ladies N gentlemans....

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LORRAINE HAHN, Host: Welcome to Talk Asia. I’m Lorraine Hahn. Most people worry about how to make ends meet. Well, our guest Robert Kiyosaki is doing what he can to change that. In his debut book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, he used semi-autobiographical anecdotes to showcase how a nine-to-five job does not necessarily guarantee security, and gave examples of how he learned to make money work for him.
Different Education From Two Dads
So let’s get some insights from the man himself. Robert, thank you very much for coming here and stopping by. I’m so interested to find out really, really why do you think Rich Dad Poor Dad created such a storm?

ROBERT KIYOSAKI, Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad: Well, I think it’s controversial, first of all, because my “poor dad” was, you know, a Ph.D., head of education, candidate for lieutenant governor as a Republican in Hawaii.

HAHN: Ouch!

KIYOSAKI: Yeah, he always said the same things that most of us have heard, “Go to school, get good grades, get a job, work hard, get out of debt, save money and buy a house.”
And as we know in America today, that’s not the formula. And my “rich dad” was my best friend’s father, also from Hawaii, and he taught me how to have money work hard for me so I didn’t have to be a hard working man like my poor dad.
It’s a true story. My rich dad began teaching his son and me when I was just nine years old, growing up in Hawaii. And it was really tough as a kid because here is one dad saying “Go to school and get good grades and get a job,” and here’s my rich dad saying “You won’t get rich that way.” And “You have to start your own companies and learn to invest in real estate and then learn how to take companies public through an IPO.”
So the education was completely different from my poor dad and my rich dad. I think that’s why today we have such a gap between the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Writing Real Life Experiences
HAHN: Some of your critics would argue, though, that some of the situations you’ve written about really could never happen and that, you know, you might be leading some these novice investors on. What do you say to that?

KIYOSAKI: Well, first of all, it takes no experience to be a critic, you know, the world is full of critics and I ask those critics, “Have you sold 20-million copies of a book, so far?” “Are you a multimillionaire?” “Have you taken a company public?” “Have you invested in real estate?”
I think one of the things about Rich Dad Poor Dad, the reason it works, because I’m not writing about “stuff.” I’m not an academic writing about things I’ve never done.
What I write about are real life experiences. You know, I’ve actually taken companies public, I’ve actually busted companies, I’ve actually gone broke. You know, I’ve been in the dirt with everybody else. I’ve had to come up again. So I’m not this academian or some critic who hasn’t done anything with their lives but can sit there and criticize. It takes no experience to criticize.

HAHN: Now with all the training, business, speaking... everything you do, where does the true passion lie for you?

KIYOSAKI: My true passion lies, and I think our school systems need to start teaching young people about money. In America today, more young people declare bankruptcy because of credit cards than graduate from universities.
And every time I talk to schoolteachers, say “Why don’t we teach money in school?” They say “Oh, that’s not important, not important.”
But I’ve never seen a schoolteacher turn down their paycheck yet. You know what I mean? And whether we’re rich or poor, smart or stupid, we’re all going to use money. So why don’t we teach people about money?

Make Mistakes to Get Ahead
HANH: What has been your best investment advice?

KIYOSAKI: My best investment advice was from my rich dad, was to make mistakes. He said that, “If you want to get ahead, you have to make more mistakes than your competition.” I mean, most people, their culture is... I don’t care where you are around the world, the educated sort of think mistakes are bad.
But if you look at the way we’ve truly learned, we learn by making mistakes. I learned to walk, you learned to walk by falling down, standing up. I learned to ride a bicycle by falling down, standing up. I learned to be a pilot by going down a couple of times and coming back up again.
So we learn by trial and error except our families and our school systems teach us that mistakes are bad. Whereas if you look at it, the reason people are not successful is they haven’t made enough mistakes yet.

HAHN: What is your main message to people when you address them?

KIYOSAKI: I think that money is a very important subject. You know, when somebody says “Money is not that important.” or the best one is “Money doesn’t make you happy,” I said “You must be a very unhappy person.” Because, I’m happier when I have all the money I want.
And money buys my lifestyle. It buys my freedom. I can travel the world. I can work if I don’t work. So, I think it’s to be more honest with yourself about your relationship with money.
I think the worst thing of all is people who hoard money. You know, they save, save, save, save, save... they live below their means, they live cheap. So they actually make money a god to them. They worship their bank account. And I’m going... Why would you want to live below your means?

HAHN: Well, we appreciate your coming by and sharing that with us.

KIYOSAKI: Thank you.

HAHN: Investor, entrepreneur, educator and author Robert Kiyosaki.

Do u guys remember this Wonderwoman..Lyndacarter?
It's unfair...

My Family and My Childhood


There were six of us in our family: my father, my mother, my two elder sisters, and my younger brother.

My father was grave and obstinate, but he was very diligent in supporting our family. I met my father only once a year when I was young because he was the captain of an international trading ship. Although he didn't talk to us a lot, I would often notice how much he cared about our welfare and how much he wanted to express his love for us.


It was so hard for all of us when my father passed away three years ago; he had more than seven operations for the last seven years of his life. Because of this, I wasn't able to do a lot of things with my father.


My mother is a very tough woman. She managed a few family businesses when my father was sick, but it was not enough to support my father's operations. She inspired us to make strong decisions in our lives. She often had to make a decision all by herself because my father was seldom beside her.


My eldest sister has a very strong character and is very intelligent. She graduated in the highest universities in Korea and finished two different majors. She now works as a designer in a big company back in Korea.

My second eldest sister is also skilled in graphic design but she is very different from my other sister. She often makes mistakes and she tends to be lazy, complaining about even the smallest things.

My mother always praised my eldest sister, so I guess she got stressed about it so much.

My younger brother studied accounting in a university. He now teaches mathematics to high school students. He even has his own office.

How about me? I have a very introverted character, especially since when I was young I was always shy and anti-social. Also, during my childhood, I got ill with bronchial asthma. The illness required me to visit the hospital a lot. Because of this, I liked to think alone when I was young.

More About Me and Who I Am

It all changed because of my first job, however, as I became a fashion model for a few months. I didn't pursue my modeling career, though, because it was so stressful for me. Besides, I wanted to try out a lot of things in my life. That is why when my modeling contract was over, I transferred to a franchising company when I was 23 years old.

I had a mentor back then who taught me that to get ahead of life, I must learn how to do things like a man, instead of a woman. He then proceeded to teach me all that I needed to know, treating me like a male apprentice. Because of his guidance, I earned a lot of praise and awards with my work.


Back then, I did not know much about society. I did not have enough skill in establishing communications with other people and partner companies. But I had a passion for learning, so I got a high position in the company after only a short time. After working for only three years, I got the title of director manager.


The Event That Changed My Life

My experience as a director manager really built up my confidence. During that time, I felt that I knew all that there was to know about business management. With this in mind, I started my own company three years later.

Things didn't go well with my company, though. After one and a half years, my business went bankrupt. It was very hard for me when it happened, but it also opened my eyes to what I really need to do.

In general, my family is strong and hard working. We also care about each other a lot, always wanting to support one another. All of us in our family want to be recognized by society through our abilities and our chosen fields.I believe that because of this, I did not find it hard in picking myself up and learning from my mistakes.

One important lesson that I learned was that though I am competent in day-to-day operations, I need to gain a deeper knowledge of the foundations of business, especially since I did not major in business. So with the same passion that I have for learning, I focused on developing my abilities for the next phase of my life.


What I Have a Passion For

I chose to move to the Philippines to study MBA because it would help me understand different cultures while learning more about my chosen profession. I am here because though I always excelled in math and I often stood out among my colleagues due to my application of quantitative know-how to my work, I want to take this one step further by building my analytical skills even more.

I am learning a lot, visiting places I have never been to before, meeting people, even eating food I have never tasted back in Korea.

Pursuing an MBA degree at this juncture of my career, I am ready to build a solid theoretical foundation, since I have already gained practical experience from my jobs during the past 10 years.



What I Can Do for the Future

I wish to build a global network that goes beyond teleconferencing and phone calls, by having it based on years of building friendships while working and studying together.

Even when most of the companies I worked for were multinationals where I worked extensively with foreigners, I have spent my whole life in Korea, which is why I have a strong aspiration to expose myself better to the world in general.


Staying here and learning while on the go is viable, although it requires a considerably longer lead-time. However, I still believe that this is the most intensive and cost-effective way to "upgrade" my worth.


"Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance": it's all around me whenever I think about my future. I know that it is totally difficult for every situation, and that I did make a lot of mistakes in my past. Then again, I will only know what is right and what is wrong only after I have bad and good experiences.

In the future, I hope that when the time comes once more when I need to show what I know and what I can do, I will be ready.

Ku, Min Sung (Sharine)

“How Google Is That?”

“ I would like to say that some body sell real lands but Google sells abstrlands which can be only one word and can’t be 1m even to people in the world.”

Google’s start was tentative but the growth of the internet was simply exponential. As a search engine, it had a unique and effective system of rating a website so they became very popular. Their popularity spread mainly through word of mouth which is always more forceful than any other form of endorsement or any advertisement. Google’s mathematical approach to rating a website could show the website’s quality or value by counting the other sites that connected themselves to it. It is very logical that the more sites link themselves to any site, the higher the quality of that site would be. And it was just what people needed in a rapidly growing internet.
Google had heavy investments from all the top executives of the Silicon Valley. This means there was a lot of confidence in its ability to create money. And it has been really successful up to the present. I think the secret to this search engine’s success lies in its simplicity and the speed at which it can come up with the data asked for by the user. Even its style of using focused ads is another way of showing how speed, simplicity and focus are valued highly by the users.
The complex mathematical analysis the company uses may not have been easy to develop but the logic that supported it was certainly genius in its simplicity.

Submitted by: Ku, MinSung


Instant Messaging: Business should preoceed-with caution


In the Philippines, IM is a software application commonly used by young people for chatting. Thus, for me, IM appears to be more as a Pop Culture's means of communication rather than a medium for business communication. IM in business has advantages thus, it is becoming popular means for business communication. It sure has better advantage over e-mail. You will know if the person you are sending a message is online or not. You also don't have to go through few steps in sending an email such as read, reply and send email. You just have to type in the messages then you and the person you are communicating with can see the typed messages in a small window.

Other Advantages as stated in the article are ?it helps to multi-task; a mechanism for great culture-building and virtual kick under the table? I believe the virtual kick under the table?use of IM is an important advantage. A virtual kick under the table?could facilitate better understanding of during presentations or conferences. It is not just fact and convenient but it also enhance communication.

IM still has disadvantages such as being prone to hackers and in some cases cause de-motivation. Every IT face problems like this. It would depend on the assessment of the person using the technology whether the advantages out weighs the disadvantages.

I would advice offices to use IM since it brings advantages that could enhance communication at work. However, it must be used properly. As much as possible, sensitive data should not be discussed through IM since the possibility of it being hacked is high.