Robert Kiyosaki — Friend or Foe?

Posted by neil on January 31, 2010
General

If you are an aspiring real estate investor, one of the first books that you will probably come across during your research into real estate will be Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

This will be one of the first books you come across because this book is everywhere.  Go to any self help section or real estate section of a book store, and you will be able to find this book no problem.

If you speak to modern day real estate investors, they will confirm and tell you that Rich Dad Poor Dad was one of the first books that they read on their road to real estate investment.

I have personally yet to meet a real estate investor that owns more than 3 rental properties that has not read this book.

As a real estate investor myself, I often meet a lot of people who are interested in real estate and who are aspiring to become real estate investors themselves.

I have on the odd occasion heard some very peculiar stories from novice real estate investors as it relates to Robert Kiyosaki and the Rich Dad Poor Dad brand.

These peculiar stories told to me by new investors have always related directly to the Rich Dad Poor Dad Seminars.

What has always struck me as peculiar from these stories has been the following:

During these seminars, the participants are instructed to call their credit card companies and have the limit on their credit cards increased as high as they will go.  The participants are told that they will need these high balances on their credit cards in order to buy real estate.  In the class, they are also given scripts of what to say to their credit card companies.

When I first started hearing these stories from aspiring investors, I could not believe it.

I just dismissed these stories as being unusually peculiar and did not invest much more thought into this.

This past weekend, my fellow Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) member, Chris Davies posted on his blog a very eye opening interview of Robert Kiyosaki conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC).  Watch this video, it may change he way you look at Robert Kiyosaki forever. In addition, the CBC also wrote an accompanying article which describes why Rich Dad Seminars are deceptive.

What are your thoughts? Is Robert Kiyosaki a friend or foe? Comment below.

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15 Comments to Robert Kiyosaki — Friend or Foe?

  • The Rich Dad book was one of the first books that got me thinking outside of the box, so I’m very thankful for having found it.

    That being said, every single thing I’ve heard about the Rich Dad training from people who have actually attended is that it is a huge rip-off.

    I haven’t watched the video yet, will check it out now…

    Reply

    • Hi Steph,

      Thanks for the comment.

      Hope you had a chance to check out the video.

      It was a great interview of Kiyosaki and a big time eye opener!

      Best Regards,
      Neil.

      Reply

  • Hey Neil,
    Good post! Julie and I watched the CBC vid tonight and WOW – it brought back memories of some of the tactics we were “taught” at a couple of seminars we took in our early days.

    Not sure that Kiyosaki can take ALL the blame here given who he has partnered with (Whitney International), but if he doesn’t agree with their practices (which he seemed to claim at the end of the vid), then he should bow out and take his brand with him. This will do serious harm to what many of us REI’s used to feel was one of the good guys. But, clearly he cannot be held in such high regard any longer.

    I myself went to one of his (Rich Dad) free afternoon seminars in Vancouver 2 years ago and the guy “teaching” the class was a complete idiot, braggart and condescending azzhole (pardon the language). I actually laughed out loud when he started telling people they were dumb if they didn’t listen to him! Wow!

    Anyways, I can go on and on but as you know Neil (and likely you too Steph – who we’re interviewing this Thursday, Feb. 4th – thanks Steph!), Julie already put up a great RANT about the guru’s out there.

    Thanks again Neil for sending this out!

    Cheers

    Reply

    • Hi Dave,

      I agree with you.

      Robert Kiyosaki was always held in such high regard by Real Estate Investors.

      I don’t know if he will ever be looked at the same way again.

      Best Regards,
      Neil.

      Reply

  • I agree with some of the comments, and there’s some good threads on myREINspace on the same topics. What a monkey.

    I hope people realize there’s quality real estate investment education out there.

    Reply

    • Hi Eric,

      Thanks for your comment. A very interesting link that you posted. I had heard some of these theories before.
      It really makes you wonder. Wow. What an eye opening link.

      Thanks for posting!

      Reply

  • I went to a Russ Whitney seminar and they did exactly this.
    We were given out scripts to call all of our credit cards to get them to raise the limits.

    Later that day the people that were running that seminar were pushing $6000 courses and coaching programs. They even had one program that was about $20,000 and it included Wholesale, Lease-Options, and several other techniques.

    I figured out that I could buy lots of books and CD’s with as little as $500 from ebay. I even bought a used Russ Whitney course off ebay for $50 and I can tell you it was definitly not worth $6000.

    Reply

    • Charles,
      That is an incredible story.
      I have heard the same story from a number of people who attended that same course.

      I think that one of the greatest things that a person can do to educate themselves about real estate is the following:

      Read a book on real estate each month.
      In 1 year you will have read 12 books!

      A great way to start.

      Thanks for your comment.
      Neil.

      Reply

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