Once you find your entrepreneurial spirit, you will forever be able to take very ordinary ideas and turn them into extraordinary fortunes. Always remember the world is filled with people with great ideas and very few peo- ple with great fortunes. The remainder of this book is dedicated to you finding your entrepreneurial spirit and developing your ability to turn ordinary ideas into extraordinary fortunes. Phase Two gives you insight into rich dad's different types of investors and al- lows you to choose the path that may be best for you. Phase Three analyzes rich dad's B-I Triangle and how it can provide the structure for you to make an asset out of your good idea. Phase Four goes into the mind of the sophisticated in- vestor and how he or she analyzes investments as well as the pathway of the ultimate investor who takes his or her idea and B-I Triangle and creates fortunes. The last phase is Phase Five, Giving It Back, the most important phase. Chapter 21 Rich Dad's Categories of Investors This book is an educational story about rich dad guiding me from having no money and no job when I left the Marines to well down my path to becoming the ultimate investor-a per- son who becomes a selling shareholder rather than a buying shareholder, a person who is on the inside of the investment rather than on the outside. Other investment vehicles in which the rich invest that the poor and middle class do not in- clude initial public offerings of stock (IPOs), private place- ments, and other corporate securities. Whether you are on the inside of an investment or on the outside, it is important to understand the basics of the securities regulations. By reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, you have learned about fi- nancial literacy, which is imperative for a successful investor. From reading CASHFLOW Quadrant, you have learned about the four different quadrants and the ways people make money as well as how the different tax laws affect the differ- ent quadrants. By just reading the first two books and possi- bly playing our educational board game CASHFLOW, you already know more about the fundamentals of investing than many people who actively invest. Rich Dad's Categories of Investors 235 Once you understand the fundamentals of investing, you can better understand rich dad's categories of investors and the ten investor controls he said were important to all investors: The Ten Investor Controls 1. The control over yourself 2. The control over income/expense asset/liability ratios 3. The control over the management of the investment 4. The control over taxes 5. The control over when you buy and when you sell 6. The control over brokerage transactions 7. The control over the ETC (entity, timing, and charac- teristics) 8. The control over the terms and conditions of the agreements 9. The control over access to information 10. The control over giving it back, philanthropy, redistri- bution of wealth Rich dad often said, "Investing is not risky, not being in control is risky.