Dangerous advice
•"If you're gonna go broke, go broke big"
lacks context. what was his real point? we should read several pages around this before we judge
•Convinces people that college is for suckers
not true, for context his father was head of education in hawaii, good wage, died broke. kiyosaki was saying we should get educated, but not count on that to alone to look after us
Law-breaking advice
•Advocates committing a felony: have rich friends for trading stock based on non-public inside information, he says "That's what friends are for."
he also says in many places you should not break the law. how to reconcile this? he was talking tongue in cheek about how some company directors operate & how the system creates classes of people based on insiders & outsiders, and it's a warning that insider information is the only way to guarantee winning on the stock market (which i agree with)
•Recommends tax fraud by deducting vacations and health club dues
not true, his wife bought a lunxury yacht under a company name when the porevious owners went bust. they charter it & by law are allowed to use it themselves so many days of the year. i'd say that's what he was refering to
•Brags about using a partner weasel clause in which his cat is his partner
firstly, surely this is just story telling to make a point, secondly, he never said he told the agent his partner was a cat, his offer was 'subject to approval of my partner', why is that a problem, surely the other party can reject it if they like?
Bad liar
•Can't keep track of his story
this refers to a bunch of seemingly conflicting sentences from his books, but when you look into them they are all take out of context. if this was valid then the same technique could be used to invalidate ANY book.
•Shouts from the rooftops how rich he is, but refuses to disclose real estate portfolio because he "doesn't want people to know he has money".
this is about being sued which i find a valid arguement. though when his investments because larger & with more bartners he did start talking more about them
•Apparently lied about going bankrupt in 1985
in the link he says "A lawyer checked the federal court records and said no one named Kiyosaki ever went bankrupt". which lawyer, when, in which state, did he do all that was necessary to prove that kiyosaki never went bankrupt?
•Claimed his net worth is $50-$100 million depending on the day; his Rich Dad Poor Dad coauthor said in court that he only made $9 million
who cares, i lose track myself, what has this got to do with the basic ideas in his books about how money works and whether the ideas are valid? also i'm sure he's not only talking about his book profits
•His "best teacher ever" changed repeatedly
so he has a lot of mentors, big deal
•The blueprint to becoming a "Financial Genius"
Reed says this[/COLOR="red"]
"There are probably many ways to became a financial genius, but Kiyosaki has certainly chosen an unlikely route:
•flunked sophomore year of high school and had to repeat
•U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
•3rd mate oil tanker (or was it “Love Boat” type cruise ship as he said in one of his books?)
•Marine helicopter pilot (or was it fighters?)
•refused to return to ship when it was ordered to return to combat (or just missed the boat)
•Xerox salesman
•failed businessman (nylon surfer wallets)
•failed businessman (rock and roll memorabilia)
•failed author (1993 book If You Want to Be Rich & Happy, Don’t Go To School?)
•failed MBA applicant
•homeless person
•bankruptcy (or maybe not)"
But personally I've read many similar stories about people who learned a wide range of skills & failed several time but became successful, i'd think it's standard
I'm not the only critic
•Wall Street Journal: "Rich Men, Poor Advice"
•Smart Money Magazine: "Karma Chameleon"
so what
Fiction posing as non-fiction
•Oprah needs to confront Kiyosaki about calling a fiction book non-fiction just like she did with James Frey
is he seriously saying oprah should confront kiyosaki because some other author, james frey, admitted to lying in another book?
•He asks why Rich Dad has to be any more truthful than Harry Potter
i didn't think kiyosaki was saying that 'rich dad' was fictional, i thought he was hoping people would treat him as though he were fictional & stop asking who he was. in any case who cares, rich dad's part in the book was purely for education, the historical facts are immaterial to the arguements (reminds of another world best seller, but enough said there)
•Admits fictionalizing on copyright page of Rich Kid, Poor Kid
doesn't tell which bits are fictionalised which a standard tactic for avoiding frivolous law suits.
•Admits to 20/20 that he doesn't teach people how to get rich
So a program hijacks kiyosaki into teaching a bunch of losers to make a million from a thousand in 30 days is that it? and when he fails this is evidence against him, seriously? i mean if kioysaki himself set out with this goal it'd be different, but then 30 days goes against what he teaches, which is a wide financial education base
•"Marine corps made him what he is today" - he was laterally transferred to the Marine Corp from the Merchant Marine and Navy, he never went through the entry-level Marine training
his evidence is he saw a show about marine corps training on cable tv, good one
•Lied about desertion while serving in Vietnam (admitted later he just missed the boat)
Reed speculates, then says "I requested his military records from the National Archives" then never mentions what he found
•Became a helicopter pilot to "lead men" (platoon leaders and company commanders lead men; pilots lead machinery)
Reed speculates about kiyosaki's role in the marine corp and it's meaning for leadership
•Rich Dad, Poor Dad triggers the following items on my Real Estate B.S. Artist Detection Checklist: 1, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 38, 39, 46, 49.