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Unpacking The Modern Middle East: Lessons From Abu Dhabi & Dubai · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, a
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Speaker 1: production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, hey,
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Speaker 1: John Hope Bryant here. This is the Money and Wealth
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Speaker 1: Podcast Series, episode season three. The episode focused on the
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Speaker 1: Middle East, unpacking the economy in the Well, is there
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Speaker 1: an economy in the Middle East? Is there something, is
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Speaker 1: it just war? Is it something you should be even
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Speaker 1: interested in? I just got back. So I'm giving you
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Speaker 1: a first person situational awareness report of what I've seen
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Speaker 1: there and why I think everybody needs to possibly go
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Speaker 1: at least part of the Middle East. Yes. I said
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Speaker 1: that in the midst of the Iran war. Again, thank
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Speaker 1: you all for making this podcast series, Money and Wealth,
1:01
Speaker 1: top 75 for entrepreneurship in the world and top 250
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Speaker 1: for business on every continent, I believe, in the world.
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Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I appreciate your support. Black Effect Network, iHeartRadio,
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Speaker 1: thank you all as well. Let's get into this. Unpacking
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Speaker 1: the Middle East, Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the midst
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Speaker 1: of war. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are two Emirates as
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Speaker 1: part of seven Emirates in the United Arab Emirates, the UAE.
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Speaker 1: This is why I learned something there, how and what
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Speaker 1: I learned. And I went there thinking I'd see something
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Speaker 1: and came back believing I learned something. It could be
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Speaker 1: a lesson for America, yes, America, and the rest of
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Speaker 1: the world. This is a deep statement I'm making Again,
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Speaker 1: in the midst of war. Let me not minimize, and
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Speaker 1: I'm going to get into why this is relevant to you.
2:01
Speaker 1: You're like, John, this is a money and wealth podcast.
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Speaker 1: We live here in the US. What does this have
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Speaker 1: to do with us? You're about to hear what it
2:08
Speaker 1: has to do with you and the opportunity that it
2:10
Speaker 1: might represent for you and certainly why it relates to you.
2:13
Speaker 1: And it's not just gas prices. So look, mention and
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Speaker 1: get through with the obvious. This is a war zone
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Speaker 1: for the whole Middle East region. It involves Iran, which
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Speaker 1: is making life for their neighbors very painful. I was
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Speaker 1: there with my family earlier this year, speaking at the
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Speaker 1: World Government Summit. I believe it was February 2026, and
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Speaker 1: I was in Dubai. And I was very pleased, very
2:41
Speaker 1: impressed with the place, and got on a plane. And
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Speaker 1: a day or two later, shrapnel from bombs and drones
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Speaker 1: hit the hotel I was staying in. So a little
2:51
Speaker 1: concerned about the stability of the region. And I've since
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Speaker 1: been watching YouTube videos on what's going on in Dubai.
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Speaker 1: And if you just watch those videos, you go, oh
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Speaker 1: my God, the world has come to an end there.
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Speaker 1: And all that prominence has just ended and the tourists
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Speaker 1: are gone and the business is done and everything's shut down.
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Speaker 1: There's bombs and shrapnels flying everywhere. This is a horrible
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Speaker 1: thing and the dream is over. That's what you would get.
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Speaker 1: Even as somebody who just was there earlier this year,
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Speaker 1: if you're just watching these videos on YouTube that pop up.
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Speaker 1: It's just not true. There are tensions that are there.
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Speaker 1: Be clear about that. This is a war going on.
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Speaker 1: Be clear about that. The region is experiencing real disruption,
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Speaker 1: including economic disruption. That's clear. There's been disruption in aviation,
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Speaker 1: disruption in shipping, disruption in tourism, disruption in trade. Disruption
3:53
Speaker 1: in energy markets. Clearly, there's straits of removes, which almost
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Speaker 1: nobody in the world knew about several months ago. And
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Speaker 1: everybody knows the household name. It's been disrupted. I'm not
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Speaker 1: minimizing any of that. But let me tell you what
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Speaker 1: surprised me. What I saw wasn't a society frozen by fear.
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Speaker 1: Life was happening, people. Business was happening. Construction was happening everywhere.
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Speaker 1: investment was happening. People were planning for tomorrow and shopping today.
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Speaker 1: And I mean shopping. I'm going to throw some on
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Speaker 1: the YouTube and on some of the social media. I'm
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Speaker 1: going to throw up some of the pictures of me
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Speaker 1: being there, including some photos I took when I was
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Speaker 1: in Dubai in the mall. And you'd swear you were
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Speaker 1: in downtown, I don't know, you're at the Phipps Plaza
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Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, at the High End Mall here or
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Speaker 1: Beverly Hills. I mean, you'd think that this was on Miami,
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Speaker 1: on the most prominent shopping strips there, you would swear,
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Speaker 1: I mean, the Bentleys, the Ferraris, the valet line, I mean, life,
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Speaker 1: this was yesterday I'm talking about. Life continues on. Okay,
5:05
Speaker 1: but is that an aberration? No, it's a celebration of
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Speaker 1: a business model that in spite of the conflict still
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Speaker 1: pushes forward because this is a disruption, not a destination.
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Speaker 1: Their destination is actually quite clear. And again, what I
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Speaker 1: learned there could be a lesson for others. Let me
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Speaker 1: back up a little bit. Don't confuse turbulence with trajectory,
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Speaker 1: by the way. I want to talk to you for
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Speaker 1: the next hour or so, not to romanticize the UAE,
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Speaker 1: not to criticize America, but to unpack some myths about
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Speaker 1: the modern Middle East and to tell you what I
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Speaker 1: actually saw and what all the rest of the world
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Speaker 1: can learn from it, including... So let me start me
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Speaker 1: back up and say that I was in New York
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Speaker 1: meeting at dinner with a bunch of prominent leaders Thank
5:57
Speaker 1: you Van Jones for organizing that Robert Smith and others
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Speaker 1: the Sun did not get a bunch of heroes and
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Speaker 1: sheroes of mine Trying to solve some conflicts and create
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Speaker 1: some opportunity here in America. I ran to the airport
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Speaker 1: JFK got on the plane to honor a speaking engagement
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Speaker 1: I had for a live ex in Abu Dhabi in
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Speaker 1: the United Arab Emirates. Now, again, Abu Dhabi is an emirate.
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Speaker 1: Think of it as a country. And there are seven
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Speaker 1: emirates within the master plan country called the United Arab Emirates.
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Speaker 1: All of this came into being around 1971. So it's
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Speaker 1: as old as, or you're as old as it, if
6:32
Speaker 1: you're listening to the average age of this podcast person,
6:35
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, is older than, or at least
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Speaker 1: as old as the United Arab Emirates. Some of the
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Speaker 1: emirates date back to the 1800s, like Dubai does. So
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Speaker 1: Dubai is not just shopping malls and cotton candy today
6:48
Speaker 1: dates back to the 1800s. But I went on my
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Speaker 1: way there and I go to the airport at JFK.
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Speaker 1: And I would say this, the people who checked me
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Speaker 1: in were not Emiratis. They were not from the country.
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Speaker 1: This is a domestic New York situation. I go over
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Speaker 1: to the counter and this is the start of my travel.
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Speaker 1: And I had two bags. One was full, one wasn't.
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Speaker 1: The second bag was for wherever I might pick up
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Speaker 1: when I was there, including gifts from my staff. And
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Speaker 1: I had a greeter who walked me through the airport.
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Speaker 1: And the guy at the counter just couldn't get off
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Speaker 1: the fact that my luggage was heavy. Your luggage is overweight, sir. Yes,
7:30
Speaker 1: I'm aware of that. Your luggage is overweight, sir. Yes,
7:33
Speaker 1: you told me that already. I didn't say that, but
7:35
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying to myself. And basically, he was
7:38
Speaker 1: saying the inference was, you can't get on this plane.
7:42
Speaker 1: And we were running tight on time. So there was
7:44
Speaker 1: no time for all this. But the vibe was that
7:49
Speaker 1: rule 46, you can't get on this plane. Your bag
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Speaker 1: is overweight. And luckily, I didn't pop off at him. Otherwise,
7:55
Speaker 1: one thing would have led to another. Fire on fire
7:59
Speaker 1: creates an inferno, right? So I had to throw some
8:03
Speaker 1: water on the fire to create a little modest steam
8:07
Speaker 1: and blow off this heat that he was throwing out.
8:10
Speaker 1: So by the third or fourth time he said this,
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Speaker 1: I said, I looked over at my greeter who realized
8:16
Speaker 1: there was some drama here. So she said to him, look,
8:19
Speaker 1: he's got a second piece of luggage. Maybe he can
8:22
Speaker 1: shift some weight over. And I had just said that
8:24
Speaker 1: to him, but he wasn't paying attention to me. Anyway,
8:27
Speaker 1: they said, yes. I pulled the bag off and shifted
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Speaker 1: some item from one to the other. He checked the bag.
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Speaker 1: We were able to get through security. Now, that was
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Speaker 1: my first impression of what I thought was the Middle East,
8:38
Speaker 1: specifically the UAE. And I'm going, okay, oh boy, this
8:41
Speaker 1: is going to be a bad situation. The guy was Dr. No, Mr. No.
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Speaker 1: And you don't grow an economy by citing me policy
8:48
Speaker 1: 46 or grow anything, a business, anything. You got to
8:51
Speaker 1: figure out how to get to yes. I'm paying top
8:55
Speaker 1: dollar for this plane ticket. I'm trying to get on
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Speaker 1: the plane. Don't disrupt the flow, facilitate the flow. And
9:03
Speaker 1: he was just Dr. No. And luckily we got to yes,
9:07
Speaker 1: get on the plane. And everything else from that moment
9:11
Speaker 1: forward was a building block experience. I arrive 12, 13
9:17
Speaker 1: hours later. It's direct flight in Abu Dhabi. I get
9:21
Speaker 1: off the plane. And that has to be, I've been
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Speaker 1: to over 100 countries, people. I travel all over the US.
9:26
Speaker 1: I travel everywhere. You know me. You see me around.
9:29
Speaker 1: You see me through an airport or whatever. I was
9:32
Speaker 1: very impressed. and I'm normally bragging about Delta Airlines as
9:36
Speaker 1: I still brag about them. They're my partners and my friends,
9:38
Speaker 1: and we're the whole financial coach for all Delta, all
9:41
Speaker 1: 100,000 Delta Airline employees. I have to give some love
9:45
Speaker 1: here to Etihad Airlines. And I met the chairman when
9:48
Speaker 1: I was there, but I did not know him at
9:51
Speaker 1: this point. So internet, basically the entire way, first class, everything,
9:57
Speaker 1: land there, and I get through international passport control and
10:03
Speaker 1: the airport in six minutes. Now I will tell you,
10:07
Speaker 1: this was an extraordinary experience. I was because I was
10:09
Speaker 1: a guest of the government and a Royal family and, uh, and, um,
10:13
Speaker 1: the business leaders there. So they worked it out and
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Speaker 1: I got through at 10 o'clock at night. through six minutes.
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Speaker 1: But the fact that this even happened in the midst
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Speaker 1: of this environment, the midst of war, was extraordinary. Okay.
10:25
Speaker 1: In his first class, all the way through, they get
10:27
Speaker 1: me in the car. My guy, Abdullah, new friend, meets me.
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Speaker 1: He's there greeting me on behalf of His Excellency Badr al-Olamah,
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Speaker 1: who is the Director General of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office,
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Speaker 1: who I want to give a lot of love to.
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Speaker 1: Love this guy. He's my brother now from another mother,
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Speaker 1: along with Ambassador Yusuf Oteba, the UAE ambassador to the
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Speaker 1: United States in Washington, D.C., arguably one of the best
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Speaker 1: ambassadors in Washington, D.C. So they put me in the car,
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Speaker 1: and we go to the hotel, and we check in. Hotel,
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Speaker 1: and I stayed there at the Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi. Again,
11:04
Speaker 1: first rate, I go to plugging my stuff in, and
11:07
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I don't see any adapters here
11:10
Speaker 1: for U.S. accessories. They're like, you don't need one. No,
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Speaker 1: that can't be. So I go to plug my stuff
11:16
Speaker 1: in and it doesn't fit. And so I called the
11:21
Speaker 1: front desk saying, well, no, that's not correct. Can you
11:23
Speaker 1: send me an adapter up? Sure. They just said yes. Anyway,
11:26
Speaker 1: I was putting it in the wrong way. It did fit.
11:30
Speaker 1: And when you hit the on switch, it powered my
11:32
Speaker 1: devices with no adapter. Now, as small as this is,
11:35
Speaker 1: this shows you how much detail they're putting into their
11:39
Speaker 1: service delivery to their guests who come from around the world.
11:43
Speaker 1: I used all of my Apple and other accessories there
11:45
Speaker 1: and all with all my security devices attached to them
11:49
Speaker 1: to make sure no one's, you know, getting unauthorized use
11:52
Speaker 1: of my devices. And this stuff was seamless. The internet
11:54
Speaker 1: was seamless. The power situation was seamless. I set myself
11:58
Speaker 1: up to get up next morning to, uh, to go
12:01
Speaker 1: to my first meetings. And all I can tell you
12:04
Speaker 1: is professional from beginning to end and every race of
12:08
Speaker 1: people I've now met in 24 hours. from Africa, from Asia,
12:12
Speaker 1: from India, from Latin America even. Certainly, you're talking about Emiratis,
12:18
Speaker 1: people from the Emirates. And there's about 11 million plus
12:22
Speaker 1: people there, about 4.8 million or so from Abu Dhabi,
12:26
Speaker 1: an economy that is over half a billion a year
12:29
Speaker 1: and growing. I think a population increase of 7.5% last
12:32
Speaker 1: year alone, an economy that's between 50% and 70% non-oil. Hello? non-oil.
12:42
Speaker 1: They've transitioned into a non-oil economy. And they've done this
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Speaker 1: since they found oil in 1958. Most places in the
12:51
Speaker 1: region have not got this figured out. They have. And
12:54
Speaker 1: I want to just commend the vision of the founding president,
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Speaker 1: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nayan. He's the founding president of
13:03
Speaker 1: the country. And he had a simple vision beyond oil.
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Speaker 1: Vision plus capital plus execution, plus time lapse. He once
13:14
Speaker 1: said that resources don't build countries. People decide what to
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Speaker 1: do with the resources. Or I'll put it another way,
13:21
Speaker 1: it's not about what's in the ground, it's what's walking
13:23
Speaker 1: on the ground, which is what I said when I
13:24
Speaker 1: was there. But he said that he looks forward to
13:27
Speaker 1: celebrating the day when the last barrel of oil, sorry,
13:32
Speaker 1: the current president said this, the last barrel of oil
13:35
Speaker 1: was sold through the port. What a thing to say
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Speaker 1: about a place that lives on oil. oil. They meant
13:41
Speaker 1: that they're interested in this transitioned future to a new economy.
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Speaker 1: So here's a myth number one, and I'm going to
13:49
Speaker 1: intersperse my personal story along with my factual analysis in
13:55
Speaker 1: the midst of this podcast, but I want to break
13:58
Speaker 1: up a lot of myths. So here's myth number one.
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Speaker 1: They just got lucky. They found oil. That's it. If
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Speaker 1: that's the case, then how is it that they're still
14:08
Speaker 1: not oil dependent? How is it that They're not running
14:13
Speaker 1: out of economic runway if they were just looking at
14:18
Speaker 1: oil as the hole in the ground that they pull
14:21
Speaker 1: money out of, and that's going to be their future.
14:25
Speaker 1: So here's a UAE real formula. Oil equal cash. Pay
14:29
Speaker 1: attention now, people, because I keep telling you, cash is
14:31
Speaker 1: overrated now. Oil was their cash. So oil equal cash.
14:36
Speaker 1: Cash equal infrastructure. Infrastructure. Equals or led to commerce. Okay.
14:45
Speaker 1: Commerce led to investment. Investment turned into assets. Assets turned
14:52
Speaker 1: into diversification of their economy. Diversification of their economy has
14:58
Speaker 1: turned in or is leading into resilience. And ultimately, the
15:04
Speaker 1: real future of the country is not resource oil capital,
15:08
Speaker 1: but human capital. That's the future. So use your first advantage, oil,
15:16
Speaker 1: to finance your second advantage, untapped human potential at scale. Now,
15:20
Speaker 1: you know that speaks to me. If you go to
15:22
Speaker 1: the Brian Group Ventures website, that is what it lists
15:26
Speaker 1: as my overall mandate, unleashing untapped human potential at scale.
15:36
Speaker 1: Oil doesn't have to be their permanent business model. It
15:40
Speaker 1: can finance a creation process. of their next business model. Okay,
15:44
Speaker 1: now let's deal with the elephant in the room, the war.
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Speaker 1: It's a disruption, no doubt about it, but it's not
15:51
Speaker 1: a derailment. I saw not one, I'm in UAE for
15:56
Speaker 1: a week. I'm sitting at a hotel facing the ocean
16:02
Speaker 1: on the beach. I didn't see one drone. I didn't
16:06
Speaker 1: see one interruption, the one interception of a missile. I
16:10
Speaker 1: didn't hear one bomb. I didn't see one. Check this out.
16:14
Speaker 1: I didn't see one police officer with a gun. Actually,
16:16
Speaker 1: now I'm thinking about it. Dang. I didn't see one
16:20
Speaker 1: police officer with a gun. There were police cars everywhere,
16:22
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I didn't see them. This is deep. I'm
16:25
Speaker 1: thinking about this. I didn't see one. Did I see
16:28
Speaker 1: a police car? I'm sure I did somewhere. I don't remember.
16:32
Speaker 1: And I certainly didn't see anybody in the military with rifles.
16:36
Speaker 1: I saw not one rifle, not one military vehicle. It's
16:39
Speaker 1: just hitting me now. This is a country right next
16:44
Speaker 1: to and in the midst of a war zone. So
16:49
Speaker 1: clearly there's been economic disruption. Clearly there's been a downturn
16:55
Speaker 1: in the economy. But the economy is still growing. You
16:59
Speaker 1: see more about this war watching CNN or whatever you're watching, Fox, CNN, CNBC, whatever,
17:06
Speaker 1: in the United States than you experience of the war itself.
17:11
Speaker 1: by being in the region, at least being in the UAE,
17:14
Speaker 1: by 10x. You hear me? 10 times more emphasis being
17:19
Speaker 1: in the West, looking at what's going on there, than
17:21
Speaker 1: being there and experiencing what's going on there. I walked
17:26
Speaker 1: around Abu Dhabi day and night, and I felt completely safe. Hello. Okay.
17:35
Speaker 1: So again, don't confuse turbulence with trajectory. Let me now
17:40
Speaker 1: talk through a bit of my week. I started out
17:43
Speaker 1: at this place called MISA, M-I-Z-A, talking to entrepreneurs and startups.
17:49
Speaker 1: They didn't want to show me oil fields. In fact,
17:50
Speaker 1: I didn't go to one oil field when I was there.
17:52
Speaker 1: I remember walking past one or driving past one. This
17:54
Speaker 1: is just crazy as I'm thinking about this now. They
17:56
Speaker 1: took me to where startup entrepreneurs were starting businesses. And
18:01
Speaker 1: it sounded like I was in Detroit or, you know,
18:06
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley or something. It was just a normal conversation.
18:11
Speaker 1: Then they took me to Hub 71, where I met
18:14
Speaker 1: technology entrepreneurs and founders and venture capitalists. And we're talking
18:19
Speaker 1: about AI and talking about the challenges of young founders
18:22
Speaker 1: in businesses and talk about how to manage through challenges.
18:26
Speaker 1: It was unbelievable. And it was women, by the way,
18:28
Speaker 1: in the room and basically every race of people talking
18:32
Speaker 1: about the future. Here's something else fascinating that I saw.
18:37
Speaker 1: When you're flying in the United States and you fly
18:39
Speaker 1: into Manhattan, And you look down, you see buildings next
18:44
Speaker 1: to each other and roadways and infrastructure, almost no green space.
18:49
Speaker 1: It's a built out economy. The money, the wealth has
18:51
Speaker 1: already been made. The money is being transferred and there's
18:54
Speaker 1: a lot of commerce, but the real wealth has already
18:56
Speaker 1: been made. All the growth is already there. You fly
18:59
Speaker 1: into Los Angeles, same situation. You see a bunch of
19:02
Speaker 1: houses stuck next to each other and some roadways and
19:04
Speaker 1: some infrastructure, but, and it's far and wide and all
19:08
Speaker 1: the wealth has been created. The income is flowing through that.
19:13
Speaker 1: The transactional infrastructure is flowing through all those houses and
19:16
Speaker 1: byways and highways and buildings and businesses. But the real wealth,
19:19
Speaker 1: the up from nothing, the banking on the future, the
19:22
Speaker 1: buying a house and letting it appreciate, buying a business
19:25
Speaker 1: and letting it grow, all that has basically, not all
19:29
Speaker 1: of it, but most of it's done. And it's a
19:31
Speaker 1: built-out economy. You fly into Atlanta, a $ 10 economy in
19:36
Speaker 1: the U.S., just about the same size as the UAE GDP,
19:42
Speaker 1: by the way, about the same population as a little
19:44
Speaker 1: bit more than Abu Dhabi. They're very similar. Atlanta and
19:47
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi very similar profiles. And you look down from
19:54
Speaker 1: the plane flying into Abu Dhabi and you see some
19:58
Speaker 1: buildings and some highways, some infrastructure, but you see, sorry,
20:02
Speaker 1: you fly into Atlanta. I'm sorry. My bad. You fly
20:05
Speaker 1: to Atlanta. You look down from the plane And you see, yes,
20:08
Speaker 1: economic activity and all that stuff, but you see green
20:10
Speaker 1: space everywhere. That's room for growth. It's not just economy
20:14
Speaker 1: that's bubbling and growing. There's room for dreaming and building
20:18
Speaker 1: and homes and businesses. And most of greater Atlanta is
20:22
Speaker 1: still green space. So it's a 10th largest economy in
20:25
Speaker 1: the country with enormous diversity and all that stuff. And
20:29
Speaker 1: more people moving in than moving out. And belief and
20:32
Speaker 1: optimism and rule of law and all that stuff. But
20:36
Speaker 1: there's room for, you can see the wealth opportunity there.
20:40
Speaker 1: You fly in to Abu Dhabi and you look down
20:44
Speaker 1: and you don't see green space, you see desert. And
20:49
Speaker 1: that desert is opportunity. You see buildings and all that stuff.
20:55
Speaker 1: And where it's built out, it's built out and it's
20:57
Speaker 1: really impressive. But then you see just massive areas of
21:02
Speaker 1: desert as opportunity waiting for And this is why I'm
21:08
Speaker 1: saying I want you to pay attention to the intellectual
21:12
Speaker 1: capital that's happening now, the government capital that has put
21:16
Speaker 1: in place a very safe, serene, stable, sophisticated, elegant, calm,
21:27
Speaker 1: empowered women involved. In other words, women are not serving anybody.
21:33
Speaker 1: They are They are leading everybody. They are part of
21:37
Speaker 1: the growth story, women and minorities, of this place. I
21:43
Speaker 1: didn't feel any racism. I didn't feel any anti-Blackness or anti-anything.
21:48
Speaker 1: I mean, look, folks in the Middle East are dark.
21:50
Speaker 1: I mean, they're tan, just like us. And nor did
21:54
Speaker 1: I feel any vibe against white people. It wasn't a
21:56
Speaker 1: vibe against anybody. It was a vibe against stupidity and
22:00
Speaker 1: the lack of progress, right? So I then left and
22:05
Speaker 1: went and met with the defense interior and foreign affairs minister.
22:11
Speaker 1: And I figured that would be a meeting about, you know,
22:13
Speaker 1: government this and government that. No, that guy was talking
22:17
Speaker 1: about the UN, talking about his trip to New York.
22:18
Speaker 1: Every one of these people I met with had been
22:20
Speaker 1: educated in the best schools in New York and loved America.
22:23
Speaker 1: Best schools in the US, by the way, not just
22:25
Speaker 1: New York. But he travels to New York a lot
22:28
Speaker 1: and just loves America. And they've been to USC, they've
22:31
Speaker 1: been to Harvard, they've been to all these places. And
22:34
Speaker 1: He was talking about how to build bridges. In fact,
22:36
Speaker 1: this minister was talking about how to build bridges with
22:39
Speaker 1: Jews in the Middle East and Blacks in Africa. They're
22:44
Speaker 1: really excited about Africa, as they should be, because it's
22:46
Speaker 1: the largest untapped natural resource in the world. Then I
22:50
Speaker 1: went and met with the chairman of community development. Shamus
22:54
Speaker 1: is his name, His Excellency, but I don't want to
22:56
Speaker 1: screw up the pronunciation of these pretty people, so I'm
22:58
Speaker 1: going to list them out in the description in my
23:02
Speaker 1: podcast so that you can research each one of them
23:06
Speaker 1: because they're each and every one of them amazing. I'll
23:08
Speaker 1: write a story about this on the Bryan Journal. And
23:11
Speaker 1: talking to the Minister of Community Development, and that was
23:15
Speaker 1: an incredible meeting. He wants to bring our work there,
23:17
Speaker 1: but he's passionate again about, he comes from the private sector,
23:20
Speaker 1: passionate about the untapped human potential of everybody, not just
23:25
Speaker 1: the wealthy, but those at the bottom of the pyramid.
23:27
Speaker 1: The place is wired for AI, by the way. I've
23:29
Speaker 1: got the AI minister on LinkedIn. on my AI ethics
23:33
Speaker 1: council as an example from the UAE. And these folks,
23:36
Speaker 1: I believe one of the things they're going to export are,
23:38
Speaker 1: are AI enabled, AI sophisticated, trained engineers and, and professionals
23:44
Speaker 1: that will, you can go there and get trained in
23:46
Speaker 1: AI and then go get a job anywhere in the
23:48
Speaker 1: world in all likelihood. Then I met with the chairman
23:52
Speaker 1: of the Abu Dhabi department of, of economic development, Ahmed,
23:56
Speaker 1: just his excellency, just an incredible human being. And, um,
24:00
Speaker 1: We spent roughly two hours together and we were talking
24:03
Speaker 1: about a lot of things, but mindset was like the
24:05
Speaker 1: most powerful. And the conversation about building tomorrow. And I mean,
24:09
Speaker 1: I felt like I was in New York City. The
24:12
Speaker 1: difference was you could hear a raven outside the window.
24:16
Speaker 1: So a lot of empowerment going on inside the meeting.
24:19
Speaker 1: The top of the top, the best of the best,
24:21
Speaker 1: the most sophisticated office building you ever would think of.
24:23
Speaker 1: But it's so quiet and calm outside. You can hear
24:26
Speaker 1: a bird. I believe it was a raven, but I'm
24:28
Speaker 1: not sure. outside the window. I mean, just right in
24:31
Speaker 1: your ear. I mean, the best of nature and nurture
24:35
Speaker 1: at the same place. And we left there talking about
24:37
Speaker 1: global partnership. Something else that I found there was fascinating
24:42
Speaker 1: and beautiful was culture. I went to the Sheikh Zayed
24:45
Speaker 1: Grand Mosque. Talk about beauty, scale, and spirituality. I mean,
24:49
Speaker 1: I think it's the fourth largest mosque in the world.
24:53
Speaker 1: And then they have the Abrahamic Family House, which is
24:58
Speaker 1: a mosque and a Christian church, and a Jewish synagogue
25:02
Speaker 1: all together. Again, don't take my word for this, people.
25:06
Speaker 1: Check it out for yourself. But stunning. Leaves you breathless.
25:13
Speaker 1: This was not the picture of the Middle East that
25:15
Speaker 1: many Americans carry around in their heads. And then you
25:19
Speaker 1: don't realize that what comes next as you're driving down
25:21
Speaker 1: the street is there's the Louvre, as in Paris. There's
25:24
Speaker 1: the Louvre, Abu Dhabi. There's the Saadiyat Cultural District. There's
25:30
Speaker 1: the best shopping you ever want to see in your life.
25:32
Speaker 1: There's the best beaches you ever want to see in
25:34
Speaker 1: your life. Yes, beaches in the Middle East. And they're inclusive.
25:41
Speaker 1: They know that they need the rest of the world
25:44
Speaker 1: in order to build something that can serve and interact
25:46
Speaker 1: with the rest of the world. I see Abu Dhabi
25:48
Speaker 1: as like a combination of New York City and Washington, D.C.
25:53
Speaker 1: And I see Dubai as a combination of Las Vegas
25:58
Speaker 1: and Miami. and a smittering of Los Angeles. It's a
26:04
Speaker 1: bit more glitzy and a little bit more excitement and
26:06
Speaker 1: all that stuff, along with bad traffic. But you've got
26:09
Speaker 1: something for everybody. And you have an economy that's growing
26:14
Speaker 1: in the midst of war. Think about what's going to
26:18
Speaker 1: happen when it's over. So my presentation at LiveX, which
26:23
Speaker 1: is a huge conference that I wrongly assumed they'd cancel,
26:27
Speaker 1: They wanted me to come speak, and I really assumed
26:28
Speaker 1: they'd cancel this because of what's going on with the war.
26:31
Speaker 1: A week before this, I said, my team's like, we
26:33
Speaker 1: need to brief you on your trip. And my corporate
26:36
Speaker 1: security director, Tim Crockett, went with me. He said, oh,
26:39
Speaker 1: does this mean it's canceled? No, want to give you
26:42
Speaker 1: your itinerary. And my speech, and I'll put a photo
26:47
Speaker 1: up of this, was Abu Dhabi hiding in plain sight.
26:52
Speaker 1: So capital follows people. Where do talented people want to live?
26:59
Speaker 1: Where do they feel safe? Where can they raise children?
27:03
Speaker 1: Where there's great education and great schools? Where can they
27:06
Speaker 1: get anywhere in the world easily? Do you know that
27:08
Speaker 1: you can get to two-thirds of the world from Abu
27:11
Speaker 1: Dhabi or the UAE in eight hours? I'm going to
27:14
Speaker 1: say that again slowly. You can get to two-thirds of
27:16
Speaker 1: the world within eight hours of the UAE. That's economic positioning.
27:22
Speaker 1: Do you know you can get to 88% of American
27:23
Speaker 1: cities within three and a half hours of Atlanta? That's
27:26
Speaker 1: economic Positioning. Okay. Where is the culture, right? Where is
27:32
Speaker 1: the entertainment? Where can entrepreneurs build? Where do people believe
27:37
Speaker 1: tomorrow will be better than today? Okay, here you go.
27:42
Speaker 1: Quality of life then leads to talent, that leads to companies,
27:46
Speaker 1: that leads to capital, that leads to development, that leads
27:50
Speaker 1: to asset appreciation, that leads to more opportunity, right? It's
27:53
Speaker 1: a virtuous circle. People think that economic development begins with money.
27:58
Speaker 1: Often it begins with creating a place where human beings
28:01
Speaker 1: want to be. Investment follows life, which was my topic
28:10
Speaker 1: at the LiveX conference. And I'm going to put some
28:12
Speaker 1: photos in there from that as well. It was like
28:14
Speaker 1: you're at your best, the top conference business or technology
28:18
Speaker 1: conference you could ever imagine in Las Vegas or wherever.
28:22
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just unbelievably, again, don't trust me. Wait
28:25
Speaker 1: for my social media. Watch the photos. It'll leave you breathless.
28:28
Speaker 1: This happened last week in the midst of war happening
28:33
Speaker 1: basically next door or within a short missile ride away.
28:41
Speaker 1: So I've told you that this is similar to Atlanta.
28:49
Speaker 1: So you see in Atlanta, green space, land, construction, population growth,
28:56
Speaker 1: corporate investment, infrastructure, finance, development opportunities, you can almost see
29:03
Speaker 1: tomorrow's equity value from the airplane. And here's what you
29:07
Speaker 1: recognize that in the UAE, obviously not literally Atlanta, different geography,
29:13
Speaker 1: different government, different history, different culture. But I recognize the
29:20
Speaker 1: economics of aspiration when I see it. and they have
29:24
Speaker 1: it in spades in Abu Dhabi. People are building because
29:29
Speaker 1: they believe tomorrow is going to be bigger than today,
29:32
Speaker 1: and I think they're right. Abu Dhabi and Dubai, two
29:36
Speaker 1: different engines. Abu Dhabi, think capital, government, energy, sovereign wealth,
29:47
Speaker 1: long-term investments, institutions, good people, by the way, and good
29:52
Speaker 1: food and good culture. I've never had so many good meals.
29:54
Speaker 1: I don't think I had one bad meal the entire
29:56
Speaker 1: time I was there. And it's healthy. Like you're eating
29:59
Speaker 1: dates and you're eating, you know, nature and natural. Okay,
30:03
Speaker 1: I'll admit, I also had my first camel. Yeah, you were.
30:08
Speaker 1: I was at the Minister of, His Excellency, the Minister
30:11
Speaker 1: of Culture, Minister of Tolerance, sorry. And I didn't want
30:15
Speaker 1: to be rude. So they put some big bones in
30:18
Speaker 1: front of me. I just assumed that was camel. Big meat,
30:20
Speaker 1: meat with, you know, in a big bowl with big bones.
30:25
Speaker 1: And I confirmed it was camel. It's actually very good.
30:29
Speaker 1: And then I had some goat and I had camel
30:36
Speaker 1: ice cream. I was told you can't, you shouldn't eat,
30:39
Speaker 1: a Westerner shouldn't try to drink camel milk directly. Our
30:43
Speaker 1: bodies can handle it. Their bodies can. But if you
30:46
Speaker 1: can get refined camel milk, it's some of the best, most,
30:49
Speaker 1: I mean, it's more, it's healthier for you than normal milk. Yeah.
30:52
Speaker 1: I just learned so much and the food is fabulous.
30:54
Speaker 1: People were fabulous. I mean, you just can't, I didn't
30:56
Speaker 1: have a bad experience in a week. I mean, I
30:59
Speaker 1: was going, I slept four and a half hours a night,
31:01
Speaker 1: but they had me scheduled from other than that. And
31:03
Speaker 1: it wasn't, it wasn't a curated situation. I was out
31:07
Speaker 1: with the people other than in the meetings. So anyway,
31:09
Speaker 1: the culture, industrial strategy. Okay. And now in Dubai, that
31:13
Speaker 1: was Abu Dhabi. Think commerce, trade, aviation, tourism, entertainment, hospitality,
31:20
Speaker 1: real estate, finance, entrepreneurship, global lifestyles. My brother, Eric. So
31:26
Speaker 1: one of my business partner lives there. in Dubai. And
31:30
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey, by the way, lives in Abu Dhabi. We
31:34
Speaker 1: just missed each other. We tried to meet a couple times,
31:36
Speaker 1: but he was just too busy in back-to-back meetings. Yes,
31:38
Speaker 1: the Steve Harvey, the black mecca, the black legend, entertainer,
31:43
Speaker 1: and good guy, and smart, lives in Abu Dhabi with
31:46
Speaker 1: his family. So I saw when I was there Dubai Frame,
31:52
Speaker 1: which literally looks like a frame. It's also a museum.
31:55
Speaker 1: It's a museum. And you go up, I think it's
31:58
Speaker 1: 50 seconds to go up and 50 seconds to come down.
32:01
Speaker 1: And when you look at the top of the Dubai frame,
32:04
Speaker 1: you see the old Dubai on one side dating back
32:07
Speaker 1: to the 50s and 60s. But before that, it was
32:11
Speaker 1: the 1800s. They just redid it. And then you see
32:13
Speaker 1: the waterway going out to the ocean. And on the
32:15
Speaker 1: other side, you see the new Dubai. Unbelievable. Of course,
32:19
Speaker 1: Dubai Mall, which is beautiful. Blow your mind. Ladies, it
32:24
Speaker 1: might be worth it just to fly there, just to
32:26
Speaker 1: go to the Dubai Mall. And I'm not exaggerating. Burj Khalifa,
32:30
Speaker 1: so many sites. Tourism is an export where the customer
32:33
Speaker 1: comes to you. It's an export product, but the customer
32:37
Speaker 1: comes to you because you can only get that unique
32:40
Speaker 1: experience in this place. And that is certainly the case
32:42
Speaker 1: for the Dubai Mall and other places. Dubai turned place
32:49
Speaker 1: itself into a product. And Abu Dhabi increasingly seems to
32:53
Speaker 1: be building something quite complimentary to that, but in their
32:56
Speaker 1: own calmer way. Long-term duration capital investment, plus culture, plus technology,
33:04
Speaker 1: plus quality of life. I can't underscore. I'm thinking about
33:07
Speaker 1: buying a place in Abu Dhabi. That's how much I'm
33:09
Speaker 1: impressed with it. Using it as my base station for
33:11
Speaker 1: North Africa, Middle East, parts of Europe and Asia. That's
33:15
Speaker 1: how impressed I am with the place. So, Let's bust
33:20
Speaker 1: up a few more myths here. Dubai is a country. No,
33:24
Speaker 1: it's not. It's one of seven emirates. That's the country.
33:28
Speaker 1: It's all oil. No, oil remains enormously important, particularly in
33:33
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi, but diversification is now central to the economic strategy.
33:38
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the same. No, they're complementary,
33:42
Speaker 1: but very different and distinct. And I was driven from
33:48
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi in about an hour and a half to Dubai.
33:51
Speaker 1: So it's like going, I don't know, from Los Angeles
33:54
Speaker 1: to Orange County. Yeah, I can't give an Atlanta analogy.
33:58
Speaker 1: I guess if you're going to go from Atlanta to
34:00
Speaker 1: North Georgia, about an hour and a half. Easy drive
34:05
Speaker 1: on good roads. I mean, this ruler, the founder, really
34:09
Speaker 1: got this right. This guy, back when there was nothing there,
34:12
Speaker 1: built multi-lane highways and bridges everywhere. He built an office
34:16
Speaker 1: building in the middle of the desert. There was nothing
34:18
Speaker 1: else around it because he was preparing for the future
34:21
Speaker 1: without oil. The modern Gulf is culturally backwards. This is
34:26
Speaker 1: a perception. Nope. That's far too simplistic from what I experience.
34:31
Speaker 1: If anything, it seems like with regard to the UAE,
34:35
Speaker 1: we might be backwards. They're not hung up on stuff
34:38
Speaker 1: that we're hung up on. They're not arguing over stupid stuff.
34:41
Speaker 1: They've got a plan that goes out to 2071 people.
34:45
Speaker 1: And it's just focused. And they have everybody focused on
34:48
Speaker 1: going in that direction, which is a better tomorrow than yesterday.
34:51
Speaker 1: And we're arguing about the stupidest stuff on the planet
34:54
Speaker 1: and still arguing about race. Here's another one. Well, I
34:58
Speaker 1: saw ancient traditions right alongside AI, venture capital, world-class museums,
35:05
Speaker 1: and extraordinary infrastructure. I would see beautiful, you'd be in
35:08
Speaker 1: these great, these restaurants. I mean, just the most beautiful
35:10
Speaker 1: restaurants with the best food on the planet. Won't get
35:13
Speaker 1: ahead of myself. Best restaurants architecturally. And then they'll have
35:16
Speaker 1: a lamp from 100 years ago, or they'll have something
35:21
Speaker 1: that's culturally significant to the Emirates and their tradition right
35:25
Speaker 1: embedded with the architecture. So old and new, modern and historic.
35:30
Speaker 1: And the food. Oh, my God. The food. Don't have
35:36
Speaker 1: words for how good it was. The war stopped everything. Nope.
35:42
Speaker 1: It has created serious disruptions. But what I witnessed was
35:45
Speaker 1: continuity that was from the beginning of my experience to
35:48
Speaker 1: the time I got on the plane. And I was
35:49
Speaker 1: there when the plane was hijacked in Dubai, going from
35:53
Speaker 1: Dubai to Israel. And yes, that was a very serious situation,
35:58
Speaker 1: but it didn't disrupt anything. And I was waiting for
36:00
Speaker 1: that to change my exit plan, leaving the country. And
36:05
Speaker 1: I'll admit, I was running a little late leaving. So
36:07
Speaker 1: I wasn't there two hours in advance. I was there
36:09
Speaker 1: an hour and 20 minutes in advance. And Here's another
36:14
Speaker 1: great simple example. I was waiting for them to tell me,
36:17
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Mr. Bryant, the flight's closed two hours before.
36:21
Speaker 1: We're going to have to rebook you. Nope. They're like,
36:23
Speaker 1: let's open the flight back up because of safety protocols.
36:26
Speaker 1: We've closed the flight. We're going to open the flight
36:27
Speaker 1: back up. They didn't know who I was. I wasn't
36:30
Speaker 1: riding with the government on that situation. They called a
36:32
Speaker 1: supervisor without asking me, just like a red-coated Delta gets called.
36:37
Speaker 1: Here's the situation. Here's what we like to do. They
36:39
Speaker 1: asked me to write out a few things about emergency
36:41
Speaker 1: information because all my stuff wasn't in my record. I
36:45
Speaker 1: had my corporate security guy there with me and he
36:46
Speaker 1: had to give them his information as well. And they
36:49
Speaker 1: wrote it out by hand and entered into the system
36:52
Speaker 1: and processed my bags, called at gate and said, we
36:55
Speaker 1: got somebody coming and walked me to the plane. And
37:00
Speaker 1: it was flawless. I had two security checks getting to
37:02
Speaker 1: the plane, by the way, and that was flawless. Check
37:05
Speaker 1: this out. The first security check, They had the machines
37:09
Speaker 1: that are modern, like the US, for your goods going through,
37:13
Speaker 1: your products, your carry-ons. And then right after that, you
37:16
Speaker 1: go through immigration. And Tim Crockett, my corporate security guy,
37:22
Speaker 1: and I see a US badge. Huh? Yes. The United
37:29
Speaker 1: States Department of Homeland Security is set right up there.
37:34
Speaker 1: You go through, and they had global entry which i
37:36
Speaker 1: used a fast track which you stand in front of
37:38
Speaker 1: it in three seconds it it knows you through your
37:41
Speaker 1: eyelids your eyes who you are in three seconds a
37:45
Speaker 1: being in the world tell you anyway i walk up
37:47
Speaker 1: go to global entry yes mr bryant continued three seconds
37:51
Speaker 1: i go up to the the guy i'm like he's
37:53
Speaker 1: like welcome to america this is crazy tim crock and
37:56
Speaker 1: i are like our minds blown we're still in the
37:58
Speaker 1: uae and the minute you go through that technically you're
38:00
Speaker 1: in america then you see the shops that you see
38:03
Speaker 1: on the other side of security, just like you do
38:04
Speaker 1: in JFK or wherever you're going to once you get
38:06
Speaker 1: through security. And then when we got before our plane,
38:11
Speaker 1: because it was going to the United States, there was
38:13
Speaker 1: another level of security you need to go through. But again,
38:15
Speaker 1: that was also efficient. I'm not saying the UAE is perfect.
38:19
Speaker 1: It clearly is not. No country is perfect, including mine,
38:22
Speaker 1: which I love. There are legitimate questions involving governance and
38:26
Speaker 1: political participation, speech, migrant workers, citizenship, human rights, if you
38:30
Speaker 1: want to call it that. It all kind of questions
38:32
Speaker 1: that one could raise, but I didn't meet anybody unhappy.
38:36
Speaker 1: And I talked, you know, I'm nosy. I talked to everybody.
38:38
Speaker 1: I talked to, you know, the waiter, I'm talking to everybody.
38:41
Speaker 1: You'll see photos of the Ethiopian girls I was talking
38:43
Speaker 1: to and the, and the Indian guys. And I mean,
38:46
Speaker 1: these people who nobody, the driver, I'm, I'm in everybody's
38:49
Speaker 1: business and people are in love with where they live.
38:54
Speaker 1: I don't need another country to become America before I
38:57
Speaker 1: want to learn something from it. And equally, The UAE
39:02
Speaker 1: shouldn't try to become American either. Take the best, learn
39:06
Speaker 1: from everybody, build what works for your people. I happen
39:09
Speaker 1: to believe, though, this could be a model for the
39:12
Speaker 1: new light on the hill for the world inspired by
39:18
Speaker 1: maybe America. They love America there, by the way, in
39:20
Speaker 1: the UAE. And they believe America is the unquestioned leader
39:24
Speaker 1: of the world. So do I. As close as they
39:26
Speaker 1: are to China and et cetera, et cetera, they still
39:28
Speaker 1: believe America is the leader of the world. But they believe, well,
39:33
Speaker 1: but what I've seen there, unless we get out of
39:37
Speaker 1: our own way here in America, and we can, there's
39:41
Speaker 1: less work for them to become the future lighthouse for
39:43
Speaker 1: the world as the world becomes more darker and more
39:48
Speaker 1: The focus shifts more to Africa, which is the largest
39:51
Speaker 1: net group. The largest natural resource in the world is
39:57
Speaker 1: African continent. And they are right there. The markets of
40:00
Speaker 1: the future are Asia, China. That's where the population growth is.
40:05
Speaker 1: So America can still be the big baller 50 years
40:09
Speaker 1: from now if we get out of our own way.
40:11
Speaker 1: Because we're not a country. We're an idea. But they
40:15
Speaker 1: are right in the middle now. of where the future
40:17
Speaker 1: action is going to be. And they have figured a
40:21
Speaker 1: lot of things out in the first 60 years. And
40:24
Speaker 1: now they can lay human capital, empowered human capital infrastructure
40:28
Speaker 1: on top of their physical infrastructure for the next 30
40:31
Speaker 1: years and kill the game. I mean, in a positive way.
40:35
Speaker 1: So I came away believing that if they play their
40:38
Speaker 1: cards right, this little country could become one of the
40:41
Speaker 1: world's great economic crossroads over the next 20 or 30 years. Like,
40:47
Speaker 1: People brag about Singapore. This could be Singapore 4X with
40:54
Speaker 1: a little sugar on top because people look like everybody
40:59
Speaker 1: in the UAE, and that's just not necessarily the case
41:03
Speaker 1: in Singapore, even though I love Singapore. So let's look
41:06
Speaker 1: at the map. Europe, Africa, India, Asia, the Middle East,
41:13
Speaker 1: and look at what they're assembling. Capital, airports. Ports, tourism, technology, AI, finance, culture, safety,
41:23
Speaker 1: global talent, sovereign investment, and relationships extending east and west.
41:31
Speaker 1: Maybe their greatest opportunity is in choosing between east and west.
41:35
Speaker 1: Maybe it's becoming indispensable to both. A bridge. And perhaps
41:41
Speaker 1: the UAE can demonstrate something within the region. Tradition and
41:44
Speaker 1: modernization don't necessarily have to be enemies. Neither do capitalism
41:49
Speaker 1: and community. And by the way, they love my book,
41:51
Speaker 1: Capitalism for All, and several of the high leaders there
41:55
Speaker 1: wanted me to sign the book for them. They had
41:57
Speaker 1: the book for me to sign. They presented it to me.
42:00
Speaker 1: And they don't see a conflict between capitalism and community, right?
42:04
Speaker 1: They don't see a conflict between technology and humanity. They
42:08
Speaker 1: see an and, not an or. National identity and global engagement.
42:12
Speaker 1: It's an and, not an or. So the real lesson
42:15
Speaker 1: here isn't about the UAE. It's you know, it's the
42:20
Speaker 1: lesson for countries and the lesson for people isn't all
42:28
Speaker 1: that different. A country gets oil. A company gets revenue.
42:33
Speaker 1: A worker gets a paycheck. An entrepreneur gets a liquidity event.
42:39
Speaker 1: But none of these things by themselves are wealth. They're resources.
42:44
Speaker 1: The question is, what did you get What did you
42:48
Speaker 1: actually get when you turn them into something else? And
42:53
Speaker 1: now we think about my mother, Juanita Smith, who made
42:56
Speaker 1: $ 15 to $ 18 an hour, eventually a million dollar net worth.
43:01
Speaker 1: My mother understood something. Some people earning 10 times what
43:04
Speaker 1: she earned never understood. Income wasn't the destination. Ownership was.
43:11
Speaker 1: So now let me come back to Abu Dhabi at
43:14
Speaker 1: an entirely different scale. That's part of what I see
43:17
Speaker 1: happening there. You take today's resources, you buy tomorrow's assets.
43:23
Speaker 1: That's wealth creation. And you see value from people at
43:27
Speaker 1: the bottom through the middle to the top, not just
43:31
Speaker 1: about the wealthy. They would have seen my mother and
43:35
Speaker 1: tried to find ways to empower her to be a
43:38
Speaker 1: contributor to the country, as happened with my mother in
43:42
Speaker 1: South Central LA and Compton and Long Beach and all
43:44
Speaker 1: the places where she lived. And we need to renew
43:46
Speaker 1: that dream in America. I believe if the Middle East
43:51
Speaker 1: had a middle class, half the conflict wouldn't exist. If
43:55
Speaker 1: Palestine had a middle class, it would not be easy
43:58
Speaker 1: to game some of the people in Palestine to work
44:02
Speaker 1: against their own interests. I think that Israel and Palestine
44:05
Speaker 1: will be trading partners, not warring partners. There's no middle class.
44:08
Speaker 1: I mean, a vibrant, growing middle class. So you have
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Speaker 1: the very rich and you have the very, very poor
44:13
Speaker 1: in Palestine. most parts of the world. What you need
44:15
Speaker 1: and what America got right was a vibrant and growing
44:17
Speaker 1: middle class. And that's what I think is at risk now.
44:20
Speaker 1: I wrote this book, Capitalism for All, Inclusive Economics and
44:23
Speaker 1: the Future Proving of America. We need to renew and
44:26
Speaker 1: reassess and reassert and recommit to a vibrant and growing
44:30
Speaker 1: middle class. And the latter gets people to go from
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Speaker 1: the bottom to the top so that my mother's story,
44:35
Speaker 1: Juanita Smith, is not unique. And you can access my story,
44:39
Speaker 1: by the way, through Juanita AI, which is a free
44:41
Speaker 1: app that we've created just for you. So now, I
44:45
Speaker 1: went to Abu Dhabi to give a speech. I came
44:50
Speaker 1: home having received a lesson. I visited a country younger
44:55
Speaker 1: than I am. A country sitting in a different neighborhood
44:59
Speaker 1: in the midst of war, still talking about what it
45:02
Speaker 1: intends to become decades from now. Don't confuse turbulence with trajectory.
45:10
Speaker 1: Oil can finance infrastructure. Infrastructure can attract investment. Investment can
45:18
Speaker 1: attract talent. Talent creates ideas. Ideas create businesses along with hustle.
45:28
Speaker 1: Businesses create intellectual property. Ownership creates wealth of those intellectual
45:36
Speaker 1: properties or from them. And human potential creates wealth. That's
45:42
Speaker 1: where they're at now, in my opinion. The greatest natural
45:46
Speaker 1: resource in the UAE may not ultimately be what's underneath
45:50
Speaker 1: their feet. It may be what they develop between the
45:54
Speaker 1: ears of their people. It's not what's in the ground,
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Speaker 1: as I said, in public settings and in private meetings
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Speaker 1: with the biggest leaders and members of the royal family
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Speaker 1: in and throughout the UAE and Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
46:09
Speaker 1: It's not what's in the ground. It's what's on the ground.
46:15
Speaker 1: The future doesn't just happen, people. Somebody decides to build it.
46:20
Speaker 1: And last week in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in the
46:22
Speaker 1: midst of war, I saw people building. Now, I had
46:30
Speaker 1: an inspiration, I'll leave you with my bonus track here.
46:34
Speaker 1: It started to dawn on me that, and I don't
46:36
Speaker 1: want this to sound like any kind of a racial
46:38
Speaker 1: segregation thing, but it just started to dawn on me
46:41
Speaker 1: That not only are we wasting time arguing about whether
46:44
Speaker 1: capitalism is right and all this kind of stuff, and
46:46
Speaker 1: do we want socialism? I mean, these are just distractions. Again,
46:50
Speaker 1: I'm in the part of the world that people have
46:52
Speaker 1: been completely taken advantage of and manipulated by bad capitalists
46:57
Speaker 1: for decades and decades and hundreds of years. And they've
47:00
Speaker 1: turned this thing called capitalism on its head through oil
47:04
Speaker 1: and what came from that and now making it work
47:06
Speaker 1: for them to create a quality of life and decency
47:09
Speaker 1: for everybody. But I loved how they engineered it. I
47:12
Speaker 1: love how it was an intentional plan. And I just
47:17
Speaker 1: started wondering, what would happen if we stopped complaining and
47:22
Speaker 1: black and brown people and whites, if you wanted to
47:24
Speaker 1: live there too, looked at a half dozen American cities
47:28
Speaker 1: that are urban. Let me make this fair. A half
47:31
Speaker 1: dozen urban cities that are black and brown and a
47:34
Speaker 1: half dozen rural cities that are mostly poor and struggling
47:38
Speaker 1: white and decided to create a magnet community zone. We're
47:43
Speaker 1: doing this in Atlanta and West Virginia, by the way.
47:45
Speaker 1: It'll be announced at the Hope Global Forum. So poor white,
47:49
Speaker 1: mostly white struggling community in West Virginia and a urban
47:53
Speaker 1: black and brown community in Atlanta and separate platforms creating
47:56
Speaker 1: magnet communities. But if you decided, the mayor and the
48:00
Speaker 1: leaders decided in a half dozen cities in urban America
48:03
Speaker 1: and a half dozen cities in rural America to focus
48:07
Speaker 1: and get the credit scores up, get the education up,
48:10
Speaker 1: get the infrastructure working, create a responsible growth dynamic environment
48:16
Speaker 1: where it's easy to start businesses and build wealth and
48:19
Speaker 1: all that stuff responsibly, get the AI literacy up, the
48:23
Speaker 1: financial literacy up, access to capital attracted to this place
48:26
Speaker 1: because it's dynamic, home ownership level rooted so people are
48:31
Speaker 1: building wealth, tax base popping because of that. Could you
48:34
Speaker 1: accidentally create the new Black Wall Street or the Black, whatever,
48:37
Speaker 1: it says Black Wall Street, but could you create, effectively,
48:40
Speaker 1: wealth zones where people don't have to resent capitalism because
48:44
Speaker 1: they are capitalism. No one attacks themselves. If you're an
48:47
Speaker 1: owner and a stakeholder and a participant in the economy
48:50
Speaker 1: and you're benefiting from its economic growth and its increase
48:54
Speaker 1: in asset values and things like that, do you resent
48:57
Speaker 1: it or do you want to be participant in it?
49:00
Speaker 1: Nobody washes rental cars, people. They don't. And everybody says
49:04
Speaker 1: they hate rich people these days, but you don't. You
49:06
Speaker 1: hate rich people until you become rich. What you hate
49:09
Speaker 1: is a game system that no matter how hard you work,
49:12
Speaker 1: you can't seem to get ahead. Let's stop hating on
49:14
Speaker 1: success and become more part of it. That's the future
49:17
Speaker 1: dream I have of civil rights, from civil rights to
49:20
Speaker 1: include civil rights, from red rooms that are fighting bad
49:24
Speaker 1: things happening to good people, the civil rights, the silver rights,
49:27
Speaker 1: which is making sure that we're the tools and the
49:30
Speaker 1: shovels and the economic opportunities so that good things can
49:32
Speaker 1: happen to good people, from streets to streets, from civil
49:35
Speaker 1: rights to silver rights. And this is the third reconstruction dream.
49:39
Speaker 1: that I have for here and around the world. And
49:43
Speaker 1: this trip just confirmed that this is not our dream.
49:47
Speaker 1: It's a global one. John O'Brien, Money & Wealth, reporting
49:52
Speaker 1: back from my trip to the Middle East. The bombs
49:56
Speaker 1: were not dropping. Hope was sprouting. Let's go. Money &
50:04
Speaker 1: Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black
50:06
Speaker 1: Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect
50:10
Speaker 1: Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
50:15
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.