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Rich Dad's Guide to Investing

Rich Dad's Guide to Investing by Robert T. Kiyosaki is a book that has change my mentality towards wealth. Before I read this book, I don't know anythings about wealth. What I know is only to get a job, do well in a job, and get a stabil income. But this indeed is not stabil at all. Look at most of our finance conditions today. If you lose your job now, how long can you sustains before you get a new job? I believe the answer for most of us is less than a few months. We have so many financial commitments other than basic needs nowadays like car loans installment, house loans installment, credit card loans installment, personal loans installment.

What exactly is wealth? In this book Robert T. Kiyosaki mentions 3 types of people: the poor, the middle class and the rich. The poor simply use up all their money every months for basic needs like foods, shelter, clothings and transport. They never have enough money for other things. They will always remain poor.

The middle class earn a better amount of salary every months. These people are mostly professionals or skilled workers. Other than basic needs, they have extra money for entertainment, cars, houses. Therefore they normally take up a lot of loans like car loans, house loans, personal loans, credit card loans to fulfill their comfortable lifestyle. These people normally end up paying loans through their whole life. They never get rich because all their money is used for paying interest to the bank. They buy things like big car, plasma TV which depreciate with times.

The rich don't work for money. Instead they make the money work for them. They buy valuable things such as good property. They invest in things that can create income for them. They look for passive income. They will always remain rich or even become richer.

The book talk about assets. An assets is something that can create income for us. This is very a important concept because most of us tend to go for something that cannot create income for us, worse still it eats up our income. Some examples of assets are properties that bring in good rental, or a business that bring in income. Robert T. Kiyosaki also mentions that the best way to create wealth is to create the assets but not to buy the assets. Some examples are like writer who writes a book, musicians who create a popular song, entrepreneur who set up a company.

Rich Dad's Guide to Investing is a must read book for those who wish to improve their financial conditions or wanted to gain financial freedom.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

One of the best book for self improvement purposes that I have ever come accross is 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' by Steven Covey. Stephen Covey is an internationally respected leadership authority. He realizes that true success consists of a balance of personal and professional effectiveness. This book is a manual for performing better in both arenas.

Steven Covey work on the research on this topic during he was pursuing his Doctorate Program. This book is base on his work on the research of reviewing 200 years of success literature. The book have been use by many organisation for the base of trainning. In this book, Steven Covey presented the 7 habits that a highly effective people practice:

Private Victory:
1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first

Public Victory:
4. Think win win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize

Renewal:
7. Sharpen the saw

According to Covey, before you can adopt the seven habits, you'll need to accomplish what he calls a "paradigm shift"--a change in perception and interpretation of how the world works. You need to fulfill the private victory before you can enjoy a public victory. Covey takes you through the process of changing, which affects how you perceive and act regarding productivity, time management, positive thinking. You will develop your "proactive muscles" (acting with initiative rather than reacting).

The first time I read this book is around 5 years ago when I just started my career. My manager discussed the content and strategy of the book with the whole team with the purpose to improve our performance in work. I was glad that I had the opportunity to expose to this book. I had really learn a lot from this book.

A powerful lessons in personal change: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich is the classics of success philosophy and motivation. One that should be kept in everyone's success library. It is considered by many to be one of the most important motivational texts ever written. Written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by Andrew Carnegie, it was released in 1937 at the end of the Great Depression. In 1960, Hill published an abridged version of the book, which for years was the only one generally available.

Andrew Carnegie was the 'King of the Steel' in his day. He came to the United States from Scotland and made a fortune in the steel industry. Carnegie was fascinated with success and wanted to understand why some men became successful while others in very similar circumstances did not. So he commissioned Napoleon Hill to interview the nation's most successful men to find a success formula that would work for the common man. The process of conducting these interviews required an investment of twenty years of Napoleon Hill's life.

This book contains the secret, after having been put to a practical test by thousands of people, in almost every walk of life. While Napolean Hill performing the twenty year task of research, which he had undertaken at Mr. Carnegie’s request, he analyzed hundreds of well known men, many of whom admitted that they had accumulated their vast fortunes through the aid of the Carnegie secret; among these men were:

HENRY FORD, WILLIAM WRIGLEY JR., JOHN WANAMAKER, JAMES J. HILL, GEORGE S. PARKER, E. M. STATLER, HENRY L. DOHERTY, CYRUS H. K. CURTIS, GEORGE EASTMAN, THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JOHN W. DAVIS, ELBERT HUBBARD, WILBUR WRIGHT, WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, DR. DAVID STARR JORDAN, J. ODGEN ARMOUR, CHARLES M. SCHWAB, HARRIS F. WILLIAMS, DR. FRANK GUNSAULUS, DANIEL WILLARD, KING GILLETTE, RALPH A. WEEKS,JUDGE DANIEL T. WRIGHT, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, THOMAS A. EDISON, FRANK A. VANDERLIP, F. W. WOOLWORTH, COL. ROBERT A. DOLLAR, EDWARD A. FILENE, EDWIN C. BARNES, ARTHUR BRISBANE, WOODROW WILSON, WM. HOWARD TAFT, LUTHER BURBANK, EDWARD W. BOK, FRANK A. MUNSEY, ELBERT H. GARY, DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, JOHN H. PATTERSON, JULIUS ROSENWALD, STUART AUSTIN WIER, DR. FRANK CRANE, GEORGE M. ALEXANDER, J. G. CHAPLINE, HON. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, ARTHUR NASH, CLARENCE DARROW

The text of Think and Grow Rich is founded on Hill's earlier work, The Law of Success, the result of more than twenty years of research based on Hill's close association with a large number of individuals who managed to achieve great wealth during the course of their lifetimes.

Napoleon Hill studied the characteristics of these great achievers and developed thirteen "laws" intended to be applied by anybody to achieve success. Think and Grow Rich! itself condenses these laws further and provides the reader with 13 principles in the form of a philosophy of personal achievement.

The 13 Principles of Success:
Desire
Faith
Auto-suggestion
Specialised Knowledge
Imagination
Organised Planning
Decision
Persistence
The Master Mind
The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
The Subconscious Mind
The Brain
The Sixth Sense

Quotes from Think and Grow Rich:
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
"A quitter never wins and a winner never quits."
"Success requires no explanations. Failure permits no alibis"

If you want a real success in you life, this book is a must in your success library! Add a copy of Think and Grow Rich in your library.