Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich -- And Why Most Don't is a non-fiction book about personal finance, co-authored by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. The book was published in hardcover format in 2011. The coauthors became familiar with each other through mutual work at The Learning Annex, and The Art of the Deal. Trump was impressed by Kiyosaki's writing success with Rich Dad Poor Dad. The coauthors then wrote Why We Want You to be Rich together in 2006, and followed it up with Midas Touch in 2011.
Trump and Kiyosaki intersperse financial lessons with personal anecdotes from their respective careers. They elaborate on points previously raised in Why We Want You to be Rich, and criticize a dearth of financial literacy education in the U.S. system. The authors warn of the middle-class squeeze and the harm this will cause to the American middle class. They praise entrepreneurship and advise aspiring business owners to embrace failure and learn from it. Trump and Kiyosaki end the book by extolling the economic benefits of immigration to the United States.
The book received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, which called Trump and Kiyosaki, "the gold standard of the entrepreneurial spirit". The review called the book a "galvanizing narrative", and "an impassioned argument for business self-actualization". Kirkus Reviews praised the combination of Trump and Kiyosaki, "the authors complement each other surprisingly well". In its overall assessment, Kirkus Reviews concluded the book was "Serviceable but undermined by its political proselytizing." The Intercept called multi-level marketing a form of pyramid scheme and lamented the authors' recommendation of the tactic. Both BuzzFeed News and Business Insider contrasted advice in the book with messages from the Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016.
Video Midas Touch (book)
Summary
Midas Touch elaborates on points made by Trump and Kiyosaki in their prior work Why We Want You to be Rich. The coauthors assert their ideas will lead to an uptick in the American economy. Trump and Kiyosaki lament the lack of financial literacy espoused in the U.S. education structure. They argue students should be taught how to become business owners instead of learning how to go work for another company. Trump and Kiyosaki write that such students are instructed to achieve academic excellence through avoiding risk. They say those who do engage in risk will learn from their mistakes and be stronger for it.
Kiyosaki expands on the idea of taking risk, advising, that financial success is not something which can be learned in an academic setting. He emphasizes a different set of skills are needed to be a successful business owner, telling readers entrepreneurship success is learned through multiple failures in business in order to learn best how to succeed.
Trump supports Kiyosaki's view on the learning opportunity created by failure, writing, students who rise to the top of the class academically are not always those who succeed at entrepreneurship. He writes this is due to a fear of failure, and ascribes business success to the experience of learning from failures. Trump compares this to the business sector, writing that those who have learned from failures in business simultaneously learn how to become successful entrepreneurs. He differentiates between practical intelligence and academic intelligence.
Trump and Kiyosaki emphasize that business owners help create opportunity for others, writing, that the federal bureaucracy does not have the power to create meaningful employment, ascribing this power instead to those who engage in entrepreneurship. The book puts forth a strategy for success elaborated upon in five segments. The authors refer to this strategy as the "Midas Touch" formula, and write that such expertise is a requisite part of learning how to become a good business owner. These qualities include smaller innumerable characteristics, networking skills, brand name value, concentration to the task at hand, and mental fortitude. The authors warn about the middle-class squeeze, writing, that the oncoming disappearance of the middle class creates an opportunity for readers to gain wealth.
The authors illustrate their arguments with anecdotes throughout the work. Kiyosaki discusses his military contributions during the Vietnam War. He talks about an unsuccessful business venture attempting to sell wallets made out of Velcro. Kiyosaki recounts his increased success and popularity after an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. He discusses his surprise when he found out one of his businesses was deriving profit from a sweatshop. Trump recounts adventures experienced while engaged in real estate investing in Manhattan. He discusses what it was like to star in the television program The Apprentice.
Trump and Kiyosaki conclude the book by embracing the phenomenon of entrepreneurs created through immigration to the United States. Trump and Kiyosaki write, that for hundreds of years immigrants came through Ellis Island seeking economic opportunities. The conclusion emphasizes the hardship some immigrants have experienced prior to arrival in the U.S., acknowledging many faced human rights abuses in their home countries and sought to create a better life for their families as Americans. Trump and Kiyosaki assert immigrants to the U.S. are motivated to find economic success, "Many first generation immigrants are willing to pay any price, take any job, shoulder any burden if there is a chance it will give them a foothold, a start. They do what must be done, for they have come for the opportunity to build the life of their dreams, to give their children something that they themselves never had. And for that, there is no price too steep, no challenge too great, no burden too heavy."
Maps Midas Touch (book)
Composition and publication
Prior to their work on the book, Donald Trump had established himself in the business of real estate development and written The Art of the Deal, and Robert Kiyosaki authored The New York Times best seller Rich Dad Poor Dad. The coauthors became familiar with each other through encounters at the company The Learning Annex. Trump explained his motivation for wanting to work with Kiyosaki, saying he was motivated by their respective success with Trump's book The Art of the Deal and Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Trump and Kiyosaki first published Why We Want You to be Rich as a private business venture together, forming a new company as a partnership called Rich Press.
After their initial book venture, Trump and Kiyosaki next collaborated on Midas Touch. Kiyosaki explained to CBS MoneyWatch why he partnered with Trump on Midas Touch, saying they agreed about the declining American middle class. Kiyosaki said he valued Trump's entrepreneurial success and his views about the middle class after meeting him in 2004.
In an interview with Forbes, Trump said of his coauthor, that Kiyosaki was intelligence and was successful in business and with his prior book writing ventures, and wished to collaborate with him. He called their collaboration "an interesting combination." Kiyosaki was interviewed by Forbes and contrasted his business experience with Trump's, saying while Trump had innate entrepreneurship skills, Kiyosaki himself had to gain such experiences over time.
The book was first published in 2011 in hardcover format by Plata Publishing. An ebook was released the same year, as well as an audiobook. The audio book was published by Simon & Schuster and narrated by Skipp Sudduth and John Dossett. A print book was published again in 2012 in paperback format, in addition to an ebook and audiobook. A Chinese language print edition was published in 2012 by Shang Zhou Wen Hua Chu Ban, and released in a Spanish language edition the same year, and Romanian. A Polish language edition was released in 2013. The work was published in Hebrew in 2014. An ebook was released again by Plata Publishing in 2015. A Vietnamese language edition was published in 2015, and a Khmer language version. Another Spanish edition was published in 2015, and in 2016. The work was published in a Hindi language edition in paperback in 2014, and ebook format in 2016 by Manjul Publishing.
Critical reception
A book review by Publishers Weekly observed, "Magnate Trump and Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) are the gold standard of the entrepreneurial spirit -- self-made, resilient, and charismatic." The review concluded, "This galvanizing narrative skews a bit toward mantra-like big ideas rather than executable steps, but is nonetheless an impassioned argument for business self-actualization." Kirkus Reviews published a book review about Midas Touch, writing, "Trump and Kiyosaki are back with a tag-team tutorial on how to rake in oodles of cash as a winning entrepreneur." The review noted, "The authors complement each other surprisingly well, as both men possess rare insights into the way business really gets done. This manual is as good as many of the other so-so entrepreneurial handbooks out there". Kirkus Reviews' piece concluded, "Serviceable but undermined by its political proselytizing."
Kimron Corion wrote for The Huffington Post, "I have never met Mr. Trump, but I enjoy reading his enlightening books. My favorite is The Art of the Deal, and I also love The Midas Touch which was also co-authored by Robert Kiyosaki." The book inspired Australian entrepreneurs to create a real estate company and name their venture after the title of the work. Casey Bond wrote for GOBankingRates, "Theoretically, you could just read the list at the end of every chapter and get the gist of the book, but I find the value of Midas Touch to be in the storytelling of real-life experiences."
Trip Brennan of The Intercept reviewed both Why We Want You to be Rich and Midas Touch, and was critical of both books. Brennan criticized Midas Touch for its support of multi-level marketing, a practice he described as a pyramid scheme in disguise. He wrote negatively of the book's discounting of investment in mutual funds. BuzzFeed News wrote about the work during Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, and contrasted the book's views on the changing American economy with Trump's statements from the campaign trail. BuzzFeed News was critical Trump had shifted his perspective from the book, where he had previously written U.S. industrial jobs would never return and individuals needed to learn to cope with new skills in the Information Age. Business Insider similarly compared the work with Trump's 2016 campaign message, noting the book ended with a passage embracing immigrants whereas the Trump campaign was critical of illegal immigration from Mexico.
References
External links
- Official website, audiobook by Simon & Schuster
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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