Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad Series

[JoeKinley]

Hey Guys,

now that this forum can't stop bothering me to write something because I did not write anything in the near past, I decided to start a discussion about Robert Kiyosaki and especially about his Rich Dad Series.

So I read the first book Rich Dad Poor Dad last week and I loved it. It gave me many insights about my life, my financial pathway, and my future. I knew before that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but his book really motivated me to now fully get passionate about my dreams. Furthermore I now am more aware of my financial situation, about my spending habits, and about the need for financial literacy. At the same time I read The E Myth revisited, and it too helped me a lot in planning my entrepreneurial career.
Since then I read a whole lot more books and magazines about many topics that will help me in achieving my dreams. I read financial magazines, financial homepages, watch financial and economics tv shows, read more books about IT, about the topic of consulting (which I want my business to be in), about stocks (just a hobby. I was interested in stocks when I was a child so now this passion came to me again) and many more.

The thing is, in this forums and around the web many words talk bad about Kiyosaki to be essenceless when it comes to special tips to do. I mean, there are a million other people trying to sell their own special method or formula to ultimate success, but Kiyosaki says for himself that there is no such formula. You have to be self aware and have to work hard for becoming a self made millionare.

Long story short. I don't understand the bad mouth about Kiyosaki because he helped and motivated me a lot. Since then I buy more books from him and other related books.

What do you think about this topic?

[Dani]

About to run out of posting time!

But I love RK's books. They also kicked me off onto the financial part of my life. But I can understand he isn't for everyone.

Some people like hard facts and step by step guides.

Robert instead tells you how you have been living lie, and it's your duty to get out of it, and it's totally possible. But it's up to you to work out how.

I prefer his style because I learn more by doing than by being told.

[SeriousKidding.com]

"Kiyosaki says for himself that there is no such formula. You have to be self aware and have to work hard for becoming a self made millionare."

You know what? That is EXACTLY what I'm finally learning after ALL these years, yearning and hoping and trying to find "IT." There are no shortcuts. I've been trying to hit the bigtime and get rich overnight for 35 years. Not exactly getting rich quick. This is precisely why StevePavlina.com has so much interest for me: I've found exactly what I need at this point in my life. Synchronicity, good timing, luck...call it whatever you want. I'm just glad I found my way here.

[Erin Pavlina]

The Rich Dad, Poor Dad book is what helped turn my financial life around. I read several of the other books in the series and they weren't as helpful, but nor were they worthless. We loved his Cashflow 101 and 202 games. Extremely insightful. We often refer back to the lessons we learned from playing that game.

[Ellesse]

Great to find fellow lovers of RK's books. But I must say I wasn't too impressed with his talk though and his other books besides Rich Dad Poor Dad. Been to his seminar once and it turns out he's pitching for his other more lucrative courses.

Erin, nice to know that you enjoyed his cashflow games too! I'm a lover of the game 101 myself. Absolutely entertaining and educational. I know of a few friends who are putting what they've learnt from the game into practise too... and it seems they're churning a nice net worth for themselves too..

[Steve]

It's probably a good thing that he gives limited specific financial advice since much of the advice that does actually give is at best flat out wrong and at worst dangerous for your financial health.

And what I'm hearing is that what people are getting out of this book is that:

-There's no specific plan to get rich
-But you can get rich

Did you really need a book to tell you that?

[Dwane J.]

My standard response to the Rich Dad books is to take the knowledge gained with a grain of salt. I believe in the basic premise of the book, getting wealthy through business and real estate (rich dad) vs working for someone (his poor dad). However I question how true some of those stores.

Read John T. Reed's analysis of the rich dad below.
John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Kiyosaki's rebuttal
MasterMind Forums - Robert Kiyosaki's Response to John T. Reed Review of Rich Dad Poor Dad

[Pat P.]

Hi guys,
It looks I am not the only guy on the KT mode this week (I am in the middle of his program "Choose to be rich").

IMO his books are good for people with a poor financial education, such as me , and they are written in simple terms. Their own author never claims to be writing a how to book, but mostly a mind set book. Although I don't agree with his view on some issues (such as the existence of good and bad debt), I believe that it doesn't diminish the value of his message. He is calling to action, to get educated, to stop whining and actually do something to change your financial situation, and I think this is more valuable than any recipe to get rich.

About the issue of other people trashing his books, I think is mostly because they are trying to sell you their own books and seminars.

Pat

[Chrome]

Originally Posted by Dwane J.

My standard response to the Rich Dad books is to take the knowledge gained with a grain of salt. I believe in the basic premise of the book, getting wealthy through business and real estate (rich dad) vs working for someone (his poor dad). However I question how true some of those stores.

Read John T. Reed's analysis of the rich dad below.
John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Kiyosaki's rebuttal
MasterMind Forums - Robert Kiyosaki's Response to John T. Reed Review of Rich Dad Poor Dad

Slightly O/T, but would you recommend any of John T. Reed's materials? I'm interested to know if anyone has purchased anything from him, and if so, did you find his information valuable? I'm specifically interested in his beginning real estate book and the title "succeeding".

[Baltar]

Originally Posted by Dwane J.

My standard response to the Rich Dad books is to take the knowledge gained with a grain of salt. I believe in the basic premise of the book, getting wealthy through business and real estate (rich dad) vs working for someone (his poor dad). However I question how true some of those stores.

At least some of the stories are apparently not true and not based on real life events. There's no doubt a lot of made up exposition. That doesn't nullify the usefulness of the content though.

Originally Posted by Dwane J.

Read John T. Reed's analysis of the rich dad below.
John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I've seen this, and one thing you need to keep in mind is that Reed is Kiyosaki's competitor. What he's doing reminds me a lot of politicians pouring dirt on one another when trying to get our votes. A lot of what he picks on isn't the content but rather that Kiyosaki didn't base his stories on actual events. He also picks on Kiyosaki himself. Even in the content he picks on many trivial things.

[alexander.kharlamov]

Although I agree with a lot of criticism of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad series will always be special for me. Those books started me on this journey, it was my first real eye-opening moment. I felt like my life before I've been living in a black-and-white movie, and after reading that book, my life suddenly became colorful. For that, I will always be greateful to him.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Baltar

I've seen this, and one thing you need to keep in mind is that Reed is Kiyosaki's competitor. What he's doing reminds me a lot of politicians pouring dirt on one another when trying to get our votes. A lot of what he picks on isn't the content but rather that Kiyosaki didn't base his stories on actual events. He also picks on Kiyosaki himself. Even in the content he picks on many trivial things.

The difference between Reed and Kiyosaki is that Reed offers full disclosure in his business dealings. He tells you what he's done, how he did it and how much he's worth.

Contrast that with Kiyosaki who tries to portray himself as a real estate guru when in reality he's gotten wealthy by selling his books. And I’m not even saying there’s anything wrong with that. Knowledge is a very important and valuable commodity. There’s nothing wrong with selling it to make money, but he tries to hide from the fact that’s how he made his money.

[The Probabilist]

Originally Posted by Steve

The difference between Reed and Kiyosaki is that Reed offers full disclosure in his business dealings. He tells you what he's done, how he did it and how much he's worth.

Contrast that with Kiyosaki who tries to portray himself as a real estate guru when in reality he's gotten wealthy by selling his books. And I’m not even saying there’s anything wrong with that. Knowledge is a very important and valuable commodity. There’s nothing wrong with selling it to make money, but he tries to hide from the fact that’s how he made his money.

Rich = Financially independent in my book. Are you saying he wasn't rich before he launched cashflow technologies inc? I haven't seen him hiding from anything. What he's telling is that he loves real estate above all other investments and he inclusively explains why. What you're saying is that if I earn the bulk of my income as a plumber, then I'm not allowed to educate anyone in anything else.

He does explain in his books that he's not a best-writing author, but a best-selling author. The message is positive and deserves the revenue it creates, money for value.

Real estate did make him rich, so he wrote a book about it and people loved it. Are you saying that he's morally supposed to hit the brakes now on his earning potential in other businesses? You make it sound like multiple streams of income is to be frowned upon.

[Mike]

The Rich Dad books were the first financial books I read. If you are just starting out, I think the first couple of books in the series are worth reading. While reading the books, I came up with a few ideas for businesses I could run.

[elainevdw]

I read and enjoyed Rich Dad, Poor Dad, too. I posted something about it here a few weeks ago and was surprised by some of the vehement responses!

People normally attack RDPD for accuracy. They say that Rich Dad never existed; neither did Poor Dad. Kiyosaki just made them up. And his career wasn't as idyllic as he made it out to be, either; he hit some rough spots that he doesn't talk about in his book.

What these people are forgetting is that RDPD carries a message that transcends the facts. I don't give a rip whether Rich Dad is Hawaiian entrepreneur John Doe, or whether he's Kiyosaki's labrador retriever. I don't care if Kiyosaki's childhood business was selling comic books or retrieving golf balls.

The impressive thing about RDPD is, when read as a parable, it inspires those of us who were raised with a very limiting, self-destructive view of money and how it works. That's why it doesn't matter who Rich Dad was. That's also why it doesn't matter what Kiyosaki's personal life was like. How inspirational would RDPD be if, midway between saying that YOU, with enough savvy, could make financial security a reality, he interrupts himself by saying, "By the way, even though I'm the author/expert on this subject, I couldn't even do that"?

It's also fun realizing that the whole Rich Dad series is yet another one of Kiyosaki's assets. He talks about ways of passively receiving income -- and yup, royalties on books and financial education games fit snugly into that category. As a writer, one of my favorite bits of RPDP is when he points out the difference between a best-writing author and a best-selling author. If he wrote RDPD with super accuracy, it wouldn't have sold. It's much more colorful and, heck, USEFUL, as a pseudo fictitious work.

So that's my take on the Kiyosaki debate. I wouldn't read his books for advice on how to invest in the stock market, but by god, Rich Dad Poor Dad made me understand money better.

[Liara Covert]

Robert Kiyosaki and Kim Kiyosaki offer their life stories which reveal lessons they learned about financial freedom. As a reader, you have the choice to believe them or not. You have the choice to learn from their experiences or not. You have the choice to be entertained or not. You have the choice to accept what they say at face value or not. You can even disregard it all, if you choose.

What appeals to me about the Kiyosakis is that their stories spark curiosity. They motivate people to take action to improve their knowledge about financial matters. We're prompted to ask, "Could they be right that what I learned in school didn't prepare me for the real world?" "If I'm ill-equipped, what steps could I take to get better informed?" Self-directedness isn't often taught in school. When a person discovers a source of information, a person, a mentor that compels them to learn more, this is significant. Real life is supposed to help each of us to realize that we're meant to figure certain things out for ourselves on our own life journey. I say, Kudos to the Kiyosakis!

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by Steve

-There's no specific plan to get rich
-But you can get rich

Did you really need a book to tell you that?

There's a difference between not giving you a specific plan to build your personal wealth, and not helping you achieve wealth.

There's no specific way to do integral calculus either. Unlike derivatives, where a single rule applies to every formula, integrals have some general-purpose rules, that sometimes apply and sometimes don't, and you often have to combine multiple rules in new ways, and sometimes the only way to find the integral is to take the derivative of things until you get what you want.

But that doesn't mean that integral calculus classes are useless. Despite the fact that the class gave me no specific plan for finding an integral, I bet I can still find any given integral faster than people who haven't taken the class.

What Kiyosaki says is that anyone who says, "Buy this stock on this day, sell it 5 days later, and you'll be rich!" is full of it. But there are still general rules that apply to wealth-building that are as true for bloggers as for real-estate investors. Passive-income creation, multiple streams of income, safety of principle... (note, however, that Mr. Pavlina is a much better writer than Mr. Kiyosaki, so he's often able to get across in a single blog post a point that takes RK 3 books.)

[PMcDonald]

I like Kiyosaki's books. While it is true that his teachings are more motivational than nuts and bolts, but IMO he is doing everybody a service by empowering us. Instead of leading people by the hand and telling them exactly how to get rich, he simply shows people how to get into the proper mindset. This is a discussion I get into quite often with the group of entrepreneurs that I work with, and it has to do with leadership.

Leaders empower people by pointing them in the right direction. Leaders do not do things for others, as that would be enabling them. There is such a profound difference between empowering and enabling and I think Kiyosaki does a great job defining that line. He gives advice, points us in the right direction and empowers us to take the next steps ourselves.

I relate this to when I learned to ride a bike - at some point I just had to get on the bike, fall down a couple of times and skin my knee. Yeah it hurt, and perhaps I thought about not getting back on the bike, but I did and I learned how to ride it properly because I was willing to get back on.

That sense of "I can do anything" that we all had as children is unforunately lost in the persuasion of parents, school, media, etc. as we grow into adults.

I learn so much from my 20 month old that I sometimes just laugh. He has no idea that he cannot have whatever he wants and is the most persistant person I know.

Anyway, I digress. Went a little OT there...

The greater point is this: the best way to get rich is by taking action and doing things to get rich, and sometimes we need to fail or hit speed bumps to help us grow.

I can't seem to recall atm where I heard it, but there is a quote I remember that goes something like this - "If someone took away all my money and all my material possessions and dropped me off in the middle of nowhere, I know I could pick myself up and get right back to the place I was because I have belief in myself and my abilities"

You get that mindset by doing, not by having it done for you.

[wilsonng]

Different strokes for different folks.

No book can be everything to everybody. Some will find it useful, some not.

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by wilsonng

Different strokes for different folks.

No book can be everything to everybody. Some will find it useful, some not.

It's very true. As with any book, I'd recommend checking it out at the public library, and see what you think. If it's useful, great. If not, check out others in the recommended reading thread.

[Gemini15]

I have read 4-5 of the Rich Dad books and found the 1st "Rich Dad Poor Dad" was excellent in helping people have an understanding of money. I found the emphasis on running a small business a concern given the failure rate of start up businesses. Even so a good book to read.

From there I would suggest people try and read 3- 4 other popular money books to have a balanced understanding of money and see what works for them.

I went to one of his seminars and found it full of hype but not much value. The book was worth the money not the seminar. The seminar was really pushy towards selling the big weekend seminar for a few thousand dollars!:

In setting up my web business I must have read about 30 money books from around the world. Some were good, most were Ok and a few very ordinary.

I like to read at night and now read one novel then a self improvement book. This could be a biography, money-investment or what ever takes my fancy.

Like is a learning journey

[ethereal]

The true value of RDPD is the motivational value. It was one of the few books that started me on my journey. Different things are needed at different times. It's great as a starter book, but once you gain some financial sophistication it looks like a pair of training wheels that you don't need anymore. But people forget that when they took their first bike ride, it was those exact same training wheels that helped them get on their way...

I used to be a huge detractor of RDPD but now I've changed my mind. I used to give Think and Grow Rich to my friends as the one book you need to become rich, but didn't work out well. Now I am thinking of starting with RDPD instead.

Just keep in mind that the value in RDPD is the motivational value, not the financial advice. I frankly don't trust much of his financial advice through my own experiences (but that's just me ).

[icesar]

I agree with ethereal. The value of the Kiyosaki books for me was first and foremost motivational. They helped me look at the world of finances and work in a different way, without necessarily giving me a strategy or a direction to follow. And I imagine that was Kiyosaki's intent; to get people thinking.

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by ethereal

I used to give Think and Grow Rich to my friends as the one book you need to become rich, but didn't work out well. Now I am thinking of starting with RDPD instead.

I think the problem lies not in Think and Grow Rich, nor in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but in the concept of "one book you need to become rich."

I would agree 100% with anyone who says that Rich Dad, Poor Dad is not the only book you need to turn your financial life around and get out of the rat race. But that's also true of Think and Grow Rich and Richest Man in Babylon, both of which I think are better than RDPD. But I never would have read those two, nor Personal Finance For Dummies, How to Create Multiple Streams of Income Buying Nice Homes in Nice Areas For No Money Down,Are you DUMB enough to be RICH?, Raving Fans,The Power of Focus,Can I Have 5 Minutes of Your Time?,The E-Myth, or The Millionaire Real Estate Investor if Rich Dad, Poor Dad hadn't convinced me that it was possible... maybe not likely... maybe not easy... maybe not actually true... but possible that I could actually live my life without working 9-5, 5 days a week, giving away 100,000 hours of my life. It seemed reasonable, although Kiyosaki is not such a convincing writer that I was willing to believe it right off the bat. But the idea had enough validity that I was willing to research it further.

And that was the huge benefit that Kiyosaki gave to me. I was told for the first 18 years of my life that I would grow up and get a job. I learned quickly that all jobs suck, but nobody told me that there was an alternative. Kiyosaki, for all his numerous faults, was the first person to tell me that I had a choice.

[AndrewJ]

I have to aggree, RDPD was the first book to motivate me to do something for myself.

Andrew

[Lucas]

The thing I like about RDPD is like many others, it was a paradigm shift for me in one of the areas in my life that I rank to be very poor, my finances and financial knowledge. I have been "poor" for a good portion of my life, and had a ton of negitive and limiting beliefs on money, what it was, and that it was bad. All the classic ones and more. I also have known for a long time that being an employee is not my preffered route in life, waiting til I was 65 to start doing the things I want to do. While I am not rich yet by a long margin, I now have a financial goal, which if I can credit one big thing to RDPD, its that. I am now an active member of a Cashflow club (which is an excellent game), and am looking towards ways to invest in real estate...and honestly, before I even read the books, I was always interested in buying land and property.

Next weekend a friend and I are going to one of his seminars. Maybe it will be a ripoff, but maybe it will be a decent financial foundation. We shall see.

[Zombie]

As has already been stated, the true value of a book is the value you get out of it. The books place in popular culture shouldn't raise or diminish your feelings towards the information inside. We're all (hopefully) reading new books constantly, good and bad. The worst you're out is $30 dollars and a week or so of reading time. You can even recoup some of that cost if you blog about it (generating income) and have a used bookstore nearby that you can sell it to

The two most important points in the RDPD book(s) for me have been:

1) To affirm that I want to be in the Business / Investor side of the quadrant, despite massive pressure from the world at large to wedge me into the Employee / Professional side.

2) Assets put money in your pocket, liabilities take it away.

The implications of that asset / liability difference are huge when you look at how the average person "invests" their money. Even if the rest of the book had been a complete waste (it wasn't) I would have felt I got my money's worth on those two points alone.