My Review On Rich Dad, Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki

Oh, where to start with this one; it is a fairly dead horse to beat, but I DID recently read it, and it DOES have to do with my blog as I’m posting anything that has to do with money, and it certainly DOES have to do with money ($7 specifically from the discount book bin at Barnes and Noble) -

Who hasn’t reviewed this book yet is more the question maybe – a Google search turns up 158,000 results and I didn’t want to read all of them so I dabbled and hopped through a few of them including:
1. GatesVP
2. MyMoneyBlog
3. Carrie Ikith
4. Steve Braun
5. IWillTeachYouToBeRich
6. SEO Books
7. Freelance Review
8. WorldWide Success
9. Business Coaching
10. Finance and Stuff
11. Ekayati
12. MunnyBagz
13. Accomplish Life

Who was my favorite? Well they all had good points to them, some people took offense to it, some people were inspired by it, me, I was a mix. When I first started it, it was my first Robert Kiyosaki book. I had no prior knowledge of him and had not known his past or who he’s worked with. I picked up the book at Barnes and Noble and actually found myself reading it there in the store with the wife and kids wandering and I finished about 30 pages, and I figured for $7 I could find some time to finish it.

I took it home and breezed through it in about 3 or 4 hours. At first I felt really inspired to read it cover to cover – I liked his ideas, and I liked where he came from and what he had learned. If nothing else, he learned to take what anyone says with a grain of salt, including his Poor Dad. Yes, it’s a “yippee, jump up and do something with your life” type book, but there is nothing wrong with that. He can write whatever he’d like, he’s in the business to make money. He’s not selling this book to make you happy; no matter what he says, he’s not writing for the joy of writing; he’s writing for the joy of $. And again, nothing wrong with that -

When I finished with the book I thought the one good thing it taught me and that I’ve stuck with is being able to FIND more money to work for you. My water bill each month is $150. How about I find a way to automatically have that paid for each month? Why do I have to use my hard earned money that I go to work to pay that bill? It’s small enough. Can I find an investment or investment vehicle that will make me that $ each month? Or how about a new car? Why should you use your current income to pay for that? Try to find a way to have it pay for itself. That’s the big piece of the pie I took away from the book.

The rest is “rah rah cheer cheer” promotional “buy my other products” babble that you kinda have to dig through. And again, nothing wrong with that. He is making a living as well, and this is one of the ways that it is done. It’s funny because he is either REALLY loved, or REALLY hated it seems. I fall in the 1% in between that is impartial. Why? Because that’s just how I am. What good does it do me to slander the guy for making a living? Is that how the “REALLY hate him” group is? Maybe I’m playing the devils advocate here (Bargaineering does this from time to time and it is interesting) and they’re just jealous that he’s successful and they’re struggling to bring in $. Maybe? He’s a successful businessman on MANY fronts and people are always attacking rich people; and honestly I think a lot of the attacks come from jealousy;

On the “REALLY love him” front though, at the same time everyone that “REALLY loves him” are overly loving of him. Standing up for him in blogs, starting blog fights about it, but, again playing the other side of the coin, don’t seem to be backed by him. It’s like having a hero, well, exactly like having a hero. You don’t want to see Superman slandered and backstabbed by Lex Luthor. Nobody wants to see that – the “REALLY lovers” get on this high horse about backing him through thick and thin while all he has ever done for them is take their money and give them a hope that they’ll make it rich someday too.

I dunno – it’s a pretty funny walk down the “blogstreet” and “forumville” to read about any of the posts because they’re always long, and always seem to end up in a fight between the “REALLY LOVE-O-SAKIS” and the “REALLY HATE-OSAKIS”. My disposition puts me in the middle and everyone likes watching a good fight, no? But this post is about the review and I give the book, as you can imagine being a middle-grounder, 4 out of 10. Why? It had some good takeaways in the investment strategy, told a decent story, and kept me entertained for 4 hours, but left me saying a few different phrases:
Yes, I know that. I know that too. That’s a good point. I don’t want to buy that. I still don’t want to buy that. I may take that in the “Free” bin at a garage sale. No. Ok, good point.

Cheers to the people that love him – feel free to let me know why you like him aside from giving advice and why you stick up for him in every forum or blog out there when he’s really done nothing for you aside from write.

And to the people that hate him – Back off and quit being jealous, unless you’re not really jealous and have a valid reason to hate a guy that’s just trying to make a living like yourselves – feel free to comment about those reasons too.

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