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How One Book Changed My Life
about what step to take next. I needed to do something that would
make money because our savings would soon run out.
That’s when I saw a book called Retire Rich, Retire Young by Robert
T. Kiyosaki. I was instantly intrigued by the title.
Back when I was a teenager and running my first business (mowing
lawns), I told my parents I would retire early. They laughed as they
shared this information with their friends at dinner parties. Not that
they didn’t believe me, they just thought it was funny to hear those
words coming from a 16-year-old. I, of course, never knew how I
would retire early, but I knew how it felt to own a business and I just
believed that I would, indeed, retire young.
I remember wandering the aisles of a Barnes & Noble in San Diego.
My wife and I were in town so she could attend a writers’
conference. Amanda, my wife, was anxious because she had written
her first book and would be pitching it to prospective agents and
trying to make some connections at the conference.
I was killing time and not really looking for a particular book. My
mind was busy wondering what the next chapter in our lives would
look like. Amanda clearly had vision for herself—whether she would
be a starving writer or a successful writer, she knew deep in her soul
that she wanted to write. I, on the other hand, felt lost. I didn’t have
a clear idea what I wanted to do. I was only 25 years old and had
already been a commercial fisherman in Alaska (where I grew up),
owned and operated a landscaping business, achieved a business
degree, obtained a captain's license to drive ships, served active
duty and reserves as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, and was
hired as a marine logistics operator and location scout on movies
and TV shows around the world.
Working in TV and movies was great but grueling work and was a
temporary gig—my last job had ended, and I felt lost and concerned
So I took Retire Rich, Retire Young back to our hotel room. I
devoured the book. It lit my soul on fire and ignited my brain with
ideas about what to do with the next chapter of my life. If you are
unfamiliar with Robert Kiyosaki, he is the author of the Rich Dad,
Poor Dad books. Much of what he illustrates in his books is how to
rewire your brain to think like an entrepreneur instead of an
employee, and to acquire the mindset to be a successful business
owner.
I remember thinking: I wish I had read this book in high school, or at
least in college. Not that I had made bad choices up to that point,
but it would have helped me make more strategic decisions. The
book reignited my passion for owning and operating my own
business. I decided right then I would never work for anybody else
again, unless I wanted to learn a specific skill from them.
I knew from both running a business and being an employee that
owning a business is way harder than working for someone else. An
employee may have a difficult job, but eventually they clock out, go
home, and don’t have to deal with work until the next morning. As a
business owner, you never clock out. You are always on call. You
never finish your work, because there is always more to do. The
An entrepreneur and a relentless innovator of the real estate industry, Mike Turner is
the creator of the “Value-Driven Approach to Selling Real Estate,” the host of a weekly radio show on
real estate for more than five years on both AM and FM stations. Turner is the CEO of Front Street
Brokers, a real estate firm he founded 10 years ago based in downtown Boise and Eagle, Idaho. Mike
also co-founded Fever Streak Press, a publishing company that has produced two New York Times best
selling books. Turner is a committed community advocate, supporting many many local and national
charities, such as: Children’s Home Society of Idaho, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and Veterans.
Mike Turner is also an Executive Board Member of the Boise Library Foundation. Originally from a
small island in Alaska, Mike—with his wife, Amanda, and two daughters—can often be found
around town enjoying all the awesome things Boise has to offer, or you can read about their
international adventures through Amanda’s books, written under the pen name AK Turner.
Always More Stories at: MikeTurnerBoise.com