In this title, two entrepreneurial Icons share experiences and insights into creating and building successful businesses. What makes some business owners wildly successful? What separates the entrepreneurs who build businesses from ones who just seem to create more work for themselves? How, exactly do the world's most prominent business builders seem to hit home run after home run? The answer: They have the Midas Touch. Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki believe the world needs more entrepreneurs. For the first time, two of the world's most successful and influential entrepreneurs will share their own Midas Touch secrets. Secrets that will both inspire you to find and fulfill your passion as well as provide you with the hands-on guidance you need to be successful. Through their real life stories of success, failure, perseverance and purpose, you'll discover how they do it and whether or not you have what it takes to drive your own entrepreneurial success.
Robert Toru Kiyosaki is an American businessman and author, known for the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of personal finance books. He is the founder of the Rich Dad Company, a private financial education company that provides personal finance and business education to people through books and videos, and Rich Global LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Since 2010, Kiyosaki was the subject of a class action suit filed by people who attended his seminars, and the subject of investigative documentaries by the CBC, WTAE-TV and CBS News. In January 2024, Kiyosaki revealed that he was more than $1 billion dollars in debt.
This is probably the best book on business and entrepreneurship I've ever read. Simultaneously inspiring and daunting, it contains fantastic insights and candid lessons into what it takes to succeed in the rough and tumble of the real world. My biggest takeaway is that I shouldn't be asking myself if I have what it takes to succeed in business -- the correct question is whether I'm willing to do what it takes to learn it and keep going.
The contents were great, and I only have one complaint: this first edition should have had another round of proofreading before it went to the publishers. There were a few typesetting errors, including two paragraphs that were repeated on consecutive pages. But overall a great book in spite of those minor irritations.
I really like this book! Its a must-read for every entrepreneur. Robert and Donald team up to pen a practical guide on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. I appreciate the fact that they didn’t try to sell a pipe dream. They were very real and straight-forward and didn’t shy away from the fact that entrepreneurship is hard work and sacrifice is a prerequisite to success. Here is one of my favorite statements Robert makes:
p13 "Entrepreneurs need to work 24/7 in the start-up phase, often working for free for months and even years. Its the number of hours worked for free that defines entrepreneurs and separates them from employees. The number of hours working or practicing for free also determines the level of success you will have in anything�.This is why its best to keep your daytime job and build your business in your spare time�.you may be working for free for a long time.�
According to this book the cornerstones of a successful entrepreneur are: Strength of character Focus Brand Relationships Little things that count
My favorite is strength of character which is essentially the entrepreneurial spirit. They defined this on p1 as “The entrepreneur’s ability to dream, win, lose and win again is often called the entrepreneurial spirit. It is what separates the entrepreneur from everyone else in business. It is what separates those who want to be entrepreneurs from those who can be entrepreneurs.�
I appreciate this book not being overly long as well. Most business books go on and on avoiding the heart of the issue basically padding the book with fluff to increase the book's size. This one does a good job with sticking to the core of the content. Again, great book and a must-read for every entrepreneur.
Tony Rogers Jr Author of Visionary:Making a difference in a world that needs YOU
El toque de midas es mas que un libro, mas que un compañero y/o amigo, es una HERRAMIENTA. Esta maravillosa obra que nos brindan estas dos EMINENCIAS y empresarios de prestigio a nivel internacional, es un obra de arte.
Resulta ser una fascinante manera tanto de aprendizaje como de análisis en el mundo de los negocios. Las anécdotas que ambos nos narran toman una vision panomarica realista de lo que es vender un producto INNOVADOR y a la vez crear empleos que ayuden a miles de personas.
Ambos autores quieren dejarnos saber que se necesita de muchos elementos imprescindibles para ser una persona exitosa, como la seguridad y el carácter de uno mismo, pero mas que eso LA INTELIGENCIA EMOCIONAL.
Kiyosaki y Trump son la muestra viva de dos hombres que piensan en grande y buscan dar la mayor calidad en cada uno de sus proyectos. Estos hablan por si mismos debido a su forma optimista de llevar a cabo todo lo que se propongan con tal de convertir los activos en una fuente constante de dinero donde este fluye de manera beneficiosa tanto para trabajadores como para el empresario.
Lo mejor de todo, es que no nos quieren pintar el mundo de los emprendedores de color de rosa, sino de lo que es en realidad: una lucha constante por dar al publico un estándar excepcional en sus productos y de paso resolviendo sus problemas.
PD: Me enamore aun mas de este libro porque en muchas ocasiones estos dos personajes recalcan la importancia del ESTUDIO CONSTANTE. Una persona que quiere crear un impacto en la vida y ser diferente no puede dejar de ser un aprendiz, siempre hay algo nuevo que aprender. Como dijeron ambos en el libro: LO MAS IMPORTANTE PARA UN EMPRESARIO ES SU COMPROMISO DE POR VIDA CON LA EDUCACION. El éxito llega a los empresarios que continúan aprendiendo, aun despues de salir de la escuela, universidad y especialidades.
This year I have been reading my way through the "Rich Dad" books. They have been a bit samey, but also quite educational and motivational.
This one was bloody awful.
Released in 2011, the first chapter Trump writes has the words about making something "great again". And before that it was mostly pushing his books.
I tried reading further after this but it just wasn't possible.
At least R Kiyosaki actually MADE his own wealth and became a real estate tycoon, he didn't inherit (or get a "small loan" of) millions like Trump did from his real estate tycoon father.
Not that there is anything wrong with inheriting or inherited wealth, but Trump's continuous self-congratulatory storytelling & massive amounts of hypocrisy just rankles.
I will endeavor to read the other R Kiyosaki book written with Trump called "Why we want you to be rich".
Read Trump's essays in full and the summary sections in part. Very weird book, with lots of lore from corporate America. Not always easy to get my mind around. But I learned more than one important thing before the end. Also, people like me will be interested to find out which archetype Trump identifies with. (Hint: it's *not* the King.)
I see Trump as playing with a full deck of archetypes and formalities. Polytropos.
I don't know how I started reading this book from the now president of the USA. I tried to understand him and Robert, but I didn't. It starts with the fingers. When I read the finger system I thought I was reading a children's book.
As a financial investor myself, I want to put this quote here: "Have you ever noticed that people who lack the power of focus often lack direction too? They wander, going from one thing to another. To make matters worse, in the world of investing, many so called financial experts recommend people diversify their investment portfolio than focus on high-performance assets. This is why many investor portfolios fail to deliver high returns or are wiped out in a market crash. Again, they lack focus". This is plain wrong and this book should not be published because of this. Someone might follow this advice, with terrible consequences.
But the BS still continues!
"After my presentation, I can't recall exactly how long it took, but GE finally called me. This was a GE power group (...). They decided to go with my proposal. I was chosen. Focus paid off again." No, you don't know that. You don't know how GE thought of your presentation. You had success because you were also lucky.
However, between the BS the book talks about business and gives examples like Mcdonald's, Rolex watches and the importance of branding.
First let me say I am not taking anything away from Trump and Kiyosaki as great business leaders as well as teachers who have achieved great heights in business and worth listening to - I am already a fan of both and read many of their books ...
But here is where the problem lays... If your completely new to their material...or even entrepreneurship books in general, then this is easily a 5 star top grade book
But myself personally ...I as a previous and already loyal fan - am getting sick and tired of these 2 authors rehashing the same old shit they have wrote already about in their previous books countless times
Not to say you get nothing new here - but not enough worth these guys milk in their loyal fans over a new book over for the obvious reason of just selling more books - same old personal stories , concepts - mildly different spins if not completely the same material
Perhaps it's just me? Maybe I've read too many books and pick this up quickly to the point I've heard it all before - as the saying goes " repetition is the mother of skill" - but for that I just gotta open up one of their many earlier books I've read many times
To Our Continued Success! Seemy
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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. 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."
In 2014, The Huffington Post writer Kimron Corion said Midas Touch was his second favorite book by Trump. The book inspired Australian entrepreneurs to create a real estate company named Midas Real Estate. In 2013, Casey Bond opined that the real value of the book came from the writers' experiences in a review for GOBankingRates.
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. 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. 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.
Sales of Trump's books rose during his 2016 presidential campaign and after his election, with Midas Touch being the third most popular.
I picked this book up from the library out of morbid curiosity, both of the authors (Trump and Kiyosaki) being assholes with undeserved reputations for business brilliance who use those reputations to sell scammy guru programs and evade taxes.
It was pretty much what I expected. Their ghost writers alternated wanking each other off. Lots of ego and gimmicks (this type of intelligence is like the thumb on the hand of the Midas touch!) Interesting to hear about notorious deals from Trump's perspective.
Example of a story in here that Trump used to brag: to complete a project, he needed someone to sell him a piece of real estate that had a successful shop in it. The owner wasn't interested in selling. There was a lot of back and forth and the press was interested. Trump told a reporter the complete lie that a deal had been struck and the shop would be closing in 10 days. The shop's employees read this in the paper and all immediately went out and got other jobs. With all their employees jumping ship and no one else wanting to work there, the shop couldn't keep their doors open and the property owner was forced to sell to Trump. He bragged about this and compared it to the "killer instinct" displayed by Kiyosaki as a fighter pilot in Vietnam.
5 things about being successful on entrepreneur business. Nothings new here, just more examples. The trump examples surely a grandeur things but seems not as simple as that.
Their five points of the Midas Touch, the five fingers: Strength of Character, F.O.C.U.S., Brand, Relationships, and Little Things That Count are great points to keep in mind in the business world. However, I felt the book could have been condensed into a pamphlet highlighting these five things. Though it was interesting reading Donald Trump's stories and his crazy expenditures on golf courses! Such as $275 million to refurbish one in California, I know Trump said he spent that much cause he does things right and he does them well, but I mean that's a lot of money.
A couple specific items I took away from this book is that many people work to make money, but we should be working to make and create assets. If we work for money, we will just have to continue on working, but by working for assets, we will be able to reach a point where our assets work for us and we don't need to work for any money. A second things is what types of companies the tax laws are designed to give a break for. They are companies that: create jobs, produce food, provide housing, and/or provide energy. It is just interesting that tax laws do have a definite leading purpose behind them and are designed to bring about a specific end result.
This book is so concise with how many lessons it teaches, advice and guidelines that I am amazed at how valuable it is for how short it was. You get two different successful people with experience giving their perspectives and anecdotes and its still so small which tells a lot about their attitude of not wasting your time.
You see a lot of these symbolic programs but never hear strong recommendations or end up with a applicable model. Midas Touch surprises in connecting their analogy, you will see your hand differently and want to develop this trait.
For anyone aspiring to contribute towards posterity this is the instruction booklet you need for bringing your vision to the world. I don't think I have taken more quotes from a book, highlighting bits of wisdom alone.
It started out of affirmation of what I knew but quickly spoiled that arrogance. It then inspired me as I feel I already embody this spirit but has provided invaluable pointers on pathing.
I really can't express how useful this is for anyone wanting to be their own teacher and see the world as their classroom. As they express many times entrepreneurship requires you to continually be learning, testing, and developing yourself while caring and doing good in service to others.
Interesting, easy common sense read. The entrepreneur information was not really what I needed personally, but I loved the thoughts on how schools are failing students.
“…no government…can create real jobs…Schools are designed to create employees…We need more entrepreneurs who can create businesses and jobs.� So begins this ride with Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki on their journey through their “five-fingered� approach to “Midas Touch.� I personally like their approach as it can be taught at a very young age so it becomes ingrained in all one does with money-management.
This is a tutorial with a teaching followed by exercises to practice what was taught. We start with strength of character because without it, failure is not easily overcome when it happens. The index finger is focus. The middle finger is about brand to reflect what you stand for. The ring finger is obvious, being about relationships, while the little finger is about the little things that can undermine your efforts if not ferreted out.
For Kiyosaki, he says failure was his road to success. He then tells of his learning the art of sales to become a successful entrepreneur by sharing personal experiences. I especially loved his take on “Blame means to ‘be lame�.� Admitting mistakes and having entrepreneurial mentors were key to his and Trumps successes.
Trump talks about the fight to get some plans to fruition and about what losing focus can cost. He says, “Success is no fluke.� He operates on a positive belief system and trusting his intuition (though not stated in those words) about a project after putting in time to research and evaluate possibilities.
Ask yourself the tough questions. Have a mentor or good friend who will tell you the truth about yourself and your practices of conducting business. ID the type of the Seven Intelligences you possess and play to that strength.
Above is the layout of the whole book with each author taking a turn and giving examples. I enjoyed this book for their sharing of career goals and accomplishments. They’ve outlined the basics of all the efforts to become someone with “The Midas Touch.�
Listen or read from Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump is always enlightening and intriguing. Their existence and views are the antagonist of the conventional wisdom. The five point of midas touch: the thumb stand for strength of character. Develop resilience and learn from your bad luck, be persistent, develop the intrapersonal skill aka emotional intelligence, get a proven mentor. the index finger stand for F.O.C.U.S. focus on the most important thing, focus on how to move from employee or specialist employer into business owner who know how to leverage and raise capital with investor. Focus on the five element of business: Product, Legal, Systems, Communication and the most crucial cash flow. Focus on the three structure of business: Mission, Team, Leadership. The middle finger stand for brand. Your brand has to be consistent and clarity, hence a brand can build you the competitive advantage. The ring finger stand for relationship. Listen emphatically and talk less. If you want to work with good partner, you have to be an ideal partner yourself first. Do not let the con artists or clowns turn you into one of their being, always put integrity and responsibility on your shoulder. The little finger stand for little things that count. Put effort on the 20% effort which yield 80% result. Think of a small thing which can make you unique and special compared to your competitor.
Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich And Why Most Don’t by Robert T. Kiyosaki & Donald J. Trump, Forward by Mark Burnett Nonfiction
3.2 ★★★☆�
Teaming together yet again, Robert & Donald, both entrepreneurial icons, created another inspirational book geared toward the the entrepreneur in the 21st century. While the book provides personal insight from both of them, I felt is was repetitive of their previous best sellers.
The Midas Touch is about combining 5 factors that every entrepreneur must master, strength of character, focus, brand, relationships, and little things that count. Each chapter, Robert and Donald tell personal stories related to the 5 factors to having the Midas touch and how they overcame obstacles. They frequently reference the Midas touch triangle along with Roberts cash flow quadrant and how you should strive to go from E (Employee) to S (Self Employed) to B (Business Owner) to I (Investor).
My recommendation would be to read Roberts, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and Donalds, Art of the Deal in lieu of this book. While there are a few new concepts, I believe the reader will gain more knowledge and enjoyment from reading their best sellers, which covers entrepreneurship, and much more. If you have already read both of those, then this book is an easy read to reestablish principles and to guide you toward your Midas Touch!
As a marketing major, this book has helped me understand the world of business even better than my idea of it before reading the book. I realized that it takes a lot more than what people think in order to succeed in the corporate world. To be a good leader, one must be a good follower first. This is what struck me the most in the book because having a business doesn't necessarily mean that it will automatically succeed. Having a business is like gambling, its either you win or you lose and the loss percentage is higher than the probability of winning.
Most people fail because they are not aware of what to do or take into account the possibilities that could happen, positive or negative before starting their business. This book will really make the reader think twice about getting into the corporate world first before starting their own business or starting a business right away without any experience and knowledge of how it will be like. I would recommend this book to all the people who aspire to become entrepreneurs in the future. I have been applying everything i've learned in this book to my everyday life as a student and business woman.
This book is nothing but a cash grab. The author's only goal was to make the term Midas Touch ubiquitous in entrepreneurship: swing and a miss.
All five chapters follow the same basic formula. Some topic is loosely tied to one of your five fingers, for no real reason. The first part of each chapter follows a cautionary tale from Robert's past, often a rehash of something you've already read in Rich Dad or one of his other books. The second part of each chapter is Don saying he's lucky to have never made any of the mistakes Robert did because he's the best businessman. Part three tries to tie it all together even though there wasn't a true theme to begin with. I often wasn't even sure what Don's points had to do with the chapter. I wish I were kidding, but that is the entire book. Five cut and paste chapters of this.
Robert relies heavily on The Cashflow Quadrant (which is an amazing book) without properly explaining what the quadrant is.
Do yourself a favor and skip this. Read Rich Dad Poor Dad & The Cashflow Quadrant instead.
Quite liked it. I am new to Kiyodaki's ideas and I am struggling to get my head around the rich dad, poor stuff. Especially the shift in mentality that is his key selling point. He does go into his history in the marines and how that shaped him. There is also quite an important lesson in there about buying a fake watch which really stuck out for me. Trumps segments are quite interesting given his current role. His sections are written pretty much the way he talks. He goes into his past successes, his love of golf and the way he feels about business people. Whenever he says such and such is great guy, I now know what he means. So yes kind of strange to read what he was into. So yes, I liked it, I am not a huge success seconds after reading it. But at least I now have an idea of what makes a Entrepreneur tick.
Does contain plenty of content that is synonymous with other financial self help books.
Reason for 3 star rating: the authors repeat themselves Trump says "etc." Robert repeats "etc." Saying that he agrees about "etc." ; I wish they would have just said: We both agree and state it just once.
Trump coming from a businessman standpoint has certainly gave insights to how he thinks. However do note that the stories he gives has to be abstractly extracted to be able to apply to your own personal life.
I think Robert stories has slightly more value such as "the Rolex story". I definitely wouldn't be buying any imitation goods from now on (not that I ever have).
I truely believe this book provides alot of inspiration and opens your eyes about the current economic environment of the world. Being a successful entrepreneur and turning your company into a large scale business is the only way to go as explained in this book. (or big time investor) the traditional methods of work like being an employee, freelancer, consultant, or small business owner is not gonna cut it because the odds are stacked against you whereever you are in the world.
This book changed my perception about my economic life and has inspired me to take some important needed steps in my life so I can succeed.
I recommend this book for people who want to improve their life economicaly.
While I was reading this book, I didn't solely read this; I felt obligated to do note-taking while reading this like how I did when I was in law school.
Maybe this may sound cliche to you but reading this book has been an eye-opening to me that to be successful, one must have the courage to do what s/he has envisioned for, determination, self-discipline, must be committed to lifelong learning, and be passionate in your pursuit. Without all these traits and the five points mentioned in this book, what you have been envisioned will collapse.
I recommend this book to all aspiring entrepreneurs, girlbosses, and to everyone who is curious about what are the next steps that they need to discover themselves in order to make a difference that the world is deprived of.
Hi. With curiosity, I began reading the first chapter. Begins with a very mundane quote about grinding. Then, robert kiyosaki keeps harping on the advantage of making and learning from mistakes, heard countless times before. It's difficult to make out what he wants to write in the first 20 pages. It's all repetitive, jumbled and incoherent. Robert keeps falling for John & Stanley again and again, and its hard to understand what he wants to convey through this story. All he writes is his learning from his mistakes.... The fact that in the first 5 years, entrepreneurs get overwhelmed with what they dont know and this leads to failure. Classroom vs life lessons, etc. I stop right there!!!
US President Donald Trump and business tycoon Robert Kiyosaki team up to write a so-called self help guide for start-up businesses. Utilising their marketing strategies and stock trading tactics and summarising them into 5 key points to form the Midas Touch hand. Even though this book gives insight into how the entrepreneurs think, but it lacks consistency and the points are somewhat scattered through out the book. And the business men are too busy showing off their own success stories than to actually teach you how to start a business. A worthwhile read for enthusiasts but boring for the average teen.