Robert Toru Kiyosaki was born on April 8, 1947 and has one sister, Emi Kiyosaki, a Tibetan Buddhist nun. Robert Kiyosaki has one adopted son from Cape Town, South Africa. He is an American businessman, author, investor and motivational speaker. Robert Kiyosaki is best known for his series of motivational books Rich Dad Poor Dad and other material published under the Rich Dad brand. He has written 15 books which have combined sales of over 26 million copies.
Three of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant, and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, have been on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously on The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times. Rich Kid Smart Kid was published in 2001 to help parents teach their children about managing money.
Robert Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hawaii and after graduating from Hilo High School, he attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, graduating as a deck officer. He later served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War, where he was awarded the Air Medal. Robert Kiyosaki started a company that brought to market the first nylon and Velcro “surfer” wallets. In the 1980’s, Robert Kiyosaki started a business that licensed T-shirts for Heavy metal rock bands.
In 1997 he launched Cashflow Technologies, Inc. which owns and operates the Rich Dad and Cashflow brands. Robert Kiyosaki’s teachings focus on generating passive income by means of real estate and business investment opportunities. Robert Kiyosaki often refers to The Cashflow Quadrant – a tool which he developed to categorize the 4 major ways income is earned.
In each of the 4 groups there is a letter representing a way in which an individual may earn income:
Employee — Working for someone else.
Self-employed or Small business owner — Where a person owns his own job and is his own boss.
Business owner — A person owns a business to make money; typically where the owner’s physical presence is not required.
Investor — Investing money in order to receive a larger income in the future.