That massive shift had started just a few years earlier when I read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyasaki. 

That book upended many of my long-held beliefs that held me back like a man chained to an anchor in the ground. Many times, I had reached the end of my tether but found the chain too comfortable to break. 

Then I read about  the Employee vs. the Investor mindset.

Employees represented the least of the 4 Cash Flow Quadrants. An employee was a slave to his job, reliant on the paycheck to make ends meet. Like the Gig Economy worker driving an UBER, delivering restaurant meals for DoorDash or a freelancer rushing to meet the latest deadline on Fiverr, employees are most vulnerable when an emergency hits - like the Coronavirus of 2020.

The Investors have the highest level of financial security because they’ve learned the essential skill of leverage. They take what they’ve earned and maximize the value by multiplying the assets with other people’s efforts.

Kiyosaki has for years preached the value of leverage stemming from networks. He has been quoted to say, 

“The richest people in the world look for and build networks. Everyone else looks for work.”

A network is an organic organization of team members, supporters, customers, and like-minded individuals - or not - who have a common goal.

The network is a source of power, strength and encouragement ever moving the group forward. 

My former father-in-law was the founder of one of the largest law firms in the US. He grew the firm to 3 major offices and 450 attorneys. He told me that starting the firm required that he personally find new clients. So, he would find prospective clients that he wanted to work with, park himself in their offices for days, and wait.

One day, the prospect would have an urgent need for an attorney and he’d be right there. One fee led to more fees because that client had become part of his network. 

“Remember,” he said, “friends do business with friends.”

That was the power of a network of friends that led to my father-in-law becoming one of the highest levels of Investors in the US.

Kiyosaki loves building networks so it was only natural for him to become a huge fan of network marketing because of how the best companies leverage the work of others. He’s even said that network marketing is the perfect business because of the low initial investment and the high return on investment possibilities.

A gig worker hoping to earn enough money to create a better life would do well to focus on leveraging other people’s money by developing a network and becoming an investor instead of trading time for dollars.