Customer Reviews

A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have never read any of Jim Rogers prior books, but I am pleasantly surprised to find this little book insightful and enjoyable to read. He provided his answers to questions such as how to best prepare our children for the future. As a father of a five year old daughter, I fully appreciate a book just like this.

Each chapter is a lesson on a major quality of character or "virtue"; and each chapter is about several pages long. Each lesson is elaborated and explained with real events in Jim Rogers' life - his childhood in rural AL and his investment decisions.

This book is definitely NOT an investment book, but I am more than happy to learn about personal stories of this legendary investor, particularly about his thought process, mindset, and insights about being a father and investor.

Obviously he writes with his unique set of values and ideas about where to live (don't live in a country involved in any kind of war), what to become (a world citizen), and what to learn (philosophy and history), but in this little book I have found gems of wisdom common to a few very successful people I personally know. They universally credit their success to: 1)think on your own, 2) hard work and never quit, 3) read as much as you can, 4) always prepare for the worst, 5) save and don't carry debt, and 6) start your child early.

If you write a book for your child, what would you include and exclude? Under this premise I think Jim Rogers has done an excellent job so I rate this book with five stars.

'A Gift for My Chidren: A Father's Lessons for a Life & Investing',
by Jim Rogers

What follows is just my quick list of interesting takeaways from the book, 'A Gift to My Children: 'A Father's Lessons for Life & Investing', by American investor extraordinaire Jim Rogers, now based in Singapore, who is acknowledged by Time as 'The Indiana Jones of Finance'.

Frankly, all the stuff from the book has nothing much to do with finance &/or investing.

They are essentially pearls of wisdom from his world of "hard knocks", which Jim wants to share with his two beautiful daughters, respectively nicknamed in Chinese as 'Happy' (7) & 'Babe Bee' (2).

* Swim your own races

- do not let others do your thinking for you;

- rely on your own intelligence;

- it's important to decide for yourself what's important to you and what you want before you turn to others;

- if anyone laughs at your idea, view it as a sign of potential success;

- be who you are; be original; be bold;

- above all, be ethical;

- save ~ you must avoid the trap of spending $ willy nilly simply because you can;

* Focus on what you like

- Age is irrelevant when you are passionate about a goal;

- when you find something that interests you, just do it!

- The quickest way to success is to do what you like and give your best;

- Dedicate yourself to what you feel passionate about;

- Try as many things as you can, then pursue the one about which you're passionate;

* Good habits for life

- Be a self-starter;

- Attention to details is what separates success from failure;

- However trivial it may seem, you must research and check each and ever piece of information you need to make a decision... Only through meticulous research will you obtain the knowledge necessary for success... it requires abundant work and diligence...

- There is no such thing as "enough". No finish line!

- Live your life with a dream;

- If you continue to be passionate and work hard at what you truly love to do, you eventually find that dream;

* Uncommon Sense

- Always consider alternative interpretations;

- Seek out multiple perspectives on the same story will always help you figure out the truth;

* Your education ~ Let the world be a part of your perspective PART 1

- Do not rely on books; go and see the world;

- Experience life as they do; see the world from the ground up. By observing ordinary life... you will forever be stumbling upon experiences that will raise important question in your mind ;

- Understand the significance of BRICs;

- Be open to people who are different whether at home or abroad;

- Keep an open mind and be a world citizen;

- Be eager to move if you see opportunities;

* Your education ~ Learn philosophy and learn to think PART 2

- Philosophy will teach you how to think for yourself;

- You must learn to think at a profound level if you want to understand yourself and what's important to you. You must know yourself if you want to accomplish anything in life...;

- To think outside the established framework, to examine things independently this is true philosophy...;

- Draw conclusions from your observations as well as on the basis of logic;

- As an investor, look for the bull and the bear;

* Your education ~ Learn history PART 3

- An interest in history, politics, and economics will help you see the world with clearer perspectives;

- Nothing is really new: what is happening now has happened before and will happen again;

* Your education ~ Learn languages (make sure that Mandarin is one of them) PART 4

- Mandarin will be the next global language;

- Pay attention to the major changes taking place in the world now, especially China;

* Know thyself by understanding your weaknesses and acknowledging your mistakes

- Know who you are;

- To be a successful investor you really need to understand psychology, history, and philosophy;

* Recognise change and embrace it

- Everything changes. Everything;

- Embrace the principle of supply and demand;

- Change can be a catalyst;

- Adapt or die;

* Look to the future

- Read the newspapers, but think differently;

- Pay attention to what everyone else neglects;

- If you are looking for success, be quick to start something new, something that no one else has tried;

- The more certain something is, the less likely it is to be profitable;

- Do not think in terms of what you wish (ergo, wishful thinking versus willful doing);

- Know when not to do anything;

* Lady Luck smiles on those who continue in their efforts

- Do your homework'

- If you let vanity and self-importance (ego) take over, you will lose all that you have achieved;

- Never let yourself become arrogant. Study hard. The more you learn, the more you will realise how little you know - armed with this humility, you will never lose sight of the distance between self-confidence and self-importance;

- Do not stop when you are working towards your dream;

* Epilogue

- The devil of life is always in the details;

- Anything that is a must-see, must-try, must-read, must almost certainly be avoided, especially if it is popular;

- Use good manners no matter where you are or whom you meet;

- Learn to do as much arithmetic and figures as possible in your head;

- Take care of yourself;

- Learn to stay calm;

- Once you do get to know and understand yourself, remember who you are and stay with it;

- Don't be greedy;

A very entertaining read! Thanks, Jim, for sharing!

All Mums & Dads must read, especially the end part about BGR (Boy-Girl Relationship) & DOM (Dirty Old Man), on top of the foregoing. BGR & DOM do not fall under my purview of interest.

[Reviewed by Lee Say Keng, Knowledge Adventurer & Technology Explorer, Optimum Performance Technologies, Singapore, August 2010]

I've read all of Jim Rogers' books. All his books are well-written, entertaining, and easy to read. This one is no exception. It is filled with simple, good-ol-fashion advice for both adults and children. However, some of the examples Rogers uses to explain his idea may be hard for children to grasp, e.g. shorting stocks! Unless you plan to educate your kids about finance and economics early on, this book may be more appropriate for college-bound age teenagers or older.

I had preordered the book after the impressive book "Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market" ( one of the books in perpetual classics list in my listmania) and Jim Rogers TV interviews.The book does a decent job of giving "Commonsense" advise and a lot of motivation addressed to the readers (disguised as addressed to his daughters). However we have to remember that Jim Rogers is an ordinary father who happens to be the "Warren Buffett" of Commodities. That's it.Everyone who buys the book is looking to tap into the genius in him and possibly get rich trading.Pure and simple!

The first line of the book starts like this " There are going to be moments in life when you must make very important decisions. You will find many people ready to offer you...." and goes on explaining the importance of Relying on your own intelligence .Unfortunately for most common mortals like me who is squeezed between driving to office and dropping kids at school and watching prime time reality shows, it is nothing more than a hunch or instinct or a radio news that often leads to loss making trades.If you can sterotype an investing genius as someone who is passionate, who reads a lot, who analysis financial numbers, travels to the factories, production zones, understands macro economic,political structure first hand. then this book has all the meat to solidify stereotypes.

Without revealing the plot(!) of the book,I am going to point the subtitles in first chapter,that would give ample evidence to other readers as to what you can expect from the book.

CHAPTER 1:
Swim Your own Races.
Subtitles in Chapter1:
1.Rely on your own intelligence
2.If anybody laughs at your idea, view it as a potential success
3. Be Original,be bold
4. Be ethical
5. Save.

Each has a page or few paragraphs of explanation. A good motivational/instructional book should generally have powerful examples and this book fails terribly in that regard. It is plain instructions page in and page out with bland examples of boring references to Apple, GM etc. The example that stands out are those where he gives his life as examples ( when he invested in IBM stock, when he traveled to China, why he avoided investing in Algeria because of blackmarket currency controls).

For a common man, in general has two modes of investing. Either they "buy and hold" (401k) or trade. There are plenty of better books out there for either modes of investing . Some of them are

Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence Completely Revised and Updated : Practical Solutions for Busy People
One up on Wall Street: How to Use What You Already Know To Make Money in the Market, Miniature Edition
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Wiley Investment Classics)

Towards the end of the book, the advice on "Following your dreams" are downright insanity and borders on stupidity. He proudly claims driving in his motorcycle around the world chasing his dreams while he knew all along that his father will not be alive when he returns back. He also advises his daughters to do the same, ignore your "everyone" in pursuit of your dreams.

Well, what is wrong with that?. Had he mentioned that " I was young and bubbling with energy that my ambitions were more important than my father who gave everything for me. Looking back, I would advice that living a "fulfilled" life is more important than being "Successfull", that would have been a good dad's advice

A good "Dad or Mom" is an epitome of lot of internal and external compromises.He compromises his career, his hobbies, his desire ,puts up with nasty work environment, even occassionally swallows his pride in office place so that his family and kids have a good and prosperous future. It is lot easier to pursue your dreams , enjoying 18 hour work than playing with your kids and nurturing your family.Well, if you want to be a good dad,then read "The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" ( Another perpetual classic in my listmania)


This book is a "run of the mill" stuff! Still I rate it as 3 stars since the readers are hopefully mature enough to seperate the grain from chaff (ex :save,learn chinese).

This is simply a moving, touching soul will not only to his daughters, but also to the children of the world. Thanks for sharing your insight with us. I just cannot agree with you more. Learn from history, have indepedent thinking, mostly conventional wisdom is wrong. Thanks you, Jim, for sharing your the wisdom of wisdom!

This is a wonderful book by Jim Rogers and it has inspired my to read his other book, "Hot Commodities". Also, even though this is an interesting read, I would not purchase the book; I would go to Barnes & Noble and spend the two hours reading it there and saving the $16.00. I only purchase books that I can refer to in the future and this is not one of them.

I think this book is really intended as the title suggests - for his daughters; but also for anyone who wants a summary of what Jim Rogers has experienced in his long and colourful life and what conclusions he draws about life in general.

The book is very brief and written in an easy language so that you can read it in one go if you want to. I find it very refreshing that in contrast to many other books this one is NOT bloated to the "standard" size of ca. 200 pages so that the editor is happy.

Prior reviews have outlined the content; there is very little new stuff for people who follow Jim Rogers on TV or have read his other books. Nevertheless I think it is good as a summary for the ones who are familiar with him or who is isn't yet but wants to quickly get an overview. This book plus a couple of YouTube interviews and you get his - interesting - view of the world.

I originally came across this book at my local library while looking at investment and business books. I'm a proud father with the number one goal of raising my daughter to be an independant, confident young woman and I'm always interested to see how people I look up to raise their children. I've picked up a few new ideas over the last couple years and was looking forward to learning something from this book. I was not disappointed.

A gift to my children is packed full of general life lessons from the mind of a successful global investor with a passion for life. It touches on subjects such as boys and ethics, explains hidden dangers that young women seldom notice, and promotes thinking for yourself and not taking someone's advise just because they are a professional. I bought a copy for my cousin whom just became a father a little over a month ago, and I have a copy I intend to give my daughter once she is a little older. All in all, I feel any good father would enjoy this book.

This is a great book! It's advice from someone who not only has had great success as an investor, but also seen more of the world than anyone else.

I like Jim Rogers' advice and anecdote on being a self-starter. It's something I think about from time-to-time when I feel like I have nothing to do. I have begun studying Mandarin (as he recommends). If he's right about China, which I think he is, then anyone who can speak the language will have a huge competitive advantage going-forward. I also appreciate the fact that he thinks studying history and philosophy are worthwhile. It's nice to know that someone as accomplished as himself appreciates a degree that's not business.

As much as I enjoyed this books, I'd like to give a heads-up that this books is nowhere near as good as Adventure Capitalist, Rogers' book on his adventure traveling the globe (and one of my all-time favorite books). However, it is still a fantastic read and gives you lots of food for thought. Highly recommended!

I picked up this book because I read other books by this author. I was hoping to get more investment-related topics, but this book is more about life lessons. The author advises his two daughters and we, as readers, get to listen. He stresses the importance of being original, bold, and ethical. Similarly to Warren Buffett, he says that it is important to figure out what you love to do and focus on it instead of doing what is expected of you.

As far as finances, he finds it important to save, invest, and be frugal at a young age, so that there is enough money to afford things in the future. Since Jim Rogers is a very successful investor, I found it valuable to learn how he thinks and what values he follows. If you are looking for investment advice, read author's other books because this is not what you are looking for.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market