The world is full of poor (who struggle to have 3 times a day food, lives in not safe houses and weak health) or middle class people (who work for morning till evening on all working days expecting daily or monthly wages or salaries only to spend it all to bills payable). If we consider 20% say, approximately 120 Crores of people are below poverty line and 70% people are considered as middle class. 9% of the people are on their way to comfort and luxury. There is less than 1% of population whom we can consider as rich. Out of 1% ‘Rich’, half of them have richness with them from birth where the remaining half reaches there by their will and ways. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a book which tries to prepare the reader to reach the 1% bracket in long term from whatever the condition they are in.
Many years back, when I was struggling in my career I found a tempting news paper advertisement to attend a seminar with a financial tip. The question the advertisement answered was ‘Why the rich is getting richer & the poor getting poorer?’ The advertisement clearly mentioned that the rich get richer because they make investments where the poor borrow and never invest. I was all tempted to go for the session but could not attend it. I can now recollect that it is probably the author of the book who visited Dubai that time. I am now happy to see that I didn’t attend the program because the advertisement had teaches me what this book was trying to teach but without moving to dangerous zones as the book did.
For those who have determined to establish richness in any means this book is definitely for you and I will say, give a read and chances are that you will like it. Also for those who are ready to take some basics from the book judging its merit, there are good information shared in it. The problem however is that the book is only good in its basics and undid whatever good it had with some ‘practical suggestions’ which made the author’s lack of understanding about money, life and responsibilities.
The book and the author succeed in establishing one basic point. That is, to get richer you have to keep on investing. Earlier the better. Financial intelligence is a must which is not there for most people. We have to develop muscles of financial intelligence. So far so good.
Even when the book helped to evoke financial interest in many readers, I felt the book failed in many accounts:
The book and the author seems having a mean or no understanding of ‘money’. The author even considers it only as an ‘agreement’. Here and in many places I can see that the author lacks clarity. Also the author doesn’t state what one person will do with the extra richness they made. Attending board meetings abroad and inventing more money is not an answer.
For the author, paying tax seems a big crime. One gets an idea that governments are taxing individuals and companies to pay to the lazy people. This is not true. Money given as a tax is a contribution by the individual or a company in the development of a nation. Without that the so called empires will not be secure. The author’s view that to keep richness you have to keep skipping taxes is in bad taste.
The author ridicules the importance of education, hard work, skill, talent, invention etc. The author dreams of a day where all people work only by mind. I wonder who will feed those people who only work with mind!!
Pay first attitude. The author took shelter under a classic book called ‘The Richest Man in the Babylon’ but as a person who has read the book I can clearly see that it is not the idea Richard Calson tried to convey. It is only a sheer irresponsibility to keep the necessary bills pending and lavish and pay ourselves first.
The author advises us that good foundation is a must if we are planning to build big buildings. Later we can see the book preaching to build paper empires. The book could have been presented better but it all ended up as a ‘real estate broker’s gimmick’ and ‘stock market people’s early morning dream’.
The attitude about labour is very bad where the author seems determined to keep the people run the rat race by without paying their due amounts. Also, the author’s attitude on advises is in bad taste. The author complains about their talking of ‘chicken little’s’ but keep mum on the loud boasting by dogs that ‘I can eat 10 elephants’. When the author astonishes with their attitude of paying 15% tip to a restaurant help and not willing to pay 7% to a real estate broker, I can only pity the comparisons!
The author knows well that his is not a best book, but a best selling book. The author also states that ‘teach and you shall receive’. I can see a point which I am not ready to buy.
Overall the book has good points and good views but the comprehension was very bad and dangerous. I do not recommend the book to public but it can be a good read for some selected specialist who can judge and guide themselves.