Page 179 - Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money

On their side of the bridge, my classmates lived in stately plantation
manor homes. On my side of the bridge, homes were a lot less stately. The

home we lived in was a home built for plantation workers. My classmates’
parents owned their homes. My parents rented. Some of my classmates
even had more than one home, many having beach houses. When my
family went to the beach, we went to a public beach park. My classmates

played at the yacht club or the country club. I worked at the country club.
Although rich, my classmates and their families were not snobs. They
were friendly people involved in the community. I spent a lot of time at my
friends’ beach homes, on their boats, and flying in their planes. They did

not flaunt their wealth. They shared it. To them, being rich seemed natural,
not special. It was a lifestyle and a standard of living. Their lifestyle was
not that big a deal to them. It was I who thought their lifestyle was a big
deal, sometimes feeling uncomfortable, sometimes out of place, and acutely

aware of the standard of living that separated us. At the age of twelve, my
rich friends went off to private schools, and I continued on through public
high school with the kids who went to Union School.
I also didn’t know I was a geek until I went to school. In high school, all

the girls I wanted to date wanted nothing to do with me. I was not cool. The
popular girls were interested in the bad boys who were older, belonged to a
gang, and owned a car. Although I was a starting player on the football
team and a surfer, I was not cool, not a bad boy, and didn’t own a car. I was

shy, fat, and drove around in our family’s beige-colored station wagon.
Definitely not cool.
In 1974, as I was getting out of the Marine Corps at the age of twenty-
seven, I knew I wanted to be rich, drive fast cars, and date beautiful women.

Even though I had grown up, lost my baby fat, and gotten taller and
stronger, in my mind I was still the shy fat guy without much money. I
knew what I wanted. I just didn’t know how I was going to get there.
I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and invest in real estate, but I had

no money and no skills. The more I thought about it and compared the life I
wanted with what I had, the more I realized that my schoolteachers were
correct. I was average. I had no great skills or talent. I was not smart. If I
was going to be rich, I needed to find a way to be at least above my means

in every way.