Rich Dad Poor Dad written by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Letcher, is a book based on personal finances. First published in 1997, it is still a #1 Best Seller on Amazon and has been cited by many successful entrepreneurs as being instrumental to their success stories.

The lessons Robert learned from his biological father—a highly educated but impoverished man—and his friend’s salesman father (who was uneducated but wise and rich) are essentially contrasted and compared in this book. It teaches accounting concepts, money management, and financial independence. If you’re an ambitious entrepreneur or simply seeking financial independence, this is the book for you.

Knowing it is a book about personal finance, there is a natural apprehension that it would be dry and consist of a slew of laws with no practical application. That is most certainly not the case with Robert’s book. Unlike previous books on financial management I’d read, the book’s narrative style caught me off guard right from the start. I conveniently finished the book despite the fact that I never seemed to be able to do so with books about monetary expansion. It was simple to understand and had enough anecdotes to keep a story-lover like myself interested, and I left with lessons that have stayed with me to this day. Let me share with you some of the most memorable lessons I’ve learned;

Financial education is critical.

I especially like how Robert highlights how financial knowledge is more essential than becoming wealthy. According to him, a person can be highly educated and professionally successful while being financially ignorant. Such folks never escape the rat race. Get it and teach it to your children. I sincerely hope that our educational system will incorporate financial education into the curriculum, even in secondary schools. It’s never too early to start acquiring financial knowledge.

Master your emotions.

Another unusual financial lesson that Robert gave was the need of controlling our emotions when it comes to money. For many people, money is an emotional subject. We often don’t approach money with an open and logical mind because it sometimes makes us feel uneasy, haughty, careless, confident, etc. He challenges readers to confront their financial anxieties, complacency, and arrogance.

Mind your business

Financial difficulties are frequently the outcome of people working their entire lives for others. Many people, in order to earn a living and do a job they enjoy, spend their entire lives working for someone else and making that person wealthy while neglecting their own affairs. Start taking care of your own affairs. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur, because even that does not ensure financial independence. Building your assets column with stocks, IOUs, rental properties, your own businesses, etc. are ways to start minding your business. Rich people accumulate assets, while poor people accumulate liabilities that they mistake for assets. Assets are things that put money in your pocket, whereas liabilities take money out of your pocket.

I can state with certainty that reading the book is a fantastic time investment with a good return on investment (ROI) (winks). Of course, if we’re being honest, the book has flaws, but every book has them (no one is flawless, right?). Overall, it’s a fantastic book to add to your list of must-reads.