原文: Lessons to Teach Your Children (Part 1)

(”Father and Son”; courtesy of Rune T)

I plan on having children, someday, and there are many important subjects–vital, in fact–that would empower children to live up to their full potential and that are simply not taught in school.  It is therefore left up to the parents to teach these subjects to their children.  I’ve been thinking of lessons that I would want my children to learn much earlier than I did, and the first lessons that came to mind are the following:

Aim to Start Your Own Business

“The 21st century will be known as the Age of the Entrepreneur . . .  It will be a time when Americans and others from many of the world’s capitalist economies will return to their roots of individual family-owned businesses. And, with this return will come not just enormous personal wealth for those who get there first, but also the resulting moral and family values, as well as freedom, that come with owning your own business and controlling your own destiny.” — Paul Zane Pilzer

The groundbreaking best-seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad written by Robert Kiyosaki compares the mindset of Kiyosaki’s father-who held several degrees and an important position in the government, but struggled financially–, with the mindset of his best friend’s father-who never even finished high school but left his son a financial empire. In his book, Kiyosaki explains that the mindset held by each of these two men, his “poor dad” and his “rich dad”, was largely responsible for each man’s financial destiny.

One of the main premises of the book is that “rich dad” taught Kiyosaki that he should get a job to learn and to acquire the necessary skills so that he could go on to start his own business. “Poor dad” saw his job as his source of income for life. While “rich dad” taught Kiyosaki to strive to become financially independent, “poor dad” taught him to depend on his employer for his financial well being.

In today’s economy it might even be riskier to hope for job security by working for a big company than it is to start a home-business. Paul Zane Pilzer has served as economic advisor to two U.S. Presidents, is world renowned as a leading predictor of economic catalyst and trends, and is also the author of five best-selling books, two of which are Unlimited Wealth and The New Wellness Revolution: How to Make a Fortune in the Next Trillion Dollar Industry. In his book The Next Millionaires he argues that we’re seeing a huge shift in our economy from large companies to electronically-connected entrepreneurs.

He explains that big companies were created because they were more efficient: the “transaction costs” of individuals doing business together who weren’t under one roof were so high—with transportation costs, communication expenses, delays, and so on—that costs would exceed their economic output. However, with technological advancements it is now becoming more cost-effective for corporations to decentralize and dismantle themselves, giving way to an environment of independent contractors.

Be Constantly on the Look-Out For Opportunities

Pilzer also advises that you pay attention to everything as you go through your day, from how you drive to work, to how you answer the phone, to when you work at your computer, to how you’re going to make notes of what you’re going to do the next day. At every step ask, “Is there a better way to do this?” If you’re going out to eat at a restaurant take a little time to think of how you decided where you were going and how you made a reservation, and ask: “What would make it easier for me?”

If you come up with an interesting idea on how to improve either a process or a product,  ask yourself if there’s a possible business there by making the process easier for everyone else. Pilzer explains that every good entrepreneurial business starts with a consumer who wants something they’re not getting or finds a better way of doing something. He adds that entrepreneurial opportunities will hit you by the minute when you stop and focus on them.

In his blog post, “Random Thoughts About Kindle”, marketing guru Seth Godin shares with his readers that he purchased a Kindle. He explains that the Kindle does a fine job of being a book reader, but does not improve the act of reading a book. He comes up with three examples of how non-fiction books on Kindle could be better:

• Let people highlight the books so that you can immediately see what thousands of people consider to be the best parts of each book.
• Let people write “notes” on the margin and let others vote them up Digg-style.
• Have links in the books to web sites or other books.

This is an example of someone who did not just passively purchase a Kindle and begin to use it, but who looked at the product and began to ask how it could be improved. Seth adds that anyone could easily come up with many other ways to improve Kindle.  This is the approach that should be taken with everything you do.

In addition, when you hit upon a good opportunity, you have to act on it. To use another example from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, when faced with an opportunity, “rich dad” would ask himself: “How can I afford this?” This forced his mind to think and to come up with creative solutions to be able to take advantage of the opportunity that had presented itself. Instead, when presented with an opportunity, “poor dad” would dismiss it by saying: “It’s too bad I can’t afford this.”

Have Money Work For You

Poor dad taught his son Robert to go to school, study hard, and get good grades so that he could find a secure job that would pay him a good salary and give him excellent benefits. That is, he advised him to work for earned income, or to work for money. However, there are several problems with this strategy. First, income streams from a salary are linear: you only get paid once for your effort. If you stop showing up for work, you stop getting a paycheck. It’s like being on a treadmill. Second, earned income is confined to the amount of time that you work, and time is a limited resource. Therefore, there’s a limit to how much earned income you can make. And third, earned income pays the most taxes.

Rich dad would say to Robert: “The key to becoming wealthy is the ability to convert earned income into passive income and/or portfolio income as quickly as possible.”  Passive income is income that does not require your direct involvement. You make a strong initial effort to get this type of income started, but then you do minimal work thereafter to keep it going.  It can include things such as royalties from books you’ve written or for inventions you hold patents to, rent from property you own, earnings from a business that does not require your direct involvement, and so on. Portfolio income is generally derived from paper assets such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

Another way to think of passive and portfolio income is as residual income. With residual income you work hard once, and it unleashes a steady flow of income for months or even years. You get paid over and over again for the same effort. That is, you get paid multiple times for every hour of work and the stream of income continues to flow whether you’re there or not. Therefore, you can spend your time doing things other than working for money. In addition, how much money you make is not determined by how many hours you work, but by how many residual streams of income you create.

Conclusion

These are the first three lessons that I think are important for children to be taught, and which I did not learn in school.   I once read that Warren Buffet–the greatest investor in history–bought his first share of stock at age 11 and regrets that he did not do so sooner. It’s never too early to start talking to your children about their future business and investments.  Be on the look-out for more posts on lessons to teach your children.

Editor’s Note: A post published today at zenhabits.net is a good illustration of the new rules of working that help support home businesses.

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment below.

– Marelisa

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译文: 教给孩子们的经验（第1部分）

（“父亲和儿子”，由 Rune T 提供）

有一天，我打算要孩子，有很多至关重要的问题实际上可以让孩子们发挥他们的全部潜力快乐的生活，而且这些问题非常简单，学校也不教。因此，通常都是由父母将这些问题教给孩子们。我一直在考虑有哪些经验是我希望孩子们可以比我更早的学到的，而脑子里首先想到的经验就是下面三个：

以开创自己的生意为目标

“21世纪将被称为创业者的时代…这是美国和许多世界其他资本主义国家的人们回归到他们各自的自营生意的根源的时候。并且，这种回归为最先达到目标的人带来的不仅仅是大量的个人财富，还有随之而来的精神和家族价值，比如自由，在拥有了自己的生意并控制了自己的命运之后，就拥有了自由。”——Paul Zane Pilzer

Robert Kiyosaki 撰写的具有开创意义的畅销书《富爸爸，穷爸爸》将 Kiyosaki 的爸爸的心态与他最好朋友的爸爸的心态进行对比。Kiyosaki 的爸爸在政府中有一定的级别并占据重要位置，但仍然在为金钱而奋斗，而他最好朋友的爸爸没有完成高中课程，却留给了孩子一个金融帝国。在书中，Kiyosaki 说明了两个男人的不同心态，他的“穷爸爸”和“富爸爸”都要为各自的经济命运负很大的责任，

书的主旨之一就是“富爸爸”教Kiyosaki应该找份工作来学习和获取必要的技能，这样他就可以开创自己的事业。而“穷爸爸”则将他的工作看作生活收入的来源。当“富爸爸”教Kiyosaki努力争取财政独立的时候“穷爸爸”则教他依靠雇主来保持良好的财政状况。

而从现在的经济状况来看，通过为大公司工作来寻求工作的稳定性比自己创业来的更加冒险。Paul Zane Pilzer 作为经济顾问为两位美国总统服务，他是世界著名的经济触媒和趋势的引导预测者，也是五本畅销书的作者，其中有两本是《财富无限》（Unlimited Wealth）和《新健康革命：如何在下一个万亿美元行业中创造财富》。在《下一批百万富翁》（The Next Millionaires）中，他指出我们正在见证经济的巨大转换，从大公司转变为电子连接的创业者。

他解释道，创建大公司是因为他们更有效率：不在同一屋檐下的个人一起做生意的“交流成本”非常高——包括运输成本、通信成本、延迟等等，这些成本会超过经济产出。但是，随着技术的进步，分散或拆开经营对公司来说变得更加节省成本，这就给独立承包人提供了出路。

随时注意机会

Pilzer还建议注意日常生活中遇到的任何事情，从如何开车去工作，到如何接电话，到何时在计算机上工作以及记下明天要做些什么。在做每一步时都问自己“有更好的办法来做这件事吗？”。如果你正要去餐馆吃饭，就花一点时间想想你是如何决定要去哪里吃饭和怎样定位子的，并且问问自己：“怎样做对我来说更简单？”

如果你在如何提高一个过程或产品上想到了一个有趣的点子，问问自己，让这个过程对于每个人来说都变得更简便是否可能成为一个生意。Pilzer 解释说每个好的事业都是由想要某些得不到的东西或者发现了做某件事的更好的方法的消费者开始的。他还说创业的机会会在你停下来并注意到它们的那一分钟击中你。

市场行销的权威 Seth Godin 在他的博客“关于 Kindle 的随想”中与他的读者分享了他购买的 Kindle。他说 Kindle 作为一个读书工具非常好用，但是并没有提高读书这一行为。他提出了三种方法可以更好的在 Kindle 上阅读非小说类的书：

让人们高亮标记书的内容，这样就可以立即看到成千上万的人选出的每本书的最佳部分。

让人们在空白处写“注释”并让其他人进行 Digg 样式的投票。

在书中做连接到web站点或其他书的链接。

这就是一个例子，有的人不仅仅是被动的购买 Kindle 并开始使用它，而是研究该产品并开始问它可以怎样提高。Seth 还说很多人可以简单的想到许多提高 Kindle 的方法。这就是在做每件事情时都应该使用的思路。

此外，当你偶然发现一个好的机会时，就必须开始行动。再举一个“富爸爸，穷爸爸”中的例子，在面对机会时，“富爸爸”会问他自己“我怎样才可以得到它？”这会强制他的头脑思考并想到有创意的解决方案来利用这个出现在他面前的机会，而在面对机会时，“穷爸爸”则会放弃它，并说“真糟糕，我得不到它。”

让金钱为你工作

穷爸爸教他的儿子 Robert 上学、努力学习、拿到好成绩，这样就可以找到一份工资高，福利好的稳定工作。也就是说，他建议他通过工作赚取收入，或为钱工作。但是，这一战略有几个问题。首先，来自工资的收入流是线性的：你的一次努力只能得到一次工资。如果你停止工作，你就不能再得到工资。这就像踩脚踏车。其次，赚取的工资受到工作时间的限制，而时间是有限的资源。因此能赚取多少收入也是有限的。第三，赚取的收入要交大部分的税款。

而富爸爸则对 Robert 说：“变得富有的关键是尽快将赚取的收入转换为被动收入和/或资产收入的能力。”被动收入就是不需要你直接参与的收入。你开始要费很大的力气来获取这种类型的收入，但是在这之后你只需要少量的工作就可以让它们持续赚钱。这样的收入包括来自你写的书或你持有专利权的发明的版税、来自你所有的房产的租金，来自不需要你直接参与的生意的利润，等等。资产收入则通常来自书面资产如股票、债券和共同基金。

另一种方法是把被动和资产收入看作剩余收益。一次努力工作赚来的剩余收益就释放了一个持续几个月或几年的稳定收入流。这一次努力可以让你一次又一次的获得收益。也就是说，你每个小时工作多次获取工资的同时还有不管你是否工作都有的持续收入流。此外你能赚多少钱也不是由你工作了多少小时决定的，而是由你创建了多少剩余收入流而决定。

结论

这是我认为最重要的要教给孩子们的三个经验，并且是我在学校里没有学到的。我曾经读到过 Warren Buffet——历史上最伟大的投资家在他 11 岁的时候就买下了他的第一个股票，而且他还因为没有买得更早而觉得遗憾。开始与孩子讨论他们未来的事业和投资永远不会太早。请注意其他关于教给孩子们的经验的博客。 

编辑注释：今天发表在 zenhabits.net 上面的新博客，是帮助支持自主创业的新工作规则的很好的说明。

请在下面添加评论加入讨论。

-  Marelisa

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