Midas Touch

Book Review

Robert Kiyosaki (of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” fame) and Donald Trump wrote “Midas Touch” in 2011. Depending on your viewpoint. this book is a strong argument against trying to be an entrepreneur.

While some of the book is clearly Robert writing and some of it is Donald writing, there are also a lot of sections that seem to be a third party writing.

The message is organized around the five fingers of a hand (including the thumb) as a stretch to connect with the “touch” concept.

• Thumb - Strength of Character

• Index Finger – “FOCUS” – Follow One Course Until Successful

• Middle Finger – Brand

• Ring Finger – Relationships

• Little Finger – Little Things That Count

There are of course many good basic concepts to keep in mind as you choose your path in life.

Strength of character is of course important no matter what. We should all strive to be good people. This chapter makes a point that the most important form of intelligence for an entrepreneur is “intrapersonal” (often called emotional intelligence). Your ability to communicate with others will be a large factor in whether you can be a successful entrepreneur. Can you control your own emotions? Trump tells of his losing focus, going to fashion shows in Paris, assuming that his company would just keep running fine without his attention. It’s interesting that he put this story in chapter one about strength of character rather than chapter two which is more about focus.

“Follow One Course Until Successful” seems a bit contrived as clearly both Robert and Donald have been very busy people working on many projects. A better message would have been something along the line of “don’t give up easily”.

“Brand” – you are your brand. Here they make a point of saying that you should have integrity. Don’t steal by buying counterfeits. Robert uses the example of fake Rolex watches which his “Rich Dad” was very upset at him for buying. Part of the message is to not “fake it until you make it”.

“Relationships” – you can’t make a good deal with a bad person. Here they point out the very real problem of finding good partners to work with.

“Little Things That Count” – the message here is mixed and confusing. Both promoting paying attention to details but also not becoming so consumed by the details that you don’t see and address the big picture. An example used is a great chef that runs a restaurant. Terrific restaurant, great customer satisfaction but never any growth, just stuck working his ass off, every day of his life, running his restaurant, never delegating responsibility to others.

Repeatedly they refer to the “E – S – B – I” quadrant. Most people are employees (E), some become self employed (S) (often specialists like doctors), few transition to business ownership (B) and instead of I standing for investments they mostly say that business owners need relationships with investors to provide the loans to grow their businesses.

Both Robert and Donald strongly advocate leveraging credit and debt.

They also use a triangle pyramid with the outer triangle being: Team, Leadership and Mission. Pointing out that military school teaches these things. The inside of the triangle is a pyramid: Product, Legal, Systems, Communications, Cash Flow. Traditional schools teach these things.

Trump relays his father’s formula:

• Get in

• Get it done

• Get it done right

• And get out

Donald is very proud of his brand / reputation being for luxury and quality. Never cutting corners.

This book, at this point in my life, would convince me to not even try to be an entrepreneur.

Everyone wants to be fabulously wealthy and live a life of luxury, but it doesn’t really work that way. Donald is a great example as he points out, he allowed himself to be distracted by the beautiful women and luxury life, the result being that his business collapsed.

From my experience, the time to do this is in your late teens and early twenties. At that point in your life, most likely anything you are doing to make an income is a struggle. Life can be rough then. Might as well make something of yourself.

In hindsight, I don’t regret doing this myself at all in my early twenties which resulted in my becoming part of upper management at the age of 24. My fortunes changed though when I got married, had a child and let this great start slip away.

Once you have dependents (a family), I’m not sure I could recommend taking risks and pouring yourself into work.

Overall, I can’t really recommend this book. However it might be a good exercise for thinking about and to re-evaluate your priorities to realize what you truly want.