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February 28, 2004
Neat Dad, Sloppy Dad
By QBlog in
Tiger Cafe appears to be the blog musings of a guy named Raymond G (R G). After a brief review it looks like the blog discusses Politics, Multi-Level Marketing and everything in between. The title of one particular post from Jan. 25, 2003 caught my attention.
Beware Multi-level Marketing & Rich Dad, Poor Dad explains "two schemes" that R G believes you should avoid: Multi-Level Marketing and Robert Kiyosaki.
The "warnings" about MLM are nothing new and R G provides links to a variety of Web sites critical of the business method. However, the criticisms of Robert Kiyosaki were new to me. I am familiar with John T. Reed's critical analysis of Kiyosaki but the Tiger Cafe cites an article allegedly from Money Magazine (the linked article requires registration however I think I've found a non-registration version here). According to R G, the article criticizes Kiyosaki for:
1) Being too simplistic with vague financial advice. He mainly encourages you to start you own business and invest in real estate. And he teaches some basic accounting. But few details or real financial education.I'll be honest, I'm no fan of Kiyosaki but he has inspired me to write my own book which will be titled, Neat Dad, Sloppy Dad. It will describe my adventures with my real dad (sloppy dad) and how I learned that being sloppy isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'll explain how neat dad taught me to fold my underwear, keep a crease in my pants and use lemon juice to clean wood surfaces. I'm shopping it around right now but Simon & Schuster is interested.
2) Being overly optimistic and ignoring risk. He preaches a feel-good philosophy that encourages you to take huge risks, without telling you what may go wrong.
3) Not being too open about how HE makes his money. About gaining more income than you might think from the sale of his books, videos, and tapes.
Comments
Hi, this is Raymond. Thanks for mentioning my blog post. I'm really curious what you, as a husband of an MLM seller, think of the legitimacy of MLM.
Do you and your wife have major disagreements? For me, after going to several intro MLM meetings (for Quixtar, Amway, etc. etc.), I learned my lesson and never took them seriously again.
To me, the economic argument is the strongest one against MLM. The point that eventually, you will run out of potential customers for your MLM business. That after just a small amount of levels down the "pyramid," the exponential amount of customers people would have to have to make money would exceed the population of the Earth!
That, plus the refusal of people who hook you into MLM to tell you any specifics about their products, about the pros and cons, about financial statements and performance, etc. The whole fanatical religious cultish way MLM companies operate just spells sham to me.
So let me get this straight. Robert Kiyosaki is a bad, bad man and his advice should not be taken because his advice, though good, is not good enough?
Amazing.
The master of the straw man strikes again!
*whips cape in the wind*
For great justice!
In my opinion, Kiyosaki's books shouldn't be sold in the financial section or self help section of the book store, but in the fiction section. "Rich Dad" is imaginery, and the advice Kiyosaki gives is vague and way too open ended to have any real benefit.
How about this one "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". The rich dad is a diamond in Quixtar and the poor dad is in his downline.
Actually, Robert Kiyosaki is a fiction writer whose advise is slipshod and useless. Worse, he changes his pitch to whomever he's talking to. I'd bet that if I gave him a million bucks I could get him to dis MLM (and especially Amway).
How much will you wager on that?
I think Robert Kiyosaki's advice is great and is meant to be vague to get you to think. To tell you the truth I don't think it's vague at all have you listened to "Chose to be Rich" it's very exact and taught me about the basic principles of making money.
I'm also not sure what you mean by he doesn't explain the risks. He tells about how him and his life where homeless after a business deal gone bad and spent there last $10 on a bucket of chicken and lived in a car for 3 weeks.
I personally would not want to buy a book that told me how to become a millionaire step by step. The reason is because no such book could exist, there is no sure fire way to do it.
In closing, I've applied Robert's principles and I'm alot better off then I was when I was buying liabilities instead of assets. It was a great eye opener.
I have bought quite a bite of Kiyosaki's material. It is helpful in opening your eyes to what is possible, and giving you a braod overview. As, I have found out, it is much more complicated than I was lead to believe, but, I am glad I have started. I will not start Quixtar, you would have to hold 25 people a month (5000 in retail product) to hold a slight profit. Maybe not the best scheme.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think I heard him say "Go sell Amway products". I heard it as "Be your own Amway" To use (Network Marketing) as a marketing tool for your own business. You have to market your business and Network marketing is just one slice of marketing that makes up a whole pie. Feel free to toss out as many slices as you like, it's your pie, it's your success or failure. It's sheer entertainment for me to see the Human Nature of doubt running rapid in this digital world called the Net. Try using the same energy to create a positive marketing campaign, maybe even a Networking campaign, it spreads the same way ;)~
I think "Rich Dad Poor Dad" is a great book because it targets a specific audience and gives them what they want. Whats the problem with that? Some people need a book like that to motivate them to lift a finger and get working. Yea, real estate investments arent as eaasy as he makes them sound. But that book is mainly for procrstinators that feel stuck in the rat race and want to find an easy way out, not real estate investors. You may disagree with what he says and the specifics of the stupid investment examples he gives in his book, but so what, hes not hurting your business any by getting people excited about real estate, is he? Ive seen people go from sub par job joes to beginner real estate investors in 3 years because they picked up a copy of his book and started learning. Theres a legitimate market for guys like Kiyosaki and he has tapped it well.
I have read couple of rich dad books and like them to some extent. Some of the methods and examples that he uses look quite stupid but and that is a big but his book isn't meant to make you rich. It is just a tool to get you rid of your middle class mindset.
His main point is that you do not have to work for money throughout your life but instead take control of your cashflow by making some intelligent well researched decisions.
The reason i believe that he keeps his book simple is that he doesn't want people to develop the habit called "Analysis Paralysis", Many people never start a business or leave their comfortable jobs because they keep researching whether a particular oppurtunity is good for them or not and they never are confident that they have enough information to get started.
So in a nutshell his book says that being rich is a matter of choice and whoever has that desire would definitely try to figure out a way to become rich.
The problem with RK is his advice, while it sounds good and like it should work, is bull. He never made his money off of real estate, he made his money off of his books telling you how to invest.
Yeah, we all WANT to have enough cash flow to invest in properties left and right. It didn't take reading a book to tell me that. But just to quit our jobs, start a MLM and hope for the best is not good advice.
And he never went bankrupt. Part of the story.
My book is titled "Drunk Dad, Sober Dad."
Posted by: Ty | February 28, 2004 5:13 PM