CASHFLOW Quadrant another depression. Maybe there will never be one, but history says there will. As the saying goes: “If your neighbor loses his job, it’s a recession. If you lose your job, it’s a depression.” The reason my rich dad had me read books on the great capitalists and the economists was so I could gain a longer view and a better perspective on where we have come from and where we are going. Just as there are waves on the ocean, there are great waves in markets. Instead of the wind and sun driving the waves of the ocean, the waves of the financial markets are driven by two human emotions: greed and fear. I don’t think that depressions are things of the past because we will always have those emotions of greed and fear. And when greed and fear collide and a person loses badly, the next human emotion is depression. Depression is made up of anger and sadness: anger with one’s self, and sadness over the loss. Economic depressions are emotional depressions. People lose, and they get depressed. Even when the economy appears to be in great shape, there are millions of people who are in various stages of depression. They may have a job, but deep down they know they are not getting ahead financially. They are angry at themselves and sad over their loss of time. Little do they know that they have been trapped by the Industrial-Age idea of “find a safe, secure job, and don’t worry about the future.”
A Great Change Means Opportunity We are entering an era of tremendous change and opportunity. For some people, it will be the best of times. For others, it will be the worst of times. As President John Kennedy once said: “A great change is at hand.” Kennedy came from the right side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant. Back in the 1960s, he tried desperately to elevate the lives of those stuck in a time warp. Unfortunately, decades later, millions of people are still trapped in those time warps, following ideas that were handed down from past generations—ideas such as, “Go to school so you can find a secure job.” While education is more important than ever before, we need to be teaching people to think a little further than just 207