Many have said that Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is a piece of fiction — that he never had a rich dad and a poor dad as described in his book. Or at least that’s what many believe.
But I did.
My parents divorced before I was 2, and both remarried. My father, who lived across town, was my “Rich Dad.” My stepfather was my “Poor Dad.” Let me tell you about them and how they each affected my views toward money, business and life.
My Rich Dad
My father started his business in college. He sold stolen records, and when that didn’t pay the bills, he hustled others for money at the local pool hall. He was apparently a real shark at billiards and pocket billiards. Mom tells the story of the time he played Willie Mosconi (prettiest blue eyes she’d ever seen) and lost. But apparently he held his own.
When he graduated, he moved away from the hot vinyl market and into a wholesale business selling posters and incense (they were big in the ’70s). After cornering the Farrah Fawcett poster market, he upgraded to selling jewelry from Mexico. From Mexican jewelry he moved on to gold jewelry and eventually diamonds.
Knowledge, taxes, debt, risk, and compensation are the five aspects about money that Robert T. Kiyosaki elaborately discusses in ‘Unfair Advantage: The power of financial education’. Before you jump into these, however, you would need to know how to catch a monkey, as explained in the introduction.
The native trick is to find a tree with a small hole in the tree trunk and place fruits or nuts inside it. What happens then? A monkey comes along, puts its fist in the hole and grabs onto the fruit or nuts, narrates the author.
“The monkey’s fist, now clenched and filled with the fruit or nuts, cannot be withdrawn from the hole, trapping the monkey. Rather than let go of the fruits or nuts, the monkey twists and turns, pulls and tugs, but refuses to let go…”
The sobering lesson from this tale is that humans are similar to monkeys, clinging to job security, possessions and money, as Kiyosaki frets. He notes that, due to a lack of financial education, like the trapped monkey, most people will spend their lives as wage slaves of their employers and tax slaves of the government.
In Greek mythology, everything King Midas touched turned to gold. And that’s what entrepreneur and best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki suggests is possible in his new book Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich – And Why Most Don’t, co-authored with Donald Trump.
Kiyosaki has built his empire around financial education and books. He first shot to prominence following the success of his Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of books, which have held a top spot on the famed New York Times list for over six years. Trump is a magnate thanks to his property and casino interests and reality television show The Apprentice.
In Sydney this week, I spoke to Kiyosaki about how business owners can acquire the Midas touch.
Don’t go to school!
Fond of stirring the pot, Kiyosaki says that most entrepreneurs don’t get rich because they go to school
“Schools don’t teach you to be entrepreneurs, they teach you to be employees,” says Kiyosaki. “They also teach you not to make mistakes at school. But the only way I learnt to walk, or ride a bicycle or be a pilot is to fall down a couple of times. Most people that go to school come out risk averse, and rather than becoming entrepreneurs, they become bureaucrats.
An interview with Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, whose Midas Touch is out this week from Plata Publishing
Working from your new book’s title, what’s your definition of the Midas touch?
Donald Trump: We are specifically pointing out the skill set needed to be a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are crucial today because they create jobs. People who can successfully incorporate the skills and imagination required to create new businesses are significant to the current economic landscape on several levels. The job forecast is greatly improved when jobs are literally created by someone who has had the fortitude and vision to bring something new to the table. I’ve provided thousands of jobs and continue to do so, and I know the process involved. Midas Touch explains this process, and we hope we will inspire others to become entrepreneurs.
Robert Kiyosaki: The Midas touch is also called alchemy—when you can touch something and turn it into gold. I’ve had my share of bad luck and expect I will continue to have setbacks and challenges. If you can turn bad luck into good luck, that’s the Midas touch. Right now, I see a lot of opportunity out there. Do you have the skill set to see opportunity, pursue it and make it work? I “drilled for oil” in publishing. I struck gold in the brand Rich Dad—in discovering that there was a huge mass of people who wanted to hear that message. The guys behind search engines like Google struck massive IT oil. FedEx struck oil; Facebook struck oil. Perceiving opportunity is part of the Midas touch.
Donald Trump has trained his eye for promotion on e-books, teaming up with Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” in a new twist on the traditional book-signing ceremony for newly published works.
Trump and Kiyosaki’s co-authored “Midas Touch – Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich — And Why Most Don’t” is being published this week in the U.S. in e-book and traditional print formats. Sitting down Wednesday in a Trump Tower Manhattan office conference room overlooking Central Park, the two author-entrepreneurs appeared in a live chat streamed to Kiyosaki’s Facebook page and performed what their publicists said was the world’s first “e-signing.”
They used an iPad and Autodesk SketchBook Pro software to scrawl their signatures, which were then captured by the app, downloaded by Kiyosaki’s Plata Publishing and inserted onto a special signature page that readers will see when they download the book onto their iPads. The special signature page will be available for only 48 hours, in an effort to pump up initial sales.
Rich Dad “Robert Kiyosaki” and his entire adviser team discuss how they have prepared for the coming depression:
- Year’s supply of food
- Guns
- Gold & silver
- Cash on hand
They speak of the coming depression (inflationary or not it’s going to happen), shutting down the credit card system, and higher taxes no matter what. Budget-cutting police forces promotes lawnessness.
What scares me now is these are not some local yocals on youtube speaking their wacky thoughts. Instead, these are calm, straight speaking, successful businessesmen in the know, telling us what they have done. We should take notice. They are prepared.
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