Rich Dad, Poor Dad
--By Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter
Despite that lots of people got disappointed with this book, in light of its practicability, I myself gained a lot from it. Maybe it didn’t tell you how to get
financial literacy, it told you the importance of by convincing examples and lessons; maybe it didn’t demonstrate for you why selling and marketing skills matter in various business, it showed you the consequences if you do business without them.
It is a book for self-improvement and for anybody who owns the spirit of entrepreneurs. Instead of telling people to play safe, the book tells you to play it smart. Instead of persuading you to “study hard, get a good grade, and then find
a decent job,” the book gives you more options: After you make your scholastic
achievements, rather than giving your expertise away and creating profit for other people, you can achieve financial success for yourself.
Other important points that the writer made out in this book include the huge difference between asset and liability, tax issue, and the definition of money. Most people, the writer said, cannot tell the difference between assets and liabilities, with the result that they were dragged down by what they purchase, financially and morally, despite that their pay checks increased by time.
In light of tax issue, he made a very interesting point: taxes punish those who
produce and reward those who don’t produce. It sounded contradictory, but nothing could be truer than this, once you come into the laws for taxes both for corporations and individuals. Over the years, when people yelled and called on the
policy “ tax the rich to help the poor,” what happened in the end was that mostly it was lower and middle class who got affected far more than the rich behind the corporation . Then about money, the writer said that money is nothing but
what we agree it is.
Here when fielding tax and asset & liability issues, the writer reiterated the importance of finance literary. Arrogance is the combination of ego and ignorance
. If you are rich but arrogant, the attitude will reflect on you later in your life, if not earlier. The writer told the readers, by examples, the importance of
being financially literate. In the simplest way, he said, it can present you more options: If you are aware of it and lay it down as your business foundation,
you can see opportunities that others miss, and, rather than go panicky, stay focused and be sure of what you want to accomplish.
Additionally, the writer emphasised the role that selling and marketing plays in
one’s business. He used McDonald as an example. Many people are sure that they
can make a far better hamburger than McDonald. But why can’t they succeed whereas McDonald can? “McDonald’s is excellent at business systems (Selling and delivering)... The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on building a better hamburger and know little to nothing about business systems.
..”
As mentioned at the beginning, I heard that many people either complained that they failed to get practical tips from the book, or read it but couldn’t chew and get useful messages from it. There are two reasons for that in my opinion. For
the first type, I think their attitude is wrong: Instead of trying to improve
themselves as well as their inner thoughts, they came to this book for shortcuts
, which was the wrong end of the stick. Then for the second type, I think they forgot to put themselves in the situation and get inspirations. On top of that, while reading, they forgot why they read.
For me, I can’t say every tip and aspect that the writer elaborated is useful and beneficial. Being an entrepreneur in real estate, lots of his theories derived from the field, and hence were wanting for proof and practicality in other fields. Even in the real estate field, I suspect how much percentage his theories
are suitable these days. But then given the type of the book, I think it will be silly if you try to put his theory into practice without analyse and careful selection.
At one point, the writer said that he could label his book as “a best-selling book” and himself “ a best-selling author.” Notice his wordings. It is not “
a best-written book” or anything else but “a best-selling book.” It is not “
a best-selling writer” or “a best-selling expert”, but only “a best-selling
author.” Here you can see that the writer himself owns the knowledge about the
target market, and his marketing and selling pitches. So I believe, once you have a right mindset, the book will cater to your needs, and give your some direction as you move on, especially if you are only a business novice.
