When I interned here in L.A., every “slave” read that book. There’s nothing wrong splurging in something expensive once in a while as it’s a reward system for your hard work. The main message I got was try not to spend more than you can make, and to make money, you need money.
Maybe you should re-read the book.
The message I got from it is not that "to make money, you need money". The message I got was that it is possible to save enough to become wealthy through investment.
Clearly, somewhere along the way the savings and investments you have are going to become substantial, but this is a far cry from needing money to make money.
The concept of "splurging on something expensive as a reward for hard work" isn't in there either. The idea is to save first, then lower expenditures to fall within what is left.
The reward for this is security in retirement, possibly retiring early, and never having to worry about money.