Robert Toru Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an American businessman and author, known for the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of personal finance books. He founded the Rich Dad Company, which provides personal finance and business education through books and videos, and Rich Global LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012.[1]
Kiyosaki was sued in a class action suit filed by attendees of his seminars,[2][3] and is the subject of investigative documentaries by the CBC,[4]WTAE-TV[5] and CBS News.[6] In January 2024, Kiyosaki stated that he was more than $1-billion in debt.[7][8]
Early life and family
Kiyosaki was born in 1947 in Hilo, Territory of Hawaii, into a family of Japanese descent.[9] His father, Ralph Kiyosaki, was an educator, Hawaii's superintendent of schools, and a lieutenant governor candidate of the Republican Party.[10][11] His mother, Marjorie Kiyosaki, was a nurse.
Kiyosaki graduated from Hilo High School,[12] from which he was nearly expelled due to poor grades.[11]
Early career
In 1977, Kiyosaki started a company called "Rippers" that marketed nylon and Velcro wallets.[13] The company eventually went bankrupt, and he took a job as a sales associate for Xerox until June 1978.[13]
In the 1980s, Kiyosaki became a motivational speaker in San Diego who ran a course on Erhard Seminars Training (EST) techniques called Money and You, which he attended in 1974 from the course's creator, Marshall Thurber. Thurber transferred the business to Kiyosaki and D.C. Cordova in 1984. They expanded the course beyond the U.S., including to Australia.[11] The course at one point had tens of thousands of students internationally.[13] The business nearly collapsed in Australia in October 1993 after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners aired a documentary about emotional abuse in the course of the Money and You program. Kiyosaki said the program was "unfair" and considered suing the ABC before deciding against it. He left the business in 1994.[11]
Financial education career
In 1993, Kiyosaki published his first book, If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School. In his book, he encouraged parents not to send their children to college and instead to enter the real estate business.[14]
In 1997, Kiyosaki founded Cashflow Technologies, Inc., a holding company that owns and operates the Rich Dad and Cashflow brands.[13][15][16] Kiyosaki created the Cashflow board and video games to educate adults and children about business and financial concepts.[17]
Kiyosaki settled a lawsuit in 2008 brought by Sharon Lechter, his former business partner, with an undisclosed sum. Lechter said Kiyosaki and his wife had enriched themselves and redirected assets in the business, which the Kiyosakis denied. She sold her stake in Rich Dad Company to them after the settlement and ended the partnership that lasted about 10 years.[18]
Other businesses
Kiyosaki's earlier two businesses (for surfing bags with Velcro fasteners and T-shirts) went bankrupt.[19]
Kiyosaki operates through a number of companies that he owns fully or in part, and through franchisee arrangements with other companies authorized to use his name for a fee.[20] This includes Rich Dad LLC, Whitney Information Network, Rich Dad Education and Rich Dad Academy.[21] The company's main revenues come from franchisees of the Rich Dad seminars that are conducted by independent individuals using Kiyosaki's brand name.[22]
In 2012, Kiyosaki's company, Rich Global LLC, filed for bankruptcy and was ordered to pay $23.7 million to The Learning Annex and its founder because Kiyosaki had used The Learning Annex for speaking opportunities.[23][24][25] Mike Sullivan, the CEO of Rich Dad Company, one of at least 10 companies through which Kiyosaki conducts business, said Rich Global LLC had been dormant for years. At bankruptcy, the company had nearly $26 million in liabilities and $1.8 million in assets.[23]
Kiyosaki has authored more than 26 books including Rich Dad Poor Dad, which has been translated into dozens of languages. As of 2017, nearly 40 million copies of the book had been sold.[26] He said his books were an advertisement for his higher-priced seminars.[3]
Kiyosaki's financial and business teachings claim that financial independence can be achieved through passive income.[27][28] He also claims that wealth cannot be achieved from going to school and obtaining a traditional job.[29]
He advocates for using what he calls "good debt" as leverage to buy financial assets such as real estate.[30] Additionally, he is a strong proponent of buying gold and silver, often referring to them as "God's money."[31] In 2006 and 2007, Kiyosaki's Rich Dad seminars continued to promote real estate as a sound investment, just before their prices came crashing down.[32]
In 2010, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Marketplace broadcast a documentary on scams that were being perpetuated by Kiyosaki's company in Canada in the guise of "Rich Dad" seminars.[4] Investments in trailers and trailer parks, which seminar instructors claimed to be evidence of success, were found to be barren and unused land.[17]
Also in 2010, Allan Roth of CBS News documented what occurred when he attended one of Rich Dad's free seminars and dissected some of the tactics employed.[6]
Kiyosaki's advice has also been criticized for emphasizing anecdotes and no concrete advice on how readers should proceed or work.[33]
Personal life
Kiyosaki divorced from his first wife when he was 32.[34]
Kiyosaki met his second wife and business partner Kimberly "Kim" Kiyosaki (née Meyer) in 1984, and they got married in 1986.[34][11] They amicably divorced in 2017.[35]
When asked about his net worth, Kiyosaki claimed to be more than $1 billion in debt.[36]
Rich Dad Poor Dad – What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! (first published in 1997) Warner Business Books. ISBN0-446-67745-0.
Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom (2000). ISBN0-446-67747-7.
Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! (2000). ISBN0-446-67746-9.
Rich Dad's Prophecy: Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History Is Still Coming… and How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit from It! (2002). Warner Books. ISBN0-641-62241-4.
Rich Dad's The Business School: For People Who Like Helping People (2003) ISBN979-686-729-X.
Rich Dad's Who Took My Money?: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins! (2004) ISBN0-446-69182-8.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens: The Secrets About Money – That You Don't Learn in School! (2004) ISBN0-446-69321-9.
Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job: 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business (2005). ISBN0-446-69637-4.
Why 'A' Students Work for 'C' Students and Why 'B' Students Work for the Government: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Education for Parents (2013). ISBN978-1-61268-076-7.
^Trump, Donald; Kiyosaki, Robert T.; McIver, Meredith; Lechter, Sharon L. (2006). Why we want you to be rich : two men, one message. New York Berkeley, CA: Rich Press Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN978-1-933914-02-2. OCLC71305016.
