Rich Dad Poor Dad is the first book in the Rich Dad series and has catapulted it author Robert T. Kiyosaki to international
fame. As of November 2007 it has become a New York Times #1 best-seller for six years running. It has sold over 26 million copies worldwide and has been published in fifty-one different languages. It was first published in 1997.
Robert Kiyosaki, the books author, grew up with two fathers, his biological father and his best friend Mike’s father. His biological father was his “poor dad” and his best friend’s father was his “rich dad.” The “poor dad” was was highly educated and intelligent, he had a Ph.D., and completed four years of undergraduate work in less than 2 years. He was the superintendent of the Department of Education for the state of Hawaii. The “rich dad” never finished the 8th grade. Both of them are successful in their careers, working hard all their lives. Both earned substantial incomes. Yet one struggled financially all his life. The other one became one of the richest men in Hawaii. One died leaving tens of millions of dollars to his family, charities, and his church. The other left bills to be paid. Both of them were strong, charismatic and influential. Both men offered him advice but they did not advise the same thing. Both men believed strongly in education but did not recommend the same course of study. If the author had had only one dad, he would have had to accept or reject his advice. Having two dads advising him offered him the choice of contrasting points of view, one of a rich man and one of a poor man. Instead of simply accepting or rejecting one the other, he found himself thinking more, comparing, and choosing for himself. The problem was the rich man was not rich yet, and the poor man not yet poor.
Robert chose to follow the advice of his “rich dad” more and more. He slowly rose from being a salesman for the Xerox Corporation to having numerous companies, investments and real estate properties and in 1994, at the age of forty-seven was able to retire and now works as an author, educator and investor.
Among the key learnings that could be derived from the book revolves around a paradigm shift from the way school has taught us to do things and how school has defined things. Robert has different concepts of what assets and liabilites are which are far different from what you would have learned in accounting class. Robert is also a strong advocate of the concept of leveraging in order to gain your
freedom. He teaches that if you never learn to leverage then you would never get out of the rat race.
This is a must read for those who would want to attain
financial independence. It is endorsed by authorities such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.