Those who aspire toward riches should know that, in order to achieve their goals, they will need to abandon much of the conventional wisdom passed on to them by parents, teachers, and others. You may, however, already be on the right track - that is, if you were lucky enough to have a role model who knew what it really takes to become rich.

In the words of Robert Kiyosaki of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" fame, "It doesn't take money to make money. I often hear people say it takes money to make money. I disagree. We had no money when we started and we were also in debt. It also doesn't take a formal education."

Kiyosaki proceeded to cite the case of Bill Gates: the Microsoft mogul never actually graduated from college, but did that keep him from making his fortune? No way! Diplomas are nice, but they don't reliably add up to more money.

Robert Kiyosaki says that the only true prerequisites to being rich are that one must be determined and a quick study. Beyond that, it's all about what you know. One of the first things you need to know about becoming rich is where you fall on the Cash Flow Quadrant.

Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad," actually his childhood best friend's father, is the one who introduced him to the Cash Flow Quadrant, a handy diagram that visually illustrates the ways in which individuals with different personalities relate to money. It consists of a square split into four quadrants, labeled 'E' (Employee), 'S' (Self-employed), 'B' (Business), and 'I' (Investor). If your aim is to become rich, you're going to have to set your sights on the 'B' and 'I' quadrants of the diagram.

When Kiyosaki says you need to be willing to learn quickly, he doesn't mean go back to school to improve your job skills. He means you should learn about investing, preferably investing in real estate. The rich dad on whom he based his books was a real estate investor. You can get rich investing in real estate because everything else depends on it. At the beginning of his book Cash Flow Quadrant, he pointed out how so many of Hawaii's businesses were sitting atop real estate that his rich dad owned.

But don't worry - learning about real estate doesn't mean that you have to learn every minute detail that goes into the buying and selling of property; in reality, there are plenty of people willing to take on the technical aspects of investing for you. You just need to think like a businessperson in choosing the individuals with whom you surround yourself.

That is a far cry from thinking like a Self-employed person. According to Kiyosaki, a self-employed person is someone who owns a job, not a business. You don't own a true business, he said, unless you can leave it for a year and return to find it still making money for you. Businesspeople, he said, know better than to try to do everything themselves. In order to save time and money, they hire people to do the things they can't do or don't have time to do. That's why hiring a qualified real estate professional to guide you in your decisions can be a good investment in and of itself.

In the end, it doesn't really matter if you dive headfirst into the study of investing yourself, or you simply hire a qualified expert to help you make your decisions. The important part is that if you really want to strike it rich, you must be willing to move from the 'E' and 'S' squares of the Cash Flow Quadrant into squares 'B' and 'I,' which are where the real money is.

Alexandria P. Anderson is a licensed Minnesota Realtor that uses the Minnesota Real Estate MLS to help her clients to find and purchase Minnesota Properties.