Story Tuesday: The Beginning
Last week I was struggling to think of what to write for my daily blog which is also emailed to our email listing contacts. I was scrolling on my Facebook feed when I came across a short clip of Robert Kiyosaki where he was explaining how the school system won’t teach you about money because it is designed to teach you how to be an employee. He said, “I asked my father ‘Why don’t we learn about money in school?’’ and his father replied, “because the government doesn’t let us teach that subject.” His father was an educator in the US and I’m not sure how our education system feels about teaching about money, but it is my goal that one day we add it into our curriculum. Reminiscing on the video and how Robert’s teachings have influenced us; I decide to come up with this series because the story is too long for it not to be separated. So please make sure you read the Part 1 to understand this second part.
Part 2: The Beginning
Like I mentioned in Part 1, I was the one that would get stuck having to read the newspaper while all my cousins and brother would be allowed to play freely. I resented it more often than not, but I now understand that it helped form the person I became today. Armando was not the bookworm and instead, was a very hands on type of person. So, when I heard he was interested in reading a book, outside of those he was required to read because of school; I was shook.
A friend of Armando’s had given him a book called, “The secret” which was about the law of attraction. It didn’t resonate with me, so I read it and the story ended there for me. Armando however, was left enthused. He had such a big idea he didn’t even know where to start. His idea was to get into the real estate business but of course, that seemed too far-fetched that he decided to lower the goal post. He decided to come up with a more feasible business that when in the long term fund his dream of getting into real estate.
Still with the idea of wanting to get into real estate, Armando began searching for more books with that topic. That was when he found out about Robert Kiyosaki and his book called, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” which I credit to the beginning of A&S Covers. The book was such an eye opener because we learnt the basics from Robert. Like the fact that a house or a car are NOT assets to us, they may be assets to the bank but not to us. An asset should be something that brings in revenue but a car or a house only bring expenses. We also learnt about the rat race, which Robert defines as a never-ending cycle an employee lives and doesn’t get out of because he doesn’t realize he is even in the race.
The best way to explain the rat race is by giving an example in a real-life situation. You go to school to get a degree, you use that degree to get a job, you get that job to live independently because that was your childhood dream. So you get the job and now you’re officially in the rat race. You spend your pay cheque on food, rent, loan payments, clothes and doodads (unexpected expenses) because you can afford it now. You work hard at your job and gain a raise in your pay and you are on a roll, so you buy more things, nicer things because you deserve it, so you treat yourself. Now you get yourself into more debt with credit cards or loans because your yearly salary is higher. You feel confident that you can control your expenses but the truth is, you’re just sinking yourself into more bad debt (yes there is such a thing as good debt; find out about good debt in Part 3) to the point that you begin to live pay cheque to pay cheque and you get frustrated because now you’re trying your best to get another raise thinking that this will solve the problem, but little do you know that it is a never ending cycle that will continue unless you work your way out of it. So now you fall in love and get married and buy a house because society has taught us that you must buy a house before having children and your house will be an assets in your golden years. At first you manage because two salaries are better than one but then you have children and the bills keep growing but the raise is still taking forever to take effect. Does this sound familiar to you? Of course it does because we either live it or see people living in it.
This book was cemented into Armando’s subconscious when he was in the hunt of getting an idea. At this point I hadn’t read the book and had no intention of reading other books recommended by Armando because I hadn’t been reading a lot since I left school. So he alone was obsessing over the thought of creating a business. It wasn’t until one day while working with leather that he decided to make a pouch for his oh so fancy HTC One X phone that he had just won from BTL. After making the pouch he wondered how much time it would take to mass produce more pouches. And right there, at that very moment, the idea stuck.
I hope you all enjoy this series as much as I do reflecting and writing it because of course it is a true story but mostly because it sheds light on aspects of our lives that were never exposed before. Next week I will continue talking about the idea and how we developed it more. Remember that if you want to become one of our brand ambassadors to click here to apply.