Author Details
Author Details
Kiyosaki, Robert T.
Robert Kiyosaki is an investor, businessman and best-selling author. His books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant, and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing are all best sellers. His ventures have allowed him to retire early, and his teachings are followed all around the world.
Robert Kiyosaki was born in Hawaii where his experiences of Rich Dad, Poor Dad began. Not choosing to following his “poor” father, Ralph Kiyosaki, who was state superintendent of schools he adopted the financial strategies of his “rich” dad – the entrepreneurial father of a childhood best friend. Robert says “In doing so, I chose not to listen to my poor dad, even though he was the one with all the college degrees,” he writes in /Rich Dad, Poor Dad/.
After high school, Robert went to study in New York. After graduation, he traveled the world on merchant ships. “I think that’s what really messed me up,” he says. “Once I saw the world, it was hard to come back to Hawaii.” Later he joined the U.S. Marines and went to Vietnam as an officer and a helicopter gunship pilot. After returning from Vietnam Robert got a job as a salesman for the company Xerox Corporation and in 1977 he started a company to produce Nylon and Velcro surf wallets, which grew into a multi million dollar worldwide product.
He admits that he didn’t know enough about patents and trademarks, and as a result the business eventually closed, however his first venture into business wetted his entrepreneurial appetite. After the closure, Robert began investing in real estate and on the stock market, before nearly becoming bankrupt. He owed about $850,000,” he says. “Obviously, you can’t pay that kind of money back by getting a job.” Robert tried a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors, which weren’t very successful.
In 1985 Robert Kiyosaki founded an education company that taught business and investing to thousands of students all over the world which proved very successful. In 1994 he retired at the age of 47. Even after retirement Robert continued with real estate and business investments, and wrote the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which hit bookstores in 1997.
Although he had achieved some recognition overseas, he was relatively unheard of in the US. After initial publishing rejections he printed 1,000 copies himself, and the book became an underground success. Robert has since written four more bestsellers under the /Rich Dad/ brand and to date has sold more than 12 million books (in 29 different languages).
Coinciding with the books Kiyosaki also invented a board game for the financially illiterate, Cashflow 101, which is the first of two board games designed to educate people about accounting, investing and finance, with Cashflow for Kids being the second game.
Robert Kiyosaki has a profound message for those wanting to improve their financial lives. That message is: "With every dollar in your hand, you have the power to choose to be rich, poor or middle class."
