If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School?: Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself.. [Paperback]

Robert T. Kiyosaki (Author), Hal Zina Bennett (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

If you're like most of us, your years in school did little to prepare you for the challenges of the real world. They are more likely to have planted seeds of financial and emotional failure in your life. These seeds sprout later, sabotaging our most sincere attempts to get ahead and create happy, prosperous lives for ourselves and our families.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Robert Kiyosaki's work in education is powerful profound and life-changing. I salute his efforts and recommend him highly.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Aslan Publishing; Revised edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944031595
• ISBN-13: 978-0944031599
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

225 of 231 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some good material. Worth reading., May 27, 2000

By 

Michael Mendenhall "september17th" (Monterey, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School?: Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself.. (Paperback)

I've read this book 3 times, and I enjoyed it more every time. This is not a book about "bashing" the educational system. After all, it was written by a teacher. This is Kiyosaki's first book. His subsequent books "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" "Cashflow Quadrant" have gone on to best seller status. "Rich Dad's Guide to Investing" will probably too.

What this book confirmed for me is what I suspected all along. Our educational system is designed as a giant employment training agency. Schools don't teach our children how to cope in life and to take care of themselves. Schools are designed to produce good employees. Sounds almost like a conspiracy theory doesn't it? Think about it. Why do people strive to get good grades in school? To get into a good college. Why do people want to go to a good college or any college? To get a good "education" which really translates into a good job.

I found the author's talk about grades to be very eye opening. After all, we place kids in different ranks. Some kids are dumb and some are smart. They all can't get A's in school, so we create the "Bell Curve" to make it look good. We have to flunk a certain number of kids in order to make the smart ones appear smart. After all a "smart" kid is only smart in comparison to all the other kids who are "dumb." The kid who graduates at the top of the class does so because he/she is "better" or "smarter" than the kids who rank lower. This book presents a really sad look at our educational system, and I think many bureaucrats in the educational system resent it. I hope it wakes them up.

If you're involved in the educational system, you owe it to yourself to give this book at least a good read or two. If you never liked school like I did, you'll love this book. I felt a sense of validation after reading it. It's not a put down of education per se as much as our school system. People who are "educated" aren't necessarily poor, they've just been trained in the wrong way. I don't expect the bureaucrats to change anything as a result of this book. Too many people have too many entrenched interests to change the system.

I'm giving this book 5 stars for its courage and originality. Kiyosaki laid it all out on the line. Many people will disagree with the premise of the book, and those are the people who profit by keeping our schools mediocre. As the author points out, we need to teach our kids to be independent and self-sufficient. Our school system doesn't do that. I wonder how many "dumb" kids never made it in life because of their school experience. Have you ever noticed how many famous wealthy people never completed school? Think about that.

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good perspective on the American work/education system., December 26, 1999

By 

Sunny Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School?: Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself.. (Paperback)

The author confirms my own beliefs about American society, the education system, and what I should do for myself at this point in my life. I also believe that children should be taught the same principles, especially since getting bad grades in no way reflects the true worth of a person.

The American education system is fine for those who can make the grade and stick with their chosen field for life and be happy doing it. In reality, many people don't fit the mold, industries change, and people change. We are so brain washed into schooling ourselves as the only was to make a decent happy living. This and the over importance of grades separating winners and losers is bad for the individual and society, as Mr. Kiyosaki points out.

The bottom line is taking control of your own financial destiny. Education *is* an option, but not the *only* option.

The book is not intended to be a how to get rich book, but a point of view that readers will benefit from. Some of the points are obvious and could be more direct, however I recommend the book for those who feel that getting more education is the only route to go in this society, and for those who want to protect their self-esteem or their kid's.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Schools=Great Employer Recruiting Agencies, November 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: If You Want to Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go to School?: Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself.. (Paperback)

After reading "If You Want To Be Rich and Happy, Don't Go To School", I was reminded of what I knew all along; all school does is train you be a good employee. Schools are basically gloried recruiting agencies for employers.

We're always told to get good grades right. But when I go to the bank for a loan my banker has never asked to see my report card. He does do a credit check and a debt to income ratio and checked my assets.

All school teaches is how much more there is to know. Most of my high school friends who went to college and on to the great dream of "get a good education so you can get a good job" are updating their resumes looking for their third or fourth jobs--just in the last five years.

I also know a couple that are in their late 40's and had to move in with their parents because they can't make it.

I think education is great as long as it is put in perspective. It does not equate wealth. The real education that will make you wealthy is what Kiyosaki teaches. And Kiyosaki knows first hand. He saw what going to school and getting a great education did to his real, but Poor Dad. It drove him broke, unhappy and to an early death.

Schools and teachers should not look at Kiyosaki's books, this one or the others as opposition, but as a wake up call. The current educational system is not cutting it. Just look at allof the :highly educated people" who are out of work or working at jobs at 1/2 or less than their highest salaries. I rest my case.

"If You Want to Be Rich & Happy, Don't Go to School?" needs to be read by parents and children, school teaches, business executives and anyone who is in the "E" Quadrant and thinks that is a good place to be. Or thinks that is the place they need to be.

I highly recommend "If You Want To Be Rich & Happy, Don't Go To School?" and "Rich Dad Poor Dad" as well as "Cash Flow Quadrant" to everyone who is sick of the rat race and feeling like a rat. Sick of the 9-5, commute through traffic, working 40 hours a week for 40 years in the hopes of "job security" and finding that there is no such thing as "job security" as long as you work for someone else.

The only real security is within yourself.

Excellent book. It may not be what you want to hear, but iti certaintly is what you need to hear...and none too soon.