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.[1][2][3]
The book received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, which called Trump and Kiyosaki, "the gold standard of the entrepreneurial spirit".[3] The review called the book a "galvanizing narrative", and "an impassioned argument for business self-actualization".[3]Kirkus Reviews praised the combination of Trump and Kiyosaki, "the authors complement each other surprisingly well".[2] In its overall assessment, Kirkus Reviews concluded the book was "Serviceable but undermined by its political proselytizing."[2]The Intercept called multi-level marketing a form of pyramid scheme and lamented the authors' recommendation of the tactic.[5] Both BuzzFeed News and Business Insider contrasted advice in the book with messages from the Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016.[6][1]
Summary
Midas Touch elaborates on points made by Trump and Kiyosaki in their prior work Why We Want You to be Rich, implementation of which they claim would improve the American economy. They lament the lack of financial literacy provided by the U.S. education structure and argue students should be taught how to become business owners instead of employees. The current model instructs students to achieve academic excellence through risk avoidance, but they claim students who take risks will learn from their mistakes.[2][3][4]
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 the path to entrepreneurial success is learned through multiple failures.[2][3][4] Trump agrees, pointing out that students who succeed academically fear failure and are thus not always those who succeed at entrepreneurship. Trump compares this educational model to the business sector and differentiates between practical intelligence and academic intelligence.[2][3][4]
Trump and Kiyosaki emphasize that business owners help create opportunity for others while federal bureaucracy does not have the power to create meaningful employment. Their strategy for success is elaborated upon in five segments which the authors refer to as the "Midas Touch" formula. Requisite parts of learning how to become a good business owner include networking skills, brand name value, concentration to the task at hand, mental fortitude, and innumerable lesser characteristics. The authors advise that the middle-class squeeze creates an opportunity for readers to gain wealth.[2][3][4]
The authors illustrate their arguments with anecdotes throughout the work. Kiyosaki discusses his military contributions during the Vietnam War, an unsuccessful business venture attempting to sell wallets made out of Velcro, his increased success and popularity after an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and his surprise when he found out one of his businesses used a sweatshop. Trump recounts adventures experienced while engaged in real estate investing in Manhattan and what it was like to star in the television program The Apprentice.[2][3][4]
Trump and Kiyosaki conclude the book by embracing the phenomenon of entrepreneurs created through immigration to the United States, pointing out that for hundreds of years immigrants came through Ellis Island seeking economic opportunities. The conclusion emphasizes the hardship some immigrants experience prior to arrival in the U.S., acknowledging their effort to create a better life for their families as Americans. Trump and Kiyosaki assert immigrants to the U.S. are especially motivated to find economic success and are willing to take virtually any job to start improving their lives.[1]
In a 2011 interview with Forbes, Trump said he wanted to collaborate with Kiyosaki because he was intelligent and had been successful in business and writing ventures.[12] Kiyosaki was also interviewed by Forbes in 2011 and said he had to gain entrepreneurship skills through experience while Trump's skills were innate.[13]
The book was first published in 2011 in hardcover format by Plata Publishing.[10][14] An ebook was released the same year,[15] as well as an audiobook.[16][17] The audio book was published by Simon & Schuster and narrated by Skipp Sudduth and John Dossett.[16][17] A print book was published again in 2012 in paperback format,[18][19] in addition to an ebook and audiobook.[20][21] A Chinese language print edition was published in 2012 by Shang Zhou Wen Hua Chu Ban,[22] and released in a Spanish language edition the same year,[23] and Romanian.[24] A Polish language edition was released in 2013.[25] The work was published in Hebrew in 2014.[26] An ebook was released again by Plata Publishing in 2015.[27] A Vietnamese language edition was published in 2015,[28] and a Khmer language version.[29] Another Spanish edition was published in 2015,[30] and in 2016.[31] The work was published in a Hindi language edition in paperback in 2014,[32] and ebook format in 2016 by Manjul Publishing.[33]
Critical reception
In 2011, Publishers Weekly called Trump and Kiyosaki "the gold standard of the entrepreneurial spirit" and concluded it was "an impassioned argument for business self-actualization" despite focusing on big ideas instead of step-by-step plans.[3]Kirkus Reviews, which also evaluated the book in 2011, noted that the two writers complemented one another but only found it to be an average entrepreneurial handbook and criticized its "political proselytizing."[2]
In 2012, Kiyosaki's company "Rich Global LLC" filed for bankruptcy and was ordered to pay nearly $24 million to the Learning Annex and its founder.
In 2014, The Huffington Post writer Kimron Corion said Midas Touch was his second favorite book by Trump.[34] The book inspired Australian entrepreneurs to create a real estate company named Midas Real Estate.[35] In 2013, Casey Bond opined that the real value of the book came from the writers' experiences in a review for GOBankingRates.[36]
In 2016, Trip Brennan was critical of Midas Touch in a review for The Intercept for its support of multi-level marketing, a practice he describes as a pyramid scheme in disguise, and for the way Trump and Kiyosaki discounted investment in mutual funds.[5]BuzzFeed News wrote about the work during Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, contrasting the book's views on the changing American economy with Trump's statements from the campaign trail and criticizing the way his views on U.S. industrial jobs had changed.[6]Business Insider also compared the work with Trump's 2016 campaign message, noting the book embraced immigrants but the Trump campaign was critical of illegal immigration from Mexico.[1]
^ abcdeTani, Maxwell (March 3, 2016), "One of Donald Trump's books has a 2-page ode to the immigrant experience", Business Insider, retrieved June 15, 2017, 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.
^Trump, Donald; Kiyosaki, Robert (2015), El toque de Midas (Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich and Why Most Don't) (Spanish Edition), Debolsillo, ISBN978-6073131735
^"About Us", Midas Real Estate, 2017, archived from the original on February 19, 2021, retrieved June 15, 2017, Our name 'Midas' is derived from the famous book written by two entrepreneurial icons, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki titled "The Midas Touch". Their book shares their experiences and insights into building successful businesses which have made them into the successful entrepreneurs that they are today. This inspired us to begin our journey in building wealth for our clients through property investment.
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