The book tells who started the store. who runs the store now, and what makes the store so unique. And at the end of each chapter it gives you the address, phone number and web site for the store. as well as a web site for the book where you can take a closer look at the stores.

The businesses are varied and diverse. The 25 stores covered are:

Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, Ohio. a Grocery Store.

Gump’s in San Francisco . Selling distinctive merchandise to the elite.

Archie McPhee in Seattle Washington. selling novelty and joke items.

Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon a new and used book store.

Abt Electronics in Glenview Illinois. A consumer electronics and appliance store

Zabar’s in New York, New York. A gourmet food emporium.

Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, in Frankenmuth, Michigan. a year round Christmas store.

Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Like dude! It’s a surf shop.

A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, North carolina, a food emporium

ABC Carpet & Home in New York, New York. Selling home furnishings.

In Celebration of Golf in Scottsdale, Arizona. A Golf shop like no other

Gallery Furniture in Houston, Texas. A furniture store.

Wilkes Bashford. San Francisco, California. High quality designer apparel.

Nell Hill’s in Atchison, Kansas. Selling quality home furnishings.

Louis Boston in Boston, Massachussets. Seller of high quality apparel.

Estes Ark in Estes Park, Colorado. A stuffed animal toy store.

Junkman’s Daughter in Atlanta, Georgia. A beyond quirky variety store?

Junkman’s Daughter’s Brother in Athens, Georgia. Similar to Junkman’s daughter but geared more to college kids.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee. A huge knife store

Bering’s in Houston, Texas. A hardware and home center.

Wanna Buy AWatch? in Los Angeles, California. A collectible watch store.

Rowena’s in Norfolk, Virginia. gourmet treats made ” by hand with tender loving care.”

The Silver Queen in Largo, Florida. Specializing in silver flatware, fine china, and crystal, as well as other silver merchandise and gifts.

Toy House & Baby Too in Jackson, Michigan. a really big toy store.

Hartville Hardware in Hartville, Ohio. a hardware store.

As different as these stores are from each other, they all are thriving in difficult times. Their stories have many valuable lessons for anybody who wants to go into business for themselves, whether they are planning on going into retailing or not.

Our buts are nothing more than excuses for our laziness. And sometimes our laziness is nothing but a cover for our fears. Buts are what keep us from doing what we know we should.  So the next time you hear yourself say”But” stop and figure out what you really mean by that little word. If you say,”I would really like to start a business, but I don’t know where to begin.” Do you trully not know how to start developing a business idea? Or do you really mean, “Starting a business is risky, and a lot of hard work, and I could loose my shirt,  and my wife might get mad at me and leave me, and then I’d have to go crawling back to my old boss and tell him I was only joking when I told him to kiss my a** and that I’d really like my job back, please, but if he didn’t give it to me I’d be on the street and living in a card board box and begging for money outside the MCDonald’s, la, la, la, la, la!”

If you really mean, “I don’t know where to begin.” Search online, “How to start a business.”, or go to your local chamber of commerce. find a S.C.O.R.E. office in your area. (Service Core Of Retired Executives.) Find your local SBA office. (Small Business Administration.) Go to the library or book store and get Starting a Business For Dummies.  Just don’t let your but stop you any more if you really truly want something.

Chapter 1. What Is Financial intelligence ? In this chapter he talks about how the rich and the poor both have money problems. for the poor it’s not enough money, using credit when you are short of money, the rising cost of living, the more you make- the more you pay in taxes, fear of emergencies, bad financial advice, and not enough money for retirement. For the rich it’s having too much money, needing to keep your money safe and invested, not knowing if people like you- or your money, needing smarter financial advisors, raising spoiled kids, estate and inheritance planning, and excessive government taxes.  Now the question is, as Mr. Kiyosaki put it, is “Which money problems do you want?”

He talks about solving money problems and how solving money problems makes you smarter. How the rules of money have changed, and how the rich and the poor each handle these problems.

Chapter 2 is a brief overview of the five financial IQs presented in the book. They are: #1: Making more money. #2: Protecting your money. #3: Budgeting your money. #4 Leveraging your money. #5: Improving your financial information. Mr. Kiyosaki talks about how they interrelate and build upon one another, and how each is just as important as the others.

In chapters 3 through 7 he talks about each financial IQ individually.

Chapter 8 is titled, The Integrity of Money, in this chapter he talks about three definitions for integrity, they are: 1. Soundness: An unimpaired condition. 2. Incorruptibility: Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. 3. Completeness: The quality or state of being complete or undivided. And how all three are needed to discuss money and integrity.

Chapter 9, is about Developing Your Financial Genius. In this chapter he talks about left and right brained thinking and the subconscious brain and using all three. Mr. Kiyosaki also talks about finding your genius and learning what your intelligences are.

Chapter 10 is titled, Developing Your Financial IQ, Some Practical Applications. In this chapter he does just that.

Robert Kiyosaki does reference some of his other books such as Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant, but he describes what he’s talking about from these books that you’ll get the point without having read them. ( Although they are good, too.)

This is a great book to get and read. It explains so much and is a quick 197 pages.  I feel that if I get one good bit of information out of a book then it was worth the read. I got information page after page with this one. (Now I just need to put that information to work.)

I hope hope that every one had a great Independence Day here in America this July 4th.

To figure out how long it will take you to double your money at any percentage rate simply divide 72 by the interest rate you are earning. So, for instance, say you have $1,000 in an online savings account earning you 3 percent compound interest. to find out how many years it will take for that $1,000 to become $2,000 divide the 3 into 72. Three goes into 72 twenty-four times so it will take you 24 years to double your money. At 5 percent, it will take you 14.2 years to double your money. At 10 percent it will take 7.2 years.

I am learning that there are some basic skills for building wealth, and just like anything else worth doing, the better you get at these skills the better you’ll be at building wealth. Wealthy people use these skills and improve these skills every chance they get.

The first skill that wealthy people are good at is controlling their money. They know how they got their money, they know where their money is going, and they know what their money is doing. They understand that savings has two definitions; Saving by setting aside a sum of money from every revenue stream. (Pay yourself first; the ten percent rule.) And saving by getting the best quality for the best price. Someone once asked J.P. Getty the secret to his   wealth and he responded, “I buy my summer hats in the winter.”  In other words, he was always on the lookout for a bargain.

The second skill that wealthy people seem to have in common is that they know how to make money. Most wealthy people don’t work jobs, they create them. They look for new opportunities and act upon them. their idea of making money and our idea of making money is vastly different. The wealthy don’t see working a job for ten dollars an hour as a way to make money. However, paying someone to do a ten dollar an hour job so that they can make fifty is a great way to make money.

Wealthy people understand the value of setting goals and priorities, and planning. Wealthy people understand that having something to aim for is far more effective, so they set goals. They set short term goals; daily, weekly. and monthly. Mid-range goals; six months, yearly, and two years. And long-range goals; five to ten years and beyond. Many a guru say, “Start with the end in mind.” Meaning start with your long-range goals first, and work your way down to your short range goals. This way you know where you need to be at each step of the way.

Now the wealthy prioritize what needs to be done to reach those goals at each step of the way. They figure out what needs to get done, in what order, and what the steps within each priority need to be taken, and in what order. Then they plan when to do each step. the plan is the flexible part. Things don’t always the way we want them to, sometimes you have to take a detour, and sometimes an opportunity arises to jump the goal forward. This is where you go with the flow.

1. Writing a blog on a specific subject is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
2. It takes more time than I thought it would take to write a blog.
3. I’m not as well organized as I thought I was.
4. Posting every single day is not as easy as it sounds.
5. Research takes a ton of time.
6. People actually take the time to spam the comments section with stupid ads.
7. The more I learn about blogging the more I learn I don’t know.
8. I thought I’d review a book a week, now I’ve decvcided it will be more like a book a month… or every two months.
9. Bloggers are cool people, and very supportive of new newbees.
10. Blogging is addictive! Very!

I think some of the problem is that many of the books pay lip service to goal setting, but they don’t teach you how to set goals or how to meet them, so many people don’t know how. And many people don’t know what they want, or don’t believe they can achieve what it is that they want. I’ve also known people who have quit creating goals because things didn’t go exactly as planned. Here is something really important to remember: Goals are the end result, the plans are how you get there. they are two different things. Your goals are set in granite, your plans are written in soft clay, your plans can change, and often have to.

Let’s get down to the how to of goal setting:

First, Let Yourself Daydream. What do you want your life to be like? How much money do you want to make every week? What kind of a house do you want to live in? Where do you want that house to be? What schools do you want your kids to go to? Do You want to go to school? What about your favorite causes or charities? Would you like to help them? how? What is your Ideal life style? Start pulling pictures of your ideal life and glue them to a foam core board or tack them to a cork board. Create different boards for different areas of your life. How about one for travel and vacations, one for luxuries, one for your dream home and how you want to furnish it, one for your career. What are areas in your life that you can create a board for? this is the time to ask yourself the Who? What? When? Where? and Why? questions

Second, Get Specific. don’t just say, “I want a classic luxury car.” say, “I have a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, in factory bubble-gum pink, high polished chrome, and white tufted leather interior that’s Fully restored, and up-dated with a new state-of-the-art Rockford Fosgate sound system, Viper alarm system, low Jack… Notice, I wrote this in the present tense as if I already owned this car, and I was being very specific.

Third, Set A Time Frame. This is where your wants and wishes become goals. by setting a time frame, you give yourself a sense of urgency. This is where most people who create goals and fail to meet them fail. When there isn’t a time frame you always have tomorrow. With a time frame, you have a finite number of days to make it happen, so you got to get to workin’.

Fourth, Know What It’s Going To Cost You. That Cadillac we were talking about is going to cost you in numerous ways. To get it already restored is one cost. to buy one and then have it restored is another set of costs entirely. To insure a classic vehicle is another nice sum of money. Maintenance and up keep of the car will be higher. Gas for a car that’s as long as a city block, will be a bigger expense, too. The point is to know what your getting yourself into, and decide of you’re willing to pay that price. if the price is worth it to you, then DO NOT settle, It’s a worthwhile goal.

Fifth, Know What You’re Willing To Pay. This has nothing to do with the cost of the item, except to know what lengths you’re willing to go through to get your goals. This is where you decide how how you’re going to spend your time, and resources. The blood, sweat, and tears part of your goals. Are you really willing to work an extra twenty to thirty hours a week outside of your 40 hour a week regular job, to create your new dream business?

And, finally, Create You’re Action Plan. This is where your goals become reality. Break your goals down into bite-sized pieces. Then start checking those bite-sized tasks off your list as you complete each one. If something doesn’t work, go back, revise your plan, and try something different. Then, before you know it, you will have accomplished your goals! WooHoo!