1장
The Financial Revolution You Never Saw Coming
In 2002, Robert Kiyosaki made a bold prediction that sent shockwaves through the financial world: a massive stock market crash would hit around 2016. The financial media attacked him mercilessly. Yet by 2008, as millions lost their homes and retirement savings in what would become known as the Great Recession, his warnings started looking less like fear-mongering and more like prophecy. "Second Chance" isn't just another financial advice book-it's Kiyosaki's urgent wake-up call about the invisible forces transforming our economy and stealing our wealth. The book has become required reading among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Wall Street insiders alike, with tech billionaire Mark Cuban reportedly keeping a copy on his nightstand. Its core message-that we're experiencing the biggest wealth transfer in human history-has made it both controversial and essential reading for anyone concerned about their financial future. As the gap between rich and poor continues widening globally, Kiyosaki's insights about how money really works have never been more relevant.
2장
The Visionary Who Saw Through the Matrix of Money
Robert Kiyosaki's journey toward financial enlightenment began with an unlikely mentor: Buckminster Fuller, the eccentric genius inventor known as the "Grandfather of the Future." In 1967, a young Kiyosaki hitchhiked to Montreal's Expo 67 to see Fuller's massive geodesic dome that housed the U.S. Pavilion. The experience left him awestruck, but he couldn't have imagined that fourteen years later, he would study directly under Fuller himself.
By 1981, Kiyosaki was a successful entrepreneur manufacturing rock and roll merchandise globally. Despite his material success, something was missing. When he attended Fuller's seminar, he experienced a profound spiritual awakening that changed his life's direction. Fuller touched his heart, making him question his purpose beyond just making money.
Between 1981 and 1983, Kiyosaki dedicated himself to studying Fuller's complex work through collaborative mind-mapping sessions. Rather than traditional note-taking, Kiyosaki and his study groups used colors and sketches to visualize Fuller's ideas. This unconventional learning method-where collaboration was encouraged rather than considered cheating-became Kiyosaki's "second chance school" to discover his true calling.
Fuller's death in July 1983 marked a turning point. Kiyosaki embraced the philosophy that "Sometimes you have to let go of what you love doing so you can do what you are supposed to do." Inspired by Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," he began the difficult process of leaving his rock and roll business to pursue his spiritual profession.
In 1984, Kiyosaki met Kim, his future wife and business partner. Together they took a leap of faith into the unknown. Though 1985 was their worst year financially-living in a Toyota and a friend's basement-they persevered. They eventually found success in Australia teaching entrepreneurship and investing through games, finally making a small profit by December.
The turning point came in 1986 when Kiyosaki was invited to speak at John Denver's Windstar Foundation in Aspen. Despite being unprepared, he spoke passionately about education and learning difficulties. The audience responded with tears of love and responsibility. As he left the stage, Kim and he embraced, knowing they had found their spiritual profession-becoming teachers, ironically a profession Kiyosaki had never considered growing up.
With clarity about their purpose, their educational company expanded globally. By 1994, when they sold the business to their partner, Kim and Robert had achieved financial freedom without traditional jobs or retirement plans. She was 37, and he was 47. When people began asking how they'd accomplished this, they knew it was time for their next second chance. Following Fuller's principle that "The more people I serve, the more effective I become," they developed the CASHFLOW game and began writing "Rich Dad Poor Dad," officially launching The Rich Dad Company on Kiyosaki's 50th birthday in 1997.
3장
The Greatest Heist You Never Noticed
Imagine waking up to discover that someone has been systematically stealing your wealth for decades-not through breaking into your home, but through the very financial system you've been taught to trust. This is precisely what Kiyosaki reveals in his exploration of what Fuller called "GRUNCH" (Gross Universal Cash Heist).
The heist begins with education. In 1903, John D. Rockefeller created The General Education Board, while Andrew Carnegie promoted his Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. While some believe they were improving education, critics argue they were hijacking America's educational system to break the American spirit-making citizens dependent on government rather than maintaining their independence and ambition. This might explain why there's no financial education in schools.
The paycheck itself functions as a control mechanism. "The person who signs the paycheck has the power to enslave another person's body, mind, and soul," Kiyosaki's rich dad taught him. When slavery was abolished, the rich created paychecks as a new form of control. This is why the first chapter in Rich Dad Poor Dad is titled "The Rich Don't Work for Money."
Words themselves can be tools of manipulation or empowerment. Rich dad wouldn't allow saying "I can't afford it," instead encouraging "How can I afford it?" to challenge the brain to expand possibilities. Many remain poor because they use disempowering financial words or misunderstand key concepts. For example, millions struggle financially because they incorrectly call liabilities "assets." Rich dad's definitions were simple: assets put money in your pocket; liabilities take money from your pocket.
The banking system itself is designed to steal wealth through the Fractional Reserve System. This ancient banking mechanism allows banks to lend out multiple times the amount deposited. If you deposit $10, the bank can lend $100 (at a 10:1 ratio), paying you perhaps 5% interest ($0.50) while earning 10% ($10) on loans. This creates inflation, devaluing your savings and making life more expensive.
Taxes represent another form of wealth extraction. While many believe paying taxes is patriotic, America was largely tax-free until 1943, when the Current Tax Payment Act allowed the government to collect taxes before workers got paid. This created a continuous cash flow that funded the military-industrial complex. The CASHFLOW Quadrant illustrates who pays the most taxes: E (employee) and S (self-employed) quadrants pay the highest taxes, while B (big business) and I (professional investor) pay the least.
Bailouts function as yet another wealth transfer mechanism. Despite Ben Bernanke claiming "We're not printing money," bailouts allow banks to lend money to "friends and family" of GRUNCH without consequences. When these loans fail, taxpayers cover the losses while the biggest banks aren't held accountable.
President Nixon contributed significantly to today's financial crisis through three key actions: taking the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 (hurting the poor and fixed-income earners while creating a boom for the middle class), opening trade with China in 1972 (good for factory owners but devastating for American workers), and resigning in 1974, which was quickly followed by ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). Despite its name, ERISA actually made retirement less secure by shifting from Defined Benefit plans (guaranteed lifetime income) to Defined Contribution plans (401(k)s) that could run out of money.
The Dark Ages continue as central banks worldwide fight deflation by printing trillions, creating a more dangerous crisis than ever before. Thomas Jefferson warned long ago that banking institutions posed greater dangers than standing armies, predicting that if Americans allowed private banks to control currency, banks and corporations would eventually deprive people of all property.
4장
The Coming Storm: Emergencies and Evolution
Fuller believed humanity faced not just a financial emergency but an evolutionary one. While our leaders continue "kicking the can down the road," we approach calamities that threaten our existence. Fuller argued humans must shift focus from "killingry" to "livingry" to avoid extinction like the dinosaurs.
Our inability to cooperate is causing emergencies to grow into unmanageable global disasters. Schools train students to compete rather than cooperate-cooperation is labeled "cheating." The classroom resembles a Neanderthal cave where children battle for grades, with parents encouraging this primitive behavior. After graduation, the corporate world continues this pattern as executives climb ladders at others' expense.
Environmental emergencies are multiplying. Fuller warned about global warming as early as the 1950s. Today, rather than cooperating on solutions, many leaders deny environmental problems exist despite melting polar ice caps, rising seas, ocean pollution, and fish depletion. Weather has become increasingly violent with hurricanes like Katrina and Sandy, super-sized tornadoes, unexpected ice storms, severe droughts, and massive flooding worldwide.
Nuclear emergencies pose existential threats. Fuller opposed atomic energy, saying humans should remain 93 million miles from nuclear power (the distance to the sun). While nuclear companies tout "clean energy," they downplay that nuclear waste remains lethal for hundreds of thousands of years and costs billions to store.
Economic emergencies affect billions daily. Modern wars are fought with money, often harming innocent people rather than armed terrorists. Billions live in daily economic emergency, which motivated Fuller to write "Grunch of Giants" about how the rich and powerful systematically steal wealth from innocent people.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs explains how economic emergencies affect lives. When basic physiological and safety needs collapse, higher needs like love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization crumble as well. Kiyosaki witnessed this firsthand when his father, after losing an election for Lt. Governor, became unemployed and financially ruined. As physiological and safety needs crumbled, his father lost love (his wife died), belonging, and self-esteem.
The current economic emergency raises questions about who will emerge strengthened, with fortified self-esteem and self-actualization. Self-actualized people are unstoppable, needing no external motivation, while others require constant incentives, praise, or punishment to perform.
Kiyosaki warns that millions currently affluent will soon experience the collapse of their personal Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In 1971, the poor lost the War on Poverty when Nixon abandoned the gold standard. In 2007, the middle class lost their war when millions lost jobs, homes, and retirement savings. By 2014, the American middle class was no longer the world's richest, with Canada surpassing it and European poor earning more than American poor.
5장
Seeing the Invisible: The Key to Financial Freedom
One of Fuller's most important lessons was learning to see what most people cannot see. In the Information Age, we cannot physically see the changes affecting our lives. Digital photography eliminated thousands of jobs and bankrupted Eastman Kodak, despite the company inventing digital photography in 1975. The challenge is developing the ability to see invisible forces before they run over you.
Fuller distinguished between the brain and mind. The brain sees tangible objects while the mind perceives invisible relationships between objects. Like gravity between planets or the perfect putting line in golf, intelligence resides in the mind's ability to see invisible patterns and forces. Unfortunately, most people are trained to use their brains but not their minds.
Schools teach that there's only one right answer, training the brain to memorize rather than teaching the mind to explore relationships. This creates arguments, disagreements, and conflicts when people believe only their answer is correct. As rich dad said: "When you argue with an idiot, there are now two idiots."
Understanding the evolution of wealth requires examining how it has changed across four ages of humanity. The Hunter-Gatherer Age featured true equality-a one-class society without rich, middle class, or poor distinctions. The Agrarian Age began when humans domesticated animals and planted crops, creating a two-class society-landowners (the rich) and those who worked the land (the poor). The Industrial Age created a three-class society: rich, middle class, and poor, with the middle class emerging as homeowners in suburbia around factories.
The Information Age began with the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957, marking the start of the "Invisible Age." Wealth evolved to include "invisible" or "cyber real estate"-digital spaces like Google and Amazon. This evolution explains why 19-year-old college dropouts become billionaires while 59-year-old educated executives struggle to find work.
The fundamental principle making people rich is "ephemeralization"-doing more with less. Kings in the Agrarian Age became rich by producing more food from fixed land. Industrial Age Robber Barons followed the same principle by creating more efficient systems. Today's tech entrepreneurs continue this pattern, replacing physical systems with invisible technology.
The world's largest markets operate largely unseen by most people. The derivatives market dwarfs all others, followed by currency and bond markets. The derivatives market is the largest and most dangerous financial market in the world. Warren Buffett calls derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction," while George Soros avoids them because "we don't really understand how they work."
6장
The Caterpillar's Metamorphosis: Internal Transformation
Just as weight-loss commercials show dramatic before-and-after transformations, financial transformation requires invisible internal shifts in thinking. Unlike external makeovers that change appearances, becoming rich demands internal changes in how we think and make decisions.
The economic crisis stems partly from people wanting to look rich externally without being rich internally, as seen in the subprime mortgage crisis where people took loans they couldn't repay. A true second chance isn't about superficial changes but about metamorphosis-transforming like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
In December 1984, Kiyosaki and Kim left Hawaii completely broke, with zero assets and $820,000 in liabilities from investor loans for his failed nylon surfer-wallet business. They lived in a borrowed car or friends' spare bedrooms in San Diego, with no jobs and irregular income. Despite this dire situation, Kiyosaki took responsibility for repaying his investors.
By 1994, they had transformed their finances, becoming "net-worth millionaires" with $120,000 in annual passive income from assets. Though still living in a modest house with a middle-class lifestyle, they had achieved financial freedom in just 10 years. They no longer needed jobs as money worked for them.
According to Chris Martenson's "The Crash Course," there are three wealth levels: tertiary (paper wealth like stocks and savings), secondary (production wealth like businesses), and primary (resource wealth like gold and land). Those with tertiary wealth-the affluent investor class-will suffer most in the next crash as they own "claims" to wealth rather than actual wealth.
People who shift focus from tertiary wealth to secondary and primary wealth are actually moving backward toward the real wealth that makes the ultra-rich wealthy. The rich work for primary and secondary wealth, not tertiary wealth (money). They're entrepreneurs who take ideas, find resources, build businesses that transform resources into products, and generate money.
Your second chance begins in the present by honestly facing your financial reality. For many, putting their current financial condition on paper is painful but necessary-it's the first step in transforming from caterpillar to butterfly. This process may require courage and perhaps the objective perspective of a trusted friend, but it returns your power by forcing you to confront your true financial condition.
After examining your present financial situation, it's time to look toward your future by creating a financial statement for where you want to be. There are four basic asset classes: Business, Real Estate, Paper, and Commodities. The key is finding an asset class you love studying and becoming knowledgeable about.
7장
The Opposite Side of the Coin: Challenging Financial Orthodoxy
Most financial experts recommend living below your means, but most people don't want to. Instead of living below your means, Kiyosaki recommends expanding your means by taking control of your asset column rather than letting GRUNCH control it.
The rich, poor, and middle class play completely different money games. The rich focus on their asset column while others focus elsewhere. Your second chance begins when you change your game. Rather than working hard to save money or appear wealthy, shift your focus from your income column to your asset column.
When three young construction workers admired Kiyosaki's Ferrari, he explained how his apartment building was paying for his car through cash flow. He taught them rich dad's principle that the rich work for assets, not money. When they understood he was playing Monopoly in real life-with the apartment complex as his "red hotel"-they realized they too could expand their means rather than live below them.
Most people believe investing is risky, and for most people it is. GRUNCH wants you to believe investing is risky so you'll turn your money over to them. While there is risk in investing, there's risk in everything, even learning to walk. The key is to take control through education, advisors, and time. With proper education, you can reduce risk and increase rewards. The formula is simple: Risk + Control = Rewards.
From Vietnam flying experience, Kiyosaki learned crucial controls that he applies to investing: control over education (continuous learning increases survival chances), control over advisors (taking advice from real experts, not salespeople), and control over time (most people are too busy working to get rich).
Kiyosaki challenges the conventional wisdom of "save, save, save" by asking why anyone would save money when governments are printing it. He explains that wealth is stolen from savers through the fractional reserve banking system and mutual fund fees. When people save money, their wealth is diluted through the fractional reserve system, where banks can lend multiple times the amount on deposit.
Rather than parking money in savings, Kiyosaki advocates keeping money moving through a sophisticated system he calls "The Velocity of Money." His personal 10-step process includes: raising investor capital, reinvesting tax-free money into business growth, repaying investors with substantial returns, taking personal income through paychecks and bonuses, tithing 10% to charity, investing in real estate using leverage, capturing tax deductions through depreciation, investing in oil and gas, receiving substantial tax deductions from these investments, and holding gold and silver as insurance against currency collapse.
8장
Education Reimagined: Learning from Mistakes
Most financial experts advise getting out of debt, but after 1971 when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, the dollar itself became debt. There are two kinds of debt: good debt makes you richer, while bad debt makes you poorer. Without financial education, millions of people and even the U.S. government are buried under mountains of bad debt.
Good debt makes you richer. When Kiyosaki buys an apartment complex using financing, if it generates positive monthly cash flow, that's good debt. If it loses money and he must cover the mortgage, it becomes bad debt. Cash flow determines whether debt is good or bad. Even a debt-free house takes money out of your pocket for taxes, maintenance, insurance, and utilities.
In the 1980s, Kiyosaki bought a $50,000 house with $5,000 down and seller financing for the balance. After borrowing $5,000 for improvements, he converted it from a 2-bedroom/1-bath to a 3-bedroom/2-bath house, increasing the rent from $750 to $1,000 monthly. When interest rates dropped, he refinanced at $76,000, paid off the original loans, and pocketed $25,000 tax-free while still earning $200 monthly in passive income. With no money left in the deal, his return became infinite-all from using debt strategically and financial knowledge.
Kiyosaki explains that the biggest winners in life are those who make the most mistakes and learn from them. Thomas Edison failed over a thousand times before inventing the light bulb. The Beatles performed up to 12 hours daily as teenagers, and Tiger Woods practiced golf since age three.
The Cone of Learning shows that "simulation" separates winners from losers-learning through practice before doing the real thing. Unlike MBA programs that emphasize avoiding mistakes, Kiyosaki's real estate instructor encouraged making 100 mistakes in 90 days before buying property. This is why Kiyosaki recommends playing the CASHFLOW game 100 times and teaching it to 100 people-to practice making financial decisions without risking real money.
Education should address all human intelligences, not just verbal and mathematical skills. Howard Gardner identified seven intelligences including body-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, musical, interpersonal (ability to interact with others), and intrapersonal (understanding oneself). Human intelligence can be represented as a tetrahedron with four components: Physical (located in muscles, essential for all learning), Mental (brain-based thinking), Emotional (the "success intelligence" located in the gut), and Spiritual (found in the heart).
9장
Creating Your Second Chance: A Path Forward
While previous generations aspired to climb corporate ladders, today's world sees more people wanting to become entrepreneurs due to high unemployment, technology replacing workers, global competition, and decreased job security. Even high school students and college dropouts are becoming billionaires through entrepreneurship. We now live in a "Start-Up World" where colleges maintain business incubators hoping to launch the next Google or Facebook.
In the business world, S-quadrant entrepreneurs are like leopards-solitary hunters who don't eat if they don't kill. B-quadrant entrepreneurs resemble male lions who lead a pride (team of specialists) that hunts for them. The B-quadrant leader enjoys the fruits of the team's labor, demonstrating why building a team of specialists is essential for creating true business success.
What's considered "smart" has evolved from climbing corporate ladders to becoming entrepreneurs. For your second chance, you must decide which quadrant suits you best. Some should pursue security in the E and S quadrants with good jobs and conservative investments. Others should embrace entrepreneurship in the B and I quadrants, using debt strategically to acquire businesses and real estate.
In school, asking for help is considered cheating. But in business, the opposite of cheating is cooperation. While Kiyosaki's poor dad solved financial problems alone, his rich dad-though perhaps the least educated person on his team-surrounded himself with attorneys, accountants, and other advisors to solve problems together. You don't need to be the smartest person to be rich; you need a smart team.
Many people believe the only way to become rich is through greed, and some rich people do get rich this way. Rich dad often said: "It's not how much money a person makes that disturbs people. It's how they make their money." People don't mind when football players, movie stars, or musicians make millions because they've worked hard and make fans happy. But when employers intentionally pay employees poorly, or bankers receive bonuses after causing financial crashes, or corrupt politicians enrich themselves, people rightfully become upset.
The opposite is also true-many become rich through generosity. Walt Disney made millions happy, Henry Ford made automobiles affordable for workers, and Sergey Brin made information access easier than going to the library. Kiyosaki's rich dad taught him to be rich by being generous, starting with playing Monopoly.
Your second chance begins with creating a Wish List of everything you want in life. For years, Kim and Robert would drive by their dream house saying "Someday that house will be ours"-today it is, paid for by rental properties. Second, list the assets you want to acquire that will pay for your dreams. Third, look at this list every day.
Fuller believed that humans were the Great Spirit's experiment on "spaceship earth" to see if we could create heaven or hell here. He insisted all humans should be rich, claiming "six billion billionaires on earth" existed potentially. Before his death, he discovered about 50 of what he believed were 200-300 "Generalized Principles"-the invisible forces running the universe. If humans didn't shift from greed to generosity, Fuller believed we would be "evicted" from earth, setting back the Great Spirit's experiment millions of years.
