Page 178 - Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money

Chapter 9

Developing Your Financial Genius

I didn’t know I wasn’t smart until I went to school. For seventeen years,

from kindergarten all the way through college, school was a struggle. I was
always labeled an average student. No matter which class I was in, there
were always kids who were smarter, more gifted, and faster learners than

me. School seemed easy for the smart kids. School was tough for me. The
only A I ever received was in woodshop because I loved working with my
hands. I built a boat for my class project while my classmates were making
salad bowls for their moms.
I also didn’t know I was poor until I went to school. When I was nine

years old, my family moved across town, and I went to a school for rich
kids. Interestingly, there were two elementary schools directly across the
street from each other. On one side of the street was Union School. On the

other side was Riverside School. Both were public schools, one school for
the rich and the other for the working class.
Originally, Union School was for the children of the sugar plantation
union workers, hence the school’s name. Riverside was the school for the
children of sugar plantation owners and managers. I attended Riverside

School because the house our family lived in happened to be on the side of
the street next to the river.
Even though I was only nine, I was aware that my classmates at

Riverside School lived at a higher standard of living than my family. Many
of my rich classmates lived in an isolated community connected by a bridge
across the river. Every time I crossed that bridge to play with my friends, I
knew I was crossing into a different world.