Robert Kiyosaki is a legendary figure who has changed the way people view money. An entrepreneur, investor, author, and motivational speaker by profession, he is boldly said to have commented that the reason most people today are struggling financially is that despite years of formal education and training, they know nothing about money.
He is the author of the book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, which from the moment of its release, climbed to become the number one personal finance book of all time, popularizing terms such as financial education, financial freedom and the idea of a quadrant of the flow of money in which each person is according to the way in which they obtain their income. The book draws a comparison between his biological father, who was educated but poor, and a fictional father who dropped out of college but was the richest man in Hawaii. Today a stalwart in his own right, this entrepreneurial tycoon, however, had the humblest of beginnings. Interestingly, the man who has become a billionaire who teaches people how to get rich was himself a failure at one point and has gone bankrupt twice with his business ventures. However, he did not succumb to the fall and instead began to teach people how not to become poor and avoid poor financial decisions.
His popularity is so wide that throughout Latin America, Europe and other parts of the world, he is frequently cited by entrepreneurs and networkers (marketing network leaders) as a motivational leader and financial master capable of transforming the vision of business that he has. everyone who listens to him.
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Early years
Robert Kiyosaki was born to Ralph H Kiyosaki in Hilo, Hawaii. He was of Japanese American descent. His father was a teacher and instructor by profession, which allowed the young Kiyosaki to attend the best educational institutes.
He got his basic education from Hilo High School, after which he enrolled in the US Merchant Marine Academy in New York, graduating from the Academy as a deck officer in 1969.
Race
Completing his education, he began working on merchant ships, which allowed him to travel to various parts of the world. These trips exposed him to new cultures and new ways of life.
In addition, he witnessed the extremes of poverty faced by people around the world. These trips left a deep impact on him.
In 1972, during the Vietnam War, he served as a helicopter gunship pilot in the Marine Corps. For his service, he was awarded the Air Medal. Two years later, he left the Marine Corps. However, instead of returning to Hawaii, he moved to New York.
From 1974 to 1978, he assumed the sales profile of Xerox Corporation selling photocopiers. Meanwhile, in 1977, having saved enough money, he founded a company of his own that brought to market the first nylon and Velcro surfer’s wallets.
As a means of limiting the cost of handbags, he did not pay attention to the quality of the product, which led to a drop in demand, which led to financial losses for the company. Bankruptcy became inevitable and he soon had to close what was his first business.
Around the beginning of the 1980s, he started a business licensing T-shirts for heavy metal rock bands, such as Motley Crue. Although the business generated exceptional financial success initially, with a turnaround, the preference for heavy metal bands gave way to a culture of softer music, leading to a decline in demand. The company went bankrupt in 1985.
During the boom period of his second company, he invested money in stocks, assets, and real estate. However, as time passed and the business declined, his debts to the banks also increased. In order to pay his obligations, he was left penniless and his house.
Despite reaching the lowest point in his life, he did not lose hope and instead used his experience and knowledge to help and educate people on how to avoid bankruptcy and achieve financial success.
Interestingly, although his experiences and modest state of life belied his profession, he nonetheless dedicated himself to teaching people how not to become poor and how not to make the wrong financial decisions. He began working as a motivational speaker for a personal growth seminar business called Money and You, along with DC Cordova. The three-day seminar focused primarily on teaching students the works of Buckminster Fuller. Present predominantly only in Canada and the United States, the popularity of the business allowed them to spread its wings to Australia and New Zealand as well.
The popularity, growth and universal appeal of this business venture turned profitable and he soon became a multi-millionaire. However, he did not stay the same for long and instead left Money and You in 1994 to take early retirement. He then was only 47 years old. The early retirement experience has influenced many of the concepts that Robert Kiyosaki handles, as one of his main objectives is to teach people how to retire early and enjoy a chain of passive income.
It wasn’t that he was completely inactive, he actively pursued wealth by investing in stocks and shares and the real estate market. However, since he had given up regular work and had time to spare, he began to focus on writing a book.
Following in the footsteps of his ‘poor dad’ educator and the guidance and advice of his ‘rich dad’ (who was actually his friend’s father), he concentrated on merging the two strands of belief to arrive at a book that highlighted the teaching of both his rich dad and his poor dad. This book would take him to extraordinary worldwide fame, almost comparable to that of great motivational speakers and legendary personal development speakers like Jim Rohn and Napoleon Hill.
Robert Kiyosaki collaborated with Sharon Lechter and together they co-wrote the first book “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” However, they could not find a publisher for it and therefore decided to self-publish it.
Meanwhile, after a three-year hiatus, he came out of retirement and launched a business and financial education company called Cashflow Technologies Inc and the brands, Rich Dad and Cashflow.
Rich Dad Poor Dad, published in 2000, advocates financial independence and teaches its readers the importance of building wealth through investing in real estate, stocks, and starting and owning businesses. The book sold ten million copies becoming a bestseller.
The success of the book led to the release of future works, Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant and Guide to Investing. In addition, he released a dozen other books.
In 2002, he bought a silver mine in South America and took control of a gold mining company in China.
In 2010, he appeared on The Alex Jones Show, where he revealed his assets, including large apartment complexes, hotels, and golf courses. He is also the head and investor of oil drilling operations as well as oil wells and even a solar start-up company. So it certainly can’t be said that his wealth is due solely to financial self-help books, and while much criticism can be leveled at his work, the truth is that Robert Kiyosaki has a talent for investing.
most important books
His first three books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant, and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, have been number one on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously in major media outlets. such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The New York Times. It was the success of these books that prompted him to continue with the series that today comprises 15 books that together have made a business of more than 26 million dollars.
Robert Kiyosaki’s Cash Flow Quadrant
One of the ways in which Robert Kiyosaki has exemplified his concepts is through the idea of the Money Flow Quadrant, in which he shows us the position that each person has in the financial or income world. There he divides the world into four large groups, namely: The employees, who are those who work for other people and depend on a monthly salary exchanging time for money, the self-employed, that is, those who have their own business and must be constantly up to date. in front of it to make a profit, the business owners, who are the ones who have created businesses and have other people working for them and whose businesses require little or no personal management, and finally the investors, who are the ones who make their money work for them by investing in bonds, stocks, financial freedom.
For Robert Kiyosaki, it is clear that only the last two groups of people are the ones who can access true financial freedom since they are the ones who build their wealth thanks to passive or residual income. This perspective has become, since its proposal by Robert Kiyosaki, a standard way of looking at the acquisition of wealth among many entrepreneurs around the world who follow his ideas.
Trivia
The author of the book, ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, started two businesses in the early years of his life, first selling nylon and velcro wallets for ‘surfers’ and later selling certified t-shirts from failed heavy metal rock bands and they left him bankrupt.
Personal life and legacy
Robert and Kim Kiyosaki
In 1986, he married Kim Meyer, who is an entrepreneur, investor, author, and motivational speaker.
Over the years, Kiyosaki has provided financial advice on various television news channels, including CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg. Additionally, she has appeared on such shows as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Fox and Friends, Larry King Live, The O’Reilly Factor, The Alex Jones Show, Glenn Beck, and Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Robert Kiyosaki and Network Marketing
Robert Kiyosaki has become a highly vocal proponent of network marketing, a business model also known as network marketing.
In this type of business, which can generally be started by anyone, people sign up for multilevel marketing companies such as Herbalife, Omnilife, Amway, Nu Skin, among others, and begin to market mass consumer products such as nutritional supplements, articles for the home, cosmetic items and others, and at the same time create a referral system in which they can include other sellers for whose sales they can earn commissions for life.
The secret of financial success in this business model is found in the construction of the network, that is, in the system of affiliated sellers or entrepreneurs; this allows a person to have a business structure equal to that of a business owner, exemplified in the third box of the cash flow quadrant. With these recommendations, it’s no wonder that Robert Kiyosaki has a really big fan base in the world of network marketing, an industry that has done a great deal to popularize his ideas.
In fact, it was in the book The Business of the 21st Century, released in 2010, that Kiyosaki made reference to this business model. The book has become another bestseller, along with the classics that launched him to fame, and in it, he claims that people who are doing network marketing have the best levels of information to become financially free.
Although Kiyosaki was initially skeptical of network marketing, seeing the impressive success of people who have dedicated themselves to this business model, he became a passionate advocate for the idea.