Robert Kiyosaki, Sharon Lechter
A commentary on the book which I read "Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki & Sharon Lechter.
Notes I copied from the book.
I had two influential fathers, I learned from both of them. I had to think about each dad's advice, and in doing so, I gained valuable insight into the power and effect of one's thoughts on one's life. For example, one dad had a habit of saying, “
I can't afford it.” The other dad forbade those words to be used. He insisted I say,
“How can I afford it?” One is a statement, and the other is a question. One lets you off the hook, and the other forces you to think. My soon-to-be-rich dad would explain that by automatically saying the words
“I can't afford it,” your brain stops working. By asking the question “How can I afford it?” your brain is put to work. He did not mean to buy everything you wanted. He was fanatical about exercising your mind, the most powerful computer in the world.
“My brain gets stronger every day because I exercise it. The stronger it gets, the more money I can make.” He believed that automatically saying “I can't afford it” was a sign of mental laziness
It is not much different from a person who goes to the gym to exercise on a regular basis versus someone who sits on the couch watching television. Proper physical exercise increases your chances for health, and proper mental exercise increases your chances for wealth. Laziness decreases both health and wealth.
One dad taught me how to write an impressive resume so I could find a good job. The other taught me how to write strong business and financial plans so I could create jobs.
For example, my poor dad always said, “I'll never be rich.” And that prophesy became reality. My rich dad, on the other hand, always referred to himself as rich. He would say things like, “I'm a rich man, and rich people don't do this.” Even when he was flat broke after a major financial setback, he continued to refer to himself as a rich man. He would cover himself by saying, “There is a difference between being poor and being broke. - Broke is temporary, and the poor is eternal.”
My poor dad would also say, “I'm not interested in money,” or “Money doesn't matter.” My rich dad always said, “Money is power.”
The other encouraged me to study to be rich, to understand how money works and to learn how to have it work for me. “I don't work for money!” were words he would repeat over and over, “Money works for me!”
Money is one form of power. But what is more powerful is financial education. Money comes and goes, but if you have the education about how money works, you gain power over it and can begin building wealth. The reason positive thinking alone does not work is that most people went to school and never learned how money works, so they spend their lives working for money.
This book is about those six lessons, put as simply as possible as my rich dad put forth those lessons to me. The lessons are not meant to be answers but guideposts. Guideposts that will assist you and your children to grow wealthier no matter what happens in a world of increasing change and uncertainty
- Lesson #1 The Rich Don't Work for Money
- Lesson #2 Why Teach Financial Literacy?
- Lesson #3 Mind Your own Business
- Lesson #4 The History of Taxes and the Power of Corporations
- Lesson #5 The Rich Invent Money
- Lesson #6 Work to Learn Don't Work for Money
