Ponder these numbers: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that in 2004, approximately 580,900 new businesses were launched. Another 576,200 closed, but experts are not necessarily alarmed. "The reasons for closure include selling the company [for profit], mergers, acquisitions and retirements," said Mary Lou Bessette, director of the W. P. Carey School's Spirit of Enterprise Center. "It's not as dismal as some might think. And, most of us expect to see a lot more of this because of the quickening of the business life cycle."

With that much action in the marketplace, Robert T. Kiyosaki and co-author Sharon L. Lechter should find plenty of readers for their entrepreneurship message. Their book, "Before You Quit Your Job," released on Sept. 14, promises "10 Real Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business."

Kiyosaki is already well known to aspiring entrepreneurs. "Before You Quit" is the 10th book in the "Rich Dad" series. The first book, "Rich Dad Poor Dad," dubbed a "financial literacy manifesto" by the New York Times in an Oct. 30 column, has resided for more than 260 weeks on the nonfiction advice list. Only two other books have done better -- "The Road Less Traveled" was on the advice list an astonishing 694 weeks and "The Joy of Sex" 363. The Times quoted Kiyosaki from a CNN interview that the book had sold 20 million copies.

Hawaiian-born Phoenix resident Kiyosaki has made a big business out of his own learning curve. He frames his business advice around the mentoring stories of his biological father (Poor Dad) and the father of a childhood friend (Rich Dad). Kiyosaki found success putting Rich Dad's doctrine to work starting companies that made and lost money, and then made money again. Then Kiyosaki transformed his personal mission -- financial literacy -- into The Rich Dad Company. His Cashflow board games teach players about accounting, finance and investing. Bestseller "Rich Dad Poor Dad," described by Kiyosaki in the new book as a "brochure" for the Cashflow game, was written shortly after. In addition to the games and books, the company offers an array of products, including real estate investment seminars, personal coaching, online communities and more. Yahoo! Finance voted Kiyosaki a "rock star" of finance. Today, the successful protégé of the unnamed Rich Dad has assumed the role of Rich Dad to millions.

"Before You Quit Your Job" teaches the 10 lessons that Kiyosaki says budding entrepreneurs should consider, based on the business and personal stories that have become his literary trademark. Each chapter concludes with the insights of co-author, partner and CPA Sharon Lechter. Ironically, the bestselling author reports that he flunked high school English. His book is a quick read, though at times the stories seem repetitive. Kiyosaki watchers say that this latest offering is much like his previous books, and many of the topics he discusses have been examined in depth by other business writers. Kiyosaki references a couple -- such as Jim Collins ("Good to Great") -- with near reverence.

 

Still, there's plenty for the novice to learn in "Before You Quit Your Job." If Kiyosaki's goal was to inspire action that is carefully conceived yet bold, then the book is on target. Kiyosaki aimed at giving readers the "'down in the gutter,' 'kick in the gut,' 'stabbed in the back,' terrifying tales and horror stories that almost every entrepreneur goes through" -- instructive stories of the type he found lacking in other books on entrepreneurship.        

Kiyosaki's stories are rambling and entertaining, and he knows where to start a tale. Rich Dad's first lesson is to plan the business as completely as possible before you start it. Intrinsic to the plan, Kiyosaki writes, is an honest examination of your personality: are you by nature an entrepreneur or an employee? The theme runs through the book: employees seek financial security, entrepreneurs seek financial freedom; employees implement strategy and avoid risk, entrepreneurs innovate and take calculated risks.

The comparison, however, breaks down somewhat if pushed. For example, Kiyosaki says that good employees are expected to never fail at their tasks; entrepreneurs, on the other hand, can welcome a certain kind of failure because of the lessons that can be learned. In today's global competition, however, companies need employees who can innovate, too. It's hard to imagine a company succeeding that does not enable employees to take certain kinds of risks in order to improve service or processes.

Another theme is education. Kiyosaki admits that he was lackluster student, and though he affirms the value of education, he says that some of the most important lessons for an entrepreneur must be learned outside the classroom. The attitude rings through Kiyosaki's critique of books written by college professors, who he says "tend to boil the subject to the bone," although he does cite one academic study. And there's no mistaking his triumph in a story about being chosen for a sales job over a roomful of MBAs. To say that Kiyosaki is anti-higher education, however, would be inaccurate. He did attend business school, and he reports that he benefited from the corporate training he received early in his career. Recently, Kiyosaki initiated a research partnership with ASU. As well, Kiyosaki is a proponent of finding the best people possible to fill the jobs in your company -- it's dangerous to be the smartest person on your team, he says -- which often means partnering with or hiring people with experience and academic credentials.

His point, however, is that the best education of all is hands-on -- the process of planning, launching and running your own business. The book gives a potential entrepreneur -- especially those who do not have a business degree -- an easy way to grasp framework for understanding business organizations. His Cashflow quadrant helps readers to separate the four kinds of people in business: employees (E), the self-employed (S), owners of big businesses (B) and investors (I). Moving from the E and S quadrants of the matrix to the B and I quadrants where significant wealth is created depends on the cognitive and emotional makeup of the entrepreneur, Kiyosaki says. Later he describes the B-I triangle -- the skeletal structure of a company. The triangle rests on the organization's mission, with the team and leadership forming the other two sides. In the center are the four functionalities that Kiyosaki says must be covered by the entrepreneur and his team: cash flow, communications, systems, legal and product.

Kiyosaki shares the large lessons: an entrepreneur will meet disaster, for example, if he ignores any of the functionalities in the triangle. The book's purpose is to help readers self select for entrepreneurship. Exposure to the broad principles, it appears, helps to make the decision whether you are up for -- or interested in -- the challenge. How to apply those principles is a lesson for another day.

At age 47, financially able to retire, Kiyosaki discovered that education was his mission after all. Some critics say he is overly focused on money, but in "Before You Quit Your Job" Kiyosaki states that finding a mission that overarches financial gain is one of the keys to success. A mission attracts energy, and like-minded people who will want to help the entrepreneur achieve his goal, he says. The mission of The Rich Dad Company, Kiyosaki says, is to develop financial literacy in as many people as possible.

Rich Dad readers would do well to heed the totality of Kiyosaki's message: that an entrepreneur must be continuously learning. For the novices and the experienced alike, "Before You Quit Your Job" is the inspiration. The rest is up to them.