How the Rich Manufacture Luck — And How YOU Can Too

0:00Hey, Chicagoland! The Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza in Wilmette. Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza in Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home I'm going to teach you how to engineer your own luck. Not wait for it. Not hope for it. Engineer it.

0:38Here's what almost nobody understands about luck. Luck isn't something that happens to you. There's a picture I want you to see. Two men walking down the same street. The same wind. The same$20 bill blowing past both of them. Only one of them picked it up. And that difference is the entire episode. I'm going to show you exactly how to become the second man every single time. This is Robert Kiyosaki, and this is how you engineer your own luck. This is the Rich Dad Radio Show. The good news and bad news about money. Here's Robert Kiyosaki. Welcome to the Rich Dad Radio Show, the good and bad about money.

1:29This is Robert Kiyosaki, and today is just you and me. And we're talking about what the rich are teaching their kids about money. The phone rang. I knew before I picked it up, something was wrong. I lost almost a million dollars that day, money that wasn't even mine. Most people would call that bad luck. I don't. Not anymore. And by the end of today, you won't call it that either. This is the day I stopped believing in luck and started building it. Let's begin. Here's what I've noticed. After 40 years of watching people invest, almost everyone believes in luck. They just don't believe they're in charge of it.

2:18When things go well, I got lucky. When things go badly, I got unlucky. Either way, luck sits outside of you, like weather, something that happens to you. Understand why people like that story. It's comforting. It means none of it is your fault. None of it is your doing. I don't buy it. There's a picture I keep in my head, two men walking down a street. A wind picks up. a piece of paper blows past them both. Same street, same wind, same paper. Hold on to that image because we're coming back to it. Here's what I've learned instead. There's a real difference between people who invest for capital gains and people who invest for cash flow.

3:08Capital gains people buy something and hope it goes up. That's not investing. That's praying with extra steps. Cash flow is different. The moment you start looking for a deal that actually puts money in your pocket every single month, you find out fast. Most deals are bad deals. Am I saying luck doesn't exist? No. I like being lucky as much as the next person. But I would rather build my skill than wait on my luck. Skill I can build. Luck I can't summon on command. That's the difference. Most people who lose money in the market aren't unlucky. They're gambling. They just don't know it because gambling in a suit and tie doesn't look like gambling.

3:53Here's a test I use. It's not gambling if you know what you're doing. It's gambling if you're throwing money into a deal and praying. That's the whole line. And it has nothing to do with the asset class. You can gamble in real estate. You can gamble in a mutual fund your planner sold you at a nice lunch. You can gamble buying a business. The vehicle doesn't make it safe, your knowledge does. This is why I've spent more time and money on my financial education than on any single stock tip, any single property listing. The idea is to cut the odds down. There's always risk. Financial IQ is what improves the odds.

4:36And here's the part that surprises people. Risk is personal. What's generally risky for one investor can be low risk for another. Same deal, different person, different bet. Somebody who's never opened a balance sheet, walking into a leveraged real estate deal, that's a gambler. Somebody who's spent years learning how debt, cash flow, and market cycles move together, walking into that exact same deal, that might be the safest move of their career. Same paper, same signatures, two completely different bets. And that's the part nobody wants to hear. Because it means there's no shortcut. You can't buy your way to good luck.

5:22There's no shortcut. There's only the people who never learn that lesson and pay for it. Two people won millions of dollars overnight. Both of them ended up broke. One of them ended up in jail. I'm going to tell you their names, and I'm going to tell you exactly what they were missing, because it's the same thing most people are missing right now with their own money. Don't go anywhere. Hey, thanks for listening to my show. I wanted to tell you that according to my friend Jim Rickards, a former advisor to the CIA and the Pentagon, with close ties to the Trump administration, President Trump is about to make a move that will shock the markets and opened the doors of the world's single biggest gold deposit right here on U.S.

6:12soil. Inside this deposit is the equivalent of more than 161 million ounces of gold, which at today's prices would be worth nearly$1 trillion. And as gold continues to hit new highs this year, this deposit could make some people very, very rich. That's why Jim, a world-renowned gold expert, with over 40 years as industry insider, just made a huge prediction about this Trump move and what he calls Donald Trump's secret$2 gold mine. And for all the details on this little-known$2 gold company, simply go to offair26.com to watch this presentation. That's offair26.com, paid for by Paradigm Press. The system was never broken.

7:06It was built this way. People keep asking me why the system feels rigged. Let me be blunt. It isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed. Designed by the rich, for the rich, to keep everyone else locked outside the room where the real money is made. It starts in school. It keeps you working for money instead of learning how money works for the rich. There are two sets of rules. One set for people who work for money. Another set entirely for the people who print it, control it, and move it. I'm not telling you this to make you angry and helpless. I'm telling you because once you see the game, you can learn to play it.

7:41The rich didn't get rich by working harder. They got rich by understanding rules nobody bothered to teach you. Learn the real rules. That's the only rebellion that actually works. That is why I'm introducing you to Devin and her Capital Club. Capital Club brings democracy to investing and opens a backdoor for you. so you can participate in some of the greatest investments you normally would not have access to or be invited to. To learn more, go to capitalclub33.com. That's capitalclub33.com. Go there and beat the system. Don't let the system beat you. capitalclub33.com. Okay, we're back. We're talking about luck and why that word is a lie people tell themselves.

8:26Before the break, I told you a shortcut doesn't exist. Let me show you what happened when I found that out the hard way. Chicago, a trade show. I was selling nylon wallets under a brand I built called Rippers. Business was booming. I called back to Honolulu just to check in. Our receptionist answered. She was crying. My two partners had closed the company that day, took what cash was left, left town. I was holding almost a million dollars in loans, money from friends, family, people who trusted me with it. No job, no business, no home. I sat in a hotel room on Lakeshore Drive and stared at Lake Michigan, asking myself one question over and over.

9:14How could I have been so stupid? Rich Dad had warned me about those two men, called them con men. I didn't listen. Sitting in that hotel room, his words finally landed. A con man can only con you when you want something for nothing. I wanted to know what I'd been chasing. I never found a clean answer. I found something more useful instead. A decision. Rich Dad didn't tell me to feel better. He told me to go back to every investor I'd lost money for and apologize. then pay them back. Most people would call what happened to me bad luck. I've come to believe that's the wrong word for it. What I did next is where the real story starts.

10:03And we're not there yet. If you want to see what pure unearned luck actually does to a person, look at the lottery. Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice, $5.4 million combined. Today the money is gone. She lives in a trailer. I won the American dream, but I lost it too, she said. It was a very hard fall. It's called rock bottom. Her own explanation wasn't bad investments, wasn't bad advisors. It was simpler than that. She said, I never learned one simple word in the English language. No. Then there's William Budd Post, $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery, A former girlfriend sued him for a share.

10:53His own brother was arrested, hired someone to kill him, hoping to inherit what was left. Post caved to the pressure, sank money into a car business, a restaurant. Both returned nothing. Within a year, he was a million dollars in debt. He ended up back on Social Security. He ended up in jail over a bill collector. I wish it never happened, he said. It was a total nightmare. Notice what's missing from both stories, financial intelligence. That's the real lesson underneath the lottery. Getting rich through pure luck isn't just the riskiest path to wealth there is. It does nothing to build the skill required to keep the money once it arrives.

11:41Winning doesn't just fail to teach you anything. It reveals how little you knew to begin with. because suddenly there's real money on the table and no framework for protecting it. I don't bring up Evelyn Adams and Bud Post to look down on them. I bring them up because they prove something I believe all the way to my bones. Money without financial intelligence behind it doesn't stay. It passes through you. Luck can hand you a check. It cannot hand you the judgment to keep it. Remember that picture I gave you? Two men, a windy street, a piece of paper. Let me finish it. The paper blows past the first man.

12:26He doesn't look down. Focus on the block ahead. Keeps walking. It blows past the second man. He glances down. Realizes it's a$20 bill. Picks it up. Was the second man luckier? No. The exact same opportunity crossed both of their paths. Only one of them was paying attention. Only one of them was prepared enough to recognize it. That's the real definition of luck. Luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparedness. Not fate, not chance. Preparedness. Most opportunities in investing don't announce themselves. They look like a scrap of paper on a sidewalk. Easy to walk right past if you don't know what you're looking at.

13:15Here's how I want you to remember it. People think luck is a mystery. It's not. L-U-C-K. Laboring under correct knowledge. That's it. That's the whole secret. This reframes the whole question. Luck stops being about who fate smiles on. It becomes about who did the work beforehand, which means it's something you can actually build. So how do you actually prepare yourself to be lucky? It starts with a question most people never ask themselves. Who's whispering in your ear? Let me say this again. It starts with who you let advise you. And what I found out about that nearly cost me everything a second time.

14:05Rich Debt once warned me about a business card. He said a fancy title doesn't mean somebody knows the first thing about investing. I'm going to tell you exactly how to tell the difference before it costs you what it almost costs me. Stay with me. I'll be right back. Here is something your financial advisor and Wall Street do not want you to know. The best deals in the world will never show up on your brokerage app. That is not an accident. The rules of money were not written for you. They were written for the rich, by the rich. That is why the average investor is funneled into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds and told to sit tight for 40 years and hope.

14:43Meanwhile, the best deals in the world are private, real estate, oil and gas, small businesses. These assets are not subject to the same public market rules and they consistently outperform Wall Street. You find them through relationships, education and deal flow built over years. That is not an accident. It keeps the good deals inside a small circle while everyone else fights over what is left in public markets. If you want real returns, Stop looking where everyone else is told to look. I've got a solution for you. Meet Devin Johnson, founder of Capital Club. Devin has access to deals most people don't even know exist.

15:20Deals that let you invest in a business before it goes public. Deals that cash flow regularly and consistently. Deals that can prevent you from ever paying taxes. Deals that Wall Street doesn't want you to know about. Now Devin is opening a door so you can have access to her deals. To learn more, visit Devin at CapitalClub33.com. That's CapitalClub33.com. Hey, thanks for listening to my show. I wanted to tell you that according to my friend Jim Records, a former advisor to the CIA and the Pentagon, with close ties to the Trump administration, President Trump is about to make a move that will shock the markets and open the doors to the world's single biggest gold deposit right here on U.S.

16:06soil. Inside this deposit is the equivalent of more than 161 million ounces of gold, which at today's prices would be worth nearly$1 trillion. And as gold continues to hit new highs this year, this deposit could make some people very, very rich. That's why Jim, a world-renowned gold expert with over 40 years as industry insider, just made a huge prediction about this Trump move and what he calls Donald Trump's secret$2 gold mine. And for all the details on this little-known$2 gold company, simply go to offair26.com to watch this presentation. That's offair26.com, paid for by Paradigm Press. Okay, we're back now.

17:00Now, we're building luck on purpose now, laboring under correct knowledge. Before the break, I told you it starts with who's advising you. Here's what Rich Dad taught me about that. Just because a person has a business card with a major financial corporation and a great title, he said, does not mean they know anything about investing. Too many people call the wrong people and leave their number with them. Most people never audit who they're taking advice from. They assume a big title equals competence. It doesn't. The advisor who profits when you buy a product isn't always the advisor who profits when you actually build wealth.

17:47Those aren't always the same person. Improving your luck starts with taking responsibility for the advice you act on. Not blaming a bad advisor after the loss you should have seen coming. The second piece, treat financial education like a long game, not a sprint. Building skill in investing is like learning any difficult game, tennis, golf, poker. Nobody expects to be great in year one. You put in the years. After a decade, you're good. After two decades, you're better than people who started with more money than you and never practiced a day. Most people quit after one bad year. They expected fast results.

18:33The ones who stick with it are the ones who eventually look lucky to everyone else. Preparedness isn't a single event. It's a habit, one that compounds exactly the way money does. But here's what almost nobody tells you. There's a version of playing it safe that isn't safe at all, and it might be the most expensive mistake on this entire list. There's a version of playing it safe that people mistake for wisdom. It looks responsible, it looks careful, and it quietly guarantees you will never get lucky at all. Rich Dad put it this way, we all have good luck and bad luck. Unsuccessful people live lives doing nothing, avoiding bad luck, and also avoiding good luck.

19:20Listen to that again. It's hard to have any kind of luck if you're doing nothing, paralyzed by fear. A successful person is one who takes action and takes the good with the bad, knowing that he or she can turn bad luck into good luck. That cuts against almost everything we're taught about risk. Most financial advice is built entirely around avoidance. Avoid debt. Avoid volatility. Avoid anything that could go wrong. And to be fair, some of that caution is earned. I've lost enough money to respect risk. But there's a version of caution that isn't protecting your future at all. is protecting you from ever having to feel the sting of a bad outcome.

20:10That's not safety. That's paralysis. Wearing safety's clothes. Here's a part people miss. Opportunity and risk travel together. You cannot expose yourself to one without the other. The investor who never buys a rental because a bad tenant might show up will also never collect a single month of rent. The entrepreneur who never starts a business because it might fail will also never build one that succeeds. Standing perfectly still doesn't protect you from bad luck. It just guarantees you'll never intercept the good kind either. So here's a question I want sitting with you right now. Not how do I avoid the next bad thing.

20:59the question is what your character does the moment the bad thing actually arrives. Because mine got tested in that hotel room in Chicago. And what I did next is the only part of this story that ever mattered. Losing nearly a million dollars of other people's money could have ended my story right there. In some ways it should have. I had every reason to disappear, declare bankruptcy, start over under a clean name, the way my partners did. Rich Dad wouldn't let me take that road. His advice was blunt. Go back to every investor, apologize, pay them back, then rebuild the company instead of running from the wreckage.

21:46It took nearly six years to repay what I owed. It took even longer to rebuild something worth having. I brought in my brother and a friend, and the three of us went through what was left of that business, piece by piece. We didn't just patch the old company back together, we rebuilt it smarter, with a real brand behind it this time, understanding for the first time what had actually gone wrong the first time around. I learned more from sifting through that wreckage than I would have learned in years of business school. Here's what separates people who turn bad luck into good luck from people who turn bad luck into worse luck.

22:30Character revealed under pressure. My partner's true character showed up the moment things got hard. They lied. They ran. Their bad luck compounded into something worse. My character had plenty of flaws, too. I was no candidate for sainthood. But the difference was what I did next. I faced the people I owed. I faced the business I'd broken. And in facing both, I turned a disaster into the best financial education I ever received. That's the actual mechanism. It's not positive thinking. It's not waiting for the wind to change. It's staying in the game long enough to convert the lesson into skill.

23:14You don't wait to get lucky. You build the kind of person luck can actually work with. Thank you for your time. Thank you for caring about your future. Thank you for understanding that you are the only one who cares about taking care of you. Take care. Hey, thanks for listening to my show. I wanted to tell you that according to my friend, Jim Rickards, a former advisor to the CIA and the Pentagon with close ties to the Trump administration, President Trump is about to make a move that will shock the markets and open the doors of the world's single biggest gold deposit right here on U.S. soil. Inside this deposit is the equivalent of more than 161 million ounces of gold, which at today's prices would be worth nearly$1 trillion.

24:05And as gold continues to hit new highs this year, this deposit could make some people very, very rich. That's why Jim, a world-renowned gold expert with over 40 years as industry insider, just made a huge prediction about this Trump move and what he calls Donald Trump's secret$2 gold mine. And for all the details on this little-known$2 gold company, simply go to OffAir26.com to watch this presentation. That's offair26.com, paid for by Paradigm Press. The system was never broken. It was built this way. People keep asking me why the system feels rigged. Let me be blunt. It isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed.

24:53Designed by the rich, for the rich, to keep everyone else locked outside the room where the real money is made. It starts in school. It keeps you working for money instead of learning how money works for the rich. There are two sets of rules. One set for people who work for money, another set entirely for the people who print it, control it, and move it. I'm not telling you this to make you angry and helpless. I'm telling you because once you see the game, you can learn to play it. The rich didn't get rich by working harder. They got rich by understanding rules nobody bothered to teach you. Learn the real rules.

25:29That's the only rebellion that actually works. That is why I'm introducing you to Devin and her Capital Club. Capital Club brings democracy to investing and opens a backdoor for you, so you can participate in some of the greatest investments you normally would not have access to or be invited to. To learn more, go to capitalclub33.com. That's capitalclub33.com. Go there and beat the system. Don't let the system beat you. capitalclub33.com.

26:11Thank you.

26:43This podcast is a presentation of Rich Dad Media Network.

27:06budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home.