What Schools Will Never Teach You About Money By Robert T. Kiyosaki

Law of Compensation #2 
Learn to give more.
Most people go to school to learn how to earn money, but only for 
themselves and their family. Few people go to school to learn how 
to produce more and produce more for more people. 
Most people go to school to become E’s and S’s. The problem with 
the left side of the quadrant is that the number of people I can serve 
is limited. For example, when I graduated from Kings Point, I could 
work for only one company, Standard Oil, as an employee. Most 
people in the S quadrant—a medical doctor, for example—can only 
work on one patient at a time. 
The reason I chose to follow my rich dad into the B and I 
quadrants was because my success would serve more people. The 
more people I could serve, the more I earned. 
When a person is successful in serving more people, taxes and debt 
also swing to their favor. This is why debt and taxes make people 
on the B and I side of the quadrant rich. 
If you focus on making money just for yourself, or improving life only 
for yourself and your family, then taxes and debt work against you. 
One reason why so many people are limited financially is because 
they went to school and learned to work for money on the E and S 
side of the quadrant, rather than learn to serve more people on the 
B and I side.
When I graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings 
Point, New York, I joined a non-union company, Standard Oil, 
because I did not want to join the MM&P (Masters, Mates, and 
Pilots), a professional union for ships’ officers. I would have made 
more money as a union member, but being around my poor dad 
and his friends, teachers’ union officials, I could not subscribe to 
the union philosophy. In my opinion, the concept of wanting to 
work less and be paid more ultimately makes everyone poorer, 
regardless of the amount of money they earn. 
One of the reasons there are fewer U.S. cargo ships today and 
fewer jobs on those ships is because union wages forced shipping 
companies to move their operations to countries with lower wage 
scales. One reason why General Motors is in trouble is because the 
union leaders were stronger than the company leaders. Today, the 
true cost of unionized labor in the U.S. auto industry is millions of 
jobs lost, factories moving overseas, and a weaker economy. 
This does not mean I am anti-union. Unions have done a lot of 
good for workers, protecting them from cruel and greedy business 
owners. Unions gave us the two-day weekend. I respect a person’s 
right to choose their work affiliations and philosophy. When I 
graduated from the academy, I chose to be non-union. I made 
my choice because I would rather focus on giving more to receive 
more, rather than working less and earning more.
Kim becomes richer every year because every year she produces 
more. In 1989, she started with one rental house. Today, she has 
over 3,000 rental units. Today she earns more because she provides 
more housing for more people. In ten years, she may have 20,000 
units and she should earn more because she follows the law of 
compensation. I know some people may say Kim is greedy. I know 
my poor dad would. 
From my rich dad’s point of view, Kim is being generous because she 
obeys the first law of compensation: Give, and you shall receive. 

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Chapter Five
Unfair Advantage
179
178
As you may recall from a previous chapter, I stated that in 
1973 when my flying career was over, I signed up for real estate 
investment classes and sales training with Xerox.
Today people will say to me, “Can I take you to lunch? I want to 
pick your brains on investing in real estate.” It makes me sick to 
see people so naïve about financial education. Becoming financially 
educated is not something you do over lunch.
I also have had financial morons tell me, “I have bought and sold a 
number of personal residences. I know how to invest in real estate.”
There is a massive difference between buying a home and buying 
300-unit apartment houses. Success or failure lies in the power 
of financial education. Taking a three-day seminar gave me the 
fundamentals to become a real estate investor, an investor who uses 
debt to acquire wealth. 
While the fundamentals are the same for a single rental property or 
a 300-unit apartment house, the difference in profitability is found 
in education and years of experience.
My poor dad failed in his first and only business venture, an ice-
cream franchise. In his mind, it was the franchisor that cheated him. 
In my opinion, it was his lack of entrepreneurial education and his 
inexperience that cost him two years of his life and his life savings.
The strange thing about people who did well in school, like my 
dad, is that they respect academic education, but fail to respect 
financial education. They seem to think that, just because they 
hold a PhD or are an attorney, accountant or medical doctor, 
business and investing should be easy for them.
To me this is academic arrogance. It is also very expensive arrogance.