Speaker 1: Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
Speaker 1: of The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. So I'm
Speaker 1: John O'Brien. I'm here with two legends, a commissioner of
Speaker 1: NBA basketball of course in NFL football, Adam and Roger,
Speaker 1: and we're going to take them, transport them back to
Speaker 1: their eighteen year old selves, which is only a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. What would you advice would you give
Speaker 1: to your eighteen year old self? Robert financial literacy advice.
Speaker 2: I think learning how to manage money. You don't have
Speaker 2: a lot usually when you're eighteen to have the ability
Speaker 2: to learn more about how to save, how to their best,
Speaker 2: how to make sure that what you earn you take
Speaker 2: care of, and so you just have to learn about
Speaker 2: it well.
Speaker 3: That some of the great program should.
Speaker 1: Do financial lucy for all what we're doing together, all
Speaker 1: three of us are doing together. I said yesterday, I
Speaker 1: would ignore the noise. There's a lot of noise around you.
Speaker 1: You're trying to be like this person, probably like that person.
Speaker 1: Somebody's trying to be a four square blocked celebrity. You
Speaker 1: just realize later on none of that stuff in.
Speaker 2: All timing the market that's the other thing you get.
Speaker 2: So you know, if somebody's got some get rich quick
Speaker 2: screen ski, yeah usually does work.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's smart. A free launch is probably still
Speaker 1: adam you've been. Have you always been this calm and
Speaker 1: cool and collected your whole life?
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm not inside. Uh.
Speaker 4: And in terms of financial literacy, I know a mistake
Speaker 4: I made was when I was eighteen outs is pre
Speaker 4: internet and all that, that I had a summer job
Speaker 4: and I bought some individual stocks. And I'll never do
Speaker 4: that again to this day. I don't buy individual stocks.
Speaker 4: I only buy funds. And I thought that you could
Speaker 4: read the paper or learn something about a company, and
Speaker 4: I didn't understand it was essentially gambling to pick an individual.
Speaker 3: Stock like that. So buy funds.
Speaker 4: If you're not an expert on the market, you know,
Speaker 4: invest in the market overall, but stay away from individual
Speaker 4: stocks at least, that's my advice.
Speaker 3: That's brilliant. Actually I wouldn't go that far.
Speaker 1: No, it's brilliant because you're you're going to an expert
Speaker 1: who knows who knows about stocks, and you're saying I'm
Speaker 1: gonna rely on the expert to find a bucket a
Speaker 1: basket of investments to make. In some ways, it's how
Speaker 1: you run an NBA franchise. You've got these owners and
Speaker 1: coaches who get the individual players you're running. You're you're
Speaker 1: building the franchise value of the whole both of you,
Speaker 1: of of the leagues.
Speaker 3: That's a great, great point.
Speaker 4: We don't have to root for individual teams or buy
Speaker 4: an individual teams where we managed to risk through.
Speaker 3: The whole league. But there's a similarity there.
Speaker 4: But but I do I think that you know, individual
Speaker 4: vestors who day trade, it's highly risky, you know, unless
Speaker 4: you're an expert in that, you know, but if you
Speaker 4: buy funds or indexed funds or professionally managed funds, then
Speaker 4: you can ride the market.
Speaker 3: I think that's the way to build long term wealth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as you said about you're not as calm uh
Speaker 1: on the inside as you running outside. I think it
Speaker 1: gives a lot of people confidence because you look so
Speaker 1: confident all the time, and it makes people watch to say, well,
Speaker 1: if he is not always calm inside, then it makes
Speaker 1: them feel okay that they're not always a call included
Speaker 1: collected inside gives them courage.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's a great point, John, I would
Speaker 4: say that I've learned over the years. I'm sure Roger
Speaker 4: has as well that when you're nervous, most about everybody
Speaker 4: else is as well. Yeah, you know, and just some
Speaker 4: people do a better job of hiding it. But I
Speaker 4: think acknowledging that nervousness really takes you a long way.
Speaker 4: I think when you accept like, Okay, I'm nervous. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm scared. Now I'm gonna go do my best.
Speaker 3: That's right. That's that's a great advice for young people.
Speaker 2: And players call it pre game jitters, and it's sort
Speaker 2: of the you know, you get the little stomach bugs
Speaker 2: and yeah, that's all good stuff.
Speaker 1: Right, because that gets you, gets you killed up. That's right,
Speaker 1: you're ready for it. It reminds me we had a
Speaker 1: kid who would go through our financial literacy course. He
Speaker 1: was about twelve years old in Detroit, and he had
Speaker 1: gone the course and by the third week he was
Speaker 1: wearing a suit like the banker. And when he came
Speaker 1: out of the course, I was going to go commend
Speaker 1: him and his friend. We're teasing them, man, why do
Speaker 1: you want to wear that stupid suit? Why do you
Speaker 1: want to go to the stupid class? You know, and
Speaker 1: I went over to him and said, look, i'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you this was now a decade and a half ago.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you seventy dollars make a decision about Nike.
Speaker 1: The young man Derek says, I'm going to buy a
Speaker 1: shared Nike stock.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And they had been studying Niki by the way in
Speaker 1: the classroom, so it wasn't an individual purchase. It was
Speaker 1: something he researched. And the kids were like, oh, they
Speaker 1: doubled down.
Speaker 3: This is stupid. Why would you want to do that.
Speaker 3: He gives you some Air Jordan's.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got Air Jordan's Purple, Air Jordan's Future Air Jordans
Speaker 1: start going through all the way. So I went to
Speaker 1: the I want to go defend Derek. Amen, Derek, You're okay.
Speaker 1: Derek says, no, no, no, I'm cool. I want them
Speaker 1: to buy those shoes because when they do, they're making
Speaker 1: me money. He had already transported himself into a shareholder.
Speaker 1: So his mindset shifted, and so he had jitters that
Speaker 1: turned into confidence because he had knowledge about how markets worked,
Speaker 1: and what you guys are doing is helping people to
Speaker 1: take their jitters and turning it into confidence because you're
Speaker 1: authentic as leaders, and you're giving people a place to
Speaker 1: take their talents and turn them into magic on a
Speaker 1: stage that everybody can cheer for. And I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for being American heroes, that you really are
Speaker 1: a force for good.
Speaker 3: Want to have you. We just work with American heroes. No,
Speaker 3: you manufactured. Thank you all you doing, appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Ti, my brother Tip, I love this drug. He is
Speaker 1: from the streets and the suites and back again. He's
Speaker 1: a bridge to all of our communities. He's much smarter
Speaker 1: than anybody gives them credit for. He's a noted artist,
Speaker 1: a hip hop artist, a producer. He also is a
Speaker 1: comedian now he's also a real estate owner, father, husband.
Speaker 1: What would t I tell his eighteen year old self
Speaker 1: about money and financial literacy to look back?
Speaker 5: What would I tell my eighteen year old self that
Speaker 5: the liabilities aren't this fund as they before you bound?
Speaker 3: That's deep.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I think we've been blessed with with
Speaker 5: with abundance, and we we all of us, have spent
Speaker 5: way more money on things that we didn't need because
Speaker 5: we thought that they would benefit us far more than
Speaker 5: they actually did. But it wasn't until we you know,
Speaker 5: to we made the purchase and we and we experienced
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 3: So the payments continue even when the fun stops.
Speaker 5: Well some of us, some of us cash out, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. But I've done it both ways.
Speaker 5: So yeah, you're absolutely correct. But but but it's not
Speaker 5: until until we splurge and we're in the midst of
Speaker 5: it that we're like, you know that I could have
Speaker 5: done with that this, But but I think it's that experience.
Speaker 6: We really are paying for that experience.
Speaker 1: Could that be like low self esteem? Could that be
Speaker 1: like it could it be like weird, like trying to
Speaker 1: prove that we are somebody by overcompensating, and you think
Speaker 1: that it's you know, because we haven't had these experiences
Speaker 1: and these opportunities to pass.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's as much self esteem as well.
Speaker 5: For some it could be, But for me, it was
Speaker 5: just I grew up not having, you know, and when
Speaker 5: you grow up not having, you want to have it exactly,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, just like you know
Speaker 5: most people who when you're fast, you know, of course
Speaker 5: they say it's supposed to break your fast with something small,
Speaker 5: but you know, the human nature is to gorge, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, after you haven't had you want?
Speaker 5: And I think that, you know, like, for instance, my children.
Speaker 5: You know, my kids, most of them don't even care
Speaker 5: for most you know, like Major, he don't care what
Speaker 5: kind of shoes he wear. I ask them what kind
Speaker 5: of car you want when you turn sixteen? He says, man,
Speaker 5: just something to get me from point to eight to
Speaker 5: point b, you know. Same for Messiah, Same.
Speaker 3: For the country singer. Well he rock and roll, he's really.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he doesn't, but he doesn't really value. He values
Speaker 5: things that has been you, that have been used and
Speaker 5: can stand the test of time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: He's into vintage things, and that's because he grew up
Speaker 5: having so much.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: So they don't agree, they don't, they don't. They don't
Speaker 5: have the same hunger exactly. They don't have that itch
Speaker 5: to scratch the way I did, right, you know So
Speaker 5: I think that it's growing up without that kind of
Speaker 5: had me overdo so much.
Speaker 1: But it's also you raised them, well, you cursed him out,
Speaker 1: you set them down, You told them that, look, this
Speaker 1: stuff is not real. You gave him real values, you
Speaker 1: showed him what was real. You show him what what
Speaker 1: real and then let them make the decision. Yes, I
Speaker 1: is very about that kid. If he's walking in here now,
Speaker 1: no one even know he's your son. He's just he's
Speaker 1: just chill and understated. He let his talent speaks for itself,
Speaker 1: that's right. And he's walking in role. Let's traveled on
Speaker 1: music that he's completely comfortable with. And because he's comfortable,
Speaker 1: everybody else is coming.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And I think I've tried to I tried to to
Speaker 5: to instill in them just the value of what's in
Speaker 5: you more so than what's on you, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. And and and the true measure of wealth
Speaker 5: is the amount of things you have that money came back.
Speaker 5: That's right, you know, love, respect, honor, integrity, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. I try to feel them full of
Speaker 5: you know, tools they can.
Speaker 1: Use like that, and service like you're showing up every
Speaker 1: year to the Hope Glow Reform. And as busy as
Speaker 1: he is. I saw him about a month ago and
Speaker 1: he was in the middle of a public situation. She's like,
Speaker 1: hey man, when's the forum.
Speaker 3: I need to be there. He brought it up. I
Speaker 3: didn't and you do.
Speaker 5: You remember the first time I came, I brought him
Speaker 5: with me.
Speaker 3: That's right, he informed.
Speaker 5: No, No, he didn't was a second time. I don't
Speaker 5: even think he was even playing the guitar yet. Remember,
Speaker 5: I think the first time I came, maybe it was
Speaker 5: about four years ago. I think it might have been
Speaker 5: twenty one.
Speaker 1: Two before that for real. Yeah, yeah, you've been around
Speaker 1: for for a minute. But but he came with last
Speaker 1: year or the year before. Yeah, yeah, he came with
Speaker 1: me just observing, just because I won't.
Speaker 5: I thought it was important for him to kind of
Speaker 5: learn it, be exposed to to people who have a
Speaker 5: lot more than.
Speaker 3: Us, like you and uh and see you're doing You're
Speaker 3: doing just fine. And see the way that that they behaved.
Speaker 5: That let them know that all money isn't loud, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, right and uh And and he
Speaker 5: liked it and enjoyed it and learned so much from
Speaker 5: it that he made it his business to come back
Speaker 5: on his own.
Speaker 1: I've learned that when you've got the power, you don't
Speaker 1: need to use it. There's no need to scream and
Speaker 1: holler and raise your voice. It speaks for it. Well,
Speaker 1: you've got the real power. It speaks for itself. It's
Speaker 1: better to underestimate and overperform than overestimate and underperformed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you have, you have slid under the you've slid
Speaker 1: on the radar and things like movie production. You're doing movies,
Speaker 1: now you're doing comedy. You're just you're just going to
Speaker 1: do the work and letting that speak for itself.
Speaker 5: I mean, man, you know what, Man, I'm just continuing
Speaker 5: to to just be blessed enough to have my steps
Speaker 5: guided by my passion. Man, I don't even think about what,
Speaker 5: you know, what I'm gonna do, like for money. It's
Speaker 5: just like I just do what I what I feel
Speaker 5: is gonna fulfill me. You know what I'm saying and
Speaker 5: what I think can help others around me.
Speaker 3: So it sounds like what you tell your eighteen year
Speaker 3: old self. It's chill.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, don't sweat the small stuff.
Speaker 3: Over mess not it.
Speaker 1: Make sure your asses are not on your ass. So Rowland,
Speaker 1: first of all, thanks for coming here every year for
Speaker 1: the Whope level form. This is our biggest eversar. I
Speaker 1: tend to anniversary uh and because of you, in large part,
Speaker 1: we're able to reach after the meeting where we get
Speaker 1: incredible engagement. We're able to reach millions in the weeks
Speaker 1: after because in large part of your engagement.
Speaker 3: So thank you.
Speaker 1: You are the network for Black America. As far as
Speaker 1: I'm concerned, what would you tell your eighteen year old
Speaker 1: self around financial literacy lessons that you now know to
Speaker 1: be true, but when you're you may be kicking yourself
Speaker 1: when you're eighteen.
Speaker 8: First, the credit card that they came and shot to
Speaker 8: us fro Texas A and M, don't do it.
Speaker 6: That's one.
Speaker 8: The second would be actually, no matter how little made
Speaker 8: in college, still save something. Those are two that jump
Speaker 8: out like most people. So the Birmingham The Birmingham News,
Speaker 8: I interviewed with them sixteen editors.
Speaker 6: They all wanted to hire me. But in Alabama in
Speaker 6: nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 8: They had a law that said they can factor your
Speaker 8: credit score in really and you couldn't get to your job.
Speaker 8: So h R at the Birmingham News said they couldn't
Speaker 8: hire me. Every editor wanted to hire me, it's for
Speaker 8: the credit.
Speaker 6: Score and so and so.
Speaker 8: In my career wherever I was spoken, especially in Alabama,
Speaker 8: I would remind the Birmingham News that they could have
Speaker 8: had me work there. Except for that law, and they
Speaker 8: were like, damn, you have to keep bringing that up.
Speaker 8: I'm like, yes, I do, but again, it's a perfect
Speaker 8: And there were so many journalists, George Curry and others
Speaker 8: who were pissed. They were like, what the hell I
Speaker 8: mean here, we are one of the top journalism and
Speaker 8: graduates in the country and because of the credit score,
Speaker 8: I wouldn't get hired there. But that's also I went
Speaker 8: to the Austin American Statesman and then career took off.
Speaker 8: But that's a perfect example that that was a law
Speaker 8: in nineteen ninety one. And then later when I joined
Speaker 8: TV one, I said, you know, we're gonna do a
Speaker 8: whole one hour show on credit and my producer Jay
Speaker 8: Felman is like, dude, that's no show here. I said,
Speaker 8: trust me, there's a show here. And then when we're over,
Speaker 8: he was like, like four shows here. Like I tried
Speaker 8: to tell you that, because even he didn't understand how
Speaker 8: deep and broad a credit score goals.
Speaker 6: And so many different people.
Speaker 8: We have people on who could not get military advancement
Speaker 8: because of your credit score was so low because of
Speaker 8: top secret and so that's.
Speaker 3: How broad lose your security clearance in the military.
Speaker 6: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Ability to serve your credits to the floor. So we did.
Speaker 8: We did a whole on our show. But that experience
Speaker 8: again not getting hired.
Speaker 3: How were you?
Speaker 8: I was senior college, like they again the editor, dude
Speaker 8: was like almost in tears. But the HR qualified and
Speaker 8: every other I mean destroyed. But the HR Department said no.
Speaker 1: That's why I say that civil rights and civil rights
Speaker 1: are now connected because you had the talent, you had
Speaker 1: the gifts, but the criteria included financial ecument acumen that
Speaker 1: they that that it is based on the standard that
Speaker 1: no one's taught us. We never had an economic infrastructure
Speaker 1: in the history of Black America, which is what you're
Speaker 1: advocating for and what I'm trying to also build.
Speaker 8: But that's also one of the reasons why Alabama remains
Speaker 8: the poorest because there's a lot of talent that those
Speaker 8: laws that were passed that they keep folks, keep folk away.
Speaker 8: And so again, so Birmingham News they the talent that
Speaker 8: I had never came because of that law and the errors,
Speaker 8: like we got to get rid of this because we're
Speaker 8: losing great talent. But but but again that that was
Speaker 8: one of the deals so it was just I mean,
Speaker 8: that was a perfect example of what I said. Remember,
Speaker 8: my dad was upset, and I was like, Dad, don't
Speaker 8: worry about it. I'm gonna get a job. Don't worry
Speaker 8: about it.
Speaker 6: We'll be good.
Speaker 8: And then he coold, now him, I'm living in my
Speaker 8: house that's paid off.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: But but it was a perfect example, Like that was
Speaker 8: the first job that come I wouldn't I hadn't graduated yet.
Speaker 8: They wanted to hire me, but the credit card prevented
Speaker 8: from happening. And uh, and now that thing is now
Speaker 8: expandings that I think it was thirty eight or forty states.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's how it's expanded, how that has changed.
Speaker 1: A lot of eighteen year olds feel that they don't
Speaker 1: need to worry about what they're doing in eighteen life.
Speaker 1: They're gonna live forever. Every it's gonna be great though
Speaker 1: repercussions and what I'm here you're saying is, in hindsight,
Speaker 1: everything matters.
Speaker 8: When you're read Oh, because that impacted impacted the car
Speaker 8: I got, impacted the uh they impacted and impacted the
Speaker 8: interest rate I got.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 8: And then even that even impacted the interest rate that
Speaker 8: I got when I bought my first house nine years later,
Speaker 8: so same thing.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Rollan appreciate less your brother, so boris.
Speaker 1: First of all, thank you for being here, Thanks for
Speaker 1: being a force, so goot honored to have you here.
Speaker 3: Amazing.
Speaker 1: So what advice would you give to your eighteen year
Speaker 1: old self? What financial literacy advice if you had to
Speaker 1: go back, would you give it? And by the way
Speaker 1: I got to I get it our get the mic up.
Speaker 7: So the first thing I would say is invest in
Speaker 7: financial literacy, meaning read as much as you can, kind
Speaker 7: of can talk as talk to as many people as
Speaker 7: you can, get a financial mentor. And don't be afraid
Speaker 7: to make mistakes because we're paranoid about making the wrong move.
Speaker 7: You will definitely make the wrong move many times over
Speaker 7: and it's okay. And then I would say, stay away
Speaker 7: from the stock market and invest in S and P
Speaker 7: five hundred.
Speaker 1: So do that, so not with the stock market, but
Speaker 1: state go go smart with the stock market with the
Speaker 1: S and P five hundred, which is.
Speaker 7: Basically the leading company leading five hundred companies. And invest
Speaker 7: for the long term. Don't buy into becoming a billionaire
Speaker 7: in three years. Don't believe social media, take your time, learn,
Speaker 7: educate yourself, and know that at some point you will
Speaker 7: turn fifty. So even though you're only eighteen, fifty will come.
Speaker 7: So what you're doing now will pay off handsomely when
Speaker 7: you're fifty, and you might actually be handsome when you're
Speaker 7: invest in your mental health as your physical health, in
Speaker 7: your spiritual health, because the spiritual.
Speaker 3: The mental, and the physical go together. If you let
Speaker 3: one slide, you will suffer. Holy they're all connected. They're
Speaker 3: all connected.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and most millionaires, by the way, don't get there
Speaker 1: until they're in their fifties.
Speaker 3: That way, right, Yeah, So.
Speaker 1: You would basically tell your eighteen year old self to
Speaker 1: knock it off, don't ignore the noise all around you say,
Speaker 1: very focused on fundamentals, and these fundamental truths have been
Speaker 1: true your whole life.
Speaker 3: It appears right. These are solid These are solid things
Speaker 3: that you're value said things.
Speaker 7: You can double your money every seven years if you're
Speaker 7: careful and you educate yourself, and that's a that's an
Speaker 7: absolutely attainable goal, and it'll pay off when you're fifteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is somebody who understands you make money during
Speaker 1: the day, you build wealth in your sleep. And there's
Speaker 1: a difference. He's not just making a living, He's built
Speaker 1: a life for him and his wife. What's financial advice
Speaker 1: would you give? Financial literacy advice, economic advice, cautionary tales?
Speaker 1: What would you say to your eighteen year old self
Speaker 1: if you could go back?
Speaker 6: Listen more?
Speaker 3: Hmm.
Speaker 6: Prioritize saving hmm.
Speaker 9: Embrace the fact that you can't do it alone, because
Speaker 9: even if you do succeed in doing it alone, chances
Speaker 9: are you didn't uplift anybody else along the way right
Speaker 9: standing alone, and when you're standing alone, a fall is
Speaker 9: inevitable because there's but so much you can do by yourself.
Speaker 9: You can spearhead, you can spark, you can motivate and inspire,
Speaker 9: But in terms of carrying that load, it only gets
Speaker 9: heavier as you get older, more responsibilities, mortgages, children, family,
Speaker 9: and by.
Speaker 6: The way, the more successful you are, the more people
Speaker 6: are going to get to know you.
Speaker 9: They're gonna be in your pocket, they're gonna they're gonna
Speaker 9: end not only that they're not gonna come asking, they're
Speaker 9: going to come feeling entitled to what you've earned. And
Speaker 9: all of those challenges are things that you will work
Speaker 9: a lifetime to ward off.
Speaker 6: I am in my fifties, and I'm still learning how to.
Speaker 9: Ward that off because there's always new people that come
Speaker 9: along and they may have helped you, they may have assisted,
Speaker 9: they may have provided assistance and help and all of
Speaker 9: that stuff, but their belief and what they're entitled to
Speaker 9: far exceeds what your beliefs may be engaging. Where that
Speaker 9: line is, that line of demarcation where you're trying to
Speaker 9: establish what's right, what's wrong, what's fair, what's unfair, what's
Speaker 9: too excessive, what's enough. It's a never ending process, right
Speaker 9: and when you're youthful, you don't think about that that's right,
Speaker 9: but inevitably it comes your way. So that guidance from
Speaker 9: the elder statesmans of the world, and by that I
Speaker 9: don't mean age, I mean.
Speaker 6: Wisdom and experience.
Speaker 9: When you have folks who are wiser, who have more experience,
Speaker 9: who have endured the terrain, that inevitably is going to
Speaker 9: come your way. If you arm yourself with that level
Speaker 9: of intel that comes from a place of inspiration and
Speaker 9: heartfelt you know emotions as well in terms of them
Speaker 9: caring about you and your upliftment goes a long way.
Speaker 1: This is one of the best pieces of advice that
Speaker 1: I've heard anybody give on this question, because when you're young,
Speaker 1: you look at successful people and go why they're so
Speaker 1: stand offish, why they got to why they got people
Speaker 1: around them? And I can't get at them, why they
Speaker 1: got such an attitude, why they're so paranoid with paranoid
Speaker 1: because y'all coming at us and you try to get
Speaker 1: your in our pocket, and when we won't, when we
Speaker 1: zip up the pocket, you want to go around us
Speaker 1: and take it as if it's yours.
Speaker 3: And it's happened to me, it's happened to you, it's
Speaker 3: happened to.
Speaker 1: Everybody in this room, and we're shocked by it, like
Speaker 1: we're stunned by because it's not strangers, the people who
Speaker 1: look like us, and we never had this conversation. But
Speaker 1: this is wisdom, and everybody listening to this needs to
Speaker 1: understand you need to have compassion and empathy for folks
Speaker 1: who are walking a different path from yours and learn
Speaker 1: from them. And you can't take everybody with you when
Speaker 1: you get on that path and success and help people
Speaker 1: as you can, but you don't have they don't have
Speaker 1: an entitlement to your success.
Speaker 3: The thing that I just got from you more than anything.
Speaker 1: Becase people hear you, and you're always loud or whatever,
Speaker 1: it's as quiet wisdom you listen. I asked Quincy Jones,
Speaker 1: why are you so how'd you get so smart?
Speaker 3: Answer?
Speaker 1: God, rest of soul. I'm just nosy as hell. I
Speaker 1: want to know everything about everything. When I met you,
Speaker 1: I was shocked. After I interviewed. The first thing you
Speaker 1: had to say to me was questions. Tell me about this,
Speaker 1: tell me about that, Tell me about the structure of
Speaker 1: this too. He was as smart as he is still learning.
Speaker 1: God gave you two ears and one mouth, so you
Speaker 1: listen twice as.
Speaker 3: Much as you talk. Well.
Speaker 6: I think the word that comes into mine as humility.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 6: My success is not something that I think about too often.
Speaker 9: My attitude is I have to wake up every day
Speaker 9: validating that success that I've achieved. I can't walk around
Speaker 9: like I've arrived because the second you do that, you're
Speaker 9: gonna get knocked off. That proverbials pedestal, and I'm not
Speaker 9: gonna let that happen. But the thing about it is
Speaker 9: that the humility comes from an understanding and a complete acceptance.
Speaker 9: You don't know it all. You don't even know most
Speaker 9: of it. There's always somebody that knows more. There's always
Speaker 9: somebody who can teach more. There's always someone who cares more,
Speaker 9: who's more empathetic, who's more in touch with their empathetic side,
Speaker 9: and the kind of things that ail us, not just
Speaker 9: as individuals, not even just as a community, but as
Speaker 9: a society. And so when you're thinking along those lines
Speaker 9: and understanding that, you sit down in that humble space
Speaker 9: of yours, looking somebody in the face who sees you
Speaker 9: as a successful human being, and you're saying to them,
Speaker 9: no matter what I am, I don't think I'm better
Speaker 9: than you. I would appreciate it if you would help
Speaker 9: me become even better than I am right now. And
Speaker 9: when you do that, it's very, very difficult for somebody
Speaker 9: to turn away from you and you on helping hand
Speaker 9: when you come to them with such humility and an
Speaker 9: understanding of your place in this world.
Speaker 3: Success with a light touch, yes, success with a light touching.
Speaker 9: And sometimes the heavy touch is necessary, but only in
Speaker 9: defense of your self preservation.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 9: You know, when you know that you're crumbling, when you
Speaker 9: know that the weight is too much, only you can
Speaker 9: make that call about yourself. And if you know that
Speaker 9: about you, there are going to be people that accuse
Speaker 9: you of being selfish. They're gonna say you don't care enough.
Speaker 9: They're gonna discount all that you've done, all that you've done,
Speaker 9: They're gonna they're gonna discount all of that.
Speaker 3: But you have to work the late nights and weekends.
Speaker 3: You didn't.
Speaker 9: You have to have the alligator skin, the intestinal fortitude
Speaker 9: to withstand it all and keep marching forward. Because anytime
Speaker 9: somebody is prosperous, there's always going to be people in
Speaker 9: your path trying to stop that progress because their definition
Speaker 9: of success is hindering your progress in their mind, in
Speaker 9: their mind, and you have to know what that is,
Speaker 9: what that looks like when you see it in your world.
Speaker 1: So your eighteen year old self, a tougher skin, a
Speaker 1: lighter touch, a humility and understanding that hurt people, hurt people.
Speaker 9: Yes, I've always had the humility, God blessed me with that.
Speaker 9: I've always been one who listened, always been one who
Speaker 9: was inquisitive, So I never was I never lacked that part.
Speaker 9: The other stuff, though, when you're on your grind and
Speaker 9: you put your head down and it's about marching forward
Speaker 9: and making sure nobody stops your progress. Sometimes you miss
Speaker 9: a lot, you miss a lot along the way. But
Speaker 9: in my case what I missed was helpful for me
Speaker 9: because the lessons it taught me. Sometimes you got to
Speaker 9: pay if somebody is If somebody is walking down the pass,
Speaker 9: you don't want them to fall into an abyss they
Speaker 9: can't get out of. But sometimes you got to let
Speaker 9: them fall because that's the greatest lesson they'll learn, rather
Speaker 9: than the wisdom that you may have bestowed upon them.
Speaker 9: Because even though they'll listen to some degree, sometimes they
Speaker 9: don't listen enough.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 9: Sometimes the fall is the greatest device for listening than
Speaker 9: anything else.
Speaker 1: Drop the mic. This is Steven A. Smith on him
Speaker 1: talking to him at eighteen years of age, and all
Speaker 1: of you need to listen to this and put it
Speaker 1: on repeat. So the question, Mike is, and we've been
Speaker 1: asking all the top leaders, yep, what advice financial literacy
Speaker 1: advice would you give to your eighteen.
Speaker 3: Year old self?
Speaker 10: Man, The same thing my grandparents tried to get, tried
Speaker 10: to drill in me. It took me a while to
Speaker 10: get I got mentors like you that drilling in me
Speaker 10: and live at it below your means. If you're eighteen
Speaker 10: years old and you make two grand a month, you
Speaker 10: can't afford a two grand apartment. So you and two
Speaker 10: of your cousins should get together and go in on
Speaker 10: that apartment together. You guys should take the extra money
Speaker 10: put aside to a savings to buy an investment property together,
Speaker 10: by your very first duplex or quadplex together. We have
Speaker 10: to start taking seriously money very early. So at eighteen
Speaker 10: years old, you're old enough to start saving. You just
Speaker 10: need to do it with a plan and do it
Speaker 10: with the folks of people. If I was eighteen years old,
Speaker 10: I tell me my cousin Jimmy and my cousin Brian,
Speaker 10: let's get a place together.
Speaker 3: Let's buy an investment property.
Speaker 6: Let's get a quadruplex.
Speaker 10: We'll stay in two of them together, we'll rent out
Speaker 10: the other two and then we'll repeat processes.
Speaker 3: We save money. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's it tells about a seat. The guy's a genius.
Speaker 1: Not only first of all, he's got to rap like
Speaker 1: and understand. I love his music. I just play it
Speaker 1: on repeat all the time. But he's so wicked smart trying.
Speaker 1: This is the example of that. What advice would would
Speaker 1: you like to give to the eighteen year olds listening
Speaker 1: to this now?
Speaker 10: In life, man, there's nothing that's impossible with time. You know,
Speaker 10: a river, a river takes a jagged rock and makes
Speaker 10: it smooth. It just takes time. Give yourself time. It's
Speaker 10: gonna hear to you that everyone else is taking off
Speaker 10: while you're sitting still. That's their story, that's their movie.
Speaker 10: Stop trying to star another people's movie starring yours. And
Speaker 10: if you've read Jason Ziliad or if you saw John Wick,
Speaker 10: what you know is the hero must go through a
Speaker 10: personal overcoming to establish and win. So you're the hero
Speaker 10: in this movie. Every trial you're going through is just
Speaker 10: another trial that brings you closer to the ultimate victory.
Speaker 10: And the victory isn't the ending going your way. The
Speaker 10: victory is and que you become on the journey.
Speaker 3: Rainbow's only follow storms. Amen, You not have a rainbow
Speaker 3: without a storm. Says you cannot grow except for legitimate suffering.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 10: I was I landed in Jamaica with my wife once
Speaker 10: and it was poor down and she wasn't expecting Ryan,
Speaker 10: and she wanted a beautiful weekend, and she was complaining
Speaker 10: that a driver turned to us and said, ma'am, the
Speaker 10: farmers pray to.
Speaker 3: That part.
Speaker 1: So what would you tell your eighteen year old self
Speaker 1: about financial literacy? What lessons or what advice would you
Speaker 1: give your eighteen year old self? Looking at wo.
Speaker 11: Knowing what I know now, that bicycle really wasn't worth it. Okay,
Speaker 11: I never really had a large summer money. I was
Speaker 11: working for five dollars a day.
Speaker 3: I made.
Speaker 11: Twenty seven to fifty working from seven to seven, working
Speaker 11: a half a day on Saturday, so I made twenty
Speaker 11: seven to fifty and by the time I settled up
Speaker 11: with the corner store, I brought home about twenty dollars.
Speaker 3: And I've always had lofty ideas.
Speaker 11: I mean, the worst thing that happened to me is
Speaker 11: what my advice started coming on because they had roles,
Speaker 11: they had a side shad, they they had ferraris, and
Speaker 11: I wanted that, and I felt that was I had
Speaker 11: made it.
Speaker 6: If I had that.
Speaker 11: You know, you grew up in a house with no
Speaker 11: indoor plumbing and you have to go outside to go
Speaker 11: to the bathroom, you have to draw whale water. So
Speaker 11: I needed things to say, Okay, I've made it, not
Speaker 11: realizing that I could have made it without having all
Speaker 11: those things, But that's not how my mind was wired
Speaker 11: back then. I had to have I needed a Rowlex
Speaker 11: to say okay, I got out of the hood. I
Speaker 11: needed a big house to say.
Speaker 3: Yes yes.
Speaker 11: And so now things that interest me and excited me
Speaker 11: when I was eighteen doesn't have the same effect on
Speaker 11: me now. It doesn't have the same effect when I
Speaker 11: was thirty, doesn't have the same effect when I was forty,
Speaker 11: And so I wish I would have had that mindset
Speaker 11: then to realize that, you know, what's shunting You could save,
Speaker 11: You could get something that's not as expensive, because at
Speaker 11: the end of the day, I'm shoting sharp regardless, that's right.
Speaker 11: I can be sharing sharp and a Chevy, or I
Speaker 11: can be sharing sharp in Ferrari. At the end of
Speaker 11: the day, I'm still shunting sharp. And that's what I
Speaker 11: had to realize because the car didn't make me.
Speaker 6: I bought it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The wealth is not on your arm, it's in your head.
Speaker 1: Yes, Yeah, So you realize that you are actually somebody
Speaker 1: and you don't need something else to reaffirm that. Now
Speaker 1: you get those things now, cool, but it's not a
Speaker 1: proxy for your self esteem. So you've become reasonably comfortable
Speaker 1: in your own skin over time.
Speaker 11: Yes, if you go outside and you look at your
Speaker 11: car and your car, it's worth more to you having
Speaker 11: your bank account. You're a fool if your ass, if
Speaker 11: your assets are on your ass, you had a problem exactly.
Speaker 11: And so that's what that's what we're gonna have to understand,
Speaker 11: is that it's not the things that we have that
Speaker 11: make us wealthy.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't be paying over your car notes.
Speaker 11: And you are paying for rent no absolutely not no
Speaker 11: absolutely mortgage and look you and why have a fancy
Speaker 11: car if you're renting. Hello, that's a lot of times
Speaker 11: people have these nice cars and you pull up to
Speaker 11: you pulling up to an apartment complex really broke.
Speaker 3: Ro I mean the range Rover and no range nowhere?
Speaker 11: You parket it outside. You ain't going to arge garage
Speaker 11: to park it in. So home ownership you you you
Speaker 11: live and learn. So I wish I had learned these
Speaker 11: things a lot sooner in life.
Speaker 1: You here and have you with this, Thanks are making
Speaker 1: this issue sexy and appealing and reachable for most people
Speaker 1: financial literacy and civil rights issue generation.
Speaker 3: I'm honored to be here Thank You.
Speaker 7: M.
Speaker 1: Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of
Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the
Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.