Rich Dad Poor Dad is a starting point for anyone looking to gain control of their financial future

Failure inspires winners. 
Failure defeats losers.
not less. I also said that I have never met a golfer who has never lost a 
ball. For top professional golfers, losing 
a ball or a tournament provides the 
inspiration to be better, to practice 
harder, to study more. That’s what 
makes them better. For winners, losing inspires them. For losers, losing 
defeats them.
I like to quote John D. Rockefeller, who said, “I always tried to 
turn every disaster into an opportunity.”
And being Japanese-American, I can say this. Many people say that 
Pearl Harbor was an American mistake. I say it was a Japanese mistake. 
From the movie, Tora, Tora, Tora, a somber Japanese admiral says to 
his cheering subordinates, “I am afraid we have awakened a sleeping 
giant.” “Remember Pearl Harbor” became a rallying cry. It turned one 
of America’s greatest losses into the reason to win. This great defeat 
gave America strength, and America soon emerged as a world power.
Failure inspires winners. And failure defeats losers. It is the biggest 
secret of winners. It’s the secret that losers do not know. The greatest 

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Rich Dad Poor Dad
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secret of winners is that failure inspires winning; thus, they’re not 
afraid of losing. Repeating Fran Tarkenton’s quote, “Winning means 
being unafraid to lose.” People like Fran Tarkenton are not afraid of 
losing, because they know who they are. They hate losing, so they 
know that losing will only inspire them to become better. There is a 
big difference between hating losing and being afraid to lose. Most 
people are so afraid of losing money that they lose. They go broke 
over a duplex. Financially, they play life too safe and too small. 
They buy big houses and big cars, but not big investments. The 
main reason that over 90 percent of the American public struggles 
financially is because they play not to lose. They don’t play to win.
They go to their financial planners or accountants or stockbrokers 
and buy a balanced portfolio. Most have lots of cash in CDs, low-yield 
bonds, mutual funds that can be traded within a mutual-fund family, 
and a few individual stocks. It is a safe and sensible portfolio. But it is 
not a winning portfolio. It is a portfolio of someone playing not to lose.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s probably a better portfolio than more 
than 70 percent of the population has, and that’s frightening. It’s 
a great portfolio for someone who loves safety. But playing it safe 
and balanced on your investment portfolio is not the way successful 
investors play the game. If you have little money and you want to 
be rich, you must first be focused, not balanced. If you look at any 
successful person, at the start they were not balanced. Balanced people 
go nowhere. They stay in one spot. To make progress, you must first 
go unbalanced. Just look at how you make progress walking.
Thomas Edison was not balanced. He was focused. Bill Gates was 
not balanced. He was focused. Donald Trump is focused. George Soros 
is focused. George Patton did not take his tanks wide. He focused them 
and blew through the weak spots in the German line. The French went 
wide with the Maginot Line, and you know what happened to them.
If you have any desire to be rich, you must focus. Do not do what 
poor and middle-class people do: put their few eggs in many baskets. 
Put a lot of your eggs in a few baskets and FOCUS: Follow One 
Course Until Successful.

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Chapter Seven: Overcoming Obstacles
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If you hate losing, play it safe. If losing makes you weak, play it 
safe. Go with balanced investments. If you’re over 25 years old and are 
terrified of taking risks, don’t change. Play it safe, but start early. Start 
accumulating your nest egg early because it will take time.
But if you have dreams of freedom—of getting out of the Rat
Race—the first question to ask yourself is, “How do I respond to
failure?” If failure inspires you to win, maybe you should go for it—but 
only maybe. If failure makes you weak or causes you to throw temper 
tantrums—like spoiled brats who call attorneys to file lawsuits every 
time something doesn’t go their way—then play it safe. Keep your
daytime job. Or buy bonds or mutual funds. But remember, there is risk 
in those financial instruments also, even though they may appear safe.
I say all this, mentioning Texas and Fran Tarkenton, because
stacking the asset column is easy. It’s really a low-aptitude game. It 
doesn’t take much education. Fifth-grade math will do. But building 
your asset column is a game in which attitude plays a major role. It 
takes guts, patience, and a great attitude toward failure. Losers avoid 
failing. And failure turns losers into winners. Just remember the Alamo.