Saturday, April 21, 2007

[Book Review] [Blog Review] All About Robert Kiyosaki, and his book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

I've recently read three blogs/articles talking about Robert Kiyosaki. In the order in which I read them are:

1. John T. Reed's analysis of Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad
2. Thinking About Money - commentary on Kiyosaki
3. The Simple Dollar - deconstructing Robert Kiyosaki
4. The Simple Dollar - review on Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Site #2 (Thinking About Money) actually provides a free download of an e-article which contains his review of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He sells the e-article for $1.99, but you can download it for free.

Anyway, I recommend reading Site #1 (J.T. Reed's site) with an open mind or hopefully it can open your mind. By the way, it's a very long article.

But I really recommend Site #2, and I agree with their review of Kiyosaki's book.

I like Sites #3 and #4 (from the same author) because it is a much shorter read than Site #1, but also because it presents both the good, and the bad, plus also the ugly.

I wrote a comment on Site #3 which follows.

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What this site has done - is sell - using controversy! Okay, somebody just made that point a few comments earlier.

The end product of this website/webpage is a virtual forum on Kiyosaki. That John T Reed guy won’t even post everyone’s comments on his main Kiyosaki-is-Evil page. He just selectively picks comments that would support his arguments.

So before I talk about that other website (johntreed.com) again, I should say that this site or this page I guess has done something good, although I doubt that it was its primary purpose.

So now I’ll talk about another website. I like how the website looks at Kiyosaki’s books. I agree with the website owner. Like the website owner, I don’t care about Kiyosaki, or whether Rich Dad is fiction or non-fiction - the thing is, what did I get from reading his books? What could I use and not use? So visit that website and compare to the post here (thinkingaboutmoney.com).

And finally, what about those people who failed miserably after reading Kiyosaki’s advice? There are three things (I think).

First, they MAY have not understood all of Kiyosaki’s (few) points.

Second, they possibly just jumped into business without getting really prepared right after reading Kiyosaki’s book/s, and related to the first point, did not really get that part about Kiyosaki’s message.

Third, Kiyosaki says you make THAT decision to go into business, you don’t expect to (as in my second point) just throw a pair of dice and get double sixes right away. You could get lucky on the first shot, but if you don’t, you should eventually get your double sixes. The thing now is, considering the odds of getting the double-sixes, the best (or “educated” or “smart”) thing to do I think is to determine first how much money are you willing to lose, do your best within the budget you’ve set, hope for the best, and expect the worst - and manage through the worst. It’s all about management. If a business fails, it’s not the fault of the business (it doesn’t make the decisions) or external factors (duh, did you really think the world will conspire to help you out?). It’s the fault of the manager. If a car can’t bring you from point A to point B, it’s because the driver may have overlooked something, or overdid something.

Anyway, can someone really lose so much after reading Kiyosaki? He’s also told us about practically making money without using any money! I know someone who has made money - a steady monthly cashflow of close to $400 (here in my Asian country) with no money down! It just took efforts, guts, preparation, psyching up, SELLING skills, and listening to a mentor who has succeeded herself.

Well, what could you do, it is a fact of life that some people fail and they blame others for their failure. The thing is, for anything we should do, we should be prepared to do them!

So I guess I should answer the big misconception about Kiyosaki’s books: can Kiyosaki help you prepare for business? No! Kiyosaki himself professes getting more financial education, or business education, he says buy his next book or buy his game - fine you learn a few things. But really, it takes more than one book. It takes more than Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And no, the second book doesn’t have to be Cashflow Quadrant, and the third doesn’t have to be Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing. Ask a friend-slash-business-expert for advice, or ask him what books to read. Of course, experience is the number one way to learn. If you failed real bad, and got nothing left, give some thinking to what you could next to actually profit this time, and get a job (or keep your job) to keep putting food on the table.

I’ve said too much!

[sub-labels: CPC blogs, CPC books]

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