Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / The Making of a Wealth Creator

Transcript

The Making of a Wealth Creator · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: is John O'Brien and this is Money and Wealth, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I owe you a bit of an apology. I sometimes assume,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and you should never assume. You make an ass out
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of you and me when you do that literally spelled
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that way. You should never assume that did somebody know
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: something or that they understand something, because it is what
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we don't know, that we don't know this killing is,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: but we think we know, and that creates a disconnection
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: from society and we start hanging around our comfort zones.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: That's why I say, if you hang around nine and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: broke people, you'll be the tenth. And the opposite is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: also true. You don't have to be brilliant if you
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: hang around wealthy people. Hanging around wealthy people will just
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: lift you up, in many cases to their level. So
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I assumed that people understood my background, and as I
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: explained on some social media posts about being homeless at eighteen,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: people were shocked. I explained about a little bit about
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: my background here and there, people were stunned. I don't know.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I guess assumed that I had a silver spoon in
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: my mouth, or that life wasn't so tough for me,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and the more I share, the more they could relate.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: The other side of the story is. And these are bookends.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: The reason I did this podcast is because I have
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: so much respect for my brother Charlemagne. His real name
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: is Leonard, and he is really really smart, and Leonard,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: who you know, is Charlemagne of the Breakfast Club. Lenard
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: told me one day that he respected a lot of
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the financial influencers for their game and what they've achieved,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: but he really wanted me to do a financial literacy
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: podcast because I was a real businessman, a real business
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: person who makes a pyro, who built a business, who
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: bought and sold assets, who had to work through issues,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: who ran a balance sheet and income statement. I wasn't
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: acting like I was a business person. I wasn't succeeding
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: by selling books and tapes. No disrespect to those who
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: sell books and tapes. That is a form of business,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: by the way. But if you're going to teach something,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you need to be something. So let me unpack how
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I became this person. So those are the book ends.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: One I came from somewhere, and that story I think
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: is more aligned with the typical listener of this podcast
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: than the children of the wealthy people in the world
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and most privileged. And two, I'm more PhDd than PhD
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and I still do it every day. I meet a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: payroll of seven figures every two weeks. I'm one of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the largest employers in America who happens to be black.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the topic today, the making of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a wealth creator lessons from my early life. Let me
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: walk you through this so you see that anybody can
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: do most anybody can do. Most anybody can do some,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: if not all, if not at the very least a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: lot of what I have done. You can take a
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: lane of what I'm doing, because maybe I'm just crazy.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I'm an entrepreneur, relentless in my creative energy. But you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: can take a lane of what I have done and
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: kill it, succeed at it, maybe beyond what I have done.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: But you're not. You don't have to say, oh, well,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: John was born brilliant, or he's Jordan Rich or he's grown.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: No no, no, no no. I was born a hustler, right,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: But the difference between a hustler and a businessman or
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: a businesswoman is payroll. Can I get an amen? I'm
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: sorry not let me phrase that. I'm thinking about payroll there,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: but my own payroll. The difference between a hustler and
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: a businessman or a business woman is paperwork, not payroll.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Payroll is part of paperwork, but financial literacy is the paperwork.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: It's understanding how this whole thing works. So you can
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: just be half as brilliant as a person next to you,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: but you've got your paperwork right right, and you've understand
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: that the system works. You're willing to work hard, get
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: up early, stay late, succeed by hard work and resiliency.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: You're going to do better than the person that's just
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: smarter than you that's next door. So let's unpack my story.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I'm going to jump down to when I was about
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: four or five, my mother and my father. Now this
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: is in my book Financial Literacy for All. It's my
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: book some of us in my book the Memo and Nothing.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to literally walk you through what you
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: can read, but let me let me do something I've
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: never done before. Tell you the what of how to
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: become a wealth creator in your mind and let your
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: legs and feet follow those that new thought process. Why
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: is that important? As I said on social media, If
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I give a homeless man a million dollars and that's
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: all I do, I don't do anything else, he'll be
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: broken six months. And people they thought that I was
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: being callous or whatever. No, no, I'm being factual that
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that money is just a transfer. It's just you know,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: it's just a transfer of value. It's just you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: but mindset. Wealth is a mindset. So I can give
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: all the money in the world all the people of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the world. Sorry, if all the wealth of the world
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: was transferred to all the people of the world, but
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: nothing else was done to help them, then the wealthy
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: people in the world would have the money back within
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: three to five years, because it's a mindset, right, So
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: hustling is not enough. Money certainly is not enough. That's
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: why seventy percent of all those who win the lottery
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: are bankrupt in five years. Seventy percent of NFL players
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: NBA players on average bankrupt within five years and then
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: divorced within that same period of time because they run
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: out of money. They thought they live, thought it would
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: last forever. No, no, no, wealth lasts, money will dissipate.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: You make money during the day. You build wealth in
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: your sleep. My mom and my dad. My dad was
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: a hustler, grew up in Alabama. My grandfather, RB Smith
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was a sharecropper. My second grad grandmother, grandfather, George Young,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was a was in the Union Army and the Emancipation
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln protected Memphis and is born into slavery.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: George Young because of slavery. My generational story sort of
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: ends in the fourth generation. But I'm still investigating all
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: of that, unpacking it and documenting it. But I do
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: know my grandfather, certainly, my grand my second great grandfather,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was a fighter for justice in the UNI Army, the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Emancipation Proclamation Black troops, one of those one of seven
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: thousand officers who represented and defended Memphis. So he's a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: fighter for justice. My second grade grandmother on my mother's side,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was born into slavery, became free in her lifetime, owned
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: her own house with no mortgage on it, so it
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: says the documentation, and had a border a renter. So
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I had this fighter for justice and this freedom, fighter
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: of independence in my spiritual bloodstream, even in slavery. My
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: grandmother on my mother's side, Vester Murray, owned her own house.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: It was a shotgun shack, meaning you open the front door,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: shoot through the a shotgun through from the front to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the back and not hit anything, no walls, anything. And
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: there was an outhouse where you did your business in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: East Saint Louis on Peggott's Pigot Street, Picket Street. I
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: believe it's called doing that from memory. My mother went
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: into smith and her sisters and brothers lived there. And
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: my mother went from that shotgun shack marrying my father,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: who is a businessman. Second, my grandfather was a sharecropper.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: On my dad's side, my dad, a businessman, owned a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: cement contracting business and owned his own home. At that point,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: he marries my mother. They come together because two plus
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: two in a good relationship, she equal six, eight or ten,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: not just tuplus to equals four. Is she multiplication not
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: just addition. They come together and Mary moved to south
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: central LA build a little conglomerate. And they both had
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a high school education. I'm saying, I'm bringing this down
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: so you understand this can be you. This is you.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: High school education, lots of hustle. My mother becomes really
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: smart in saving, in investment and side hustles. She had
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of those side hustles, and she worked mostly
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: at McDonald Douglas's Aircraft for most of her life, making
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: plane seats, stitching plane seats that I fly in today.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Maybe some of the seats I sit in on these airlines,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: they were seats my mother once stitched. Who knows, but she,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: you know, was great at investing, graded hustling, and graded saving.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: My dad was great at hustling, great at producing income.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: But my dad was financially illiterate, So every dollar he
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: made he'd spend a dollar fifty. The more money he made,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the broker we got. But we owned it. At some
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: point a gas station at Western and Vernon, I believe.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: In Los Angeles, we owned an eight unit apartment building.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: We bought for eighteen thousand dollars and was worth eight
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: is worth more than eight million dollars today we own.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: We lived in the one unit, rented the rest of
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: them out. We owned our own home. At some point,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: we owned a nursery business taking care of kids. Yes,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I was one of the clients. We owned a cement
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: contracting business and did that with his own hands. My
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: mom and dad fought over money. My mother moved out,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: did not take anything with her except her kids. In
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: California community, probably state could have taken everything from my dad.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Lee's my dad with all these physical assets, these income
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: producing assets, but my dad did not have the financial literacy.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Years later, my mother's bought and so owed seven homes,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: worked an hourly job. It's worth a million dollars credit
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: score of eight fifty four. I'm her trustee when she passed.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I know the numbers. My dad dies dead, broke, even
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: though he was brilliant, and I had to take care
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of him. He lost everything because he was financially illiterate,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: even though he was brilliant in many ways. So if
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: your outflow, see you're inflowed, then you're overhead to be
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: your downfall. And even the Bible says we grow through
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: legitimate suffering. Rainbows only follow storms. You cannot have a
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: rainbow without a storm first. So the first thing embedded
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: in my brain was my mother and my father fighting
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: over money when I was four or five. My sister,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Mara Hoskins says, uh, you know, I think it was four.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I thought I was six years old. She said it
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: was four or five. How would I know? I was
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: very young, but she passed me the phone to call
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the police. Don't know what she had to pass me
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the phone. She dialed the number back then it was
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a rotary phone. Come, come, Come, My daddy is beating
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: with my mother. They're arguing about money. And again, the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: backstories in my books, I won't bore you with that.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: It's not relevant to this particular conversation. But that was
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: by my brother, Donnie Smith, Dave Darnell Harris, Donnie Smith
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: or Dave Harris, it's his name, but Dave Darnell Harris
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: is his real name because he had a different father
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: than I did. Even though my dad took care of
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: him and my sister like they were his own. I
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: give him credit for that. My Dadda's breed him anyway.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: She's just not in money anyway. They fight over money.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Number one calls for divorce in America is money. My
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: mother's splits goes to live with a with a girlfriends. Well,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: now we've broken up the family structure. Right. If you
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: want to build well, stick together, right. If you're got
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to get married, first of all, you'll make more money.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: You'll build more wealth married than you will single. That's
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: statistically true. Are there exceptions to that rule. Of course,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: there are a somebody I'm honored to call a friend,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey, who I incredibly adm my is single but
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: has done incredibly well. So I'm not saying you can't
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: be single not do well. There's many, many, many examples
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: of that. But statistically speaking, you're going to do better
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: married if you can stay married. Get married and stay
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: married and work as a team. Again, it's compounding because
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: it's just more people working at something. And certainly if
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: one person makes the money and the other person takes
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and invest the money, so both people are working. One
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: persons making in living, the other person's building a life.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's another podcast for another day. One person's making a living,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: paying and then paying bills. The other person's building a
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: life by taking the money they make investing for the future.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: My mom and dad didn't do that. So first thing
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I witnessed was the destruction of our family structure. Later on,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: obviously the net worth poof so our generational wealth disappeared.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: We should have had eight million dollars, We should have
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: had ten millillars worth of assets, me and my brother
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and my sister to pass to share as we grew
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: up and to build from because of just the apartment
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: building and the gas station alone and the home that
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: was owned, but my father lost it all. Fast forward,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: now I'm staying with my mother's girlfriend, who she told
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: me was her my aunt something black parents do, how
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: is your auntie? Baby? She was just my mother's girlfriend.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And I witnessed the murder of the guy who saved
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: my life there again over money drugs, So that's embedded
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: my brain. Then again it's in the details are in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: my book. And then I and then around nine years
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: of age, my mother buys her first house one five
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to five oh too, South Freyley Avenue in Common, California,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: and I'd go make a good friend. A knew a friend,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: very smart guy. George was his name. And unfortunately George
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: did not have good parents like I did. Even though
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: they were divorced, they still loved me and showed it.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: My mother told me she loved me every day in
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: my life. So I had many problems, but self esteem
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: not one of them. George did not have that benefit.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: He did not have loving parents, even though he was
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: wicked smart, much smarter than me on the books. That's
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: why I wanted to be like him. He was really smart. Well,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I want to be like George. George wanted to be
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: like the next door neighbor, Tweet, who was a drug dealer,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and George and Tweet got murdered on the same street corner.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: So by the time I was nine years old, I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was done and I'm looking for a way out of this.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I don't want prison, probation, parole, or death, which is
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: what I saw in my neighborhood in Compton. I knew
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: we were smart, I knew we were enterprising people, but
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: no one ever gave us a memo on money or
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: capitalism and free enterprise like every other culture has. Every
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: other culture was given this memo on how to succeed
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: literally every other culture. The only three groups that did
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: not give this memo African Americans, African Caribbeans, that African Africans,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: African Americans who were enslaved poor whites who were brought
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: here as indenture servants and never obviously escaped from that
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: as a large group of poverty in this country. If
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: race was the only issue in this country, racism is real,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: as we're unfortunately seeing in today's society. But if racism
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was the only factor holding you back then you would
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: not have poor whites, you'd have only rich whites, okay,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: and then Native American Indians. These three groups out of
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: two hundred athletic groups in America, never got the memo.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know that back then, so I've
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: been studying this my whole life. But back then, I
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: just knew I had to get out of there. And
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: only people. Only people end up doing well in my
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: neighborhood with drug dealers and gangsters, and they didn't have
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: a retirement plan and most of them didn't live long.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Some looking for a way out. I go to class,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: go to school, elementary school. It was called Elskondo Elementary School,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: renamed the Colin Pea Kelley Elementary School in Compton, and
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I would sell stuff to teach you. Well. A guy comes,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: of course to class, a white banker to teach financial literacy.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: He was a banker from Bank of America. Come. He
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: would come once a week for six weeks tied to
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the Community Reinvestment Act, which still exists to this day,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and he would teach financial literacy and home economics class
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: which doesn't exist anymore. And most of my classroom friends
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: were just joking when he was there. It was like
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: free time for them. I was focused. I'm trying to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: figure out how to get out of the hood alive
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and prosperous, and I don't want to work for somebody
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: like with audue respect my mother was doing. So I'm
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: these guys got my attention. And the first week it
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: was a you know, tense situation because he didn't want
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to be there and we didn't want him there. The
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: second week, he comes back, you know, you kids aren't
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: so bad. You remind me my own kids. We're like, well,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: you're not so bad for a white dude. So we're
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: building our relationship. We have nice little joke can humor.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Humor breaks down all kinds of barriers, and he's like,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: you kids are okay. We're like, you're okay too. So
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: by the third week we're talking about real stuff. And
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: now I'm selling stuff. I'm selling mail order Stacey Adams shoes,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: I'm selling mail order jewelry. I couldn't afford inventory, but
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I had a mouth. I could talk, and I would
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: go sell it stuff to my teachers and too, my principal,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: who were white and black by the way in content
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: at that time, and that would sort of build my
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: confidence every time I got a sale, and I would
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: take the deposit, and deposit I would use to buy
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the product. I'd get the product in this mail order,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: and then I would deliver the product and I'd get
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the second part of the sale that was my profit.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Then I'd reinvest And that's why I learned how to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: reinvest in me. And then I was really the product.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I was a salesman in that example, I was a
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: spokesman for the company. And around the fourth or fifth week,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm just all in and I wanted to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: wear a suit like this banker. So I asked my
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: mother if I could wear a suit, and she's like,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not buying you a suit. I can't afford that.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: But I made you a suit for Sunday churches. You
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: wear that. So it was a crush velvet, purple bllure
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: three piece suit with a ruffled shirt and a big, big,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: big bow tie. And I wore that suit to the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: school and had a little briefcase with nothing my dreams
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: in it. That's why I used to have my mail
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: order forms in and I got beat up every day,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: right and ridiculed, But I didn't care an ego toof
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: flying packs. You never seen a flock of eagles. You're
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: starting to see the beginning, the beginnings of the makings
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of a wealth creator. Right. So I'm walking my own
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: walking to my own thing. I'm going to school and
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I'm focused. And I asked this banker, what do you
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: do for a living and how'd you get rich legally?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And I was dead serious. And this banker said, I'm
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: a banker and I finance entrepreneurs. And I said, I
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: don't know what an entrepreneur is. I've never heard that
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: word my entire life. I'm nine years old and I'm nosy,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: and uh. I looked it up in the dictionary. That
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: would be a Google search today. But I went home.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: We bought an entire wall of Encyclopedia Britannica. Anybody older
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: than forty know what I'm talking about. If you if
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: you were balling in the inner city, your parents showed
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: it by buying Encyclopaopedia Britannica and put them on display.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Most people never even open them, but they were on display.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I want to open open the one to the word
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to the letter E and found the word entrepreneur or
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: a French word build, create value, build something from nothing.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm in that's legal, and I can spy.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I can finally see my way out of the hood.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I go back to the banker. I got more questions.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Now I know How'm gonna get out of this mess?
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Is the great place I live that you can't see
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: me to get out of here unless you're in prison
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: or in a box as in dead. Are there more
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: people like you this banker thing that you're talking about
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: that lends money? He said, Oh yeah, there's hundreds of
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: thousands of bankers. There's ten thousand banks. Back then it
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: might be a million, or two million or three million bankers,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: he said. And I said, women, slow down, hold on.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: You mean to tell me I've said this in speeches,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: but I've never said it on the podcast. So I'm
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: breaking this down for you. You mean to tell me,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: so you know, there's only an audience of a couple
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of a few of the people that ever heard me
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: say this. You mean to tell me that your job,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: your job is to lend poor people money. He's like, yep,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and all I have to do is prove can pay
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: it back. Yep. And you take money from depositors like
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: my mother at three percent or whatever you put on
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: some administrative costs and profit. You call it spread interest rates, spread,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: you loaned it back out, it double that whatever, and
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you just want the money paid back. Yep. And if
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I can prove to you that I will pay the
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: money back, which is a credit score and all that stuff,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: you'll loan me money. Yep. And if I don't pay
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the money back, I don't get dead. And he laughed,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and he's like, why would I kill you? Of course not,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: that's ridiculous. This, you know, middle class white man from
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a beautiful stable community. He's like, he's like, this, what's
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: wrong with this kid? Because because of Pooky and them
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: around the corner on the backstreet from where I live.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: If you didn't return the money they borrowed, that that
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: you loan, that you borrow from them, they loaned you.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: You don't come back from that street, they jack you up,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: They might kill you. They would disappear you. To send
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a message to the next borrower. You got to be
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: paid this money. By the way, a gangster did me
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: a real favor. I was later on in my life
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and I was a real hustler. I had borrow some
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: money from one of the local gangsters and I went
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to pay him back and he's like, you don't pay
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: me back. Now. I'm like, no, I'm paying you back
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: plus interest. He says, no, no, no, you don't understand
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: this game. You don't pay me back. You work for
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: me for life, so you can pay me back the principal.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: But the interests, I mean, you know, the interest keeps
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: going up so much that I just give you another
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: job and you just you're working for the family now,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the family quotation marks. And I didn't understand any of that.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: And he looked at me like, you know, kid, you're
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: not supposed to be here. Like I can see you
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: have real potential. Give my principal back my money. Now,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: get out of here, and never I never want to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: see you again. If you say, if I see you again,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill you. Right, and I was gone. But anyway,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: back to the story, he really saved my life because
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't understand what I was getting into by borrowing
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: money from this guy. So back to when I'm nine,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: this guy, no, why would I kill you? No, No,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: we just give you a notice of default. I said,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, you give me a piece of paper
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: if I don't repay your loan. You give me a
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: piece of paper, yes, and we report you to the
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: credit bureaus. What's that right? I mean, this all stuff's
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: blowing my mind. So I sad. Wait a minute, hold on,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: slow down. And this is why I'm so excited about
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: this topic of financial literacy and why I found an
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: operation of hope and this slow down. There are millions
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: of bankers in America, white people like you, white Euasian people, whatever,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: black people and your job. It's the loan poor people money.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And all we have to do is pray proof we
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: can pay it back. And you want to return, You
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: want you know, profit return on your interest. And if
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: we don't pay it back, things go wrong. You don't
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: kill us, You don't break our legs. You just give
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: us a notice of default. You harm our credit, not
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: our body. Yes, sign me up. And what I didn't
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: realize is not only that, was I signing up to
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: become an entrepreneur at that time, which I certainly realized.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I want, That's what I wanted to do at nine
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: years old, ten years over to that point, well nine
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and a half, because I sorry my first business at ten,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize I was also writing the lyrics for
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the rest of my for the song and the rest
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: of my life, because later on, you know, two decades later, yeah, low,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: less than that, I was founding Operation Hope. And what
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: does Operation Hope do teach people, poor people, struggling families,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: how to unleash untapped human potential at scale? How to
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: meet the criteria? Banks were the only non profit allowed
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to operate inside of a bank branch in US history.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Allows people to raise their credit score. We're raising credit
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: score is four fifty four points and six months louring
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: debt thirty eight hundred dollars. Raising saved twelve hundred dollars
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: for somebody making forty eight fifty thousand dollars a year,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: which is most Americans with too much month ed into
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: their money. Allows them to go into the bank, get
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the bank out of the no business which they don't
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: want to be in. They need to make profit, which
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: means they need to make loans to get paid back,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and get the bank back into the yes business at scale.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: That's what we're doing across the country. Four point five
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: billion dollars invested to date, fifteen hundred offices, three hundred
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: and fifty which have my staff and them inside of banks.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Mostly partnering with the guys and ladies who taught me
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: financial literacy as a kid. Can make this up full
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: circle back to the story the making of a wealth creator.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: So now got the entrepreneurship piece right and the dream
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: in my head. Right now, I'm walking down the street
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: from school, right, And now I'm looking at the muffler shop.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: That's a business. There's a capitalist in there. People say, oh,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I hate rich people. No you don't. You don't hate
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: rich people. You hate rich people until you become rich.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: What you hate is a game system. What you hate
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: is the system that no matter how hard you work,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: you cannot succeed. I'm going to teach you the system.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna master it. But anyway, that muffler shop was
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: a business, a for profit business organize that pays sales
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: tax to the city and the state, that has employees,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: hopefully files a tax return, pays their expenses, takes home
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: a profit just like the banker. And inside that business
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: is a capitalist. People say, oh, I want to be
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: a socialist, Get the heck out of here. Even if
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you want to distribute money like a socialist, you have
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: to first collect it like a capitalist. Can I get
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: an amen? All socialism is, by the way, it's a
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: taxing system. I'll break that down in another podcast. The
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Nordic countries who specialize in socialism. These are capitalists who
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: just pay more taxes. But that's a whole nother podcast.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: So that muffler shop owner was a capitalist. The nail
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: salon owner, she's a capitalist and she's in business. That
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: is a business. The barbershop owner, Mail's barbershop or whatever.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: He's a capitalist, right, and he's in business. The donuts
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: chip owner, he's a capitalist or she's a capitalist. That's
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a business. You're starting to get it. The gas station,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: that's a business, and that's a capitalist that owns it.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And they have insurance and payroll and a loan corporation.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I'm just fascinating. My mind is just exploding with opportunity.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing the building of a new mindset in me.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: So now my mother told me she loved me every
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: day in my life. So now a since of yes,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: I am. My dad showed me how to build something.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it's financially literally, I just saw he
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: was out there making a payroll. He believed. In the
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: James Brown version of a firmative action. I open the door,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I'll get it myself. So that was my dude. Still
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: my dude, even though he's financially literately. I'm a businessman
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: because he was. My grandfather was a sharecropper. My daddy
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Johnny's Will Smith was a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. I
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: would never be me without him. And you can't grow
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: except do legitimate suffering. So thank god he made mistakes,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: so I don't have to make those same mistakes. He
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: made a mistake. He wasn't a mistake. Wonderful human being,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: my dad who took care of my sister and brother
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: and didn't have to, and even my mother, even though
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: they had problems, he genuinely loved her. He just didn't
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: know any better. We're going to fix that with this generation.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: So I'm walking through the neighborhood. I'm like, oh my god,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: there's a way out, a legal way out. So I
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: go to the liquor store. I'm ten years old. Now
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: there's a guy named Black guy owned the liquor store,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Mister Matt Surrey's selling wrong kind of candy. He said,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: go away, little boy, I've got a college degree. I said,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: that's nice. I've got cavities right, I'm a kid, I'm
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: ten years old. You're selling them wrong kind of candy.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: And I didn't know what a joint venture meant then.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm at John O'Brien Enterprises JHB Enterprises,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: which includes briangreop Ventures and Brian Grew Digital Media and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: my newest joint venture BGV CIMBGV Impact Ventures, which I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: will talk more about in the next podcast, and Brian
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Group Publishing and anyway, all the stuff I'm involved in.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: That environment of joint ventures, which I love today, has
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: ground rules for me, and my basic ground roads for
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: doing business anybody is the opra rule on the one hand,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: and the joint venture rule on the other. Over rule
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: is I don't put my arm around anybody who does
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: not have as much reputationally to lose as I do.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: That's the opera rule and I love it. She taught
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: me that and I use it. She gave me the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Usual Life Award twenty five years ago, and I am
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: indebted to her to this day for teaching me and
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: not just rewarding me or acknowledging me. She's still teaching,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: by the way, and then my joint venture rule on
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the business side is I don't joint venture with anybody
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: who doesn't have as much reputationally to lose as I do.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: They're not bigger than me. Also, so the only time
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I've ever made a business mistake that I'm aware of,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: or the only time has ever cost me anything, is
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: when I didn't follow that rule. And it was a
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: good reason why I didn't follow a rule. I can't
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: get into it at the moment, but a little bit
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: of a shotgun marriage. But whenever I've had time to
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: think about it, I've never had a problem I've had.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I've only had one business problem dispute in forty years
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: of business is because I didn't follow those booking ruse
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: of starting a business. So the reason I say this
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: joint venture is I didn't know what joint venture was.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what a partnership was. But what I
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: was telling the owner of the Max Liquor Store, mister
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: mack Is black man of six' two on this business
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: WAS i want to be your. PARTNER i want to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: help you, succeed continue to succeed in business and to
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: thrive and get more market. Share And i'm a, KID
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: i know what kids are, buying and he just he
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: just wrote me. Off he. Laughed i'm, like, Look i'm
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: trying to save your business. Man you need to partner with.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Me he laughed at. Me he's, like, look you got
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: good gift for gap. Kid i'm gonna hire. You he
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: was very. Presumptuous i'm gonna hire you as a salesman
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: for candy in my candy. Store my candy. Counter it
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: was a candy, counter glass counter inside of the liquor.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: STORE i don't want to work for you in your
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Candy then this candy Shot max Liquor store was AT
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: i Think Atlantic Atlantic, boulevard AND i think. MIRTH i
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: think it was The Cross. STREETS i think it's a
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: muffler shot there. Now but, anyway SO i told HIM
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: i didn't want to work for. HIM i didn't realize
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: how wise this. Was LIKE i didn't want to rock the.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: MIC i wanted to own. IT i didn't want to
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: be a. PERFORMER i wanted to be the guy who
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: owned the. Publishing if you in the music business, Vernacular
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Quincy jones once told, me if you think you're in
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: the music business and you don't own music rights or licensing,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: rights or publishing rights or some kind of. Rights you're
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: not in the music. Business you're just a temporary. Performer,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: whooh that's. Wisdom god Rest quincy's, so he also told.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: ME i asked him he did he get so? Smart he,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Said i'm just nosy as. HELL i want to know
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: everything about. EVERYTHING i got that from. HIM i got
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: two ears in one mouth Because god gave it to,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: us because he wanted to know. That we wanted us to.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Listen twice as much as we. Talk most of us
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: do the opposite that we talk and don't. Listen no,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: wonder you don't learn anything. Anyway i'm. Nosy i'm looking
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: at his liquor store and this candy. Counter i'm, saying
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: you're selling. Them that's all the candy we don't. Like
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: but you're the Only you have no competition in, town
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: so of course we're buying. Candy you're not even in
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: a good. Location we're going out of the way to
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: come to your you're out of the way for the elementary,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: school and you're out of the way to the middle,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: school which is way they junior. High everybody Mentioned my
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: elementary school Was Elsigonda, elementary which is now called him
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: P Kelley elementary today in content and he just sort
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: keeps dismissing, me but he's impressed with my confidence and
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: my gift for. Gap SO i, said, LOOK i. Don't he,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Said i'm gonna hire. You he was getting. Presumptuous i'm
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: gonna hire you to pay you top. Dollar come here
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: after school And i'm gonna hire. YOU i, SAID i
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: don't want to work for, you. SIR i don't care
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: what you want to pay. Me he, said, well then
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: what do you? WANT i, said, well ACTUALLY i do
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: want to be a box. Boy you know what a
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: box boy? Is that somebody who breaks the boxes up of.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Inventory it's the worst Job i've, Got it's lowest. Job,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: YEP i want that. One if you work at a,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: CORPORATION i don't want you to stay at. HOME i
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: want you to go to the office AND i want
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: you to walk past the boss's office five times a
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: day until the boss, says when everybody's trying to stay
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: at home and work, remotely and you're there and you
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: come in, early you stay, late who are? You what
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: are you? Doing and whatever assignment they have that nobody
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: wants take that. One, OKAY a wealth mindset now you
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: just got a promotion, Anyway So I'm i'm taking this
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: job as a box. BOY i go into the cold
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: box where you take, inventory open the boxes and you
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: put them in the back of the coal box for
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: liquor and. Milk and this when you open a you
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: go to a convenience store and you open the. Front
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: you pull that drink out the. Front i'm the person
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: pushing the inventory from the. Back it was, cold it
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: was not, glamorous BUT i loved it BECAUSE i got
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to see inventory for the. CANDY i opened the. Box
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: there was then inventory. List on the inventory list was
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: the address where he bought his. Candy he Was iris
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Food store And smart and final on my Little jewish. Family.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: That oddly, enough forty years, later forty five years, Later
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: i'm on the board of a company Called Ares, management
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: which is a private equity firm in based In New York.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: City today's six hundred billion dollars of assets that my
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Friends Michael waghtty And Tony wrestler run together along with,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: others but they bought that company forty years. Later forty
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: five years, later unbeknownst to, Me i'm on the board
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: AND i see this list of. ASSETS i can't believe
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: they own this company that gave me my, life my starting. Business,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: anyway back to the. Story so This jewish couple very.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: NICE i went to go SO i saw that that's
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: where you bought's. INVENTORY i saw the wholesale, RATE i
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: saw the retail. RATE i saw the, markup which was the.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: PROPHET i learned all this in the financial literacy course
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: that that banker taught. Me now it's our. Clicking this
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: is Like i'm going FROM PhD TO. PhD i'm building
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: a wealth mindset step by, step break by, brick and
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: frost bite by frost bite Because i'm in this. Cobox
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: so NOW i got. IT i got where he bought.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: IT i got worried where what his source. IS i
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: got his oh cell, rate his retail. Rate i'm. DONE
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: i quit. IT i was only there for a few.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Weeks go, home go to my. MOTHER i have this.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Idea i'm gonna start this business neighborhood candy. House where
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: you're gonna start it in your. Den please don't charge, me.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Rent my mother was a capitalist through and through she
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: But i'm not going To, okay but how much you need
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: to start? It forty? Bucks, Okay i'm not gonna charge you,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: rent BUT i. Will i'm gonna rent you the. Money
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: you're gonna pay this money back to. ME i got
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: forty dollars loan from my mother whenny To Smith. Wrestler
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: so we went To smart And final And Iris Food.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: STORE i Think smart And final was the wholesaler that
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: was inside of or tied To Iris Food, store which
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: was a retailer that sold retail food to the neighborhood
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: consumers neighborhood. Residents BUT i think it Was smart And
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: final that sold wholesale To Max Liquor. Store and SO
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: i went there like it was a school project with
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: my mother with the forty dollars in my, hand and
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: they were so impressed with. Me oh, yeah let's give
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: his kids some biased. Kids let's go kid buy some
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: candy for his school. Project thank god THAT i was
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: a school project BECAUSE i did not have a business,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: permit which you needed to be a proper. Business, Sorry
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: mayor Of. COMPTON i just. VISITED i apologized to the
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: mayor WHEN i went to go visit her in person last.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: WEEK a very very nice, lady by the, WAY i might,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: add that couldn't be more gracious and kind to, me
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and we were going to be doing some stuff together coming.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Up That's Mayor Emma sharif In. COMPTON i apologized to
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: her for robbing the city of city. Funds so they
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: give me this. STUFF i go, home set up the
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: name Candy, house and eight through half of the. Inventory
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: never eat your. Product but what the miracle? WAS i
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: sold the other half of the of the inventory and
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: still had made a. Profit So i'm abusing the business,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: model abusing my lessons in financial, literacy AND i still
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: made a. Profit that's how amazing this capitalism thing. Was
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and it was, legal AND i got cavities because of. It,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: RIGHT i hate candid this. DAY i don't, hate BUT
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: i am not addicted to it BECAUSE i got overdosed
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: as a. Kid SO i go back To smart And
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: final now with a, focus get a new set of.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Inventory go. Back they give me some free racks because
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: they're now impressed with me in my. Hootspa only in
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the dictionary does the word success come before the word,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: work because it's. Alphabetical by the, Way, hello every place,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: else work comes. First So i'm putting in the work
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and putting in the hours on the way to school
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: for my. Friends of, Course i'm the marketing. Agent so
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: the neighbor candy house makes three hundred dollars a week
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: at its, height AND i put the liquor store out
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: of the candy. Business THEN i found. Girls loss of
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: business became a recurring theme my. Life but which is
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: WHY i got really focused on being serious about business
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: and not being emotional about. It BUT i learned a
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: lot of lessons. There imagine what happened to my self
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: esteem as a result of that. WIN i put the liquor.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Store this grown man with a college, degree with a successful.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: BUSINESS i put him out of the candy. Business he
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: could sell, liquor but he couldn't sell. CANDY i was his.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Competition he shared a partner with. Me never underestimate, me
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: OR i have a sign on My walt, says underestimate
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: me at your own. Risk that'll be. Nice you want
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: to make it so when you when your feet hit
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the ground in the, morning the devil, says oh, crap
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: he Or she's. Up so this is the phase one
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: version of this. Story there is a phase two THAT
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: i can do in another. Episode BUT i sort of
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: bore myself WHEN i talk about, Myself so you have
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: to tell me whether this was important to, you and
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: if it's important to, You i'm the one when you
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: put in, comments when they put pieces of this podcast
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: or go on social, Media i'm the one. Responding if
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: you see a response on in the, comments that's. ME
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: i do it between business meetings and all this stuff
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: When i'm. Traveling so tell me in those comments if
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: you want me to do part two of this and
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: take you from age ten to age twenty and tell
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: you about my successes and my failures and the continued
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: growth of my wealth creation. Mindset but it's really started
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the essence of me becoming an entrepreneur and the essence
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: of the future founding Of Operation, hope which is now
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the biggest in the country and one of the best
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: biggest in the world by. Extension it all started there
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: with that kid who was nosy and who had these
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: loving parents who were divorced and too much month in
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: their money and all the other problems that you can relate.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: To STILL i, rose And i'll just tell you that
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: that was the beginning of, everything AND i started a
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: bunch of, businesses probably one hundred business ideas from ten
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: age twenty probably one. Hundred most of, them the vast
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: majority of them, Failed and so failure was not a.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Thing it was an outcome to an. EXPERIMENT i was
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: not a. FAILURE i just felt it. Something it just didn't.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Work and here's WHAT i found out about failure and.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Success success has a thousand mothers and. Fathers everybody will
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: claim you when you, succeed but failure as a bastard.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Child you can fail in ninety nine times no one
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: will say a word about. It and In america you
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: can fail and get back up all over, again no.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Problem it's different than In europe where it's. Stigmatized but
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: you have to succeed just, once just fall. Forward success
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: is going from failure to failure without loss of. Enthusiasm
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: and entrepreneurs eighteen hours day to keep from getting a.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Job whether you believe you can and whether you believe you,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: can't you're absolutely. Right the glass set full or is half,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: empty depends was looking at the. GLASS i can't guarantee
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: you that making being positive is going to make you a,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: success BUT i absolutely guarantee you that being negative is
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: gonna make you. Fail mindset. Matters you can mess with my,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: money you can't mess with my, time and you can't
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: mess with my. MIND i walked through life today consciously
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: oblivious the most things around me because it just doesn't.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Matter here's WHAT i, learned but too. LATE i spent
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of time BECAUSE i was not the cool.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: KID i was a dorky. KID i spent a lot
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: of time trying to impress, people the sixth square blocks
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: celebrity in my, neighborhood trying to impress people THAT i
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: ultimately did not want to be. LIKE i can't repeat.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: THAT i spent a lot of time trying to impress
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: PEOPLE i really didn't want to be like they were
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: the six square block. Celebrity they were the drugs the
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: dealer or the, gangster the guy who had the woman or,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: whatever most of which later on asked me for a
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: job if they were still alive or not in. Prison
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: And i'm not. Joking they would ask me for jobs for,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: contracts but they were Not their storyline didn't work out
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: for them like it worked out for, me and there
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: was nothing special about. ME i just had a business
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: plan my, life AND i focused on things that, built
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: things that, mattered AND i didn't have, wealth SO i
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: had to CREATE i take hustle and turn it into
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: a business, plan and hustle on muscle on hustle with
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: a business plan creates compounded, hustle which creates, energy and
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: at some point you outrun your. Problems that's WHY i
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: say The devil was a. Punk he's a fallen. Angel
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: god gets the a permission to. Exist darkness is defined
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: by light and not the other way. Around devil was a.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Punk WHEN i get up in the, morning the devil,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: says oh, shit he's. Up he's a, punk and and
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: and and AND a quote THAT i can't quite say
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: the way he says it for my Friend Tony restaer
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: is if you don't, quit you can't. Fail i'll tell
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: you the way he says. It this is a. Podcast
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: is my. PODCAST i can say. This if you don't fucking,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: quit you won't fucking. Fail so there you. Go you
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: can delete that part you're going to. Give let the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: young person listen to this. Podcast BUT i want to
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: say it just as strongly as he. Says and he's
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: a two hundred richest man in the, world and he
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: came from a working class. Family if you don't, quit
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: you can't. Fail just don't give. Up and not giving
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: up is a mindset WHICH i cover in my book
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: the Memo Surviving, mindset throbbing, mindset winning. Mindset relationships give
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: her and a giver is exotic, given a taker is,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: neurotic taker and the taker is. Psychotic the first RELATIONSHIP
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: i want you to have is with. YOURSELF i want
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: you to learn to love, yourself not be in love with,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: yourself but to love, yourself to be, consciously become consciously
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: comfortable in your unconscious well consciously unconsciously Meaning i'm consciously
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: going at, it but, unconsciously And i'm not thinking about
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: it every. Day BUT i am reasonably comfortable in my own.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Skin no one's comfortable in their own, skin. Right But
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: i'm as good As i'm not as good as my.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Compliments i'm not as bad as my. CRITICISMS i am
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: WHO i, am BUT i Am god's, child AND i
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: am unique and different as you. Are and that is
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: my real, asset That i'm just reasonably comfortable in my own.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: SKIN i learned to love, myself not be in love with.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Myself love, myself hold and, complete AND i am the,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: product and so are. You you can do anything anything
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: you set your mind. Too just punched through it over
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: and to round it through. It we're going to get to.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: It if you're black listening to, this you're born on
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: probation In. America you've been doing so much with so
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: little for so. Long you Know i'm gonna do anything with.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Nothing my podcasts for. Everybody but if you're a, Black, Brown, Indian, latino,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: women held, back stepped, on looked, over, ignored then this
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: is really a message for. You because when Mainstream america
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: has a, headache black and brown folks have. Pneumonia but
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: we're all. Sick but you can get medicine for a.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Sickness AND i just gave you some medicine for. Depression
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: it's called your aspirational, dream AND i just gave you
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: part of the ladder to get. There this Is john.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: O'Brien this is money And. Wealth this is the making
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: of a wealth, creator lessons from my life early. On
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: let me know if you want me to do part
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: two and part, three AND i. Will i'm. Out money
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: And wealth With john O'Brien is a production of The
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Black Effect Podcast. Network for more podcasts from The Black
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Effect Podcast, network visit The iHeartRadio, App Apple, podcasts or
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows