Midas Touch – Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich & Why Most Don’t is a book written by US President Donald Trump (he was not president at the time of its publishing) and American businessman Robert Kiyosaki. Initially published in 2011, this is one of my favorite books to reference.
This book explores the intricacies of business and life, as well as how to be successful in both. This book breaks down their successes Within the business world by relating their skills to the five fingers on the human hand. This analogy makes the concepts in this book rather easy to understand and remember as you apply them in real-time.
In the first chapters of the book, President Trump and Kiyosaki describe how business students and MBA students are primarily manufacturers to be corporate employees. If you want to create real wealth through business and investing, you’re better off starting an LLC or C corporation. Building and operating these businesses will be your own business personal business school.
The school system pumps out employees, not entrepreneurs. They state that you gain a vast amount of experience through the ups and downs trial and errors in back-to-back failures within owning and operating your business faster than you would be working for anyone else.
The book is broken up into five chapters, which is to be considered the Midas touch.
Each finger on your hand gives you the ability to have the Midas touch: #1 The be thumb which is strength of character, #2 the index finger which represents focus, #3 the middle finger which represents the brand & what you stand for, #4 the ring finger which is relationships, and #5 the pinky which stands for the little things that become the big things.
These concepts are the keys to having the golden touch in business.
1. The Thumb: Strength Of Character
The thumb represents having strength of character and being able to persevere through the ups and downs that life offers. We are often taught to run from fears, but entrepreneurs must use fear to motivate them because entrepreneurs are responsible for what they don’t know and fail because of what they don’t know. In which failure is a requirement for success, we must feel fast enough to learn everything that we need to know to be successful.
But most people don’t want to fail because of the fear of failure itself. For example, in crises, people save and go reserve with their actions while entrepreneurs know when sales are low, we need to spend money and invest and pay off the investment later. This makes emotional maturity a must because you must be able to keep a level head during crises to stay focused a stay diligent with your tasks at hand.
When President Donald Trump was 1 billion dollars in debt, he said, “I didn’t let the experience of a significant loss change my vision of who I am. I saw the experience as a blip and nothing more and knew I had the skill set to get myself back in the game.” part of having the Midas touch is having the eye for improvement and having the energy and creativity to do it.
Strength of character gives the entrepreneur is the resilience when others want to run, hide, and quit. Most want to be entrepreneurs until they learn winning is not guaranteed, and the thumb gives you the ability to persevere through the failures until you succeed.
2. The Index Finger: Focus
Chapter 2 the index finger: Focus. Many entrepreneurs fail because they focus on security and job safety. The authors say focus stands for “follow one course until successful.” Focus brings out the best in you and is power measured over time.
Focus mainly stands for “Do or Die.” Lack of focus is for people that are comfortable and don’t want to grow.
Focus causes you to grow. Once you focus on your life’s objectives, you should focus your learning on people who have been where you want to go because if it was done once in this life is duplicatable. Focus requires you to see yourself as Victorious even before you begin and to reach these goals, you must never give up even when the learning curve proves to be substantial.
3. The Middle Finger: The Brand
Chapter 3 the middle finger: the brand. The authors state that entrepreneurs are generalist who hire specialist to make their mission successful is Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have done with their billion-dollar businesses. They state that there are 8 tiers to any business which is: mission, team, leadership, product, legal, systems, communication, and cash flow.
The brand means you cannot be all things to people; you have to stand for something. Every brand stands for something and doesn’t deviate from their original mission. For example, the Marine Corps, Rolex, Amazon, and Walmart.
Branding speaks to the unique person in all of us and provides more than a product but a promise. Be true to yourself and be true to your brand, and the integrity of your brand will speak for itself because strong Brands provide pride and safety to their tribes.
A brand is leverage: it’s what separates Starbucks from other coffee shops and is to be considered the DNA of the business itself. If the brand’s message is not meaningful to a core audience, then it won’t stand the test of time.
4. The Ring Finger: The Brand
Chapter 4 the ring finger: relationships. In business, you cannot make a good deal with a bad partner, and then life can’t make a good living with a bad partner from a relationship standpoint.
Betrayals are a part of life, and we must understand that every partner is a gamble no matter what credentials they have. There is some risk in every partnership we make as human beings.
From a business perspective creating relationships with investors and mentors is crucial to your success or stagnation. We build relationships with advisors, investors, employees, customers, and peers, so developing interpersonal skills to find great partners will take you a long way.
5. The Pinkey Finger: The Small Things
Chapter 5 the pinky finger: the little things that count. The little things are the big things. And the little things make a big difference. The little things that matter to your customers are the big thing that should matter to you. Entrepreneurs must know how to sell to ensure the survival of their business because cash flow is the lifeblood of any business.
Businesses expand through systems franchising and Licensing. Walmart’s little thing for years has been low prices, Amazon’s little thing for years has been customer obsession, and Facebook little thing has been connecting people.
The little thing of your business is usually your business’s specialty. Many entrepreneurs fail because they are not interested in learning about the other areas of their business, only their specialty. You must figure out how to leverage your gift to help more people. If you find partners who complement your weaknesses, it will help ensure your business’s survival.
In Conclusion
There are a lot of topics and concepts I didn’t cover in this book, but these are the main topics that I feel will help any beginning or seasoned entrepreneur in their journey to personal fulfillment and success. I hope this article has been insightful and highly suggest that you take some time out of your schedule 2 read the book for yourself. I believe you will find the time investment in this book will be 10x the value you gain from it. Feel free to share this summary on your social media accounts!
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