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viewers from around the world. Those of us with backstage passes spontaneously form two lines. Almost on cue, Donald Trump walks between the two lines of admirers, smiling and nodding. It is a greeting reserved for royalty or heads of state. If it had been Hollywood, a red carpet would have been ordered.

      “Oh my God!” gasps a young woman. “He’s even more impressive in real life.” “I cannot believe how tall he is,” says another young woman. “Did you see his hair?” asks another. For the most part, the men in the group are silent.

      The door of the green room suddenly opens. Those who can peek in see that Donald is talking to reporters. The event promoter exits the room and walks over to me. “Are you ready to introduce Donald?” he asks. “Rich Dad’s Robert Kiyosaki introducing The Donald. The crowd loves it.”

      Donald Trump emerges from the green room and walks over to where we are standing. After a few private words with the promoter, Donald turns to me and says, “Hello again. You’re introducing me?” I nod in response.

      “Great, I see you’re still on The New York Times best seller list,” says Donald. “That’s amazing.” Then he lowers his voice just a notch. “I want to talk to you about something. Have you got time right now?”

      “Of course,” I reply.

      “You’re the number one personal-finance author, and I’m the number one business author. We should do a book together. What do you think?”

      Stunned by the offer, I am speechless.

      I recover and reply, “Great idea. Let’s do it.”

      I extend my hand to see if he’s serious about this book idea. He is, and we shake. Donald then turns to Keith, his imposing bodyguard, and says, “Give Robert my card.”

      Keith, the six-foot-three bodyguard suddenly stops being an intimidating figure, smiles, breaks out a gold card case and hands me one of Donald Trump’s personal business cards.

      “Call me the next time you’re in New York, and we’ll begin putting the book together,” says Donald. “I’ll introduce you to Meredith. She’ll help us on the project.”

      Soon it’s show time, so I turn and head for the stage where more than 24,000 Chicago fans in the main hall and satellite rooms are waiting for Donald Trump. As soon as I am finished with my brief introduction, the theme song from the mega-hit television show, The Apprentice, comes on, thousands of gold balloons fall from the ceiling, and the crowd erupts with applause as Donald Trump walks onstage.

      The Long Ride Home

      Flying home from Chicago to Phoenix, the reality of that handshake set in. “Who am I to write a book with Donald Trump?” I kept asking myself. “And what would we write about?”

      “Care for a blanket?” the flight attendant asked, snapping me out of my turmoil.

      “No, thank you,” I replied with a smile.

      As soon as the flight attendant walked away an idea popped into my head: We could write about real estate.

      With that thought, my personal critic chimed in, the critic who had been torturing me ever since the book idea was proposed. My critic cynically asked, “You and Donald Trump write a book on real estate? When it comes to real estate, Donald Trump is in the major leagues, and you’re in the Little League. He builds skyscrapers in New York. And what do you own? A few apartment houses, a few low-rise commercial buildings, and some raw land. Besides, he’s a billionaire, and you’re only a millionaire.”

      Until now, I had been pretty satisfied with my accomplishments in life. But when considering a book with Donald Trump, my successes and accomplishments seemed very small and inconsequential. Instead of feeling honored to be asked to write a book with Donald Trump, I felt miserable. “What can we possibly write about?” I asked myself over and over again as the plane flew from Chicago to Phoenix.

      The Boardroom

       December 12, 2005

      I was in New York to record a television program for PBS and to meet with Yahoo! Finance. Since I was to be in New York anyway, Meredith and I had agreed to meet to see if we could find the perfect book concept. On December 12th, my wife, Kim, and I took a cab to Donald Trump’s office…not just his office, his office building.

      For those of you who have seen The Apprentice, you are probably familiar with the gilded entrance to Trump Tower on New York City’s famous Fifth Avenue. Standing on the sidewalk, I leaned back and let my gaze climb the heights, story after story until my eyes finally found the point where the building and the sky met. Trump Tower is definitely a lot bigger than any building Kim and I own. Although I had walked by the building many times, it looked much taller when I knew I was going inside for a meeting with Donald.

      Being on Fifth Avenue brought back so many memories. I remembered looking up at buildings like this when I first came to New York to start school at the Merchant Marine Academy in 1965. I was a poor Hawaiian kid in the Big City for the first time.

      And here I was, 40 years later, invited by Donald Trump to his office and his building. At that moment, I had a major reality check.

      Most people consider me to be very successful. I have made and lost millions of dollars following the principles that I share in the Rich Dad books. But standing in front of Trump Tower, I suddenly realized how far I had come. It was an incredible feeling.

      I remembered one of Donald’s favorite sayings, “Think big!” Just by standing in front of his building, I realized how much bigger my thinking was that day than it was when I had first arrived in New York in 1965. “Wow!” I said aloud. Kim just squeezed my hand.

      Taking a deep breath, we entered Trump Tower and proceeded to the elevators where security guards greeted us. Once cleared, we entered the elevator and rode it to one of the top floors from which Donald runs his empire.

      If you have watched The Apprentice, you are familiar with the entrance to Donald Trump’s office with the attractive receptionist guarding the door. (For those of you with inquiring minds, Donald had a replica of his office built a few floors below his office for the television show. Instead of walking into his real boardroom, he takes an elevator down and walks into the replica of his boardroom.) Although I had watched the program many times, never did I ever think that I might one day be walking into Donald Trump’s world.

      It was a strange experience to feel like I was on the set of the show. My mind continually flashed back and forth between the television show and real life.

      The first person to greet us, once the receptionist had us take a seat, was Keith, Donald Trump’s giant bodyguard. When he saw us, Keith took the time to greet us warmly as if we were old friends. He sat down next to us and made us feel completely at home. I could not believe how gracious he was as he told us about his previous career as a New York City detective and his current career as a personal bodyguard for Donald. He stayed with us, offered us water and kept us company until the door to the main office opened and Meredith walked in.

      Meredith is the classic young New York City executive woman, an attractive woman who would be perfectly at home in London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto or Beijing. She extended her hand and offered us a warm smile as she said, “Great to finally meet you.”

      After thanking Keith for his graciousness, Kim and I followed Meredith through the glass doors and into the boardroom, the real boardroom. As we took our seats, my mind again began to flash to scenes from the television program, with male and female apprentice candidates sitting across the table Donald and his advisors. I silently asked myself, “What are you doing here? How did you get here?” (Actually, the words I really used were, “What the (bleep) am I doing here?” And, “How the (bleep) did I get here?”).

      After a few minutes of chatting, Meredith asked, “What would you like to write about?”

      “Well, I am very concerned about poverty,” I replied. “I believe we could write about what we would do to end it. The title could be Ending Poverty.”

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