The velvet sledgehammer

What is the key message of the book?

This is Donald and my second book together. Our first book, which came out in 2006, was about how the middle class was going to get wiped out because of bad financial advice. And now it is coming true.

I was just reading an Australian newspaper which said that because of the strong Australian dollar, 90,000 jobs have been lost. Unemployment is our biggest concern today. In the US, Obama might not get re-elected – not that Trump cares of course.

Unemployment remains the biggest issue, so we decided to write this book to encourage entrepreneurs. The government cannot create entrepreneurs.

You have been warning about this lack of financial awareness for years, for example where people mistakenly think of their houses as an asset. It must still be sad seeing this happen?

It is sad. Nothing is worse than someone losing their job, and it is only going to get worse. That is the hard part about it. It’s not fun saying ‘I was right!’ when in many ways I wish I was wrong.

Why do you think there aren’t enough entrepreneurs?

Number one, our schools train us to be employees. You go to school to get a job. People go to school to be employees or to come out as doctors or lawyers – and they don’t create jobs either.

We need entrepreneurs to tell people what it is really like to actually be an entrepreneur, because most people don’t know. I just did an interview where the guy told me he had a good idea. So what? Everyone has ideas, but how do you convert the idea into a business. That is the Catch 22 in there.

Do you worry that your message may fall on deaf ears again?

I think the market is looking for new ideas. Even my attorney is out of work, wondering ‘now what do I do?’ The market is more receptive to what I have to say. I’m kind of vindicated on that point.

But so what. I have two sisters and a brother and I am afraid of what is going to happen to them. It’s really personal, I’m kind of concerned.

How did you and Donald come up with the idea for the book?

We had to come up with what we thought were the important points. It took us a while – about a year to come up with it. The reason it is called the Midas Touch is because it is based around the hand, so there are five key points. One is strength of character, which is the thumb, then there is the pointer finger which is focus, then there is the middle finger, which is what you stand for, or your brand. Your ring finger represents your relationships and the little finger represents the little things that you do. Once we came up with that concept we were off and running.

Are all of those points equally important?

They are all important. You could look at the little finger, which is looking at the little things that your business does that no one else does – you can build an entire company around that. The ring finger is your relationships. What happens is that as you improve, and as I improved and Donald improved, our relationships changed and we needed higher quality people around us. It’s not an easy process.

The middle finger is for branding. Trump is a big brand and Rich Dad is a big brand all over the world, and very few people achieve that. Some of it is a  lot of luck, but we did achieve that.

How do you balance what you do in public with the public speaking and books with actually doing business?

What comes first is practising what we preach, then we preach afterwards. We come from a position of experience. The problem with most business books is that they are written by college professors with no real experience who have nothing else going for them. They are fact finders. They can find a detail and it is interesting stuff, but Donald and I speak from experience so the writing actually comes pretty easily.

We practice first, then we preach second.

It’s been said that success breeds success, so if you are successful in business then other successful business people will want to work with you. But what about when you are starting out – what is your advice to people at that stage?

I’ve been coming to Australia for years. I love this country, because you guys gave me one of my first breaks. For years I was talking about how school didn’t really teach you what you need for the real world – at least in Australia people listened. In America I may as well have been speaking out against Jesus Christ. In Australia, people have an open mind. My first book was called “If you want to be rich and happy then don’t go to school” which did well in Australia, but in the US I was crucified.

Being successful is really a matter of being true to who you are. You’re not just in business to make money. An entrepreneur is there to make a difference or make a statement about what they think is important. If it is not important, don’t do it.

People ask me why I keep going and why Donald keeps going. It’s because I have a mission, and my mission isn’t finished. I have made enough money, but my work is not done yet. If you don’t have that, I don’t think you should be an entrepreneur. You should stay small.