Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the Silicon Valley
My boss pointed out an important fact not mentioned in Rich Dad, Poor Dad: in the Silicon Valley, when you join a company, you also become an investor. It’s not the salary, but the stocks that build your wealth. They are your assets. This is the advantage of joining a start-up. You own a large percent of the company, and you’re taxes on it are on the money you invested (if it’s a founder’s stock). So when there is nothing and you buy your parts at $0.001, that’ll be what you’re taxed on. The other side of it is the company uses this to keep you in, you don’t get all your shares transfered to you right away. They come with a percentage each year. So, if you leave right away, the company can buy back the shares not transfered to you at the old price. It’s kind of a leash thing, but it’s something that Rich Dad never gave the people working at his stores.
So why do companies do this? Why give away a share? Because when a person actually owns part of something, she becomes a lot more productive. She has an interest to succeed, and an interest to stay.
Other things, joining established or not? Here’s the gamble, on one hand it takes luck but on the other without taking this risk, it’s hard to ever get passed regular income. Joining a small starting group or starting your own thing means a very high investment of time and energy and it might not succeed. If it does, you’re set. If it doesn’t you’ve lost time but learned a lot. On the other hand, say you join a big company, in fact an ideal working environment by Good Business : Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning standards. You get paid a nice salary, are gauranteed a steady, and secure life. You also get stocks, but at such a high price, the exponential growth point has most likely passed (although it did grow a lot this year).
This is the tough choice. As someone just starting out, and very eager to make my first hundred thousand and go to Thailand to study (yes, that’s part of the plan now, once I make my first first hundred thousand, I’ll study for all those pesky certifications and exams in Thailand, it’s a good motivation to get myself to make it fast), I wondered if it wouldn’t be just easier to join the simple happy job, instead of working like mad and risking not getting anything. However, seeing yesterday’s events and seeing how a real passive income generation works and how a business starts to take off, I got really inspired. It may be harder right now, with little income coming in. But I’m determined to break out of the rat race. I know that a person cannot depend on an hourly wage to truly live and I want to build something, whether it’s a real estate empire, an invention, or a product. For a while, I was getting really tired and annoyed, but yesterday inspired me. I’m more eager than ever to finally get this project done, and I’m really annoyed at myself for having taken this long and for not really appreciating how great an opportunity this is.
I have an interview with the big established company next week. The phone interview was a disaster, but I guess my resume and writing helped a bit. I don’t know. I’m actually not that interested, which makes the whole idea of interviewing kind of fun. For the position and for the long term, they’d have to offer something really creative. Perhaps they will. I’m just curious at what it could be. Nearly half a dozen of my aquaintances work there right now, and they love it, and the lure of having that steady income sounds really nice when you don’t have it. But I’m just checking it out. I’m determined to finish this project first and hopefully get the chance to grow where I’m at right now.
So much going on right now: project, tutoring, real estate class. As the The ABC’s of Building a Business Team points out, now is the time to develop character. I have a few goals, very little spare time, and very little sleep. We’ll see how it all turns out.
Tags: Jobs, Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Start-Ups, Stock Options, Wealth