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Robert F. Smith · The David Rubenstein Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Robert F. Smith's life has taken him from the newly
0:02
Speaker 1: desegregated classrooms of suburban Denver, to Columbia Business School Goldman Sachs,
0:07
Speaker 1: and eventually to his own private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners.
0:12
Speaker 1: Throughout his career, Smith has collected many achievements, working as
0:15
Speaker 1: an intern at Bell Labs when he was below the
0:18
Speaker 1: minimum age requirement, becoming the first Goldman Sachs employee to
0:22
Speaker 1: focus solely on M and A in the tech sector,
0:25
Speaker 1: and surpassing Oprah Winfrey as the wealthiest African American were
0:29
Speaker 1: the net worth of three billion dollars according to Bloomberg calculations.
0:34
Speaker 1: Smith is also a prolific philanthropist, giving generously to Cornell University,
0:39
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture,
0:43
Speaker 1: and Carnegie Hall, where he serves as chairman of the board.
0:47
Speaker 1: Smith recently sat down with Carlisle Group co founder David Rubinstein.
0:51
Speaker 1: They spoke on David Rubinstein's Bloomberg television program Peer to
0:54
Speaker 1: Peer Conversations. When you were growing up in Denver, the
0:59
Speaker 1: sun of school teachers, did you ever think you would
1:02
Speaker 1: become the wealthiest African American in the United States. I
1:06
Speaker 1: was basically raised in a family of of i'll call
1:08
Speaker 1: it achievers. You know, my mother and my father both
1:11
Speaker 1: had UH doctorate degrees in education, and they emphasized not
1:15
Speaker 1: only to my brother and I, but to the rest
1:16
Speaker 1: of the family importance of really you know, a becoming educated,
1:20
Speaker 1: be working really hard, and and you know, see trying
1:22
Speaker 1: to become the pinnacle of success in in in one's community.
1:26
Speaker 1: And you know, when I look back at those days
1:28
Speaker 1: and the formative elements of who we were in our communities,
1:33
Speaker 1: I saw parents who gave generously of time, energy, effort,
1:37
Speaker 1: and intellectual capacity uh to our to our community. And
1:41
Speaker 1: I think what that led me to do was always
1:43
Speaker 1: think about striving for excellence. Talk about your background at
1:46
Speaker 1: a moment, but I'd like to now just explain to
1:48
Speaker 1: people what you actually did that made this great fortune.
1:51
Speaker 1: What we did and what I was able to do
1:53
Speaker 1: was was bridge a couple of ideas. You know, software
1:55
Speaker 1: is truly still the most productive tool introduced in our
1:58
Speaker 1: business economy over the last fifty years. And through my
2:02
Speaker 1: work when I was early as an investment banker, I
2:04
Speaker 1: got to see a number of software companies and how
2:06
Speaker 1: they operated and I ran across one that turned out
2:09
Speaker 1: to be a client and ultimately the owner of that
2:12
Speaker 1: business that that that that trust ended up being my
2:14
Speaker 1: first investor. And that particular business had a set of
2:17
Speaker 1: practices that they used, business practices that that helped them
2:21
Speaker 1: run that business more efficiently than any other software company
2:24
Speaker 1: that I that I had seen. And so in essence,
2:26
Speaker 1: you know what I what I'll say, you know, took
2:28
Speaker 1: some of the kernels of those best practices and said
2:31
Speaker 1: if you took them and as an engineer and create
2:33
Speaker 1: a process around delivering those best practices across the world
2:37
Speaker 1: of enterprise software, you could do quite well. When you
2:39
Speaker 1: grew up in Denver, was there a lot of discrimination
2:42
Speaker 1: then against African Americans. I grew up at a time
2:45
Speaker 1: when when desegregation was just starting, and so prior to that.
2:49
Speaker 1: You know, like all cities in American large cities, you know,
2:51
Speaker 1: there's there're segregated communities, and there still are for the
2:55
Speaker 1: most part. And it's unfortunate I grew up in a
2:57
Speaker 1: predominantly African American community. We all lived in that community
3:01
Speaker 1: for the most part, because you still had redlining, you
3:03
Speaker 1: still had an accessibility to capital to buy homes which
3:07
Speaker 1: created in essence, the basis of a lot of the
3:09
Speaker 1: wealth in America. So it was a time, uh, in
3:13
Speaker 1: growing up that I really understood the importance of community.
3:17
Speaker 1: And it was pretty much a segregated community I grew
3:20
Speaker 1: up in until we started bussing and force busting created
3:24
Speaker 1: the desegregation lease in the school systems. When you were
3:26
Speaker 1: very young, your mother brought you to the march in
3:28
Speaker 1: Washington when Martin other King maybe his famous speech, and
3:32
Speaker 1: I think the impact of her bringing me and my
3:34
Speaker 1: brother here not only was you know, for the summer,
3:38
Speaker 1: but for us to understand that our community stood for something,
3:40
Speaker 1: Our community was striving for something, and it was important
3:43
Speaker 1: that we were a part of it. And I think
3:45
Speaker 1: that's part of the lifelong, uh, you know, part of
3:49
Speaker 1: my soul, which is I have to give back and
3:51
Speaker 1: help my community move forward in in this in this
3:53
Speaker 1: wonderful country called America. Now as we have this discussion,
3:57
Speaker 1: now we're in the African American History and Culture Museum,
3:59
Speaker 1: to which you're one of the largest donors. This is
4:01
Speaker 1: very near where Martin Luther King gave a speech and
4:04
Speaker 1: your mother was living in Denver at the time that
4:07
Speaker 1: you correct, we're brought here, but she grew up in Washington.
4:10
Speaker 1: She didn't point out, and your grandparents, what did they do?
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Speaker 1: My grandfather actually was the postmaster general for three post
4:16
Speaker 1: offices here, uh in the d C. Area, And before that,
4:21
Speaker 1: when he was in high school, he actually worked in
4:23
Speaker 1: the Senate building. And what he did was he actually
4:25
Speaker 1: worked in the Senate lounge and he served coffee and
4:27
Speaker 1: tea and and you know, took you know, hats and
4:29
Speaker 1: coats from various senators as they came in. When President
4:32
Speaker 1: Obama was first inaugurated, I brought my grandfather, who was
4:35
Speaker 1: ninety three at the time. And while we were sitting
4:38
Speaker 1: there and in our seats and you know, really really
4:40
Speaker 1: understanding and feeling the majesty of the moment for him,
4:42
Speaker 1: he said, he granted you look up there in that
4:44
Speaker 1: Senate building and he pointed to a window above one
4:46
Speaker 1: of the flags. He said, I used to work in
4:48
Speaker 1: that in that in that room, and he said, I
4:50
Speaker 1: remember looking out that window when FDR was being inaugurated,
4:53
Speaker 1: and he said, I remember there wasn't a black face
4:55
Speaker 1: in the crowd. And here we are, and I'm sitting
4:58
Speaker 1: with my grandfather saying the for black president being inaugurator.
5:02
Speaker 1: He said, America is a great place as long as
5:03
Speaker 1: you're really in to work hard and and and drive
5:05
Speaker 1: forward on a set of principles and ideals that that
5:08
Speaker 1: that are important and frankly authentic. So that sticks with
5:11
Speaker 1: me to this day. So you went to Cornell a
5:14
Speaker 1: new major in engineering, did chemical engineering, and now the
5:17
Speaker 1: school at Chemical Engineering is now named after you as
5:20
Speaker 1: a result of gifts that you've given. How about that
5:24
Speaker 1: you graduate from Cornell and then your first job is
5:26
Speaker 1: a good year Yeah, good year time rubber right, And
5:29
Speaker 1: you went to Air Products and Chemicals right when the
5:31
Speaker 1: air Products and Chemicals and worked in applied research and
5:34
Speaker 1: development and had some wonderful experiences there. I developed some
5:37
Speaker 1: a line of products will not call fresh back that
5:39
Speaker 1: actually extended the shelf life of foods. And then from
5:42
Speaker 1: there I went into craft uneral foods and there I
5:44
Speaker 1: had product equipment and process development, um and for me
5:48
Speaker 1: my whole life. And at that point I was all about,
5:50
Speaker 1: you know, how do you create a solution and unique
5:52
Speaker 1: solutions and no one else had come up with create
5:54
Speaker 1: ideas that no one else are you know that had
5:55
Speaker 1: had ever come up with and solve problems how did
5:58
Speaker 1: you go from working in the engineering partners of these
6:01
Speaker 1: various companies to a financial engineering of Goldman Stocks. Sure
6:05
Speaker 1: is actually quite an interesting story. I I had done
6:07
Speaker 1: very well, the top student for our first year in
6:10
Speaker 1: business school, so I had to come back for the
6:12
Speaker 1: summer graduation to get this award. And as they went
6:15
Speaker 1: through my background, there was a gentleman by name of
6:17
Speaker 1: John uton Dall, who ran his own investment bank at
6:19
Speaker 1: the time, who was a keynote speaker, and he comes
6:21
Speaker 1: over to me after the they give him my reward.
6:23
Speaker 1: He is a speech and say, you have really interesting background.
6:26
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about a career in investment banking?
6:28
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I said, there's a bunch of
6:30
Speaker 1: former investment bankers in my class. I don't like any
6:32
Speaker 1: of them, and he says, well why not. I said, well,
6:34
Speaker 1: they think they know everything, and they're pretty arrogant. I said,
6:36
Speaker 1: you gotta understand, I'm an engineer. We do know everything.
6:38
Speaker 1: It bothers us and he chuckled, and I was happy
6:41
Speaker 1: that that he didn't take offense to to my joke.
6:44
Speaker 1: But what I did was I said, you know, honestly,
6:46
Speaker 1: I don't understand what investment bankers. Do you know I
6:49
Speaker 1: was a scientist, I was a technologist. I you know,
6:52
Speaker 1: I thought about the world through that lens. And this
6:55
Speaker 1: is another case where someone extended themselves for me, which
6:57
Speaker 1: is why it's important that I continue to pay that
6:59
Speaker 1: full word. And he says, why don't you come to
7:01
Speaker 1: my office and let's talk about it. So he invites
7:03
Speaker 1: me down and we sit down and we have lunch.
7:05
Speaker 1: He picks up the phone and David calls people like
7:08
Speaker 1: stand O'Neil Okay at the time was the CFO of
7:10
Speaker 1: Maryland cultimately ran Mary Lynch and kin China and as
7:14
Speaker 1: they're all prominent African American African American business leaders, and
7:19
Speaker 1: all of them took the meetings and from there they
7:21
Speaker 1: introduced me to other people to take meetings. I literally
7:23
Speaker 1: had over a hundred interviews in the fall of my
7:25
Speaker 1: second year in business school and figured out that mergers
7:28
Speaker 1: and acquisitions was the only business I wanted to be in.
7:30
Speaker 1: Uh an investment banking. And I said, because with the
7:33
Speaker 1: exception of warfare, it's how assets get transferred on this planet.
7:36
Speaker 1: It's a CEO level discussion, it's a board level discussion,
7:39
Speaker 1: is a strategic discussion, and that was quite interesting to me,
7:42
Speaker 1: and I thought I could add particular value and insights
7:45
Speaker 1: into into that particular business. Three jobs you had before
7:48
Speaker 1: you went to business school. Did you feel any discrimination
7:50
Speaker 1: against you because you're African American? Yeah, I mean I
7:53
Speaker 1: I it's one of those in America I have and
7:56
Speaker 1: still do you know. I remember a time when I
7:59
Speaker 1: was at ship Air Products and I was invited to
8:01
Speaker 1: give a talk in California, in San Francisco at one
8:05
Speaker 1: of the big conventions, and this this you know man
8:08
Speaker 1: comes over and he asked questions about, well, how does
8:10
Speaker 1: it work in the extension of shelf life of rice
8:12
Speaker 1: and cooked rice? And I'm telling you how what the
8:14
Speaker 1: you know explained that the dynamics, the biology, and the
8:17
Speaker 1: organ and elliptic uh issues you have to think about
8:20
Speaker 1: in addition to the microbiological issues. The guy said, you know,
8:23
Speaker 1: you're a very smart guy. You just have your heritage
8:26
Speaker 1: to overcome in order to be successful in business. And
8:29
Speaker 1: you know, that kind of stuck with me at a
8:30
Speaker 1: time that you know, after all of this wonderful work
8:33
Speaker 1: that I'm doing, that he still viewed me through that
8:35
Speaker 1: lens as opposed to the work that I had done
8:37
Speaker 1: he went to Columbia Business School, and I assume he
8:39
Speaker 1: did pretty well there because you went to Goldman Stocks afterwards. Right,
8:42
Speaker 1: but what year did you join Goldman? So you worked
8:45
Speaker 1: there for a while and then had you decide to
8:47
Speaker 1: you wanted to go into technology banking. Right, So like
8:50
Speaker 1: all things, you know, Land of the Blind one, iron
8:51
Speaker 1: Man is king And at the time technology for us
8:55
Speaker 1: was it was defense contractors. We had another company we
8:58
Speaker 1: took public when called Microsoft. We had this other company
9:00
Speaker 1: we called on called IBM, and that was the world
9:03
Speaker 1: of technology. As far as Goldman was was concerned. Were
9:06
Speaker 1: there a lot of African Americans in the technology area
9:09
Speaker 1: at that time? Very few, very few ours. Our first
9:13
Speaker 1: eminent bank around the ground in San Francisco focused on tech,
9:15
Speaker 1: and then we decided to form a tech group and
9:18
Speaker 1: so that created the whole, another whole, another nexus and
9:21
Speaker 1: dynamic of of of opportunity. Your job is to convince
9:24
Speaker 1: clients to hire Goldman. You've gotten to give them good advice.
9:27
Speaker 1: Did you meet Steve Jobs? I didn't meet Steve Jobs personally,
9:31
Speaker 1: but I was on the team that we actually got engaged.
9:34
Speaker 1: We had to at the time. You may not remember
9:36
Speaker 1: this Apple was under assault, Steven said I'm not coming
9:39
Speaker 1: back unless there's a different board. So we fired the board,
9:43
Speaker 1: got rid of the CEO, and invited Steve to come back.
9:45
Speaker 1: All right, so you're doing very well out there, you're
9:48
Speaker 1: now living in San Francisco area, you're making a big success,
9:51
Speaker 1: you're by investment banking standards. I presume you're you know,
9:54
Speaker 1: highly compensated. So forth, what propelled you to say I'm
9:57
Speaker 1: going to give all this shop and go start my
9:59
Speaker 1: own come penny? Right? So the interesting thing that occurred,
10:02
Speaker 1: as you know, again as an engineer, the thing I
10:05
Speaker 1: realized way back in my goodyear, entire and rubber days
10:07
Speaker 1: the impact that software really had on businesses. The thing
10:12
Speaker 1: that I noticed that there's very few software companies were
10:15
Speaker 1: actually efficiently run. Well. Why Um, The big part was
10:18
Speaker 1: most executives who started software companies, well, they wrote code
10:22
Speaker 1: or they knew a market opportunity, and they sold the code.
10:25
Speaker 1: There was never anyone who taught them how to run
10:27
Speaker 1: software companies. So I then run into this the small
10:30
Speaker 1: company i'll say small in in Houston, Texas that is
10:33
Speaker 1: the most efficient software company I've ever seen. They had
10:36
Speaker 1: some very basic things that they just did extremely well.
10:39
Speaker 1: And I said, well, if you took those basic things
10:41
Speaker 1: and and actually applied them ultimately to other enterprise software companies,
10:45
Speaker 1: you could run those businesses very similar to the way
10:47
Speaker 1: they ran their's and would create tremendous value in those companies.
10:51
Speaker 1: That that was the idea. That was a conceit, And
10:53
Speaker 1: they said, that's a good idea. Why don't you do it? Well, yeah,
10:56
Speaker 1: in essence, I said, well, if you actually thought about
10:59
Speaker 1: taking some of these best practices and putting them buying
11:02
Speaker 1: enterprise software companies and driving them forward, you could actually
11:05
Speaker 1: do pretty well. And I said that's a great idea.
11:06
Speaker 1: Would you do that? And I said, well, you know,
11:08
Speaker 1: they gave me one of those offers that looked quite interesting,
11:11
Speaker 1: and I remember my lawyer said, this is a bad deal, Robert,
11:14
Speaker 1: but you should take it. Right. So you went to
11:16
Speaker 1: Goldman and said, I'm leaving that they try to talk about.
11:19
Speaker 1: Of course they made the pitch against it, but you know,
11:21
Speaker 1: I like all things, David, at some point in time
11:24
Speaker 1: in your life, you know, you've got to look yourself
11:26
Speaker 1: in the mirror and said, you know, you have to
11:27
Speaker 1: take a little risk and go see if this is
11:30
Speaker 1: something for you. When you took this, I was thirty
11:32
Speaker 1: nine years old, and it's it's so interesting, So of
11:34
Speaker 1: course I started doing research. It was the same age
11:36
Speaker 1: that others left what they were doing to go start
11:39
Speaker 1: their businesses. I said, well, let's go give it a run,
11:41
Speaker 1: all right. So you started buying companies with the money
11:44
Speaker 1: that from the Houston Company. How many deals have you
11:46
Speaker 1: now done if you look at it today, it's a
11:49
Speaker 1: little over three hundred. One of the things you did
11:51
Speaker 1: that was unique. Many people think that buy out people.
11:53
Speaker 1: What they do is they lever up a company, borrow
11:55
Speaker 1: a lot of money, tell the CEO do the best
11:57
Speaker 1: job you can, and then they hope for the What
12:00
Speaker 1: you actually did was something different. You actually put a
12:03
Speaker 1: system together to make sure every one of your companies
12:05
Speaker 1: was going to follow the system. Can you explain that? Sure?
12:07
Speaker 1: And it's important. You know, early on in the world
12:10
Speaker 1: of software you couldn't borrow money and software companies anyway.
12:13
Speaker 1: It wasn't until probably six o seven uh two you
12:16
Speaker 1: could actually level up software companies, so there was no
12:18
Speaker 1: debt available. So the only value, the value that you
12:21
Speaker 1: could create had to be inherent in the business. You
12:24
Speaker 1: had to now improve the operations so what we now do.
12:27
Speaker 1: We took, you know, these kernels of best practices and
12:30
Speaker 1: in essence of now developed a whole systemic approach. Here's
12:33
Speaker 1: how you use this best practice to improve the the
12:36
Speaker 1: the the efficacy of whatever that functional area is within
12:40
Speaker 1: a within a within that company. We then have a
12:42
Speaker 1: group now called this the consulting group that delivers over
12:45
Speaker 1: a hundred people in that group that actually delivered these
12:48
Speaker 1: best practices with them to the management team, and the
12:51
Speaker 1: management team adopts those best practices. The way I like
12:54
Speaker 1: to think about it, we install the best practices in
12:56
Speaker 1: those businesses that actually cracks the Rubik's Cuba pro sortable growth.
13:00
Speaker 1: Not only are we increasing the profit margins of those businesses,
13:05
Speaker 1: but we actually can accelerate the growth in those businesses
13:07
Speaker 1: at the same time. Let's describe Vista today. How many
13:10
Speaker 1: employees has fished to have We have about three hundred,
13:13
Speaker 1: so call it a hundred or so in my investment team,
13:16
Speaker 1: hundred and so a VCG and call it a hundred
13:18
Speaker 1: so an administration, So three hundred people in the core
13:21
Speaker 1: of what is Vista. At what point did you realize
13:25
Speaker 1: you were pretty good at this? It was the first
13:27
Speaker 1: year the second year or third year, when did you realize, hey,
13:29
Speaker 1: I'm really good at this. It took a while, believe
13:31
Speaker 1: it or not. It wasn't until we really finished our
13:34
Speaker 1: first fund. We actually closed out the last deal in
13:38
Speaker 1: the first fund and said we actually are pretty good
13:40
Speaker 1: at this. When you became very wealthy, which is in
13:42
Speaker 1: the last few years or so, um, you became very
13:46
Speaker 1: involved in philanthropy. Much of your giving has related to
13:49
Speaker 1: African American related projects or causes, And I'd like to
13:52
Speaker 1: just talk about a couple of that. The African American
13:55
Speaker 1: History and Culture Museum where we're now at. What attracted
13:58
Speaker 1: you to that? Uh cause sure there are two elements.
14:01
Speaker 1: We have been staying by the history of slavery and
14:05
Speaker 1: and and still staying by the part of you know,
14:07
Speaker 1: of racism. But what we need to do is make
14:09
Speaker 1: sure we have a monument to the people who have actually,
14:12
Speaker 1: you know, put their blood into this soil that could
14:14
Speaker 1: create it. What is the best country in the world.
14:17
Speaker 1: So that's point number one. Point number two. I think
14:19
Speaker 1: it's important that the people, African American people have a
14:23
Speaker 1: place to come to feel ausens of pride of who
14:25
Speaker 1: we are and where we're going. And also contribute their story.
14:28
Speaker 1: The majority of my gift is actually the digitization of
14:32
Speaker 1: the African American experience. So any family can now digitize
14:36
Speaker 1: their photographs, their narrative, their their you know, their their
14:40
Speaker 1: their videography, whatever it might be, and it's now part
14:43
Speaker 1: of this museum and people will be able to learn
14:45
Speaker 1: about their family histories in in ways that come alive.
14:49
Speaker 1: It's just something that your parents are instilled a new
14:51
Speaker 1: or why do you decide to become such an active
14:53
Speaker 1: philanthropist in just a few years. I saw my mother
14:57
Speaker 1: right at twenty five dollar check to the United Negro
14:59
Speaker 1: College every month growing up, and even when I wanted
15:02
Speaker 1: a new pair of you know, Converse all Stars, she said,
15:05
Speaker 1: go earn the money to get them yourselves. As you
15:07
Speaker 1: wrote that twenty five dollar check, which I could have
15:09
Speaker 1: bought two pairs with. Uh, you know, she she instilled
15:12
Speaker 1: in me the importance of giving to the community. I
15:15
Speaker 1: saw my father who was on the board and ran
15:17
Speaker 1: you know the local y m c as the East
15:19
Speaker 1: Denver y m c A and you know how he
15:21
Speaker 1: contributed time and energy and intellectual capacity on raising funds
15:26
Speaker 1: so the kids in our neighborhood could go UH and
15:28
Speaker 1: spend you know, camps or summer camp and and enjoy
15:31
Speaker 1: the outdoors and understand the importance of the outdoors and
15:34
Speaker 1: building one sense of spirit and one soul. So all
15:37
Speaker 1: through my life growing up, you know, philanthropic endeavors were
15:40
Speaker 1: part of my family, my family dynamic. You signed the
15:43
Speaker 1: giving pledge was not a hard to do, which says
15:45
Speaker 1: you're gonna give away half your wealth. It was not hard,
15:48
Speaker 1: you know. It's it's it's it's so interesting, you know
15:50
Speaker 1: I And it's wonderful that you know, the Bill and
15:53
Speaker 1: Warren and folks like you are actually out there having
15:56
Speaker 1: UH and being in evangelists for what this is. One
15:59
Speaker 1: thing we have to do is ensure that our society
16:03
Speaker 1: is a just society. Our society has the ability, uh
16:06
Speaker 1: to actually cure its own problems. And you know, while
16:09
Speaker 1: we accumulate wealth on the one hand, you know, we
16:11
Speaker 1: need to also solve the problems that we that are
16:14
Speaker 1: facing us today while we're alive. Part of what I
16:17
Speaker 1: think about is I know today the problems that are
16:20
Speaker 1: facing the communities I care about, and if I have
16:23
Speaker 1: the capacity to do something about them. Frankly, it's on
16:26
Speaker 1: me to do something about them, and the giving pledge
16:28
Speaker 1: is a is a good way to put a signal
16:30
Speaker 1: out there that say, listen this, this is the right
16:33
Speaker 1: thing for anyone who accumulates wealth of any size. I
16:36
Speaker 1: respective whether you sign the pledge, um to actually care
16:39
Speaker 1: about the community in very meaningful ways. You have another
16:43
Speaker 1: very interesting philanthropic UH project. You have a ranch that
16:48
Speaker 1: you have converted. It's called Lincoln Hills. It's actually the
16:52
Speaker 1: oldest African American resort community founded by African Americans, and
16:55
Speaker 1: it was founded as a place where African Americans could
16:59
Speaker 1: buy a plot of lion land for twenty five dollars,
17:01
Speaker 1: build a cabin, and that's where they would come in
17:03
Speaker 1: summer and spend a vacations. I went up there the
17:05
Speaker 1: first time when I was just six months old. So
17:08
Speaker 1: it goes way back in history. Everyone from Duke Ellington
17:12
Speaker 1: to Zoro, Neil Hurston to Langston Hughes, and Count Basie
17:16
Speaker 1: all come there. They stayed there because they could not
17:18
Speaker 1: stay in the hotels in Denver during that that that
17:21
Speaker 1: period of history. So over time is you know, after desegregation,
17:25
Speaker 1: like a lot of the African American institutions kind of
17:28
Speaker 1: fell in disrepair and got sold off in different parts,
17:31
Speaker 1: and now we've developed a wonderful program that serves our
17:33
Speaker 1: community in so many different ways. Six thousand inner city
17:36
Speaker 1: kids every summer come to the ranch. We also get
17:39
Speaker 1: to about two to three hundred wounded veterans every year
17:42
Speaker 1: in the winter though, um, when the ranch is pretty
17:45
Speaker 1: much shut down. One of the things that we identified,
17:47
Speaker 1: my my wife identified this was um that there are
17:51
Speaker 1: programs once called Together we Rise, and we partner with
17:54
Speaker 1: that actually handles aging out foster kids. So now we
17:58
Speaker 1: have built at the ranch a sixteen bedroom ranch house
18:03
Speaker 1: and we can host up the thirty kids during the
18:05
Speaker 1: during the holiday. So we host them and do all
18:07
Speaker 1: sorts of fun activities with here a big fly fisherman.
18:10
Speaker 1: I love it. Yes, I'll tell me what the appeal is.
18:12
Speaker 1: Because you have a big brain and you're trying to
18:15
Speaker 1: outsmart a small brain. So why is that so comfident?
18:19
Speaker 1: It's it it because those little brains are are are
18:22
Speaker 1: actually focused on outsmarting you because you're in near territory.
18:25
Speaker 1: But the beauty of it, honestly, David, is nature. You're
18:29
Speaker 1: standing I think about you know, all things in this
18:31
Speaker 1: world that we live in today depend upon water. In
18:34
Speaker 1: order to live. I think about water is being, in essence,
18:37
Speaker 1: the literal life blood of this planet. And you're standing
18:40
Speaker 1: in this water with your feet on the soil, and
18:42
Speaker 1: the water is resting around you. And at some point
18:44
Speaker 1: in time, if you open yourself to it, all things
18:47
Speaker 1: become one and you stand there and you start to
18:49
Speaker 1: realize that you are part of this greater this greater
18:52
Speaker 1: consciousness of existence. And this is the fly Fishing is
18:55
Speaker 1: just a way to stand in the water without looking ridiculous.
18:57
Speaker 1: Now your parents are alive. My my there still is.
19:00
Speaker 1: She's and she must be extremely proud of what you've achieved.
19:03
Speaker 1: Does she call you all the time to tell you
19:04
Speaker 1: how great you She usually calls me to tell me
19:07
Speaker 1: what I need to do a little better. Her thoughtfulness
19:09
Speaker 1: about what our community needs, uh is still very relevant, invalid,
19:13
Speaker 1: and so she identifies areas that she says, you know, Robert,
19:16
Speaker 1: you need to think about this, and how can you
19:18
Speaker 1: help this one kid or these hundreds of kids in
19:21
Speaker 1: certain ways? So what is the greatest pleasure of your
19:23
Speaker 1: life pleasing your mother or making a great dale of money,
19:26
Speaker 1: giving away money, catching a thirty inch rainbow? Okay, all right,
19:30
Speaker 1: now the greatest pleasure in all honesty, David is Frankie,
19:34
Speaker 1: just to to liberate a human spirit. And when you're
19:37
Speaker 1: able to liberate a human spirit and see that spirit
19:40
Speaker 1: really become its best self and that person become its
19:43
Speaker 1: bet So that is the greatest thrill on the planet.
19:46
Speaker 1: So what would you like to be? How people say
19:48
Speaker 1: as your legacy? Eventually you might slow down, you might
19:52
Speaker 1: do something else. Would you ever go into government? You know,
19:55
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, And like all things, you
19:58
Speaker 1: look for areas that you can bring a unique alution
20:00
Speaker 1: to and and solve a problem. I think the problems
20:04
Speaker 1: I want to solve now are an equalization of opportunity
20:07
Speaker 1: for African Americans to help them on board into what
20:11
Speaker 1: is the the commercial enterprise that is America. You know,
20:14
Speaker 1: how do we create sustainable career opportunities for people, not
20:18
Speaker 1: just a job um or not just a place to
20:20
Speaker 1: go work. And I think it's through the education, It's
20:22
Speaker 1: through internships. So I hope that I'm able to establish
20:26
Speaker 1: and build a sustainable fabric to identify, uh, these folks,
20:30
Speaker 1: get them educated in in in you know, a series
20:33
Speaker 1: of schools, get them the right internships and put them
20:36
Speaker 1: on a path to not only be creative business leaders,
20:39
Speaker 1: but also creative engineers and technologists that contribute to what
20:43
Speaker 1: is the fabric of America. Robert Smith, it's a great story,
20:46
Speaker 1: a great American story. Congratulations and what you've achieved, and
20:49
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Thank you, David, thank you,