Top 5 things to learn from Robert Kiyosaki

We don't know about your dad, but just in case you're not rich enough to buy the book, here's a quick rundown.

Robert Kiyosaki is an American businessman, investor, author, and financial educator. He has written many bestsellers, one of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad is considered one of the all-time best financial books written for the people who want to get started in their journey of financial education. He also owns a company called The Rich Dad Company, which focuses on educating people in terms of personal finance and business. 

There is an interesting story behind why he uses the term; Rich Dad, a lot. You will have to read his book to know that if you have not read it yet. He surely has great lessons from which all of us can learn and get on the path to achieving financial freedom. So, here are the Top 5 things to learn from Robert Kiyosaki that we found helpful.

Lesson 1: Do what is necessary, even if you hate it!

Robert, throughout his life, did things that were necessary for him to achieve financial freedom even if he hated it. He learned accounting, taxes, law, etc. You won’t believe it, despite being a bestselling author, he hates writing but he still does it. Why? Because he wants to spread the knowledge that he has learned throughout his life. It is his mission to teach people and get them on the path to financial freedom. And to do that he has to write, otherwise, he will not be able to reach as many people. 

Robert tells an interesting story in one of his books. I’m paraphrasing it here for you to read. Once he was interviewed by a female journalist in a hotel for a newspaper. After the interview, through conversing with her, he got to know that she has a degree in literature and she is a great writer. Many people liked her work when she showed it to them but her books don't sell in the store, that’s why to sustain herself she works as a journalist. 

Robert gave her a solution, he told her that she should learn sales. After hearing this, the journalist got a bit offended. She told Robert that after working and studying so hard for all these years, I won’t do such a petty thing.

Robert said, see you have the great skill of writing, now you just need to learn how to sell it, so that you can reach more people and make money out of it. She didn’t listen and got even more offended, and left. 

So, what Robert was trying to teach through this story is that people consider some jobs less respectable than others and do only what they like. But if you want to be Rich, you have to do things that you don’t enjoy. That journalist thought that doing sales would somehow defame her reputation and because of that she kept struggling for no reason, otherwise, she could have sold many bestsellers and made millions.

Lesson 2: Success takes discipline

Whether you want to be successful in life, career, or even financially, discipline is mandatory. Robert emphasizes a lot on the power of discipline. He says he always saw his friends partying and enjoying themselves when they were young but what he understood through his observation is that they all lacked discipline. And he already knew that if he wants to do anything successfully in his life he needs discipline. 

So he joined a military school, where he learned discipline, and to further enhance the same he worked at the Marine Corps (a service branch of the United States Armed Forces). Taking these actions gave him an unshakable discipline.

Lesson 3: If you want to be Rich, focus on building assets, not on increasing your income

According to Robert, most people think that if they want to be rich, they need to focus on increasing their incomes and that’s what they do. But it’s a rat race because as soon as your income increases, your expenses and taxes increase too, and this vicious cycle never stops. 

He says your money should work for you, not the other way round. But when you work for paychecks, you are working for money. So to get rich, focus on building your asset column because your assets will make your money work for you, and will give you the financial freedom that you always wanted. 

Income-generating assets include rental properties, stocks, gold, silver, etc.

Lesson 4: Your mind is your Greatest Asset!

Robert says you should never stop working on your mind. You should exercise it daily by giving it tough challenges and problems to solve, and learning constantly. If you work on your greatest asset daily and make it strong, it will help you achieve what your biggest investments could never achieve. Even at the age of 75, he still works on it regularly. His mind is what gave him whatever he has today.

Lesson 5: Work to Learn; not to Earn

Most people work to earn and not to learn. By doing so, they fail to grab the opportunities they could have had by working to learn. When you work to earn, you don’t focus on learning, you work for the paychecks, which hinders your growth and makes your job boring. 

Whereas, if you work to learn, your growth eventually skyrockets, and you get better opportunities both in terms of career and money. As a result, you learn more, you earn more, and of course, you enjoy more. And because of this, you lead a much better life compared to a person who just works for paychecks.

Robert always focuses on learning; he tells everyone to learn regularly. He himself has not stopped learning to date. He learns so that he can make use of the opportunities that most people fail to see and stay ahead of the competition. So you should focus on learning as well!

Conclusion

Robert Kiyosaki emphasizes the most on learning. So whatever you want to do in your life, just keep learning and never let your likes and dislikes stop you from doing what is necessary. 

In today’s age, everyone says that you should do what you love but the reality is if we want to be successful and rich, doing all kinds of boring things is even more important than only doing the thing that you love. Not just Robert, many of the great people have said this. 

We hope you got an insight into what it takes to be financially free and become rich. Tell us in the comments below, what do you think is the most important lesson of all?