Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / The Business Man Hustler vs. The Hourly Worker Investor

Transcript

The Business Man Hustler vs. The Hourly Worker Investor · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome the Money and Wealth with John Hobryant, a production
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: this is John Hope Bryant and this is Money and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Wealth Podcast Series Season two. Honored to be with you
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and to come at you again with another very personal
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: example of success and failure in order to be a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: teaching tool for you on your journey to be self reliant.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I want to start off by thanking everyone for making
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: this a top podcast in the world. Now one of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the top I believe five percent of all podcasts in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the world. Will thank you very much. Tell all your
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: friends about it. Let's now get into this. The title
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of this podcast is the Businessman Hustler Versus the hourly
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: worker Investor. The businessman hustler versus an hourly worker investor?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Who do you bet on? It's a deeply personal episode.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: It contrasts two very powerful forces in my life. My father,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Johnny will Smith, hard working, hard driving businessman, self made
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: if you want to call it that. He owned multiple
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: ventures by the time I was a young man and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: could recognize what was going on around me. But he
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: lacked financial literacy, which I did not understand the value
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of it. At all as a young person, at least
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: not at that time. I'm now talking about, you know what,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about my life, my dad and seeing payroll
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and meet the payroll at the front door of our
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: front screen door and then front metal door of our
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: place on thirty fifth Street in Western. It was four
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: or five years of age actually sorry Santa Barbara Boulevard
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: which was now Martinth the King Boulevard, and then later
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: on thirty fifth in Western when I want to live
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: with him as a young man. He had a cement
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: contracting business he had at that time, but before that,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: when they were my mom and dad were together, they
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: owned a cement contribute business that was his cash flow business.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: They had a nursery business took care of kids. I
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: was the first client. They owned their own home on
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Santa Barbara now Martin the King Boulevard. Those in Los
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Angeles know these street names. We owned an eight unit
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: apartment building that they bought for eighteen thousand dollars. You
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: can make the payment on the note renting two units.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: They lived in one of the units. This is before
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: they bought their own home. The rest was profit that
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: in an apartment building today is worth millions of dollars.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Last time I checked, it was something north of six
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: million dollars, six to eight million dollars. They owned a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: gas station at Western and Vernon, I believe Southeast Corner,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: still there to this day. They were bawling. They were married,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: high school education, up from the South, migrated to Los Angeles.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you a little bit about that story. It's
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: also in my book Up from Nothing, A little bit
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: of my book Financial Literacy for All. But Johnny will
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Smith and Wanita Smith were for a minute, literally the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: American dream. My mother, Jannita Smith, was an hourly worker.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: She had a side hustle making handicrafts, robes and things
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: like that. She made from terry cloth, basically bath house
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: She turned that into little pieces of artwork that you wore, robes,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: kitchen covers for cooking, playful aprons that I can't explain
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: in public now because it was pretty embarrassing. And I'll
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: just tell you I was a model, and my mother
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: used to put the female parts in the male parts.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: She'd make those and stuff the male parts with stuffing,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and we did to come out walk in the living
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: room and we'd have to we'd have to model the
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: aprons that she made and then lift up, you know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: lift up the private part to make everybody laugh and
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: hopefully they buy something. I could probably assume my mother
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: for uh, looking back, sue my mom and dad my
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: dad for child abuse or something. But at the time
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you started it was cute. Actually, no idea. I was
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: embarrassed back then too now and I recall it. But
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: my mother was an industrious she was. That was her
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: side house although her primary business, her primary business was
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a paycheck and she worked atmcdonald's Aircraft, which later was
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: so de Boeing Aircraft. But she had this side hustle,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: which I'll get to in a moment because it's important,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: because it's important. So she was an hourly worker and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: quietly built wealth through discipline, smart investing, and excellent credit.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So when you don't have inheritance, when you don't have
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: somebody to give you something right, then you've got to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: find And if life is about compounding, right, you make
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: money during the day, you build wealth and your sleep okay,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And if you don't have compounded cash, compounded financial capital
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: because daddy mummy did well and handed it to you,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: which are a lot of mainstream families have that legacy.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Black families typically, Black and brown families typically do not. Okay,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: because this generation might be the first generation that made
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: any real money right and putting it over the side
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: now is how you build wealth for the next generation.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: So this might be the this generation. You might feel
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: stressed out because you're trying to do it all out
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: of one pocket. Can I get an a man, anybody
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: listening this can relate to this. You're trying to pay
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: it back, spend it, finance the now, and pay it
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: forward all out of one paycheck or out of one hustle.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: So if you feel stressed out and don't know why,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that's the reason. It's the reason because you're in the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: season of doing it all. And if it's not, if
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: it doesn't feel easy, that's because it's not right. You're
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: doing generational legacy work and trying to live your best life.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: So I commend you. And so compounding education, compounding hustle,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: hustle on hustle creates more hustle. If you get up early,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: work later, get up earlier, stay late, short lunch. After
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a while, you outrun your competitor. Because the devil's a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: lazy bastard. Yeah, I said it. The devil's lazy. The
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: devil's a fallowing angel, right, So even God gives permission,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the devil permission to exist. He likes shortcuts, and he
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: likes people who don't want to hustle and don't want
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: to do the work. And love is work. Non love
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: is laziness. Anti love is evil. Exists, but it's very rare.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Most people are just lazy intellectually lazy, physically lazy, financially lazy, spiritually. Yeah,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: they just don't want to do the work. They want
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: somebody to do it for them. So if you do
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the work. To quote my friend Tony Wrestler, who's one
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: of the two hundredth richest man and most successful successful
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: self made businessmen in the world today, Tony Wrestler would say,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: if you don't quit, you can't fail. If you don't quit,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you can't fail. I would say it differently and say,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: you just have to take note for vitamins that success
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: older rounded through it, you're going to get to it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: So my mother had, my mother and my father had
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: this sense of undying resiliency and hustle. They were not lazy.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: So let's check that box. As a success feature, I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: wrote in my book I think it was. It was
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the memo or Up from Nothing, about the fire pillars
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of success, and I talk about as much education as
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: you can shove down your throat, understanding, financial literacy, family
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: structure and resiliency, self esteem and confidence, role models, an environment.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: If you have these five things, even with racism, bias, discrimination,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: an unpleasant political environment, unsupportive environment period in the world,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: maybe even a repressive environment leaning down on your world,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you'll still succeed. If you need to write those five
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: things down, replay this, take the podcast back thirty seconds,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: replay it again, write it down on your iPhone or
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: your Android or wherever you keep your notes. These five things.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: If you have these five things and you have this
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: resiliency factor, I said, what did Tony say, if you
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: don't quit, your can't fail. I told you. John Brian says,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: we're going to take no for vitamins. Success is going
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. We're never
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: going to give up. You will fit in time, you
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: will succeed. If you have three of these things or more,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: you're going to go from surviving mode to thriving mode,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and maybe the building mode, but at least go from
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: surviving mode to thriving mode. You don't want to be
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: in surviving mode. If you have less than these three things,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: any three of these things, you're in trouble again. As
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: much education, you shut down your throat, family structure and resiliency, well,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: financial literacy, self well, family education, right, financial literacy, family
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: structure and resiliency, self esteem and confidence. Role Model's an environment,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: as you're going to hear from my example, my family
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: had most of those things but then lost some critical elements.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: And I want you to tell me in the notes
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: when you see this in pieces and social media, which
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: of the five things did my family my mother and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: my father mess up, screw up, miss out on, etc.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Because they had it all and then it fell apart.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So my mother again had compounded good credit, right, compounded
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: self education, compounding discipline, right compounding focus, compounding good values
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: plus compounding hustle. The result. This is a real life
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: case study and why hustle alone isn't enough to be successful,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: sustainably successful, and how strategy, stewardship, and financial literacy win
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the long game. So Let's now get into this. Who
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: do you bet on the businessman who owns a gas
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: station in an apartment building or the ali worker who
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: with good credit in a long term plan, is betting
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: on herself. My mother, Well, my father made the money,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: but my mother built the wealth. Interesting, how is that possible?
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about these two people who I love,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: my parents, and the very different money legacies they left behind.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about my mother and my father as a couple. Married.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: My dad Johnny Smith. His father, RB Smith, was a sharecropper.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: My second great grandfather on my father's side, George Young,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: was in the Civil War, UH, part of the answer
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: to the call for the Emancipation Proclamation. That's maybe where
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I got my social justice bones from. I served in Memphis,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Tennessee for the Union calls thought for justice and freedom
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: for those who never gave him justice or freedom or protection,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: protected those who didn't protect him. Long list of self
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: reliant doers. My father grandfather was a sharecropper. Dad was
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. So there's your role modeling example.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't know my dad was financially illiterate. I just
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: knew my dad hustled hard and worked hard, and so
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I'm following that write the check versus cast to check model.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Right the check, meaning you're a business owner. My dad
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: was very successful and as sement contracting business, he did
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: it with his own hands. He would go to a job,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: he would guestimate the cost of that job, which was
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the cost of cement. It's the products that make cement
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the hourly worker wage for the workers. And he had
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: all races of workers working for him. That's one of
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the reasons I have no problem with white people or
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Hispanics or Asians or anybody else, of course blacks, because
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: everybody worked for my father. Everybody respected him as the boss,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the boss man. They called him the employer, the guy
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: who paid them their paychecks so they can then pay
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: their bills. And they were lined up every Friday for payroll.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: He paid them in cash back in the day. But
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: they all respected them. And I love that seeing that
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: respect that gave my dad. Well, he would just calculate
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: in his head or a little piece of paper a
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: notebook he had what the job was to make this
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: redo or to lay out for a first time a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: sidewalk or a driveway, which were typical his typical jobs.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: And I remember one day he was trying to beat
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: out another contractor who had bid let's just say, twelve
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars for this job. My dad not knowing what
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the heart costs were, but wanting the job. He dragged
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: me around all these jobs. I was sitting in the passenger
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: receipt of his pickup truck, burning up to death in
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: this hot truck with no air conditioning, by side of
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: my head stuck to the window because it was so
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: hot in the south central Los Angeles. As I went
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to sleep trying to get through the twenty job estimates.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: He went through and it was really beautiful that he
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: made me hang with him because my daddy was not
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a baby daddy, he was a father. So only commend
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: him for that. We have to, I think, claim our kids.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: We shouldn't be saying baby mama or baby father. He's
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a father and a mother. That's your child. You own them,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: you own their legacy in making and they know what
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: you give them. You know, and my dad gave me
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: everything he had. It wasn't everything I needed, but it
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: was everything he had and for that I will forever
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: be thankful to Johnny will Smith, who even as you
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: can hear in a minute, took care of my brother
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: and my sister who was not his children. So a
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: very honorable man and bastard Andrew Young would say that
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: men and women fail for three reason arrogance, pride, and greed.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: My dad was not arrogant, not in traditional sense. He
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: was not greedy at all, but he was full of pride,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: and that pride might have bordered on a slight bit
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: of arrogance because he wouldn't listen, he wouldn't take advice,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: certainly not from my mother. So anyway, he made this
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: job four thousand dollars, and the problem was that the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: costs he found out later, or maybe worse, did not
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: find out later, but it was obvious when he went
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: broke the cost of that job was at least one
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, probably one thousand and fifty or eleven hundred dollars.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So my dad confused cash flow with profit. Very important point,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: he thought, the cash flow getting that back, And again,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: what do we do in the black and brown community,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Give me that bag, give me that dollar, give me
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: that cash. You know, we think that we over index
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the importance of cash. Cash is nothing more than a
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: transfer of value. That's all it is. But we think
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: it's really more than that, and we think we have
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: got a bunch of cash, a bunch of bills in
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: our pocket. Then that means something. It might mean you're
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: going to go broke when at that money disappears, and
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: it will disappear because if your outflow exees your inflow,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: then your overhead will be your downfall. And with my father,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: he would spend a dollar, but he would make a dollar,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: but spend a dollar fifty. So the more money he made,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the broker we got. And I say we because as
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: you're here in a minute, we lost everything. So my
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: dad back up the story a little bit. My dad
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: was doing very well, as I seeing a contractor would
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: buy a new car from Detroit every couple of years,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: because that's how you profile back then, your success. Because
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: black people could not buy cars like that directly from
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: a car dealership or you know anybody. I mean, you
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: could not in the sixties just go buy a fancy
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: new car. People wouldn't sell it to you. The dealers
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: wouldn't sell it to you if you're a black man.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: My dad went full floss. He would drive the car
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: to the manufacturer in Detroit, and he had family in
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: East Saint Louis, and so he would go through East
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Saint Louis to visit his family and then go to
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Detroit to sell the car and buy a new and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to trade it in and buy a new one. Well,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: this time he ran into my fine and mouth one
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Nita Smith, and the rest is history. He fell in love,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and my mother said, well, if you want me, you
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: got to take my two children with me. It was
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: my brother Donnie Dave, jon L Harris and my sister
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Marl Hoskins, two brilliant, amazing people and who are from
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a former marriage my mother had. And my mother was
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: all about our kids. And my mother grew up in
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: a shotgun shack, and he's Saint Louis. You want to
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: know about more about her story, her backstory, you can
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: read one of my last books, I believe is detail
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: it up from nothing. And so Dad says, yes, happy
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to do that. I'ted to do that. So they packed
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: up everything in my dad's car, including the two kids
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I was not yet born, moved to la That's where
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I was born, in Good Samaritan Hospital. They start building, building,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: building together and I'm now, I come in this world.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: They get busy, they have me. I come in the world,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and about four or five years of age, they're having
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: some serious differences of opinion. But my mother is like,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: that's okay, you know, this is normal. I'll deal with
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: whatever it is. He's a good man. He's taking care
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: of my kids and me. But my mother had saved
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: four thousand dollars to send my brother, Dave Darnelle Harris
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: to a college of his choice, and four thousand dollars
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight nineteen seventy I think it was
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy was a lot of moolah. And I
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: was born in sixty six to nineteen seventy, and I
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: was about four or five years old, and she was
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: saving that money so he could go become whoever he
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: wanted to be. My dad found the money because my
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: mother did not put the money in the bank account.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: She had it under a mattress of where she saved.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Please open a bank account, everybody. The bank account is
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: FDIC insured right for your deposits. So this would not
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: have this whole story about to tell you. It would
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: be different if my mother put the money into a
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: bank account the black who don't trust banks because of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the history of the Freeman's Bank and all the stuff,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: which I understand, But this is a new world. I'm
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: telling you to upgrade your software. Put your money into
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the bank in your own name. In this example, this
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: bank my mother's dad. Mom and dad probably had a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: joint account. I'm not sure, but surely she surely should
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: have had a separate account for this money in her
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: own name. He found the money, he wasted it on
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: some hair brain thing, some investment or something he thought
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: he assumed was going to be important and successful. And
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: as usual, he was wrong about this. He was great
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: at sement contracting. The rest of the stuff he was
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: speculating on was not so great because my dad game
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: was financially illiterate, I found out later. So he wasted
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: the money and Mom had had it. Mom was like, okay,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I'm done. You can mess over me, can mess with
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: my kids and with my mother. What I was not
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: thinking about then, but I now know. What I know
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: now is that she's like, well, look, I got two
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: more kids in the line here. This is the oldest kid.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: If you're doing this to my oldest kid, then the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: rest of my kids. I'm just asking for pain. So
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: at this point we owned keep in mind, this is
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy. Now we own our own home Semen on
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Santa Barbara Boulevard now called martinather King Boulevard. We owned
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a gas station. The home we owned was at twenty
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: fourteen West Santa Barbara Avenue in Los Angeles, now Martin
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: King Boulevard. We owned a eight ent apartment building. The
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: gas station, nursery business, Seeman contracting business, which was cash flow.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: So nursery business and the contract contracting business were cash
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: flow businesses. Right. The single family home was an asset
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that appreciated. The gas station was cash flow plus an
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: asset that could appreciate. The apartment building was cash flow
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: plus an asset that could appreciate. And we probably had
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: a couple of side hustles, but my mother's side hustle
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: of doing handicrafts that came later, but just that alone
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: would have made us most millionaires, and the whole family
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: would have had generational wealth. Mom and Dad get over,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: get into this. I remember the fights I had to
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: call my mother, call my brother, my sister. Sorry, Monty
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: called the police. We called her Montemorrow we called her Manti.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: She called the police and put somebody answer and somehow
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: gave me the phone. Don't know how I get the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: phone and policemen. Come, come, come. My daddy's being up
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: by my mother. My mother took off that three inch pump.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: She was a church. It was it was a Sunday
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: after church. And she's like, no man's going to ever
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: put his hand on me again. That happened in her
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: first or their first husband. By the way, number one
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: calls for domestic abuse. Money. Number one calls for divorce. Money.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Number one calls for heart attacks. Stress. Number one calls
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: for stress. Money. Hello, every day is not about God
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: or love. Your day is about money. That's why we
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: need to understand money. We lived in a capitalist democracy, right,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: we got to understand how this game is played. So
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: uh there getting into it, and she popped them over
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the side of his head with that little that three
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: inch pomp here didn't grow there for the rest of
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: his life, right on the ball of his head. He
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: stopped messing with it. But she's like, Okay, I'm not
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: gonna sit around here and get beat. I can't protect
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: my kids. So my mother filed for divorce and left them. Now,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: California is a community property state. Please hear me, My
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: mother could have taken there for everything he had. Anybody
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: listening to this, and you live in California, you know
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: exactly what I'm talking about. I grew up there. It
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: is a California is a community property state at least half.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: And she's got these kids also. I mean, she could
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: have left them destitute, but she wanted. All she wanted
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: was her freedom. All she wanted the ability to go
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: out and do for herself and create her own life.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: And she had enough confidence in herself, so she left
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: with nothing. And it just dawned on me recently that
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: this was how much courage she had, because she could
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: have again, she could have take left the house, left
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and kept the house and everything else, and he didn't
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: get an apartment or live with friends. She left with
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: the kids lived to go stay. So now he's got
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: all these assets. Now she goes to stay with her girlfriend.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: And you can listen to the you know again, check
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: out the backstory of this in my book Up from
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Nothing I believe it is, and financial Literacy for All,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: because it's an interesting backstory with the guy who I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: ended up living with temporarily a guy named O C.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I believe who saved my life while staying there temporarily
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: while my mother what was her girlfriend and her girlfriend's
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: boyfriend who saved my life? But my mother wanted to
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: stay with her girlfriend so she could get a job,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: or she did working in McDonald douglas Aircraft For that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: she said the equivalent of fifteen dollars to eighteen dollars
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: an hour, fifteen dollars an hour when she started, eighteen
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: dollars an hour about that when she retired, plus benefits
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: in a pension. My mother worked that job, did not
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: have bills because she stayed with her girlfriend, used the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: money from not having bills to save a down payment.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And mind you, the guy her the girl, her girlfriend's
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: boyfriend saved my life when I fell on this porch.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: But again that's the backstory not important to take up
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: in this podcast. He was ultimately murdered over money, by
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the way, the guy who saved my life. Mom then
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: bounces from that house that she stayed with her girlfriend,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: moves to one five five oh two South Freyley. Don't
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: you you know when you buy a house and you
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: own it, you remember the address, right? My mother bought
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: her first home one five five oh too South Freyley
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: in Compton, California. And I was in nirvana. I mean
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: it was our own home. It was me and my sister.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: My brother had okay to check this out. So my brother,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: because he could not I go to college of his choice,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: he ended ver happy to go into the Navy to
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: get his education. He wanted a four year education. So
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the Navy said, fine, we'll give you an education, but
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: you're going to have to give us four years of
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: military service. Whether the Navy understands its psychology, the psychology
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: people very well, and the chances are once you get
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: into the Navy and you get that environment in your bloodstream,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: they know that this is at least a fifty percent change,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: if not better, you're going to stay. Well. My brother stayed.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: My brother stayed four years, eight years, ten years, twenty years.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: He retired as a commissioned officer in the Navy as
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: an intelligence officer. Very proud of him. Donnie's Dave Downall Harris.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: He married, moved to Hawaii, married a Wayan at the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Whole Wayian kids. You started to get the memo all
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: this changed his life, This little four thousand dollars decision
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: my dad made change his entire the trajectory of his
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: entire life. You don't think money makes a difference. Money
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: money can be I mean, as the Bible suggests, the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Bible talks about money more than it's talk about any
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: other topic, more than two thousand mentions. Money is not evil.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: It's the love of money. What you need to do
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: is understand how to use it before it uses you.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: So my brother goes to the military, and he's got
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: a great life. He's required. He's on the second retirement
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: from naval contracting because he contracts with companies that do
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: business with the Navy. So he's a real expert at
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: what he does. But how his life had been different
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: if he had that four thousand dollars could have gone
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: on college of his choice and did as he liked.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: So my mother then had the chance now to curate
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the life of my sister was older than me and me,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and she did a fabulous job. None of these kids
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: went to prison or jail or had any because we
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: were more afraid of her than we were the streets.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: So so far in the story, you like, well, John,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I understand like your dad's winning. In fact, your dad won?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: What what's how do you make some sense out of this?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: My dad was, you know, charismatic and driven, proud black businessman.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: An error of this wasn't easy. But he had no
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: financial literacy. He had no credit management, no systems around
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: his business, no estate planning, and he didn't understand. My
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: mother was a mathematical genius. Right. My mother wanted the
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: smith worked an hourly job for thirty two years, never flashy,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: focused on stability, had excellent credit, paid her bills on time,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: invested quietly and consistently. Ultimately walked away when money became
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: a point of contention from the marriage. They owned real assets.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: What were they lacked together? Was they shared philosophy about money? Right?
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: And two plus two in a relationship, it has to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: be six eight or ten or why are you doing it?
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: If you're not better together? Why are you doing it?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Because marriage when the when the looks drop and the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: body falls away, that's your business partner for life. Right,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: So it has to be more than I like this person.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: So Johnny will Smith in this example so far happening
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: through this podcast episode, Johnny will Smith is winning. He's
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: got all these assets. He was left with everything my
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: mother got nothing. He's got cash flow, he's got he's
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: got appreciable assets, he's got everybody in the city knows him.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: You know. He goes to the bank brands. They call
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: them by you know, it's the first name, Hello Johnny,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and mister mister Smith or whatever. He's balling. He's got
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: a cemen equipment. He's got a tractor, he's got a truck.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: He's got his name, a van, Johnny's you know, semen
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: work on the outside of the van. He's got workers,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: he's got respectability in the neighborhood. I remember all of that, right,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: it's as if it's as if it happened yesterday. So fast, Floord. Now,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: mind you, my mother's just now working a job. You
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: got this modest house in confidence. She's working this job,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and she's got the those side hustle doing handicrafts. But
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: so my mother's put it on sort of you know,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: not rent repeat, but just remote control. By the way,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: if you if you do nothing, here's a little tip
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: for you. If you do nothing, but save two hundred
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: dollars a month into the stock market, and the stock
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: market gates between seven and ten percent return every year
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: between thirty three years and forty years from the time
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: you start that, you'll be worth a million dollars. Okay,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: so that just put that aside, right, Yes, I said
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: that pretty quickly. You're like, what, Yes, you put two
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month. So whenever you start to start,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: just start right now. If you need it done it halftime.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Double up on the money if you can. You put
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: two hundred dollars in prop in sort of you know,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: premiere stocks, not no Homeboy shopping network stuff. No, no,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: no speculative stocks. I mean, you know blue chip stocks
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: that are returning you seven to preferably ten percent a year.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: If it's ten percent a year, you'll be worth a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: million dollars in thirty three years. If it's seven percent
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: of year, it's about forty years. But just just put
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: it on auto pay, right, and you'll be a millionaire. Okay,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Now that aside. My dad. I remember calling my dad
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: one day and what dad was going on? Well, and
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering why his girlfriend was ugly because my mother
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: was fine. But when I think back, because I was
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: just traveling all around the country, around the world, I
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: was hustling myself and life was a blur. I slept
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: for six five or six hours in the middle or
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: three hours in the middle of a day because it
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: was just a blur, so I didn't really wasn't really
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: paying deep attention what was going on with my dad. But
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: when my dad told me that he was staying with
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: his lady. There was his girlfriend, and she basically had
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: control financially over his life, and she was staying in
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: a house that she owned, it got my attention. I'm like,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: what would you say? Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: With whatever her name was, she was ugly, unattracted, physically,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: unattractive spiritually. I remember meeting her and she didn't treat
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: my father very well, but he was like a It
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: was like a reverse sexty situation. He I guess he
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: played with him for so long now they're playing him
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and she at this place and she let him stay there,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: but he had to be her girlfriend. This is a
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: serious story, and I'm like, no, no, Dad, you can't
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: do that. Now. I was not a place financially where
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: I can afford to do what I'm about to tell you,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: But I knew that my dad could not be in
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: this situation. So my first real estate lesson I. I
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: guess I was in my early twenties when this happened.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: As I remember, I had my first for my first
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: success in business, I bought the property, the home from
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the lady, and one hundred thousand dolls whatever it was.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: By the way, you can't find anything in Los Angeles
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: for one hundred thousand dollars today, So that's why I said,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: people just buy the property. You'll never think it's the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: price is right. It's just gonna go up if you
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: could afford it, buy the property and hold on to it.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I bought this property. I knocked down the zoning was
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I thought R four. It was R three, which is residential,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: which means I could put three or four units on it.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: But it was on a single family residential. A single
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: family residential home was on this lot, so I thought,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: if I buy it. I checked this out with an
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: account with an architect first, but I did not check
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: the zoning. My father told me it was a C four.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I was an R four. I just trusted them. I
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: bought the property. I knocked down three walls, kept one
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: wall up, which made it the sustainable structure. I didn't
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: got a construction loan for an apartment building. That's when
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the bank was Fargo. I'm always thankful to them told
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: me that it was not zoned R four. It was
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: zoned R three. Fine. That means I could put three
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: units up my dad's. He's in one unit read from
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the other two, just pays enough to cover the mortgage
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and his living expenses. Because I couldn't afford to just
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: write a check out of my pocket every month to
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: take care of my dad for the remainder of his life.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I did a cook calculation. Knew I'd be broke doing that,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and I didn't want to make a promise to my
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: dad I couldn't keep. So I got Wells Fargo to
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: make this loan a construction loan, and Tom Swanson want
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: to be for everything for the Tom Swanson because the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: story gets in very interesting. I gave my dad the chance.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: My dad asked for the chance to construct his own home.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I should have just said no, he's not a general contractor.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: And the reason he went and't broken in the first
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: place was he couldn't manage his money. Fine emotional I've
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: always said to you, don't make an emotional decision, it's
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: going to be a bad one. Out of love and emotions.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I said yes when my brain should have said no,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I should have got an independent contractor to building. I'm
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: already giving him place to live, already bought the place,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: and not like I'm not doing enough. So he wanted
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: to be seen, is building his own place profile like whatever.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: I give him this construction loan, he runs through it
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: nothing less. I give him an Emerger Express green card.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't even have one, had a six thousand dollars
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: limit on it. My dad ran through that in a month.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was so upset, But what am I
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: gonna do? He's my father. So I canceled the green
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: card and had to pay it back over time. I mean,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: it might as well have been fifty thousand dollars today,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: six thousand dollars back then or more. And luckily for me,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Tom Swanson ed Wills Fargo since retired. I went back
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to him, told him the truth, told him exactly what happened. Luckily,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: the market was going up at that time, values were
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: going up, and he said, look, the property's worth more
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: now than it was when you took out the construction loan.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: We're going to refinance the construction loan for you. Allow
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: you to take out the money to now finish his
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: three unit department building. But now you've got to get
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a proper contractor. We're going to have project ensured project
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: construction insurance on this project in case you get weak
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: need and trust your father again. And I learned so
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: many lessons. I finished the project just barely, and that
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: three in the building is worth seven figures today without question.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: So anyway, and my dad lived in dignity there until
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the day passed on broke. My dad died. God bless us,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: so God rest is so financially broke lost everything. We
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: lost the gas station, lost the single valley residential home.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: If you're in La Drive by Western and Vernon, I
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: believe those are the new Rodale world. I think I
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: think those are. That's the corner southeast corner. That gas
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: station still there is what we owned. Lost the apartment
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: building worth millions. We lost it all. I don't know
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: how I lost it. He just did. And the only
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: thing was keeping him going until he couldn't do anymore
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: was the seeming contracting business. And even lost the trucks
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: or sold them or whatever the equipment. So by the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: time I got back around into the story, the story
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: my dad was not in great health, uh and and
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: didn't take good care of himself and wouldn't listen to
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: me when I tried to. It was a whole another story.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: But I loved him and I was gonna do everything
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I could to let him live in dignity. And I'm
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: proud that I did that. And when I think Rachel
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: DiPT my chief of staff for being an honorary sister
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: to my honorary daughter to my father and taking care
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: of him when I was out on the road, my
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: mother had a different story. So my mom and my
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: dad had just two different world views right, and they
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: collided and the partnership dissolved over time. My dad lost
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: it all, every asset gone. My mother worked that job,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: took that extra money that she was making part time.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: And by the way, if you're married, here's an ideal situation.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: If two people are working. One person earns the income
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: and paid living expenses. You live on one paycheck. Please
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: hear me. The other person earns an income and invests it.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Now that this is at the forty minute mark of
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: this podcast, you won't. You don't get to pick up
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: anything else. Tell your friends to go to the forty
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: minute mark or whatever around thirty eight to forty minute mark,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: and mark this place and follow what I said. You
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: have two income houses. One person makes the money and
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: you live off that all your living expenses under this
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: one person. The other person take this money and invested
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: what I tell you earlier, two hundred dollars a month,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and we're two hundred dollars a month over thirty three
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: to forty years, and you'll be a millionaire. What happens
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: if you do five hundred a month or one thousand
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: dollars a month? Okay, you starting to get Get the hint,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: get the memo. It's the magic of compounding in the marketplace.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: So my dad, Johnny Smith, had assets, but no structure
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: in his life. He's cash rich at times, but asset
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: pour in the end, no diverse ofation, no succession plan,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: no long term investment strategy. My mother hustled differently, hustled smartly,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: use credit as leveraged out a crutch. My dad used
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: to say his credit was bad. My dad's credit was
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: so bad he didn't call it credit. He said his
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: credit was bad. My dad, I love him. My mother
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: understood delayed gratification, believe in consistency over charisma, invest, reinvest,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: leave it alone, let it compound. Hustle gets you in
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the door. Literacy and stewardship keeps you in the room.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: It keeps a roof over your head that you own.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: They again, they fought over money to different world views.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: My mom, My mom left. You know, you know again,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: you can do that all by yourself. She made a choice.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: So my mother ended up buying and selling seven homes
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: to drop Mike here. She had a life insurance policy.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: She drew up a will with a poison peel in it.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Anybody who contests this will, and I want to thank
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: for James Buchanan for helping her in the later years
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: of her life. He works for me, became a friend
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: of my mother, and he advised her to put this
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: element in the will, which I agree with. Anybody who
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: can test his will will be removed from the proceeds.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Anybody who can test his will removed from the inheritance. Boy,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: and I was and I was the you know, the
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: the trustee. Whatever for the whills. I didn't. I didn't
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: want to fight come in my way. But everybody got
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: real quiet once they read the wheel and saw that
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: in it. Mom was gangster. Mom had a stock account,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: she had a bank account. Of course, she had a Mercedes.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: She paid cash for it. My mother ultimately converted the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: life insurance policy and the stock I believe to cash.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: She helped her kids to buy houses, put their down
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: payment in their homes, but the involved some seven homes.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: And when she passed away, she had a million dollar
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: net worth and my dad was broke, and she worked
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: an hourly job, and she didn't get that million dollar
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: net worth from the stock market, like I just told you.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: She put a little bit of money in the stock
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: market through her through her employer, but she did most
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: of this through through real estate and making really smart
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: credit moves. She had a credit of credit score of
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: eight fifty four. Back when the credit score went that high,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: it was changed age fifty as a maximum. Whatever the
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: maximum was, she had it. And then later on her life,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: when she wasn't working, wasn't wasn't cutting deals, her credit
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: score went down to the high seven to the low
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: seven hundreds. But it's because she wasn't she wasn't using
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: credit at that time. But I'm just giving an example
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: of what really matters, right and what doesn't. So I
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: want to break the myth you don't need to own
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: a business to build wealth. You can be an hourly
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: worker and Bill Well, that is the situation for most
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: people in this country. My mom's formula was good credit,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: equal access to capital, prime access to capital. She went
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: to computer at midnight, typed in her so security number
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: in her name at midnight. Computers not asking her she's
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: black or female or whatever, if it's below one hundred
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars or whatever, the computer just says yes, because
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: my mother's not black or white, she's green right. Good credit.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: She had automatic savings. She looked automatic savings as a
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: long term game. She had a modest lifestyle. She lived
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: under a means. She knew that equal freedom. This is
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: what millions of Americas that do. As a business model.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Imagine now, if Johnny WILLI smith, we need to smith
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: my mom and dad combine their strengths. Imagine I mean
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: that hustle, they had, that network, what they've built. If
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: he made it and she invested it, Oh my god,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: they'd be powerhouse in my life. Story would be different.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe they'd be no operation hope, I wouldn't be no
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: financial literacy course. I wouldn't have been in Compton. My
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: mother went about the house. I mean, you know all
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: these things, rainbow's after storms. She cannot have a rainbow
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: of a storm. First, I've been a very different person
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: if it had not been for the trauma and the
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: drama in my life. And so I don't regret anything.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: I don't ask for anything to be different. But I
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: would have wanted my mother to be happier, and she
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't really all that happy. She was happy with her kids,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: she was happy by what she had done, her success,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: but she wasn't personally fulfilled from a love perspective. She
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: wanted to be loved, she gave. She told me she
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: loved me every day of my life. So I never
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: had a self esteem problem. And that's where the quote
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: for Operation Hope comes from. There's a difference between being
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: broken being poor, being broken as economic but being poor
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: as a disabling frame of mind, a depressed condition of
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: your spirit. And you must vow never, ever ever to
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: be poor again. That's came from my mother. But my
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: mother told me she loved me every day in my life.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: No one ever told her that, even her own mother
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: was not somebody who effusively said, I love you baby.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: So my mother was not loved by her family. She
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: was love by our kids, her and her sisters, but
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: not really. It did not have a love interest. And
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: that I think was the one sadness in her life.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about my dad. Imagine if Johnny. By
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the way, my mother was my date for many, many,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: many years. I take her all around the world. I
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: went to I've been to one hundred countries. I'm sure
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: of taking my mother to at least ten. And I'm
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: so proud that we had a time together. And anyway, reminiscing,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Sorry about that. What was my What can the modern
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur learn from from this? Incorporate your business, build business credit,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: maintain personal credit because if you're an if you're a
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: small business owner, your business credit may rely on your
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: personal credit rating. Separate hustle from household. Plan with your
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: spouse or partner. Avoid silent wars over money. You can
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: have weekly meetings on money, or monthly or semi quarterly
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: or semi annually or annually. You know, my family, we
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: talk about money all the time. When it you know,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: when it comes up, what doesn't come up when it
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: needs to come up? Right, and keep a budget. I
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: used to think the budgets were born. Budgets or budgets
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: are glorious. You should have one. Everybody should have one.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Here's an action plan for business hustlers. Formalize your operations
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: and using a limited liability corporation as easy as quick,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: ass cheap, use a proper accounting firm. Pay your taxes.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: My taxman was always after my dad. By the way.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: He was in a cash business. Uh, he didn't pay
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: his taxes. Build your credit profile. Invest in something that
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: pays you back over time. An apartment building. And again
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: the apartment building was cash flow and asset appreciation. So
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: he was making money during the day, the week, and
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: when he's then and then it was it was appreciating
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: because it's real estate and it's a business. Actually three
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: times it was a three times profit margin because he
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: would have sold the business, he would have got paid.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: If he had sold the real estate, he would have
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: got paid. And he was getting paid every week and
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: every day and every month on the income from the
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: gas station. Same was the same was the case with
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: the apartment building. So if he had just kept those
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: I mean he bought an eight unit apartment building in
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles for eighteen thousand dollars. I mean, my god,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: imagine you could just live on that for the rest
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: of your life. And then when you sold it, what heck,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: you're on easy Street. But he didn't. So build your
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: credit profile, formalize your operations, build your credit profile. Invested
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: something that pays you back over time for hourly workers.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Max out your retirement. If your employer has a four
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: oh one K plan and they're giving you x dollars,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: match it x dollars of your own money. It's free money,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: it's found money, it's yours. Why would you leave money
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: on the table right whatever your employer has given you,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: match it immediately, you know. If you don't, if you
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: need it later, you're always pull it out right. Protect
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: your credit score. Learn basic investing. You know index funds ETFs,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: but learn basic investing in the stock market, and then
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: put in at least fifty bucks one hundred bucks, two
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: hundred bucks a month. You can do fractional shares. By
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the way, there's no excuse for doing for not doing nothing.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: And of course you know me. I'm going to say
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: you should invest in real estate. Buy a home whenever
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: you can. You don't have to own the block tomorrow,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: but you have to own your mindset today. My father
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: gave me a fearless spirit, and I'll always be thankful
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: for him for that. My mother gave me financial wisdom
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: and I'll always be grateful for that. My mom gave
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: me a sense of yes I am. My dad gave
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: me a sense of yes I can. But in the end,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: it was my mother who built the legacy, the sustainable legacy.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Here's your call to action, everybody. Share this with someone
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: who you think is working harder in the same way
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: that my mom and dad did, but not working smarter,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: and you want them to work smarter. The definition of
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: and expecting a different outcome. Tell them to go to
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: the Operation Hope credit score index page on the Internet
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and look up the credit score for the neighborhood that
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: you're living in. Because that neighborhood that you're living in,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: if you do nothing but follow the trends in that neighborhood,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: you're you're going to you're going to model everything about
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood. So you live in a six hundred credit
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: score five hundred credit score neighborhood you're going to live
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: to about sixty one years of age. For every fifty
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: points we found in met to every credit score in
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: American by zip code of operation Hope and thank you
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Experience for giving us the data in the US Census.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: For every increase in credit score of fifty points, you
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: pick up five more years of life. Yes, that's what
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: I said. I said it, and which Yes, I hope
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: you didn't run off the road when I said that.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: If you have a seven hundred credit score, you lived
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: on average eighty one years of age. A five hundred
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: credit score you lived to on average sixty one years
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: of age, and you don't get so security until sixty five. Hello. Right,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: So a twenty year gap in wellness, in well being,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: you lived twenty year longer life with us two hundred
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: point gap in your credit score. It's not about the
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: credit score. Is about hope, well being, faith, confidence, belief, optimism, mindset.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: It's about how your's your mindset? Do you believe? Is
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: the glass half empty? Is a glass half full? It
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: depends who's looking at the glass. Whether you believe you can't,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right, right, So
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: you got to get your mind right because I can
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I gain I've done on my straight title Straight Talk
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Live series. I've talked about being homeless. I've talked about
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: people win the lottery. I can give a million a
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: homeless guy a million dollars, He'll be broken six months
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: if nothing else changes in his mind, in his heart,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: that reflex was in his pocket. Most people win the lottery,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: bankrupt in five years, broke. MOSTBA and NFL players bankrupt
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: within five years of retirement and divorced because again, you
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: got the money, but you didn't get the education. You
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: get the financial literacy, you don't understand what to do
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: with it. So getting your mindset right is really important.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Tell everybody listening to this go download the Hope and
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Hand app. Tell them that John Brian sent you. They'll
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: offer you a one thousand dollars Hope Financial scholarship for
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: coaching and counseling to get your credit score up, your
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: debt down, your savings up. We're geting credit scores up
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: fifty four points in six months, twelve hundred dollars up
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: for savings, thirty eight hundred dollars down for debt. In
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: a year. You do that, you make forty eight to
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars a year. In this example, we just
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: made you bank of them. We're the only nonprofit allowed
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: to operate out of a bank branch in US history,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: and so removing you from a no answer at the
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: bank to a yes answer. In most cases, you have
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: a job, your employ you have a good credit score,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: your debt, the intrarations are in place. The bank wants
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: to make a good loan there. They don't make a
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: good loan. They can't. They can't pay their bills, so
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: they need the money to be working. They don't. They
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: don't want to give to people they think are going
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: to default on the debt. Right, So I need you
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: to understand how the system works and where our job
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: is to be economic plumbing for the entire country. I
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: want you to tell your friends that subscribe to Money
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: and Wealth to podcast and get my book Financial Literacy
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: for All, which is the best seller in the world.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: John O'Brien, This is Money and Wealth on the Black
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: Effect Network on iHeartRadio. This has been a special episode
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: where I went deep into my own personal soul and
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: told you some things are very private person with me.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: The example the businessman hustler versus the hourly worker investor,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: which one wins. This is something everybody can do. This
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: is this is John O'Brien is the silver rights movement,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: from civil rights to civil rights, from civil rights in
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: the streets to civil rights in the suites. I'm Out
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.