A glimpse of life of Robert Kiyosaki
Robert Kiyosaki is a 73-year-old businessman who is an American citizen. He is an author, a famous businessman, a pilot, a motivator, and an entrepreneur. Robert Toru Kiyosaki was born in the territory of Hawaii in 1947.
With his talent in investing money, Kiyosaki has come a far way. His life has been a roller-coaster ride, but he left no stone unturned to find his way.
Robert’s mastery
Robert has skills in the following domains:
- Personal finance, and
- Business investing.
Robert Kiyosaki | Top 10 Rules
He has conducted multiple online and offline seminars on these topics. Most of his books are also centered around teaching the basics of handling investments.
Robert Kiyosaki’s business ventures
Robert Kiyosaki runs a financial education company named ‘Rich Global LLC’ and ‘The Rich Dad Company.’ He also runs Rich Dad Education and Rich Dad Academy.
The Rich Dad company educates people on how to handle their finances. It also provides business education to people through videos and books.
Robert has collaborated with Whitney Information Network to conduct seminars in Canada and United States. His company uses a franchise model to expand its reach and to earn good revenues. The franchise buyers pay a hefty fee for using Robert Kiyosaki’s brand name.
Kiyosaki conducts seminars all over the United States. Robert created a Cashflow board and various other software games to educate children and adults about financial and business concepts.
Kiyosaki also has an immense interest in politics. In 2016, he endorsed Donald Trump, who was a Republican Candidate for the Presidential elections. Robert also co-authored a book with Donald Trump.
Kiyosaki has written more than 26 books to date. His famous book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad‘ has sold 41 million copies and is an international bestseller. The book has been translated into 51 languages.
4 Assets That Make You Rich | Robert Kiyosaki | Success Resources
How much is Robert Kiyosaki worth?
It is believed that Robert has a total net worth of 100 Million $. He is famous and rich, with millions of fans across the globe.
Robert Kiyosaki Early life
Robert has a Japanese American upbringing as he was a part of the Yonsei generation. Yonsei generation comprises of great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants. He received congressional nominations from Senator Daniel K. Inouye for US Naval Academy and US Merchant Marine Academy.
He is an alma mater of United States Merchant Marine Academy and passed out 1n 1969. He was working as a deck officer in US Marine Corps. Later, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant.
He later joined Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot. He participated in the Vietnam war in 1972 and won an Air Medal.
Soon, after that Robert pursued an MBA program from the University of Hawaii at Hilo in 1973. In 1974, he was discharged with honour from the Marine Corps.
Struggles at every step!
After finishing MBA, Kiyosaki went ahead to attend the Erhard EST seminars. These seminars proved out to be life-changing seminars for him.
Robert Kiyosaki had gone through his own share of struggles before becoming famous. Way back in 1977, he started a company by the name Rippers. His company brought nylon and velcro surfer wallets to the market for the very first time. His products got much exposure on Newsweek, Success Magazine, Playboy, and Runner’s World. But, things didn’t go as planned, and his company went bankrupt.
Kiyosaki joined Xerox as a sales associate to make his ends meet. Then, he started manufacturing T-shirts, hats, bags, and wallets for heavy metal rock bands. Once again, in 1980, his retail firm went bankrupt.
Kiyosaki again opened a company that was focused on teaching entrepreneurship, social responsibility, and financial investment. Eventually, his education company also didn’t do very well, and he sold it off.
In 1992, Robert thought of penning down a book and wrote his first book called, ‘If you want to be rich and happy, don’t go to school.’
In this book, he advised parents not to send their kids to school but instead encourage them to try their hands on real estate.
Well, while teaching his beliefs, Robert failed to see the flip side of the coin. He was criticized for his views and bold opinions, but that criticism couldn’t stop him.
In 1997, Robert tried his luck with another venture by the name Cashflow Technologies Inc. The firm was a financial education company, which rolled out Cashflow brands and Rich Dad brands. He also partnered with Amway to promote his book.
As one can understand, Kiyosaki never had a smooth career path. He started multiple ventures, one after the other but ended up burning his fingers every time. He started analyzing his failures to build on success strategies. In one of his interviews with CBC, he revealed that he wrote books to use them as an advertising strategy for his expensive seminars.
Robert’s company Rich Global LLC also filed for bankruptcy. The firm was ordered to pay back 24 million$ to the Learning Annex and its founder. He still runs plenty of other ventures, some wholly owned and some partly owned.
Kiyosaki wrote the foreword for Tom Wheelwright’s book name ‘Tax-Free Wealth.’
Why the Rich are Getting Richer | Robert Kiyosaki | TEDxUCSD
Key points to learn from Kiyosaki
His teachings, which he fondly refers to as ‘Financial Education’ is based on generating passive income by focusing on investment opportunities like real estate investments, businesses, stocks and commodities, etc. Kiyosaki believes that passive income generated must be enough to provide you with financial independence.
He has a series of authors and other “experts” that he often cites as “Rich Dad Advisors” on real estate investing, financial planning, and avoiding taxes.
Robert is strictly against the idea of depending on a job to earn a living. He believes that anything that generates income is called an asset. He favors the idea of building an asset against a liability rather than keeping your money idle in the bank account.
Kiyosaki states that anything that is making the cash go out of pocket is a liability. Car loans, Consumer loans, credit card payments, or educational loans are all liabilities on a person. Owning liabilities initially to build cash-generating assets, in the long run, is something that Kiyosaki vouches for.
He stresses the importance of building up an asset first by owning liabilities instead of saving cash or relying on a traditional job salary.
People’s Reactions on Kiyosaki’s ideologies (Criticism)
Though Kiyosaki rose to instant global fame through his book Rich Dad and Poor Dad, most people are not Kiyosaki pro. He has been criticized widely for his ideologies and beliefs.
Some people believe that Kiyosaki preaches ‘get rich philosophy,’ which is misleading. His seminars are believed to be obnoxiously high priced, and some people who attended his meetings have filed suit against him.
He has been the subject of two investigative documentaries by CBC Canada and WTAE USA. Kiyosaki’s company, Rich Global LLC, is known to have filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
Robert’s best-selling books that shot him to fame are:
- Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! – Published on 11 Apr, 2017
- Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! 18 Sep, 2015
- Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad’s Guide to Financial Freedom – published in 2000.
Robert Kiyosaki rose to fame by conquering struggles at every step. As a kid, he never found a strong support system to fall back to as his family was deprived. Yet, using his experiences and learnings from life, Robert carved a niche for himself. He has chapters of his name written in the book of records that narrate the gaga of his becoming famous.
Every rag to riches story inspires us to go beyond our fears and find courage for doing things we are born to do.
Robert’s story teaches that you can succeed in every field of your choice with persistence and hard work. Robert has genuinely gone past his fears, as such strong criticism cannot stop him from pursuing his career.
