Before I built my nylon and Velcro wallet business, my rich dad wanted me to make sure I was doing it with that spirit. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset in building a successful В business. Many successful capitalists today are still entrepreneurs in their hearts. Phase Three How Do You Build a Strong Business? Chapter 30 Why Build a Business? Rich dad said, "There are three reasons for building a business more than to simply create an asset": 1. "To provide you with excessive cash flow." In his book How to Be Rich, J. Paul Getty states that his first rule is that you must be in business for yourself. He goes on to imply that you will never get rich working for some- one else. One of the primary reasons rich dad started so many businesses was that he had excessive cash flow from his other businesses. He also had the time because his businesses required minimal effort on his part. This al- lowed him the free time and extra money to keep in- vesting in more and more assets tax-free. That is why he became rich so quickly and why he said to "Mind your own business." 2. "To sell it." Rich dad went on to explain that the prob- lem with having a job is that you cannot sell the job, re- gardless of how hard you work. The problem with building a business in the S quadrant is that there is usually a limited market that would want to buy it. For example, if a dentist builds a practice, generally the Rich Dad's Guide to Investing only other person who may want to buy it is another dentist. To rich dad, that was too narrow of a market. He said, "For something to be valuable, there must be many more people than you who want it. The problem with an S quadrant business is that you are often the only person who wants it." Rich dad said, 'An asset is something that puts money in your pocket, or it can be sold to someone else for more than you have paid for or invested in it. If you can build a successful business, you will always have a lot of money. If you learn to build a successful busi- ness, you will have developed a profession that few people ever achieve." In 1975, while I was learning to sell Xerox machines, I came across a young man who owned four quick-copy print shops in Honolulu. The reason he was in the business of making copies was interesting. While in school, he had run the university's copy shop and learned the business side of the operation. When he came out of school, there were no jobs, so he opened up a copy shop in downtown Honolulu doing what he knew best. Soon, he had four of these copy centers in four of the bigger downtown office buildings, all on long-term leases. A major copy shop chain came to town and made him an offer he could not refuse. He took their $750,000, a giant sum in those days, bought a boat, gave $500,000 to a professional money man- ager, and sailed around the world.