Vintage Book Review

“Some people believe that books are utterly worthless. They believe that they themselves are reinventing the world. And since they have not benefited from the knowledge found in books, they unfortunately repeat the mistakes made by our forefathers. In this way they waste a lot of time and money. On the other hand, don’t fall into the trap of trusting implicitly in what books contain, letting those who come before you do the thinking for you. Retain only what outlasts the passage of time.” :- Mark Fisher - The Instant Millionaire

Each month, we will be pulling a classic tome from our burgeoning personal development library. The books that we feature will offer life changing perspectives from some of the most successful and ground breaking voices of recent times.

This month, we are focussing on Robert Kiyosaki’s hugely influential and entertaining 1997 debut ‘Rich dad - Poor dad’

Kiyosaki’s book chronicles his coming of age and the nurture that he experienced from his two ‘dads’ . His poor dad was his biological father who worked hard for a wage and encouraged his son to do the same. His rich dad on the other hand educated him on how the wealthy make money work for them rather than vice versa.

His poor dad died penniless whilst his rich dad handed over one of the biggest business empires in Hawaii to his son Mike, the authors best friend. Kiyosaki has combined the profound insights of his rich dad with his biological fathers insistence that he should be a teacher to put together a package that is designed to educate us on effortlessly accruing wealth and prosperity during our lives.

He teaches his methods around the world and regularly shares platforms with some of the other people that we will be featuring in the coming months including Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins.

The central premise of the book is that the poor and middle classes work for the government and their employer not themselves and amass nothing in the way of assets. Kiyosaki has a big wake up call for those of us who believe that our house is an asset. He quite reasonably asks what would happen if we were suddenly unemployed? The answer is that the house and for that matter the flashy car, boat and other trappings of ‘wealth’ very often acquired on higher purchase would eat us alive.

Kiyosaki is very black and white when he argues that assets are things that provide a residual income. There are only 5 things that can be classed as an asset, these being:- stocks, bonds, notes, real estate and intellectual property.

The author makes a compelling argument for true aspirants of affluence to accrue assets from an early age that will start to work for them. Perhaps the most controversial aspects of the book is his advocacy of a partially risky investment strategy. The authors view is that ignorance often prevents us from contemplating high return investment vehicles. He uses the story of Chicken Little to decry vociferous doom mongers and points out that although some investment methods are risky, affluent people do not throw out the baby with the bath water by sticking solely to the path of safety.

Kiyosaki also champions a creed of personal development. He gained a lot of his methods from the sort of success seminars and books that many people fail to take seriously.

The story is well written and highly readable. Sharon Lechter, Kiyosaki's co-author pre-frames the book by pointing to the growing chasm between the 'haves' and 'have nots' before suggesting that Kiyosaki’s compelling arguments hold many lessons for us and our children and that our offspring should be educated financially whilst still at school.

'Rich dad Poor dad' is more of an overview of the strategies that enrich the world’s financial achievers. It is not a detailed manual and contains only limited clues on how to uphold its central philosophies. One of the main strands running through the book is that of self-discipline. Kiyosaki cultivated his in the marine corps and suggests that membership of religious organisations can also help. If this sounds a little extreme, you can always employ one of our coaches to help push you towards your financial goals.

Since 1997 Kiyosaki and Lechter have published a series of books that develop his ideas as well as mind provoking board games for adults and children that entertain whilst bringing his central message to life. Whether you are a financial wizard and voracious collector of assets or an overstretched wage slave this classic work has much to offer you, your children and your children’s children.

Next month, we feature Richard Bandler’s seminal NLP classic ‘Using your brain for a change’.

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