began to think, I never had a difficult time taking care of my needs and I’ve always gotten what I wanted.”

Expect An Abundance

On page 92 of You Were Born Rich, Bob says, “…before any of us can even begin to overcome the poverty which surrounds us in our external world, we must first conquer the impoverishment that is buried deep within ourselves.”  Bob explained further in our interview, “That goes back to the conditioning again and the conditioning controls the vibration you’re in.  The vibration dictates what you will attract.  When we start to understand our relationship with Spirit or with God and how our mind functions then it’s easy to start to expect great things to happen because you know what the creative process is.  When you really understand the creative process, expectation is a natural thing.  Expectation is a mindset that controls the vibration you’re in and that controls what you attract into your life.”  So, expectation is then faith in action?  “No, I don’t think so.  I think expectation is more of an intellectual thing and faith is more of a subjective thing.  Faith comes from understanding.  Faith is an emotional thing – it has more to do with the subjective mind.  Expectation without faith is useless – it’s wishing.  It’s the understanding that gives us the faith.  With knowledge, you wouldn’t need any faith.  This is really paradoxical because the more knowledge you have the more faith you have and the more knowledge you have the less faith you need.  It’s a real paradox.”

If someone is born into poverty and is never exposed to the possibilities of wealth and freedom, how do you convince these people that they are not living their true potential?  “The odds of them making it are pretty slim, however, I do believe a person born into dire circumstances and there are certainly a number of them, I think spirit is resident there and it’s omni-present.  I think spirit is pushing at their consciousness to do this.  If they let the old paradigm control them they won’t do it but every now and then you’ll see a person come out of the ghetto or out of a very bad situation and they follow that impulse from inside and they step out and things start to happen and they do it.  I also believe that you and I have a responsibility to try and reach out and wake those people up.  That’s what I spend my life doing.”

Further Reading

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Part 3 of 3 – The Currency Couple: An Exclusive Interview with Kim Kiyosaki By Philippe Matthews

THE SECOND COMING OF RICH DAD

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
As noted in my interview with your husband above; in 1997, the Rich Dad phenomenon occurred; becoming a New York Times Best Seller and has remained on the New York Times Bestsellers list. Robert has sold out Madison Square Garden and now the book has come back to number one which I believe has never happened in the history of publishing. How do you handle that success?

Kim Kiyosaki
“It’s amazing and has definitely hit a chord; we’ve actually tried to put into words what that chord is and we haven’t been successful at that. I think it may be different for everybody. We do know that people want control over their lives and when you feel out of control financially, you can’t have freedom until you have financial freedom and I really believe that. I think the chord is people are tired and don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. They are working until the day they die and I think Rich Dad gives them hope that there is something they can take control of and they can have the lifestyle they want and not be a slave to the system.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
With the book Prophecy, you and your team went head to head with Wall Street. It got kind of rough in the media for all of you, didn’t it?

Kim Kiyosaki
“That’s a really big question and a really good question because Prophecy took on Wall Street and we were saying things that flew in the face of what Wall Street was teaching but more importantly with the media, especially print media; they were the toughest. We were going against what their advertisers were promoting and that was stupid to be honest! We had to sit down and ask ourselves, why are we taking on Wall Street, is that really what we want to do? Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here because these magazines are coming after us and do we want to spend our time fighting Wall Street or do we want to spend our time educating people? Actually, it was a good wakeup call for us because we made our point — got the attention — now lets make it the most productive so we can educate the most amount of people rather than fight battles that may not make the most sense. Wall Street has been around a little longer than us. Now what’s happening because we backed away from that, financial experts are now coming around and saying that what we said was actually true. We got quiet and then history supported what Robert said in his book.”

KIM ON INVESTING

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
I remember interviewing Rabbi Benjamin Blech and he wrote a book called Taking Stock where he lost 7 million in the stock market which Robert predicted would happen in Prophecy. If you don’t know how to invest, you have no where to go.

Kim Kiyosaki
“I think you are absolutely right and it’s easy to buy and sell stock but it’s also the riskiest thing people can do. People’s biggest fear is the fear of losing money. That is why they are so afraid to invest. I’ve had people say, ‘I’m not going to invest.’ I would say, ‘Why not?’ They’d say, ‘Because I’ll lose money.’ They think investing means they are going to lose money so there is this huge fear and it’s everywhere. USA Today came out with a study and they found that the number one fear in America was people were afraid of running out of money by retirement.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
How important are assets?

Kim Kiyosaki
“Robert called me one day and was serious. He said, ‘Tell me what you are passionate about?’ Wow, that’s a big question. I thought about it and then said, ‘Passive income.’ He says, ‘I knew it! Me too!’ To me that’s what assets are, assets are; freedom. We went to New York City a couple of weeks ago and saw this condo for sale. Beautiful condo, two stories looking down on Times Square, we made the offer. Lets just go and buy it and we’ll use when we want to use it and for some reason I just could not get my mind around it. I thought, if we buy that, it’s not going to give us any cash flow and we could put all of our money into something that could give us cash flow. Robert says, ‘We’ve made enough money, we can buy stuff without it giving us cash flow,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know if I can.’ We were looking at this condo in Hawaii and I had the same dilemma going on in my head. I have been so trained and inundated with this thinking that it is hard to shift out of it. Most people have investments but not necessarily assets. They may buy an investment property that is losing money and call it an asset but it is an investment. Your home could be an investment depending on how the market goes but I would not call it an asset.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
Talk to me about the difference between capital gains and cash flow.

Kim Kiyosaki
“We don’t typically buy a property because it is going to appreciate. We buy a property that is going to make us money the day we buy it. It’s going to put money in our pocket every month whether we work or not. So many people buy property and stock thinking that it’s going to go up and that they are going to get the capital gains. What happens is they sell it, get the capital gains and blow the money. My assistant who worked with me a couple of years ago bought a little duplex that was giving her nice cash flow and she decided she was going to sell it and take the cash to pay off her school loans then she would be out of debt. I said, ‘No you’re not! You don’t want to do that because then you have no asset and you are back at ground zero with no cash.’ She refinanced it, got better cash flow and her cash flow is now paying off her school loans. People have been so trained to buy things for capital gains but to me cash flow is wealth. Cash flow says, ‘I can live and survive this many days, this many years without having to work and the cash flow is just going to keep coming in. its freedom verses the quick flip.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews
You said something very intriguing and that is neither of you ever have to work another day in your life. So what motivates you to stay in the game?

Kim Kiyosaki
“We love the game! That’s the bottom line, I read an article that talked about retirement and it’s not all its cracked up to be. You can only play so many rounds of golf and tell the same old stories over and over again. That’s why I look to our new rich dad, Frank, we’ve known him since 1996 and he’s 84 and he’s traveled to China for our gold deal and he’s traveled to Canada and all over the US, his mind is sharp as a tack and he will work forever because that is what keeps him young. It would be nice to take a break though.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews

To Kim Kiyosaki a break might be a little different than what most people would consider to be a break. What is your definition of a break?

Kim Kiyosaki
“A break might be if I took a year off and spent some time in Hawaii, a few months in New York, play some golf, buy real estate. I love real estate. It’s hard for me and Robert to go to any city and not look at the real estate and make an offer somewhere. In our business, my love is the marketing and PR. What would be the vacation would not to be involved in the day-to-day operations of it, that would be a break.”

Read the Kim Kiyosaki Library

Read Part 1 of 3 – The Currency Couple:
An Exclusive Interview with Kim Kiyosaki By Philippe Matthews
http://bit.ly/6zvIrZ

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Network Marketing for Dummies: An Exclusive Interview with Dr. John P. Hayes by Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews

Dr. John Hayes is the man who literally wrote the book on network marketing. Co-authored with Zig Ziglar, Network Marketing for Dummies was a global success for those seeking quality information on the subject. Dr. Hayes’ defines network marketing as, “Not complicated at all. Every adult, kid and teenager is into network marketing. Everybody is a network marketer; but not everybody gets paid to be a network marketer. It’s nothing more than telling other people about something that you like, a product, a service or an activity that you enjoy doing and you’re passing along a recommendation or referral. Now, professional network marketers do that and get paid for it. Network marketing is nothing more than telling people about something you’re excited about and encouraging them if they show some interest to buy it also, and if you’re the one that can make that happen, you’re going to get a cut of it.”

More people and cultures are beginning to recognize that becoming financially independent is possible through network marketing, if you have the patience to build your network. “It’s a way of building residual income,” Dr. Hayes offers. “If you work for someone to do a particular job or someone hires you to do a project and they say they’re going to pay you $500, and you do the work, you get your $500. Yet, if I sell you on the idea that you really should be taking these tablets for your prostate and it’s not a one-time deal, I’m going to make money without ever having to resell you again and I continue to make money. Residual income is what everybody wants because it allows people to take charge of their lives. If I don’t want to work today, I don’t have to and the income is still going to be there. If I decide that I do want to work today, but I only want to work half a day, that’s ok; too, because residual income gives you that freedom.”

A prolific writer, popular speaker, seminar leader and consultant to businesses in the United States and internationally, Dr. Hayes is an advisor to small business owners, independent distributors, franchisees and franchisers. Following ten years as a college professor, Hayes started his own Public Relations Agency, which he operated for ten years. Since selling his agency in 1995, he has devoted his time to writing, conducting seminars and marketing consultations. Coming from the franchising industry, becoming a success and expert in network marketing was a simple step for Dr. Hayes. He says network marketing has been around for years. “It has existed since the beginning of time. A lot of people will compare Jesus as the greatest network marketer of all because he got twelve people together and 2,000 years later, we’re still practicing what they were networking to people about. As for the future, it’s only going to get bigger and better. In a time of a slumping economy, network marketing will become more popular and more people will get into it. Everybody is getting laid off; so, what are those folks going to do? Some of them will get into network marketing and many large companies are starting a network marketing division because word-of-mouth is the way to make it happen.”

MLM’s On the Comeback

For many years, multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing companies were looked down upon and developed a bad reputation for those serious about making money via residual income. Dr. Hayes offered, “People don’t like to be sold; they like to buy and there are some crazed, idiotic multi-level marketers that get carried away. It’s hard to sell you on anything, but very easy to show you by example to get you to buy into something that I’m doing. However, if I keep trying to beat you over the head and sell you on my product, then that gets offensive. There were some MLM companies that used a ploy to invite you over for dinner and you went under the guise that it’s a group of friends getting together and at the end of the dinner or desert, they pulled out their brochure, their products or videotape, that’s offensive. Don’t lie! If you’re going to sell me, tell me you’re going to sell me because that gives sales a bad name and MLM a bad name. Unfortunately, it’s still happening today. Smart network marketers and MLMer’s—they understand they’ve got to get you to buy in emotionally first, and not try and sell you when you don’t want to be sold.”

Choosing the right MLM can be difficult, if you allow it to be. However, Dr. Hayes is very straightforward in his approach to finding the right network marketing company for you. “In Network Marketing for Dummies, we really lay it out. If I were coaching somebody on how to pick the right company, the first thing that I want to know is that it’s a product that I personally like and use, enjoy and give to my mother. That’s the kind of enthusiasm you need to have for the product or the service. People who go into it with the idea of not caring what they sell and just want to make a lot of money, are not going to hook up with the right opportunity. Chances are, they’re going to get involved with something that’s not going to last very long. If you go to the Direct Marketing Association or buy some of the magazines that talk about network marketing, you’ll find something you’ll like. So, that’s your first step is to find something you like. Then, investigate the company and find out if they have been around awhile. If you’re going to get involved with a company, it would be a good idea to look at their track record to verify if they have been in business for at least three to five years.”

On of the growing concerns in the MLM industry is saturation. Is it true that a company that’s been around for more than ten years has tapped out its recruiting stream? “That’s far from true. People joined the Amway Corporation; and even today, still succeed in that business; so, it is right for some people. Unfortunately, most of the startups do not last between one to two years so you’ve got to keep that in mind. You might be excited about the product but the company may not have the financial wherewithal or management savvy to keep the business afloat.” After you’ve found the right product and the right company, Dr. Hayes says, “The third thing, which is really critical in choosing an MLM, is to find the right upline. This is the person who you’re going to sign up under and become your upline. That person can become your mentor, or coach and will help you through the startup phase, will help you when you’re discouraged that things aren’t happening, and will teach you how to do it correctly.”

Some key questions you want to ask your potential upline when someone introduces you to a new network marketing company are:

• How often am I going to hear from you?
• What kind of support will you give me?
• What can I expect from you?
• Will you send me any business?
• Will you make three-way telephone calls with me?
• Do you train and coach me over the telephone or the Internet?

“I think those kind of people are key,” Dr. Hayes admits. “I’ve frequently had good coaches and mentors; and in turn, like to think of myself as a good coach and mentor to people where I can, because it all goes back to Zig’s golden rule philosophy, ‘If you help enough other people get out of life what they want, you’ll always have in life what you want.’ That’s empowerment!”

Making Money with MLM’s

Another myth that must be debugged when considering using an MLM to create long-term residual income is that it’s not a get rich quick program; rather, it’s a get rich very slow program, which makes it highly duplicatable. “Prior to writing about network marketing, I use to look down at network marketing; because I spent 20 years writing about franchising.” After completing his doctorate at Temple University, Dr. Hayes founded The Hayes Group to promote businesses internationally. The boutique agency grew to a staff of 16 professionals with billings approaching $1 million. The agency’s specialties included public relations, international promotions, domestic franchise development, and marketing programs for franchisers, franchisees and small businesses. Hayes later founded the Franchise Information Network, to generate sales leads for franchise companies.

Hayes has become known to the franchise community internationally through articles, books, and public seminars, including numerous annual presentations to franchiser and franchisee audiences. He is a frequent guest on radio and television to promote franchising. In 1994, he was featured in a 30-minute television infomercial called, “The Power of Franchising.” Dr. Hayes says, “I’ve worked with a hundred different founders and presidents of franchise companies throughout America and network marketing was always like a step below franchising. Then, I began looking at the network marketing industry when the book opportunity came along with Zig and; suddenly, I turned around my opinion of network marketing. It is true that most people who get in to it will fail. This is not as true in franchising because you’re paying so much money up front. In network marketing, you can pay $50 to $500, and most people can afford to do that. But, the risk is that they’re only going to lose a couple of hundred dollars and unfortunately, most people go into it with the wrong mindset. They think they’re going to start making money right away. If you invest $150 in something and think you’re going to be making $10,000 a month within 90 days, you’re smoking something – it’s not going to happen.”

Dr. Hayes says that in the six months of research he did for Network Marketing for Dummies, he met and interviewed more millionaires than he did within 20 years working in franchising. “These are people who all worked hard—it wasn’t handed to them. There are a lot of stories where folks come from having very little and they were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They had to set goals, which are very important to understand that you’re not going to be able to quit your day-job right away; you’re going to have to work at this. You might set a goal where in one year, you’ll be able to quit your day job; but it’s going to take about three years to really make the big bucks.”

Another factor Dr. Hayes says you must be ready for is the rejection. “It is risky because you are going to be rejected when you start telling people what you’re doing. Consequently, they’re going to think pyramid and you’re going to have to put up with that for a period of time until you start turning the corner— then, they’ll be coming to you asking, ‘What do you do?’ Even then some of your friends will not believe that it’s not illegal or you didn’t just luck out. It’s simply following a system like any other good business.”

Most people believe that network marketing companies are in the business of recruiting as many people as possible to make money, when Dr. Hayes says that is the opposite. “Good network marketing companies don’t want you because you have $500 to pay. That’s not what they’re looking for at all. Here’s something you need to learn, be cautious about who you take money from. Even though it may be $49.95 for a sign-up or whatever it might be – why bother? There’s not enough money in $50 to try and talk somebody into joining when they are not going to do anything. When you’re a network marketer, you’re out recruiting, top people say this, and I say it in the book, ‘I am not sure that I’ll let you signup… I’m not looking for just anybody to signup, you can buy my product, but I don’t know if I want you to signup under me because I’ve got to invest a good six months or couple of years with you; and I don’t know if I want to do that if you’re not serious. You’ve got to demonstrate to me that you want this badly enough and if you do, then I’ll take a chance with you.’ That’s the attitude of top network marketers and good companies – they have a selection process.”

Philippe “SHOCK” Matthews is the Founder of SHOCKwealth System Financial Destiny University Program; an online university program that teaches three systems of success: wealth mindset, internet marketing and network marketing. For more information on how to become an instructor at SWSu, please visit www.shockwealthsystem.com.

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Part 2 of 3 – The Currency Couple: An Exclusive Interview with Kim Kiyosaki By Philippe Matthews

KIM ON THE CREATION OF CASH FLOW

Philippe Matthews
Tell me how the conversation goes when Robert comes to you with this idea about Rich Dad and the Cash Flow game.

Kim Kiyosaki
“He had been working on Rich Dad for years. Neither of us had any inkling or ever thought this would be the success that it is – not a clue! He wrote this book, we printed a thousand copies and thought we would give it away for Christmas presents for years and it will be done. He wrote it, it’s done, it’s on paper and it’s recorded. He spent a couple of years working on this book and as he was working on that he said, ‘I have this idea about a game.’ And the game is really everything we’ve done in our life in terms of how we invested and how we got out of the rat race. Even all those deals on the fast track, they are all somehow related to us. We have done most of them or all of them, failed on many of them and we have lots of memories but the story on that is when we sold our business in 1994 to an education company and we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do next, I thought maybe I would go do my own business and he start his own business and maybe we would do it separately this time. We went to New York City right before Christmas in 1995 and you know on the Today Show when they go outside? If you look there is sign that reads Dean & Deluca; it’s a coffee shop? Well, we were sitting there one morning and the Today Show was taping and we started talking about this cash flow game and it was there that we decided we were going to do this together. We were going to be business partners and see where this takes us. We built the game in 1996, launched it actually in Singapore in October of 1996 and launched it in the US in November 1996.”

Philippe Matthews
How did you meet Sharon Lechter?

Kim Kiyosaki
“We met Sharon when we were beta-testing the cash flow game. Robert was looking for a patent attorney and he called me one day and had interviewed three. He called me from his car and said, ‘Okay, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I found the perfect patent attorney. The bad news is he is the most f#$% expensive attorney I’ve ever met!’ That was Michael Lechter (Sharon’s husband). One day I was driving to meet with Michael and he was charging $500 an hour! I’m driving down there and thinking, ‘I don’t have anything specific to talk with him about, maybe I should call and cancel the meeting?’ I almost picked up the phone and cancelled it and said to myself, ‘No, no, no; I made the appointment – go through with it.’ I don’t know why I even asked Michael this question but I said, ‘Michael, we’re looking for someone to help Robert complete his book. It needs editing and needs some work. Do you know anyone who writes?’ He said, ‘yeah, my wife Sharon.’ We had met Sharon at a beta test a couple of months earlier and that’s how Robert and Sharon became writing partners. Sharon also helped us out when we were doing the game and would meet with us, give us ideas on the corporate side and helped us set up the business. She gave us a lot of free advice with no agenda.”

Philippe Matthews
Tell me about Robert’s new rich dad and your partnership with Sharon.

Kim Kiyosaki
“Robert has a new rich dad, his name was Frank and he had taken sixty six companies public. We’re having lunch with Frank one day and he has been one of my best teachers. He’s 84 years old and is just as curious as a five year-old, he’s just amazing. Frank turns to us and says, ‘Okay, you’ve got this cash flow business now.’ He turns to Robert and asks, ‘You want to run this thing?’ Robert goes, ‘Heavens no, I don’t want to run this thing.’ He turns to me and asks, ‘Do you want to run it?’ I already know I am not good with day-to-day stuff, I don’t do it well. He says, ‘Well you better hire a president.’ I said, ‘don’t you have to bring somebody in and train them; get them comfortable with the business and get them to learn it?’ He says, ‘No, put an ad in the Wall Street Journal, there’s plenty of people out there, hire somebody.’ One day we were talking with Sharon, sitting down at her dinning room table and said, Sharon would you like to be our partner? That’s how we became partners. We are all equal partners in the business and to this day we still abide by our same policies; decisions are not made independently, we all make them together. Somebody will come and say, ‘Well, Robert agreed to this.’ I’ll look at Sharon and Sharon will look at me and say, ‘No, he did not because we haven’t talked with him about that yet and he would not do such a thing.”

Philippe Matthews
Did you ever feel this was something divinely guided and produced?

Kim Kiyosaki
“I do! This may sound strange but I really felt when we made that decision at the Dean & Deluca Coffee Shop, I got very calm. It felt like the Great Spirit — some people use the word God — I use Great Spirit was saying, ‘Just do it and it will work.’ The book just surprised the heck out of us, we just had no idea.”

Philippe Matthews
How did that level of success affect you?

Kim Kiyosaki
“I would like to think it hasn’t changed us much but there are a couple of things that certainly have changed and I have to say my relationship with Robert and our marriage has become much stronger because we battled through everything from 1985 to now. We can now sit back and take a breather. One big thing that has changed is because we are so much in the public when we do these events; we really have become more private. We really value our time together and our time alone. A lot of our friends are the same friends.”

KIM ON THE ADJUSTMENT TO SUCCESS & WEALTH

Philippe Matthews
With friends, you can change or trade them in, but family is another issue. How has your family adjusted to your wealth and success?

Kim Kiyosaki
“We’ve had some interesting changes just in the last month. My family and I have always been very close. I have two older sisters so there is five of us and when Robert and I were going through our very tough time, they were very concerned and there was definitely tension but they were always very supportive. Robert’s family on the other side, he and his brother were at odds for many, many years. There was a bit of anxiety because Robert had written a story about their dad and some people felt he made fun of his dad which he really was not doing. So, there was some animosity there. Just recently though and this was the neatest thing, Robert’s brother, John and his son Jason who is sixteen years old, last year we were talking with them and said, ‘We’re doing this seminar,’ and Jason got interested because we did this one day event in Honolulu and Jason wanted to come to the event. We brought them both over and Jason got really turned on by real estate and now his older brother is interested and we get this letter from Jason saying, ‘I just want to let you know that at 16 years old, these courses have changed my life. I have a job selling window tinting. I am researching all of the real estate in Honolulu and my life has changed forever!’ Robert’s brother, John who was always in his own world and really not interested is now turning his life around and actually got a position with a property management company to learn property management and learn real estate. That has been pretty spectacular!”

Philippe Matthews
I hear it in your voice that there is a massive passion to teach. Where did that come from? You came from being an “E” on the Cash flow Quadrant but you don’t have an “E” (Employee) mentality.

Kim Kiyosaki
“That’s a really good question because my father was an employee all of his life, he was in sales for a paper company and everybody around me were all employees. I didn’t meet any entrepreneurs or business owners growing up but I think when I got fired twice from my first job; to be honest, I hate being told what to do. That was the problem! They wanted me at the job at a certain time and it was very structured and I am not structured. Thank God I didn’t move to New York City that would have been a huge mistake. The teaching part for me comes from people coming up to me at the events and asking questions. They are so interested in learning and they are so excited that they (Robert & crew) have to sometimes pull me back and tell me the show is about to start and I just want to talk to people. If I can share something that I have learned and make it a little easier for somebody else, great! What happens is it comes full circle because I’m always looking for new teachers and looking for new information and I find that people really do want to share what they know. Not everybody but the majority of them and especially successful people, I find that they do want to give back and they do want to share their knowledge.”

KIM ON RICH MARRIAGE POOR MARRIAGE

Philippe Matthews
I see a book coming from the two of you called Rich Marriage Poor Marriage!

Kim Kiyosaki
“There you go!”

Philippe Matthews
Speaking on that, how important is it to do what you do and be married to the right person?

Kim Kiyosaki
“Good question. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted my life partner to be my business partner. I don’t recommend it for everybody. I know some couples that would probably kill each other but when Robert and I have an argument, it’s always about business – it’s not personal, it’s about business; that’s where our biggest blowups happen. When it works, I think it’s brilliant. I am not the same person I was back in 1986 when we got married. You grow, you learn and a lot of people grow in different directions.”

Philippe Matthews
What happens when two evenly yoked people grow in two different directions and try and maintain a marriage and/or a business?

Kim Kiyosaki
“I would think that would be hell to be honest and I hear that a lot from women and men – ‘I really want to move forward but my partner is not interested and how do I get them interested?’ That’s the million dollar question. It’s like anything when you have a team and especially with marriage, you always have something to talk about. I see these couples at restaurants, older couples, and they are just sitting there with nothing to talk about. Robert and I always have something to talk about, it’s always exciting and we’re always sharing. We don’t have kids by choice. We love our lifestyle, we love to travel and Robert asked me earlier about my reaction toward having kids and I was in my late twenties and said, ‘Not right now, maybe later but it’s not a high priority for me.’ He thought I was lying and trying to trick him. We love our lifestyle but I see couples and all they have in common is their kids and then when the kids move on they are left with ‘Who are you?’ I think the main thing with couples even if you don’t work together is you have to grow together. We have a policy that anytime one of us wants to attend a seminar, we both attend. A lot of times, we will read the same books and then discuss it. When you attend a seminar, it’s really hard to explain it and verbalize some of the things that happened because sometimes a light bulb will go off or a mind-shift change and its hard to explain that in words. But it is really easy when your partner is sitting there next to you, experiencing the same thing you are.”

Watch and listen to what Robert Kiyosaki has to say about the importance of being in the right relationship to be rich!

Read the Kim Kiyosaki Library

Read Part 3 of 3 – The Currency Couple:
An Exclusive Interview with Kim Kiyosaki By Philippe Matthews http://bit.ly/bAgqsT

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