The Business of the 21st Century Review

Review of Robert T Kiyosaki‘s latest book, The Business of the 21st Century by Seth Lefferts

Are you ready to get excited about the business of the 21st century? Seriously, I mean really excited!? I am and I am. I am very excited! It was many years ago that I read a book by Robert T Kiyosakicalled Rich Dad, Poor Dad. To my horror, I had just made a decision a few months earlier that was entirely against the concepts of this amazing book. I had the misguidance to take a nice sum of money that I had received from trading stock options and I used it to pay for two years of my kid’s college, the down payment for a house, pay off a car loan, and buy a bunch of furnishings for the house. In other words, I spent it.

I did some great things with it: true. I used it wisely: false! After I read the book I realized that I could have invested the money, using the dividends to pay for these things over time. Then, when all was said and done, I would still have had the money ready to work for me in other ways. I was a Poor Dad: true. I have been an Employee most of my life, and now have been Self-Employed for the past few years with my own consulting business. It has generated a very nice income, but my outgo pretty much matches it, so I am really not much better off because of it. I just look and act affluent!

It was a painful lesson that I have been looking to correct for all of these ensuing years of working the JOB – just over broke – as someone else’s “slave”; well, the truth be told, me being a slave to the bills that I am generating. I am just trying to pass the blame onto someone else! But, in the end, it’s just me.

Searching for the Business of the 21st Century

So, with that in mind, I have been looking around for years to find the business of the 21st century – a business that I can easily build. I am very skillful at many things, but my skill set requires me to be actively working, employing one or another particular skill, for me to earn an income; the classic definition of Active Income. When I stop, it stops in-coming.

However, I know that I am capable of learning new skills, so a year ago as I was pondering my dilemma, I listened to the wise advice of a friend and I joined a Network Marketing company. Here I sit, one year later, as I am learning a new set of skills, which are working, but slowly. It has had me scratching my head and asking myself if I have done the right thing – yet again. What am I becoming? A sales person? An entrepreneur? A Rich Dad? I don’t want to be in sales, although it is and has always been the highest paid job in the world. I like being an entrepreneur. I definitely want to be a Rich Dad. Still, am I on the right track here in my new business of the 21st century?

A couple of weeks ago I picked up Robert T Kiyosaki’s newest book, co-authored by John Flemming and Kim Kiyosaki, The Business of the 21st Century, and my old friend and mentor (sort of) has been speaking to me again. Well guess what? This time I seem to have made a phenomenal choice! I have given myself the tools that I will need to become the Rich Dad and to build my own business. I have become a business owner!

As a self-employed consultant generating a nice income I should think that I have been a business owner. Well, that’s true, but only of a small business that cannot grow, because I can’t teach what I do to someone else and have it be done to my specifications. It just isn’t possible, because they are not me. Therefore, I am an employee of my own company. I can’t replicate myself, therefore I can’t grow beyond my own time boundaries. This certainly is not what the Business of the 21st Century is all about!

The Business of the 21st Century Defined

So, a business owner has to have something that is reproducible. It has to have a great product or service, an easy to learn skill set that pretty much anyone can do and a set of tools that are inexpensive and reliable for producing certain measurable results. These are the criteria for building a business that can grow without boundaries. In fact, once it has been established and is growing on it’s own, it doesn’t even require my time while still producing a steady stream of income. This is the classic definition of Passive Income. This is the definition of a Network Marketing business.

Actually, it can be the definition of a network marketing business as long as certain things apply. First of all is addressing that issue of a great product or service. Have you seen what people are offering in the network marketing world? Yikes. I just don’t get most of it. I think that the foundersare really more excited about building a compensation plan and then just plugging in whatever they think can sell and then they start to push it out the door. The only people who can do anything in this type of a business are sales people, which I already said I am not doing. I am not going to be a “sales person”. The product – and the business, for that matter – need to sell themselves.

My Rule Book for the Business of the 21st Century

Therefore, Rule #1 is that the product must be of extremely high quality and it must be something that most people would want. It has to evoke some kind of emotion about it to cause people to buy it, so it has to strike home somehow.

Then there is the question of how much these people would be willing to pay for it. So, Rule #2 for the Business of the 21st Century is that its products must be of perceived value for the average person to consider diverting some of their hard-earned cash over to it, instead of holding on to their money to “go towards paying the phone bill, heating bill, the rent” and so on.

Also, there is no way that I am going to warehouse anything. I already have enough stuff to fill every room in my house, including the basement and the garage. Thank God I don’t have a storage unit…yet. No, not going to happen. So, Rule #3 is that it must be reliably available directly from the manufacturer.

That means that Rule #4 for the Business of the 21st Century is that the individual company behind it all must be of the highest integrity with their intentions, vision, mission statement, management, and above all, their actions, so that anyone doing their due diligence will come up loving what they see.

There, I have defined my rule book of what the company and product must be.

Now that I have done my investigative research into the Business of the 21st Century and found my company and product, it is time to get started. This is traditionally the hardest part of building any new business. What do I need to do to get a presence in the market and to attract people to me?

Robert T Kiyosaki and Mr. Flemming make a very interesting point here. Perhaps this is the most significant point of the whole book, The Business of the 21st Century. In the Network MarketingIndustry (NMI) the least likely person to survive building a new business is a Sales Person. Hey! That works for me, as I have already stated I do not want to sell someone on my new product line. I want them to want to buy it of their own volition. I just want to be the person who introduced them to it. But, of course, in the end someone is buying the product, so in reality someone is selling it to them. Right?

The Business of the 21st Century: Salesperson out, Systems in!

Yes and no. Here is where the authors decree that Network Marketing has come into it’s own and has become the Business of the 21st Century. What makes a person successful in the Network Marketing Industry is their ability to present the product line in a way that is completely reproducible for the next person down the line. There needs to be a system that each and every person can adopt that is proven and easy to do. Here is where the internet has changed the game.

From what I have seen every Network Marketing Industry – NMI – company offers their associates, or distributors, a corporate sponsored website, whether as part of their package or for a nominal monthly fee. This is great and there are generally tools for presenting the system or line, but it is usually based on a sales model. In other words, you have videos and product brochures, testimonial and lots of content online, but you still have to be the one selling the prospective buyer on this content. So in reality it is not a reproducible system, because to be really good at it and grow my business I would still need to be a great sales person.

Reproducible Systems Will Define The Business of the 21st Century

What is really needed is a system where I, the new associate, can participate in such a way that you can direct people to someone in a video who will do all of the selling for you in a wonderfully friendly and informative way in around 15 minutes. That is about the normal tolerance for someone who is going to sit and watch while they are being “sold” on something. This is how to let me become the friendly presenter – the friend who is telling a compelling story – the regular person who does not have an underlying agenda of selling. You can’t believe how quickly someone picks up on the underlying current of “buy this from me…please!!!”.

Along with this tool, the Sales Presentation videos, there has to be a tried and true system for organizing my activities, setting realistic goals and being held accountable to them and recognition of success. This is where the team leader – my sponsor in this case – becomes the true leader. This is what I need to become as well, because I want to build my own business. I am the new owner of a business that can truly work to give me financial freedom and all it takes is learning how to train my people on the same exact system.

Now that my reproducible systems are in place, as described in The Business of the 21st Century – Part 3, all I have to do now is to learn how to stand in front of two or more people and introduce them to “my friend” who is going to inform them about my products, or services, and press the play button. Fifteen minutes later I get to ask everyone what they got out of the presentation and then let them make a decision by handing out a small amount of information and the form that they can use to open up their own account. You know what, I can do that! In fact, I would bet that even the shyest person can do that if they are properly instructed and motivated to build a business.

The Business of the 21st Century: systems help define your space, time, goals

In the mean time, with this system I have found the tools to organize my home office, because after all, this is a new business that I am building, and it will only become a real business for me if I treat it like a business. The business of the 21st century just wont work any other way. This means setting up an area of my home that is my office, laying out a plan with goals, time frames and action steps, and keeping track of my activities and numbers. If I do all of these things and I have a great product line and company behind me, I can’t help but succeed in the industry. Now it is all just a matter of numbers. How many people can I introduce this to each and every day?

Full Circle with the Business of the 21st Century

First of all, I love the product and company. I have had an amazing experience and I have a wonderful story to tell about it. I can sum it all up in about 10 seconds! Also, I love telling people what I do now. I am so excited and passionate about it. At the same time, I have learned not to gush on and on about my new business. I may be excited, but my new friend isn’t. Therefore, all I need to do is to convey my excitement. I need to put it into context in my life and their life as to why I am passionate and excited about it. Then they will want to know more. That is when I send them to the tool set – my system – and let it do the work. My job is to present it and follow up. With all of this in place – and implemented – and utilized properly, the business of the 21st century can be downright easy!

True, I have more work to do after a prospect takes the plunge in training them on how to get the most out of their experience, or how to build their business along with me. This is what I signed up for, though. I want to help people to feel great, look great and to become financially secure and free. I want to help people become entrepreneurs owning their own business in the 21st century. I want to help people move from the Employee and Self Employed limits of their entire work experience to become a business builder where they can experience time freedom. This is something that I can get very passionate about and now I know how to do it. I have the new skill set that Robert T Kiyosakiand John Flemmings, authors of The Business of the 21st Century, are telling me is the key to myfinancial freedom!

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