1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:06,000
Speaker 1: This is Master's in Business with Barry rid Holds on

2
00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:08,240
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio.

3
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:12,680
Speaker 2: This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest.

4
00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:17,759
Speaker 2: John Hope Bryant is a fascinating entrepreneur and philanthropist. He

5
00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:20,560
Speaker 2: is the founder of Operation Hope and one of the

6
00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:25,599
Speaker 2: leading voices for financial literacy in America. He was vice

7
00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:29,760
Speaker 2: chair of President Bush's Council on Financial Literacy and sat

8
00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,800
Speaker 2: on a similar council on Financial Capability for President Obama.

9
00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,680
Speaker 2: He has written five books with more coming. Really a

10
00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,840
Speaker 2: fascinating person who operates in a realm that I think

11
00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,120
Speaker 2: a lot of people in finance overlook, and he's really

12
00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,520
Speaker 2: moving the needle in terms of having people take control

13
00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:55,560
Speaker 2: of their own financial life in a way that benefits

14
00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:59,160
Speaker 2: not just them, but the entire economy, in all of society.

15
00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:03,160
Speaker 2: I found on our conversation to be just compelling and fascinating,

16
00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,520
Speaker 2: and I think you will also so, with no further ado,

17
00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:11,959
Speaker 2: my conversation with Operation Hope's John Hope Bryant.

18
00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:13,800
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me and honor to be here.

19
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:15,479
Speaker 1: By the way, my last book is Up from Nothing.

20
00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:18,039
Speaker 1: That's my favorite one. That's my story of my failures,

21
00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:19,480
Speaker 1: not my successes. I like that.

22
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,360
Speaker 2: I like a tail. We tend to learn more from

23
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,880
Speaker 2: our mistakes than we do from our successes. But we'll

24
00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:27,679
Speaker 2: circle back to that in a bit. Let's start a

25
00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,640
Speaker 2: little bit with your background. You tell a story in

26
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:33,400
Speaker 2: one of your books of a banker who shows up

27
00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:36,720
Speaker 2: at your elementary school class, and that kick started your

28
00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:37,760
Speaker 2: interest in finance.

29
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:42,240
Speaker 1: Yes, it was a transformational experience to have this banker

30
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:45,800
Speaker 1: come in my classroom. On several levels. I had an

31
00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:49,480
Speaker 1: economics lesson, I had a life lesson. I had an epiphany.

32
00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:51,600
Speaker 1: I had a race relations lesson. I had a self

33
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 1: esteem and confidence lesson. Those two things finally came together.

34
00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,960
Speaker 1: I had aha about how the world really works. I

35
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,640
Speaker 1: figured out how to keep my friends from getting murdered

36
00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:04,440
Speaker 1: in the streets because when I was nine years old,

37
00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:06,880
Speaker 1: a year before this class, actually the same years as class,

38
00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:09,560
Speaker 1: my best friend George was murdered on a street in

39
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 1: Compton with my next door neighbor tweet selling drugs. Even

40
00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 1: though he was a student, he hung out with the

41
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,960
Speaker 1: wrong character, the wrong kids. And character is not the

42
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,080
Speaker 1: most important thing in business or whatever. It's the only

43
00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,280
Speaker 1: thing really and culture. Culture then informs characters. So culture

44
00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:30,119
Speaker 1: my neighborhood was a thug culture that you were respected

45
00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:32,640
Speaker 1: if you were you know, hard, a tough guy. And

46
00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,240
Speaker 1: so my friend, my best friend, who was very, very smart,

47
00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:37,839
Speaker 1: did not have good parents like I had, who told

48
00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 1: me I could do anything I wanted to do, and

49
00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:42,519
Speaker 1: who loved me and told me. My mother she told

50
00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:44,840
Speaker 1: me she loved me every day of my life. So

51
00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,280
Speaker 1: there's a difference barrier between being broken being poor. Being

52
00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:52,240
Speaker 1: brokens economic, but being poor as a disabling frame of mind,

53
00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,200
Speaker 1: a depressed condition of your spirit. You must vow never

54
00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,160
Speaker 1: to be poor again. So because I had this self

55
00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:02,760
Speaker 1: esteem based on my mother, and I had self love,

56
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,200
Speaker 1: just not self confidence. My next door neighbor, oh well,

57
00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:09,280
Speaker 1: my best friend had self confidence but did not have

58
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:12,920
Speaker 1: self esteem, so he was influenced by those around him.

59
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,240
Speaker 1: He was murdered then when I was seven years old,

60
00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:20,760
Speaker 1: the guy who saved my life because long story short,

61
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,440
Speaker 1: my mother moved away from my father arguments over money,

62
00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,120
Speaker 1: domestic abuse involving money. When I was five years old,

63
00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:31,600
Speaker 1: they fought, she moved. We were staying with her relative

64
00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,800
Speaker 1: to save some money for her first home. The guy

65
00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:40,680
Speaker 1: who was dating, oh see, dating my mother's cousin saved

66
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:42,800
Speaker 1: my life on the front porch when I was swallowing

67
00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:47,400
Speaker 1: my tongue, and I just idolized this guy. What I

68
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:50,920
Speaker 1: didn't realize was he was ashamed to admit that he

69
00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,120
Speaker 1: could not afford to float the expenses of his immediate

70
00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,120
Speaker 1: family and hours. So he went to go sell drugs,

71
00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:01,360
Speaker 1: also part time, and he was murdered by the drug dealers,

72
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,360
Speaker 1: for whom this was their territory. They came around the

73
00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:07,160
Speaker 1: corner in a truck, Barry. I'm sitting on the porch

74
00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:09,680
Speaker 1: waiting for him to come home. I'm seven years old.

75
00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,240
Speaker 1: This is my idol. He saved my life. They hit

76
00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,760
Speaker 1: him in the truck on a bicycle. I can see

77
00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,479
Speaker 1: it in my mind's eye. Wow. They drag him down

78
00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:21,720
Speaker 1: the street in front of me until he was dead.

79
00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:23,400
Speaker 1: They did it in front of our house to send

80
00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,839
Speaker 1: a message. And so here was You know, these are

81
00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:29,880
Speaker 1: two stories, maybe three before I'm nine years old, of

82
00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:33,480
Speaker 1: bad economics, bad culture, and a bad business plan. So

83
00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:36,560
Speaker 1: now I'm nine years old, Berry and this banker comes

84
00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,719
Speaker 1: in my classroom. It's home economics class doesn't exist anymore.

85
00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:40,200
Speaker 2: Right.

86
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:44,599
Speaker 1: He's white, He has a blue suit, a white shirt

87
00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,680
Speaker 1: of red tie, he's six ' to two, and he

88
00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:51,159
Speaker 1: starts talking about money and free enterprise and capitalism and

89
00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:56,440
Speaker 1: ownership and balance sheets and all this stuff. And I'm

90
00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:57,640
Speaker 1: sitting there mesmerized.

91
00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:00,040
Speaker 2: You're nine years old at I'm nine.

92
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:04,760
Speaker 1: And I'm completely entranced. And I remember probably the second

93
00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:07,080
Speaker 1: or third class, because by the third class I was

94
00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:09,200
Speaker 1: actually wearing a suit, the only suit I had, which

95
00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:12,200
Speaker 1: was my Sunday suit to school, trying to emulate the

96
00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 1: suit that I saw this guy in. By the way,

97
00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:16,600
Speaker 1: this was a crush velvet three p suit with a

98
00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:18,120
Speaker 1: ruffled shirt and a big bow tie. So you can

99
00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:19,680
Speaker 1: imagine I got beat up when I went to school.

100
00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,839
Speaker 1: So I raised my hand Barry, and I said, excuse me, sir,

101
00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:27,279
Speaker 1: I had enough courage to ask this question, what do

102
00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,719
Speaker 1: you do for a living? And how'd you get rich? Legally?

103
00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,640
Speaker 1: And Barry I was dead serious, like I was, just

104
00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:38,160
Speaker 1: completely It was to me it was a common sense

105
00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,960
Speaker 1: question because everybody in my neighborhood was a thug, a

106
00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,880
Speaker 1: drug dealer, or a criminal. I mean, nobody had legit wealth.

107
00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,680
Speaker 2: So this guy's a banker talking to a room full

108
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,240
Speaker 2: of nine and ten years old, Yeah, how does he

109
00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:51,960
Speaker 2: answer the question? What do you do for a living,

110
00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:53,800
Speaker 2: and how do you get rich legally?

111
00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:59,320
Speaker 1: He said, I'm a banker and I finance entrepreneurs. And

112
00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:03,240
Speaker 1: I said, what's an entrepreneur? I never heard that word

113
00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,279
Speaker 1: my entire life. French word built something out of nothing,

114
00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:09,800
Speaker 1: create value. What's an entrepreneur? I mean, no one's ever

115
00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:12,240
Speaker 1: taught me that. So I went home to the dictionary.

116
00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:15,440
Speaker 1: For those in the you know, current generation, it's a

117
00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:19,880
Speaker 1: Google search, and I opened the dictionary to the word entrepreneur.

118
00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,040
Speaker 1: And my whole life changed. And when I came back

119
00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:26,600
Speaker 1: to school, one more thing, what's a banker? And how

120
00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:28,560
Speaker 1: many of them are you? And you did you say

121
00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:30,560
Speaker 1: one more time that your job is to lend people

122
00:06:30,839 --> 00:06:34,800
Speaker 1: like me to be an entrepreneur money. I said, I

123
00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:37,400
Speaker 1: need to get this whole script straight, because here my

124
00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:41,120
Speaker 1: friends were getting murdered and jailed and shot and all

125
00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,080
Speaker 1: this kind of you know, over economics, over some you know,

126
00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,920
Speaker 1: trying to sell drugs or sell TV said or whatever

127
00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:48,760
Speaker 1: it is in the hood.

128
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,479
Speaker 2: Hustle up some money instead of launching something that was

129
00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:54,559
Speaker 2: very foreign to that part of the world.

130
00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:56,440
Speaker 1: And so when this guy told me that we're at

131
00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:04,360
Speaker 1: that time ten thousand banks hundreds of thousands of bankers.

132
00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,679
Speaker 2: In your neighborhood or were you an unbanked real.

133
00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:07,800
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it was, you know, it was. It

134
00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:09,760
Speaker 1: was so few you knew where they were. Put it

135
00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:11,960
Speaker 1: that way, right, And this guy was a banker, to

136
00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:14,720
Speaker 1: be full disclosure, it was a banker for Bank of America.

137
00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:17,440
Speaker 1: So I knew what Bank of America was because my mother.

138
00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:18,760
Speaker 1: It was a big deal to go to the banking

139
00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:20,840
Speaker 1: over to a past book account, or to go there

140
00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:22,840
Speaker 1: with my mother every couple of weeks, you know, and

141
00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,160
Speaker 1: have or my dad to make an appointment with the

142
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,120
Speaker 1: local the local branch banker might have been the mayor.

143
00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:28,800
Speaker 1: I mean he was a very important guy back in

144
00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,920
Speaker 1: those days. But it was pretty rare occurrence. So one,

145
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,520
Speaker 1: I was shocked that there was an industry that was

146
00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:39,240
Speaker 1: whose job it was to lend a risk taker money. Two,

147
00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,360
Speaker 1: I was shocked that it was legal. Three I shocked

148
00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:44,600
Speaker 1: that it was an actual occupation for a guy who

149
00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:48,480
Speaker 1: was a legitimate hessler. And my whole life changed and

150
00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,720
Speaker 1: I left there. I went, as I said, open the dictionary.

151
00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,560
Speaker 1: I started seeing the muffler shop as a business. By

152
00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:56,560
Speaker 1: the way, the different between an entrepreneur and a business

153
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:58,480
Speaker 1: man as a or a businesswoman. Those are those things

154
00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:01,200
Speaker 1: are different, different risk tolerance and different business plan. But

155
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:03,600
Speaker 1: I started seeing the nail salon as a business. I

156
00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,920
Speaker 1: started seeing the I think a barbershop. All these things

157
00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,400
Speaker 1: were businesses. I never seen it that way before, and

158
00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,400
Speaker 1: I went back to school bery, sir, your business card?

159
00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,200
Speaker 1: Can I have one? Okay? What's the sixteenth floor thing?

160
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:18,880
Speaker 1: You know? There's no floor above the sixth floor in

161
00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:21,560
Speaker 1: Compton and that's the courthouse. What's in the sixteen floor?

162
00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:23,200
Speaker 1: And where is that at? And by the way, how

163
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:24,360
Speaker 1: can you show the coming here in the middle of

164
00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:28,080
Speaker 1: the day. My mother is an hourly job at mcdonaldalla's Aircraft.

165
00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:30,360
Speaker 1: She's got two fifteen minute breaks in lunch. How is

166
00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:31,400
Speaker 1: this you here in the middle of the day. It's

167
00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,280
Speaker 1: called a salary. You have a white shirt. My father

168
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:36,720
Speaker 1: wore a blue shirt. How do you keep the shirt clean? Oh?

169
00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:40,240
Speaker 1: You just do work with mathematics and intellectual activities. You

170
00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:43,360
Speaker 1: don't do any dirty work, you know. And how's it

171
00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:46,240
Speaker 1: that you? What's this car? This in the parking lot.

172
00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,520
Speaker 1: It's got plates on it and and a tag and

173
00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:54,360
Speaker 1: it's brand new. Translation is not hot? Right? I mean?

174
00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,760
Speaker 1: And it's beautiful. What do you do? And this world

175
00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:00,840
Speaker 1: opened up to me man, and I was done. And

176
00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:05,559
Speaker 1: so mister Mac Max liquor Store six to two and

177
00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:09,560
Speaker 1: also six two black man own Max Liquor store. And

178
00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:12,239
Speaker 1: I realized for the first time, Barry, this was a businessman.

179
00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:15,840
Speaker 1: And I went to mister Mac. First of all, I

180
00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:18,680
Speaker 1: didn't know there was a black businessman in comptence. So congratulations,

181
00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:21,960
Speaker 1: mister Mac. You're selling the wrong kind of candy, he said,

182
00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,760
Speaker 1: excuse me, I said, you have a liquor store. You're

183
00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:27,920
Speaker 1: probably good at liquor, but you have a candy rack

184
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:29,960
Speaker 1: in the liquor store and you're selling wrong kind of candy.

185
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,560
Speaker 1: Go away, a little boy. I've got a college degree,

186
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,320
Speaker 1: that's nice. I've got cavities. You're selling wrong kind of candy.

187
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,240
Speaker 1: I'm nine at that point. That's ten. So he said, look,

188
00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,400
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of hootsba. I'll hire you. I'm

189
00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:41,520
Speaker 1: gonna put you at the counter.

190
00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:43,400
Speaker 2: I want you in charge of the candy.

191
00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:47,480
Speaker 1: Right, I said no. I declined the offer. He said,

192
00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:49,480
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pay you top dollar for you know, you

193
00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:51,320
Speaker 1: come after school. I'm gonna pay you. You'll be paid

194
00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:53,400
Speaker 1: more than any of your friends. I didn't want to

195
00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:56,119
Speaker 1: do it. And by the way, Barry, this is analogous

196
00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:59,480
Speaker 1: today to the basketball player with a contract, to the

197
00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:02,280
Speaker 1: rapper who can sing really well and it's rocking a mic,

198
00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:06,199
Speaker 1: to a baseball player, or anybody who is performing at

199
00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:09,080
Speaker 1: top dollar, but they're cashing the check, they're not writing it.

200
00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,040
Speaker 1: And if you are a great performer, no matter what

201
00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:15,000
Speaker 1: your industry is, you'll get paid a lot. You may

202
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,960
Speaker 1: not build wealth, but you'll get a lot of income.

203
00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:19,560
Speaker 1: I didn't realize what I was doing back then, but

204
00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:22,800
Speaker 1: I was making a choice. I was like, I don't

205
00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:24,480
Speaker 1: want to be a performer. I don't want to be

206
00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:27,760
Speaker 1: your performer. You're the owner and I get to perform.

207
00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,120
Speaker 1: I don't want that. Tell you what I want. Make

208
00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:35,120
Speaker 1: me a box boy. Excuse me, Yeah, I want to

209
00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:37,719
Speaker 1: do stocking, he says, the worst job I got. That's

210
00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:39,520
Speaker 1: what I want. I worked there for three weeks and

211
00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:42,600
Speaker 1: quit because then I knew what the wholesale rate was,

212
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:44,640
Speaker 1: in the retail rate, I knew what the markup was,

213
00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:47,240
Speaker 1: I knew what supplying the man looked like, what things

214
00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:50,360
Speaker 1: were moving, what wasn't. I quit once I knew where

215
00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:51,920
Speaker 1: he bought his inventory. He was on the side of

216
00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,520
Speaker 1: the box. I went home, got my mother, sold my

217
00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:58,280
Speaker 1: mother on making a forty dollars investment. She made me

218
00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:00,440
Speaker 1: pay her back by the way, and my new business,

219
00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:02,559
Speaker 1: and went to Smart and Final and Irish food store.

220
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,720
Speaker 1: Was why about his inventory, and got put in business.

221
00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:07,800
Speaker 1: And I actually put him out of the candy business

222
00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:09,920
Speaker 1: not soon after that. I mean, three hundred dollars a

223
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:11,360
Speaker 1: week on a forty dollars investment.

224
00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,200
Speaker 2: Wow, that's amazing. So let's talk a little bit about

225
00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:19,480
Speaker 2: a quote of yours that's very relevant to this. Persistence

226
00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:23,280
Speaker 2: and resilience are more powerful than pedigree and raw intelligence.

227
00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,440
Speaker 2: Explain what you mean by that. Although I think I

228
00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:29,000
Speaker 2: have a suspicion as to where that came from.

229
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,480
Speaker 1: I think that ties directly into what I said about

230
00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:33,959
Speaker 1: self esteem and confidence and the difference. It also ties

231
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,560
Speaker 1: into the race relations lesson that I got by meeting

232
00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:43,199
Speaker 1: this white banker who was actually helping me to understand

233
00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:45,640
Speaker 1: the free enterprise system. So my experience with a white

234
00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 1: person was different than the folks growing up. My folks

235
00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:51,920
Speaker 1: growing up, but my friends growing up, they'd get hit

236
00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:54,120
Speaker 1: over the head with by a police officer putting them over.

237
00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:56,600
Speaker 1: It was a negative experience as a result of that.

238
00:11:56,640 --> 00:11:59,120
Speaker 1: They didn't like white people, they didn't trust white people,

239
00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,000
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to white people. My experience was

240
00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:04,640
Speaker 1: this banker who basically opened my head up to a

241
00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:07,880
Speaker 1: whole new world. And so I wasn't intimidated by him.

242
00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,959
Speaker 1: I actually found an affinity with him. I didn't want

243
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,040
Speaker 1: to be him, on to be me, but I was

244
00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,760
Speaker 1: not both reposed. I was ne either rapost or you know,

245
00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:20,240
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I wasn't trying to be him, nor was

246
00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:23,280
Speaker 1: I trying to avoid him. I thought he was useful

247
00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:26,240
Speaker 1: and he had a place in my world. So that

248
00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:30,560
Speaker 1: then relates to self esteem. If I don't like me,

249
00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:32,720
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna like you. If I don't feel good

250
00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:34,600
Speaker 1: about me, I'm not gonna feel good about you. If

251
00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,400
Speaker 1: I don't respect me, then how can I ever respect you.

252
00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:38,880
Speaker 1: If I don't have a purpose in my life, I'll

253
00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:41,360
Speaker 1: make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around.

254
00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:46,240
Speaker 1: That's self esteem. Self confidence is confidence put in action.

255
00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:50,240
Speaker 1: So I'm confident and I execute on that, then then

256
00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:53,160
Speaker 1: I have confidence. And that is where my hustle comes from.

257
00:12:53,160 --> 00:12:56,800
Speaker 1: That's where my resiliency comes from that self esteem applied

258
00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:01,040
Speaker 1: through a with a skill in the marketplace. Over time,

259
00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,800
Speaker 1: you start taking no for vitamins, you start becoming incredibly resilient.

260
00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:07,840
Speaker 1: Hard to hit. It's hard to hit a moving target,

261
00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:10,760
Speaker 1: as I said earlier, And if I don't give up,

262
00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:13,560
Speaker 1: you can't beat me. When you're sleep, I'm working. When

263
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:16,520
Speaker 1: you get up, I'm already. I'm already prepared for the day.

264
00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:18,240
Speaker 1: When you go to when you were going to children

265
00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:20,920
Speaker 1: in the evening, I'm ready. I'm preparing my next business plan.

266
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:26,160
Speaker 1: I didn't have compounded capital. I had compounded hustle, and

267
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:27,840
Speaker 1: and so I had time. I didn't have money, and

268
00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:30,200
Speaker 1: I decided to use that time in a way that

269
00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:33,480
Speaker 1: made me bulletproof or or harder to compete with, because

270
00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:35,079
Speaker 1: I was going to be smarter than anybody else in

271
00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,160
Speaker 1: the room, and I was gonna work harder. So I

272
00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:42,120
Speaker 1: think that resiliency piece never giving up, never give again.

273
00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:46,199
Speaker 1: Redefining Barry success as going from failure to failure without

274
00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:49,840
Speaker 1: loss of enthusiasm. Mm hmm, I think that's everything.

275
00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:52,480
Speaker 2: Let's take the reverse of that, because I think this

276
00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:56,319
Speaker 2: other quote is so telling. The most dangerous person in

277
00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,600
Speaker 2: the world is the one with no hope. That that's

278
00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:05,720
Speaker 2: the flip side of resiliency and persistency. What is the

279
00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:10,439
Speaker 2: challenge when you encounter either a person or an entire

280
00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:12,120
Speaker 2: region where there's no hope.

281
00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:16,440
Speaker 1: I really wish we had three hours versus thirty minutes

282
00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,880
Speaker 1: to talk about this one topic, because it's everything Verry.

283
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:23,800
Speaker 1: I won't go down this rabbit hole, but at another time,

284
00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,720
Speaker 1: and we should talk about why African American experience is

285
00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:30,400
Speaker 1: different in this country from even Afro Caribbean, from those

286
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,280
Speaker 1: from Africa or other dark people from around the world.

287
00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,040
Speaker 1: Why is the African American experience different. It was how

288
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,680
Speaker 1: we were treated, and that treatment messed up our head,

289
00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:41,560
Speaker 1: our psyche, which is where real wealth sits.

290
00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:47,240
Speaker 2: So I really like that insight that your psyche is

291
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,280
Speaker 2: where real wealth resides. Yeah, I mean, I've never heard

292
00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:52,520
Speaker 2: it quite phrase that way.

293
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:56,760
Speaker 1: I'll be even more blunt. Poverty sustenance. Poverty is a

294
00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:00,000
Speaker 1: roof over your head, food on your table, reasonable health,

295
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,560
Speaker 1: It's a sustenance the ability to sustain yourself. All other

296
00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,680
Speaker 1: forms of poverty are mindset based. So whether I believe

297
00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 1: I can or whether I believe I can't, I'm right.

298
00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:14,120
Speaker 1: Is the glass half full? Or half empty, depends who's

299
00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:16,720
Speaker 1: looking at the glass. So when you tell people for

300
00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:19,440
Speaker 1: two hundred, when you enslave them for two hundred and

301
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:22,560
Speaker 1: seventy years, you destroy their family structures so they have

302
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,120
Speaker 1: nothing to believe in. You destroy the ability to protect

303
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:29,320
Speaker 1: their mate from harm, to destroy their self esteem and

304
00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:34,360
Speaker 1: their sense of independent you know, agency, There you go.

305
00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,080
Speaker 1: You don't give them education, so they don't know any

306
00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:38,760
Speaker 1: They can't only have a skill set. You don't teach

307
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,280
Speaker 1: them about the free enterprise system. You basically want to

308
00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:45,000
Speaker 1: use their body, in their mind, the body because they're

309
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:47,560
Speaker 1: agricultural geniuses from Africa. They want them to work that's

310
00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:49,240
Speaker 1: land in the south. But you don't want them thinking,

311
00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:52,440
Speaker 1: and you certainly don't want them believing. And you do

312
00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,560
Speaker 1: that for three hundred years plus, really two thirds of

313
00:15:55,600 --> 00:16:00,440
Speaker 1: American experience. It doesn't You can't help but have a

314
00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,680
Speaker 1: group of people who have low faith, low confidence, low trust,

315
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:08,280
Speaker 1: who are cynical, not skeptical, and as a result of that,

316
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:10,040
Speaker 1: and who have crappy role models. And if you hang

317
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:12,480
Speaker 1: around nine bro people, you'll be the tenth. So now

318
00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,840
Speaker 1: you have a group of people who don't know, who

319
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,960
Speaker 1: are smart, brilliant, amazing. With the rules of published and

320
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,800
Speaker 1: the playing fielder's level, they excel. Think about the arts,

321
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:25,200
Speaker 1: think about professional sports, think about politics, rules of published

322
00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,800
Speaker 1: playing fielders level. African Americans in this example kill it.

323
00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 1: But in capitalism and free enterprise, there is no rule book,

324
00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:36,360
Speaker 1: and we were denied that whole lesson and the best

325
00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:38,720
Speaker 1: we were taught was how to make the dollar, not

326
00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:43,000
Speaker 1: to how to build it. And so this hopelessness you

327
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:49,200
Speaker 1: talk about comes easily from the population that it has

328
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,920
Speaker 1: that experience, and who has descendants who are now looking

329
00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:56,160
Speaker 1: at parents unsuccessful at commercially or economically, who did not

330
00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,520
Speaker 1: get a chance or a shot, whose mother was not

331
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,320
Speaker 1: called missus, who's dad who was called mister or doctor

332
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,160
Speaker 1: or whatever. And so you have these kids who wake

333
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:05,800
Speaker 1: up on on a scale of one to ten on

334
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:13,520
Speaker 1: anxiety nine and they're on they're on edge. And you

335
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:15,800
Speaker 1: do something to that kid, tap them on the shoulder,

336
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:18,760
Speaker 1: he may swing on you. Now now the kid's in jail, okay,

337
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:21,600
Speaker 1: And so the energy is used for all the wrong stuff.

338
00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:24,720
Speaker 1: And now you start becoming expert at things are going

339
00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:27,480
Speaker 1: to get you locked up drug dealing and underground. So

340
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:29,680
Speaker 1: you have genius, you have brilliant. I mean, what's that

341
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,399
Speaker 1: a drug dealer, Barry? If not, I mean it's an illegal,

342
00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:39,520
Speaker 1: unethical entrepreneur, business person. You understand import, exports, finance, marketing, wholesale, retail,

343
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:43,720
Speaker 1: customer service, security, territory logistics. These are not dumb people.

344
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,600
Speaker 1: They have a dumb business plan. They're an underground economy

345
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,119
Speaker 1: because they don't trust the mainstream economy. So this hopelessness

346
00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:57,880
Speaker 1: that you just mentioned is everything for repressing the human spirit.

347
00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,720
Speaker 1: We've got to turn that around. My whole life's work

348
00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:08,399
Speaker 1: is really summarizing one sentence to unleash untapped human potential

349
00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:12,600
Speaker 1: at scale. And you think about if this issue is

350
00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:17,360
Speaker 1: racism real, of course it is.

351
00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:15,760
Speaker 2: But.

352
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:20,000
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, but no, no no. But here's

353
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,000
Speaker 1: a twist, and you may probably never heard this, one

354
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:27,040
Speaker 1: African American, what is race the only issue? No? In fact,

355
00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:30,879
Speaker 1: i'd argue race is not the primary issue today today,

356
00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:33,800
Speaker 1: not one hundred years ago, not fifty years ago. If

357
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,840
Speaker 1: it was Barry, you wouldn't have poor whites, poor whites

358
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:42,199
Speaker 1: who are segregated from wealthy whites economically. You would not

359
00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:47,399
Speaker 1: have African Caribbeans and Africans from Africa who actually do

360
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:52,120
Speaker 1: better in some ways than African Americans on ownership issues.

361
00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:57,640
Speaker 1: If she was just race, all whites would be immensely successful,

362
00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:01,800
Speaker 1: all blacks would be immensely repressed. You have the sub

363
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:07,159
Speaker 1: sectors because mindset has it provided a differentiated path. So

364
00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,080
Speaker 1: what I am saying is you can level the playing

365
00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:12,960
Speaker 1: field with a business plan based on Hope.

366
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:17,520
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about what Operation Hope does.

367
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,080
Speaker 2: But I want to start by asking why don't we

368
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:23,080
Speaker 2: teach financial literacy in school? Why isn't this a core

369
00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,000
Speaker 2: course offering across the entire country.

370
00:19:27,119 --> 00:19:31,160
Speaker 1: A couple of very practical reasons. Number One, a school

371
00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:35,680
Speaker 1: district is a business, and like every business, they want

372
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,159
Speaker 1: revenue and they'd like to have a surplus profit. What

373
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,480
Speaker 1: they don't want is an unfunded mandate. And as well

374
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,760
Speaker 1: meaning as financial literacy is, it's got two problems. One,

375
00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:52,080
Speaker 1: it doesn't have a budget allocation from Congress, and the

376
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:56,040
Speaker 1: Department of Education does not set curriculum. They're a budget.

377
00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:59,359
Speaker 1: They're a check writing organization. They give you criteria at

378
00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:01,399
Speaker 1: the state and local level, and they give you money.

379
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:03,840
Speaker 1: They incentivize you with grant payments from the from the

380
00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:07,639
Speaker 1: federal government to meet that criteria. The school. There's no

381
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,080
Speaker 1: there's no funding base for financial literacy. I got President Bush,

382
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,280
Speaker 1: George W. Bush, to make financial literacy the policy of

383
00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:18,159
Speaker 1: the US federal government. I was naive Berry because I

384
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 1: thought I didn't realize that when he inserted the word

385
00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:23,920
Speaker 1: federal government that just meant government employees, that that meant

386
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,040
Speaker 1: the federal government. I also was naive by thinking that

387
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:29,800
Speaker 1: if I wrote a letter, which he allowed me to

388
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:31,919
Speaker 1: do with Charles Schwab, we wrote a letter. He was

389
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,320
Speaker 1: Charles Schwab was chairman, I was vice chairman to every

390
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:37,560
Speaker 1: one of the fourteen thousand school district superintendents that was

391
00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,639
Speaker 1: around in two thousand. I think it was nine or

392
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:42,560
Speaker 1: ten that they school districts would just see the White

393
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:46,400
Speaker 1: House letterhead and understand the nobleness of this work, and oh,

394
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:50,280
Speaker 1: my god, of course crickets I got. We got. We

395
00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:52,720
Speaker 1: got not one response, really, not.

396
00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,040
Speaker 2: One recive zero. A letter goes to every school district

397
00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:55,720
Speaker 2: on the.

398
00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:58,640
Speaker 1: White House stationary, signed by the chairman and vice chairman

399
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:02,119
Speaker 1: of the President's Council of Financial Literacy. Crickets because there

400
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:05,800
Speaker 1: was an unfunded mandated in their view, and they're like

401
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,679
Speaker 1: they're shaking the paper, going hey.

402
00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:09,640
Speaker 2: Where's the check?

403
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:12,359
Speaker 1: Is there a check attached to this? And number two?

404
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 1: And I think that they were like, I'm sure there's

405
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 1: another note coming after this with a congressional allocation, and

406
00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:22,400
Speaker 1: it never came. Number two. Money is emotional, So money,

407
00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 1: unlike math, money is highly emotional and people want to

408
00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:31,920
Speaker 1: spend money. They don't want to talk about it, including teachers, superintendents,

409
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,480
Speaker 1: school board members, city council people, members of congress. People

410
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,879
Speaker 1: are most people have too much month at the end

411
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:38,760
Speaker 1: of their money.

412
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:41,879
Speaker 2: Too much month at the end of their money.

413
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,160
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, they're living from paycheck to paycheck. Seventy percent

414
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:47,920
Speaker 1: of the US economy has been recently shown. I think

415
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,880
Speaker 1: it was a Bloomberg report, actually that half of all

416
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,000
Speaker 1: people in this country making one hundred thousand dollars a

417
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,400
Speaker 1: year paycheck to paycheck to a third of those making

418
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 1: a quarter million dollars a year living from paycheck to paycheck.

419
00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,480
Speaker 1: So this is not just poor people, it's not Almost

420
00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:05,439
Speaker 1: everybody is struggling with cash flow. But they want to

421
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: look good, they want to look successful, they want to

422
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,119
Speaker 1: go on a vacation, they want to go shopping. So

423
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 1: people think, they'd like to think that credit cards are

424
00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: cash and they don't want anybody disavowed them. With that belief,

425
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,080
Speaker 1: I can't be broken still have checks left. The one

426
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:18,680
Speaker 1: was that they want to be able to say yes

427
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,040
Speaker 1: to their children, yes to their wives or spouse. That

428
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:26,399
Speaker 1: insecurity if you will of wanting to say yes and

429
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:30,960
Speaker 1: live the life. Conflicts with a budget, conflicts with a limit,

430
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,679
Speaker 1: conflicts with having to sit down and understand if your

431
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:36,600
Speaker 1: outflow exees your inflow, then your overhead it'll be your downfall.

432
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,879
Speaker 1: This was my dad's problem. My dad thought the cash

433
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,600
Speaker 1: flow was profit. He had a construction company and he'd

434
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 1: bid a job at a thousand dollars. It costs five hundred,

435
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: but he'd outbid the other guy who's bidding a job

436
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,800
Speaker 1: or fourteen hundred. He thought he was successful. Well, the

437
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,480
Speaker 1: more you if you live that way you make a

438
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: dollar spend a dollar fifty, the more money make the

439
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,960
Speaker 1: broker you get. So by the end of my dad's life,

440
00:22:58,000 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: I was taking care of a man who had a

441
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: gas station, an eight unit apartment building, our own home

442
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: and nursery business, semien contracting business. I probably missed a

443
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,440
Speaker 1: couple but he lost it all, all of our generational

444
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,600
Speaker 1: wealth because when you don't know better, you can't do better.

445
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: And my dad didn't know what he didn't know. Goes

446
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:21,400
Speaker 1: back to what I was saying earlier about that slave experience.

447
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:24,760
Speaker 1: My dad's dad was a sharecropper, probably born in a

448
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:27,719
Speaker 1: slavery in eighteen seventy one in Mississippi. Was certainly a sharecropper.

449
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 1: My dad was a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm obsessed

450
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,640
Speaker 1: with financial literacy because I think it's the civil rights

451
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:34,640
Speaker 1: issue of this generation.

452
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:39,879
Speaker 2: Say that again, financial literacy is the civil rights issue

453
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 2: of this generation. That's a fascinating take on that. Go

454
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 2: into more detail about that, because I've never again I've

455
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,160
Speaker 2: never heard anyone quite hon in just that way.

456
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 1: Look at where we are right now.

457
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 2: In the center of one of the wealthiest cities in

458
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,360
Speaker 2: the wealthiest country in the world.

459
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: And in the center of a studio made by an entrepreneur.

460
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 1: And this whole thing works on money. This whole city

461
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 1: works on money. It sets public policy in many ways

462
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 1: in the world because it's the center of money. The

463
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: even slavery, real talk was about money. Of course, everything

464
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 1: is not about God or love. It's probably about money.

465
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,639
Speaker 1: But do we understand money? What did I say about

466
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,880
Speaker 1: how I mean. Malcolm X said, We've been bamboozled, We've

467
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 1: been tricked, We've been fooled. You can say, you know

468
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: what Andrew Jung said, who is doctor King's right arm?

469
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 1: That to live in the system of free enterprise and

470
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: not to understand the rules of free enterprise must be

471
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 1: the very definition of slavery. So if you're in a

472
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: system and you don't understand how it works, and you

473
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:57,920
Speaker 1: think the cash flow is profit or getting that bag,

474
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: getting that dollar, getting that money's actually going to advance

475
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 1: and shoe when in reality inflation is out running your

476
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: ability to even compete on a wage basis. You're not

477
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 1: going to build wealth. You have a lifestyle, but you

478
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 1: build wealth in your sleep. In your sleep. That's compounding.

479
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 1: But forty one percent of black folks own a home,

480
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 1: seventy five percent of white folks own a home. There's

481
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: a delta thirty five thirty thirty five percent of natural

482
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: home ownership. The black folks are missing. But no one

483
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: taught gave us a memo on money and wealth creation.

484
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,679
Speaker 1: We don't own stocks, we don't own bonds, we're not

485
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 1: starting businesses with employees and technology ninety six percent of

486
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 1: black businesses don't have an employee. I mean, and how

487
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 1: do you build a business in how do you build

488
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 1: wealth in America business? How do you buil wealth in

489
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:40,200
Speaker 1: their business? Creation is a primary portost So my Jewish

490
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: friends did it, by the way, it is the level

491
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:44,879
Speaker 1: of playing field in an unleveled world is it became

492
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:49,160
Speaker 1: owners and that gave them a different version of social justice.

493
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: And I think there's a model, by the way, for

494
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 1: African Americans and other groups trying to come up from nothing.

495
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,160
Speaker 1: To me, the color is not white or black, it's

496
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: not red or blue. It's green actually, as in the

497
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,159
Speaker 1: color of US currency. Barry, It's always been green, is

498
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 1: my point. But we just never got the memo. That's

499
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 1: my book, the third book, I think.

500
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 2: So let's keep this at the school level. How do

501
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 2: we teach financial literacy in schools? How do we get

502
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 2: that funded? And at what grade should we be starting

503
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:22,639
Speaker 2: that process?

504
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 1: We should be starting as early as possible, fifth grade,

505
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: sixth grade, kindergarten. We are yeah, yes, nice thing. Yet

506
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: we have Operation Hope is the official kids accounts manager

507
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:40,400
Speaker 1: for the Atlanta Public school System, and the Atlanta City

508
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: Council funded us a few million dollars to open kindergarten accounts.

509
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 2: Meaning what what do kindergarteners get through operation?

510
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:55,200
Speaker 1: Underprivileged kids in kindergarten will get a bank account, a

511
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,440
Speaker 1: Savors account to start for fifty bucks. We will match

512
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,719
Speaker 1: it for fifty bucks and then rap financial literacy around

513
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 1: that for every kid in kindergarten all the way through

514
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: middle school. And the reason that this is so important

515
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,360
Speaker 1: is studies have already proven that if a kid has

516
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:15,160
Speaker 1: a bank account at kindergarten, they're half as likely, sorry

517
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 1: fifty percent likely to go to college.

518
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 2: If you have more likely to go to college just

519
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 2: because you have a bank account, that's right, going and target.

520
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,560
Speaker 2: Is that driven because the family has money or is

521
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 2: it driven because of a whole philosophical viewpoint that, Oh,

522
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 2: I understand how the economy works, how the market works,

523
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 2: and I want to advance myself.

524
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:39,400
Speaker 1: It's what you said earlier, Barry. It's a difference between

525
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 1: being broken being poor, difference between sustenance poverty and mindset.

526
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: Now your mindset is connecting the dots between education and aspiration.

527
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,919
Speaker 1: Why am I going to school? What's the point of

528
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,360
Speaker 1: all this? Oh, of a bank account? What's the point

529
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: of the bank account. Oh the bank houn's tied to

530
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:57,240
Speaker 1: a salary or or okay, now, okay, so this is.

531
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 2: Oh so it's a financial world that you might not

532
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 2: known about.

533
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,959
Speaker 1: Otherwise your mind opens up right and so and if

534
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:07,119
Speaker 1: you and you're two thirds more likely to graduate from

535
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,880
Speaker 1: college if yours money in the account. This is unbelievable.

536
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:14,119
Speaker 1: It's and it's it's so low ha hanging fruit. It

537
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:16,359
Speaker 1: changes the endorphins in the right side of your brain

538
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: where hope, well being, faith, confidence, joy and what it's

539
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 1: slavery rob It robbed hope, It robbed self esteem, and

540
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 1: robbed belief, It robbed confidence. Now you're gone from a

541
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:28,679
Speaker 1: surviv from a thriving and a winning mentality to a

542
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: surviving mentality where your life is ready fire aim. And

543
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 1: now the world's got you distracted with your survival and

544
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,959
Speaker 1: you're surviving. Now you're not competing with the capitalists. And

545
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: what this does is get people at the bottom of

546
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 1: the wrong competing with the capitalists, which is, by the way,

547
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: what this country needs every one hundred years is a

548
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: new Henry Ford. This country needs a new Steve Jobs,

549
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: or a new Tony wrestler, or a new you know

550
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 1: whoever your hero, Shiro is this country needs every big

551
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: business wants a small one. Goldman Sachs. There is a

552
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:00,959
Speaker 1: guy named Goldman and a guy named Sax, like financial services,

553
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: door to door. Where's the black version of that? Where's

554
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 1: the Latino version of that? Where's the Indian version? Where's

555
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,840
Speaker 1: the poor white version of that? By the way, NASCAR

556
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 1: came from moonshine runner in the Appalachian Mountains. These guys realize,

557
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: I can't keep running from the police and selling moonshine,

558
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,160
Speaker 1: but I drive really well. That's Nascar. We have to

559
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 1: legitimize the hustle.

560
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 2: The ripe business model, not an illegal one.

561
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: That's what happened to me with that banker in my classroom.

562
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:28,440
Speaker 1: So it has to be you can't just be a

563
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,600
Speaker 1: curriculum barried on your point of how to teach it.

564
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: It has to be a real life exploration of connecting

565
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: education with aspiration. It has to be life experiences that

566
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:41,600
Speaker 1: the kid and the parents and the family can relate to.

567
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: And you have to have a role model that experiences

568
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 1: that with that kid in the classroom who looks like

569
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: the person that we're trying to emulate. Right, So you

570
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 1: need that banker or that entrepreneur or that business person

571
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: or a barrier or John to come in at least,

572
00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: you know, three or four times during the coursework, t

573
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 1: the endorphins in this guy's this kid's male or female's

574
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: head about Wow, by the ways, role modeling, this is

575
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: who I could be because because in you're in my household,

576
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: my guess is there's somebody in the household who we

577
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 1: could emulate. But most of these kids, seventy percent of

578
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: black households don't have a man at home. So your

579
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: mother is working two jobs, so you don't see her.

580
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: She's trying to keep the lights on. You don't see

581
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: a positive role model who's male. So where's your role

582
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: models in the streets? I mean, it makes perfect sense.

583
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 1: So why are you being a rap? Why do you

584
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,280
Speaker 1: want to be a rap star, an athlete or a

585
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: drug dealer in the hood because that's what you see.

586
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:40,800
Speaker 1: So we've got to give kids dumpling different to see.

587
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: This could literally reset everything. And I believe you do

588
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 1: this right. In urban black and brown neighborhoods, white poor,

589
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 1: rural neighborhoods, struggling actually working class neighborhoods, you add two

590
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: to three percent of GDP in five to ten years

591
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: for America as a country. Because the bottom of the

592
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: pyramid gets rehabilitated, you get them back in the game

593
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 1: of economic value creation. Get the credit score up through

594
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 1: our coaching at Operation Hope, which is we're raising credit

595
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 1: scores at Hope fifty four points in six months, one

596
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty points in twenty four months. Nothing changes

597
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: your life more than God or love than moving your

598
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: credit score one hundred and twenty points. We're reducing debt

599
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 1: by thirty five hundred bucks in a year. We're increasing

600
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: savings five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars in that same

601
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 1: year for somebody making forty eight thousand dollars a year.

602
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 2: This is Operation Hope. This is what you're doing. So

603
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 2: let's talk about where you operate, how many people you reach.

604
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 2: Just started in Atlanta?

605
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,040
Speaker 1: No, No, started in south central Los Angeles.

606
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so it started on the west.

607
00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:37,440
Speaker 1: Coast Rodney King Riots nineteen ninety ten.

608
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 2: That's what that was the initial motivation.

609
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the new work started in Atlanta.

610
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:43,760
Speaker 2: Okay, what brought you to Atlanta originally?

611
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:48,720
Speaker 1: Andrew Young Andrew J. Young, Ambassador Mayor, civil rights icon

612
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: Andrew j. Young, the guy who's on the balcony with

613
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: doctor King when he was assassinated in sixty eight. He

614
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: became a mentor and a role model to me. It

615
00:31:57,760 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: was the only black man one of two who were

616
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: who was international when I was twenty twenty five years

617
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 1: old who happened to be black. I was like, I

618
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 1: want to be an international businessman, the other being Quincy Jones.

619
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: Now this is sad. Here I have. I don't have

620
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: like a you know, in this example, I don't have

621
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 1: a Bloomberg as my role model who's a businessman, or

622
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 1: a Tony rest Or whoever you're or Michael Raghetty, whoever

623
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: your you know, mindset is, Henry Cravits or whatever. I had,

624
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: you know, a entertainment uh genius Quincy Jones, and I

625
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 1: had a civil rights icon Andrew Young. So here here

626
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 1: you go again. I'm starving role models. I went with

627
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,120
Speaker 1: what I had. But the only two international people I

628
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,000
Speaker 1: knew at that time who were black were these two.

629
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 2: You could do worse than Quincy Jones and Andrew Young.

630
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: I could do worse.

631
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,360
Speaker 2: Not not not bad role models, just not enough of.

632
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 1: Them, and maybe and not rightly positioned in capitalism and

633
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 1: free enterprise, not squarely by the way they would admit it.

634
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:59,200
Speaker 1: And so I became good friends with Quincy Jones, and

635
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 1: I became dear, almost family with Andrew Young. Thank god,

636
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 1: it changed my life. And so I remember Quincy told me,

637
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 1: if you think you're in the music business and you

638
00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,960
Speaker 1: don't own music rights, publishing rights, rights music, you're just

639
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 1: a temporary performer. And I've already given you a quote

640
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 1: from Andrew Young, who shows you. I mean, he's built

641
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 1: the He built the tenth largest economy in the country,

642
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: the only international city in the South, Atlanta, Georgia, on

643
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: the bones of diversity and inclusion as an economic model.

644
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: Uh and and and of course you know we can

645
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 1: see today that the moral capital in America, which is Atlanta,

646
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: is also the largest economic engine in the South, built

647
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: on like New York, diversity of inclusion and good common sense.

648
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: So I moved to Atlanta for a number of reasons.

649
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 1: But I remember one conversation in particular, Barry. Uh. There

650
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 1: was a city of there was a mayor I don't

651
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,320
Speaker 1: mention his name, but there was a mayor in la

652
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 1: who saw me as a threat by my age, and

653
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 1: he asked me to schedule a meeting with Andrew Youngs.

654
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,480
Speaker 1: He knew that Andrew Andrew youngs my mentor. I did that.

655
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:12,720
Speaker 1: There was a meeting in LA and I was sitting

656
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: on the floor because this particular mayor was sending a

657
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:16,440
Speaker 1: message to me. There was no seat for me, so

658
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: I sat on the floor. Fine with me. I didn't care.

659
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: And by the way, I should say for the audience

660
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:25,120
Speaker 1: this was so they don't want to try to guess this.

661
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 1: This was twenty years ago, so nobody thinks it was recent.

662
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 1: And after the meeting, Andrew Young was at the airport

663
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: and he said to me, you know, you got to

664
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: move out LA. Either they see you as a threat

665
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,359
Speaker 1: and think you want to become mayor, or they're going

666
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:40,759
Speaker 1: to treat you like a child for the rest of

667
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 1: your life because you grew up here. And he said, John,

668
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: a prophet is only without honor in his hometown. That's biblical.

669
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 1: And he said, in Atlanta they called doctor King in

670
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: Atlanta Marty M. L. Michael his original name. They were

671
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:01,120
Speaker 1: digging at him. That's why staff called him doctor King

672
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,319
Speaker 1: to give him gravitas, and had twenty eight thirty years old.

673
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 1: It was only five to seven Doctor King was five

674
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:09,839
Speaker 1: seven hundred sixty pounds, so he was like, we had

675
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 1: to give him some gravitas. You got to move out

676
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 1: of this city and come back as an honored citizen.

677
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 1: Later on he was completely right. And the other thing was,

678
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:19,320
Speaker 1: you know, history in la is two years old. I

679
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: don't mean the as a diss I mean la is

680
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 1: a place where you reinvent yourself, constantly reinvention. So it's

681
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: a great for an entrepreneur who's trying to make it. Well,

682
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 1: I had already made it to a certain degree. What

683
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 1: I was looking for in now was purpose, and Atlanta

684
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 1: was steeped in purpose in civil rights history. So I

685
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: went there and created civil rights, from civil rights in

686
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: the streets to civil rights in the c suites. This

687
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:44,799
Speaker 1: is an extension of doctor King and Andrew Young's unfinished work,

688
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 1: an extension of what Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were

689
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 1: doing in the eighteen sixty five with the Freedman's Bank.

690
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: It was. It was an extension from the streets to

691
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:58,640
Speaker 1: the suites, a discussion about green, free enterprise capitalism and economics,

692
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: ownership in wealth creation at scale to set people free

693
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:03,960
Speaker 1: using the free enterprise system.

694
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 2: So let me jump in here. We're talking about Atlanta.

695
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 2: You set up Operation Hope or you expand Operation Hope

696
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:15,280
Speaker 2: in Atlanta. How many students are you reaching and how

697
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 2: large would you like to see this get?

698
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 1: So the student pieces is cool, but it's almost like

699
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: a pilot project given on our larger work. I mean,

700
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:28,040
Speaker 1: it's fifty thousand kids in the Atlanta public school system,

701
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 1: So you can do the math there. You know, we've

702
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 1: got We've got ten percent of that in the kindergarten

703
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 1: kids as a target, but a million we taught a

704
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: million kids financial literacy. That's still to be very small

705
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,319
Speaker 1: beings or our target. There are forty million black people

706
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,440
Speaker 1: in this country. There are one hundred million blacks and

707
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 1: poor whites in this country. You have one hundred and

708
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,800
Speaker 1: thirty million people who are financially bruised in this country,

709
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:59,279
Speaker 1: including working class, middle class people. My goal is to

710
00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:02,760
Speaker 1: become America's Angel coach. My goal has become the Starbucks

711
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: of financial inclusion, the Walmart of financial literacy at scale,

712
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,480
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve of the hood. I have two hundred

713
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,359
Speaker 1: and forty five locations today. Barry two hundred and forty

714
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 1: five locations in forty six states, how.

715
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:17,160
Speaker 2: Many people in total have you worked with through Operation Hume.

716
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,440
Speaker 1: We've had over four million clients and we have two

717
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:23,399
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five locations in forty six states, where

718
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 1: the largest financial inclusion and financial literacy coaching organization in

719
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 1: the country. We are inside also well, we're the only

720
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: nonprofit allowed to operate inside of a bank branch in

721
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: US history. We're the only nonprofit in Fortune five hundred

722
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,359
Speaker 1: companies doing financial coaching for employees, including Delta Airlines all

723
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:47,320
Speaker 1: ninety thousand of their employees. So much so that Delta

724
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:50,680
Speaker 1: CEO has given one thousand dollars emergency saviors account to

725
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 1: everybody goes through our financial coaching work, all of his

726
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,560
Speaker 1: ninety thousand employees. That's how much he believes. I can't

727
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,879
Speaker 1: go to a Delta terminal without people talking about their

728
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: financial coaching in the thousand dollar savings account that they've gotten.

729
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: I can't go through an airport without a TSA agent

730
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 1: screaming out their credit score, what you've.

731
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:10,719
Speaker 2: Worked with TSA and all their staff members doing this.

732
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: Just my clients happen to be working at TSA. But

733
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 1: we are a coach for ups. We are a coach

734
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,360
Speaker 1: for Harley Davidson. We are a coach for the Venetian

735
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 1: Hotel employees in Las Vegas. We are a coach. I've

736
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:25,879
Speaker 1: already mentioned Delta Airlines. We have a big I can't

737
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 1: mention it, but there's a big company day. One of

738
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:29,759
Speaker 1: the big probably one of the top five employees in

739
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,399
Speaker 1: the country is just signed up with us. So we're

740
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 1: in banks, whether it's Truest or Wells Fargo or Bank

741
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 1: of America, and they're ordered over one hundred branches from US.

742
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:40,960
Speaker 1: You know, that's business. One hundred branches is a business decision,

743
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:43,320
Speaker 1: not a charity decision. We're getting the bank out of

744
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,360
Speaker 1: the no business barry and back into the yes business.

745
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:50,239
Speaker 1: In other words, if I can get your criteria sort it,

746
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:52,719
Speaker 1: get your savings account up, get your debt down, get

747
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 1: your credit score up, the bank and say yes.

748
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:57,239
Speaker 2: That's an attractive customer to any Yeah.

749
00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,280
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm saying this is a business case,

750
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:02,200
Speaker 1: not a charity case that we're making.

751
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:06,279
Speaker 2: So let let me focus on the financial literacy side.

752
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 2: There's been some academic research that shows financial literacy as

753
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 2: a tendency to fade over time. How do you keep

754
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 2: this front of mind with people? How do you not

755
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 2: let the hard won one skills atrophy over time?

756
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:22,919
Speaker 1: Put your credit score on your phone. Let's start there,

757
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 1: because it lives. Oh my god. Yes, it is a

758
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,960
Speaker 1: complete living barometer of how you're doing. We have a

759
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 1: credit score index that's powered by experience as an example,

760
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: their data from experience. I've measured every zip code in

761
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: America by credit score. You tell me your zip code,

762
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:41,239
Speaker 1: I'll tell you how you.

763
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,400
Speaker 2: Live in the Average credit score within a zip code

764
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 2: will give you a standard of living for that space.

765
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 1: For that reason, oh, it'll tell you how long you're

766
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:48,200
Speaker 1: gonna live.

767
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 2: Really, that's pretty impressive.

768
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 1: In a five any credit score neighborhood, you lived at

769
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 1: sixty one.

770
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 2: That doesn't sound like very attractive life.

771
00:39:56,680 --> 00:40:00,200
Speaker 1: Social Security at sixty five. Yeah. In a five any

772
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 1: credit cord neighborhood, you'll have a high school education. Sixty

773
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 1: one percent of people. I'm sorry, sixty one percent of

774
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 1: people have a high school education in one parent household.

775
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 1: These are the averages in a five any credit cocred

776
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 1: neighborhood and a five atty credits cord neighborhood. The biling

777
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: crimes per thousand is off the charts. The the the

778
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:21,719
Speaker 1: all the negatives explode. Home ownership level is sub forty percent,

779
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 1: twenty five percent unemployment, unemployments through the roof. It's all predictable. Right,

780
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: you go into a seven hundred credit score neighborhood of

781
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: any race.

782
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,880
Speaker 2: Now that's good, But then what credits go to?

783
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,359
Speaker 1: Like a twenty Yes, but anything above seven hundred is free?

784
00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 2: Is fine?

785
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, banks say yes to you at seven hundred. You

786
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 1: had to seven hundred bearer you lived at eighty one

787
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 1: years old? Wow, ten minutes away Chicago. These zip codes

788
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 1: are ten minutes away in I mean most cities. Manhattan's

789
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 1: Burroughs is slightly different, but most cities, these zip codes

790
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:57,279
Speaker 1: are ten minutes away. These realities. So seven hundred credit

791
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 1: SCRD neighborhood, you live to ninety sorry to eighty one plus,

792
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: you have a high school graduation rate of over ninety percent.

793
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,760
Speaker 1: They're going into college. You have two parent households. Vioding

794
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 1: crimes are non existent. It's a complete world. So here's

795
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 1: what you see in a five any credit score neighborhood.

796
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,839
Speaker 1: Right check casher next to a payday loan lender, next

797
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: to a rent to own store, next to a title lender,

798
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 1: next to a liquor store next to a pawn shop.

799
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 1: And by the way, Berry, this is not just black

800
00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:30,440
Speaker 1: and brown urban neighborhoods. It's poor, white, rural See you

801
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: got me, You finished the sentence for me.

802
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 2: I'm very well aware that people seem to be you know,

803
00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:39,840
Speaker 2: whenever we look at entitlement spending, and some people think

804
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 2: there's a racial component. The biggest consumer of government assistance

805
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 2: are poor rural whites in America.

806
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 1: And the number one group dying in America is a

807
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: white high school educated white man dying of essentially opioiddiction depression.

808
00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 1: So what I'm doing is taking the emotion out of

809
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:04,359
Speaker 1: this conversation. I believe I love math because it doesn't

810
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,759
Speaker 1: have an opinion. That's a melody hops in quote. And

811
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 1: if I can replace the emotion with a science, with

812
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:16,600
Speaker 1: a mathematical equation or a credit score, okay, and that

813
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:21,240
Speaker 1: credit score changes is dynamic, It changes you know, every week,

814
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: that keeps your attention, that keeps you it's an individual scorecard.

815
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,240
Speaker 1: I can't Here's what's beautiful. If you're an underserved person

816
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 1: or somebody who's used to being used to racism dogging

817
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 1: you or sexism dogging you, I can't get in your

818
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:40,239
Speaker 1: heart and change how you feel about me. I can

819
00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: get into my own head and change my credit score.

820
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 1: It's control of my own destiny. And the credit score

821
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:55,239
Speaker 1: is a trending indicator for all other things hope, faith, belief, confidence,

822
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,360
Speaker 1: well being, trust. These things you need to access banking,

823
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:05,640
Speaker 1: financial services of market economy investors. So I believe we

824
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: found a burning bush. You move, I'm gonna say something

825
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:15,080
Speaker 1: on your podcast that I rarely said to anybody. You

826
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,480
Speaker 1: move credit scores one hundred points in this country. You

827
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: stabilize this country.

828
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:27,560
Speaker 2: We're talking unemployment, poverty, crime, health, health, and life expectancy

829
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:29,680
Speaker 2: all tied to credits.

830
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:37,319
Speaker 1: Plus economic vitality, prosperity, business creation, stable families. I've got

831
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 1: five pillars of success in my newest book, Up from Nothing.

832
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:43,879
Speaker 1: Here's the five things you need to succeed. As much

833
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 1: education as you can shove down your throat. Understanding, financial literacy,

834
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 1: how the economy works, the math of the matter, family

835
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: structure and resiliency, self esteem and confidence, role models in

836
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 1: an environment. You have five of those things, you're going

837
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,600
Speaker 1: to be immensely successful. You have four of those things,

838
00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:06,480
Speaker 1: you're going to be very successful. You have three of

839
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 1: those things, you will pop your head over failure. You

840
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:12,359
Speaker 1: have less than three of those things, You're stuck. Who

841
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,960
Speaker 1: has less than three of those five things? Poor whites,

842
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:18,840
Speaker 1: African Americans, Native American Indians.

843
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 2: So you were recognized by Oprah Winfrey's quote use your

844
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 2: Life Award and you were also named American Bankers Innovator

845
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:31,479
Speaker 2: of the Year award. What do these recognitions mean to you?

846
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 2: Given what you've done in your life to move the

847
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:36,400
Speaker 2: needle for so many people.

848
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:43,200
Speaker 1: You combine those recognitions with CEOs of fortune five hundred

849
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 1: companies today suggesting that I'm a conscience on capitalism, which

850
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:51,000
Speaker 1: several big time CEOs have said, including the CEO of

851
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:56,279
Speaker 1: walmart In, Delta, etc. And it says, this is a

852
00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: bit of my This is my version of a Nobel

853
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:04,600
Speaker 1: Peace Prize, which is really a gateway or substitution clause

854
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:08,360
Speaker 1: for having this conversation with mainstream power structure. When you

855
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 1: have these recognitions, it allows you, It gives you entree

856
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:17,040
Speaker 1: into a door or doors in the c suites where

857
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:20,200
Speaker 1: you can have a conversation as a peer, as an equal.

858
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 1: So I'm not talking at people anymore. I'm talking with people,

859
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:28,360
Speaker 1: and they understand they have value, and they have credibility

860
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:31,239
Speaker 1: and success, but they also value in a different way

861
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,480
Speaker 1: my credibility and success. And I've had enough private sector

862
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:38,640
Speaker 1: success also in growing and building enterprises. They know I'm

863
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:41,719
Speaker 1: a legit capitalist. I mean I've clipped a coupon on

864
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: Wall Street. I've done I've run a balance sheet in

865
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:50,320
Speaker 1: an income statement, etc. Etc. So there's respect in consideration,

866
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:54,400
Speaker 1: not just for my beliefs, but for what have I

867
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,279
Speaker 1: guess what we have built in how we performed, which

868
00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: allows us to have a conversation that's different, that allows

869
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:04,840
Speaker 1: us to create a coalition of the willing of leaders,

870
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 1: which we're building now. I mean CEO of Walmart and

871
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,400
Speaker 1: I are co chairing Financial Literacy for All dougriat Millin.

872
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 1: Our goal is to get eighty percent of the fortune

873
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:18,040
Speaker 1: five hundred by twenty twenty five to embed financial literacy

874
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 1: into its business plan, not to its philanthropy plan. It's

875
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:24,680
Speaker 1: business plan, just like healthcare was forty years ago. So

876
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 1: our mission in schools is to get financial literacy funded

877
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:32,439
Speaker 1: by Congress K through college so they answer that question

878
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,440
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier. I'm vice chairman of No Labels now

879
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: as of two months ago, my mission there is to

880
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 1: be the voice of the underserved and the voice of

881
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:41,560
Speaker 1: the voice. Let's try to get public, get fifty eight,

882
00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 1: to be very practical, get fifty eight US Senators to

883
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,160
Speaker 1: agree on a bipartisan basis to pass the civil rights

884
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 1: bill of this generation. Financial literacy. Then that I'll get

885
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:54,719
Speaker 1: us into schools. And I've got a plan for the

886
00:46:56,719 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 1: banking and financial services system. I mentioned that hope inside.

887
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: I've got a plan for workplace, which I've just discussed,

888
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: but hoping with financial literacy for all, it's really about

889
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:11,560
Speaker 1: building this culture amongst Fortune five hundred companies, which is

890
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:14,839
Speaker 1: where you spend most of your time working, well living

891
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:16,359
Speaker 1: if you're you know you spend most of your time

892
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 1: at work if you're employee, and changing the culture and

893
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 1: the places that change America.

894
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,439
Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about promise homes. Where

895
00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,760
Speaker 2: did this idea come from, and what's the company's purpose?

896
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,239
Speaker 2: And to reiterate, this is a for profit company. This

897
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:34,919
Speaker 2: is not a philanthropy.

898
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:38,000
Speaker 1: It's a for profit company. And coincidence is God's way.

899
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 1: Amiting anonymous, I guess I wanted to build wealth for

900
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:45,000
Speaker 1: myself so that I did not have to continue to

901
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:48,880
Speaker 1: go begging to philanthropists to help Operation Hope with its growth.

902
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:50,640
Speaker 1: I want to be able to reach into my own

903
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:53,840
Speaker 1: pocketbook and to write my own check, which meant I

904
00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,719
Speaker 1: needed assets. I needed a business that didn't conflict with

905
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:58,719
Speaker 1: Operation Hope. So there's a lot of things I couldn't do.

906
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:00,800
Speaker 1: It couldn't do banking, can do rock Ridge, couldn't do

907
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:04,360
Speaker 1: a lot of things. Single family residential rentals was a

908
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:06,239
Speaker 1: business I thought I could be in that had no

909
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 1: conflict with my philanthropy. It also, oddly enough, Barry was

910
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:12,160
Speaker 1: a business that Frederick Douglass was in.

911
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:13,440
Speaker 2: Oh really, uh huh.

912
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:15,880
Speaker 1: He owned six million dollars worth of real estate rental

913
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:19,000
Speaker 1: real estate in Baltimore, Maryland that he rented it out

914
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:21,480
Speaker 1: to work in class blacks. That gave him the financial

915
00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: freedom to be a civil rights leader and an abolitionist.

916
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:26,800
Speaker 1: He woul don't know that story, but he was a capitalist.

917
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 1: And actually Frederick Douglass ran the Freedman's Bank for Abraham

918
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:32,480
Speaker 1: Lincoln in eighteen sixty five that was charted to teach

919
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,280
Speaker 1: free slaves about money. So he was both a financial

920
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:39,879
Speaker 1: literacy champion, pioneer pioneer, and he was an asset owner

921
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 1: and in many ways I am literally replicating his business model,

922
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: but it wasn't intentional. This is just sort of tripped

923
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: on to this same narrative.

924
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:50,960
Speaker 2: So let's talk about this business model a little bit,

925
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:55,400
Speaker 2: because private equity has moved into the space or lots

926
00:48:55,440 --> 00:49:00,480
Speaker 2: of criticism that big money is pushing out smaller potential

927
00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:03,040
Speaker 2: home buyers. Tell us a little bit about how promise

928
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 2: homes operate. Where are you operating and how large do

929
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:06,880
Speaker 2: you want to get this?

930
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:11,080
Speaker 1: So I think that this can be a game changer.

931
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 1: And there I mean, some of this criticism is legitimate

932
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 1: that a lot of folks who are own these homes

933
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: are sitting in office buildings pushing basically a financial formula.

934
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,480
Speaker 1: They're not connecting this to the emotions of somebody's most

935
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:29,560
Speaker 1: prized asset, which is where they live. They're not connecting

936
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 1: this to the human experience. And they probably shouldn't be

937
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:38,640
Speaker 1: in the business of owning homes and low wealth neighborhoods

938
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 1: unless they are fully committed beyond a balance sheet investment.

939
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 1: You'll get your return, but but really should you be

940
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,080
Speaker 1: should this be the business that you're in If you

941
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,880
Speaker 1: don't really care, we care, and maybe go back a

942
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,759
Speaker 1: little bit story because the rig Orgon story is a

943
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:57,800
Speaker 1: little interesting. I went to Tony Wrestler of Arias Management

944
00:49:57,880 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 1: and micael Oaghetti had this idea. I had this idea.

945
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:02,439
Speaker 1: So Michael said he's going to put up a few

946
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,400
Speaker 1: million bucks to partner with me. I went to go

947
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 1: see Tony about supporting Operation Hope and I get asked

948
00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 1: him for fifty thousand dollars. He said, yah, yah, yeah, yeah,

949
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:12,719
Speaker 1: what's in your other pocket? Excuse me? He said, look,

950
00:50:12,719 --> 00:50:15,520
Speaker 1: you got fifty thousand dollars out of me philanthropically, but

951
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:17,480
Speaker 1: you're a smart guy. What do you make in the

952
00:50:17,520 --> 00:50:19,279
Speaker 1: other pocket? Because you just took money out of my

953
00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:21,239
Speaker 1: out of my left pocket out here. So I said,

954
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:23,640
Speaker 1: I got this business idea. He said, I'm in just

955
00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, I'm in.

956
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:26,840
Speaker 2: No.

957
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, I shared my vision and three minutes into it,

958
00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:31,799
Speaker 1: he said, that makes sense to me, I'm in. I said, well,

959
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 1: you can't be in. I've already got a partner. Well,

960
00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: who's your partner? Telling him who it was, Well, he

961
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:39,439
Speaker 1: worked with me, tell him I'm in. About a week later,

962
00:50:39,480 --> 00:50:41,359
Speaker 1: I'm in New York and we're having a conference call.

963
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,440
Speaker 1: He said, I thought about this, Why do three men.

964
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:45,480
Speaker 1: When you can do thirty million, it's a great idea.

965
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 1: Why do thirty mini when you can do one hundred

966
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 1: and thirty men, Let's do one hundred and thirty million.

967
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: And we built this company over five years, from zero

968
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 1: to one hundred and twenty million. And I paid all

969
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:59,040
Speaker 1: the bankers off, all the Ferty Max City National Bank,

970
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,080
Speaker 1: these other bank first for a public bank, I paid

971
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 1: Tony and michaeloff plus their coupon. I was so proud

972
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:08,200
Speaker 1: to be a black man in America who came from nothing.

973
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,160
Speaker 1: And I paid all of my debts off dollar for

974
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:15,200
Speaker 1: dollar under agreement, and I owned the company and I

975
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:17,360
Speaker 1: as teaching and we did this honorably because I was

976
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,920
Speaker 1: doing financial literacy for the residents. Free financial literacy. If

977
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,560
Speaker 1: you major payments on time, re rewarded you. If you

978
00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 1: had a credit score of six hundred or five eighty,

979
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 1: you had to go into financial counseling and coaching with

980
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:31,359
Speaker 1: my organization, Operation Hope. If you raise your credit score

981
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:33,960
Speaker 1: to seven hundred, I would reduce your rent by ten percent.

982
00:51:34,080 --> 00:51:35,839
Speaker 1: And as long as you kept the credit score above

983
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:39,359
Speaker 1: seven hundred, we made sure that the vendors that did

984
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,879
Speaker 1: the work on maintenance plumbing, heating, lighting, landscaping, roofing, etc.

985
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:46,840
Speaker 1: That they that we gave a shot to minority in

986
00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:49,759
Speaker 1: women owned businesses. So fifty five percent of all of

987
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 1: my merchants, my vendors were minority in women. If I

988
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:54,879
Speaker 1: was not a black guy owning this company, I don't

989
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:57,600
Speaker 1: think anybody else would have done that. I was sensitive

990
00:51:57,600 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 1: to it because of course I am it. And then

991
00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 1: we gave a path to home ownership from rent to

992
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 1: own for people who said I loved this experience and

993
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:06,919
Speaker 1: been paying rent on time? Can you help me become

994
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 1: a homeowner. That caught the attention of the media, and

995
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:12,960
Speaker 1: so media starts saying, well, is this a model of

996
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:15,399
Speaker 1: going from rent to own? And can you actually treat

997
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:17,799
Speaker 1: people like residents and not just renters? And can this

998
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 1: business be also a catalyst for social justice through living

999
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:23,799
Speaker 1: wage jobs and contracts? The answer to those questions were

1000
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:26,799
Speaker 1: all yes. That also, those three things allowed me to

1001
00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 1: access different kinds of capital pools than Wall Street were

1002
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:33,560
Speaker 1: accessing that were cheaper. So, without getting in a bunch

1003
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:36,640
Speaker 1: of detail, I found another capital stack that was multiples

1004
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 1: less expensive than the hot money on Wall Street. And

1005
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:43,520
Speaker 1: there's two ways to make money. You make more, you

1006
00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:45,719
Speaker 1: spend less. I was spending less. That allowed me to

1007
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:49,600
Speaker 1: sell my business at a prime rate. And then I

1008
00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:51,839
Speaker 1: then became an advisor to KKR and their Global real

1009
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:54,000
Speaker 1: Estate group because of the philosophy that I had a

1010
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:57,080
Speaker 1: Promise Homes company. And now I've sold that company into

1011
00:52:57,160 --> 00:53:00,600
Speaker 1: a partnership. I'm growing that company now with the new

1012
00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:04,120
Speaker 1: partners Seawan Horowitz and Clayton Wyatt, We're going to now

1013
00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:07,880
Speaker 1: scale this company from seven hundred homes to ten thousand.

1014
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:11,080
Speaker 1: And I want to own all of these affordable housing

1015
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 1: homes that are in the institutional portfolios. I want them

1016
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 1: to sell those homes to me. Let me treat them

1017
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:19,799
Speaker 1: as a priority, as these are the communities that I love,

1018
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:22,120
Speaker 1: and I think you can do well and do good too.

1019
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:23,880
Speaker 1: In fact, I know you can. So here we have

1020
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,960
Speaker 1: a philanthropic model with Operation and Hope financial coaching, and

1021
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:29,040
Speaker 1: you have a wealth creation and a job creation and

1022
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:33,440
Speaker 1: home ownership model, affordable choice model with Promise Homes Company.

1023
00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:35,800
Speaker 1: And at some point I'll get into access to capital.

1024
00:53:35,920 --> 00:53:38,799
Speaker 1: That's another conversation for another day. But this is my

1025
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:45,360
Speaker 1: mechanism to uplift the bottom of the economic pyramid.

1026
00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:49,080
Speaker 2: And it's a for profit company. What cities do you

1027
00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 2: want to expand into.

1028
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 1: It's national. I'll go every place, but those places that

1029
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:57,480
Speaker 1: are literally unaffordable for rents, I'm not You know, you

1030
00:53:57,520 --> 00:53:59,719
Speaker 1: can't do it in Manhattan, but you can do it

1031
00:53:59,719 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 1: in the the boroughs. You can't do it in La Proper,

1032
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,720
Speaker 1: but you can do it in some of the cities

1033
00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 1: around that. Beyond that is, almost every place in America

1034
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:12,839
Speaker 1: does have slots for affordable housing. What I want to do,

1035
00:54:13,239 --> 00:54:15,520
Speaker 1: I mean is only half. It's about five hundred thousand

1036
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:19,160
Speaker 1: homes that are owned institutionally out of seventeen thousand rental homes.

1037
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 1: So the concept that institutions are wall streets owning main

1038
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,799
Speaker 1: street is in and of itself a fallacy. But is

1039
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:29,520
Speaker 1: it true that most of the sales in the last

1040
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:32,239
Speaker 1: few years have been from institutions. That is true in

1041
00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:35,120
Speaker 1: these underserved neighborhoods. So what I want to do is

1042
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:38,919
Speaker 1: buy the homes that have less than two thousand dollars

1043
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:41,600
Speaker 1: a month rent from these institutions. I want to own them,

1044
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,239
Speaker 1: and I want to buy or build homes in other

1045
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 1: neighborhoods that have, you know, sub two thousand dollars rents.

1046
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:51,399
Speaker 2: So let's address both of those. First, are these big

1047
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,799
Speaker 2: companies willing sellers? Do they want to sell? I don't

1048
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:57,000
Speaker 2: know where that falls in their range, buttons up two

1049
00:54:57,080 --> 00:54:59,239
Speaker 2: thousand is in the top of their range.

1050
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:02,759
Speaker 1: You want to get rid well, frankly, that's how operation hopes. Sorry,

1051
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:04,680
Speaker 1: that's how the Promise Homes company got started.

1052
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:08,200
Speaker 2: The first one thousand or the bottom of the rain.

1053
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 1: And institutions that did not really think this was a

1054
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:14,399
Speaker 1: sweet spot for their portfolio. This was so you had

1055
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:17,600
Speaker 1: the two thousand and eight two thousand and nine economic crisis.

1056
00:55:18,040 --> 00:55:21,920
Speaker 1: They had investors come into their funds to buy assets

1057
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 1: in a downtown downturn. Five or seven years later, the

1058
00:55:25,719 --> 00:55:28,480
Speaker 1: investor wants out. It's not that they don't like the asset,

1059
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,360
Speaker 1: but they're like, we've hit our return, we hit our bogie,

1060
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:34,200
Speaker 1: We're done. I was at the door in twenty sixteen,

1061
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,080
Speaker 1: knocking on the door, saying good timing, and I bought

1062
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:41,759
Speaker 1: some of these assets at a decent rate when they

1063
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:44,000
Speaker 1: were trying to exit. And even if they didn't want

1064
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:46,279
Speaker 1: to exit their whole portfolio, the one part that they

1065
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:48,720
Speaker 1: were willing to get rid of was this bottom section.

1066
00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:52,239
Speaker 1: I think we're at that point again, I think with

1067
00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:55,200
Speaker 1: where the economy is right now, the next two years,

1068
00:55:55,440 --> 00:55:59,680
Speaker 1: there'll be a pruning, a refinement, a tightening of institutions,

1069
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:03,200
Speaker 1: business plans focusing on their sweet spot. The sweet spot,

1070
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:05,239
Speaker 1: to be blunt and Berry, is somebody like you and

1071
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:09,080
Speaker 1: me who has multiples of income over their expenses. They're

1072
00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,440
Speaker 1: looking for that renter. They don't want a renter who

1073
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:14,279
Speaker 1: has three times rent, which is a low income, low

1074
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,400
Speaker 1: wealth renterer. They don't want somebody who's a doctor, doctor,

1075
00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:20,880
Speaker 1: a Walmart manager, or the you know, McDonald's manager, or

1076
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:24,040
Speaker 1: the police officer. But I do I want them. I

1077
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:27,600
Speaker 1: want I love these communities. I love these residents as

1078
00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:33,400
Speaker 1: my you know, occupants. I love these neighborhoods that are untapped, underserved,

1079
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:37,160
Speaker 1: and unseen. And I think my passion for these neighborhoods

1080
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:41,600
Speaker 1: matches with the strategic interests of institutions who hit their bogie.

1081
00:56:41,600 --> 00:56:44,680
Speaker 1: They've hit their number, and the homes are not deferred,

1082
00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 1: they've been rehabbed, but it's headline risk maybe for somebody

1083
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 1: to own it other than me. Let me own it,

1084
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:52,279
Speaker 1: do well and do good.

1085
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:54,719
Speaker 2: What about building homes you mentioned you want to start

1086
00:56:54,760 --> 00:56:58,080
Speaker 2: doing construction. Is there enough land around. There's lots of

1087
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:03,040
Speaker 2: regulatory restrictions, there's lots of where people don't want lower

1088
00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 2: income housing in their neighborhood. How do you operate around that?

1089
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:10,320
Speaker 1: You go into existing inner city neighborhoods and you find

1090
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:13,719
Speaker 1: bum properties. You find property with a tree in the roof,

1091
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:17,560
Speaker 1: or whether it's the what's the worst house or houses

1092
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,800
Speaker 1: on the best blocks. They're you know, crime infested or

1093
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:25,320
Speaker 1: they're magnet for problems. Partner with the city and say, hey,

1094
00:57:25,360 --> 00:57:26,800
Speaker 1: city council person, Hey, you.

1095
00:57:26,760 --> 00:57:28,479
Speaker 2: Know, we want to take this off your hands.

1096
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:29,960
Speaker 1: We want to help you. Can you help us? Oh

1097
00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:33,720
Speaker 1: my god? Sure? And you buy it right, you rehabit

1098
00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:36,760
Speaker 1: with minority vendors, which is what we're doing, and you

1099
00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:39,560
Speaker 1: then either put it back into inventory as affordable rent

1100
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:42,360
Speaker 1: or you sell it to somebody in the neighborhood. We

1101
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:45,120
Speaker 1: have all those relationships, we have the credibility. We've got

1102
00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:48,680
Speaker 1: the street cred and the institutional cred to get that done.

1103
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:51,160
Speaker 1: And we're trusted. We're the honest broker in these neighborhoods

1104
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:53,520
Speaker 1: because they know me. They've seen me there for thirty

1105
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 1: plus years. So I'm not selling wolf tickets as they say, And.

1106
00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:01,720
Speaker 2: When you say national, is this a city by city

1107
00:58:01,760 --> 00:58:04,080
Speaker 2: approach or do you roll it out all at once?

1108
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:06,800
Speaker 1: No, I think it's both you. You when you when

1109
00:58:06,800 --> 00:58:09,240
Speaker 1: you if you're buying portfolios, you may find that you

1110
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:12,280
Speaker 1: bought portfolio homes in six cities. So now as long

1111
00:58:12,320 --> 00:58:14,720
Speaker 1: as you have enough cities to have property management, that's

1112
00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:16,880
Speaker 1: really the key. You want to have centralized property management

1113
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 1: uh in a city so you can so you can

1114
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:21,600
Speaker 1: keep the promises to the residents. I've learned a lot

1115
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:24,640
Speaker 1: in this business. Like one thing I've learned is that

1116
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:27,800
Speaker 1: no one washes rental cars, right, like if you don't

1117
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,200
Speaker 1: own it. If you're the property management company, you don't

1118
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:32,720
Speaker 1: own it. So you're not going to have the same

1119
00:58:33,880 --> 00:58:37,520
Speaker 1: care for these residents as as I would as the

1120
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:40,800
Speaker 1: owner of the prop of the property. It's myself. And

1121
00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:43,480
Speaker 1: so you may let that resident call you six or

1122
00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:45,800
Speaker 1: eight or ten times and not go out to them

1123
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:51,120
Speaker 1: you made it. You may overcharge on maintenance because you can,

1124
00:58:51,560 --> 00:58:55,600
Speaker 1: so they're the property management company. Is really a key

1125
00:58:56,800 --> 00:59:00,640
Speaker 1: part of delivering and keeping the promise to these communities.

1126
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:03,080
Speaker 1: And if you get lucky, you get a great property manager.

1127
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:05,440
Speaker 1: If not, you need to do it yourself, so I

1128
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:07,600
Speaker 1: will roll out in areas. When I've got that, I

1129
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:11,520
Speaker 1: can keep the promise to my communities, in my residents,

1130
00:59:11,560 --> 00:59:12,720
Speaker 1: and we have a formula for that.

1131
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:18,520
Speaker 2: So the pandemic seems to have upended housing. People realize

1132
00:59:18,520 --> 00:59:21,040
Speaker 2: they don't want to live very far away from where

1133
00:59:21,080 --> 00:59:25,120
Speaker 2: they work. They don't want to long commute housing closer

1134
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 2: to employment centers tend to be much pricier. What's the

1135
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:34,200
Speaker 2: impact of the pandemic been on promise homes and how

1136
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:38,800
Speaker 2: you operating in what appears to be a somewhat new environment.

1137
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:42,480
Speaker 1: So you just I'm smiling because you just hit on

1138
00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 1: a genius part of America's untapped business plan, and it

1139
00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:55,080
Speaker 1: comes from discrimination. Where's the inner city in France? Paris?

1140
00:59:55,720 --> 00:59:59,240
Speaker 1: Where is an inner city in the UK? London? You

1141
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:04,360
Speaker 1: can you do all day? Where's an inner city in

1142
01:00:04,480 --> 01:00:07,760
Speaker 1: Los Angeles South Central? Fifteen minutes from the port, fifteen

1143
01:00:07,760 --> 01:00:11,160
Speaker 1: minutes from the beach to fifteen minutes from downtown, ten

1144
01:00:11,200 --> 01:00:14,240
Speaker 1: minutes from jobs. But who lives there? We put inner

1145
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:18,800
Speaker 1: city poor stroming people because because in the fifties and

1146
01:00:18,840 --> 01:00:21,560
Speaker 1: sixties and forties, people want to get away from these folks.

1147
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:26,880
Speaker 1: They built suburbs when traffic was not onerous and moved away.

1148
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:31,400
Speaker 1: Now traffic is paying the Kazanga beans, and young people

1149
01:00:31,520 --> 01:00:34,960
Speaker 1: are not afraid of minorities. So young people are moving

1150
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:40,000
Speaker 1: into inner cities at low rates, rehabbing these properties, building businesses,

1151
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:42,680
Speaker 1: and creating new neighborhoods and communities. And what I want

1152
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:45,160
Speaker 1: to make sure that happens is, if there's going to

1153
01:00:45,160 --> 01:00:48,200
Speaker 1: be gentrifications, let it be diverse and inclusive gentrification the

1154
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:50,920
Speaker 1: folks who actually live in these neighborhoods, and not just

1155
01:00:51,000 --> 01:00:53,360
Speaker 1: those who can afford to be in these neighborhoods. So basically,

1156
01:00:53,400 --> 01:00:57,560
Speaker 1: you have every inner city in America, with exception of Manhattan,

1157
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:01,080
Speaker 1: is a gold mine waiting to be tapped. Every these

1158
01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:03,760
Speaker 1: are all these neighborhoods, Inner City Detroit. I mean, you

1159
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: pick one. It's right near jobs and or at least

1160
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:12,280
Speaker 1: economic opportunity and energy waiting to be explored. I see

1161
01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 1: opportunity everywhere. It's the guy who went to Africa selling shoes.

1162
01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:23,280
Speaker 1: He wired back three weeks later, Boss, please send me home.

1163
01:01:23,760 --> 01:01:26,200
Speaker 1: No one here wears shoes. Then they bring Barry and

1164
01:01:26,280 --> 01:01:28,520
Speaker 1: John out there and we get lost in the bush,

1165
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:30,240
Speaker 1: and no one hears from us. Because we're exploring the

1166
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:32,120
Speaker 1: culture and all that stuff. And then three weeks later,

1167
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:36,760
Speaker 1: there you go, barry everybody in every shoe. You've got

1168
01:01:36,840 --> 01:01:37,960
Speaker 1: No one here wears shoes.

1169
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:42,240
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Let's talk about a few of your older

1170
01:01:42,280 --> 01:01:45,120
Speaker 2: books before we get to your most recent one, the

1171
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:49,520
Speaker 2: memo five Rules for your Economic Liberation? What are the

1172
01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:52,320
Speaker 2: five rules? And I have a feeling I have an

1173
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:55,560
Speaker 2: idea what those five pillars are because you've talked about those.

1174
01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:59,960
Speaker 2: But but what are the five rules for economic liberation?

1175
01:02:00,880 --> 01:02:03,960
Speaker 1: Well, you know, let's talk a little bit about why

1176
01:02:04,040 --> 01:02:09,280
Speaker 1: the book was even necessary. Who didn't get the memo?

1177
01:02:09,520 --> 01:02:12,240
Speaker 1: I mean, what is a memo? I mean when you

1178
01:02:12,280 --> 01:02:15,880
Speaker 1: think about being in Bloomberg, you know, are we open

1179
01:02:15,960 --> 01:02:20,000
Speaker 1: on on on Christmas? Or are we open on you know, Thanksgiving?

1180
01:02:20,040 --> 01:02:23,200
Speaker 1: That's a memo that goes around. Everybody's on the same page.

1181
01:02:24,320 --> 01:02:26,320
Speaker 1: What happens if no one sends that memo? Do you

1182
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:28,560
Speaker 1: either show up for work or don't know? You know,

1183
01:02:28,560 --> 01:02:33,880
Speaker 1: there's no there's no direction of what the leadership wants

1184
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:35,600
Speaker 1: to do or not to do, and so you're sort

1185
01:02:35,600 --> 01:02:38,560
Speaker 1: of on your own. So everybody needs a memo, and

1186
01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:42,520
Speaker 1: everybody needs a business plan. For their life. And what

1187
01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:48,560
Speaker 1: we found is that after slavery, we were told after

1188
01:02:48,640 --> 01:02:52,280
Speaker 1: Americans we were free, but nobody gave us a memo

1189
01:02:53,520 --> 01:02:58,520
Speaker 1: on the rules of freedom in a free enterprise democracy

1190
01:02:59,720 --> 01:03:04,439
Speaker 1: and free enterprise system. And so it's what you don't

1191
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:08,000
Speaker 1: know that you don't know that's killing you and a

1192
01:03:08,040 --> 01:03:10,680
Speaker 1: blind tout on one eyed man's king. And when you

1193
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 1: don't know better, you can't do better. So we just

1194
01:03:13,800 --> 01:03:19,080
Speaker 1: found that you had to literally go back to the

1195
01:03:19,160 --> 01:03:24,760
Speaker 1: drawing board and deliver the business plan for a free

1196
01:03:24,840 --> 01:03:31,479
Speaker 1: enterprise success story to successive generations of people who were

1197
01:03:31,520 --> 01:03:35,760
Speaker 1: not giving direction or guidance. And my goal at Operation

1198
01:03:35,880 --> 01:03:38,280
Speaker 1: Hope was to do that through coaching, but also my

1199
01:03:38,400 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 1: goal in the books was to provide literal training grounds,

1200
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:49,919
Speaker 1: if you want to call it that, so that there

1201
01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:57,240
Speaker 1: was no guess work anymore around success. And each of

1202
01:03:57,280 --> 01:04:04,880
Speaker 1: the books are a bit of touch tones and maybe obvious,

1203
01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:07,800
Speaker 1: but common sense is not so common.

1204
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:10,800
Speaker 2: So let's go over. Let's start with the five rules.

1205
01:04:10,840 --> 01:04:13,400
Speaker 2: What are the five rules that we want to get out?

1206
01:04:13,520 --> 01:04:16,520
Speaker 1: Rule number one, you live in a free enterprise system

1207
01:04:17,400 --> 01:04:21,800
Speaker 1: embraces So people say, oh, I hate rich people, No,

1208
01:04:21,960 --> 01:04:24,840
Speaker 1: you don't, you hate rich people til you become rich.

1209
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:28,920
Speaker 1: All we're socialists. No, no, no, no. As my friend,

1210
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:32,840
Speaker 1: late the late Shimon Praira has said to me, He said, John,

1211
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:36,240
Speaker 1: even if folks want to distribute money like a socialist,

1212
01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:39,080
Speaker 1: they have the first collect money like a capitalist. So

1213
01:04:39,120 --> 01:04:41,760
Speaker 1: we're all living in a capitalist system. If you're going

1214
01:04:41,800 --> 01:04:45,720
Speaker 1: to work and using your talents to get a paycheck,

1215
01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:50,400
Speaker 1: you're using your human capital. So let's stop playing a game.

1216
01:04:50,960 --> 01:04:54,280
Speaker 1: Let's understand that our freedoms aren't free, and we live

1217
01:04:54,280 --> 01:04:57,200
Speaker 1: in a free enterprise democracy. So that's Number one, is

1218
01:04:57,640 --> 01:04:59,600
Speaker 1: you live in a free enterprise system. Embraceist. Let's not

1219
01:04:59,600 --> 01:05:02,560
Speaker 1: playing the stupid game that somehow we don't. Number two,

1220
01:05:02,640 --> 01:05:05,400
Speaker 1: and are these kids who are railing against capitalism at

1221
01:05:05,400 --> 01:05:07,600
Speaker 1: fre enterprises, rich kids who are only able to do

1222
01:05:07,680 --> 01:05:10,400
Speaker 1: that on a college campus because their parents are capitalists

1223
01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 1: and could send them the best colleges in the World's

1224
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:16,400
Speaker 1: absolutely fascinating to me. Number two. So it's not just

1225
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:19,240
Speaker 1: poor people or under a misnomer, it's rich kids too.

1226
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:23,880
Speaker 1: Number two. Your mind set makes you lose money or

1227
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:29,760
Speaker 1: build wealth, you choose. Number Three, Relationships are investments, build

1228
01:05:29,800 --> 01:05:33,160
Speaker 1: relationship capital with yourself first. That's that self esteem. Piece

1229
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:36,960
Speaker 1: Number four, be entrepreneurial. Don't just get a job, maybe

1230
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:40,160
Speaker 1: create one so you can write that check, not just cash.

1231
01:05:40,200 --> 01:05:43,280
Speaker 1: And number four spiritual capital is a start of true

1232
01:05:43,280 --> 01:05:48,320
Speaker 1: wealth on your power. So I would say that we're

1233
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:51,000
Speaker 1: not living, we're not human beings having a spiritual experience.

1234
01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:55,320
Speaker 1: Where spiritual beings having a human experience, energy matters, and

1235
01:05:55,360 --> 01:05:58,480
Speaker 1: the most important thing in life probably is becoming reasonably

1236
01:05:58,560 --> 01:06:02,240
Speaker 1: comfortable in your own When I met you, instantly I

1237
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:05,120
Speaker 1: could tell that Barry was cool with Barry. Well, if

1238
01:06:05,120 --> 01:06:07,160
Speaker 1: you're cool with you, then you'll be cool with me.

1239
01:06:07,680 --> 01:06:11,080
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense. Let's talk about another

1240
01:06:11,200 --> 01:06:14,360
Speaker 2: of your books. I love the title of this and

1241
01:06:14,440 --> 01:06:18,320
Speaker 2: I'm really curious as to how this can be done.

1242
01:06:19,080 --> 01:06:21,240
Speaker 2: How the poor can save capitalism?

1243
01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:23,840
Speaker 1: It always has, he always.

1244
01:06:23,560 --> 01:06:26,360
Speaker 2: Has, of course, well us more. And I say this,

1245
01:06:26,400 --> 01:06:29,600
Speaker 2: by the way, as someone who grew up pretty hearts gravel,

1246
01:06:30,040 --> 01:06:32,160
Speaker 2: you know, always had a job since I was, you know,

1247
01:06:32,280 --> 01:06:36,400
Speaker 2: ten twelve years old, put myself through school, never thought

1248
01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:39,600
Speaker 2: about capitalism till much later in life, till I was

1249
01:06:39,920 --> 01:06:43,040
Speaker 2: out of college. How can the poor save capitalism?

1250
01:06:43,600 --> 01:06:45,480
Speaker 1: Like I said, it always has?

1251
01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:48,960
Speaker 2: How has it in the past? Give us some examples.

1252
01:06:49,400 --> 01:06:53,600
Speaker 1: All of the creators of wealth in this country, legitimate

1253
01:06:53,640 --> 01:06:59,120
Speaker 1: wealth came from poverty. In the twentieth century. You think

1254
01:06:59,160 --> 01:07:03,040
Speaker 1: about all these vaders who created companies I mentioned earlier.

1255
01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:05,360
Speaker 1: Is there's a good example, because it's visual. Here in Manhattan,

1256
01:07:05,600 --> 01:07:09,320
Speaker 1: you have a tower that says Goldman Sacks. Well, one

1257
01:07:09,400 --> 01:07:11,880
Speaker 1: hundred plus years ago, there was a guy who was

1258
01:07:11,920 --> 01:07:14,280
Speaker 1: an immigrant named Goldman and another guy who was the

1259
01:07:14,280 --> 01:07:16,360
Speaker 1: imigant name of Sacks, and they literally were walking door

1260
01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:19,200
Speaker 1: to door selling financial services out of a briefcase because

1261
01:07:19,200 --> 01:07:21,240
Speaker 1: they couldn't get a job in the office towers of

1262
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:24,120
Speaker 1: that day because of discrimination. So they had to go

1263
01:07:24,200 --> 01:07:26,360
Speaker 1: create their own job because no one would hire them

1264
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:29,040
Speaker 1: for an existing job. And that created an institution today

1265
01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:32,600
Speaker 1: that people think is hotty, toddy and hard to access,

1266
01:07:32,680 --> 01:07:36,880
Speaker 1: called Goldman Sacks. But whether it's ups and I think

1267
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:39,520
Speaker 1: his name was Kelly, I think it's his name who

1268
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:42,680
Speaker 1: founded the ups On with the bicycle messenger service, or

1269
01:07:42,680 --> 01:07:45,160
Speaker 1: whether it's Coca Cola, which was a pharmacist and his

1270
01:07:45,240 --> 01:07:47,560
Speaker 1: son who created that business and they were dead broke

1271
01:07:47,600 --> 01:07:49,320
Speaker 1: sold it for five hundred bucks. By the way, so

1272
01:07:49,440 --> 01:07:52,960
Speaker 1: the pharmers the pharmacy formula. You can go on and

1273
01:07:53,000 --> 01:07:56,240
Speaker 1: on and on. You know, black enterprise was created by

1274
01:07:56,880 --> 01:07:59,880
Speaker 1: a heart scrabble black entrepreneur Ebony magazine. The guy bro

1275
01:08:00,080 --> 01:08:02,840
Speaker 1: a few books from his mother. So he's black entrepreneurs,

1276
01:08:02,920 --> 01:08:07,800
Speaker 1: Latino entrepreneurs, white entrepreneurs. It doesn't matter. All legitimate wealth

1277
01:08:08,480 --> 01:08:12,160
Speaker 1: came from nothing, who built something into something. And these

1278
01:08:12,200 --> 01:08:16,040
Speaker 1: are big companies where once small ones. And uh, that's

1279
01:08:16,160 --> 01:08:17,639
Speaker 1: just a historical fact.

1280
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:22,960
Speaker 2: So let's talk about looking forward. Are you suggesting that

1281
01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:29,200
Speaker 2: we need the poor to continue this process of entrepreneurship

1282
01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:32,960
Speaker 2: and building businesses and creating something from practically nothing.

1283
01:08:33,040 --> 01:08:34,800
Speaker 1: Is that I'll go once, I'll go one step further.

1284
01:08:35,240 --> 01:08:37,760
Speaker 1: My rich friends need my poor friends in order to

1285
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:40,439
Speaker 1: stay rich. My rich friends eat my poor friends to

1286
01:08:40,479 --> 01:08:40,840
Speaker 1: do better.

1287
01:08:41,040 --> 01:08:41,600
Speaker 2: Explain this.

1288
01:08:42,080 --> 01:08:45,799
Speaker 1: Seventy percent of the US economy is consumer spending. That's

1289
01:08:46,080 --> 01:08:50,760
Speaker 1: the guy who's cleaning this office building, paying rent, paying

1290
01:08:50,800 --> 01:08:53,840
Speaker 1: a car note, buying some food on the corner, paying

1291
01:08:53,880 --> 01:08:57,640
Speaker 1: for a parking ticket, going to a restaurant every now

1292
01:08:57,640 --> 01:09:01,160
Speaker 1: and then with his wife. If without this activity, the

1293
01:09:01,200 --> 01:09:03,679
Speaker 1: economy comes to a grinding stop. Think about the pandemic.

1294
01:09:03,720 --> 01:09:06,920
Speaker 1: Think about what happened in March of twenty twenty, everything

1295
01:09:07,479 --> 01:09:10,480
Speaker 1: everything froze because the average human being was not out

1296
01:09:11,160 --> 01:09:15,200
Speaker 1: engaging in the economy. So rich people cannot on their

1297
01:09:15,360 --> 01:09:20,480
Speaker 1: own sustain the Lard's economy on the planet. We literally

1298
01:09:20,640 --> 01:09:23,479
Speaker 1: need each other. So whether you're a consumer or whether

1299
01:09:23,520 --> 01:09:26,439
Speaker 1: you're a stakeholder and a builder, you have a role

1300
01:09:26,479 --> 01:09:29,439
Speaker 1: to play. And I'll say something else is maybe shocking

1301
01:09:29,520 --> 01:09:33,759
Speaker 1: to me, it's common sense. Demographics are destiny. The reason

1302
01:09:33,800 --> 01:09:36,360
Speaker 1: I believe in this business plan today that it's about

1303
01:09:36,439 --> 01:09:40,719
Speaker 1: mission and money and morals. Today there's not enough college

1304
01:09:40,840 --> 01:09:42,960
Speaker 1: educated white men to grow the economy for the next

1305
01:09:43,000 --> 01:09:46,559
Speaker 1: thirty or forty years. It's just mathematically impossible. So you

1306
01:09:46,640 --> 01:09:50,360
Speaker 1: need minorities, you need women. We need other people to

1307
01:09:50,439 --> 01:09:54,000
Speaker 1: grow into the economy in a sustainable way in order

1308
01:09:54,040 --> 01:09:56,920
Speaker 1: to keep this thing, this party, in this beautiful story

1309
01:09:56,920 --> 01:10:00,280
Speaker 1: of America going, and so that China does not. It

1310
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:04,760
Speaker 1: is way of illegitimately becoming the leader of the world

1311
01:10:04,760 --> 01:10:07,880
Speaker 1: by cheating at capitalism and free enterprise with their partner Russia,

1312
01:10:07,880 --> 01:10:10,120
Speaker 1: which is by the way, rounding air economically and a

1313
01:10:10,120 --> 01:10:13,280
Speaker 1: bunch of thugs who can't do anything illegitimately. But China

1314
01:10:13,280 --> 01:10:15,679
Speaker 1: and Russia together want our way of life. They want

1315
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:18,280
Speaker 1: to be us, and they can't do it with a

1316
01:10:18,280 --> 01:10:21,880
Speaker 1: fair fight. We if we realize we're better together, probably

1317
01:10:21,880 --> 01:10:24,040
Speaker 1: my next book by the way, this topic. If we

1318
01:10:24,120 --> 01:10:27,000
Speaker 1: realize we're better together and that two plus two has

1319
01:10:27,040 --> 01:10:30,280
Speaker 1: to equal more than four, mean, that's every good marriage.

1320
01:10:30,360 --> 01:10:32,240
Speaker 1: Is that two plus two equals six, eight or ten.

1321
01:10:32,280 --> 01:10:37,439
Speaker 1: You're better together, then you can realize that you can't

1322
01:10:37,439 --> 01:10:39,759
Speaker 1: succeed if there's a hole in my end of our boat.

1323
01:10:41,080 --> 01:10:44,679
Speaker 1: We're in the same boat. So we need the bottom

1324
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:48,439
Speaker 1: of the pyramid to be here, rehabilitated and engaged in

1325
01:10:48,439 --> 01:10:50,880
Speaker 1: the economy to grow GDP by an extra two to

1326
01:10:50,920 --> 01:10:54,880
Speaker 1: three percent sustainably. And black folks are a one point

1327
01:10:54,920 --> 01:10:57,960
Speaker 1: five trillion dollars consumer spending for us, Barry, that's one

1328
01:10:58,000 --> 01:11:00,559
Speaker 1: of the largest economies in the world. But we don't

1329
01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:04,360
Speaker 1: own anything we spend. We've got to move from just

1330
01:11:04,400 --> 01:11:06,799
Speaker 1: being a consumer to a wealth creator.

1331
01:11:07,560 --> 01:11:10,559
Speaker 2: Let's talk about your most recent book, Up from Nothing,

1332
01:11:10,680 --> 01:11:14,320
Speaker 2: The Untold Story of How We All Succeed. Tell us

1333
01:11:14,320 --> 01:11:15,200
Speaker 2: a little bit about that.

1334
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:21,080
Speaker 1: It's my failures, it's it's I mean, it's everything, it's

1335
01:11:21,120 --> 01:11:24,799
Speaker 1: all my trips, my failings, my fallings, my people who

1336
01:11:24,920 --> 01:11:27,240
Speaker 1: laughed at me, people who roll their eyes at me,

1337
01:11:28,240 --> 01:11:32,599
Speaker 1: folks who dismiss me. First, the world will ignore you,

1338
01:11:32,960 --> 01:11:35,479
Speaker 1: then they'll criticize you, then they'll try to copy you.

1339
01:11:35,720 --> 01:11:39,200
Speaker 1: Then you win. That was my message, And I'm just

1340
01:11:39,240 --> 01:11:42,680
Speaker 1: trying to get a whole generation of leaders to understand

1341
01:11:42,880 --> 01:11:45,960
Speaker 1: that just because somebody the lack of preparation in somebody

1342
01:11:46,000 --> 01:11:49,320
Speaker 1: else's life is not constant an emergency in yours. And

1343
01:11:49,439 --> 01:11:51,479
Speaker 1: just because you don't respect me doesn't mean I don't

1344
01:11:51,520 --> 01:11:55,080
Speaker 1: respect myself. And your interpretation of my value is not

1345
01:11:55,160 --> 01:11:58,920
Speaker 1: my reality of my value. And when we start understanding

1346
01:11:58,960 --> 01:12:02,840
Speaker 1: that we are unique in this world, and we are

1347
01:12:02,880 --> 01:12:06,160
Speaker 1: and we are powerful in that uniqueness, and that egles

1348
01:12:06,160 --> 01:12:08,840
Speaker 1: don't fly in packs. Berry, You've never seen a flock

1349
01:12:08,880 --> 01:12:13,120
Speaker 1: of eagles, but buzzers love packs, and turkey's got wings

1350
01:12:13,120 --> 01:12:16,599
Speaker 1: and can't fly. And if you're not careful, you'll get

1351
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:19,920
Speaker 1: so offended by what turkey, what buzzards say about you,

1352
01:12:20,400 --> 01:12:24,040
Speaker 1: or you'll be so distracted by what turkeys are laughing

1353
01:12:24,080 --> 01:12:26,160
Speaker 1: at you and saying about you and your family, that

1354
01:12:26,240 --> 01:12:28,080
Speaker 1: you will get distracted. Come out, get out of your ego,

1355
01:12:28,400 --> 01:12:30,439
Speaker 1: your ego, altitude, and you'll go down to try to

1356
01:12:30,439 --> 01:12:33,880
Speaker 1: show that uh, that that bird a lesson, and the

1357
01:12:33,920 --> 01:12:35,479
Speaker 1: pig will find you out in the pig pen and

1358
01:12:35,520 --> 01:12:37,960
Speaker 1: throw some mud on your wing and get that ego

1359
01:12:38,040 --> 01:12:42,000
Speaker 1: down into the mud pit. And now the turkey and

1360
01:12:42,040 --> 01:12:44,400
Speaker 1: the buzzard and the pig look at you and say,

1361
01:12:44,520 --> 01:12:47,080
Speaker 1: now we got you right where we've always wanted you,

1362
01:12:47,200 --> 01:12:49,639
Speaker 1: down here with us. You got to step over messing,

1363
01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:51,880
Speaker 1: not in it. You got to stay above the fray.

1364
01:12:52,400 --> 01:12:55,200
Speaker 1: You got to understand that that that the philosophy for

1365
01:12:55,360 --> 01:12:59,600
Speaker 1: success is talk without being offensive, listen without being defensive,

1366
01:12:59,760 --> 01:13:03,120
Speaker 1: and always leave even your adversary with their dignity, because

1367
01:13:03,160 --> 01:13:05,240
Speaker 1: if you don't, they'll spend the rest of their life

1368
01:13:05,240 --> 01:13:08,720
Speaker 1: trying to make you miserable. It becomes personal. It is

1369
01:13:09,280 --> 01:13:12,320
Speaker 1: not their interpretation of you that matters. It is your

1370
01:13:12,360 --> 01:13:16,760
Speaker 1: interpretation of you that matters. Not one ounce of my

1371
01:13:16,800 --> 01:13:20,400
Speaker 1: self esteem is dependent upon your acceptance of me. It

1372
01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:22,840
Speaker 1: just not so. So why am I spending all my

1373
01:13:22,840 --> 01:13:25,680
Speaker 1: time trying to impress somebody who I do not know,

1374
01:13:25,720 --> 01:13:28,200
Speaker 1: with money I do not have in the places they

1375
01:13:28,240 --> 01:13:30,880
Speaker 1: do not want me, with philosophies and things that there

1376
01:13:31,000 --> 01:13:34,799
Speaker 1: that don't work. They're broke, they're they're unhappy, they're miserable,

1377
01:13:35,040 --> 01:13:37,400
Speaker 1: and I want to be like them. What I want

1378
01:13:37,439 --> 01:13:39,360
Speaker 1: to impress them? Why are we spending our time trying

1379
01:13:39,360 --> 01:13:41,120
Speaker 1: to impress somebody we actually even don't want to be

1380
01:13:41,280 --> 01:13:45,960
Speaker 1: like like all these lessons of wasting time. I don't

1381
01:13:46,000 --> 01:13:48,080
Speaker 1: mind wasting money every now and then. I don't want

1382
01:13:48,080 --> 01:13:50,720
Speaker 1: you to abuse and waste my time. I'm trying in

1383
01:13:50,760 --> 01:13:55,280
Speaker 1: this book to short circuit time wasting and energy wasting

1384
01:13:55,920 --> 01:14:00,479
Speaker 1: and depression inducing activity and give you legitimate hope that

1385
01:14:00,520 --> 01:14:02,920
Speaker 1: you can come up from nothing in the greatest economy

1386
01:14:03,040 --> 01:14:07,679
Speaker 1: and I think the greatest creation of democracy, open source democracy,

1387
01:14:07,720 --> 01:14:10,200
Speaker 1: in the world, which is America. We're not perfect, but

1388
01:14:10,760 --> 01:14:13,360
Speaker 1: she's a country. She's an idea, not a country. We

1389
01:14:13,360 --> 01:14:16,680
Speaker 1: can make her anything we want, and we can be

1390
01:14:16,840 --> 01:14:20,200
Speaker 1: part of that remaking process up from nothing. I could

1391
01:14:20,360 --> 01:14:26,280
Speaker 1: never be me in Germany or France or China or Japan. Culturally,

1392
01:14:26,360 --> 01:14:29,360
Speaker 1: I just would not have gone from the bottom to

1393
01:14:29,439 --> 01:14:29,840
Speaker 1: the top.

1394
01:14:29,960 --> 01:14:32,280
Speaker 2: So I love the message, but let me push back

1395
01:14:32,280 --> 01:14:35,960
Speaker 2: a little bits to say, you know, back when my

1396
01:14:36,160 --> 01:14:41,080
Speaker 2: parents were entering the workforce, there was a decent amount

1397
01:14:41,160 --> 01:14:45,040
Speaker 2: of social mobility in the United States, forget race or religion,

1398
01:14:45,800 --> 01:14:49,960
Speaker 2: just lowest economic strata to the upper economic strata. The

1399
01:14:50,160 --> 01:14:55,280
Speaker 2: economic mobility, at least by the most recent measures, as

1400
01:14:55,320 --> 01:15:00,320
Speaker 2: well as a geographic mobility, both have hasn't gone away,

1401
01:15:00,360 --> 01:15:03,040
Speaker 2: but it's not nearly as broad as it once was.

1402
01:15:03,520 --> 01:15:07,000
Speaker 2: What's your response to people who say the American dream

1403
01:15:07,200 --> 01:15:08,559
Speaker 2: isn't as robust as.

1404
01:15:08,360 --> 01:15:12,360
Speaker 1: It once was because small business starts stalled in two

1405
01:15:12,360 --> 01:15:15,960
Speaker 1: thousand and four and they didn't actually pick up again

1406
01:15:16,560 --> 01:15:21,799
Speaker 1: until after the pandemic. That's I mean, that's almost twenty years.

1407
01:15:23,080 --> 01:15:28,480
Speaker 1: And by the way, what's the largest group starting businesses

1408
01:15:28,800 --> 01:15:29,720
Speaker 1: post pandemic?

1409
01:15:29,960 --> 01:15:30,600
Speaker 2: Millennials?

1410
01:15:30,840 --> 01:15:37,240
Speaker 1: Blacks? Oh really, what's the largest supergroup amongst all other groups?

1411
01:15:37,920 --> 01:15:41,160
Speaker 1: Black women? Interesting, So now you have the group that

1412
01:15:41,360 --> 01:15:44,960
Speaker 1: was thought to be left back, left behind, ignored, who

1413
01:15:45,000 --> 01:15:48,000
Speaker 1: couldn't get the job, couldn't get the promotion, ignored in

1414
01:15:48,040 --> 01:15:50,240
Speaker 1: their corporate suite. Now they're not going to the corporate suite.

1415
01:15:50,280 --> 01:15:52,800
Speaker 1: For two years, they were at home. They got some

1416
01:15:52,960 --> 01:15:56,599
Speaker 1: stimulus money, which they call venture capital, and now they're saying,

1417
01:15:56,800 --> 01:15:57,880
Speaker 1: wait a minute, do I need to go back to

1418
01:15:57,920 --> 01:15:59,680
Speaker 1: that job? You know? Do I need to go back

1419
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:02,240
Speaker 1: and be a again and have people coughing on me,

1420
01:16:02,280 --> 01:16:04,160
Speaker 1: and I don't have health care, and I'm not getting

1421
01:16:04,160 --> 01:16:06,200
Speaker 1: good tips and the owner doesn't really care about me.

1422
01:16:06,280 --> 01:16:07,920
Speaker 1: Do I really need to go to that dead edd job?

1423
01:16:08,040 --> 01:16:09,920
Speaker 1: Do I need to go to that boss that doesn't care.

1424
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:12,360
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll create my be my own boss. Maybe I'll

1425
01:16:12,400 --> 01:16:16,600
Speaker 1: create my own way. And so now you have this surge,

1426
01:16:16,920 --> 01:16:20,479
Speaker 1: this super surge of the of the thing that made

1427
01:16:20,560 --> 01:16:24,000
Speaker 1: America different from Europe in the first place, Barry, which

1428
01:16:24,040 --> 01:16:27,080
Speaker 1: was business creation. I mean, the reason we have celebrity

1429
01:16:27,080 --> 01:16:29,880
Speaker 1: in America is because it was our answer to bling.

1430
01:16:30,200 --> 01:16:33,880
Speaker 1: In Europe had royalty, that was their bling. You didn't

1431
01:16:33,880 --> 01:16:36,760
Speaker 1: have royalty, and we didn't want it. But celebrity was

1432
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:41,040
Speaker 1: our desire to has something that sparkled the real marrow

1433
01:16:41,160 --> 01:16:44,400
Speaker 1: of this country was the first corporation, sorry, the first

1434
01:16:44,920 --> 01:16:48,040
Speaker 1: the first entity creating this country was a corporation. It

1435
01:16:48,080 --> 01:16:51,280
Speaker 1: was a trading corporation that then created democracy, not the

1436
01:16:51,280 --> 01:16:54,640
Speaker 1: other way around. Municipalities came out of trading corporations. So

1437
01:16:54,720 --> 01:17:01,600
Speaker 1: we are in our bones traders, financiers, business people, ar newers, hustlers.

1438
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:05,559
Speaker 1: That is in our DNA and every I think twenty

1439
01:17:05,680 --> 01:17:08,160
Speaker 1: thirty to fifty certainly every one hundred years you need

1440
01:17:08,240 --> 01:17:13,439
Speaker 1: a generation of strivers who own something, own, create something,

1441
01:17:13,520 --> 01:17:17,920
Speaker 1: and by the way, create jobs. So have we become

1442
01:17:18,400 --> 01:17:24,719
Speaker 1: over dependent upon less than a thousand companies that employ

1443
01:17:24,840 --> 01:17:27,880
Speaker 1: ten thousand people or more fortune five hundred. Yes, you

1444
01:17:27,920 --> 01:17:30,439
Speaker 1: have all these folks going through college wanting to go

1445
01:17:30,520 --> 01:17:34,320
Speaker 1: work at at Google or whatever the thing is. Who's

1446
01:17:34,320 --> 01:17:38,360
Speaker 1: not hiring or will fire you at the moment that

1447
01:17:38,400 --> 01:17:42,200
Speaker 1: there is an economic glitch where most of the businesses, sir,

1448
01:17:42,320 --> 01:17:44,960
Speaker 1: most of the jobs this country come from employers with

1449
01:17:45,120 --> 01:17:50,040
Speaker 1: less than one hundred employees. Most businesses in LA ninety

1450
01:17:50,040 --> 01:17:52,680
Speaker 1: five percent of all businesses have less than one hundred employees.

1451
01:17:53,160 --> 01:17:56,479
Speaker 1: Let's drive down Manhattan and look at these skyscrapers. That's

1452
01:17:56,520 --> 01:17:59,599
Speaker 1: the dentist's office for people. That's an architect, eight people.

1453
01:17:59,680 --> 01:18:02,120
Speaker 1: That's a law firm, twenty people. That's a you know,

1454
01:18:02,280 --> 01:18:05,479
Speaker 1: an analyst firm. These are small businesses. I called a

1455
01:18:05,560 --> 01:18:09,040
Speaker 1: chiropractor yesterday. He's got him and the secretary. I mean,

1456
01:18:09,240 --> 01:18:11,360
Speaker 1: this is what's driving the economy is. So you're either

1457
01:18:11,400 --> 01:18:13,800
Speaker 1: gonna become the business person or are you going to

1458
01:18:13,880 --> 01:18:16,280
Speaker 1: work for that small business owner who probably is going

1459
01:18:16,320 --> 01:18:19,160
Speaker 1: to pay you more. You have more social mobility in

1460
01:18:19,200 --> 01:18:21,960
Speaker 1: that place than you will in some huge corporation. I'm

1461
01:18:21,960 --> 01:18:25,160
Speaker 1: not saying I think, don't go work for the big company.

1462
01:18:25,880 --> 01:18:29,000
Speaker 1: I'm saying that that's not way to made America.

1463
01:18:29,600 --> 01:18:32,200
Speaker 2: So let's jump to our speed rounds. These are the

1464
01:18:32,280 --> 01:18:36,400
Speaker 2: questions we ask all our guests and plow through very quickly,

1465
01:18:36,479 --> 01:18:39,719
Speaker 2: starting with tell us what you've been streaming these days?

1466
01:18:39,720 --> 01:18:41,240
Speaker 2: What's been keeping you entertained?

1467
01:18:41,360 --> 01:18:48,960
Speaker 1: Succession used to be billions eighteen twenty eight things? The

1468
01:18:49,040 --> 01:18:56,680
Speaker 1: name of the show Yellowstone the latest? I mean, I

1469
01:18:56,760 --> 01:19:03,160
Speaker 1: keep watching the Matrix movies, which most people don't listening

1470
01:19:03,200 --> 01:19:04,800
Speaker 1: to your show probably won't know. It's a bit of

1471
01:19:04,840 --> 01:19:06,920
Speaker 1: a cult film, but I think everybody needs to watch it. Man,

1472
01:19:06,960 --> 01:19:09,080
Speaker 1: which supposedly is a martial arts movie, but really it's

1473
01:19:09,120 --> 01:19:13,240
Speaker 1: a movie about really moral decision making and ethnical This guy,

1474
01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:16,679
Speaker 1: martial arts genius who who trained Bruce Leeb, never wanted

1475
01:19:16,680 --> 01:19:19,479
Speaker 1: to fight. You had to force him to fight. Now,

1476
01:19:19,479 --> 01:19:21,599
Speaker 1: he'd whip your rear in if you if you if

1477
01:19:21,640 --> 01:19:24,120
Speaker 1: you force them, but he never wanted to fight. When

1478
01:19:24,120 --> 01:19:25,479
Speaker 1: you have the power, you don't need to use it.

1479
01:19:26,479 --> 01:19:30,200
Speaker 1: I spend a lot of time late at night on

1480
01:19:30,240 --> 01:19:33,080
Speaker 1: a sort of a mental vacation, I will turn on

1481
01:19:33,160 --> 01:19:37,439
Speaker 1: something online and have my brain completely fantasized. There's an

1482
01:19:37,560 --> 01:19:41,640
Speaker 1: F one. There's a series on Netflix that that that

1483
01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:44,760
Speaker 1: drives there you go it unpacks F one Racing, That

1484
01:19:44,880 --> 01:19:48,519
Speaker 1: is Genie. My sport is auto racing. Actually I have

1485
01:19:48,560 --> 01:19:51,719
Speaker 1: a professional and I'm sorry, a competitive auto racing license.

1486
01:19:52,040 --> 01:19:55,400
Speaker 1: So that is my one of my passions. A very

1487
01:19:55,439 --> 01:19:58,479
Speaker 1: great movie by Paul Newman that Paul Newman did, uh

1488
01:19:59,240 --> 01:20:02,160
Speaker 1: call driving It actually that he was a great actor,

1489
01:20:02,200 --> 01:20:04,880
Speaker 1: but his passion was auto racing. He's the only sport

1490
01:20:04,920 --> 01:20:07,680
Speaker 1: he was elegant at, he said, So anyway that I

1491
01:20:07,680 --> 01:20:09,240
Speaker 1: can sell. I talked about things I would love to

1492
01:20:09,240 --> 01:20:10,280
Speaker 1: watch all day and all night.

1493
01:20:10,400 --> 01:20:12,639
Speaker 2: So let's talk about your mentors. You mentioned a few

1494
01:20:12,800 --> 01:20:14,759
Speaker 2: tell us who helped shape your career.

1495
01:20:15,000 --> 01:20:18,679
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Uh, you know, in no particular order,

1496
01:20:18,760 --> 01:20:22,760
Speaker 1: Astor Andrew Young, Bishop t d JS, Quincy Jones. This

1497
01:20:22,840 --> 01:20:28,559
Speaker 1: is the moral side of my life. On the on

1498
01:20:28,640 --> 01:20:31,400
Speaker 1: the business side again, you know, in particular order, Michael

1499
01:20:31,439 --> 01:20:35,720
Speaker 1: Arraghetty Tony rest Or, Bill Rogers of Truist. I think

1500
01:20:35,760 --> 01:20:38,360
Speaker 1: you know, Charlie Sharf at Wells Fargo, would call him

1501
01:20:38,360 --> 01:20:42,360
Speaker 1: a mentor, but I tell him an inspired friend Jamie Diamond,

1502
01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:44,320
Speaker 1: that we don't spend a lot of time together, but

1503
01:20:44,360 --> 01:20:48,640
Speaker 1: I love what he's built. Great guy. I've got so

1504
01:20:48,720 --> 01:20:53,240
Speaker 1: many heroes and she ros that have that. I actually

1505
01:20:53,240 --> 01:20:56,559
Speaker 1: had to go sort of like find the roadmap because

1506
01:20:56,560 --> 01:20:58,680
Speaker 1: it didn't exist for me where I grew up. So

1507
01:20:58,760 --> 01:21:03,519
Speaker 1: I had these saragate far and mothers, surrogate family that

1508
01:21:03,640 --> 01:21:07,400
Speaker 1: I have literally put around me so I can map

1509
01:21:07,439 --> 01:21:10,559
Speaker 1: out what success looked like. I probably have fifty of

1510
01:21:10,720 --> 01:21:16,320
Speaker 1: these mentors and mentees, sorry, heroes and she wrotes who

1511
01:21:16,320 --> 01:21:23,120
Speaker 1: are mentors that have guided my path forward. A few

1512
01:21:23,120 --> 01:21:25,559
Speaker 1: of the names I just share with my mother wanted

1513
01:21:25,600 --> 01:21:27,599
Speaker 1: to smith amongst them.

1514
01:21:27,960 --> 01:21:31,040
Speaker 2: Really interesting list. Let's talk about books. What are some

1515
01:21:31,080 --> 01:21:33,080
Speaker 2: of your favorites? What are you reading currently?

1516
01:21:34,120 --> 01:21:38,320
Speaker 1: Mere Christianity is something I read once a year by C. S.

1517
01:21:38,400 --> 01:21:45,920
Speaker 1: Lewis is from the nineteen forties. The book The Power

1518
01:21:45,960 --> 01:21:48,120
Speaker 1: of Now by Eckart Tole is something I try to

1519
01:21:48,240 --> 01:21:52,240
Speaker 1: Some books I read continuously over and over again. The

1520
01:21:52,320 --> 01:21:55,320
Speaker 1: Seven Spiritual Laws is Success by Deepak Chopra is something

1521
01:21:55,360 --> 01:21:58,519
Speaker 1: I read. It's only seventy pages. Is a great primer.

1522
01:21:58,920 --> 01:22:02,320
Speaker 1: It's worth reading over and over again. I'm reading a

1523
01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:05,040
Speaker 1: book about green Span right now on capitalism that I

1524
01:22:05,040 --> 01:22:08,280
Speaker 1: think is really, really very good. I'd encourage everybody to

1525
01:22:09,080 --> 01:22:10,840
Speaker 1: read it. By the way, edn't ask me this, but

1526
01:22:10,880 --> 01:22:13,200
Speaker 1: there's a it's a documentary that could be a great

1527
01:22:13,200 --> 01:22:17,640
Speaker 1: book called Easy Money that just came out. I believe it.

1528
01:22:17,800 --> 01:22:20,040
Speaker 1: Actually it's even a PBS documentary. You can find it

1529
01:22:20,080 --> 01:22:24,920
Speaker 1: on Amazon's platform. But it is fascinating and as much

1530
01:22:24,960 --> 01:22:27,640
Speaker 1: as I think I understand money, it really unpacked what

1531
01:22:27,720 --> 01:22:30,120
Speaker 1: happened in the last twenty years and that I just

1532
01:22:30,120 --> 01:22:32,240
Speaker 1: saw that. Sometimes you got to watch things two or

1533
01:22:32,240 --> 01:22:36,200
Speaker 1: three times. The Men Who Build America an eight part series.

1534
01:22:36,320 --> 01:22:38,320
Speaker 1: Everybody needs to watch that. One problem I have with

1535
01:22:38,439 --> 01:22:41,160
Speaker 1: it is there's no blacks or browns or there's just

1536
01:22:41,200 --> 01:22:43,880
Speaker 1: a bunch of, you know, industrious white people. And that's

1537
01:22:43,880 --> 01:22:47,080
Speaker 1: just a misnomer that only white men built this country.

1538
01:22:47,479 --> 01:22:49,960
Speaker 1: That's a whole another podcast for another time. You know,

1539
01:22:50,000 --> 01:22:52,320
Speaker 1: we can't get it. You can't get an elevator in

1540
01:22:52,360 --> 01:22:55,799
Speaker 1: this building without a black man's invention. Who built the elevator?

1541
01:22:55,840 --> 01:22:59,519
Speaker 1: So we all had a place. But these are sources

1542
01:22:59,560 --> 01:23:00,600
Speaker 1: of inspiration for me.

1543
01:23:01,080 --> 01:23:04,880
Speaker 2: Huh, really interesting list. Last two questions, what sort of

1544
01:23:04,920 --> 01:23:08,320
Speaker 2: advice would you give to someone coming out of school

1545
01:23:08,360 --> 01:23:12,479
Speaker 2: who was interested in a career in either finance or investment.

1546
01:23:12,960 --> 01:23:16,160
Speaker 1: Ignore the noise. There's been a lot of noise around you.

1547
01:23:16,920 --> 01:23:18,479
Speaker 1: There will be a lot of people around you who

1548
01:23:18,560 --> 01:23:20,559
Speaker 1: are not good role models, who want to party all

1549
01:23:20,600 --> 01:23:22,800
Speaker 1: the time, who want to have fun. There's nothing wrong

1550
01:23:22,840 --> 01:23:25,200
Speaker 1: with having fun. But only in the dictionary does the

1551
01:23:25,200 --> 01:23:28,480
Speaker 1: word success come before the word work, because it's alphabetical.

1552
01:23:29,760 --> 01:23:32,160
Speaker 1: Egos don't fly in packs. And mentioned that earlier, So

1553
01:23:32,600 --> 01:23:34,280
Speaker 1: you know, you can't expect everybody to get you or

1554
01:23:34,320 --> 01:23:37,400
Speaker 1: understand your path. So, particularly if you're a person of color,

1555
01:23:37,439 --> 01:23:39,720
Speaker 1: in listening to this podcast, you're going to need to

1556
01:23:40,240 --> 01:23:43,040
Speaker 1: hyper focus because your white friend with a trust fund

1557
01:23:43,479 --> 01:23:45,479
Speaker 1: can make all kind of mistakes and still land on

1558
01:23:45,520 --> 01:23:48,519
Speaker 1: their feet. You know, you may have to burn the

1559
01:23:48,520 --> 01:23:52,240
Speaker 1: ships behind you and hit that beach and like a

1560
01:23:52,320 --> 01:23:55,520
Speaker 1: laser beam and never give up. I am consciously oblivious

1561
01:23:55,840 --> 01:23:58,840
Speaker 1: of all things around me that don't matter. I am

1562
01:23:59,000 --> 01:24:02,760
Speaker 1: very focused on what I think is super relevant. If

1563
01:24:02,760 --> 01:24:06,840
Speaker 1: you're hyper focused, you're resilient, and you never give up.

1564
01:24:07,040 --> 01:24:08,760
Speaker 1: You actually don't have to be the smartest guy in

1565
01:24:08,760 --> 01:24:14,040
Speaker 1: the room. You just outrun failure, and at some point

1566
01:24:14,120 --> 01:24:18,639
Speaker 1: you will succeed because failure is lazy, and the devil's lazy,

1567
01:24:18,880 --> 01:24:22,639
Speaker 1: and frosters are lazy, and if you're just not lazy,

1568
01:24:23,200 --> 01:24:26,080
Speaker 1: you'll succeed. Be curious, God gave you two ears in

1569
01:24:26,080 --> 01:24:27,920
Speaker 1: one mouth, or listen twice as much as you talk.

1570
01:24:29,120 --> 01:24:34,519
Speaker 1: Be fascinated, Be super nosy, Be respectful, be kind. You

1571
01:24:34,600 --> 01:24:36,400
Speaker 1: never know the toe you step on maybe conect to

1572
01:24:36,400 --> 01:24:39,519
Speaker 1: the rear, and you got kiss tomorrow. Just be gracious

1573
01:24:39,560 --> 01:24:43,040
Speaker 1: if you want to have a little grace, show a

1574
01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:43,639
Speaker 1: little mercy.

1575
01:24:44,880 --> 01:24:48,240
Speaker 2: I like that line and our final question, what do

1576
01:24:48,280 --> 01:24:53,040
Speaker 2: you know about the world of capitalism, entrepreneurship, and just

1577
01:24:53,520 --> 01:24:57,439
Speaker 2: generally the economy today that you wish you knew thirty

1578
01:24:57,520 --> 01:24:59,800
Speaker 2: or so years ago when you were really ramping up.

1579
01:25:00,040 --> 01:25:07,639
Speaker 1: Everything's about money everything you know, marriage was originally about unions,

1580
01:25:07,840 --> 01:25:11,960
Speaker 1: uh you know, different royal houses or whatever. Uh being

1581
01:25:12,040 --> 01:25:13,599
Speaker 1: part of the world you're talking about. They were trying

1582
01:25:13,600 --> 01:25:15,760
Speaker 1: to protect their economic interests. That's why they got married.

1583
01:25:15,800 --> 01:25:17,479
Speaker 1: They didn't even sleep in the same beds or the

1584
01:25:17,479 --> 01:25:19,479
Speaker 1: same houses. Back in those days. It was you know,

1585
01:25:19,600 --> 01:25:23,440
Speaker 1: families trying to protect each other's interest. Love is important,

1586
01:25:23,680 --> 01:25:28,040
Speaker 1: but alignment is also important. Money is in I mean church,

1587
01:25:28,160 --> 01:25:30,800
Speaker 1: church needs needs donation. Catholic Church is one of the

1588
01:25:30,880 --> 01:25:34,559
Speaker 1: largest owners of land, by the way and financial services

1589
01:25:34,560 --> 01:25:37,679
Speaker 1: in the world. This is not a criticism, is a critique.

1590
01:25:37,720 --> 01:25:41,679
Speaker 1: I'm just saying my observation is that whatever you want

1591
01:25:42,200 --> 01:25:46,800
Speaker 1: requires money and or an understanding of same in order

1592
01:25:46,840 --> 01:25:50,120
Speaker 1: to live a life is free. Freedom today is self determination.

1593
01:25:50,160 --> 01:25:52,640
Speaker 1: You cannot have self determination unless you unless you have

1594
01:25:52,680 --> 01:25:55,880
Speaker 1: some level of economic If all money is his freedom,

1595
01:25:55,920 --> 01:25:58,559
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. That's all all. So you shouldn't

1596
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:04,680
Speaker 1: pursue money to control other people's freedom slavery, but you

1597
01:26:04,720 --> 01:26:07,680
Speaker 1: should understand that if you have money, then no one

1598
01:26:07,720 --> 01:26:08,599
Speaker 1: can control yours.

1599
01:26:08,920 --> 01:26:13,519
Speaker 2: Huh. That's really quite intriguing. We have been speaking with

1600
01:26:13,640 --> 01:26:17,839
Speaker 2: John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope, and a slew

1601
01:26:18,000 --> 01:26:22,160
Speaker 2: of other companies. If you enjoy this conversation, be sure

1602
01:26:22,200 --> 01:26:25,880
Speaker 2: and check out all of our previous podcasts. You can

1603
01:26:25,920 --> 01:26:30,759
Speaker 2: find those at YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you find

1604
01:26:30,840 --> 01:26:34,439
Speaker 2: your favorite podcasts. Sign up for our daily reading list

1605
01:26:34,600 --> 01:26:37,560
Speaker 2: at rituelts dot com. Follow me on Twitter at Ritholtz

1606
01:26:38,200 --> 01:26:42,560
Speaker 2: follow all of the Bloomberg Family of podcasts at Podcasts,

1607
01:26:43,080 --> 01:26:44,800
Speaker 2: I would be remiss if I did not thank the

1608
01:26:44,840 --> 01:26:48,519
Speaker 2: correct team that helps with these conversations together each week.

1609
01:26:48,720 --> 01:26:52,200
Speaker 2: Pariswold is my producer. A Teak of Albrun is my

1610
01:26:52,320 --> 01:26:57,280
Speaker 2: project manager. Sean Russo is my researcher. My audio engineer

1611
01:26:57,320 --> 01:27:01,479
Speaker 2: is Sebastian Escobar. I'm Barry Ritt. Adults, you've been listening

1612
01:27:01,560 --> 01:27:04,120
Speaker 2: to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.