What is the hamster wheel?
Someone who has used these words a lot and who has stuck with me the most is Robert Kiyosaki. I read his book “Rich Dad, poor Dad” many years ago and I have to be honest, that was my starting point.
Kiyosaki explains in this book that most people live in a “hamster wheel”.
Imagine a hamster in its cage with the door open. The hamster is running very fast in its hamster wheel, concentrating on running on and on. As long as this hamster doesn’t stop stubbornly looking ahead and keeps on running, it will never realize that there is an open door. He will never realize what really exists out there, because his world consists only of the cage (what he has seen so far).
Hamster wheel Robert Kiyosaki
Imagine a hamster in its cage with the door open.
Now let’s change the various elements from the story and you’ll understand. Imagine you are the hamster, and the hamster wheel is your everyday life (working, buying and financing things, watching TV, taking out a mortgage for a house, flying on vacation once a year, financing a car…). The cage is your current life, where you only find ways to pass the time in your everyday life (spending money and more than you have, which puts you more and more in debt), and everything outside the cage is the rest of the world and the opportunities you will find if you can break out of this system.
But what is the first step? That the hamster realizes that he is running in a hamster wheel and that it will never stop turning if he doesn’t do it. That he can never reach his goal because there is no goal, only an illusion.
And then the hamster can stop running and have a look around. Suddenly he realizes that he lives in a cage, and lo and behold, there is an open door. And that there is still a lot to see beyond this door…
We run like marionettes in our hamster wheels all our lives.
A short video as an explanation
Here is another short video on the subject, which explains exactly how the famous hamster wheel works.
In general, I recommend that anyone who is currently dealing with the topic of financial freedom, or with independent business or investments in general, read Robert Kiyosaki’s book!
