In 1950, a nun who was a history and geography teacher in Calcutta was called on to help the poor and to live among them. Instead of just talking about caring for the poor, she chose to say very little and helped the poor with her actions, not just her words.
Because of this, when she did speak, people listened.
She had this to say about the difference between words and actions: “There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point. There should be more action on your part.”
Games as meeting points
When I was deciding how I wanted to teach financial education and the investment skills my rich dad taught me, I made a conscious choice to incorporate games into my methods. I did this because games require more action than a lecture. As Mother Teresa said, “A preaching point is not a meeting point.” Our games are meeting points.
Games provide a social interaction for learning and helping someone else learn. When it comes to investing, there are too many people trying to teach by preaching. We all know that there are certain things that are not best learned by simply reading and listening. Some things require action to be learned, and games provide this elementary action step to learning.
Creating understanding
Confucius once said: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
My purpose in going beyond just writing books about money and investing, and creating games as learning tools, is to create more understanding. The more understanding people have, the more they can see the other side of the coin. Instead of seeing fear and doubt, the players begin to see opportunities they never saw before because their understanding increases each time they play the game.
There are many stories of people who have played our games and have had their lives suddenly changed. They have gained a new understanding about money and investing, an understanding that pushed out some old thoughts and gave them new possibilities for their lives.
A world of opportunity
Rich dad taught me to be a business owner and investor by playing the game of Monopoly. He was able to teach his son and me so much more after the game was over when we visited his business and real estate.
I wanted to create educational games that taught the same fundamental and technical investing skills that rich dad taught me, far beyond what is taught in Monopoly. As rich dad said, “The ability to manage cash flow and to read financial statements is fundamental to success on the B and I side of the CASHFLOW Quadrant.”
That is why I developed my first board game, CASHFLOW 101.
And that is also why I continue to develop new games taking advantage of new technologies, like our brand new app, Capital City: The Finance and Strategy Game.
Each game teaches new skills, opens up your mind to a world of opportunity, and drills home the lessons of cash flow. With repetition, those lessons will become ingrained in your psyche and how you approach your financial future.
