Blog | Entrepreneurship

Why Systems + Ideas = Make You Rich

This is how successful business systems will make you rich

Summary

• When done right, successful businesses are a complex combination of interoperating systems

• To get rich, use successful business systems to bring your better idea to life

• Your idea doesn’t have to be new or unique—but it has to be better

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The human body is a system of systems. It’s made up of a circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system, and so on. If one of these systems stops, there is a good chance the body will be crippled or die.

Likewise, a business is a complex combination of interoperating systems. And like a body, if one of those systems fails, the whole business will either be crippled or die. The B-I Triangle visually represents many of these systems. They are all separate but also all linked together. It is difficult to separate the systems because they are interdependent, and it is also difficult to say that one is more important than the other.

How to make your business grow

For any business to grow, specific individuals must be accountable for each system, and a general overall director must be in charge of making sure all the systems operate at their highest capacity.

As the director of my companies, leaders act like pilots sitting in the cockpit when reading their financial statements; it’s like reading the gauges from all the operating systems. If one of the systems begins to go awry, it’s time to make the necessary corrections.

Sometimes, corrections require some great ideas.

Turn a good idea into a great idea

As a young man, Robert Kiyosaki worked in rich dad's convenience store. He didn't like the work, but he did get free comic books out of it, so that was a plus. Rich dad's son, Mike, also worked with him. They soon noticed that when the comic book distributor came with a new batch of comics, the store manager would cut the covers in half and give them to the distributor for credit.

Robert and Mike got the bright idea to ask if they could have the old comics. Because they worked at the store, he said yes-as long as they didn't sell them.

Keeping true to their word, Robert and Mike started a comic book library in a basement. They charged other kids $0.10 a day to come read as many comic books as they wanted.

Eventually, they were making $9.40 a week, which was a lot more than the $0.30 they were making at the store.

In other words, they took comic books that were going to be thrown away and created an asset around them. Starbucks did the same thing with a cup of coffee.

The power of a better idea

The point?

Ideas don't have to be new and unique in order to make you a lot of money. They just have to be better.

Now, there is a fine line between making an idea better and simply stealing an idea. There are many individuals who spend their lives stealing other people's ideas rather than creating their own. The price they pay is at the least the respect others lose in them, and at times huge lawsuits.

The fine line between copying and stealing

As rich dad often said, "There is a fine line between copying and stealing." Many of the most financially successful people are not necessarily people who have created ideas. Rather, they copied ideas and made them better by applying good business systems to them to make millions.

Fashion designers watch young kids to see what new fashions they are wearing, and then they simply mass-produce those fashions.

Bill Gates didn't invent the operating system that made him the richest man in the world. He simply bought the system from computer programmers who did invent it and then licensed their product to IBM. The rest is history.

Amazon.com took Sam Walton's idea for Walmart and put it on the Internet. Jeff Bezos became rich much more quickly than Sam Walton did.

This is the recipe for a successful business.

The types of businesses banks like

Rich dad said “Always remember that B quadrant businesses get more money from investors because investors invest in good systems and the people who can build those systems. Investors do not like to invest in businesses where the system goes home at night.”

Every business ideaneeds good systems to be a successful business. The better the system, the less dependent you become on others. Look at McDonald’s systems: “It’s the same everywhere in the world, and it’s run by teenagers.” This is possible because of the excellent systems in place. McDonald’s depends on its systems, not its people.

Getting better at managing systems

If you want to get better at building and managing systems, real estate is a great place to start. A building on a piece of land is the business, the system for which a tenant pays you rent. Real estate is fairly stable and inert, so it gives the new businessperson more time to correct things if something begins to go wrong.

Learning to manage a property for a year or two teaches you excellent business-management skills.

In addition to hands-on experience, which is the best kind of experience, you should also read rich dad advisor Garrett Sutton’s books, Start Your Own Corporation and Run Your Own Corporation.

And while you’re at it, take a few moments to sign up for the free Rich Dad Community, where you’ll find a wealth of valuable resources.

But in the meantime, ask yourself: what’s yourbetter idea?