There were only two career tracks that interested me as I entered college: classical guitar performance and ministry. I loved farming, but our farm was no longer available. I majored in classical guitar performance for two years. Someone in the guitar department told me that nobody there would ever succeed. That was discouraging. In short, I gave up my guitar dreams for the future. I was also ver
y intent on helping people and switched to a Bible major. Then I went to graduate school. I joined the Army with the idea that I would become an Army Chaplain. The Army had a bonus at the time that paid the costs of seminary. But by the time I graduated from seminary, Chaplains were being forced to retire as the Gulf War came to a close. To summarize briefly, I was a farm kid who loved classical guitar and the Bible, and it was time for me to look for a job. I don’t regret learning what I did, but I also didn’t look like the solution to anybody’s employment problem. After a brief stint as a broker, I began day trading the financial markets in 1995. I love the markets to this day. I would awaken at 5 am Pacific Time without the alarm clock, ready to go. I’d study, prepare, and trade. But my wife at that time left me at the tail end of that bull market (going up), circa 2000, and I still had nothing to put on my resume. There was something even worse from my career standpoint. I had fallen in love with trading, and I had no access to trading money. Other traders got creamed in the subsequent months as the market collapsed. I still didn’t have much to put on my resume. I had no team or other people to depend on other than my brother. Thank God for him! I did a lot of odd jobs up until June of 2005. At that point, I lost my left foot to cancer and spent the next 7 months in a wheelchair. Do I need to say more? If you are going through tough times, I might know something of your distress. I shouldn’t call it distress. I loved to study, but it sure wasn’t easy at times. But that is a big part of the reason Kiyosaki is useful to me. I’m moving forward. Kiyosaki’s books inspire me and give me business ideas to build on. Maybe it could be so for you, too. So, why am I telling you all this stuff? Because I’ve been stuck before without a sense of what to do next, and it was lousy. Did I say lousy? Yes, it was lousy. A book like Kiyosaki’s The Cashflow Quadrant might spark that imagination! It sure did with me. Also, I don’t care what color your skin is. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Kurt Waugh
