The four types of education you need to become a successful entrepreneur

As a successful and ambitious entrepreneur, you dare to take a different path to 97% of society. You seek to become wealthy so that you can design your own life independently of your salary. Instead of a job, you would rather work for yourself and be your own boss, maybe work from home or wherever you want, and become financially free to live the lifestyle of your dreams.

Whether you’re starting a brick-and-mortar business, a home business, or an online business, Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Abe Poor, and Business School) talks about the three different types of education required for the successful entrepreneur. If you want to achieve this financial freedom to live your own life, you need school education, vocational education, and financial education.

Let’s decipher these three first.

School education Basically it is what you get in school. In the main part, it is about basic literacy. You are taught reading, writing and math, which is very important for survival in today’s information age. Throughout our childhood we are taught the importance of getting a good education. As adults, we are encouraged to become lifelong learners and invest in our personal development. We’ve pretty much been taught the idea that getting good grades in school, and even going to college, is the best way to get a high-paying job.

Vocational education It is what teaches you how to work for money. You can get this type of education from apprenticeships and training as well as through your work experience. This type of education can range from an apprenticeship in a trade or service to training at a higher level to become a doctor, lawyer, accountant, pilot, etc.

financial education It is rarely taught at school, at home, or anywhere else for that matter! This is where you learn how to make money work for you (as it is for you to work for money as above). Most people don’t even realize that schooling and a career will get you so far.

Without a financial education or wealth, you may not appreciate the “different path” available to you and you will always end up working for the rich, not getting rich. This is how Robert Kiyosaki distinguishes between the two with his rich dad, poor dad concept.

However, these days, if you do business mostly on the Internet, there is, in my opinion, a fourth really important type of education which is Social Education. So I’m going to add this to the mix.

Social Education Important in any business in which you do sales and deal with customers. But online, it’s even more important since you can’t “meet” in person and a lot of our social behavior is based on body language and visual and auditory cues.

Social education is about development.emotional smartness“Towards others. It’s about learning to communicate effectively with people regarding their situation, their needs, and their feelings. It’s about active listening and empathy. It’s about getting in touch with a person’s highest hopes and worst fears.”

Some would say that you develop “sales” skills to manipulate people. I advocate for you to develop the social skills to match what you can offer with what people are looking for! (In this scenario, there is no need for a hard sell.)

On the Internet, social education is critical to every part of marketing, sales, and support. This is because purchasing decisions depend greatly on people feeling confident. Being seen as an authority and leader builds your credibility online.

This is evident in the growing trend towards social networking and personal branding – the so-called “attraction marketing”, which nowadays is the business model for all successful internet marketers. People must know you, like you and trust you before they do business with you, or become clients or partners with you.

Therefore, social education is one of the cornerstones of effective marketing. It teaches you aspects of the psychology behind different personality types, how people make decisions, how to attract others to you, how to reach win-win outcomes, etc.

If you take the time to learn how to translate that knowledge and understanding into your personal branding, copywriting, presentations and conversations, your business success will skyrocket.