Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Robert Kiyosaki, fully Robert Toru Kiyosaki

American Businessman, Investor, Financial Literacy Activist, Motivational Speaker and Best-Selling Author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books

"Doing more and more with less and less is one form of being generous. In fact, the easiest way to become rich is by being generous."

"In school, you are given the lesson first. On the street, you're given the mistake first and then it's up to you to find the lesson, if you ever find it."

"If you must work for money, find a way to work and be happy. That is financial intelligence."

"In the real world outside of academics, something more than just grades is required. I have heard it called "guts," "chutzpah," "balls," "audacity," "bravado," "cunning," "daring," "tenacity" and "brilliance." This factor, whatever it is labeled, ultimately decides one's future much more than school grades. "

"I like Texas and Texans. In Texas, everything is bigger. When Texans win, they win big. And when they lose, it's spectacular. If you really want to learn the attitude of how to handle risk, losing and failure, go to San Antonio and visit the Alamo. The Alamo is a great story of brave people who chose to fight, knowing there was no hope of success against overwhelming odds. They chose to die instead of surrendering. It's an inspiring story worthy of study; nonetheless, it's still a tragic military defeat. They got their butts kicked. A failure if you will. They lost. So how do Texans handle failure? They still shout, "Remember the Alamo!" That's why I like Texans so much. They took a great failure and turned it into a tourist destination that makes them millions. Texans don't bury their failures. They get inspired by them. They take their failures and turn them into rallying cries. Failure inspires Texans to become winners. But that formula is not just the formula for Texans. It is formula for all winners."

"?A? students work for the ?C? students, and ?B? students work for the government."

"A financial crisis is a great time for professional investors and a horrible time for average ones."

"401k?s ? most of us have bet our retirement on the stock market ? but our educational system has not taught us to be good investors!"

"A business creates most of the truly wealthy people, but a business takes the most financial education. Real estate requires the second highest financial education. Paper assets are easy to get into, but are the riskiest."

"?So the secret to your business success is being willing to make mistakes and then learning from them?? Yes. That is my job as an entrepreneur. My job is to set new goals, create a plan, make mistakes and risk failing. The more mistakes I make, the smarter I become and hopefully the company grows and prospers from the lessons learned."

"A bureaucrat?s job is to get their hands deeper in your pockets ? legally ? and your job is to have them take as little as possible ? legally."

"A good friend of mine, who has been a venture capitalist for over fifty years, always says, ?The rich don?t buy stocks; they sell stocks.? The rich create companies and then sell the company?s shares to investors. That is legally printing money."

"A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself."

"A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Most people only have in mind the short term problem of the bills at the end of the month."

"A new rule is, after 1971 and 1974, we all need more financial education and invest our greatest asset, our minds, or increase our financial IQ."

"A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That?s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It?s having backbone."

"A plan is a bridge to your dreams. Your job is to make the plan or bridge real, so that your dreams will become real. If all you do is stand on the side of the bank and dream of the other side, your dreams will forever be just dreams. First make your plans real and then your dreams will come true."

"A true capitalist doesn't have a job, because other people and other people's money work for them."

"A smart person welcomes new ideas because it adds to the momentum of other ideas."

"A short squeeze could happen with the U.S. dollar if lenders suddenly forced debtors to pay in cash."

"A reason or a purpose is a combination of wants and don't wants."

"A mistake is a signal that it is time to learn something new, something you don?t know before."

"Academic qualifications are important and so is financial education. They?re both important and schools are forgetting one of them."

"A winning strategy must include losing."

"A true investor buys to own the investment and pass it on for generations."

"Accounting is possibly the most confusing, boring subject in the world, but if you want to be rich long-term, it could be the most important subject."

"Acquire income-generating assets! Businesses that do not require my presence; Stocks; Bonds; Mutual funds; income-generating real-estate; Royalties; etc."

"After one of my demoralizing business failures, I went to Rich Dad and asked, "So what did I do wrong? I thought I designed it well." "Obviously you didn't," Rich Dad said with a smirk. "How many times do I have to do this? I'm the biggest failure I know." Rich Dad said, "Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed." Shuffling the papers at his desk for a moment, he then looked up at me and said, "The world is filled with want-to-be entrepreneurs. They sit behind desks, have important sounding titles like vice-president, branch manager, or supervisor, and some even take home a decent paycheck. These want-to-be entrepreneurs dream of someday starting their own business empire and maybe someday some of them will. Yet I believe most will never make the leap. Most will have some excuse, some rationalization, such as, 'When the kids are grown.' Or, 'I'll go back to school first.' Or, 'When I have enough money saved.'" "But they never jump from the plane," I said, finishing his thoughts. Rich Dad nodded."

"Action first, mistakes second, lessons third."

"All empires come to an end, and the American one is no exception."

"All depends on how determined we are to be successful."

"All I work hard to do is build businesses, develop real estate, invest in stocks and bonds, and I have oil and gas, gold and silver. That's what I work on."

"All you had to do is to determine what you want, and then after that the quest for receiving."

"Although I don't like the way the Chinese do business, I continue to do business in China. I have to. They're the next world power."

"Although it is a painful lesson, I have come to realise that the more financially successful I become, the more I need to keep my ego and arrogance in check. Instead of becoming more arrogant, which is not financial intelligence, I remind myself to become more grateful and humble, so I can continue to learn and earn more, rather than give it all back to the market, which I have done. I have learned the hard way that not only does my money follow Newton?s law, so does my intelligence."

"All of these skills were important for my success."

"Always remember that it's not money that will make you rich, its business skills."

"Always remember that there are two kinds of pain? good pain and bad pain. The reason most people are not rich is simply because they do not want to go through the good pain. Many people are in bad financial pain simply because they avoid the good pain. Eg. 1) Constant financial struggle 2) Living below one?s means and a low standard of living 3) Living above one?s means? keeping up with the Joneses 4) Chronically saying ?I can?t afford it? 5) Worrying about money 6) Always in debt? bad debt 7) Saving for tomorrow but not living today."

"Although both Dads worked hard, I noticed that one Dad had a habit of putting his brain to sleep when it came to money matters, and the other had a habit of exercising his brain. The long-term result was that one Dad grew stronger financially and the other grew weaker. It is not much different from a person who goes to the gym to exercise on a regular basis versus someone who sits on the couch watching television. Proper physical exercise increases your chances for health, and proper mental exercise increases your chances for wealth. Laziness decreases both health and wealth."

"Always remember to have fun. This is only a game. Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. But have fun. Most people never win because they?re more afraid of losing. That is why I found school so silly. In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk. The same is true for learning to ride a bike. I still have scars on my knees, but today I can ride a bike without thinking. The same is true for getting rich. Unfortunately the main reason most people are not rich is because they are terrified of losing. Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success."

"Always start at the end before you begin. Professional investors always have an exit strategy before they invest. Knowing your exit strategy is an important investment fundamental."

"American people, always in search of a bargain in the name of saving money, send the money they earn to countries that produce these low-cost bargains. That money costs them their jobs and as well as our country?s wealth."

"Am I a coward or not?"

"An asset = something that puts $$$ in your pocket whether you work or not."

"An active investor is someone who actually lives off their investments as opposed to wages from a job."

"An asset puts money into my pocket. Your home is not an asset."

"An important distinction is that rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class tend to buy luxuries first."

"An asset is something that puts money in my pocket. A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket."

"An example of good debt is the debt on the apartment houses I own. That debt is good only as long as there are tenants to pay my mortgages. If tenants stop paying their rent, my good debt turns into bad debt."

"An incompetent, lazy, arrogant, or corrupt accountant or attorney can cost you a lot of money. I know from personal experience. Just because someone is an A student in school does not mean they are competent or honest in real life."