Case Study: Robert Kiyosaki, part 2

Case Study: Robert Kiyosaki, part 2

This post is the second part of my Robert Kiyosaki case study on ideas on how to become rich by making a lot of money through various means. In this post, I will now show criticisms and controversies surrounding Robert Kiyosaki and his ideas on making money. Unlike Donald Trump and Warren Buffett, who are also featured on other posts here on my money making ideas blog, Robert Kiyosaki has been strongly attacked by John Reed and there are controversies surrounding Robert Kiyosaki's methods on making money and his various ideas, as well as factual inconsistencies in what Robert Kiyosaki has writtten.

One thing is for sure though - and I say this tongue in cheek - that this is surely one very good way of making a lot of money:

write books and develop board games on financial education and how to make money

(I got this idea directly from Robert Kiyosaki himself, because that is how he makes his money. Since Buffett makes money from investment, and Trump makes money from books, real estate and TV shows, we can learn from Robert Kiyosaki in terms of what he ACTUALLY does, not just what he preaches and teaches. In a certain monetary sense, there is a way of making money - by emulating and copying closely what rich men do, although sometimes there are indeed things that rich men can do that we cannot do. Therefore, copying Robert Kiyosaki's ideas on how to make money by extrapolating the need to write books on financial education might be a good, money-making idea after all.)

Now on to the main part of my topic on Robert Kiyosaki:

Controversies

1. The main problem with Robert Kiyosaki's ideas and teachings on how to make money is that there are no details and no particulars, only generalities. For instance, even my ideas on money making site here where I issue ideas, discuss investment, discuss forex and the like has details on various methods of making money. I have explained technical analysis and fundamental analysis and even taught for free proper ways to read annual reports, and much more. Yet, Robert Kiyosaki has not done that - he has merely made his financial education book Rich Dad Poor Dad a form of story telling.

2. There is no way of differentiating between fact and fiction in Robert Kiyosaki's writing, and so that might pose a problem. This means that the Rich Dad and the Poor Dad could be - either metaphorical, in which case Robert Kiyosaki has no claim to learning real ideas on how to become rich; or real, in which Robert Kiyosaki is unable to reveal or does not want to reveal who these two people are.

3. Robert Kiyosaki is very repetitive, and although in my first post on Robert Kiyosaki I wrote on his book Rich Dad, it turns out that many consider his other books very similar to that one - and Robert Kiyosaki has only a very few and limited ideas on how to make money. All of them, apocryphal and anecdoctal, actually.

4. Robert Kiyosaki makes his money writing books, giving seminars, selling board games, and is known to do MLM. These may make him a lot of money, but are these skills replicable? This means, while Robert Kiyosaki teaches a lot of stuff on how to make money, he never practises any of them; while Robert Kiyosaki makes his money selling books, giving seminars, selling games and doing MLM, he does not tell us how he makes his money; the only thing we can learn are from OUTSIDE of his books and therefore, why should one even buy or read his books or boardgames, when we are actually learning by observing what he does in real life? This is quite unlike Buffett and Trump, who have detailed what they do and how they do it in books and publications. This means that Robert Kiyosaki does not practise what he preaches. This also means that Robert Kiyosaki makes his money through methods that he does not preach explicitly.

5. This last point is related to the rest - but it is the most important and key point. There is no one who can sum up what Robert Kiyosaki says and teaches properly because what he writes is so vague, that everyone reading it has a different perspective and a different opinion on what was written. This has been heavily documented - no one can actually say for sure and categorically state what Robert Kiyosaki has taught regarding money, making money, investment, ideas on making money and ideas on how to evade taxes and the like. Therefore, since Robert Kiyosaki's writing is so ambiguous such that no one can summarise properly what he says and no one else can verify what he has written, there is no reason for us to trust what he says. This is unlike Buffett, again, because what Buffett has written and talked about has come from Benjamin Graham's analyses and there have been many documented sources and independent sources that verify what has been said. This verification and un-ambiguity and clarity and sharpness are all missing from Robert Kiyosaki's books and writings. He seems to be more, therefore, of a motivational writer than a real financial educator.

With all these critcisms in mind, do remember that I am still a fan of Robert Kiyosaki in some ways - his writing is indeed motivational, and there are good things that we can extract and learn from his personal life and from what he writes. Nonetheless, we should take what he has to say with a major pinch of salt due to the criticisms mentioned above.

More to come in future posts on Robert Kiyosaki and what other lessons on money making, investment and financial education that we can possibly learn from him. My idea is that - we can get ideas on how to become rich and make money by observing, learning and extrapolating from rich men who have already become rich. Stay tuned for more, and thank you very much for staying with me and reading. Cheers!

Ideas on how to get rich!

Case Study: Robert Kiyosaki, part 1

Case Study: Robert Kiyosaki, part 1

I have done case studies on the rich and famous such as Warren Buffett and Donald Trump, who are of course undeniably rich and famous, but for various reasons - one for shares and stock investments, and the other for real estate, books, merchandise and even a famous TV show.

I think this new case study will take some time to complete and will be of interest to many people - Robert Kiyosaki and his ideas on making money and how to become rich.

I have been a fan of Robert Kiyosaki for a long time, but I have also realised that many of his teachings have been proven controversial and that many others have also written bad things against him. My site here is all about Ideas on how to Become Rich, and hence will take a long hard look at Robert Kiyosaki and his ideas on how to make money and become rich. I used to think that Robert Kiyosaki was totally great and that all that he said was wise, but is that truly the case? Are all his ideas on making money and how the rich get richer correct, or is there something fundamentally wrong with what he says? I provide the research and the analysis and evaluations, and you can make up your mind. Do join me here as I analyse Robert Kiyosaki and his ideas on how to become rich!

Robert Kiyosaki has many ideas on how to become rich, so I will take a book by book approach, similar to what I have done with Donald Trump's books and outlook.

The first book in my analysis today is Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Needless to say, Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad book is the most famous one of his series of money making books. Here are the key ideas according to my research:

1. financial independence comes about from investing, real estate, owning businesses, and the use of finance protection methods and mechanisms (Wikipedia)

2. do not be an employee, but be someone who controls the means of production (Wikipedia and Seah)

3. formal education is not the correct education in the knowledge based economy (Seah)

4. we can earn money using passive income and active income, not just active income alone (Seah, Wikipedia)

5. The Cashflow Quadrant idea according to Robert Kiyosaki - ESBI, where

Employees work for others
Self employed owners are their own boss earning money
Big business owner with a system for making money
Investor who spends money to earn money

6. Financial literacy is important (Seah).

The question is, although these seem to be commonsense and very valuable ideas on how to make money and become rich, are they valid? Do they make sense? Robert Kiyosaki would have us believe so, and indeed they may make sense and make us rich in the process. Yet others have said no.

I will now show why I think these are valid, leaving criticisms for later:

1. investment, real estate and businesses do indeed make money, so Robert Kiyosaki got those points correct

2. being an employee is not necessarily bad, but Robert Kiyosaki may have a good point - that it is harder to become rich being an employee, and the idea is that it's better not to be an employee rather than "employee = no good"

3. the third point isn't very good - education is always a good thing, because education can help you make money, keep money, become more money minded, as well as help you in social skills, networking, improving your intelligence, curiosity and basically helping you in life, so that's not true where he says that education is an industrial age idea etc...

4. passive income is a good idea - although he does not say how to do it - and many other books and speakers have advocated gaining more passive income (or, the key idea is to make money work for you)

5. his games seem to be rather educational - and may have financial literacy and financial education value (in stark irony and contrast to what he said on education, or formal education)

6. yes, he is right that financial education is key and very important in this world today.

More to come on criticisms of Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Kiyosaki's money making ideas in his other books with all his ideas and wisdom on money, and much much more, here on my money making site full of ideas on how to make money. You have been reading the Robert Kiyosaki case study series on ideas on how to make money. Thanks and cheers!

Ideas on how to get rich!

Case Study: Donald Trump, part 2

Case Study: Donald Trump, part 2

I am going to partly review the Art of the Deal by Donald Trump, and also partly going to write about Donald Trump's ideas and thoughts on making money. From the outset, I should tell you that there are certain things that I need to say: one is that most of Donald Trump's ideas on how to become rich have been covered in the last post here on my site, in my

Case Study: Donald Trump, part 1

where I dealt with How to Get Rich, his book full of ideas on how to make money. The second thing is that Donald Trump believes in many things, so here is where a critical and thinking mind is best - we cannot believe everything he says, especially where he says that intuition and instincts can make you rich. That one can be proven to be false, but that is the basis of an entire article. Other things that he says cannot be taken at face value like avoiding handshakes (that is his own personal opinion - and does not contribute to the ideas on making money), his unique hairstyle in the past (come on, that's quite nice to look at but it is not essential to our central theme of making money and becoming rich, and certainly his hairdo and his peculiar habits are not the subject of discussion - only his money making skills are). This brings me to my third point - we must think and mull about what we read and cannot take them simplistically, as application and additional thinking are both required. That said, here are more ideas on becoming rich and making a lot of money from Donald Trump:

Some quotes from Donald Trump and Money Making Ideas from Donald Trump

“I like things big. I always have. To me, it’s very simple: if you’re going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”

This is a good idea - thinking big allows you to see what you can do and what you can reach, and motivates you to make money, so this is one of the good ideas that I would like to share with you.

“It’s been said that I believe in the power of positive thinking. In fact, I believe in the power of negative thinking. I happen to be very conservative in business. I always go into the deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst – if you can live with the worst – the good will always take care of itself.”

Planning is also a very key concept to making money and becoming rich, so anticipation, planning, scenario planning and thinking ahead are all key to success.

"You can have the most wonderful product in the world, but if people don’t know about it, it’s not going to be worth much.”

This is also a very key idea - and emphasises marketing and advertising. After all, without people knowing about an excellent product, it might as well not be excellent at all - since no one knows and no one will buy. This is an excellent money making concept.

Borrowing ideas from many articles and other research that I did online, I find that Donald Trump approaches business very straightforwardly. The key idea is that the art of business can be reduced to the formula of buy low and sell high. For instance, "Much as I like the [Beverly Hill's Hotel] I'm interested in it only if I can get it for a much better price than they're now asking". Donald Trump will walk away from a good piece of property if the numbers don't match up to what he expects them to be. Trump makes a point of surrounding himself with the best talent when making these hard decisions when it comes to making money. In fact, he attributes much of his success in making those correct decisions, of buying low and selling high, to surrounding himself with the best talent available, thus forming his winning team. For example: "I'm just looking to hire the best talent, wherever I can find it [and] I have a very simple rule when it comes to management: hire the best people from your competitors, pay them more than they were earning and give them bonuses and incentives based on their performance. That's how you build a first-class operation". Simply put, there exists no room for second best.

Furthermore, there exists another more intangible component of Trump's success that underscores the need for of a heightened self confidence and personal pride, for instance, according to Donald Trump, "I hate lawsuits and depositions, but the fact is that if you're right, you've got to take a stand, or people will walk all over you” and “You have to be very rough and very tough with most contractors or they'll take the shirt right of your back". These show that Donald Trump has the self confidence to take a stand and make a proper deal, and that people cannot walk all over him. There are many things we can indeed learn from Donald Trump.

Donald Trump wrote several books on making money and how to become rich and successful like himself:

Trump: How to Get Rich

Trump: The Way to the Top

Trump: Surviving at the Top

Trump: The Art of the Deal

The America We Deserve

Trump: The Art of Survival

Honestly, most of them are repetitive and carry the same few ideas, but the key thing is that most of them stress success, confidence, thinking and planning, guts and advertising/ marketing and showmanship. In the final analysis, in Donald Trump's world, that's what makes you the money - that's what makes you rich.

More to come on my Ideas on How to Become Rich blog on case studies of rich men and their money making strategies that allowed them to become rich and successful. Cheers!

Ideas on how to get rich!

Case Study: Donald Trump, part 1

Case Study: Donald Trump, part 1

Here, on my ideas on how to become rich site, I will now talk about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a billionaire who made most of his money in buildings, construction, casinos, and who can forget the TV series - The Apprentice. Donald Trump is the focus of this post in my case studies on the rich and famous and how they make money. Some people may not like him and indeed there are some who might be unhappy with Trump as a role model, but I think that he is great and he is definitely an expert in making money in real estate.

I first came across Donald Trump when reading Forbes, because he is one of the richest men on earth and certainly a big name in the real estate industry. I read about how his father was actually a rather successful builder, but a rather small time construction person, because even though Donald Trump's father was a good man who worked hard, he never earned billions of dollars. Basically, Donald Trump managed to do that.

Writing a case study on Donald Trump for my ideas site turned out to be easy, relatively speaking, because Donald Trump has written many books on how to become rich and how to make money. He once said that people ask bakers how to bake bread....and so it is wise to ask a billionaire how to make money.

Without further ado, today's case study is on Donald Trump and in particular, his book

How to Get Rich.

Aptly titled, isn't it? And this is a very fitting subject for my ideas site on how to become rich, so much so that one could possibly say that this book was written for me to conduct my research. I will not be lifting materials from his book but rather analysing and then summarising what I see to be the key points and key learning points on how to become rich.

According to Donald Trump there are many key ideas to becoming rich, and they are:

you have to be a general

you have to stay focused on the important parts

you need to maintain your momentum

you need a great assistant

you need to take responsibility

you need to speak clearly and properly

you need to ask yourself "Is there anyone who can do this job better and cheaper than I can?"

you need to have a very good idea

you have to have talent

you have to consistently learn and improve and upgrade

you need to think big and live large

you need to be tenacious

you need to brand yourself and you have to toot your horn

you need to be optimistic, yet you need to be prepared for the worst

you need to know public speaking skills

you need to pay attention to the details

you need a positive attitude

you need to do your homework

you need to dress well

you need to invest simply and effectively

you need to have negotiation skills (- sounds familiar? You will be able to find such materials around my site here, so do use the right sidebar.)

Immediately one can see that Donald Trump's basic message has two key elements, according to my research - one is common sense, and the other is marketing/ branding/ advertising, depending on how you look at it.

You can examine the key ideas I learnt from his book.

These are all common sense ideas on how to make money and how to become successful at a job or in business, and some of the key ideas in those words are known to business students or Economics students:

you have to be a general

you have to stay focused on the important parts

you need to maintain your momentum

you need a great assistant

you need to take responsibility

you need to speak clearly and properly

you need to ask yourself "Is there anyone who can do this job better and cheaper than I can?"

you need to have a very good idea

you have to have talent

you have to consistently learn and improve and upgrade

you need to be tenacious

you need to brand yourself

you need to be optimistic, yet you need to be prepared for the worst

you need to know public speaking skills

you need to pay attention to the details

you need a positive attitude

you need to do your homework

you need to dress well

you need to invest simply and effectively

you need to have negotiation skills

These are all ideas related to marketing/ branding/ advertising:

you need to speak clearly and properly

you need to think big and live large

you need to brand yourself and you have to toot your horn

you need to know public speaking skills

you need to pay attention to the details

you need to dress well

Hence, Donald Trump's personality can be seen in the way that he works and makes his money. He has a lot of common sense. He also has a lot of marketing and branding power, as can be seen from the TV series and the beauty paegeants that he organises and hosts. Clearly, Donald Trump is proof that his money making system works - it is about applying solid common sense to making money, with a no nonsense approach with a clear mind, as well as branding, marketing and advertising oneself and one's organisation. If it works for him, then these skills and thoughts may be worth trying out and may be worth considering seriously.

More to come on Donald Trump in the next post, here on my ideas site, on ideas on how to make money by looking at successful billionaires and successful businessmen, and their methods on how to become rich.

Ideas on how to get rich!