Wits vs wits 2

Post #2
Robert Kyosaki

Well it is safe to say that Robert Kyosaki is against the current and former formal education system particularly with respect to wealth creation that is why he established his own brand of financial literacy products under the banner of the Rich Dad Company.

Well one can wonder what happens in the mind of this man, is he just a businessman exploiting a niche and trying to get attention or is his pursuit well founded and based on real passion, revelation and experience.

The education system as we know it has (in my opinion) sustained our civilisation for years but is this sheer coincidence?

He believes that one can never acquire true wealth as an employee, self employee or small business owner; fair enough but what is the validity of him saying that formal education is not for business owners and investors whom he believes are the custodians of “real wealth”.

One can’t make such an irrelevant conclusion because one can interpret this puff as a pass at the employers and investors themselves; does it mean that wealthy people are primarily not educated by the formal education system?

One can ask where if not at the formal education institutions did they learn how to study the markets and know about demand and supply, about markets and inflation is it logical to bastardise the system in this way?


In his book: “ If you want to be Rich and Happy don’t go to school” – which is in my opinion a very attractive and sensationalist title.

Well in his book he presented a number of arguments and I will quote and analyse some of them without disputing on their validity.

current(1993 in America) education system is fraught.

- He says that educators undermine the development of creative and independent thinking with emphasis on the one right answer.
• I say that without emphasis on the right or best answer the independent thinker is more prone to settle for mediocrity and indecisiveness. Kyosaki’s reasoning is flawed because as with all things, it depends on the context, in economics or law for instance; the merits of ones reasoning is weighed against a logical arrangement of facts and in mathematics there is indeed a definite answer but you can’t find it if you don’t memorize the mathematical rules.

- He further generalizes by saying that students are ill equipped to deal with complex and dynamic realities of our society
• I say that students are better equipped to tackle dynamic and complex issues because they have a systematic way of thinking that allows them to see and filter out the ambiguities and identify the real patterns. For instance a history student who has studied the Russian revolution would be better capable of identifying political tactics that are characteristic to totalitarian leadership, and is better capable to blow the whistle before things deteriorate further.

OK I am not going to entertain the arguments in his book any further because I think it is just propaganda as he constantly appeals to his audience’s emotions and is grossly subjective in his arguments; he also misrepresents the formal education system as there is an obvious gap between fact and fiction.

He suggests that his alternative education system is better than the current one. And I don’t think that there is much difference in the 1993 and 2012 system of education considering that I am speaking from the backdrop of a third world country and he speaks from a developed country - which is blessed with prestigious educational institutions which consistently produce world class businessmen.

I think that the creation of wealth is a contextual issue and the relevance of acquiring a degree in order to achieve wealth might depend on geographical or political location among other things.

He argues that people go for formal education in order to be employed or self employed. But how many graduates are not employed in the profession of their choice.

Maybe the failure in the formal education system is really in customising education to complement individual talent from an early age, although it might be flawed but it would mean that people wouldn’t have to go by trial and error when choosing which course to take.

But then again how does one determine talent and what does this have to do with entrepreneurship and wealth or is “talent” just an excuse not to excel in something else? This as I consider why we still see some students excel in all their subjects, and I think that the significance of formal education in wealth creation is that it is where most people develop their work ethic and using the above argument I would say that a polished work ethic surpasses raw talent.

Statistics show that a majority of graduates do not end up working in their fields of study.

I think that it would be foolish to ignore the merits of formal education in a person’s ability to assert him /herself in a business environment and attain wealth. It would be foolish to think that Oprah’s acquisition of a communication degree through formal education did not contribute to her relevance and success as a public speaker (in the casual definition of the word).

On my next posts ( post Wits vs wits) I will delve much deeper into the subject of other factors that contribute to wealth and thus whether formal education deserves to hold such prominence in the wealth creation argument.

Is there a relation between success in sport to economic success, for instance in soccer; the world’s biggest sport many European teams dominate the top 10 world rankings and leagues and there aren’t any African countries. Of course there has to be an imminent interest but what are the merits of economic growth in sports. We will look at the ascent of many nations in sports in relation to their economic ascension looking at a few isolated cases.

Common physical features theories of entrepreneurs and leaders, eg forehead etc.

Or let’s observe the unemployment rate versus the self-employment rate is entrepreneurial flair borne out of economic need for survival?

Is it more volatile in unpalatable circumstances where one develops a survival instinct? or is it rather borne out of a place of comfort where you are privileged to have peace of mind and the resources to make the ideas materialise?

Resourcefulness is the key when it comes to wealth creation there are more self made Billionaires on the top ten of the Forbes list. That must say something about how essential it is for one to bear one’s own authentic entrepreneurial vision and Unique Selling Proposition.


The richest men in all their respective continents are self made and the successors are growing substantially compared to their predecessors.

I will still do more research regarding the above mentioned questions while I continue with my next topic for the month: “The role of unity in wealth creation…”

I will analyse the things that make most partnerships fail and I will zoom in on communities like the Indian community which relatively knows little about nepotism but much about the power of unity in wealth creation.