Page 209 - Midas Touch

Must-Do #3: Work to acquire assets, not money.

Entrepreneurs who develop their Midas Touch do not work for money.
They work to create or acquire assets. If there is one thing you take away
from this entire book, let it be this: Focus on assets, not money.

Most entrepreneurs do not realize that wealth does not come from work,
but from the assets they build. For example, most people know Donald for
his real estate—such as luxury condominiums, golf courses, and casinos—
which are assets he built. But real estate is not his only asset. Donald’s TV
show, The Apprentice, is an asset. This book is also an asset that he and
Robert share. Donald has many other assets that are not real estate.

Robert’s businesses build assets, such as games, seminars, and books that

are sold all over the world. Robert’s real estate and oil businesses bring in
money every month, whether he works or not. Robert’s investment
business acquires apartment houses, gold, silver, and copper mines, golf
courses, and oil wells. These are all assets.

Most S-quadrant entrepreneurs work for money, which is why they own a
job, not a business. In most cases, if they stop working, their money stops.
If you are dedicated to building a business in the B and I quadrants, you

must build assets. Assets are what separate entrepreneurs in the S quadrant
from entrepreneurs in the B quadrant.

Must-Do #4: Don’t put round pegs in square holes.

Most businesses continually put the right person in the wrong position or,
worse yet, the wrong person in any position at all. In the Industrial Age,
people didn’t matter very much to a company. All the entrepreneur had to
do was build a factory with an assembly line, hire workers and train them

to turn bolts, hang tires, and keep up with the production line. In other
words, the line, not the people, determined the rate of production. In the
Information Age, things became different. Now people matter. The key to
success in the Information Age is not high-speed assembly lines, but high-
speed and high-quality human thought working towards a common
objective.

In the Industrial Age, sand thrown into the gears of the machine could shut
down an entire assembly line. In the Information Age, sand thrown into
human thought and human interaction can shut down a company’s