Many IBOs seemingly have read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" written by Robert Kiyosaki and they often will cite his cash flow ideas and his talk about earning passive income and using business as a vehicle to build wealth. But has anyone really stopped to wonder how Kiyosaki built his alleged wealth? He likely built his alleged empire by selling books and apparently scammy real estate seminars. I'm posting a 3 part youtube series exposing the scam and you can see Robert himself backpeddling when questioned about the very questionable practices in one of his seminars. He says he will look into things but as the video shows, these practices have been going on for years and years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6nT0oyPt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv6feHB0AE4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iimvyVCEGA
You can view the videos and judge for yourself. I was appalled that this kind of scam is allowed to go on. These hucksters need to be in jail. But since the authorities don't stop them, the best way to help people to avoid the scam is to educate them so they don't get enticed into signing up and literally throwing their money away.
Amway diamonds and Kiyosaki have no documented evidence of success for their "systems". I've seen Kiyosaki's infomercial for his "system" and after showing (unsubstantiated) testimonials, the disclaimer of "unique experience" streams in small print across the screen.
I encourage you to view the 3 short videos and I look forward to comments.
From what I've seen and read about these seminars is that they give dangerous advice and each seminar is a hard sell for the next and more expensive seminar. When I was watching the videos, they gave some pretty bad advice like upping your credit card limit and some other questionable practices. Kiyosaki claims that these are not his seminars as they are run by a private company, but his claim is BS as they use his name to promote the seminars and he is apparently making a nice amount of income from these seminars.
ReplyDeleteHe might decry "unethical" tactics used in the seminars but he certainly isn't going stop his gravy train in any meaningful way.
I got sucked into this Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar in 2009 that I have renamed “Rich Speaker Poor Attendee” scaminar. Here is my personal experience and my personal opinion from attending this event. I went to the initial meeting where they were trying to sell everyone on attending the 3 day seminar for $500 where you were told that you would learn some strategies to buy and sell real estate. I decided to do it but as everyone got up to get in line and pay, I watched the speakers and I could tell at how the speakers looked at each other that they were getting paid on folks signing up. Very noticeable to me. In my opinion, the seminars are how they were making money; not from any real estate deals they talked about. Then in the 3 day seminar, they used the same tactics that are in the video links here. Remember I went in 2009 and back then they were telling folks to call their credit card companies to up their credit limits. For Kiyosaki to say he is unaware that the seminar speakers were suggesting folks to increase their credit limits seems unbelievable with the speakers saying this since 2009. In the seminar they finally said we needed to sign up for more classes to succeed. I had ticket shock when I saw they wanted around $50,000 for the highest cost real estate training program. And they would not allow anyone to take home the Cost Sheet showing the cost of the real estate training. Gee I wonder why? They kept saying that we could get that money back on the first real estate deal. Yeah that convinced me to sign up, not! On a break at the back near the water station, a lady from my table was stating that she was signing up for the highest cost program. I already decided that I was not signing up for any further training. I was telling her that it didn't sound like a good idea and just like they mentioned in the video, the speakers are intentionally positioned and standing in hearing distance of the attendees to stop any negative talking that might prevent someone from signing up. Why? Because the revenue from folks signing up IS the speakers income stream; not the real estate deals they talk about. If they are sooooo rich, why aren't they out on their boats, yachts, or travelling the world? Why aren't they out cutting more real estate deals? Why are they in these seminars? Why? Because their revenue stream IS in fact the money from folks signing up for the classes. It is easy money for them. Come to the seminar as a speaker and just talk it up with all kinds of real estate stories that won’t be proven true or false or accurate and collect $500 from each person and maybe as a big bonus $50K from some attendees for the additional training. The speakers are not rich. Thinking back, it's laughable when some of the women speakers came in flashing lots of jewelry to make you think they had a lot of money. Thankfully I stopped at that $500 event and I did not learn enough to buy or sell real estate. Lesson Learned: ****Buyer Beware**** Any business opportunity that requires you to keep dishing out the money is only beneficial on one side of the deal and it isn’t your side! In our $500 class there were approximately 30 people. $500 X 30 =$15,000 they earned at this seminar and if only one person signed up for the $50K program, they earned $65K that day. And you know what I got from attending? A purple bag with motivational videos and CDS about Cashflow. Which way is the cash flowing here? One way. From your pocket to their pocket.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience at one of these seminars. Your story looks like what we sawi in the video.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Kiyosaki is a scammer who should be in jail. He and others (like Amway diamonds) make their money by pretending to be wealthy and then selling these alleged wealth secrets to people. Of course hardly anyone makes any money doing what Kiyosaki advises and I suspect Kiyosaki would be hard pressed to pull off what his seminars are pimping.
Raising the limit on your credit card to purchase real estate sounds like stupid on steroids. Why would you make a major purchase on something that's going to charge you maximum interest?
The idea that one needs to spend $50,000 to learn how to sell real estate is beyond stupid -- it's unworldly. You can learn the real estate business in two hours of discussion with a realtor.
ReplyDeleteLet's just state the facts plainly: Kiyosaki is a liar and a thief. And the people who run his phoney-baloney seminars are no better.