Needed Inspiration: Why We Want You To Be Rich

I found a copy of "Why We Want You to be Rich" at Kroger in the bargain bin. I'm not usually about reading get rich schemes but I was curious because the book was written by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. I didn't know who Robert Kiyosaki was until a started to read the book and then I realized that I had heard of "Rich Dad Poor Dad". Nonetheless, I was intriqued by the book because I wanted to learn a bit more about Donald Trump since he's so controversial. And I like a good controversy.

I was amazed at the rate in which the book sucked me in because Trump and Kiyosaki took turns telling about their backgrounds as well as how they made their fortunes. Overall I found the book extremely inspirational and not just inspirational in the money making sense, but they did get my brain thinking even more about business ventures and investing. While I'd found I had a bit of curiousity about investing and especially realestate, T & K were good resources for giving lots of other books and authors to seek out. Of course they pluggeed their own products quite a bit, but I guess I expected some degree of that because obviously they know how to market and sell.

The pieces I took away were unique in that T& K suggested to stop taking the advice of "professional investors" because of the lack of training most investors actually have. Instead they suggested people do their own reasearch on investing and that basically simply diversifying in mutual funds was to "protect" investors from ignorance- whether it be their own or their investor's. They pointed to their investments in real estate, oil, gold & silver as having been the most productive- because these were long term investments and basically, the more politicians don't work together, the more the price of gold goes up (which just happened this last week with the debt talks & gold hitting an all-time high), even though this book was published four years ago.

More than anything, Trump & Kiyosaki suggested further educating oneself and simply being willing to make a commitment to educating oneself about finances through reading & college classes (suggested areas: business law & accounting). Another main theme was simply finding what you love to do first and then consistently working at this. However T & K don't recommend that everyone go it alone and become entrepreneurs because some people would simply rather have a steady income rather than have the freedom of working for oneself & simply enough, some people just aren't cut out for it. T& K pushed determination & perserverence with kindness, but without naivette. They were realistic in that people would try to take advantage of anyone willing to simply handover money (whether for investments or other business deals) and this is where their desire to show the reader the amount of hard work it takes comes in.

I also found it interesting that they didn't push scrimping and saving, but instead they pushed finding what makes one happy, pursuing it whole heartedly and investing in educating oneself, and then enjoying the money as it came in and reinvesting it in order to expand one's means.

T & K's appproach won't work for everyone, but it will work for the few willing to put in the time and those willing to be bold in going after their dreams. This book would be good for anyone looking for motivation to go out and do something great- business or non-business related.