However, she has to charge me a service fee to write my tickets these days because the airlines have stopped paying her a commission on ticket sales. She has had to release sev- eral of her loyal staff and now worries that I will shift to buy- ing my tickets for a lower price online. During this same period, a person who is not a travel agent and not regulated by the rules of the travel industry started an online company called Priceline.com. Suddenly, with the idea of auctioning off a perishable product known as an empty airline seat, Priceline.com's founder Jay Walker joins the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in the world. He does this in just a few years. So he becomes wealthy, and my dear friend lays off staff and counts on her loyal customers to stay with her because she will work harder and provide better service. I am sure she Conclusion 499 will do OK, but the business she started years ago as her re- tirement safety net has now become a full-time job with no as- surance that it will be of any value whatsoever when she's ready to retire. Things Have Changed Since it does not take money to make money, then why not go out and make a lot of money? Why not find investors to invest in your idea so you can all become rich? The answer is because often, old ideas are in the way. As Merrill Lynch announced, "The World Is 10 Years Old." The good news is that it is not too late to change your think- ing and begin to catch up if you have already not started. The bad news is that sometimes, the hardest things to change are old ideas. Some of the old ideas that may need to be chal- lenged are the following ideas that have been handed down for generations: 1. "Good, hard-working person." The reality today is that the people who physically work the hardest are paid the least and taxed the most. I am not saying not to work hard. All I am saying is that we need to constantly challenge our older thoughts and maybe rethink new ones. Consider working hard in a part-time business for yourself. Today, instead of being in just one quadrant, we need to be very familiar with all four quadrants of the CASH- FLOW Quadrant. After all, we're in the Information Age, and working hard at one job for life is an old idea. 2. "The idle rich are lazy." The reality is that the less you are involved physically in your work, the more your chances are of becoming very rich. Again, I am not say- ing to not work hard. I am suggesting that today, we all need to learn to make money mentally, not just physi- 500 Rich Dad's Guide to Investing cally. Those who make the most money work the least physically. They work the least because they work for passive income and portfolio income rather than earned income. And as you know by now, all a true in- vestor does is turn earned income into passive and portfolio income. In my mind, today's idle rich are therefore not lazy. It is just that their money is working harder than they are. If you want to join the 9010 crowd, you must learn to make money mentally more than physically.