Robert Kiyosaki, the author of this book, had two fathers. A well-educated father who had a Ph.D. yet died broke; he called him "poor dad." The other one was not that well-educated but was rich; he called him "rich dad." Robert's dream of becoming rich started when he was young. His "poor dad" wanted him to study more and secure a job at a large company. "Rich dad" was his friend Mike's father; he wanted Robert to take risks and learn that not all lessons were taught in school. He wanted Robert to know that some lessons had to be taught by going through hardships. These kinds of lessons can't be acquired by simply going to school and getting good grades. It's important to have a good education, but life is not just about that.

Lesson 1: The rich don't work for money: Money works for them.

There's an old story about a man who owned a donkey. Whenever he wanted the donkey to work harder, he would put a carrot in front of the donkey's eyes, so the donkey was motivated by the carrot. It kept walking, hoping to reach that carrot one day. This worked well for the man but was not ideal for the donkey. The carrot in the story is like money. People keep working, hoping that someday they will become rich. Money is an illusion; you'll never reach it if you're working only to take the carrot. Instead, try to make

money work for you.

When you first start the journey of making money, don't work to gain money. Fear and desire are consistently controlling how we act.We have a fear of not having enough money; this makes us work harder each day. Then we gain a desire as we imagine all the beautiful things money can do and buy. Our fears and desires put us in a never-ending cycle of wanting more. We work harder to make more money, and as a result, we spend more. "Rich dad" called this the Rat Race. Instead of falling into that pattern, avoid the trap of fear and desire. That's how most people who want to be rich fail; you have to make money work for you.

When you get a job, don't go into work thinking you'll simply take your paycheck at the end of the month. You'll barely pay your bills and then repeat the cycle all over again. Even working harder at a second job is still only working for money. If you keep doing this, you're never going to be rich.Confront yourself, are you just looking for security at a safe job? Are you working to make more money because you think that this is going to make you rich or satisfy you? If the answer is yes, unfortunately, you're never going to make it. You'll die broke. If your answer is no, then you've taken the first step. Never let your fear of not having enough money or the desire to make more money encourage irrational behaviours.

We have business schools that do not teach us how to lead a business or start one. Instead, they teach us how to be a bean-counter, how to fire people, and give orders. They hardly ever teach you how to be a leader. Every day when you wake up, ask yourself if you are doing all you can. If you haven't reached your fullest potential, don't go day by day thinking about money or how to work more to get a better raise. Don't hold thoughts in your head like, "My boss doesn't pay me enough, I deserve a raise, I deserve to earn more money." When you stop blaming other people for your problems and accept that the problem is your way of thinking, then you'll be able to correct to more positive thoughts. That was the first lesson that "rich dad" taught Robert.

When Robert and his friend Mike were teenagers, "rich dad" made them work at his convenience store for free. They kept working, not thinking about how much money they weren't making. During their working hours, they were able to free their minds and create new ideas to make money work for them. At the store, they watched the store clerk cut the front pages of comic books in two; she would keep one half and throw the rest of the comic away. At the end of the day, the distributor would come and take the top half of the books and give new comics to the store.

The boys waited for the distributor to arrive and asked him if they could keep the old comic books. He said yes, but they had to agree not to sell them. The boys agreed and started a business. They charged kids to read comic books. Ten cents per book for two hours, and then it would be returned. Technically they were not selling them. They worked their business out of their garage and paid Mike's sister 1 dollar a week to run it. They made about 9.50 dollars a week. They had finally learned how to make money work for them.