I ran across this critique of author Robert Kiyosaki yesterday on the Motley Fool’s website, which lumps on the self-help guru whose fame largely stems from his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad and a line of related products and sequels.

Having just finished Kiyosaki’s book last week, commentator Mike Norman’s rebuke started me re-thinking Rich Dad.

“Much of the wisdom can be best described as simplistic, unsophisticated and in some cases, totally absurd,” Norman wrote. Now that I think about it, yeah, Kiyosaki comes off as a dick.

More than that, Norman questions the value of any advice given by someone who plays a bit casual with the facts. He writes:

In a recent column on Yahoo! Finance titled “Only the Rich Survive” (again using cockiness in the headline, possibly to sell more books and self-help material, but nonetheless, something that should make you wary), he talks about a visit he made to the New York Mercantile Exchange this past June. With characteristic haughtiness, he tells the reader, “For those of you unfamiliar with the NYMEX, it’s the exchange where commodities like orange juice, pork bellies, gold, crude oil, natural gas, copper, and silver are traded.”

Orange juice?

Pork bellies?!

The NYMEX happens to be the premier energy derivatives exchange in the world. I know; I used to be a member and floor trader there. But you don’t have to be a member to know that pork bellies are not traded on the NYMEX, and while orange juice is traded in the same building, it is not a NYMEX contract. Incredibly, Kiyosaki throws in crude, gasoline, and other energy contracts as a mere afterthought.

This should raise some red flags. It should tell you something about this guy. Either he’s clueless, or he has complete disregard for you and the quality of the information he is giving you. (Think about it. How could he care if he has no qualms at all about telling you pork bellies are traded on NYMEX?)

I had my own issues with Rich Dad, from Kiyosaki’s comparisons between the way governments and businesses spend money (they are, in fact, different entities serving different purposes; I don’t think Kiyosaki gets that) to his strange misunderstanding of what a union does.

And his writing is just plain awful. It’s pedestrian and imprecise, redundant and round-about. Much of the book could probably be reduced to about 10 pages of colorful PowerPoint full of the little diagrams Kiyosaki likes so much.

I’m a slow reader, but I finished Rich Dad in a matter of hours. It’s interesting, sure, but not riveting. It just has the literary wholesomeness of french fries.

There’s a part in the book where Kiyosaki tells a Singapore journalist that he’s a “best-selling author, not a best-writing author.” That might be the most accurate line in the book.

But here’s the thing: I would never have read the critique had I not already read Rich Dad. I probably wouldn’t even be on the Motley Fool website. I can’t say whether or not any of Kiyosaki’s investment advise is worth the trees cut down to print it or the oxygen consumed on his lecture tours, I haven’t tested it out for myself. But it did get me off my financial ass and thinking about what to do with my pitiful savings, besides leaving it to grow at a few measly percents a year in a credit union savings account.

So I figure I can learn a few things from Kiyosaki. Maybe I’ll get rich and maybe I’ll balance my checkbook (which of these do you think has the longer odds?), and maybe it will have something to do with the bargain priced (probably bootleg) copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad I bought outside a Beijing university my first week in China.

And maybe they’ll have a free press here for the 2008 Olympics. It could happen.
I’ll even save you a few hours you might be thinking of spending reading Kiyosaki’s book. Here’s the gist:

“Assets pay you, liabilities cost you, so get some assets. Being rich is a mindset, not a financial statement. Take calculated risks. Buy more of my books and other crap with my name on it.”

There, I’ve saved you $10 you can now spend on a book about China. (I get a cut if you buy one through a link on this blog. Check out My China Reading List.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 10:25 pm and is filed under self-indulgence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.