Robert Kiyosaki



Robert Toru Kiyosaki is an American speaker, entrepreneur and real estate investor, most famous as a co-author of the 1997 financial self-help book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He has since capitalized on its success with more than a dozen sequels, and with Rich Dad LLC, a financial/entrepreneurship-themed brand of software, games, videos and live events.

Kiyosaki's website hails him as a "visionary" on a mission "to elevate the financial well-being of humanity." These lofty ideals are reflected in his books and lectures, which endorse completely routine and totally ethical practices like strategic bankruptcy, credit card kiting and insider trading. Putting this advice into practice has yielded Kiyosaki several bankruptcies and lawsuits of his own.

Although they have sold tens of millions of copies and earned praise from celebrities, Rich Dad and its sequels contain numerous factual errors, extremely unlikely anecdotes, and outright self-admitted lies. When confronted, he even admitted to fabricating the very existence of his book's eponymous "Rich Dad," but defended himself by describing his work as more motivational than informational. For many years he promoted Rich Dad through the multilevel marketing company Amway, which continues to endorse and use it as part of recruitment. Rich Dad live events, which cost hundreds of dollars or more, are organized and promoted by independent licensees and are not developed, held or attended by Kiyosaki despite featuring his name and likeness prominently. Seminars consist mostly of advertising for other, even more expensive products or events; what little actual advice they do contain is often so bad that it has led to at least one warning from US law enforcement.

A self-described "passionate and outspoken advocate for financial education", Kiyosaki holds strong anti-science, anti-education and anti-intellectual views best summarized by the title and content of his book, If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go To School. He frequently encourages students to drop out of school by recalling his relationship with his father, a PhD engineer whom Kiyosaki describes as unemployed and unfulfilled. Kiyosaki's actual father was Ralph Hideyuki Kiyosaki, who was a middle-class teacher and superintendent of schools in Hilo, Hawaii. His father's middle-class background enabled Kiyosaki to get a good education, which he has benefited from but not appreciated.

Unsurprisingly, one of his best friends and onetime co-author is a certain other bankruptcy-prone real estate developer with a hostile attitude towards science, education and facts.