digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Design a business so it generates recurring income and builds assets on its own, rather than depending on the owner's continuous work or repeated fundraising, because a well-designed business is what attracts investors. Robert Kiyosaki presents this as the core of raising capital, which he calls the number one skill of an entrepreneur, and promotes a three-day seminar on the topic in Scottsdale, Arizona, from May 1 to 3, 2009, priced at $5,000.
Key Points
- Kiyosaki says he kept running out of money as his board game grew more successful, and his rich dad refused to invest $100,000 because the business itself was flawed, not because the product was weak.
- He uses a "BI triangle" with eight business pieces, and says struggling businesses are often missing one, such as legal, communication systems, internal order processing, audit, manufacturing, marketing, or cash flow management.
- He frames assets versus liabilities: a house with a mortgage is a liability that costs money monthly, while businesses, real estate, stocks and bonds, commodities, and oil partnerships that pay cash monthly make a person rich.
- Sophisticated investors, described as the "B" and "I" side of the cashflow quadrant, invest in well-designed businesses, and Kiyosaki says capital flowed to Rich Dad once it was structured that way.
- He contrasts his company with service businesses and owner-dependent businesses like a pizza shop, and cites Arthur Andersen, whose assets "went home every night" and collapsed after the Enron scandal.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The transcript gives no step-by-step method for raising capital. The actionable guidance is to build assets into the business from the start, such as licensing a brand, publishing books, creating products that keep earning royalties, and adding new income streams like franchising, so that revenue continues without the founder's daily labor. Check each part of the business against the eight-piece structure, and look for missing pieces when a business is struggling. Evaluate whether income would continue if you stopped working, as a test of design.
- Kiyosaki says Rich Dad has zero debt and recurring cash flow, with licensing income from roughly 60 people worldwide who send money monthly, including in Japan, China, Asia, and Europe.
- He cites his earlier Velcro wallet company as poorly designed because it earned a one-time sale with no ongoing income.
- Ken McElroy, author of The ABCs of Real Estate and Kiyosaki's real estate partner, runs MC Companies, which he says adds about a thousand apartment units a year.
- The seminar is in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 1 to 3, 2009, at $5,000, with discounts mentioned for repeat attendees, early registrants, and "insiders." Kiyosaki says the seminars are generally not repeated.
- Kiyosaki's claims about his own finances and the businesses he cites are his own account and are presented here as his statements, not verified facts.
Bottom Line
Kiyosaki's pitch is less about a specific fundraising technique and more about business structure: a company that earns recurring money from assets can attract investment, while one dependent on its owner or a single sale struggles to. The seminar is his paid route to teaching that framework.
