Blog | Entrepreneurship

5 Questions Successful People Ask Themselves Every Morning Including Notes from Robert Kiyosaki Himself

The key to success is asking the right questions. Here’s what successful people ask themselves.

summary

• Successful people cut through the clutter and get clear

• Self-reflection is a must on your path to financial freedom

• Asking these 5 questions will set you up for continuous growth (and success).

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Rich dad said, “The most successful people in life are the ones who continually ask questions. They’re always learning. They’re always growing. They’re always pushing.”

Conversely, he added “The losers in life think they already have all the answers. They can’t learn because they’re too busy telling everyone what they know. They can’t grow because they’re too busy telling everyone else what they need to do. They can’t push because they think they’ve already arrived.”

Successful people have a beginner’s mind

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

-Zen Master Suzuki Roshi 

He was teaching on the concept of shoshin, which means beginner’s mind. The most successful people practice shoshin, whether they know it or not. Take it from Robert Kiyosaki himself:

“Over the years, I’ve taken rich dad’s lessons to heart and tried my best to always ask questions so that I can learn, grow, and push myself to become more successful. I do not take where I am in life for granted and I do not think I have all the answers.

This is why even though I hold financial education seminars, write books and articles, and speak with the media, I still go to many seminars, read many books, and pay attention to the news. I always have something to learn, and the world is full of teachers.”

Robert has observed that there are five questions in particular that the most successful people ask themselves every morning. These are foundational questions that lead to all the other important questions we ask. You may recognize them, but you may not have asked them for a while—at least not deliberately. But the key to success is approaching the answers to these questions (and life) with a beginner’s mind each day.

Who am I?

The ancient Greeks were a wise bunch. They produced the likes of Socrates and Plato, who’ve shaped philosophy for thousands of years. One of their maxims was simply, “Know thyself.”

Before you can be successful in life, you have to know who you are. Because as you become successful, many people will want you to become something you’re not. As the demands of life grow, if you’re not careful, your freedom declines.

Robert learned this early in life when he had to choose between what he wanted and what his father - his poor dad- wanted for him. Poor dad valued education and a secure job that paid well. But Robert knew he wanted more than that. He wanted to be rich, and he knew that he needed to learn how to invest and build businesses in order to achieve what he wanted in life.

Poor dad wanted Robert to take a high-paying job as a pilot or with the Merchant Marines. Instead, he took a job selling Xerox so he could learn how to be a top salesperson. Robert knew that foundation would help him achieve who he wanted to be. Had he followed poor dad’s advice and desires, he wouldn’t be where he is today. 

Always ask yourself, “Who am I?” and stay true to yourself, not others’ expectations.

What do I love?

There’s an old maxim that says, “Write what you know.” But what if you don’t love what I know? Things will get boring pretty fast.

Rather than stick with what you know, discover what you love in life and pursue it with passion. By pursuing the things you love, all the other things in life will fall into order.

What you love will also define success for you. For some, family is success. For others, it’s a thriving business. By understanding what you love, you can adjust your priorities accordingly and achieve your definition of success.

The other thing to remember is that what you love changes over time, just as who we are does too. The reason you need to ask yourself these questions every day is because one day the answer might be different. And that’s ok. In your early life, it might be your career and growing your wealth that you love. Later in life it might be starting a family or being heavily involved in philanthropy. Failing to ask “What do I love?” every day means we fail to recognize when it’s time to move to something new.

Where can I grow?

Successful people are never content to stick with the status quo. Rather, they push themselves to grow. What areas of financial education can you grow in? How can you become a better partner in business and in life? How’s your health? Are you exercising and dieting? What are your financial goals for the next year? How can you achieve them?

Questions like these lead to establishing goals that push you past your comfort zone, allow you to grow, and help you become successful.

Here’s Robert’s recollection of working at Xerox: 

“When I first started as a salesperson I was horrible. I was in last place each month. But I knew from talking with my rich dad that it was going to be key to learn how to sell if I wanted to be rich. So I approached each day with a mindset to grow. By the time I left Xerox, I was the top salesperson on my team. They begged me to stay, but I had learned what I needed and it was time to find somewhere else to grow.”

When should I act?

We should always be moving forward with our goals and financial education, but prudent people also plan, and they do so with the help of advisors. As the old proverb goes, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed.”

Each year, Robert and Kim sit down and plan out their financial goals for the upcoming year. Then, they plan out the steps and timelines for those goals to break them down into measurable steps for success. Finally, they meet with their advisors to get their feedback and wisdom.

“I wanted a new Bentley,” Robert starts “and though I had the money to buy one outright, I instead developed a plan to buy assets that would provide cash flow to cover the cost of the new car. I worked closely with my advisors to establish this plan, and knew it would take about a year. Patiently, I executed each part of the plan, and in about a year, I had both a new cash flowing asset and a new Bentley. It took patience and knowing when to act, but the delayed gratification was worth the effort.”

Why am I doing this?

Of all the questions listed here, “why” might be the most important. You may recall being in school, and teachers hating the “why” question. Often this is because they didn’t have an answer. They were so busy telling students what to do that they rarely understood why. Such is the power of entrenched systems of thought.

The most successful people are mavericks who aren’t afraid to ask why, especially when everyone thinks it’s obvious.

Take this story of Steve Jobs told by Bill Lee:

Jobs is supposedly obsessed with every detail that goes into Apple devices. Not so. He focuses on the details relevant to the customer's experience. When one of Apple's design teams was tasked with developing a DVD-burning software program for high-end Macs, developers spent weeks putting together a plan. On the appointed day to present it to Jobs, they brought pages filled with prototype information, pictures of the new program's various windows and menu options, along with documentation showing how the application would work. When Jobs walked into the meeting, he didn't so much as look at any of the plans. He picked up a marker, went to a whiteboard and drew a rectangle, representing the application. He then told them what he wanted the new application to do. The user would drag the video into the window, a button would appear that said "burn," and the user would click it. "That's it, that's what we're going to make," he said.

While Apple’s developers were consumed with what they were doing (building DVD-burning software), Jobs was concerned with why they were doing it (to make life easy for the customer). One way of thought leads to a product, the other leads to a fortune.

Cut the clutter; get clear

Successful people cut through the clutter and details of life to see clearly why they are doing something or why something should be done.

How long has it been since you’ve asked yourself these five questions? What ones have you particularly neglected?

This week, spend some time writing down your thoughtful answers to these five questions and start making the necessary adjustments in your life to live in harmony with your answers. Only then will you be on the path to success.

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