“The education system teaches people to be poor” is one of the most shocking statements by author Robert Kiyosaki in his work “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.
However, this is not the most shocking thing as Kiyosaki even suggests that having a job only makes you poor and young people pursuing their passion only waste time without a plan.
Published in 1997, this book has consistently become the best-selling work voted by the New York Times for 6 consecutive years, selling over 32 million copies in 51 different languages in 109 countries.
The path to being ‘poor’
“In fact, the education system teaches people to be ‘poor’ because it is designed to teach us to be employees rather than ever teaching us about money. There is a truth that I have to say that if you want to be poor, go to school and if you want to be rich and happy, then don’t do that,” advised author Kiyosaki
Author Robert Kiyosaki: “The moment you receive a salary, your brain is considered dead”
According to the author, all of society, families want their children to study hard and find a good job, ensuring their future career. However, a recent report by BGI showed that half of the graduates are doing jobs unrelated to what they learned in class.
Worse, many salaried workers were laid off in the 2023 cost-cutting storm and they were all educated, graduates of prestigious schools but they also couldn’t avoid being fired.
Even some lucky workers who quickly became rich with the lottery also run into bad luck when they are withdrawn by relatives, or are bankrupt after a few years because they don’t know how to spend.
“The reason why most people cannot succeed in getting rich is that they are not trained in finance. There are so many things you are taught in school that make you poorer,” said author Kiyosaki.
According to Kiyosaki, those who follow the academic path will remain poor with their traditional thinking.
Schools should avoid mistakes as much as possible to maintain salaried jobs, but people will not learn anything and it will also be difficult to grow up without trying and making mistakes. Most workers today are not able to get rich because they fail too little, learn too little from past mistakes.
“When I pay you and you see yourself as an employee, you have fallen into the ‘trap’ of poverty. The moment you receive a salary, your brain is considered dead. You will only use brain power when you reach a dead end,” said Kiyosaki.
“We are all afraid of failure but failure is the way we succeed,” added the author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.
Do not be afraid or lazy
Most workers today dare not try and learn from failure because of fear, laziness, or being deeply influenced by the idea from schools or family that they should not make mistakes.
However, according to Kiyosaki, this is the barrier to escaping poverty for ordinary workers.
First, many ordinary employees say they cannot do this or do that because in reality, they do not think or brainstorm to find ways to achieve what they want.
The founder of the Ford car company once said: “Whether you think you can or can’t do something, you’re always right.”
Therefore, opening the mind and accepting challenges is extremely important because when the brain keeps repeating that “I can’t”, you will become a failure just like what you think.
This is also similar to lying to oneself: “Money doesn’t matter to me” then it’s true that money doesn’t care about you.
All of us have fears. The important thing is how you face it. Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge but knowledge will empower the imagination.”
Therefore, the first step to getting rich is not trying to earn a degree or destroy health for a high-paying job, but giving up fear, laziness to change oneself, thinking, daring to try and make mistakes to find the most suitable path for oneself.
Don’t chase after passion too much
Although author Kiyosaki encourages everyone to “dare to try and make mistakes”, he also emphasizes the importance of time and youth in the context where many people only pursue passion without any plan.
The billionaire emphasizes that one of the biggest mistakes of young people today is “I don’t need to worry because I’m still young”. That is the “deadly” mistake that most people fall into.
“In the end, you will age and you will no longer be young,” he added. Kiyosaki believes that time is one of the assets and also the most important debt in life.
According to Kiyosaki, many young people nowadays pursue a materialistic lifestyle, try to make money to enjoy rather than ensuring long-term financial stability and accumulating assets.
This excitement is a double-edged sword as it drives people to overcome fear and laziness but also makes young people indifferent to planning and improving financial knowledge.
The author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” said that many young people are stuck in the planning stage. People want to earn a lot of money, pursue their passion, give up their current jobs and borrow money to start a business without a clear plan or a backup plan if they fail.
This approach, although ambitious, often ignores the importance of understanding different financial paths.
“The big mistake I see young people make is that they focus on what they love to do”.
For him, the journey to financial independence includes learning about taxes, debt, insurance, and many other skills to achieve financial freedom.
These skills are almost not formally trained in schools while young people today only pursue passion or money without paying attention to improving knowledge.
The rich are not greedy, the poor are
“The two favorite phrases of poor-minded people are ‘I will never get rich’ and ‘The rich are very greedy’. In my opinion, the poor are the greedy ones. There is a fact that if you want to get rich, first you have to give. I write books to convey information, invest in real estate and rent, create jobs for others… that’s how I get rich. The poor do not create or give anything. They only want to do whatever benefits them the most,” said author Kiyosaki.
This is another controversial point of view of Kiyosaki when critics argue that the rich use behaviors such as tax evasion, bending the law to benefit compared to the working class.
Of course, everyone has a valid point, but it is clear that Robert Kiyosaki’s success with his own path to wealth makes his opinions more noticed and respected by many.
“I am making millions of dollars. The amount of money I earn in a day is more than what many people earn in a lifetime,” said author Kiyosaki.
Source: Compilation
Bang Bang
