Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Kaminski  I just figured I needed to find the right property. Am I wrong to assume such? |
I don't think so, I've just never tried it. I figured if you had a good plan for it, I'd use yours instead of trying to create my own. Shameless mooching.
My goodness that guy is bitter! He says he's not jealous, and I believe that he knows his emotions better than I do, but
something convinced him that writing a 62-page discussion of "all the reasons that everything Kiyosaki says is wrong" was a good use of his time.
Rather than create a 62-page, point-by-point refutation, which is
not a good use of my time, I'll give you my opinion on Kiyosaki and on the Rich Dad series.
Kiyosaki is a
terrible writer. He admits that he hated class, and I have to assume that English was on the list of classes that he regularly failed. He has no concept of how to organize a chapter, much less a book or a series. His writing style is prosaic and repetitive. His memory is not good enough to accuratly recall conversations that took place in 1955, and his recreated dialogue is worse than George Lucas'. He learned difficult concepts through repetition and example, and has no idea how to
teach them in writing, without being there to answer questions. So he resorts to repeating the catch-phrase over and over, hoping that you'll figure it out.
That being said, he has his good points. I'm sure it's true that most of the lessons he's trying to impart are generations old. (I never got the impression that they originated from "Rich Dad", only that Rich Dad had learned them, and was therefore far more competent to teach them than, say, me.) But wherever they originated and whatever their age,
I didn't know them. After reading
Rich Dad, Poor Dad (and, I admit quite a bit of research and thought on my own) I did know them. I call that beneficial.
For example, one thing that readers of Steve's blog will recognize, but I had
never considered, was the idea that you could get paid for something other than your time. You can get paid for your knowledge -- and that's far less restrictive. You can get paid for your ideas -- if you're willing to put in the work to make them reality. You can get paid while you're sleeping? Wow!
I knew that it was possible to buy ongoing expenses -- things that in addition to the initial payment, you had to keep paying monthly installments. I had no idea that you could buy things that, after the initial payment, put money IN your bank account. Given the option, I know which one seems like a better purchase.
So, I suppose that a lot of Mr. Reed's points could apply to Steve and his blog also -- that people in the forum will sometimes say that such-and-such is true because "Steve said so"; that he'll tell you that sometimes failure can be helpful, and could be considered a success if you do the right thing with it; that we don't know how much money he has, although he gives us advice on how to aquire wealth; that he claims to have tons of money but also claims to work 12 hours a day.
Frankly, I'm guessing that, if he knew about the Law of Attraction, he'd tell us that Steve is motivating us by lying to us -- it is, after all, pretty absurd to think that you can get money just by thinking about it.
The only response I can make to both of those is, "I believe my life is better for having read it." And I do.
Also, I have been significantly more impressed by the Rich Dad Advisors series than by the Rich Dad series. These are the people to whom Kiyosaki turns when he needs advice about (say) real estate, taxes, IP law, etc. Obviously, this is only true if you accept the premise that Kiyosak is actually wealthy and needs advisors, but I've found these people to be quite good and their advice worthwhile. I especially like Dolf de Roos, but most of the advisors seem to be quite competent in their field. So I'd treat those books differently from the Rich Dad series, despite the purple-and-gold cover.
I would argue vehemently with anyone who says that the Rich Dad series is all you need -- I would call it more of a starting point for the really worthwhile literature in the field. And I would not read it like a bible -- assuming that the wording was divinely inspired and must always be right. But, like stevepavlina.com, I have found it a useful source for ideas to think about and to consider incorporating into my life.