Book Review: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

In my quest to adhere to at least one New Year’s resolution in my life (this year is to read more), my next book review for this year is Rich Dad Poor Dad.

I have to say I was very intrigued and kind of excited to read this book. My brother recommended it to me as we have a mutual interest in money books and business as well as investing.

He said that I would particularly enjoy it having an interest in business and being on my own journey to start my own label.

And what did I think about this book? Honestly - IT’S FANTASTIC.

However I can see that it’s the kind of book you need to read only if you are already in the mindset of looking to change how you think or are looking to make financial changes in your life. This book is not for the ‘Yeah but’ or the ‘ that’s fine for’ people. Robert (the author) encourages people to avoid this mindset and mentality.
It’s not that you play into or walk blindly and naively into your finances, but that your mindset, like anything in life you want to tackle - whether it be fitness, health, career, relationships - is the key here to really facilitating the change you want.

I would label this a great ‘Foundations’ book, and actually I would recommend reading this after the barefoot investor, which if you were looking for a metaphor would be kind of like the early learning years of primary school, then followed up by this book which would be your later years of primary school - both foundational but one will set you up to be in a better frame of mind to absorb the other.

The key take aways from Robert T Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad for me where:

-Don’t think ‘I can’t - think ‘How Can I’. It’s not that this solves your problems, it’s that it encourages the part of your brain that operates creative thinking and problem solving. (This is great for if you are a business owner or entrepreneur)
-Avoid the ‘Chicken littles’ in business and in life. I found this a great reassurance, if like me you come from a long line of either risk averse or low income people then you are conditioned to believe that risk is the enemy and to always think negative about risk in business and wealth. I know that this has been a big challenge I have had to train myself to overcome and ignore, and it’s comforting to read from someone who has a large amount of wealth that you have to actively ignore fear mongering, that it doesn’t make you a silly or stupid person, but that is how most successful business owners or wealthy people are coded.

-Mind your business, Robert talks about this in the sense that everybody has to have a business if they want to escape the rat race and lack of safety that is being employed and reliant on a salary (something most of us are taught is the opposite, but that a lot more of us might agree with after covid). Mind your business simply means what are you in the business of long term that will generate you wealth? For Him he said his main business is real-estate and even while he was employed early on his mentality was to foster his ‘realestate portfolio’. He goes on to say your business could be investing, perhaps it’s buying other businesses. This phrase really challenged me as although I want to have my own label, I need a bigger picture business as well. It makes much more sense once you’ve read the book what you have to do to mind your business.

-Wealth and success is not quick. I have to say social media has really inflated the sense that you have to be wealthy before 35, and preferabbly before 30. Being 33 this kind of can be disheartening, but Robert openly talks about the fact he was aiming to be retired from employment before 40, but for him it did not happen until 47
(still pretty good when you think about the fact that most of us will have to work well into our 70’s just to be able to survive retirement).

- Mistakes are not your enemy, they are pivotal to the journey of wealth and success. Robert talks about how we are trained in school from an early age to not make mistakes and punished for mistakes. He says that mistakes are necessary and great learning experiences (so long as you do learn something). He openly talks about how he himself has made many mistakes and lost money but in the long run made it back from the knowledge and growth that resulted from it.

The above is just a short summary from what my personal favorite parts where of the book that helped me, I would recommend this hands down to anyone but especially for those looking to have their own business or be an entrepreneur. It’ll help set the foundations for a better frame of mind and give you a confidence that can sometimes be hard to find when you are not in the position to be surrounded by people who are on the same journey as you.