Visit to see Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad) live in Prague
June 21st, 2011 // 6:52 am @ admin
This Sunday instead of the usual mountain biking, golfing, summer barbeque’s etc, the CloudSource team decamped to the Prague Congress Centre to attend the Robert Kiyosaki seminar.
Robert Kiyosaki is the author of ‘Rich Dad Poor dad’ which has always been one of my favourite business books, so the chance to see him live was too good to miss. In the book Robert contrasts the advice given to him by his real father (a successful academic but financially poor) with his ‘rich dad’, the father of his friend and an entrepreneur.
The session was pretty much a full day; three hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Robert did most of the talking but was joined onstage by his wife Kim and also his tax adviser and accountant. Interestingly his previous accountant and coauthor Sharon Lector was not present and a quick Goggle search reveals they have split acrimoniously. This explains a couple of swipes Kim was talking about “previous bad financial and tax advice”
There was lots of plugging of his new book ‘Unfair advantage’ which seems to be an updated version of Rich Dad Poor Dad to take in recent events in the global financial crisis. I think Robert Kiyosaki is an excellent case study for sales people in looking for ways to up-sell: He held the book in his hand for most of the performance, holding it up when making a point to indicate that more information was in the book.
I have attached the scan of my notes from the event, pretty sparse note taking for a full days event I think you’ll agree 
, but most of the time I was absorbing the message and only felt the need to note down a few points. In case you can’t read my handwriting these are :
, but most of the time I was absorbing the message and only felt the need to note down a few points. In case you can’t read my handwriting these are :“An asset is something that puts money in your pocket whether you work or not. A liability is something that takes something from your pocket whether you wok or not” This is essentially his main message and leads to his focus on developing passive income.
“The rich don’t work for money they work for assets”
“Start small then learn something more. The best way to learn is by doing”
and finally “Always use insurance, always protect the downside”
Nothing earth shattering all just good down to earth advice, although his home owning opinion is controversial, as he believes buying your home is to be treated as a liability not an asset, as it takes money from you each month. The big criticism I hear of Kiyosaki is that his book does not give any concrete advice of how to act on his principles but I think that is missing the point. The path will be different for everybody and it’s not possible to give blanket concrete advice for several thousand people.
The thing I am never sure about with people like Kiyosaki is how much of his wealth really comes from his businesses and the investments he discuses and how much from writing books and giving seminars, as if it’s the latter he is basically not following his own advice and is trading hours for dollars. Even if this is the case the advice is solid and I enjoyed the session as a good refresher course in his principles.
So what did the CloudSource team get out of the seminar? The general consensus was that very interesting and a day well spent. All had read the book before so I would say there was nothing much else there, but as we all know ‘knowing something is not the same as acting on it’, so I felt in this sense it was a good refresher course in his principles.
I’d say if you haven’t read Rich Dad Poor dad then it is a much read, not specifically for entrepreneurs as it doesn’t give much specific business advice (for that the two books that I have actually found give actionable advice are Rework by 37signals and the E-Myth by Michael Gerber), but for most people looking to increase their financial intelligence. I would definitely include it as a must read.
Dan
Category : Blog
Paul Bryce
9 months ago
“for most people looking to increase their financial intelligence I would definitely include it as a must read” I presume you mean this tongue in cheek as the advice given by Kyosaki is flawed, innacurate and will lose you money rather than make you money.
If you want to read a good analysis of his “advice” have a look at John T Reed’s review of his book on his website ( http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html ).