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Response to charge that John T. Reed is envious of Robert Kiyosaki

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A number of people have dismissed my criticism of Robert Kiyosaki as being motivated by jealousy and therefore meritless. Actually, that’s irrelevant. My criticisms should be judged on their truthfulness. But I’ll address the jealousy issue for the lower-IQ crowd who don’t get logic.
Exactly what is it that I would be jealous of regarding Kiyosaki? It seems to me that our lives are quite similar—and to the extent that they differ—it would appear that he should envy me in at least as many categories as I should envy him. Here’s a comparison.

COLUMN HEADINGS: Category Reed Kiyosaki
Born
1946
1947
Father
alcoholic former 5¢&10¢ store manager
Ph.D. head educator in Hawaii government
Childhood hometown
Wildwood, NJ (seashore resort)
Hawaii
College
U.S. Military Academy,
West Point, NY Class of ’68
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY Class of ’69 (He got left back one year in high school)
Branch of service
Army
Marines
Overseas service
Vietnam
Vietnam
Extra military schools graduated from
Paratrooper, Ranger
Helicopter Pilot (although he characterized himself as a “fighter” pilot in one book and his military records show no flight school or award of pilot’s wings)
Graduate school
Harvard Business School M.B.A. Class of ’77@
failed attempt to get MBA
Marital status
married 30 years and counting
divorced, remarried
Children
3 sons:
1 Ivy League senior (Columbia Class of 2003)
1 college freshman (Arizona Class of 2006)
1 H.S. sophomore College class of 2009
0
(It is noteworthy that this guy who tells us how to raise our children, a man who trashes his own father’s performance in that category in several books, himself is childless. I think we would all like to know how Mr. Rich Dad, Poor Dad’s own kids turned out before we switch to his formula for child raising. Claiming to speak on behalf of “the children” is a popular ploy with demagogues.)
Books authored
30
5
Books sold
approximately 170,000*
He claims 12,000,000
Profit per book
Retail or wholesale price less printing cost
best guess: approximately 72¢
Newsletter issues sold
approximately 3,300,000
Unknown, but only started newsletter 5/02
National TV appearances
60 Minutes, Good Morning America, Larry King Live
Oprah, Today Show
Board games sold
none
unknown, but probably over 100,000
Home value#
approximately $1,500,000
approximately $1,500,000
Year home purchased
1983
1999
Current home town
Alamo, CA
Phoenix, AZ
Financial low point
1968 just out of college 2nd lieutenant in Army
1985 homeless living in car with wife
First civilian job
Seashore resort singles bar bartender
officer on what he described as a “Loveboat” type cruise ship in one account; however, his 1993 book …Don’t Go To School says his only merchant marine job was 6 months as third mate on a Standard Oil of California tanker
Net worth
Comfortable
A reader complained that I was not more forthcoming since I have criticized others. My criticism is of those who claim to be rich. I have never done that. Normal people do not disclose their income or net worth. But if you claim either is huge to get people to buy your stuff, then you have an obligation to prove it.
Hey, I had a kid at an Ivy League college, another paying out-of-state tuition, and a home worth a million plus. My wife and I are both Harvard MBAs. That ought to give you enough of an idea. The rest is private, as it should be unless you’re some sort of financial show off or very insecure.
Claims “$50,000,000 to $100,000,000 depending on the day.” That is impossible to verify without Kiyosaki providing more information about what he owns and it is very hard to believe about a guy who was bankrupt in 1985 and who does not own a public company or major real estate holdings like shopping malls or fifty-story office buildings. Also, people with that much money do not let it sit in investments where it fluctuates so greatly in one day. What goes up 100% or down 50% in one day? Pork belly futures?

@ My wife is a member of the Harvard Business School M.B.A. Class of ’78. We were married before either of us entered Harvard.
* Many of my books were never offered to book stores. None are anymore. Books sold only by the author direct to the public are orders of magnitude more profitable per book, but sell far fewer copies than books sold to book stores.
# Anyone can get this sort of information from Internet appraisal services nowadays.
So, again, exactly which of the items on the above list am I supposed to be jealous of? It ain’t board games. I never had any interest in producing such a product. I wince at the thought of some poor kid being dragged over to the kitchen table to play John Reed’s board game with his parents.
Actually, there is one area where I envy Kiyosaki. I wish I had a dad like his “Poor Dad.” Maybe at some subconscious level, it really bothers me that he had a good man, not a mean drunk, for a dad, then trashed him in his books for the crime of not making little Robert rich enough in his childhood to be invited to the right parties.
Since grade school, I prefer my life to his.
John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.