Robert Kiyosaki, the bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, says he wouldn’t change a thing if he were to write it again, 25 years later.

“The reason why people keep going back to the book and find it relevant still is because our schools teach us nothing about money management, which I feel should be included in the syllabus,” remarked, justifying his statement to Brandy Scott, radio host, Dubai Eye, yesterday as he appeared on one of the author talks being held at Sharjah International Book Fair 2020 on the ‘Sharjah Reads’ virtual platform.

Robert had his lightbulb moment when he asked his teacher in fourth grade about money. “Too many schoolteachers, including my ‘poor dad’ who was an academic, treated money as an evil subject. The fact is, whether we are rich or poor, employer or employee, the government or a business, we all use money.”

Kiyosaki is fourth generation Japanese American, born in Hawaii. When his father could not satisfy his curiosity about why he was not rich and how he could learn to make money, he told Kiyosaki to speak to his friend’s father, an entrepreneur and the ‘rich dad’ written about in the book.

“I learnt to read financial statements from him,” said Kiyosaki. “The second thing about financial literacy are the words we use. From him, I learnt to be financially literate. So, when my bankers asked me for my report card – myfinancial statements – whenI applied for a loan to go to college, I was able to convince them. That was also the reason banks were willing to lend me US$300 million during the 2008 recession.”

Kiyosaki spoke about the ‘rich man’s cash flow quadrant’, which was his Rich Dad’s way of explaining to him the four different types of people that make up the world of business. They are ‘E’, ‘S’, ‘B’ and ‘I’. ‘E’ stands for Employee. ‘S’ for Self-employed or Small Business. ‘B’ for Big Business, and ‘I’ for Investors.

“So, there are four different types of people,” said Kiyosaki, adding,“If you want to be successful in the world today, you need to be more than just one. In other words, it might be good for an employee to also become an investor.”

Kiyosaki has collaborated with US president Donald Trump on two books. He has published more than 30 titles so far and shows no signs of stopping. “I just completed my latest book,Infinite Returns: The Art of not Paying Taxes Using Debt, in which I have tried to simplify the teachings of R. Buckminster Fuller, the author of Critical Path, and Edward G. Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island,” concluded Kiyosaki. “The way things are going,I don’t see myself stopping any time soon!”

Organised by Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), SIBF 2020 concludes on November 14. Being held under the theme, ‘The World Reads from Sharjah’, the 39^thedition has adopted a fully digital format to host its cultural programme of 64 unique events, which are being streamed on SBA’s virtual platform over the 11 days of the fair. Register for upcoming discussions at sharjahreads.com.