Rich Dad, Poor Dad
The Cashflow Quadrant was born from “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” which is the #1 New York Times bestseller, also writer by Robert Kiyosaki.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad describes three main characters : a poor dad, a rich dad, and the author who calls himself a spectator who’s learning lessons from both dads, but internalizes only rich dad’s traits.
The story of Poor Dad is the story of a lot of men and women. He went to school and has a doctorate degree. He is one of these people who think that the best thing to do in life is to go to school, get a degree, find a good job in a good company, work as hard as possible, save money, and avoid to buy material things that are difficult to afford. Also, Poor Dad is going to choose the company he’s going to work with depending on their health insurance, the salary raises and promotions, but also Social Security and vacation times. Basically, Poor Dad’s approach to life is to work as hard as possible to have enough money to pay the bills.
Rich Dad’s story is completely different. He went to school up to 8th grade, but all he knew was in relation with the investment game. He was the type of person who thought that working for yourself push people to do better to make more money and be more successful. This dad taught to his son to think positive and to ask himself “How can I afford to buy this or that” instead of thinking “I cannot afford to buy it”. What he taught to his son was that this second way of thinking stops the brain from taking any initiative to improve oneself and promotes passivity. Whereas the first way of thinking stimulates the brain to take action and find a way to be successful.
He also taught to his son that taxes play a big role in whether or not you get rich, and taught to manage risks instead of not taking any.