John T. Reed’s analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad is fascinating. I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad a few years ago, and believed it, because I had no reason to believe otherwise. My wife read it too. We thought for a while about trying to follow his advice in the long term but didn’t really end up doing anything about it, and eventually I concluded that, well, it’s all well and good that that’s how rich people get rich, but it’s really not me, I’ll just be as rich or poor as I happen to be and not stress about it.
It turns out, at least if John Reed is to be believed, that there’s no particular evidence that the author, Robert Kiyosaki, ever got rich in any other way than pitching financial success schemes in seminars and books, and a lot of the things he claims to have done to get rich, and recommends to his readers, are either wildly implausible or outright illegal.
I have no way of judging who is right on this issue but Reed sure sounds credible to me. It is also reassuring for me to hear this, because Kiyosaki’s approach to getting rich seemed, when you thought about it clearly, pretty Macchiavellian and sleazy. It’s reasurring to me to know that that is not really what you have to be like to get rich, and it is helpful to me, being rather left-leaning, and therefore tending to think the worse of people who are well off, to find out that Kiyosaki’s highly cynical guide to getting rich is not the way actual rich people think. It makes me think better of rich people to know that.
Always good to have your prejudices challenged.
Kristen and I bought the book a few years ago too. The first time I looked at it, I decided it was a self-help book that was probably garbage. Later I decided that there were some interesting things in it. After running across “Rich Dad’s Prophecy” in a bookstore, I flipped my opinions again. “Rich Dad’s Prophecy” revealed that “Rich Dad” thought that some sort of economic collapse was inevitable.
My opinion after that was that it was an unecessarily alarmist self-help book that was probably garbage. Soon after that, I read that “Rich Dad” probably never existed. My opinions of the books have stayed fixed on “probably garbage” ever since.
I found some of his suggestions for making money rather loathsome. The one that sticks in my mind is waiting at places where people who are desperate to sell their houses are likely to come, buying said houses exceptionally cheaply, and reselling them.
Amusingly, the few rich people that I know (from church and a couple relatives) are nothing like that all.
Wow, I hadn’t seen “Rich Dad’s Prophecy.” I can see that flipping one’s opinions.
“rather left leaning”? Dude, I fgured your left arm must be asleep from laying on it. ;)
Jim, I agree the waiting on the house sellers is evil. On the other hand, I think it would be a really FUN way to make money to buy older houses cheap, fix them up, and sell them. Just don’t stick it to people on the way through.
Oh, yeah, Topher, that is a totally cool way of making money — but it’s not at all what Kiyosaki is about. :)
On this topic, if you want to hear Robert’s side of the story, you should read this article:
http://www.mastermindforum.com/kiyosakiresponsetoreed.htm
John is always good to get to the brass tacks but sometimes I think he misses the boat.