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Does Robert Kiyosaki's 'rich dad' actually exist?
Does anyone have any leads on this 'rich dad?' The rich dad either didn't exist, or Robert Kiyosaki IS the rich dad. Somebody had to say it.
I'm not saying anything about the business advice. The books are pretty ironclad in that regard. It just seems so convenient that after all of these years their conversations are so well preserved that they can be perfectly dramatized to include long pauses and small chuckles.
Some might say that he wants to preserve the identity of his rich dad, which is fine, but where is Mike, the rich dad's real son? Couldn't Mike just show up to one seminar, or an interview? If Mike is reading this right now, please PM me ;)
I have heard it was made up. So the "Rich Dad" does not exist.
I do not know if he is real or not. My response is...who cares? Why does it matter?
Originally posted by @Katie Neason:
I do not know if he is real or not. My response is...who cares? Why does it matter?
I agree with Katie.
The goal of the books is to teach us about money/investing, so if its fiction even better. The guy was smart enough to teach us tons using a made up character.
The scammer actually admitted that there is no, "Rich Dad."
And that "ironclad" business advice contains a tremendous amount of bad advice.
Kiyosaki's books should be understood as self-help/motivational type books. They don't teach you about business or real estate any more than those, "Everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten" books teach you about child psychology.
Their purpose is to pump you up and inspire you to do things. Understand that they are books that are about emotion, and you'll be fine. Rely on them for your business education, and you're doomed.
It changed my life. I agree with Richard, you need to have good enough sense to know what to do with information or advice you get and how to apply it regardless of where it is from (book, person, family etc.). If you do not, you will have a lot more issues than just the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, but you will have lots of opportunity to blame other people and things for your problems.
His rich dad's educational company filed bankruptcy. His ideas should be put in the same place. It's a motivational guide that is like a lot of real estate ... Full of promises and risks... If you buy at the right time, then you are a genius. Otherwise, you can be left holding the bag. I bought in 2008 and onward.
@Richard C. I guess I should have said that the principles are ironclad. There are a lot of holes in the way that it pitches the ideas, like pushing cash flow over equity investing, even though he says in the book that he flipped a number of SFR's to get his start.
I agree @Katie Neason I do still really respect the book(s) as it gets people excited about real estate and it's a big paradigm shift suite of books that has really helped me get in the right mindset in my own investing. Just kind of cheesy writing and narrative.
Originally posted by @Katie Neason:
I do not know if he is real or not. My response is...who cares? Why does it matter?
Just out of curiosity what other works of fiction do you use as inspiration for investing your hard earned dollars?
My understanding is that "Rich Dad" is a combination of a few people, possibly including Keith Cunningham, who wrote "Keys to the Vault". Keith is great, saw him at an Anthony Robbins event.
Most people need to know WHY they should learn something to be motivated enough to learn and implement the WHAT and HOW. The Rich Dad book is great at WHY and some WHAT....very little HOW, but there are lots of other resources for HOW, including BP.
For the literal thinkers out there that believe that the best way to learn is via Non-fiction, remember that most of the best teachers in history used parables, metaphors, fables and other fictional methods of teaching. This is called inferential learning which can bypass our critical faculty and relay information much more effectively. Do most people relate more with the Star Wars characters or to their high school biology book? There is a small percentage that answer the biology book. They are likely literal thinkers/engineers/scientists.
Since almost every BP podcast guest gives props to the rich dad book, there is probably something there to take away. I personally got a lot of useful pricipals, mindset and ideas including: Limit your doodad spending and invest in income producing assets, personal residence is not an asset unless and until it produces income, ESBI, tax-reduction ideas, etc. and more importantly, I still remember much of what I learned from the book even though I read it only once over a decade ago. That is the power of inferential learning.
The person Robert Kiyosaki is referring to his rich dad is Dr. R. Buchminister Fuller. Dr. Fuller had a reputation as a futurist and was often called "Grandfather of the Future." He had a real gift of being able to predict the future of economics trends.
Back in the 1960s, the U.S. government had chosen Dr. Fuller's Dome, a structure that represented the future, to be the U.S. Pavilion. In 1964, Dr. Fuller had made the cover of the Time Magazine. He was consideed to be one of the greatest
It was Robert Kiyosaki's real dad, known as the poor dad who first introduced Robert to Dr. Fuller in the late 1950s. In 1981, Robert Kiyosaki was 34 years old and was invited to spend a week studying with Dr. Fuller at a lodge outside of Lake Tahoe, California. The title of the conference was "The Future of Business" . It was this week that forever changed the life direction of Robert Kiyosaki. Between 1981 - 1983, he spent a lot time of time with Fuller and studying his work. This is when Robert discovered his spiritual profession, spiritual work, spiritual job, and his life purpose.
Dr. Fuller passed away on July 1, 1983.
Originally posted by @Max Kim:
His rich dad's educational company filed bankruptcy. His ideas should be put in the same place. It's a motivational guide that is like a lot of real estate ... Full of promises and risks... If you buy at the right time, then you are a genius. Otherwise, you can be left holding the bag. I bought in 2008 and onward.
His books provide a lot of useful information. The key is what you do with it. Buying in 2008 seems like bad timing. Some investors will use that as a reason to quit others will use the lesson to go on to great success. Which one will you be?
2008 was great. The sky was falling, and I bought 3+bed /2 bath houses under $20k that were formerly $100k+. Sure, the news said that the financial world was ending, but I figured it was a no brainer investment with rents of $850-950/month. I could have bought under $10k if I went to war zones, but I highly value my life. There weren't any lenders at that price range, and cash was king. In 2009, I went to a major bank when I owned 10 rentals in cash (and no mortgages) with a high paying w-2 job for an owner occupant mortgage, and they told me that I wouldn't qualify because they were afraid of real estate investors.
I'm totally with you, on all fronts!
Originally posted by @Max Kim:
2008 was great. The sky was falling, and I bought 3+bed /2 bath houses under $20k that were formerly $100k+. Sure, the news said that the financial world was ending, but I figured it was a no brainer investment with rents of $850-950/month. I could have bought under $10k if I went to war zones, but I highly value my life. There weren't any lenders at that price range, and cash was king. In 2009, I went to a major bank when I owned 10 rentals in cash (and no mortgages) with a high paying w-2 job for an owner occupant mortgage, and they told me that I wouldn't qualify because they were afraid of real estate investors.
So Max, what happen afterwards? Did you cash out? You should look into B2R or other community banks that will do blanket loans for these houses.
Originally posted by @James Park:
The person Robert Kiyosaki is referring to his rich dad is Dr. R. Buchminister Fuller...
hmm...real or not the lessons from "rich dad" were gold especially the cashflow quadrant