American businessman and one of the world’s bestselling authors, Robert Kiyosaki, believes the biggest difference between the rich and the poor isn’t money, education, or luck, it’s emotional intelligence. In a new post on X (formerly Twitter), the American businessman said people who fear losing more than they desire to win end up staying poor.
Explaining why he believes most people lose financially, he said it’s not because they lack knowledge or opportunity, but because they let fear control their decisions.
Robert Kiyosaki says fear keeps people poor
On X, the Rich Dad Poor Dad author shared a story about showing a friend his Coinbase app, which revealed that he holds millions in Bitcoin. While the author said he expects Bitcoin’s value to possibly reach as high as $200,000 this year, his friend had a very different reaction. “I was showing a friend my Coinbase app, explaining that a few years ago, it was pathetic. Today, my app showed my friend I have millions in Bitcoin…. and I think Bitcoin will double in price this year…. Possibly a high of $200k,” he wrote.
WHY LOSERS lose:
— Robert Kiyosaki (@theRealKiyosaki) October 29, 2025
I was showing a friend my coin base app, explaining that a few years ago it was pathetic. Today my app showed my friend I have millions in Bitcoin…. and I think Bitcoin will double in price this year…. Possibly a high of $200k.
Although my coin base showed I…
Instead of noticing the millions he had gained, Kiyosaki said his friend focused only on the few hundred thousand dollars his account had recently lost in value. “That psychological emotional difference,” Kiyosaki wrote, “is the key difference between the rich, poor and middle class.”
Choose EQ over IQ
According to Kiyosaki, emotional intelligence, or EQ, is far more powerful than IQ when it comes to earning wealth. He explained that while many people with high IQs end up poor, those with strong EQs learn to control their fear and greed rather than being controlled by them. “The poor and middle class are poor because they fear losing over winning,” he said, adding that “losers have low EQ” and often live in constant fear.
‘Fear and greed exist in all of us’
Kiyosaki believes that both fear and greed are natural emotions, but successful people learn to understand and respect them instead of letting those emotions overpower their decision-making ability. “EQ is more powerful than IQ and that is why many highly educated people like my poor dad died poor,” he wrote. According to Kiyosaki, “losers are more afraid of losing than getting rich. That is why so many highly educated teachers are poor. They have high IQ and low EQ.”
He ended his post with a message to readers, “If you want to be rich and happy, it is important you have high EQ, which means being smarter than your greed and fear.”
Robert Kiyosaki is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and financial educator best known for his Rich Dad Poor Dad series. Through his Rich Dad Company and educational board game Cashflow, he has spent decades promoting financial literacy and independence.
