Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki , 2014

Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born  April 8, 1947 in Hilo , Hawaii ) is an American businessman and author of self-help books . He is best known for the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book series and related materials.

So far he has written 18 books, of which a total of more than 26 million copies have been sold. Three of his books - Rich Dad, Poor Dad , Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant, and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing - were simultaneously in the top 10 bestseller lists in the Wall Street Journal , USA Today, and the New York Times . In German-speaking countries, all three titles were on Manager Magazin 's bestseller list several times .

Life

Born into the fourth generation of an American family of Japanese descent and raised in Hawaii, Robert Kiyosaki is a graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy in New York and served as a pilot in the US Marine Corps . In 1974 he left the Marine Corps and joined the Xerox Corporation in sales. First attempts as an independent entrepreneur with wallets made of nylon and Velcro , intended for surfers, and with licensed heavy metal T-shirts failed. He then began to hold seminars under the title "Money & You", based on the visions of Richard Buckminster Fuller . The core of the visions was personal responsibility and the path to win-win situations . After the departure of one of the company's founders, Kiyosaki led the company from 1985 with the remaining founding partner DC Cordova. They mainly taught their seminar content in Australia and New Zealand, but liquidated the company in 1994 after a wave of negative headlines.

He began his writing career with self-publications before Warner Books took over his books under the name Rich Dad Press . From 1996 to 1997, Kiyosaki founded Cashflow Technologies, Inc., the company behind the Rich Dad and Cashflow 101 brands .

Teaching

Essential parts of Kiyosaki's teachings focus on generating passive income through investments such as real estate or corporate interests . The aim is to be able to finance one's personal economic existence with passive income alone. In this context, he defines “assets” as goods and values ​​that generate income and “liabilities” as anything that costs money, e.g. B. Credit cards, car, rental, etc. Kiyosaki attaches great importance to financial "experience"; He is of the opinion that (survival) skills are not learned in school, but through life experience. In his opinion, academic training is primarily aimed at those who are looking for a permanent position or want to work independently in a profession, which is a remnant of the “industrial age”. If you want to achieve financial freedom, you have to be a businessman or investor, someone who generates passive income.

Kiyosaki portrays this boldly as the “Cash Flow Quadrant” (E – S – B – I) by categorizing people into four groups according to their income and degree of freedom: (E) mployee - (S) elf employed - (B) usiness owner - (I) investor . While employees (E) and self-employed (S) have to work for themselves or others, the business owner (B) has a "system" that works for him. Only the investor (I) is both rich and free as well as in the desirable position to generate passive income, ie to let money work for you.

Books

Kiyosaki's most famous publication is Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the New York Times bestseller, which was followed by more than a dozen other books. Originally self-published before it became a bestseller, it is primarily a self-help book that aims to help change the perspective on money and wealth, the attitude towards yourself as an employee, someone who is paid, educated and compliant going to reconsider. His book underscores this with a variety of anecdotes about his “poor father”, superintendent of the Hawaiian Ministry of the Interior, who left him only in debt, and a “rich father”. Possibly just imagined, the father of his best friend developed into the richest man in Hawaii by investing part of his lower income - compared to the "poor father" - in income-generating assets. Using these two “fathers”, Kiyosaki illustrates that, in his opinion, the large number of his compatriots are caught in the rat race, live from salary to salary and spend all of their time paying their bills. In German-speaking countries his books are published by FinanzBook Verlag .

His book Rich Kid, Smart Kid , published in 2001, is designed to help parents explain financial issues to their children. He also developed three board and computer games for adults and children as well as a series of audio books and a monthly newsletter.

Didactic games

For Kiyosaki, educational and money games such as B. Monopoly , very important for understanding basic finance and wealth creation strategies. So he developed a series of board games to illustrate his teachings. Cashflow 101 is the first of Kiyosaki's games to be sold on the German market. As a board game, it aims to train players in dealing with money and investments. The game has two main phases: In the rat race, the player tries to build up his passive income to the point that it exceeds his expenses; then the player can move on to the second phase, "the fast track", the fast track on which the winner is determined. The winner is the first to earn $ 50,000 in monthly cash flow or to buy their dream. At the beginning of this game each player is given an identity, i. H. a job profile with the corresponding monthly income and expenses. In the course of the game he then has to keep a record of his identity and thus learns what can happen with his actual money every month. Each participant learns in a playful way how he can create fixed assets and which unforeseen events increase his cash outflow.

criticism

John T. Reed evaluates various pieces of advice and statements from Kiyosaki, e. B. “college is for suckers” as wrong or dangerous and criticizes its amalgamation with multi-level marketing organizations. In one reply, Kiyosaki replied that Rich Dad Poor Dad was a very simple book that simplified a very complex subject.

Publications

(the first year is that of the original US publication, title information in German - if available)

• (1992): If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go To School.
• (1997): Rich Dad, Poor Dad - What the Rich Teach Their Children About Money. (With Sharon Lechter), Goldmann, 2007.
• (1998): Cash Flow Quadrant - Rich Dad Poor Dad. (With Sharon Lechter), FinanzBuch Verlag, 2010.
• (2000): Rich Dad's Investment Guide - Where the Rich Really Invest. (With Sharon Lechter), FinanzBuch Verlag, 2015.
• (2001): Rich Dad's Rich Kid Smart Kid. (With Sharon Lechter)
• (2001): Wealth can be learned - What millionaires already knew as children. (With Sharon Lechter), mvg, 2001.
• (2003): Rich Dad - The Business of the 21st Century. (With John Flemming and Kim Kiyosaki), Life Success Media, 2012.
• (2004): Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens. (With Sharon Lechter)
• (2005): Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job - 10 Practical Lessons for Founders to Build a Multi-Million Dollar Business. (With Sharon Lechter), FinanzBuch Verlag, 2016.
• (2019): FAKE - The Truth About Bad Money, Fake Teachers, and Fake Assets - How Lies Make the Rich Rich and the Poor Poor. , FinanzBuch Verlag, 2019.

Web links

• Official website (English)
• German website ( Memento from November 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
• Robert T. Kiyosaki in the business bestseller archive of Buchreport.de
• Rich Kid Smart Kid (online version of Cashflow for Kids ) - playfully introducing children to dealing with money
• Overview of all cashflow clubs in Germany, Austria, Switzerland to play Cashflow 101

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lukas Zdrzalek: Rich like Daddy. In: sueddeutsche.de. January 29, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2017 . 
2. ↑ See Robert Kiyosaki: Cashflow Quadrant , 2010. Online descriptions: z. B. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. or [1] . 
3. ↑ John T. Reed: John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Part September 1 , 2015, September 3, 2015, accessed on March 20, 2017 .  - Earlier reply by Kiyosaki: [2] .