“We learn throughout life” is a saying students at Arizona State University are used to hearing. These are three simple words that the university respects, but it is also a quote from Kim Kiyosaki, one of the guest speakers at a series of lectures organized by the TW Lewis Center for Personal Development to Barrett, The Honors College of ASU. The seminar, the first in a five-session series, featured special guests and supporters of Barrett, Robert and Kim Kiyosaki. There will be four more sessions in the series, each focusing on various topics related to finance and financial education.
Robert Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hawaii. After graduating from college in New York, he joined the United States Marine Corps, serving in Vietnam as a combat helicopter officer and pilot. Now he is an American businessman, entrepreneur and author of over 26 books including the #1 personal finance book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.
Robert and Kim Kiyosaki shared their knowledge of personal finance with students in a series of seminars presented by Barrett’s TW Lewis Center for Personal Development, The Honors College at Arizona State University.
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Kim Kiyosaki is a successful real estate investor, entrepreneur, speaker, and author with a passion for financial education. She built her brand on the international success of her books “Rich Woman” and “It’s Rising Time.”
In 1996, the Kiyosakis created and launched the board game CASHFLOW, which was designed to teach people about money, real estate and investing, as well as to start a business and challenge perceptions about how to generate and maintain wealth, in a fun way. and entertaining. Robert Kiyosaki said the purpose of the board game was to change its internal dialogue, explaining, “If you don’t change your internal dialogue, your life doesn’t change.”
In 1997, they founded The Rich Dad Company with a mission “to elevate the financial well-being of mankind,” Robert said. It is centered on providing financial education based on thinking like the rich.
The same year the Kiyosakis started their business, Robert wrote his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.
“‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ started when I was 9,” Robert said. “When I was 9 I asked my teacher when we would learn about the money and she was shocked.” His teacher answered his question by telling him to ask his father.
Robert’s father, whom he called “poor dad”, was brilliant and had a successful career. His father worked all his life, put money aside for his retirement, but never accumulated wealth. After talking to his dad about money, Robert said his dad told him to “ask my rich friend’s dad; he’s an entrepreneur.
The friend’s dad, whom Robert called “rich dad,” understood the difference between an asset and a liability, and that assets put money in your pocket. Robert’s “rich dad” taught him how to become financially free by taking risks, using debt, buying assets and creating cash flow.
These two very different ways of thinking inspired Robert to write “Rich Dad Poor Dad” to teach the financial education that is necessary to think like “rich dad.” Robert and Kim aimed to pass on some of those lessons to Barrett students who attended the speaker series, hoping to teach financial education to the next generation.
Ann Atkinson, executive director of the TW Lewis Center, said one of his favorite takeaways from the seminar is Robert’s coin toss concept, in which he explained there is no such thing as a coin. two-sided, and that is why there will always be disagreements. “All coins have three sides: tails, heads and edges,” he explained. “Intelligence stands on the edge of the abyss; don’t take sides.
Katie Alcaraz Reyes, a Barrett Honors College junior student in forensic psychology, said she attended the seminar to learn more about finance.
“I’m not interested in working a 9 to 5 after college, but I still want to earn money,” she said.
The lesson from the Kiyosakis presentation that stood out to Reyes the most was “if you don’t change your internal thinking, your life won’t change.”
“I feel like a lot of people struggle with that,” Reyes said.
Students from Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University play the board game CASHFLOW to learn financial concepts during a workshop with Robert and Kim Kiyosaki, recently presented by the TW Lewis Center. Photo courtesy of TW Lewis Center
Isabella Meadows, a junior student at Barrett Honors College majoring in accounting and finance with a minor in real estate, said she attended this series of workshops because she had admired Robert all her life.
“He was one of my biggest role models,” she said. “I admire his mindset and want to be around and soak up his mentality, the mentality that sees the good in life and the abundance in life and the power to shape your reality through learning and mentality shifts,” Meadows said.
“My experience of the lecture portion of the workshop gave me chills. Thrills of inspiration, empowerment, life,” added Meadows, who read Robert’s books and played the board game CASHFLOW in his childhood.
“Hearing Mr. Kiyosaki speaking words of life and truth right in front of me…(it) stirred something in my soul,” she said. “If I had to describe my experience in one word, I would say ‘magical’.”
After Kiyosakis’ presentation, the students played the board game CASHFLOW, with the winner of each game receiving the board game as a prize.
“Playing CASHFLOW, I’ve learned that sometimes you have to be patient and not accept the first deal that comes your way,” Meadows said. “When you say ‘yes’ immediately to something, you are saying ‘no’ to something else, and that ‘no’ could have been 10 times more valuable than the fastest option to present itself.”
Shivani Naik, a sophomore at Barrett Honors College majoring in finance and human systems, called the first session of the seminar “a unique opportunity to learn the keys to financial freedom.”
“I learned something that I could immediately apply to my daily life. I learned that there is no rich or poor. On the contrary, there are people with a rich mindset and others with a poor mindset, and this mindset determines the ultimate financial situation in their lives,” she said.
“I had an amazing experience throughout the first session of the Cash Flow Workshop Program,” Naik added. “The lessons I learned are such valuable lessons that I will never forget and which I am sure will bring me endless benefits in the future.”
Along with continuing this series of speakers, the TW Lewis Center will host many more events like this throughout this academic year.
“If there’s anything I recommend in this world, it’s for students to attend TW Lewis Center programs,” Shivani said. “The personal development mission of the TW Lewis Center is of infinite value, and regardless of the type of student who attends center events, each person benefits in one way or another.”
Story of Barrett Honors College student Alex Marie Solomon.