Oct 9, 2020
Uncommonly Common tale of being Inspired by the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad
This, most certainly, isn’t the first place that you find a summary of the world famous book Rich Dad Poor Dad but here I have noted down all the financial advices, quotes, and messages that were major takeaways for me and would love to share with you.
If you’re wondering why you should continue to read further in the firstplace though, I’ll tell you. The core reason behind this list and it being shared is personal, educational, and has been inspirational to me.
Your takeaways from this book are probably not going to be too different from mine if you have read it already but if I can compress the book in short sentences AND enable a person to relate to my state of mind and my dire need for more and more inspiration, I think that would be something!
I began by reading and highlighting the parts that I found significant and then decided to note them down on a piece of paper so I can refer to them again and again (and I did, believe me).
While I had noted a number of important, technical quotes related to finance and money, I had also highlighted so many that were motivational and intended to influence your core value system in some or the other way.
As I read them the first time, I wondered, “Am I this lost as a person? Am I in this severe need of inspiration, only to have courage and be willing to dream? Did I need a book to tell me to allow myself to dream, especially one that primarily talks about financial security and freedom??”
Initially, I was shocked (although I know I probably shouldn’t have been) at this acknowledgement! But eventually I gathered the courage to accept that I was, indeed, in need of inspiration and financial education at the time when I was about to graduate and become a working, earning, adult.
So I read them again and marked the ‘life-lessons’ given by the author (not out of arrogance this time) and the financial advices that I could relate to the most. And I had a long single list encompassing two categories of quotes, with two very different underlying messages, all of which have now pushed me to widen my horizons and taught me to rid myself a very deeply rooted negative emotion of mine— fear.
As I continue to be on an internal journey of overcoming two of my dominant negative emotions, fear and regret, I have come to realise that an open and a stable mind are the key ingredients in the process. I am currently on a third book by Robert Kiyosaki and I highly appreciate how educational his books are but at the same time his attempts to get to the readers' roots, their core values is commendable.
If you think you haven’t read enough of this piece already I promise there’s a lot more on its way. And when I say it I mean it. So, go get a cuppa and have an open mind as you read through my personal list of inspiration and information from the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad.
P.S: The quotes in Italics are the ones I related to and learned from the most and the ones not are still important to me. Also, that I have modified some of the sentences for them to fit my level of understanding, and those have not been put under quotation marks, but the messages remain the same. Hope that does not get me in trouble, though.
Here are the 50 quotes from Rich Dad Poor Dad that I would like to share with you:
- “He spoke out against the entitlement mentality and how it created weak and financially needy people.”
- “You really wanted to win, but the fear of losing was greater than the excitement of winning.”
- “If you think I’m the problem, then you have to change me. If you realise that you’re the problem then you can change yourself, learn something, and grow wiser.”
- Passion = Anger + Love
- “Every person has a weak and needy part of their soul that can be bought, and he knew that every individual also had a part of their soul that was resilient and could never be bought. It was only a question of which one was stronger.”
- “The avoidance of money is just as psychotic as as being attached to it.”
- “Just be and observer , not a reactor, to your emotions.”
- “A job is really a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”
- “It’s the self-inflicted fear and ignorance that keep people trapped.”
- “To spend your life living in fear never exploring your dreams, is cruel.”
- “There are legal ways to create money from nothing.”
- Assets = $ in pocket; Liability = $ out of pocket.
- “In accounting it’s not the numbers, but what the numbers are telling you.”
- “The fear of public speaking is caused by the fear of ostracism, the fear of standing out, the fear of criticism, and the fear of ridicule, and the fear of being an outcast. The fear of being different prevents most people from seeking new ways to solve that problems.”
- “An intelligent person hires people who are more intelligent than he is.”
- “The best investments are usually first sold to sophisticated investors, who then turn around and sell them to the people playing it safe.”
- “When I want a bigger house, I first by asset that will generate the cash flow to pay for the house.”
- “Keep liabilities and expenses down so more money is available to continue pouring into the asset column.”
- “If I want to increase my expenses, I first must increase my cash flow to maintain this level of wealth.”
- Rich — > Assets; Poor — > Expenses; Middle Class — > Liabilities.
- “Your business revolves around your asset column, not your income column.”
- “An important distinction is that rich people buy luxuries last, while the poor and middle class tend to buy luxuries first.”
- “The old money people, the long-term rich, build their asset column first.”
- “It is the knowledge of the legal corporate structure that really gives the rich a vast advantage over the poor and the middle class.”
- “The rich search for ways to minimise their tax burden. They hire smart attorneys and accountants, and persuade politicians to change laws or create legal loopholes.”
- “I wanted out of the employee trap so badly that I work even harder so I could invest more.”
- Accounting — Reading and understanding financial statements. Investing — Science of money making money. Understand markets — Science of supply and demand. Law — Understand tax and Play by the rules.
- “World is always providing us with instant feedback. We could learn a lot if we tuned in more.”
- “Limiting your options is the same as hanging onto old ideas.”
- “You take whatever happens and make it better.”
- “It is not gambling if you know what you’re doing.”
- “Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with your mind.”
- “It is what you know that is your greatest wealth. It is what you do not know that is your greatest risk.”
- “It is best to go broke before 30.”
- Management skills are needed for, 1. Cash flow, 2. Systems, and 3. People.
- “For winners, losing inspires them. For losers, losing defeats them.”
- Doubt is expensive.
- “Whenever you find yourself avoiding something you know you should be doing, then the only thing to ask yourself is ‘What’s in it for me?’.”
- “Without a strong reason of purpose, anything in life is hard.”
- “In the market, it is usually the crowd that shows up late that is slaughtered.”
- “Investors know their profits are made when they buy, not when they sell.”
- Learn the formula and have the discipline to put into action what you learned.
- “People who have low self-esteem and low tolerance for financial pressure can never be rich.”
- Pay yourself first.
- Know how to work with people below and above you.
- “The easy road often becomes hard and a hard road often becomes easy.”
- “Whenever I feel that people aren’t smiling at me, I simply begin smiling and saying hello.”
- “Buy the pie and cut it in pieces.”
- “Small people remain small because they think small, act alone, or don’t act at all.”
- “Action always beats inaction.”
Thank you for taking your time out to read this piece coming all the way down here!
I hope this was a good read for you.
The main message I wanted to convey by choosing to write this article is that we’re all always in need of a bit of inspiration.
You will never know how and in what way will another person be inspired, probably only by knowing that there is someone out there, like them, who they can relate to!
So never hesitate to take and give inspiration to people near, and far from you!
Thank you.
