RICH DAD POOR DAD, THE ECONOMY & DONALD TRUMP

Best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, the number one personal finance book of all time. Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money. He’s an entrepreneur, educator, and investor who believes the world. Needs more entrepreneurs with perspectives on money and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom.

Robert has earned an international reputation for Straight Talk, I reverence and courage, and has become passionate and outspoken as an advocate for financial education. Robert, it’s an honor. Welcome to the RUN GPG Podcast. Well, my honor, too, I, I love talking to young guys like. You know, cause I’m now the old guy, so I like talking to younger guys.

Well, you look great. You look great Robert. As we were talking offline, the past year marked the 25th anniversary of Rich Dad, poor Dad, and it’s still. The number one personal finance book of all time. when I was preparing it looked like it has sold 44 million copies in counting. Unbelievable. So that’s beyond impressive, Robert.

And you know, you’re obviously aware of the impact you’ve had on millions around the world. So, 25 years later, looking back, did you expect the book to become as popular as it did and still is or are you surprised at how iconic it’s. I, I am blown away. But the greatest joy of talking to young guys and young women is when people come up to me and say, my dad gave me your book, or My teacher gave me your book.

And that’s probably the, my, I’m 75 years old and that’s the joy. Mm-hmm. , you know that the book is handed down from generation to generation, because as I said, why don’t we teach money at. That was my question when I was nine years old, I said, Hey, when am we gonna learn about money? Mm-hmm. And we still don’t teach about money.

And this is the worst part about it today, you know, let’s get back to 2023. This whole thing about censorship and all this, and why are people afraid of speaking up is a lot of people like this covid thing. A lot of doctors wouldn’t say anything. Because they would lose their job. And so when you look at what happens when you’re afraid of losing your job, you kind of lose your freedom.

Your freedom of speech, you can get censored, you know, people can push you around and all this. So for me personally, my poor dad, who’s a great guy, he ran for Lieutenant Governor of the state of Hawaii because Hawaii is one of the most corrupt states in the union. And, he ran against his boss, the governor.

And the moment my dad, poor dad declared he was gonna run for Lieutenant Governor as a Republican, which proves how stupid he was. In Hawaii, cuz he should, he should have registered as a communist. He’d been a lot better in Hawaii. But anyway, his friends left him. Mm, his best friends left him said, look, we can’t go with you because if we endorse you, we’ll lose our jobs.

So at that time I was a US Marine. I was in flight school in Florida. Getting ready to go to Vietnam. And my dad, what crushed him was his best friends left him. They couldn’t support him even though they knew the governor and the whole state of Hawaii was corrupt, but they had, they’re so afraid of losing their jobs.

And so that kind of rung in my head, how many people today, Are their lives dictated to the fear of losing their job or their pension as the case may be? Yeah, it, it’s strange times we live in Robert. It really is. And, you know, hosting a show and, you know, I run a business, well, it’s international now, but you know, we talk to people from all walks of life, many different industries, entrepreneurs, business builders of course, but also, you know, like hip hop, legends and, and musicians and creatives.

And it’s surprising how often. Either mention the book or the concepts in Rich Dad, poor Dad. Are you aware of how culturally significant the book has become 25 years later, and what’s the most common remark you hear about maybe yourself and the book? Well again, it’s to me, I didn’t, I flunked out of high school twice cuz I can’t write.

Imagine that I flunked my sophomore year and my senior year. And if you see my Ferrari, the license plate is 1.9 GPA. If you, met me and when I was 18 years old, he said, someday this guy’s gonna all right. Number one book in personal finance in history, you’re gonna say there’s not a prayer in hell.

This guy can do that. My head was so far up my. You know, but I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t drink the Kool-Aid, if you know what I mean. Yeah. Contrarian. Yeah. Does your generation use that term, drink the Kool-Aid? Yeah, absolutely. I still use it. I just couldn’t drink it. I like it. I love that license plate.

That’s amazing. Yeah. Here we are today, you know, with all you’ve accomplished and become known for. we recently had your friend and colleague Tom Wheelwright on the show, and when asked about working with you, you know, he said he keeps things simple and understandable. Robert is the best financial educator in the world, so so interesting to think about.

I, I think a lot would agree with that. You know, you, you’ve got the books. the seminars, keynotes, interviews like this one, and of course your show. But I also wonder, was that something you set out to do intentionally or was that organic? Like how and when did you realize your purpose and what your legacy would eventually be known for?

It’s, I tell you what, this was not planned at all. You know, at, like, like most people, I had no idea. I was a surfer kid growing up in Hawaii. I was flunking out of school. My poor dad was the head of education, you know, Stanford, university of Chicago, Northwestern. He did all the right things. He was the head of education, straight A student, and when I was 16, he said to me, I’m not gonna pay for your college education because you’ll just waste.

I’m not a student. And so that might’ve been the best thing. Cause a lot of times we coddle our kids, you know, we give them everything, give everybody a trophy. And poor dad says, you’re really incompetent. And my rich dad, who was my best friend’s father says he’s right. So I kind of had to figure out my own way from there.

And how is that gonna get through school? You know, education’s still important, but what do you learn is important more? So, I really wanted to drive ships. You know, I, I read stories of merchant ships and whaling ships and. Traveling the world and you know, going to Tahiti, you know, I watched Marlon Brando and mute me on the bounty.

And so I went to school to be a ship’s officer and I was fascinated by oil. Why? I don’t know, just kind of inside of me. So I sailed for standard oil of California, but the Vietnam War was still on. This is in 69, and I volunteered for the US Marine Corps. So I gave up. Back then, I wasn’t making this much away with my, my classmates in 1969 were making 120,000 a.

That’s a lot of money back then. So we were the highest paid graduates in the world. I’m sailing for standard oil, making about 48,000 a year in 69, and I gave it up, become a lieutenant in the US Marine Corps 200 a month. Hmm. To go to flight school in Pensacola, Florida, and then straight to Vietnam, camp Pendleton, straight to Vietnam.

So did I plan all that? No. Am I glad I did it? Yes. But when I was in Vietnam, I, I realized something horrible. I said, our country lies to us. You know, here I am, red, white, and blue. If you call me a traitor, I’ll kill you. But I realized we’re being lied to with this guy, Robert McNamara and Nixon and Linda and Johnson.

And then I’d watch Walter Cronkite on television. I was a pilot, so we, we were calling in airstrikes and flying, and I could see the battle from the air and all this. And we were losing the war back then. This is 78, 2 73. And what Walter Cronkite reported wasn’t the news. It was fake. And I tell you, something turned my stomach, you know, cuz here I am, red, white, and blue.

God bless America, US Marine. It saddened me to no end. It just saddened me. I said, why are we lying to us? And but the good news, something else good happens. So as the North Vietnamese were running across the dmz, the militarized. Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and I said, Jesus, what’s gold?

You know, what’s gold? So in, in 1972, I went looking for this stuff here. That’s a real gold coin. I said, why did he take the dollar off the gold standard? And the reason the balloon hangs back there, that’s the US economy, the real little basket floating on this hot air balloon of debt, you know? Well, the reason Nixon took the dollar off the golds tenant was to get the whole economy to float.

On fake. Fake money, fake media, exactly. Everything my friend Trump says, you know, it’s fake news, fake money. Everything’s fake today. So here I am, a marine lieutenant in Vietnam. I’m going, we have fake money. And the north, the mayors were overrunning us. And so Marines aren’t the brightest guys. On the on the box, he said, well, let’s go buy some gold.

And this is in 72. And I said, well, the only, the only trouble is the gold mines behind enemy lines. Again, Marines aren’t the brightest. I said, no problem. We’ll go in really quickly. We’ll get out quickly. So we flew behind enemy lines to buy a gold. I was negotiating for that one little coin, and that woman wouldn’t budge.

I thought she was, I thought she would discount it from 50 bucks to 40 bucks because she was behind enemy lines and she wouldn’t budge. Look, she had a little red teeth, you know, a little Vietnamese woman now. Spot, spot, spot. Hell, spot. You know, she’s two college garages like you and I. Standing there.

She’s educating us about what money really. This is in Vietnam now, an enemy territory. I said, I’m getting, I’m getting schooled right now, and that’s when I became a gold bug because that little gold coin, I paid 50 bucks for it eventually in Hong Kong. Today is, we’re at 2000 and the reason the gold coin was 50 bucks in 1972, and it’s 2000 today, it’s because they just keep pumping more money into the economy.

So our money is fake Long, long. Yeah. No, but I, I, I love it. You brought it up and I, I’m, I’m glad you did. You, you mentioned the balloon in the back there, and, and that was the other reason I was looking forward to having you on the show is because of the, the timing. You know, I can’t think of a more relevant time in human history to discuss your views and what we call the current state of the union.

Right. And, you know, where we are in history, it’s an uncertain it. Shaky global economy. some say we’re on the, the brink of a world economic collapse, you know, so there’s a lot of things happening right now. You know, we’ve got the, the rapid devaluation of currencies as you’re referencing, inflation interest rate issues along with stocks and cryptocurrencies, you know, taking a punch, however, none of this is surprising for, you know, thought leaders like yourself and history books, including Rich Dad, poor Dad, because they do talk about how great civilizations collapse when, when the gap between the haves and the have nots grow too big.

And some would argue that we have actually crossed that Rubicon. We’re almost there, if not already. So in your opinion, are we on the brink of collapse? Well, we’re getting closer if we’re not That’s what I’m saying. I think, you know, there was Lehman Brothers in 2008. You’re probably too, too young to remember that one, but I was on CNN calling that Lehman brother was gonna go down so you can check Wolf Blitzer and me and all that.

I was calling as going down the baby boom generation. Okay. Could give some history cuz history tells you what happened and 71 Nixon took us off the gold standard then 74. My generation, the boomer generation, we went from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution Today is known as the 401k.

And what’s gonna happen, you know, as they keep raising interest rates today, the stock market keeps coming down. So that means my generation, the boomer generation, we headed the easiest of any generation in history. Our generation had these, we bought a house, went from 15,000 to 200,000, minus the stock market.

It went up. So the boomers are toast. That’s my generation, and you guys are gonna have to pick up the bill. There’s one more thing that’s gonna go, just social security. So that hot air balloon sitting behind there with a little gondola underneath of it is you and me hanging under this balloon, is the reason I have it there.

And that’s why you know this here is real silver. I only buy what’s real. I don’t buy s l V or g l d, I don’t buy paper. I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t, but when I, when, when I, when that little woman in Vietnam, I’m, I’m hiding behind enemy lines, trying to negotiate a $10 discount on ounce of gold, and she’s educating me, I’m going, how much don’t we know?

And you look at what they’re teaching our schools today, I mean, You know what pisses me off? I mean, when they teach America systemically racist, that is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. I mean, I know those racists, they’re isolated cases of racist, and my family was locked up during World War II because of Pearl Harbor.

So we’ve experienced racism, but as a general rule, Americans are great people. Most people are great people all over the world. So to be pumping racism and then gender bending, you know, where they’re asking boys to become girls at age five, I’m going, holy mackerel, but how do you know at five whether I should be a boy or a girl?

I mean, what the hell are they teaching these kids? Yeah, I’m going, what the hell? You know, how can they teach us that stuff? It, it looks like there’s some sort of agenda, obviously. there’s something weird happening with this. I. And, and the, the fact that it’s ramped up so fast in the last few years is shocking, but many would agree with you.

So, you know, we’re talking about it here, but nobody knows what’s happening next. I mean, you’re talking about, pensions, but if you had to guess what’s next, recession or, I guess the question is what keeps you awake at night? Well, I, what keeps me awakened? That keeps me active. You know, like I, I call it the five Gs as number one.

You have to have gold or silver and, and real stuff. Not paper. No paper, okay? This is real silver. You have real gold and then you have ground or real estate, you have gasoline. So I invest in oil. So I have oil wells in North Dakota, Louisiana, and Texas. I don’t have paper gold, I mean paper oil. I don’t have stocks of Exxon.

I b m I mean standard oil. So I have gas and you have grub or food. So I invest in Wu Cattle and cattle are wonderful because Wai Goo is a Japanese brand, but I get paid for the sperm count. So I’ve always, I’ve always wanted to be a breeding bull, but now I, I kind of own them , and so every time they inseminate another cow, I get.

You know, anything you can’t print, you can’t print sperm, you know what I mean? Or semen or whatever it is. And, and then the last thing is a gun. You know, I, I have guns everywhere because I’m a US Marine, you know, I’ve already had people try and kill me enough times, so it’s a five Gs, you know? And, and that’s, that’s how I operate.

We are a dangerous, I hate to say this, not that anything bad’s gonna happen, but if it happens, are you. Yeah. And, and many would agree with you, was not expecting that answer though, Robert. Yeah, but the, the bulls, yeah, the bulls

That’s a,

so, Will the dollar collapse, and if so, are we going back to a gold. Well, no, that’s What do you see? The possibilities are getting closer every day. I’m not saying it will. Also, in 1918, the Treaty of Versai, which ended at World War I, they started printing money and that led to the collapse of the German Remart and that led to the rise of Adolph Hitler If this economy gets much worse.

And the dollar collapses and people start panicking. Look at China’s coming on. Russia’s coming on the bricks, nations, you know, Brazil, Russia into China, South Africa coming on, and the dollar is getting weaker. If they collapse the dollar, it’s gonna come washing back onto our shores and then we’re gonna have another event that brought to power Adolf Hitler.

It’s the collapse of the back, then it was the Reich mark. If I’m not saying we will, if we collapse the dollar, another Hitler will arise. Definitely is not Joe Biden. That guy can’t even find his way to the toilet. But anyway, I’m not Republican or Democrat. Trump is my good friend, wrote two books together.

I I’m gonna ask you specifically about Trump in a minute here. but, but again, talking about, you know, relevancy and, and timing, it’s been an emotional few years, for almost everyone. It’s been a rollercoaster of uncertainty, as we know, and it looks like we’re in for more of the same in the short term at least.

Anyway, so, It might be difficult for those who aren’t paying attention, to take emotion out of major financial decisions. And of course, you know, in Rich Dad, you do talk about the mistake of using emotions to think and drive decisions. So it has been difficult, as we mentioned, for many these days because when emotions go up, As we know, intelligence goes down, right?

So the question is, how does someone take emotion out of financial decisions? Like what do they need to be thinking about in order to make wise decisions in a volatile environment? Okay, so lemme just say something, you know, is this here as a US quarter? It’s a pre 64 quarter. It was the reason it’s pre 64.

That was when, if you look at the quarter, It’s real silver. So the reason so many people are emotional is because it’s, our money is fake. Okay? We have fake money, fake news, fake political leaders. And so when I was in Vietnam, the reason I flew behind the enemy lines and said I’d better get some real money, because that comment that bastard Nixon, you know, he took the dollar off the gold that had opened the doors to China.

And here I’m a US Marine fighting for freedom, and this guy is selling us down the tube. So the first thing I say to people is get some real money. So get some silver. You know, this here is a real silver quarter. You can probably buy it for a buck. Everybody in the world can afford a buck, and all I started to do was acquiring real money.

So I have real silver, real gold, I have Bitcoin. You know, I’m going after what’s real, you know. When I watch my wa go cattle having sex, I’m getting a richer

The, the Fed cannot, the fed and the treasury cannot interfere between the bull and the cow.

again, a surprising answer from, One of the best selling authors of all time, Robert Kiyosaki. And speaking of, you know, you know, the controlling emotions of fear and guilt, you know, we hear the phrases, you know, fomo, fear of missing out in the new one. Fud, which is fear, uncertainty, and doubt not is especially too when it comes to, you know, investing, especially in cryptocurrency and, and.

Bitcoin markets. You talked about Bitcoin. Where are you right now? First quarter of 2023. Regarding the current state of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, are you bullish on Bitcoin or any cryptocurrencies, and what are your short-term and long-term predictions for bitcoin? Well, I think it, it’s more your generation, not mine.

You know, because I’m, I’m a techno sos Rex. I can barely use a cell phone. But years and years ago, I was a student of a man named Buck, Mr. Fuller. This is him here, this is his last book, cosm. And he was watching kids play video games and he saw them using crypto as money, and he says that’s the future.

When he said that it was, I listened to him and so when I saw Bitcoin up and I watched it go to 20,000 and I retreated down to like a thousand, I said, if it doesn’t blip, and then it, it got back to six. When it retraced back to six, it’s gonna hang on. And so, as you know, it’s gone up and down and up and down.

This guy, spf, f Sam, Beckman, I’m not saying it’s gonna hang around, but I think Bitcoin has a place and it’s the anti fed, it’s the anti treasury, which fits my personality. Because as I said, when I was in Vietnam, I said, this is fake news. You know, we’re getting lied to and I didn’t trust our. If you trust our money, fine, keep saving the US dollar.

But our national debt is now 31 trillion. And look at it this way. And they’re trying to figure out they’re gonna open the budget. This is as we speak today. So let’s say they raised interest rates to 5% on 31 trillion. That means the taxes we have to co collect are 1.5 trillion. Hmm, 1.5 trillion. And that goes before we pay for the RMA air.

Social welfare programs, all this stuff. Somebody is robbing us, drive VR debt. And so that’s why my friend Trump came in. I know people hate his guts. He’s, he’s a good man. He was trying to get everything back into the box. But as you know, there’s people in the deep state who don’t want him to do that. And today as we’re talking, they’re talking about actually balancing a budget.

Oh my God, what a wonderful idea. You know, if you and I just spent as much as we wanted to spend, we’d be in jail. Mm. , but our government doesn’t. So all I’m saying here is for most people, look for what’s real in money. Mm-hmm. like this is a US quarter, pre 1964, when it was real silver. And Johnson, president Johnson came on air back then.

He said real silver is too valuable for money. And so it shifted from silver to copper and the US dollar went from a silver certificate to De u. Rita says, federal Reserve note. It’s basically an I o U. So our whole monetary system, it’s based on. That’s why you hear me saying there’s good debt and bad debt, where guys like Dave Ramsey says, live debt free.

And that’s good advice for most people. I took the opposite route. Since debt became money in 1971, I borrowed my ass off. So my friends and I have become billionaires using. But that’s like handling a handgun. You better be pretty good with debt, you know, , because you, you make a mistake. The the debt will kill you.

The gun will kill you. Yeah. Well, it’s, it, it’s challenging traditional thought, right? Yes. On what’s, what’s valuable and what’s not. So I think that’s really interesting. You know, taking a look at the, the real estate market itself, you know, over the last few years, if you owned a home, it may have seen like you won the lottery.

The, you know, incredible valuation. Some called it a bubble, some called it a bubble. now we’re seeing a, a major downward movement and, adjustment in pricing, especially in major metropolitan areas. however, based on your principles of cash flow, it looks like the concepts you teach regarding, you know, properties and cash flow.

They’re recession proof or market proof because the demand for. And rentals has gone up. So what are your thoughts, broad stroke thoughts, I guess, and what we’ve seen in the real estate market over the last few years and now post pandemic? What are your short-term, maybe long-term predictions for the real estate market?

Well, real estate is regional, it’s not international. Mm-hmm. So you could have a hot area, bad area, whereas stocks would be hot across the world or not hot across the world. And that’s a balloon back there is. Hanging on this balloon of debt, that that’s, that’s what’s happening to it. So with real estate, you’ve really got to know what’s going on in your area more than anything else.

And I’ve been caught, you know, I’ve, I’ve lost money, made some bad purchases and all that, but the market always came back. My concern this time is it might not come. So I could get caught, but thank God I’ve got a lot of Bitcoin and a lot of gold and silver to cover my mistakes. But if you are, what, what I call the, in the Marine Corps, they were called FNGs.

And if you jumped into real estate just because everybody else was getting a rich two years ago, you might be the F N G, you know? And, and we all get caught. So the problem I have with academics and school teachers is they tell you not to make mistake. , but how do you learn if you don’t make mistakes? You know?

How does a baby learn to walk unless they fall down? Yeah. So for the young people, I said, look, you know, be willing to make mistakes. Just don’t lie about ’em. Mm-hmm. , you make a mistake. Say, Hey, I effed up. I screwed it up. How do I pay you back? What can I do? But this guy, you know, s bf Sam Beckman fraud and all that, he’s trying to cover it up and all this, and Mr.

Wonderful’s not saying anything. I’m going, why don’t you guys admit it? You know Tom Brady? I don’t know how much he lost, but they all got caught and it’s not Bitcoin, it’s fraud. There is a difference. That’s like saying, you know, I lost a million dollars on a gold mine. Well, was it the gold mine or you got cheated?

And as for young people, you know, I just say this and be willing to tell the truth. I, I, I screwed it up. What’s the price? Let me pay it back. I’ve paid back many mistakes. Yeah, it’s great advice. Great advice, Robert. You know, I, I did wanna ask you about this too, because right now the thought of actual home ownership for many seems like an impossibility for a lot, right?

in your work, you do talk about the, you know, the hypnosis of the system designed to enslave those who aren’t financially literate. You know, go to school, get a job, get outta debt, save money, pay taxes, all that being said, oh, wait, add, add 401k, joy Yeah, exactly. Add that to it as well. Yeah. so you.

All that being said is the classic definition of the American dream dead. Now. There’s gonna be a more opportunity now, ever before. I think we’re going into a depression. Now, my thing is, I, some of my other books, I, and I went, I flunked at a Sunday school also. I flunked everything I went to a good school.

I, I nominations the Naval Academy, Mer Marine Academy, and I went to merch Marine Academies. I, I, you know, Do well in school. I mean, I flu, I’m, I flunked outta school, but I still graduated. But in Sunday school, one of the most important lessons I learned was that my Sunday school teacher asked our class, I was seven years old.

She goes, why were the wise men wise? And, I raised my hand. I said, because you were rich. And she says, why do you say they were rich? I said, well, they came with Frankenst Gold and Mer. I didn’t know what Franken sons and MER were. I knew what gold was. And she goes, that’s not the answer. I said, well, why were they.

She says they were always seeking the best teacher. So I’m not Christian, I’m not pumping religion and all this, but the beauty of what you and I are doing right now is your people listening to you have access to some of the best teachers in the world. So, you know, you’ve got to, when you go on YouTube or whatever you guys do today, you know, you gotta ask if, is this teacher for real or is he fake?

And if, if you follow us on my podcast, I’ve been known to get into fist fights almost with these so-called gurus, especially in real estate. I won’t mention their names, but, well, why, why don’t I mention it? Because, we just had Grant Cardone on the show. How’d it go with Grant? Well, I, I got into it with him.

I wouldn’t do what he says to do the, the same as Dave Har Ramsey. You know, I mean, I respect Dave Ramsey because his formula does work. But what Grant was, what Grant Cardone was saying, in my opinion, was higher. It was, you didn’t, you don’t need to take that much of a risk. So there’s a difference between real estate and, let’s say a stock, the word is called liquidity.

So if I buy a bad piece of real estate, it’s not liquid, I can’t get out of it, you know, it’ll, it’ll take you down like the Titanic. But if I buy, let’s say Tesla stock and I don’t like it, I can sell it that night. So I can cut my losses early. So there’s some between real estate and stocks or bonds is liquidity.

Mm-hmm. So I got in into, with Grant, I said, Jesus, you know, somebody does what you do. They get caught with that thing that’s not liquid and it starts to go down. That person’s gonna go down with a Titanic. And I also get on, I get, I get into it with Peter Schiff, Schiffs and I are good friends and Harry Dent, you know Harry Dents always recommending treasury bonds.

And I said, I wouldn’t touch this stuff. So I’m not saying I’m right, but I will tell you what I will do, what I won’t do. Mm-hmm. And that’s what all you young people look for. A teacher that will tell you what they are doing, not what you should be doing. There’s a very big difference. So if you think you should be in a four one , then find a teacher who will tell you, you get in a 401k.

I wouldn’t touch this stuff. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s like wa goo cattle in semen. You know, I’d rather have that than a 401k, , Well, there might be a, you know, there might be a uptick in. You know, people purchasing bull semen after the show, the, well, there’s, there’s an uptick in bull if you know what I’m talking about too,

So that’s why be careful who you listen to on YouTube, including me and you A hundred percent, a hundred percent. Robert. interesting breakdown. I, I, I think it’s, you know, I’ve said it before too, and, and you’re referencing it. You can literally be mentored by anyone you want these. Anyone. Yeah. You know, because we have access now that we never had before.

speaking about the real estate industry itself, you know, for sales professionals and and brokers, I really loved your breakdown of the importance of being able to sell. Right? You said sales equals income, and I think people in any service industry are gonna have to sharpen their sales skills, especially as things get more difficult.

So can you just touch on the importance of sales skills and why the ability to sell directly impacts your. Well, if you’re couldn’t be an entrepreneur, you have to be able to sell. Okay. Pure and simple. But you’re couldn’t be a librarian. You don’t need the skillset. So when I talked to young entrepreneurs, I said, look, when I was getting out of the Marine Corps, my poor dad wanted me to go fly for United Airlines and thank God I didn’t.

You know, cuz I was a Marine pilot. You don’t want me flying your pastor letter for you. And so I asked my rich dad, I said, I want to be an entrepreneur, like. And he says, then you have to learn how to sell. And in my family, my poor dad’s family salesman of a scum. So you notice in most academic families, so when my rich dad said, you have to learn how to sell.

I had to go against my family’s values. You know, my mother says, why don’t you become a doctor? Or Why don’t you become a lawyer? You know, then you don’t have to sell. I said, well, that’s true. , but I wanna be an entrepreneur. I don’t want job security and all that stuff. And so that’s why my rich dad prevailed, you know?

I said, but tell me how can I be an entrepreneur without selling? He says, you can’t. So anyway, with with most people, they don’t know how to sell. And sales does equal income. Mm-hmm. So if you’re gonna be in real estate, it’s gonna be an interesting market. But for those who can sell, it’s gonna be a great.

Yeah. I love it that you’ve gotta be able to sell. Yeah. Such a good breakdown. And then, you know, for, a lot of our listeners who are, you know, sales professionals, real estate industry insiders, when you say pay your brokers well, that’s music to the ears of many, who listen and, and listen to you read your books.

However, you also say that not all brokers are created equal. I agree with that. What advice do you have for real estate agents and brokers going forward in the current environment that will help them? Get paid well. Well, I think you have to dedicate your life to your profession. Most real estate people know nothing about real estate.

I mean, it’s, it’s pretty sad really. But the best deals I have have come from real estate professionals that I make partners. So for some reason I get the deals first. I just don’t understand why that happens. Yeah, shocker. Shocker. Robert or I, I can get hired the cheapest real estate agent who knows nothing and spend all my day riding around looking at four bedroom, three bath house, you know, and all that stuff.

Yeah. I just don’t, I don’t have the time to waste. I’d rather deal with the best. Yeah. And make them partners. Mm-hmm. and sp, you know, speaking of entrepreneurship, you know, what’s the biggest mistake you see? Entrepreneurs and business builders? Well, there’s tons of ’em, but I think the biggest one is when you don’t admit you made a mistake.

You know, because mistakes are how we learn. Like I said, a baby learns to walk by falling down, and if you lie about your mistakes, you waste a good mistake. And, and that was one of the lessons I learned the hard way, cuz. I was, I was a US Marine and all that, but I was also court marshal twice. I’m not off for the medal of order by any chance,

And the reason was I, I was an entrepreneur and I got caught, like one of my first things I got caught at is I was flying women. In my helicopter. The second time I got caught, I was flying women in my helicopter drunk

Oh, wow. I, you know, I was gonna say, well, why were you court marshaled if you feel like comfortable sharing again, unexpected. I wasn’t expecting that answer. , I’m an open book. I mean, I’m, I’m, but those are the best things that ever happened to me. Yeah. You see, the first time I got away with it, so the second time I added to it.

And I decided to fly these women’s to a deserted island in Hawaiian Island chain. And when they opened up my helicopter, I landed back at the Marine Corps air base in Hawaii. The first thing that fell out were my beer cans, and then I fell out

Wow. So I said , I and I, and I could have got away with it again, but I said, Just tell the truth, and so that’s why you watch Jack Nicholson and a Few Good Men. You know, you can’t handle the truth. You know? Yeah. So I said, I better tell the, I better tell the truth. So I walked into the court marshal and this really sharp attorney, captain Abrams was prosecuting me, and I sat down.

He says, you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Three hours later, I finished. I said, this is everything I have done. And then I looked at the captain, I’m on the stand, and he goes, I said, how many years will I be in jail? And he says, you’re free. Congratulations. Honorable discharge.

And that’s saying the truth shall set you free for me. And ever since then, I’d rather tell you upfront than have you find out from somebody else while he got, you know, he got court marshaled. I’m actually proud of her today. Not too many marines have been court marshaled. Yeah. And walk free. But you learn from your mistakes, Robert, which is really interesting.

I think that’s, I think that’s great advice. You know, always tell the truth. Be honest, you know, be honest. I think that’s, yeah. Um. You know, again, you know, staying on the topic of entrepreneurship, is there commonality that all successful entrepreneurs have? I really, it’s, it’s hard to tell. One thing I would say every entrepreneur has is my doctor, who’s also, he’s a doctor of Cardiology’s heart transplant guy, but he is also a doctor of acupuncture.

So he is east, eastern, west Medicine, and he is very philosophical. He says, there’s always a Judas. I said, what do you mean by that? He says, you’ll always be screwed. You’ll always have a Judas in your. It’s human nature. I, I don’t know if you can or not, but I, I, I just wouldn’t pretend that somebody wouldn’t do that.

Yeah. And so what my doctor was saying, he’s a doctor of heart transplant guy, also acupuncture, and he is into yoga and meditation and all that. And he goes, it’s always a Judas. And I didn’t know what he was saying for a while, but inside of us, there’s also jealousy, you know, nice to see somebody who’s more successful than me.

I might get jealous, or somebody who’s a better looking girlfriend than me, I might get jealous. That’s the start of being a Judas Envy. You know what I mean? Yep. Absolutely. and you know what? Speaking of entrepreneurship, I speak to entrepreneurs all the time. How much have you enjoyed watching what Elon Musk has been doing at Twitter?

Oh, I love that guy. Man. I wish I had his gho. You know, I mean, yeah. You know, I don’t know if Tesla stock is going down because the greenies are punishing him. Yeah. But he took ’em on, I. don’t censor us. He’s not after the grainy, he’s after censorship. Mm-hmm. I’m after censorship too, cuz us Marines, we fought for one thing, freedom.

Mm-hmm And when you take away our freedom, I’ll fight like a dog and some people just roll over and, you know, let them pet your stomach and the air say screw you, take your freedom. But Elon Musk fought back. I have tremendous respect for. Yeah, I agree. It’s been fun to watch. and before we get to your, you know, your current projects, what you’re doing now, I have to ask about Trump, and his tax returns.

I was recently a guest on Tom Wheel Wright’s live, where he went through, Trump’s tax return line by line. It was pretty enlightening. I don’t know if you looked at what, was released, thoughts on, on the current state of the Trump, you know, brand.

There’s one reason I’m in real estate taxes. You see in 19 78, 1, when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, the dollar became a function of debt and taxes. So the dollar became debt, but it took taxes to pay off the debt. So in 1974, when I came back from Vietnam, and that was the same time that the 401K was installed and the pension, the pensions were installed, these.

He was stole my pension. I could see the whole thing formulating. So the reason I took real estate is because real estate, I use debt and I pay, I don’t pay any taxes. So Trump and I have both shared, the reason we wrote two books together, this is one of ’em, is we used debt and taxes. Now, when he debated Hillary Clinton, she says, she says, you don’t pay any taxes.

And Trump says, that’s because I’m. Now he pissed off Average America. Mm-hmm. But the fact is the tax laws are written for people who invest in real estate and entrepreneurs. That’s the those, those are the laws. And Tom Wheelwright will explain that. Yeah. So every year I have to look for new properties to buy because if I don’t buy more real estate, then I’ll pay taxes.

So the whole capitalist system, and this is worldwide, not just America, the whole capitalist. Is designed for entrepreneurs who start businesses and invest in real estate. That’s the game. And pay no taxes. Taxes are an incentive. You know what I mean by that? Oh, that you’re cheating. I said, but if you donate, let’s say, a thousand dollars to cancer, you got a tax break.

Well, the same for real estate guys. If we, we invest money in real estate, we got a tax break. Mm. , but you put your money in a 401k, you don’t really get a, you get a fake tax break or you have a small business all by yourself, you pay the highest taxes. You know, if you’re going from employee to small business, you pay the highest taxes.

So, so that’s what’s wrong with people. They don’t know anything about taxes. You’re gonna be an entrepreneur, you better find out about debt and taxes pretty quickly. A hundred percent. what was it like working with Donald? He was joyous. You know, I mean, his sons and I are really good friends because we’re, we’re politically incorrect hunters and Don Jr.

And Eric and I and my friends have spent hours on this little deserted island in the Hawaiian arc. Archipelago, there’s no running water, no toilets, nothing. And you get to know people pretty well when you’re sitting there for five days and all you’re doing is you’re drinking bottled water and then the rest you have to catch.

So you, we catch fish. So we, we hunt something. But those two young men are fine, fine young men. Unlike this guy, hunter Biden. You know, we’re we’re real hunters And Hunter Biden, he’s a joke. He says, yeah, dad’s pissed at me cuz he told me to clean up the garage. You know, they found all those top secret papers that they busted Trump on at Mar-a-Lago and Trump was president and Biden was vice.

Biden not, not allowed to have those top secret papers. And I know because when I was in the Marine Corps, I was the S two officer. S two officers are the top secret officers, so I know how to classify documents. So what Trump did was legal. What Biden did was illegal. And this guy, hunter Biden, you see him with drugs and strange women or interesting women, you know, I mean, not that I blame the boy, but, anyway, as compared to Don Jr.

At Eric Trump. He is a chip off the old block. Joe Biden. Yeah. Well thanks for sharing. I I, I wanted to ask you, you know, cuz you’ve been, you work closely with him, so that’s good. and I would trash ’em, you know, I would trash ’em too if they were worth trashing. But, my experience of the two boys mm-hmm.

it’s been fantastic. I just saw one of them. I saw Don Jr. Two weeks. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Well, you run in interesting circles, Robert. it’s good to see. What do you want to tell the world about where we are as a people, maybe a civilization where the world economy is headed the next few years? Like maybe for entrepreneurs, what’s the most important thing to focus on in the short term?

Well, my biggest concern right now, it’s been since for years, is why don’t we have financial education in our schools? You know, I read this book here in 1965. It’s called the Communist Manifesto. So in 1965, I was 18 years old and I went to military school and instead of studying, My economics teacher was a West Point graduate, B 17 pilot in World War ii, and he had us read Communist Manifesto and he says, this is what’s gonna happen to America.

Is coming true now. And Communism, infiltrates America be our education system. And that’s why they’re teaching, you know, gender identity. And, and lemme tell you something to say that America is systemically racist is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. Cuz you know, I’m, I’m Japanese, so I’ve been discriminated against.

But 98% of Americans aren’t that way. You know, it was called a white supremacist that I went into and look at the mirrors, said, now I’m still ch a Asian, you know, , Well that’s shocking. Inter. Yeah, it’s interesting, you know, it is, it is strange times. so I always like to, you know, pick the brains of thought leaders like yourself.

what’s been the biggest contributor to your. Over the years,

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What’s been the biggest contributor to your success over the years? I should say my wife, but, ? No. She is, having good, great partners, great friends. You know, when I, when I, I was talking to this young, young guy, so my son’s friends, I said, do you respect your friends? He goes, no. He said, well, we have, we have fun together.

I said, do you respect him? He goes, said, then find new friends. Mm-hmm. You know, it’s because my friends, I would say 80% of my friends are entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. , you know, and my, my best friend, we started together in 1974. He was a Mormon missionary in Northern Ireland of all places. And, and, and when they asked him, what, what makes you think you can, we’re applying for jobs at Xerox.

He says, what makes you think you can sell? He goes, he looks at the. The, Xerox recruiter, he says, I have the highest conversion rate of Catholics to Mormonism in the history of the Mormon church. If I can sell Catholics, Mormonism, I can sell a stupid Xerox copier. And so he and I became best friends.

And, this is a tip I’ll, I’ll give people. He and I became best friends. He sold this business for 2 billion in 2020. We both pushed each other to become millionaires than billionaires together. I was gonna say that, you know, no better salesman. That’s incredible. Wow. Yeah. Do, do you have a daily routine now, Robert?

Not really. I’m, I’m pretty. It’s one of the things I’m not happy about is I, I don’t have a routine. Mm-hmm. , I kind of just work as it comes and I do, you know, I, I’m always working, but I don’t have a really good routine except for going to the gym and stuff like that. But I’m, I’m Als I’m always studying is what I’m doing.

I’m on YouTube constantly. Again, l listening for the good and the bad. Cause it always two sides to everything. How’s your, how’s your golf game? These. nonexistent. Nonexistent, none existent Yeah. Okay, so here’s a question this makes you think, we always ask this of our guests. If you could have dinner with any three people in history, pastor, present, who would they be and why?

That’s a tough question. Yeah. Lemme think about that for a while. You know, it’d probably be Abraham Lincoln. Mm-hmm. , because I don’t know how that, I mean, he knew what he was getting into and he still did what he had to. Mm-hmm. And, and that’s the true sign of a leader is do you do what you know you have to do.

And he probably knew he was gonna be assassinated, you know? So I, I think that’s the best. And like the thing I loved about the US Marine Corps, there were a carrier, pilots, and we always flew with a crew, little crew of five, two pilots, two gunners, and one crew chief. And I’d go anywhere with those. And it was the best feeling in the world.

And the saddest, the hardest part was also when your crews don’t come back. You know, you have your best. These guys are your best friends for a couple of years, at least. And one day the aircraft doesn’t come back. And then years later I go to the Vietnam wall and find their names on the wall. So there’s an emptiness.

There’s a high and a low to it. So the highest moments were flying with some of the greatest young men I knew. And then the low is when they don’t come back. But the good news is I got kicked out as a marine lieutenant, but my best friend became a Lieutenant General, and today is a congressman from Upper Michigan General Jack Bergman.

And he helped get McCartney into the speakership and all this. But when Jack and I were Marines together, he was in as much trouble as I was. And as he said to me, I said, Jack, how come I’m in trouble and you’re not? He says, because you get caught. And I don’t Why, why is man, wise, man, the, the, well, so Abraham Lincoln, yeah.

The most are the guys I hang out with in real life. You know what I mean? They’re wise men. Very successful Wiseman. Yeah. well, as they say, you are who you hang out with, right? So final question, Robert. we, we, we talked about legacy earlier and the fact that you’re known as, you know, one of the best financial educators in the world, however, what do you personally want to be known for?

Like, when all is said and done, what does the Robert Kiyosaki legacy look like? What do you want to be known for? Shit, I don’t, you know, I just, I don’t even think about that. I just do what supports humanity and the environment. You know, I’m not an environmentalist, but I don’t like what the greenies are doing.

Mm-hmm. , you know, cause I have oil and all that stuff. I’ll stand up to what I, what I think is right or wrong. You know, you cut off all this oil, which Biden did, you crushed the poor middle class. So one of the first acts that Biden did was he kicked out the Keystone XL Pipeline. The price of oil, and I was making oil at $30 a barrel.

Cause I don’t own oil shares. I own the real oil in the ground. Mm-hmm. and oil went from $30 the next day to $130. So I should have been celebrating. I said, you know, I’m a rich man. I don’t need the money, but I’m a rich man. But what Biden did when he cut off that Keystone XL pipeline, he crushed the poor middle.

and I think that’s his intention. I think they’re trying to crush the poor middle class via inflation and oil prices and all that. And no financial education in schools. Mm-hmm. So that’s what I fight for. Mo Money’s always been easy for me. Not easy, but I like the game. Sometimes I win and sometimes I’ll lose.

But when they’re crushing America or the free. Or crushing poor people, I get very upset about. Yeah. It’s funny you brought up, the Keystone. We, we operate in Alberta, which is an oil province in, in Canada. Right. And the keystone was, I, I mean, we had tens of thousands of people looking forward to that project.

Yeah. The jobs, what it was gonna do to the economy and when it was canceled, it, it, it was like a gut punch for so many people. Yeah. It really killed them, you know. anyways, I wanna ask about current projects. What do you have on the go right now, Robert? Anything we can, look forward to in the short?

Well, I’m starting my new project called Rich Entrepreneur. Poor Entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. and the it’s, it is the next take from Rich Dad, because a lot of people wanna be entrepreneurs, but what happens for most people that say they quit their job and they start a business, they go into a higher tax bracket.

Mm-hmm. So they go from 40% taxes to 60%. So I’m gonna talk about why some entrepreneurs get rich and why most don’t, and. So that’s cuz we need more entrepreneurs. Mm-hmm. And the more entrepreneurs we have, the less people who are afraid of losing their jobs are other than my company. My job is to protect my employees.

Not threaten them for speaking out or, you know, you, you have to say this or I’ll fire you and all this. Cause as I said earlier, that’s what I really got. My father, when he ran for Lieutenant Governor of the state of Hawaii, his best friends left. Because they’re afraid of losing their jobs. And you look at how many people are afraid of losing their jobs, how much that affects their life.

Cause the job security, or today with 401ks crashing or with, with this pensions crashing, we’re in serious trouble. Yeah. So my work has gone up and is is education behind me as a cash flow board game. And the reason I use a board game is because, As Maria Montessori says, she’s a great educational entrepreneur.

She says, what the hand does, the mind remembers. So you’re playing this game, it’s, it’s educating this great piece of real estate here. Your left ear between your right ear. This is your greatest asset of all is your brain, but it’s also your greatest liability without financial education. That’s why my wife and I created the cash flow board game, so you can actually.

And when you’re doing, you’re learning more than just listening to a lecture. Mm-hmm. Well anyways, Robert, thank you so much for joining us today. Really compelling conversation. It was good to get to know you better, get your perspective on so many relevant and timely issues. Thanks again. Thank you.