I finished reading CASHFLOW Quadrant, by Robert T. Kiyosaki yesterday and I feel a bit obliged to write about it. On the one hand, because the book is partially filled with incomplete information, being too vague, and for some part promoting illegal practice (e.g trading stocks based on insider information), on the other hand because the book still does make some good points… and it’s a great motivational book by the way. I know, I know, when I read my first book of Robert Kiyosaki, I was quite positive about him, until I did some further research on the topic.

The Cashflow Quadrant basically describes four different quadrants, which characterize how people earn their money. Without wanting to go into too much detail, the left side of the quadrant represents employees and self-employed people, which count for around 80% of the world population and possess about 5% of the wealth on this planet. The right side of the quadrant represents the 20% of the population possessing 95% of all wealth: business owners and investors.

This means, that people on the left side of the quadrant are putting time and effort into a businesses, which are owned by people on the right side of the quadrant, and they get a small fee for doing so. Therefore, the one and only way to reach true financial freedom is to switch from being employed, to owning a business or becoming an investor.

The CASHFLOW Quadrant is not only a great motivational book, but it highlights a way of thinking, which most people are not familiar with; it tries to pull people away from their inner reality, which is usually to work hard and make a career at a large and noteworthy company, and to give them a taste of what life would be like if they would mind their own business, in stead of someone else’s business.

Robert Kiyosaki does give some real life examples, such as investing in real estate and then having someone renting it to pay back mortgage. Additionally, his advice is more based on psychology and ‘attitude matters’, than on the science of doing business.

Still, one phrase which caught my attention was ‘Mind Your Own Business‘. Relating this to what I read in the CASHFLOW Quadrant, and relating this also the all the negative criticism, I give it two meanings:

• Reaching true financial freedom and exceeding the living standards of the average working population (this last phrase is important to me, as some people might find an average employee’s salary as satisfying) means building my own business and investment activities; it means that the time of work I put in my activities is detached from my earnings, and it means that I should be minding my own business, instead of someone else’s business.
• Having greater confidence in my abilities, especially in my abilities to learn by doing. It is very easy to gain more and more, and even more information from various books, mentoring sessions, or coaching seminars… but many so-called gurus’ main business is just being a guru. Knowing this, I find greater potential in myself to select information I can truly learn from, from recognized authors in their field, and to take small steps towards building wealth and learn from that.

Mr. Kiyosaki seems to be under the attack of many criticists, obviously not without reason, claiming that Robert Kiyosaki is a motivational speaker rather than a refined business man, and fully incapable of providing financial advice. If you want to read more about criticism on Robert T. Kiyosaki and his work, you can visit John T. Reeds site, or the article ‘Rich Men, Poor Advice’ on the Wall Street Journal.

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