Blog | Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance

Transform Your Life With a Financial Metamorphosis

Why the key to thriving after coronavirus is moving from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial one

When I was a young man, there was a style of horror movie that became very popular—the slasher movie. These were movies like “Nightmare On Elm Street,” “Halloween,” and “Friday the 13th”. They were extremely gory and usually involved a crazy killer on the loose who murdered many people with blades.

Personally, I never like those movies. I’m not into horror, and I don’t particularly like overly violent things. But for some reason, these movies were very popular. The one thing I do remember is that the word “slasher” in particular took on a very strong meaning, and that it was something I wanted to avoid.

So, I found it very intriguing to learn that many people in the world have taken the word and applied it in an entirely different way—to describe how they work multiple jobs.

The term “Slasher” was coined in 2007 by author Marci Alboher in her book “One Person/Multiple Careers”, says blogger Kathleen Murray, and it describes someone who has slashes in their job description. For instance you might be a writer/designer/web developer or a financial advisor/crook.

In a 2017 survey of South African’s by Old Mutual, 37% of polled workers were slashers. Of those that work multiple jobs, “42% stated that they don’t have time for more than one job, but persevere because they need the money.”

The main reasons those surveyed worked multiple jobs was to save for retirement, help their families financially, save for their children’s education, and to leave their kids an inheritance.

Coronavirus and slashing the economy

Today, a different kind of horror has settled over the world than those gory slasher moves from my youth. Today, the world is in the grip of the coronavirus crisis... and it’s slashing our economy.

In the last three weeks, jobless claims have hit unbelievable records, clocking in at nearly 17 million. “In its first month alone, the coronavirus crisis is poised to exceed any comparison to the Great Recession,” said Glassdoor Senior Economist Daniel Zhao in a recent article by Politico.

I’ve been saying, coronavirus is the death of an old economy. If you cling to the ideas of “go to school, get a job, save money, get out of debt, and invest in the long-term of the stock market,” then you cling to the old economy. And again, that’s dying. It’s being killed by coronavirus as we speak.

Coronavirus is not only slashing the economy, it is changing it fundamentally forever. It is making the life of an employee one that will be very hard and very different at the other end of this crisis. With the rise of automation and robots, employers will be looking for even more ways to run their businesses lean and without a lot of employee overhead. They’re doing it right now, and seeing it can be done.

Understandably, people have been focused on the virus, but the reality is the virus is a smokescreen. It is the destruction of the US and the world economy, starting with the complete obliteration of the concept of job security.

Financial freedom vs. job security

The other day, my wife, Kim, told me that she saw more people than she’d ever seen standing in parking lots looking for jobs. Everywhere you turn, someone is looking for another job. To me, this is an even scarier slasher than those old slasher movies.

Why don’t you transform yourself financially? I ask. Why don’t you complete a financial metamorphosis and become an entrepreneur? Yet, over and over again, people come up to me and say that being an entrepreneur is risky. “I’d rather have a safe, secure job,” these folks say. Today it’s clearer than ever, the problem is that there is no such thing as a safe, secure job; and being an employee is one of the riskiest things you can do.

I faced this lesson as a young man. Both my rich dad and my poor dad recommended that I go to college and get a degree; it was after receiving the degree that their advice took different paths.

After graduation, my rich dad advised me to continue my education by getting jobs that were based on learning. “You should work to learn, not to earn,” he said. “That is the path to financial freedom.” He wanted me to get the valuable business and investing skills I needed to be a successful entrepreneur and investor, working on the B (Business) and I (Investor) side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant.

My highly-educated dad, my poor dad, constantly advised: “Go to school, get good grades, and then get a safe, secure job.”

He was recommending a life path focused on the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant—the E (Employee) and the S (Self-employed). My highly-educated dad was concerned with job security, not with financial freedom.

When I turned down a high-paying merchant marine job in order to sell at Xerox, my poor dad was disappointed, but my rich dad applauded the move. Those first years at Xerox were hard, and many times I wanted to give up, but I applied myself to learn how to sell, eventually becoming the top producer. The sales skills I learned were invaluable for later in life because sales is the most important skill you need to be a successful entrepreneur.

I chose growth over security, and it paid off. That was my financial metamorphosis.

Today, in the face of the coronavirus and the fundamental change of the economy, I’m happy to be an entrepreneur and investor, capable of controlling my own destiny in a way that an employee simply cannot.

Why people seek job security

If you look at the CASHFLOW Quadrant, you’ll notice that the left side is motivated by security. The right side is motivated by freedom.

The primary reason many people live on the left side of the quadrant and seek job security is because that’s what they are taught to seek, both at school and at home.

As adults, millions of people still continue to follow that advice. Many of us are conditioned from our earliest days to think about job security, rather than financial security or financial freedom. And because most of us learn little to nothing about money at home or at school, it’s only natural that we cling ever more tightly to the idea of job security instead of reaching for financial freedom.

I know that many people search for freedom and happiness. The problem is that most people haven’t been trained to work from the right side of the Quadrant—the B (Business owner) and the I (Investor) side.

They have been trained instead to search for job security. Because of this training and their increasing debt, most people limit their search for financial freedom to the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant. Unfortunately, financial security and financial freedom are seldom found in the E or the S quadrant; true security and freedom are only found on the right side.

But in order to move from the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant to the right side, a new attitude and a new educational process must begin. In short, you need to experience a financial metamorphosis... just as I did with my rich dad.

How to have your own financial metamorphosis

Financial metamorphosis is a new term at Rich Dad. We talk a lot about education and financial education, but the magnitude of the coming economic collapse due to coronavirus has convinced me that education is not enough to thrive on the other side of this crisis. Now, I’m talking about more than education. I’m talking about transformation.

The definition of metamorphosis is a transformation from an immature form to an adult mature form. Today, you need a financial metamorphosis. You need to move from an immature person when it comes to your mindset about money and become a mature person. You need to stop listening to the old advice about money, because again that advice is now dead... coronavirus killed it.

Just as we study to learn a job, I suggest you study to learn to diversify and operate in more than one quadrant. The average rich person earns 70 percent from the right side and less than 30 percent from the left side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant. I’ve found that no matter how much money people make, they will feel more secure if they operate in more than one quadrant.

What does this look like? Well, for instance, in today’s world, where many of you are stuck at home, some without jobs and some with (for now), you have much more free time. If you're stuck at home and you're out of work, this could be an opportunity to start thinking differently and to learn to start learning something new. Explore solopreneurship and start a viable business on the side.

Don’t know how to start? Read my article, “Seven Ways to Start a Business Without Quitting Your Job”.

Think you need money? Think again. Read my article, “How to Start a Business Without Money".

Or, if starting a side business isn’t your thing, learn how to invest properly and use the extra income you’ve earned from multiple jobs to do true investing… not just putting money away in a savings account or a 401(k). (And see how that’s working out for everyone as the stock market crashes again).

Want to learn more? Read my article, “The Difference Between an Average and a Sophisticated Investor”.

A choice of paths

The patterns I’ve discussed are different financial paths people can choose. Unfortunately, most people choose the path of job security. When the economy starts wobbling, they cling ever more desperately to job security and wind up spending their lives pursuing it.

At a minimum, I recommend becoming educated in financial security, which is feeling confident about your job and feeling confident about your ability to invest in good and bad times. Ideally, however, focus your education on financial freedom—read and study, take classes, attend seminars, and find a good coach (and know how to spot bad ones)—and take control of your financial destiny.