Kiyosaki's book is his attempt to bestow a kind of wisdom to his reader. By being honest about one's own relationship to money, and one's own relationship to the future (whether they seriously consider how to be successful in the future, with discipline), a person could get wealthy, simply by buying books about investing, and then by using those methods to invest margins of money into stocks.
He paints a picture of wealth that is not determined by anything but ethical wisdom, because to consider the future strategically, and to maximize one's potential are both the purpose of ethics. To be wise is simply to behave according to a strategy actually works. By learning the techniques of investment, a person could easily invest, but without the homework, they will fail. So the truth is that the only thing stopping a person from becoming wealthy is having the discipline to learn from books about it.
That works in many other arenas besides investment, of course, which he mentions, but ultimately, it is the only way to win. Without fixing one's goals on realistic, well-researched, well-defined strategies, a person is bound to compete in the corporate rat race for meager salaries, while other people get wealthy.
Therefore, the key idea in this book is this: That to play "not to lose" is not the same as playing to win. He believes that by playing to win, you can ensure your success, if you have the patience to study the right books and to take it seriously.
