Robert T. Kiyosaki
Born in 1947, Robert Kiyosaki is an entrepreneur, investor and the wildly-popular author who wrote the Rich Dad Poor Dad series. He also founded the Rich Dad Company, which provides financial education to children and adults, along with creating the Cashflow board game, which helps to instill the same educational concepts as much of the books in a game format.
Yet before all that fame, Kiyosaki faced a number of failures along the way. His road to fame and wealth was wrought with a number of setbacks and defeats. In 1977, at the age of 30-years old, Kiyosaki started a company that sold surfer’s wallets, with nylon and velcro, but failed to intellectually protect the products. Facing stiff competition, that company eventually went bankrupt.
Afterwards, he started a company selling t-shirts and hats and other licensed products for heavy metal rock groups. That company also went bankrupt in 1980. He was 33-years old at the time. In 1985, at the age of 38-years old, he started a financial education company to teach investors and entrepreneurs various strategies for investing in real estate and other financial products. In 1994, at the age of 47-years old, he sold that company and began his investing and writing career.
However, it wasn’t until 1997, at the age of 50-years old, when he penned the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, that he achieved international notoriety. The book has since sold over 26 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 51 languages.