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Lesson #5: Do It Today And Do It To Win

Article Overview: “The only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time,” says Kiyosaki. “The poor, the unsuccessful, the unhappy, the unhealthy are the ones who use the word tomorrow the most.”

Lesson #5: Do It Today And Do It To Win

“The only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time,” says Kiyosaki. “The poor, the unsuccessful, the unhappy, the unhealthy are the ones who use the word tomorrow the most.”

Kiyosaki’s favourite part of being in the U.S. Marine Corps was the aerial combat training sessions he got to take part in during flight school. Student pilots would routinely take off in their aircrafts and wait to be engaged in practice combat by an instructor pilot. One beautiful, sunny day, Kiyosaki found himself day dreaming as he flew 8,000 feet over a nice patch of farmland. He lost track of why he was up in the skies in the first place. All of a sudden, his peaceful journey was interrupted by the loud sounds of shooting over his microphone. For five minutes, Kiyosaki struggled to maneuver out of the range of his instructor when he finally heard, “Class is over. You’re dead.”

When Kiyosaki returned to the ground, his instructor gave him some words of wisdom that would stick with him to this very day. “You know what’s bad about this job?” he said. “There’s no second place. Either you go home or we go home, but both of us aren’t going home.” Those words changed the very way Kiyosaki saw his operations; he knew there was no choice but to be the best. Since that day, Kiyosaki flew every mission with a new mandate. “We flew to win,” he says. “Before every flight, I would remind my crew that our job was not to give our lives for our country.”

Kiyosaki attributes both his coming back alive from the Vietnam War and his success in business to his commitment to seizing the day and always striving to finish first. In the war, if you failed, there was no tomorrow; that was it. You only ever got one chance to prove your worth and achieve your mission or your life was over – literally. Losing was not an option. Kiyosaki took that mentality with him into the business world.

“Tomorrows only exist in the minds of dreamers and losers,” he says. “Do today what you want for your tomorrow.” When Kiyosaki had an idea, he immediately followed through; and, when he had a dream, he refused to put it off. Everything he did from that moment on was devoted to realizing that dream. Kiyosaki knew that what he did today would shape his future tomorrow.

“As entrepreneurs, it’s important to be winners,” he says. “If you aren’t practicing and playing to be first, then maybe you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.” War, like business, is about survival of the fittest. That goes beyond the interpretation of physical strength and endurance. Surviving in business, for Kiyosaki, is about being flexible, being adaptive, and being ready – ready for whatever comes your way. And, the only way you can get to that ready state is by always playing for now and playing to win.

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Article Tags: aerial combat, aircrafts, business world, combat training, dreamers, farmland, flight school, going home, instructor pilot, losers, mentality, peaceful journey, poor person, rich person, seizing the day, student pilots, sunny day, u s marine corps, vietnam war, words of wisdom



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