"It is the in- vestor not knowing the difference between an asset or liabil- ity that makes investing risky." Basic Rule Number Four "And why I say investor basic rule number four is, it is the investor that is really the asset or the liability," said rich dad. "What?" I asked. "The investor is the asset or liability, not the investment or security?" Rich dad nodded. "You often hear people say, 'Investing is risky' It's the investor who is risky. It is ultimately the investor who is the asset or the liability. I have seen many so-called in- vestors lose money when everyone else is making money. I have sold businesses to many so-called business people and watch the businesses soon go bust. I have seen people take a perfectly good piece of real estate, real estate that is making a lot of money, and in a few years, that same piece of real estate is running at a loss and falling apart. And then I hear people say, investing is risky. It's the investor who is risky, not the in- vestment. In fact, a good investor loves to follow behind a risky investor because that is where the real investment bargains are found." 'And that is why you love to listen to investors who are cry- ing the blues about their investment losses," I said. "You want to find out what they did wrong and see if you can find a bargain." "You've got it," said rich dad. "I'm always looking for the skipper of the Titanic." "And that is why you don't like to hear stories about peo- ple making a lot of money in the stock market or the real 136 Rich Dad's Guide to Investing estate market. You hate it when someone tells you that he or she bought a stock at $5 and it went to $25." "You have observed me well," said rich dad. "Listening to tales of quick money and instant wealth is a fool's game. Such stories draw in only the losers. If a stock is well known or has made a lot of money, the party is often already over or soon to be over. I'd rather hear tales of woe and misery because that is where the bargains are. As a person who operates on the B and I side of the quadrant, I want to find securities that are liabilities and turn them into assets, or wait for someone else to begin turning them into assets." "So that would make you a contrarian investor," I ven- tured, "a contrarian being someone who goes against the popular sentiment of the market." "That is the lay person's idea of what a contrarian investor is. Most people just think a contrarian investor is anti-social and does not like going along with the crowd. But that is not true. As someone who operates on the B and I side of the Quadrant, I like to think of myself as a repairman. I want to look at the wreck and see if it can be fixed. If it can be fixed, then it would still be a good investment only if other investors also want it fixed. If it cannot be fixed or if no one would want it even after it is fixed, I don't want it either.