November 20, 2025 • 49 mins
In this episode, John shares the pivotal moments that shaped his mindset and fueled his rise from a kid in Compton to one of the most influential wealth-builders in America. John recounts the childhood experiences that taught him resilience, hustle, and the critical difference between making money and building wealth. You’ll hear how a nine-year-old’s curiosity about business transformed into a lifelong mission, ultimately leading to the founding of Operation HOPE and his commitment to empowering underserved communities with the tools to thrive. Packed with storytelling, real lessons, mindset gems, and the raw realities of growing up with limited resources but unlimited drive, this episode lays out the foundational principles behind John’s philosophy: wealth is a mindset—and anyone can learn to create it.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey
is John O'Brien and this is Money and Wealth, and
I owe you a bit of an apology. I sometimes assume,
(00:26):
and you should never assume. You make an ass out
of you and me when you do that literally spelled
that way. You should never assume that did somebody know
something or that they understand something, because it is what
we don't know, that we don't know this killing is,
but we think we know, and that creates a disconnection
from society and we start hanging around our comfort zones.
That's why I say, if you hang around nine and
(00:47):
broke people, you'll be the tenth. And the opposite is
also true. You don't have to be brilliant if you
hang around wealthy people. Hanging around wealthy people will just
lift you up, in many cases to their level. So
I assumed that people understood my background, and as I
explained on some social media posts about being homeless at eighteen,
people were shocked. I explained about a little bit about
(01:10):
my background here and there, people were stunned. I don't know.
I guess assumed that I had a silver spoon in
my mouth, or that life wasn't so tough for me,
and the more I share, the more they could relate.
The other side of the story is. And these are bookends.
The reason I did this podcast is because I have
so much respect for my brother Charlemagne. His real name
(01:33):
is Leonard, and he is really really smart, and Leonard,
who you know, is Charlemagne of the Breakfast Club. Lenard
told me one day that he respected a lot of
the financial influencers for their game and what they've achieved,
but he really wanted me to do a financial literacy
(01:54):
podcast because I was a real businessman, a real business
person who makes a pyro, who built a business, who
bought and sold assets, who had to work through issues,
who ran a balance sheet and income statement. I wasn't
acting like I was a business person. I wasn't succeeding
by selling books and tapes. No disrespect to those who
(02:17):
sell books and tapes. That is a form of business,
by the way. But if you're going to teach something,
you need to be something. So let me unpack how
I became this person. So those are the book ends.
One I came from somewhere, and that story I think
is more aligned with the typical listener of this podcast
(02:40):
than the children of the wealthy people in the world
and most privileged. And two, I'm more PhDd than PhD
and I still do it every day. I meet a
payroll of seven figures every two weeks. I'm one of
the largest employers in America who happens to be black.
(03:01):
So let's talk about the topic today, the making of
a wealth creator lessons from my early life. Let me
walk you through this so you see that anybody can
do most anybody can do. Most anybody can do some,
if not all, if not at the very least a
(03:21):
lot of what I have done. You can take a
lane of what I'm doing, because maybe I'm just crazy.
I'm an entrepreneur, relentless in my creative energy. But you
can take a lane of what I have done and
kill it, succeed at it, maybe beyond what I have done.
(03:43):
But you're not. You don't have to say, oh, well,
John was born brilliant, or he's Jordan Rich or he's grown.
No no, no, no no. I was born a hustler, right,
But the difference between a hustler and a businessman or
a businesswoman is payroll. Can I get an amen? I'm
sorry not let me phrase that. I'm thinking about payroll there,
(04:05):
but my own payroll. The difference between a hustler and
a businessman or a business woman is paperwork, not payroll.
Payroll is part of paperwork, but financial literacy is the paperwork.
It's understanding how this whole thing works. So you can
just be half as brilliant as a person next to you,
(04:27):
but you've got your paperwork right right, and you've understand
that the system works. You're willing to work hard, get
up early, stay late, succeed by hard work and resiliency.
You're going to do better than the person that's just
smarter than you that's next door. So let's unpack my story.
(04:48):
I'm going to jump down to when I was about
four or five, my mother and my father. Now this
is in my book Financial Literacy for All. It's my
book some of us in my book the Memo and Nothing.
I'm not going to literally walk you through what you
can read, but let me let me do something I've
never done before. Tell you the what of how to
(05:09):
become a wealth creator in your mind and let your
legs and feet follow those that new thought process. Why
is that important? As I said on social media, If
I give a homeless man a million dollars and that's
all I do, I don't do anything else, he'll be
(05:30):
broken six months. And people they thought that I was
being callous or whatever. No, no, I'm being factual that
that money is just a transfer. It's just you know,
it's just a transfer of value. It's just you know,
but mindset. Wealth is a mindset. So I can give
all the money in the world all the people of
(05:51):
the world. Sorry, if all the wealth of the world
was transferred to all the people of the world, but
nothing else was done to help them, then the wealthy
people in the world would have the money back within
three to five years, because it's a mindset, right, So
hustling is not enough. Money certainly is not enough. That's
(06:15):
why seventy percent of all those who win the lottery
are bankrupt in five years. Seventy percent of NFL players
NBA players on average bankrupt within five years and then
divorced within that same period of time because they run
out of money. They thought they live, thought it would
last forever. No, no, no, wealth lasts, money will dissipate.
(06:36):
You make money during the day. You build wealth in
your sleep. My mom and my dad. My dad was
a hustler, grew up in Alabama. My grandfather, RB Smith
was a sharecropper. My second grad grandmother, grandfather, George Young,
was a was in the Union Army and the Emancipation
(06:56):
Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln protected Memphis and is born into slavery.
George Young because of slavery. My generational story sort of
ends in the fourth generation. But I'm still investigating all
of that, unpacking it and documenting it. But I do
(07:17):
know my grandfather, certainly, my grand my second great grandfather,
was a fighter for justice in the UNI Army, the
Emancipation Proclamation Black troops, one of those one of seven
thousand officers who represented and defended Memphis. So he's a
fighter for justice. My second grade grandmother on my mother's side,
(07:39):
was born into slavery, became free in her lifetime, owned
her own house with no mortgage on it, so it
says the documentation, and had a border a renter. So
I had this fighter for justice and this freedom, fighter
of independence in my spiritual bloodstream, even in slavery. My
(08:06):
grandmother on my mother's side, Vester Murray, owned her own house.
It was a shotgun shack, meaning you open the front door,
shoot through the a shotgun through from the front to
the back and not hit anything, no walls, anything. And
there was an outhouse where you did your business in
East Saint Louis on Peggott's Pigot Street, Picket Street. I
(08:28):
believe it's called doing that from memory. My mother went
into smith and her sisters and brothers lived there. And
my mother went from that shotgun shack marrying my father,
who is a businessman. Second, my grandfather was a sharecropper.
On my dad's side, my dad, a businessman, owned a
(08:49):
cement contracting business and owned his own home. At that point,
he marries my mother. They come together because two plus
two in a good relationship, she equal six, eight or ten,
not just tuplus to equals four. Is she multiplication not
just addition. They come together and Mary moved to south
(09:10):
central LA build a little conglomerate. And they both had
a high school education. I'm saying, I'm bringing this down
so you understand this can be you. This is you.
High school education, lots of hustle. My mother becomes really
smart in saving, in investment and side hustles. She had
a lot of those side hustles, and she worked mostly
(09:30):
at McDonald Douglas's Aircraft for most of her life, making
plane seats, stitching plane seats that I fly in today.
Maybe some of the seats I sit in on these airlines,
they were seats my mother once stitched. Who knows, but she,
you know, was great at investing, graded hustling, and graded saving.
(09:54):
My dad was great at hustling, great at producing income.
But my dad was financially illiterate, So every dollar he
made he'd spend a dollar fifty. The more money he made,
the broker we got. But we owned it. At some
point a gas station at Western and Vernon, I believe.
In Los Angeles, we owned an eight unit apartment building.
(10:14):
We bought for eighteen thousand dollars and was worth eight
is worth more than eight million dollars today we own.
We lived in the one unit, rented the rest of
them out. We owned our own home. At some point,
we owned a nursery business taking care of kids. Yes,
I was one of the clients. We owned a cement
contracting business and did that with his own hands. My
(10:38):
mom and dad fought over money. My mother moved out,
did not take anything with her except her kids. In
California community, probably state could have taken everything from my dad.
Lee's my dad with all these physical assets, these income
producing assets, but my dad did not have the financial literacy.
Years later, my mother's bought and so owed seven homes,
(11:00):
worked an hourly job. It's worth a million dollars credit
score of eight fifty four. I'm her trustee when she passed.
I know the numbers. My dad dies dead, broke, even
though he was brilliant, and I had to take care
of him. He lost everything because he was financially illiterate,
even though he was brilliant in many ways. So if
(11:21):
your outflow, see you're inflowed, then you're overhead to be
your downfall. And even the Bible says we grow through
legitimate suffering. Rainbows only follow storms. You cannot have a
rainbow without a storm first. So the first thing embedded
in my brain was my mother and my father fighting
over money when I was four or five. My sister,
(11:41):
Mara Hoskins says, uh, you know, I think it was four.
I thought I was six years old. She said it
was four or five. How would I know? I was
very young, but she passed me the phone to call
the police. Don't know what she had to pass me
the phone. She dialed the number back then it was
a rotary phone. Come, come, Come, My daddy is beating
with my mother. They're arguing about money. And again, the
(12:03):
backstories in my books, I won't bore you with that.
It's not relevant to this particular conversation. But that was
by my brother, Donnie Smith, Dave Darnell Harris, Donnie Smith
or Dave Harris, it's his name, but Dave Darnell Harris
is his real name because he had a different father
than I did. Even though my dad took care of
(12:23):
him and my sister like they were his own. I
give him credit for that. My Dadda's breed him anyway.
She's just not in money anyway. They fight over money.
Number one calls for divorce in America is money. My
mother's splits goes to live with a with a girlfriends. Well,
now we've broken up the family structure. Right. If you
want to build well, stick together, right. If you're got
(12:43):
to get married, first of all, you'll make more money.
You'll build more wealth married than you will single. That's
statistically true. Are there exceptions to that rule. Of course,
there are a somebody I'm honored to call a friend,
Oprah Winfrey, who I incredibly adm my is single but
has done incredibly well. So I'm not saying you can't
(13:05):
be single not do well. There's many, many, many examples
of that. But statistically speaking, you're going to do better
married if you can stay married. Get married and stay
married and work as a team. Again, it's compounding because
it's just more people working at something. And certainly if
one person makes the money and the other person takes
and invest the money, so both people are working. One
persons making in living, the other person's building a life.
(13:26):
That's another podcast for another day. One person's making a living,
paying and then paying bills. The other person's building a
life by taking the money they make investing for the future.
My mom and dad didn't do that. So first thing
(13:49):
I witnessed was the destruction of our family structure. Later on,
obviously the net worth poof so our generational wealth disappeared.
We should have had eight million dollars, We should have
had ten millillars worth of assets, me and my brother
and my sister to pass to share as we grew
up and to build from because of just the apartment
building and the gas station alone and the home that
(14:11):
was owned, but my father lost it all. Fast forward,
now I'm staying with my mother's girlfriend, who she told
me was her my aunt something black parents do, how
is your auntie? Baby? She was just my mother's girlfriend.
(14:31):
And I witnessed the murder of the guy who saved
my life there again over money drugs, So that's embedded
my brain. Then again it's in the details are in
my book. And then I and then around nine years
of age, my mother buys her first house one five
to five oh too, South Freyley Avenue in Common, California,
(14:53):
and I'd go make a good friend. A knew a friend,
very smart guy. George was his name. And unfortunately George
did not have good parents like I did. Even though
they were divorced, they still loved me and showed it.
My mother told me she loved me every day in
my life. So I had many problems, but self esteem
not one of them. George did not have that benefit.
(15:15):
He did not have loving parents, even though he was
wicked smart, much smarter than me on the books. That's
why I wanted to be like him. He was really smart. Well,
I want to be like George. George wanted to be
like the next door neighbor, Tweet, who was a drug dealer,
and George and Tweet got murdered on the same street corner.
So by the time I was nine years old, I
was done and I'm looking for a way out of this.
(15:37):
I don't want prison, probation, parole, or death, which is
what I saw in my neighborhood in Compton. I knew
we were smart, I knew we were enterprising people, but
no one ever gave us a memo on money or
capitalism and free enterprise like every other culture has. Every
other culture was given this memo on how to succeed
literally every other culture. The only three groups that did
(15:57):
not give this memo African Americans, African Caribbeans, that African Africans,
African Americans who were enslaved poor whites who were brought
here as indenture servants and never obviously escaped from that
as a large group of poverty in this country. If
race was the only issue in this country, racism is real,
as we're unfortunately seeing in today's society. But if racism
(16:18):
was the only factor holding you back then you would
not have poor whites, you'd have only rich whites, okay,
and then Native American Indians. These three groups out of
two hundred athletic groups in America, never got the memo.
You know, I didn't know that back then, so I've
been studying this my whole life. But back then, I
just knew I had to get out of there. And
(16:38):
only people. Only people end up doing well in my
neighborhood with drug dealers and gangsters, and they didn't have
a retirement plan and most of them didn't live long.
Some looking for a way out. I go to class,
go to school, elementary school. It was called Elskondo Elementary School,
renamed the Colin Pea Kelley Elementary School in Compton, and
I would sell stuff to teach you. Well. A guy comes,
(17:01):
of course to class, a white banker to teach financial literacy.
He was a banker from Bank of America. Come. He
would come once a week for six weeks tied to
the Community Reinvestment Act, which still exists to this day,
and he would teach financial literacy and home economics class
which doesn't exist anymore. And most of my classroom friends
were just joking when he was there. It was like
(17:23):
free time for them. I was focused. I'm trying to
figure out how to get out of the hood alive
and prosperous, and I don't want to work for somebody
like with audue respect my mother was doing. So I'm
these guys got my attention. And the first week it
(17:45):
was a you know, tense situation because he didn't want
to be there and we didn't want him there. The
second week, he comes back, you know, you kids aren't
so bad. You remind me my own kids. We're like, well,
you're not so bad for a white dude. So we're
building our relationship. We have nice little joke can humor.
Humor breaks down all kinds of barriers, and he's like,
(18:05):
you kids are okay. We're like, you're okay too. So
by the third week we're talking about real stuff. And
now I'm selling stuff. I'm selling mail order Stacey Adams shoes,
I'm selling mail order jewelry. I couldn't afford inventory, but
I had a mouth. I could talk, and I would
go sell it stuff to my teachers and too, my principal,
(18:26):
who were white and black by the way in content
at that time, and that would sort of build my
confidence every time I got a sale, and I would
take the deposit, and deposit I would use to buy
the product. I'd get the product in this mail order,
and then I would deliver the product and I'd get
(18:48):
the second part of the sale that was my profit.
Then I'd reinvest And that's why I learned how to
reinvest in me. And then I was really the product.
I was a salesman in that example, I was a
spokesman for the company. And around the fourth or fifth week,
you know, I'm just all in and I wanted to
wear a suit like this banker. So I asked my
(19:09):
mother if I could wear a suit, and she's like,
I'm not buying you a suit. I can't afford that.
But I made you a suit for Sunday churches. You
wear that. So it was a crush velvet, purple bllure
three piece suit with a ruffled shirt and a big, big,
big bow tie. And I wore that suit to the
(19:32):
school and had a little briefcase with nothing my dreams
in it. That's why I used to have my mail
order forms in and I got beat up every day,
right and ridiculed, But I didn't care an ego toof
flying packs. You never seen a flock of eagles. You're
starting to see the beginning, the beginnings of the makings
of a wealth creator. Right. So I'm walking my own
(19:55):
walking to my own thing. I'm going to school and
I'm focused. And I asked this banker, what do you
do for a living and how'd you get rich legally?
And I was dead serious. And this banker said, I'm
a banker and I finance entrepreneurs. And I said, I
don't know what an entrepreneur is. I've never heard that
word my entire life. I'm nine years old and I'm nosy,
(20:18):
and uh. I looked it up in the dictionary. That
would be a Google search today. But I went home.
We bought an entire wall of Encyclopedia Britannica. Anybody older
than forty know what I'm talking about. If you if
you were balling in the inner city, your parents showed
it by buying Encyclopaopedia Britannica and put them on display.
Most people never even open them, but they were on display.
(20:40):
I want to open open the one to the word
to the letter E and found the word entrepreneur or
a French word build, create value, build something from nothing.
I'm like, I'm in that's legal, and I can spy.
I can finally see my way out of the hood.
I go back to the banker. I got more questions.
(21:05):
Now I know How'm gonna get out of this mess?
Is the great place I live that you can't see
me to get out of here unless you're in prison
or in a box as in dead. Are there more
people like you this banker thing that you're talking about
that lends money? He said, Oh yeah, there's hundreds of
thousands of bankers. There's ten thousand banks. Back then it
(21:27):
might be a million, or two million or three million bankers,
he said. And I said, women, slow down, hold on.
You mean to tell me I've said this in speeches,
but I've never said it on the podcast. So I'm
breaking this down for you. You mean to tell me,
so you know, there's only an audience of a couple
of a few of the people that ever heard me
say this. You mean to tell me that your job,
(21:51):
your job is to lend poor people money. He's like, yep,
and all I have to do is prove can pay
it back. Yep. And you take money from depositors like
my mother at three percent or whatever you put on
some administrative costs and profit. You call it spread interest rates, spread,
(22:13):
you loaned it back out, it double that whatever, and
you just want the money paid back. Yep. And if
I can prove to you that I will pay the
money back, which is a credit score and all that stuff,
you'll loan me money. Yep. And if I don't pay
the money back, I don't get dead. And he laughed,
(22:38):
and he's like, why would I kill you? Of course not,
that's ridiculous. This, you know, middle class white man from
a beautiful stable community. He's like, he's like, this, what's
wrong with this kid? Because because of Pooky and them
around the corner on the backstreet from where I live.
If you didn't return the money they borrowed, that that
you loan, that you borrow from them, they loaned you.
(22:59):
You don't come back from that street, they jack you up,
They might kill you. They would disappear you. To send
a message to the next borrower. You got to be
paid this money. By the way, a gangster did me
a real favor. I was later on in my life
and I was a real hustler. I had borrow some
money from one of the local gangsters and I went
(23:20):
to pay him back and he's like, you don't pay
me back. Now. I'm like, no, I'm paying you back
plus interest. He says, no, no, no, you don't understand
this game. You don't pay me back. You work for
me for life, so you can pay me back the principal.
But the interests, I mean, you know, the interest keeps
going up so much that I just give you another
job and you just you're working for the family now,
(23:44):
the family quotation marks. And I didn't understand any of that.
And he looked at me like, you know, kid, you're
not supposed to be here. Like I can see you
have real potential. Give my principal back my money. Now,
get out of here, and never I never want to
see you again. If you say, if I see you again,
I'm gonna kill you. Right, and I was gone. But anyway,
(24:04):
back to the story, he really saved my life because
I didn't understand what I was getting into by borrowing
money from this guy. So back to when I'm nine,
this guy, no, why would I kill you? No, No,
we just give you a notice of default. I said,
wait a minute, you give me a piece of paper
if I don't repay your loan. You give me a
piece of paper, yes, and we report you to the
(24:27):
credit bureaus. What's that right? I mean, this all stuff's
blowing my mind. So I sad. Wait a minute, hold on,
slow down. And this is why I'm so excited about
this topic of financial literacy and why I found an
operation of hope and this slow down. There are millions
of bankers in America, white people like you, white Euasian people, whatever,
(24:47):
black people and your job. It's the loan poor people money.
And all we have to do is pray proof we
can pay it back. And you want to return, You
want you know, profit return on your interest. And if
we don't pay it back, things go wrong. You don't
kill us, You don't break our legs. You just give
us a notice of default. You harm our credit, not
(25:10):
our body. Yes, sign me up. And what I didn't
realize is not only that, was I signing up to
become an entrepreneur at that time, which I certainly realized.
I want, That's what I wanted to do at nine
years old, ten years over to that point, well nine
and a half, because I sorry my first business at ten,
I didn't realize I was also writing the lyrics for
(25:32):
the rest of my for the song and the rest
of my life, because later on, you know, two decades later, yeah, low,
less than that, I was founding Operation Hope. And what
does Operation Hope do teach people, poor people, struggling families,
how to unleash untapped human potential at scale? How to
meet the criteria? Banks were the only non profit allowed
(25:53):
to operate inside of a bank branch in US history.
Allows people to raise their credit score. We're raising credit
score is four fifty four points and six months louring
debt thirty eight hundred dollars. Raising saved twelve hundred dollars
for somebody making forty eight fifty thousand dollars a year,
which is most Americans with too much month ed into
their money. Allows them to go into the bank, get
the bank out of the no business which they don't
(26:14):
want to be in. They need to make profit, which
means they need to make loans to get paid back,
and get the bank back into the yes business at scale.
That's what we're doing across the country. Four point five
billion dollars invested to date, fifteen hundred offices, three hundred
and fifty which have my staff and them inside of banks.
Mostly partnering with the guys and ladies who taught me
(26:41):
financial literacy as a kid. Can make this up full
circle back to the story the making of a wealth creator.
So now got the entrepreneurship piece right and the dream
in my head. Right now, I'm walking down the street
from school, right, And now I'm looking at the muffler shop.
That's a business. There's a capitalist in there. People say, oh,
(27:01):
I hate rich people. No you don't. You don't hate
rich people. You hate rich people until you become rich.
What you hate is a game system. What you hate
is the system that no matter how hard you work,
you cannot succeed. I'm going to teach you the system.
I'm gonna master it. But anyway, that muffler shop was
a business, a for profit business organize that pays sales
(27:27):
tax to the city and the state, that has employees,
hopefully files a tax return, pays their expenses, takes home
a profit just like the banker. And inside that business
is a capitalist. People say, oh, I want to be
a socialist, Get the heck out of here. Even if
(27:48):
you want to distribute money like a socialist, you have
to first collect it like a capitalist. Can I get
an amen? All socialism is, by the way, it's a
taxing system. I'll break that down in another podcast. The
Nordic countries who specialize in socialism. These are capitalists who
just pay more taxes. But that's a whole nother podcast.
(28:08):
So that muffler shop owner was a capitalist. The nail
salon owner, she's a capitalist and she's in business. That
is a business. The barbershop owner, Mail's barbershop or whatever.
He's a capitalist, right, and he's in business. The donuts
(28:29):
chip owner, he's a capitalist or she's a capitalist. That's
a business. You're starting to get it. The gas station,
that's a business, and that's a capitalist that owns it.
And they have insurance and payroll and a loan corporation.
I'm just fascinating. My mind is just exploding with opportunity.
(28:50):
I'm seeing the building of a new mindset in me.
So now my mother told me she loved me every
day in my life. So now a since of yes,
I am. My dad showed me how to build something.
I didn't know it's financially literally, I just saw he
was out there making a payroll. He believed. In the
James Brown version of a firmative action. I open the door,
I'll get it myself. So that was my dude. Still
(29:11):
my dude, even though he's financially literately. I'm a businessman
because he was. My grandfather was a sharecropper. My daddy
Johnny's Will Smith was a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. I
would never be me without him. And you can't grow
except do legitimate suffering. So thank god he made mistakes,
so I don't have to make those same mistakes. He
made a mistake. He wasn't a mistake. Wonderful human being,
(29:33):
my dad who took care of my sister and brother
and didn't have to, and even my mother, even though
they had problems, he genuinely loved her. He just didn't
know any better. We're going to fix that with this generation.
So I'm walking through the neighborhood. I'm like, oh my god,
there's a way out, a legal way out. So I
go to the liquor store. I'm ten years old. Now
(29:55):
there's a guy named Black guy owned the liquor store,
Mister Matt Surrey's selling wrong kind of candy. He said,
go away, little boy, I've got a college degree. I said,
that's nice. I've got cavities right, I'm a kid, I'm
ten years old. You're selling them wrong kind of candy.
And I didn't know what a joint venture meant then.
And by the way, I'm at John O'Brien Enterprises JHB Enterprises,
(30:16):
which includes briangreop Ventures and Brian Grew Digital Media and
my newest joint venture BGV CIMBGV Impact Ventures, which I
will talk more about in the next podcast, and Brian
Group Publishing and anyway, all the stuff I'm involved in.
(30:37):
That environment of joint ventures, which I love today, has
ground rules for me, and my basic ground roads for
doing business anybody is the opra rule on the one hand,
and the joint venture rule on the other. Over rule
is I don't put my arm around anybody who does
(30:58):
not have as much reputationally to lose as I do.
That's the opera rule and I love it. She taught
me that and I use it. She gave me the
Usual Life Award twenty five years ago, and I am
indebted to her to this day for teaching me and
not just rewarding me or acknowledging me. She's still teaching,
(31:21):
by the way, and then my joint venture rule on
the business side is I don't joint venture with anybody
who doesn't have as much reputationally to lose as I do.
They're not bigger than me. Also, so the only time
I've ever made a business mistake that I'm aware of,
or the only time has ever cost me anything, is
when I didn't follow that rule. And it was a
(31:42):
good reason why I didn't follow a rule. I can't
get into it at the moment, but a little bit
of a shotgun marriage. But whenever I've had time to
think about it, I've never had a problem I've had.
I've only had one business problem dispute in forty years
of business is because I didn't follow those booking ruse
of starting a business. So the reason I say this
(32:14):
joint venture is I didn't know what joint venture was.
I didn't know what a partnership was. But what I
was telling the owner of the Max Liquor Store, mister
mack Is black man of six' two on this business
WAS i want to be your. PARTNER i want to
help you, succeed continue to succeed in business and to
thrive and get more market. Share And i'm a, KID
i know what kids are, buying and he just he
(32:37):
just wrote me. Off he. Laughed i'm, like, Look i'm
trying to save your business. Man you need to partner with.
Me he laughed at. Me he's, like, look you got
good gift for gap. Kid i'm gonna hire. You he
was very. Presumptuous i'm gonna hire you as a salesman
for candy in my candy. Store my candy. Counter it
was a candy, counter glass counter inside of the liquor.
STORE i don't want to work for you in your
(32:58):
Candy then this candy Shot max Liquor store was AT
i Think Atlantic Atlantic, boulevard AND i think. MIRTH i
think it was The Cross. STREETS i think it's a
muffler shot there. Now but, anyway SO i told HIM
i didn't want to work for. HIM i didn't realize
how wise this. Was LIKE i didn't want to rock the.
MIC i wanted to own. IT i didn't want to
(33:19):
be a. PERFORMER i wanted to be the guy who
owned the. Publishing if you in the music business, Vernacular
Quincy jones once told, me if you think you're in
the music business and you don't own music rights or licensing,
rights or publishing rights or some kind of. Rights you're
not in the music. Business you're just a temporary. Performer,
whooh that's. Wisdom god Rest quincy's, so he also told.
(33:39):
ME i asked him he did he get so? Smart he,
Said i'm just nosy as. HELL i want to know
everything about. EVERYTHING i got that from. HIM i got
two ears in one mouth Because god gave it to,
us because he wanted to know. That we wanted us to.
Listen twice as much as we. Talk most of us
do the opposite that we talk and don't. Listen no,
(34:00):
wonder you don't learn anything. Anyway i'm. Nosy i'm looking
at his liquor store and this candy. Counter i'm, saying
you're selling. Them that's all the candy we don't. Like
but you're the Only you have no competition in, town
so of course we're buying. Candy you're not even in
a good. Location we're going out of the way to
come to your you're out of the way for the elementary,
school and you're out of the way to the middle,
(34:21):
school which is way they junior. High everybody Mentioned my
elementary school Was Elsigonda, elementary which is now called him
P Kelley elementary today in content and he just sort
keeps dismissing, me but he's impressed with my confidence and
my gift for. Gap SO i, said, LOOK i. Don't he,
Said i'm gonna hire. You he was getting. Presumptuous i'm
gonna hire you to pay you top. Dollar come here
(34:42):
after school And i'm gonna hire. YOU i, SAID i
don't want to work for, you. SIR i don't care
what you want to pay. Me he, said, well then
what do you? WANT i, said, well ACTUALLY i do
want to be a box. Boy you know what a
box boy? Is that somebody who breaks the boxes up of.
Inventory it's the worst Job i've, Got it's lowest. Job,
YEP i want that. One if you work at a,
(35:04):
CORPORATION i don't want you to stay at. HOME i
want you to go to the office AND i want
you to walk past the boss's office five times a
day until the boss, says when everybody's trying to stay
at home and work, remotely and you're there and you
come in, early you stay, late who are? You what
are you? Doing and whatever assignment they have that nobody
wants take that. One, OKAY a wealth mindset now you
(35:27):
just got a promotion, Anyway So I'm i'm taking this
job as a box. BOY i go into the cold
box where you take, inventory open the boxes and you
put them in the back of the coal box for
liquor and. Milk and this when you open a you
go to a convenience store and you open the. Front
you pull that drink out the. Front i'm the person
(35:47):
pushing the inventory from the. Back it was, cold it
was not, glamorous BUT i loved it BECAUSE i got
to see inventory for the. CANDY i opened the. Box
there was then inventory. List on the inventory list was
the address where he bought his. Candy he Was iris
(36:08):
Food store And smart and final on my Little jewish. Family.
That oddly, enough forty years, later forty five years, Later
i'm on the board of a company Called Ares, management
which is a private equity firm in based In New York.
City today's six hundred billion dollars of assets that my
Friends Michael waghtty And Tony wrestler run together along with,
(36:31):
others but they bought that company forty years. Later forty
five years, later unbeknownst to, Me i'm on the board
AND i see this list of. ASSETS i can't believe
they own this company that gave me my, life my starting. Business,
anyway back to the. Story so This jewish couple very.
NICE i went to go SO i saw that that's
where you bought's. INVENTORY i saw the wholesale, RATE i
(36:51):
saw the retail. RATE i saw the, markup which was the.
PROPHET i learned all this in the financial literacy course
that that banker taught. Me now it's our. Clicking this
is Like i'm going FROM PhD TO. PhD i'm building
a wealth mindset step by, step break by, brick and
frost bite by frost bite Because i'm in this. Cobox
so NOW i got. IT i got where he bought.
(37:13):
IT i got worried where what his source. IS i
got his oh cell, rate his retail. Rate i'm. DONE
i quit. IT i was only there for a few.
Weeks go, home go to my. MOTHER i have this.
Idea i'm gonna start this business neighborhood candy. House where
you're gonna start it in your. Den please don't charge, me.
Rent my mother was a capitalist through and through she
(37:35):
But i'm not going To, okay but how much you need
to start? It forty? Bucks, Okay i'm not gonna charge you,
rent BUT i. Will i'm gonna rent you the. Money
you're gonna pay this money back to. ME i got
forty dollars loan from my mother whenny To Smith. Wrestler
so we went To smart And final And Iris Food.
STORE i Think smart And final was the wholesaler that
was inside of or tied To Iris Food, store which
(37:58):
was a retailer that sold retail food to the neighborhood
consumers neighborhood. Residents BUT i think it Was smart And
final that sold wholesale To Max Liquor. Store and SO
i went there like it was a school project with
my mother with the forty dollars in my, hand and
they were so impressed with. Me oh, yeah let's give
his kids some biased. Kids let's go kid buy some
(38:21):
candy for his school. Project thank god THAT i was
a school project BECAUSE i did not have a business,
permit which you needed to be a proper. Business, Sorry
mayor Of. COMPTON i just. VISITED i apologized to the
mayor WHEN i went to go visit her in person last.
WEEK a very very nice, lady by the, WAY i might,
add that couldn't be more gracious and kind to, me
(38:46):
and we were going to be doing some stuff together coming.
Up That's Mayor Emma sharif In. COMPTON i apologized to
her for robbing the city of city. Funds so they
give me this. STUFF i go, home set up the
name Candy, house and eight through half of the. Inventory
never eat your. Product but what the miracle? WAS i
(39:07):
sold the other half of the of the inventory and
still had made a. Profit So i'm abusing the business,
model abusing my lessons in financial, literacy AND i still
made a. Profit that's how amazing this capitalism thing. Was
and it was, legal AND i got cavities because of. It,
RIGHT i hate candid this. DAY i don't, hate BUT
i am not addicted to it BECAUSE i got overdosed
(39:28):
as a. Kid SO i go back To smart And
final now with a, focus get a new set of.
Inventory go. Back they give me some free racks because
they're now impressed with me in my. Hootspa only in
the dictionary does the word success come before the word,
work because it's. Alphabetical by the, Way, hello every place,
else work comes. First So i'm putting in the work
and putting in the hours on the way to school
(39:51):
for my. Friends of, Course i'm the marketing. Agent so
the neighbor candy house makes three hundred dollars a week
at its, height AND i put the liquor store out
of the candy. Business THEN i found. Girls loss of
business became a recurring theme my. Life but which is
WHY i got really focused on being serious about business
(40:11):
and not being emotional about. It BUT i learned a
lot of lessons. There imagine what happened to my self
esteem as a result of that. WIN i put the liquor.
Store this grown man with a college, degree with a successful.
BUSINESS i put him out of the candy. Business he
could sell, liquor but he couldn't sell. CANDY i was his.
Competition he shared a partner with. Me never underestimate, me
(40:33):
OR i have a sign on My walt, says underestimate
me at your own. Risk that'll be. Nice you want
to make it so when you when your feet hit
the ground in the, morning the devil, says oh, crap
he Or she's. Up so this is the phase one
version of this. Story there is a phase two THAT
(40:55):
i can do in another. Episode BUT i sort of
bore myself WHEN i talk about, Myself so you have
to tell me whether this was important to, you and
if it's important to, You i'm the one when you
put in, comments when they put pieces of this podcast
or go on social, Media i'm the one. Responding if
you see a response on in the, comments that's. ME
(41:16):
i do it between business meetings and all this stuff
When i'm. Traveling so tell me in those comments if
you want me to do part two of this and
take you from age ten to age twenty and tell
you about my successes and my failures and the continued
growth of my wealth creation. Mindset but it's really started
the essence of me becoming an entrepreneur and the essence
(41:39):
of the future founding Of Operation, hope which is now
the biggest in the country and one of the best
biggest in the world by. Extension it all started there
with that kid who was nosy and who had these
loving parents who were divorced and too much month in
their money and all the other problems that you can relate.
(41:59):
To STILL i, rose And i'll just tell you that
that was the beginning of, everything AND i started a
bunch of, businesses probably one hundred business ideas from ten
age twenty probably one. Hundred most of, them the vast
majority of them, Failed and so failure was not a.
(42:21):
Thing it was an outcome to an. EXPERIMENT i was
not a. FAILURE i just felt it. Something it just didn't.
Work and here's WHAT i found out about failure and.
Success success has a thousand mothers and. Fathers everybody will
claim you when you, succeed but failure as a bastard.
Child you can fail in ninety nine times no one
(42:41):
will say a word about. It and In america you
can fail and get back up all over, again no.
Problem it's different than In europe where it's. Stigmatized but
you have to succeed just, once just fall. Forward success
is going from failure to failure without loss of. Enthusiasm
and entrepreneurs eighteen hours day to keep from getting a.
(43:02):
Job whether you believe you can and whether you believe you,
can't you're absolutely. Right the glass set full or is half,
empty depends was looking at the. GLASS i can't guarantee
you that making being positive is going to make you a,
success BUT i absolutely guarantee you that being negative is
gonna make you. Fail mindset. Matters you can mess with my,
(43:23):
money you can't mess with my, time and you can't
mess with my. MIND i walked through life today consciously
oblivious the most things around me because it just doesn't.
Matter here's WHAT i, learned but too. LATE i spent
a lot of time BECAUSE i was not the cool.
KID i was a dorky. KID i spent a lot
(43:44):
of time trying to impress, people the sixth square blocks
celebrity in my, neighborhood trying to impress people THAT i
ultimately did not want to be. LIKE i can't repeat.
THAT i spent a lot of time trying to impress
PEOPLE i really didn't want to be like they were
the six square block. Celebrity they were the drugs the
(44:04):
dealer or the, gangster the guy who had the woman or,
whatever most of which later on asked me for a
job if they were still alive or not in. Prison
And i'm not. Joking they would ask me for jobs for,
contracts but they were Not their storyline didn't work out
for them like it worked out for, me and there
(44:28):
was nothing special about. ME i just had a business
plan my, life AND i focused on things that, built
things that, mattered AND i didn't have, wealth SO i
had to CREATE i take hustle and turn it into
a business, plan and hustle on muscle on hustle with
a business plan creates compounded, hustle which creates, energy and
(44:49):
at some point you outrun your. Problems that's WHY i
say The devil was a. Punk he's a fallen. Angel
god gets the a permission to. Exist darkness is defined
by light and not the other way. Around devil was a.
Punk WHEN i get up in the, morning the devil,
says oh, shit he's. Up he's a, punk and and
(45:11):
and and AND a quote THAT i can't quite say
the way he says it for my Friend Tony restaer
is if you don't, quit you can't. Fail i'll tell
you the way he says. It this is a. Podcast
is my. PODCAST i can say. This if you don't fucking,
(45:31):
quit you won't fucking. Fail so there you. Go you
can delete that part you're going to. Give let the
young person listen to this. Podcast BUT i want to
say it just as strongly as he. Says and he's
a two hundred richest man in the, world and he
came from a working class. Family if you don't, quit
you can't. Fail just don't give. Up and not giving
(45:52):
up is a mindset WHICH i cover in my book
the Memo Surviving, mindset throbbing, mindset winning. Mindset relationships give
her and a giver is exotic, given a taker is,
neurotic taker and the taker is. Psychotic the first RELATIONSHIP
i want you to have is with. YOURSELF i want
you to learn to love, yourself not be in love with,
yourself but to love, yourself to be, consciously become consciously
(46:16):
comfortable in your unconscious well consciously unconsciously Meaning i'm consciously
going at, it but, unconsciously And i'm not thinking about
it every. Day BUT i am reasonably comfortable in my own.
Skin no one's comfortable in their own, skin. Right But
i'm as good As i'm not as good as my.
Compliments i'm not as bad as my. CRITICISMS i am
WHO i, am BUT i Am god's, child AND i
(46:36):
am unique and different as you. Are and that is
my real, asset That i'm just reasonably comfortable in my own.
SKIN i learned to love, myself not be in love with.
Myself love, myself hold and, complete AND i am the,
product and so are. You you can do anything anything
you set your mind. Too just punched through it over
(46:57):
and to round it through. It we're going to get to.
It if you're black listening to, this you're born on
probation In. America you've been doing so much with so
little for so. Long you Know i'm gonna do anything with.
Nothing my podcasts for. Everybody but if you're a, Black, Brown, Indian, latino,
women held, back stepped, on looked, over, ignored then this
(47:17):
is really a message for. You because when Mainstream america
has a, headache black and brown folks have. Pneumonia but
we're all. Sick but you can get medicine for a.
Sickness AND i just gave you some medicine for. Depression
it's called your aspirational, dream AND i just gave you
part of the ladder to get. There this Is john.
O'Brien this is money And. Wealth this is the making
(47:39):
of a wealth, creator lessons from my life early. On
let me know if you want me to do part
two and part, three AND i. Will i'm. Out money
(48:03):
And wealth With john O'Brien is a production of The
Black Effect Podcast. Network for more podcasts from The Black
Effect Podcast, network visit The iHeartRadio, App Apple, podcasts or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, Hey
is John O'Brien and this is Money and Wealth, and
I owe you a bit of an apology. I sometimes assume,
(00:26):
and you should never assume. You make an ass out
of you and me when you do that literally spelled
that way. You should never assume that did somebody know
something or that they understand something, because it is what
we don't know, that we don't know this killing is,
but we think we know, and that creates a disconnection
from society and we start hanging around our comfort zones.
That's why I say, if you hang around nine and
(00:47):
broke people, you'll be the tenth. And the opposite is
also true. You don't have to be brilliant if you
hang around wealthy people. Hanging around wealthy people will just
lift you up, in many cases to their level. So
I assumed that people understood my background, and as I
explained on some social media posts about being homeless at eighteen,
people were shocked. I explained about a little bit about
(01:10):
my background here and there, people were stunned. I don't know.
I guess assumed that I had a silver spoon in
my mouth, or that life wasn't so tough for me,
and the more I share, the more they could relate.
The other side of the story is. And these are bookends.
The reason I did this podcast is because I have
so much respect for my brother Charlemagne. His real name
(01:33):
is Leonard, and he is really really smart, and Leonard,
who you know, is Charlemagne of the Breakfast Club. Lenard
told me one day that he respected a lot of
the financial influencers for their game and what they've achieved,
but he really wanted me to do a financial literacy
(01:54):
podcast because I was a real businessman, a real business
person who makes a pyro, who built a business, who
bought and sold assets, who had to work through issues,
who ran a balance sheet and income statement. I wasn't
acting like I was a business person. I wasn't succeeding
by selling books and tapes. No disrespect to those who
(02:17):
sell books and tapes. That is a form of business,
by the way. But if you're going to teach something,
you need to be something. So let me unpack how
I became this person. So those are the book ends.
One I came from somewhere, and that story I think
is more aligned with the typical listener of this podcast
(02:40):
than the children of the wealthy people in the world
and most privileged. And two, I'm more PhDd than PhD
and I still do it every day. I meet a
payroll of seven figures every two weeks. I'm one of
the largest employers in America who happens to be black.
(03:01):
So let's talk about the topic today, the making of
a wealth creator lessons from my early life. Let me
walk you through this so you see that anybody can
do most anybody can do. Most anybody can do some,
if not all, if not at the very least a
(03:21):
lot of what I have done. You can take a
lane of what I'm doing, because maybe I'm just crazy.
I'm an entrepreneur, relentless in my creative energy. But you
can take a lane of what I have done and
kill it, succeed at it, maybe beyond what I have done.
(03:43):
But you're not. You don't have to say, oh, well,
John was born brilliant, or he's Jordan Rich or he's grown.
No no, no, no no. I was born a hustler, right,
But the difference between a hustler and a businessman or
a businesswoman is payroll. Can I get an amen? I'm
sorry not let me phrase that. I'm thinking about payroll there,
(04:05):
but my own payroll. The difference between a hustler and
a businessman or a business woman is paperwork, not payroll.
Payroll is part of paperwork, but financial literacy is the paperwork.
It's understanding how this whole thing works. So you can
just be half as brilliant as a person next to you,
(04:27):
but you've got your paperwork right right, and you've understand
that the system works. You're willing to work hard, get
up early, stay late, succeed by hard work and resiliency.
You're going to do better than the person that's just
smarter than you that's next door. So let's unpack my story.
(04:48):
I'm going to jump down to when I was about
four or five, my mother and my father. Now this
is in my book Financial Literacy for All. It's my
book some of us in my book the Memo and Nothing.
I'm not going to literally walk you through what you
can read, but let me let me do something I've
never done before. Tell you the what of how to
(05:09):
become a wealth creator in your mind and let your
legs and feet follow those that new thought process. Why
is that important? As I said on social media, If
I give a homeless man a million dollars and that's
all I do, I don't do anything else, he'll be
(05:30):
broken six months. And people they thought that I was
being callous or whatever. No, no, I'm being factual that
that money is just a transfer. It's just you know,
it's just a transfer of value. It's just you know,
but mindset. Wealth is a mindset. So I can give
all the money in the world all the people of
(05:51):
the world. Sorry, if all the wealth of the world
was transferred to all the people of the world, but
nothing else was done to help them, then the wealthy
people in the world would have the money back within
three to five years, because it's a mindset, right, So
hustling is not enough. Money certainly is not enough. That's
(06:15):
why seventy percent of all those who win the lottery
are bankrupt in five years. Seventy percent of NFL players
NBA players on average bankrupt within five years and then
divorced within that same period of time because they run
out of money. They thought they live, thought it would
last forever. No, no, no, wealth lasts, money will dissipate.
(06:36):
You make money during the day. You build wealth in
your sleep. My mom and my dad. My dad was
a hustler, grew up in Alabama. My grandfather, RB Smith
was a sharecropper. My second grad grandmother, grandfather, George Young,
was a was in the Union Army and the Emancipation
(06:56):
Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln protected Memphis and is born into slavery.
George Young because of slavery. My generational story sort of
ends in the fourth generation. But I'm still investigating all
of that, unpacking it and documenting it. But I do
(07:17):
know my grandfather, certainly, my grand my second great grandfather,
was a fighter for justice in the UNI Army, the
Emancipation Proclamation Black troops, one of those one of seven
thousand officers who represented and defended Memphis. So he's a
fighter for justice. My second grade grandmother on my mother's side,
(07:39):
was born into slavery, became free in her lifetime, owned
her own house with no mortgage on it, so it
says the documentation, and had a border a renter. So
I had this fighter for justice and this freedom, fighter
of independence in my spiritual bloodstream, even in slavery. My
(08:06):
grandmother on my mother's side, Vester Murray, owned her own house.
It was a shotgun shack, meaning you open the front door,
shoot through the a shotgun through from the front to
the back and not hit anything, no walls, anything. And
there was an outhouse where you did your business in
East Saint Louis on Peggott's Pigot Street, Picket Street. I
(08:28):
believe it's called doing that from memory. My mother went
into smith and her sisters and brothers lived there. And
my mother went from that shotgun shack marrying my father,
who is a businessman. Second, my grandfather was a sharecropper.
On my dad's side, my dad, a businessman, owned a
(08:49):
cement contracting business and owned his own home. At that point,
he marries my mother. They come together because two plus
two in a good relationship, she equal six, eight or ten,
not just tuplus to equals four. Is she multiplication not
just addition. They come together and Mary moved to south
(09:10):
central LA build a little conglomerate. And they both had
a high school education. I'm saying, I'm bringing this down
so you understand this can be you. This is you.
High school education, lots of hustle. My mother becomes really
smart in saving, in investment and side hustles. She had
a lot of those side hustles, and she worked mostly
(09:30):
at McDonald Douglas's Aircraft for most of her life, making
plane seats, stitching plane seats that I fly in today.
Maybe some of the seats I sit in on these airlines,
they were seats my mother once stitched. Who knows, but she,
you know, was great at investing, graded hustling, and graded saving.
(09:54):
My dad was great at hustling, great at producing income.
But my dad was financially illiterate, So every dollar he
made he'd spend a dollar fifty. The more money he made,
the broker we got. But we owned it. At some
point a gas station at Western and Vernon, I believe.
In Los Angeles, we owned an eight unit apartment building.
(10:14):
We bought for eighteen thousand dollars and was worth eight
is worth more than eight million dollars today we own.
We lived in the one unit, rented the rest of
them out. We owned our own home. At some point,
we owned a nursery business taking care of kids. Yes,
I was one of the clients. We owned a cement
contracting business and did that with his own hands. My
(10:38):
mom and dad fought over money. My mother moved out,
did not take anything with her except her kids. In
California community, probably state could have taken everything from my dad.
Lee's my dad with all these physical assets, these income
producing assets, but my dad did not have the financial literacy.
Years later, my mother's bought and so owed seven homes,
(11:00):
worked an hourly job. It's worth a million dollars credit
score of eight fifty four. I'm her trustee when she passed.
I know the numbers. My dad dies dead, broke, even
though he was brilliant, and I had to take care
of him. He lost everything because he was financially illiterate,
even though he was brilliant in many ways. So if
(11:21):
your outflow, see you're inflowed, then you're overhead to be
your downfall. And even the Bible says we grow through
legitimate suffering. Rainbows only follow storms. You cannot have a
rainbow without a storm first. So the first thing embedded
in my brain was my mother and my father fighting
over money when I was four or five. My sister,
(11:41):
Mara Hoskins says, uh, you know, I think it was four.
I thought I was six years old. She said it
was four or five. How would I know? I was
very young, but she passed me the phone to call
the police. Don't know what she had to pass me
the phone. She dialed the number back then it was
a rotary phone. Come, come, Come, My daddy is beating
with my mother. They're arguing about money. And again, the
(12:03):
backstories in my books, I won't bore you with that.
It's not relevant to this particular conversation. But that was
by my brother, Donnie Smith, Dave Darnell Harris, Donnie Smith
or Dave Harris, it's his name, but Dave Darnell Harris
is his real name because he had a different father
than I did. Even though my dad took care of
(12:23):
him and my sister like they were his own. I
give him credit for that. My Dadda's breed him anyway.
She's just not in money anyway. They fight over money.
Number one calls for divorce in America is money. My
mother's splits goes to live with a with a girlfriends. Well,
now we've broken up the family structure. Right. If you
want to build well, stick together, right. If you're got
(12:43):
to get married, first of all, you'll make more money.
You'll build more wealth married than you will single. That's
statistically true. Are there exceptions to that rule. Of course,
there are a somebody I'm honored to call a friend,
Oprah Winfrey, who I incredibly adm my is single but
has done incredibly well. So I'm not saying you can't
(13:05):
be single not do well. There's many, many, many examples
of that. But statistically speaking, you're going to do better
married if you can stay married. Get married and stay
married and work as a team. Again, it's compounding because
it's just more people working at something. And certainly if
one person makes the money and the other person takes
and invest the money, so both people are working. One
persons making in living, the other person's building a life.
(13:26):
That's another podcast for another day. One person's making a living,
paying and then paying bills. The other person's building a
life by taking the money they make investing for the future.
My mom and dad didn't do that. So first thing
(13:49):
I witnessed was the destruction of our family structure. Later on,
obviously the net worth poof so our generational wealth disappeared.
We should have had eight million dollars, We should have
had ten millillars worth of assets, me and my brother
and my sister to pass to share as we grew
up and to build from because of just the apartment
building and the gas station alone and the home that
(14:11):
was owned, but my father lost it all. Fast forward,
now I'm staying with my mother's girlfriend, who she told
me was her my aunt something black parents do, how
is your auntie? Baby? She was just my mother's girlfriend.
(14:31):
And I witnessed the murder of the guy who saved
my life there again over money drugs, So that's embedded
my brain. Then again it's in the details are in
my book. And then I and then around nine years
of age, my mother buys her first house one five
to five oh too, South Freyley Avenue in Common, California,
(14:53):
and I'd go make a good friend. A knew a friend,
very smart guy. George was his name. And unfortunately George
did not have good parents like I did. Even though
they were divorced, they still loved me and showed it.
My mother told me she loved me every day in
my life. So I had many problems, but self esteem
not one of them. George did not have that benefit.
(15:15):
He did not have loving parents, even though he was
wicked smart, much smarter than me on the books. That's
why I wanted to be like him. He was really smart. Well,
I want to be like George. George wanted to be
like the next door neighbor, Tweet, who was a drug dealer,
and George and Tweet got murdered on the same street corner.
So by the time I was nine years old, I
was done and I'm looking for a way out of this.
(15:37):
I don't want prison, probation, parole, or death, which is
what I saw in my neighborhood in Compton. I knew
we were smart, I knew we were enterprising people, but
no one ever gave us a memo on money or
capitalism and free enterprise like every other culture has. Every
other culture was given this memo on how to succeed
literally every other culture. The only three groups that did
(15:57):
not give this memo African Americans, African Caribbeans, that African Africans,
African Americans who were enslaved poor whites who were brought
here as indenture servants and never obviously escaped from that
as a large group of poverty in this country. If
race was the only issue in this country, racism is real,
as we're unfortunately seeing in today's society. But if racism
(16:18):
was the only factor holding you back then you would
not have poor whites, you'd have only rich whites, okay,
and then Native American Indians. These three groups out of
two hundred athletic groups in America, never got the memo.
You know, I didn't know that back then, so I've
been studying this my whole life. But back then, I
just knew I had to get out of there. And
(16:38):
only people. Only people end up doing well in my
neighborhood with drug dealers and gangsters, and they didn't have
a retirement plan and most of them didn't live long.
Some looking for a way out. I go to class,
go to school, elementary school. It was called Elskondo Elementary School,
renamed the Colin Pea Kelley Elementary School in Compton, and
I would sell stuff to teach you. Well. A guy comes,
(17:01):
of course to class, a white banker to teach financial literacy.
He was a banker from Bank of America. Come. He
would come once a week for six weeks tied to
the Community Reinvestment Act, which still exists to this day,
and he would teach financial literacy and home economics class
which doesn't exist anymore. And most of my classroom friends
were just joking when he was there. It was like
(17:23):
free time for them. I was focused. I'm trying to
figure out how to get out of the hood alive
and prosperous, and I don't want to work for somebody
like with audue respect my mother was doing. So I'm
these guys got my attention. And the first week it
(17:45):
was a you know, tense situation because he didn't want
to be there and we didn't want him there. The
second week, he comes back, you know, you kids aren't
so bad. You remind me my own kids. We're like, well,
you're not so bad for a white dude. So we're
building our relationship. We have nice little joke can humor.
Humor breaks down all kinds of barriers, and he's like,
(18:05):
you kids are okay. We're like, you're okay too. So
by the third week we're talking about real stuff. And
now I'm selling stuff. I'm selling mail order Stacey Adams shoes,
I'm selling mail order jewelry. I couldn't afford inventory, but
I had a mouth. I could talk, and I would
go sell it stuff to my teachers and too, my principal,
(18:26):
who were white and black by the way in content
at that time, and that would sort of build my
confidence every time I got a sale, and I would
take the deposit, and deposit I would use to buy
the product. I'd get the product in this mail order,
and then I would deliver the product and I'd get
(18:48):
the second part of the sale that was my profit.
Then I'd reinvest And that's why I learned how to
reinvest in me. And then I was really the product.
I was a salesman in that example, I was a
spokesman for the company. And around the fourth or fifth week,
you know, I'm just all in and I wanted to
wear a suit like this banker. So I asked my
(19:09):
mother if I could wear a suit, and she's like,
I'm not buying you a suit. I can't afford that.
But I made you a suit for Sunday churches. You
wear that. So it was a crush velvet, purple bllure
three piece suit with a ruffled shirt and a big, big,
big bow tie. And I wore that suit to the
(19:32):
school and had a little briefcase with nothing my dreams
in it. That's why I used to have my mail
order forms in and I got beat up every day,
right and ridiculed, But I didn't care an ego toof
flying packs. You never seen a flock of eagles. You're
starting to see the beginning, the beginnings of the makings
of a wealth creator. Right. So I'm walking my own
(19:55):
walking to my own thing. I'm going to school and
I'm focused. And I asked this banker, what do you
do for a living and how'd you get rich legally?
And I was dead serious. And this banker said, I'm
a banker and I finance entrepreneurs. And I said, I
don't know what an entrepreneur is. I've never heard that
word my entire life. I'm nine years old and I'm nosy,
(20:18):
and uh. I looked it up in the dictionary. That
would be a Google search today. But I went home.
We bought an entire wall of Encyclopedia Britannica. Anybody older
than forty know what I'm talking about. If you if
you were balling in the inner city, your parents showed
it by buying Encyclopaopedia Britannica and put them on display.
Most people never even open them, but they were on display.
(20:40):
I want to open open the one to the word
to the letter E and found the word entrepreneur or
a French word build, create value, build something from nothing.
I'm like, I'm in that's legal, and I can spy.
I can finally see my way out of the hood.
I go back to the banker. I got more questions.
(21:05):
Now I know How'm gonna get out of this mess?
Is the great place I live that you can't see
me to get out of here unless you're in prison
or in a box as in dead. Are there more
people like you this banker thing that you're talking about
that lends money? He said, Oh yeah, there's hundreds of
thousands of bankers. There's ten thousand banks. Back then it
(21:27):
might be a million, or two million or three million bankers,
he said. And I said, women, slow down, hold on.
You mean to tell me I've said this in speeches,
but I've never said it on the podcast. So I'm
breaking this down for you. You mean to tell me,
so you know, there's only an audience of a couple
of a few of the people that ever heard me
say this. You mean to tell me that your job,
(21:51):
your job is to lend poor people money. He's like, yep,
and all I have to do is prove can pay
it back. Yep. And you take money from depositors like
my mother at three percent or whatever you put on
some administrative costs and profit. You call it spread interest rates, spread,
(22:13):
you loaned it back out, it double that whatever, and
you just want the money paid back. Yep. And if
I can prove to you that I will pay the
money back, which is a credit score and all that stuff,
you'll loan me money. Yep. And if I don't pay
the money back, I don't get dead. And he laughed,
(22:38):
and he's like, why would I kill you? Of course not,
that's ridiculous. This, you know, middle class white man from
a beautiful stable community. He's like, he's like, this, what's
wrong with this kid? Because because of Pooky and them
around the corner on the backstreet from where I live.
If you didn't return the money they borrowed, that that
you loan, that you borrow from them, they loaned you.
(22:59):
You don't come back from that street, they jack you up,
They might kill you. They would disappear you. To send
a message to the next borrower. You got to be
paid this money. By the way, a gangster did me
a real favor. I was later on in my life
and I was a real hustler. I had borrow some
money from one of the local gangsters and I went
(23:20):
to pay him back and he's like, you don't pay
me back. Now. I'm like, no, I'm paying you back
plus interest. He says, no, no, no, you don't understand
this game. You don't pay me back. You work for
me for life, so you can pay me back the principal.
But the interests, I mean, you know, the interest keeps
going up so much that I just give you another
job and you just you're working for the family now,
(23:44):
the family quotation marks. And I didn't understand any of that.
And he looked at me like, you know, kid, you're
not supposed to be here. Like I can see you
have real potential. Give my principal back my money. Now,
get out of here, and never I never want to
see you again. If you say, if I see you again,
I'm gonna kill you. Right, and I was gone. But anyway,
(24:04):
back to the story, he really saved my life because
I didn't understand what I was getting into by borrowing
money from this guy. So back to when I'm nine,
this guy, no, why would I kill you? No, No,
we just give you a notice of default. I said,
wait a minute, you give me a piece of paper
if I don't repay your loan. You give me a
piece of paper, yes, and we report you to the
(24:27):
credit bureaus. What's that right? I mean, this all stuff's
blowing my mind. So I sad. Wait a minute, hold on,
slow down. And this is why I'm so excited about
this topic of financial literacy and why I found an
operation of hope and this slow down. There are millions
of bankers in America, white people like you, white Euasian people, whatever,
(24:47):
black people and your job. It's the loan poor people money.
And all we have to do is pray proof we
can pay it back. And you want to return, You
want you know, profit return on your interest. And if
we don't pay it back, things go wrong. You don't
kill us, You don't break our legs. You just give
us a notice of default. You harm our credit, not
(25:10):
our body. Yes, sign me up. And what I didn't
realize is not only that, was I signing up to
become an entrepreneur at that time, which I certainly realized.
I want, That's what I wanted to do at nine
years old, ten years over to that point, well nine
and a half, because I sorry my first business at ten,
I didn't realize I was also writing the lyrics for
(25:32):
the rest of my for the song and the rest
of my life, because later on, you know, two decades later, yeah, low,
less than that, I was founding Operation Hope. And what
does Operation Hope do teach people, poor people, struggling families,
how to unleash untapped human potential at scale? How to
meet the criteria? Banks were the only non profit allowed
(25:53):
to operate inside of a bank branch in US history.
Allows people to raise their credit score. We're raising credit
score is four fifty four points and six months louring
debt thirty eight hundred dollars. Raising saved twelve hundred dollars
for somebody making forty eight fifty thousand dollars a year,
which is most Americans with too much month ed into
their money. Allows them to go into the bank, get
the bank out of the no business which they don't
(26:14):
want to be in. They need to make profit, which
means they need to make loans to get paid back,
and get the bank back into the yes business at scale.
That's what we're doing across the country. Four point five
billion dollars invested to date, fifteen hundred offices, three hundred
and fifty which have my staff and them inside of banks.
Mostly partnering with the guys and ladies who taught me
(26:41):
financial literacy as a kid. Can make this up full
circle back to the story the making of a wealth creator.
So now got the entrepreneurship piece right and the dream
in my head. Right now, I'm walking down the street
from school, right, And now I'm looking at the muffler shop.
That's a business. There's a capitalist in there. People say, oh,
(27:01):
I hate rich people. No you don't. You don't hate
rich people. You hate rich people until you become rich.
What you hate is a game system. What you hate
is the system that no matter how hard you work,
you cannot succeed. I'm going to teach you the system.
I'm gonna master it. But anyway, that muffler shop was
a business, a for profit business organize that pays sales
(27:27):
tax to the city and the state, that has employees,
hopefully files a tax return, pays their expenses, takes home
a profit just like the banker. And inside that business
is a capitalist. People say, oh, I want to be
a socialist, Get the heck out of here. Even if
(27:48):
you want to distribute money like a socialist, you have
to first collect it like a capitalist. Can I get
an amen? All socialism is, by the way, it's a
taxing system. I'll break that down in another podcast. The
Nordic countries who specialize in socialism. These are capitalists who
just pay more taxes. But that's a whole nother podcast.
(28:08):
So that muffler shop owner was a capitalist. The nail
salon owner, she's a capitalist and she's in business. That
is a business. The barbershop owner, Mail's barbershop or whatever.
He's a capitalist, right, and he's in business. The donuts
(28:29):
chip owner, he's a capitalist or she's a capitalist. That's
a business. You're starting to get it. The gas station,
that's a business, and that's a capitalist that owns it.
And they have insurance and payroll and a loan corporation.
I'm just fascinating. My mind is just exploding with opportunity.
(28:50):
I'm seeing the building of a new mindset in me.
So now my mother told me she loved me every
day in my life. So now a since of yes,
I am. My dad showed me how to build something.
I didn't know it's financially literally, I just saw he
was out there making a payroll. He believed. In the
James Brown version of a firmative action. I open the door,
I'll get it myself. So that was my dude. Still
(29:11):
my dude, even though he's financially literately. I'm a businessman
because he was. My grandfather was a sharecropper. My daddy
Johnny's Will Smith was a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur. I
would never be me without him. And you can't grow
except do legitimate suffering. So thank god he made mistakes,
so I don't have to make those same mistakes. He
made a mistake. He wasn't a mistake. Wonderful human being,
(29:33):
my dad who took care of my sister and brother
and didn't have to, and even my mother, even though
they had problems, he genuinely loved her. He just didn't
know any better. We're going to fix that with this generation.
So I'm walking through the neighborhood. I'm like, oh my god,
there's a way out, a legal way out. So I
go to the liquor store. I'm ten years old. Now
(29:55):
there's a guy named Black guy owned the liquor store,
Mister Matt Surrey's selling wrong kind of candy. He said,
go away, little boy, I've got a college degree. I said,
that's nice. I've got cavities right, I'm a kid, I'm
ten years old. You're selling them wrong kind of candy.
And I didn't know what a joint venture meant then.
And by the way, I'm at John O'Brien Enterprises JHB Enterprises,
(30:16):
which includes briangreop Ventures and Brian Grew Digital Media and
my newest joint venture BGV CIMBGV Impact Ventures, which I
will talk more about in the next podcast, and Brian
Group Publishing and anyway, all the stuff I'm involved in.
(30:37):
That environment of joint ventures, which I love today, has
ground rules for me, and my basic ground roads for
doing business anybody is the opra rule on the one hand,
and the joint venture rule on the other. Over rule
is I don't put my arm around anybody who does
(30:58):
not have as much reputationally to lose as I do.
That's the opera rule and I love it. She taught
me that and I use it. She gave me the
Usual Life Award twenty five years ago, and I am
indebted to her to this day for teaching me and
not just rewarding me or acknowledging me. She's still teaching,
(31:21):
by the way, and then my joint venture rule on
the business side is I don't joint venture with anybody
who doesn't have as much reputationally to lose as I do.
They're not bigger than me. Also, so the only time
I've ever made a business mistake that I'm aware of,
or the only time has ever cost me anything, is
when I didn't follow that rule. And it was a
(31:42):
good reason why I didn't follow a rule. I can't
get into it at the moment, but a little bit
of a shotgun marriage. But whenever I've had time to
think about it, I've never had a problem I've had.
I've only had one business problem dispute in forty years
of business is because I didn't follow those booking ruse
of starting a business. So the reason I say this
(32:14):
joint venture is I didn't know what joint venture was.
I didn't know what a partnership was. But what I
was telling the owner of the Max Liquor Store, mister
mack Is black man of six' two on this business
WAS i want to be your. PARTNER i want to
help you, succeed continue to succeed in business and to
thrive and get more market. Share And i'm a, KID
i know what kids are, buying and he just he
(32:37):
just wrote me. Off he. Laughed i'm, like, Look i'm
trying to save your business. Man you need to partner with.
Me he laughed at. Me he's, like, look you got
good gift for gap. Kid i'm gonna hire. You he
was very. Presumptuous i'm gonna hire you as a salesman
for candy in my candy. Store my candy. Counter it
was a candy, counter glass counter inside of the liquor.
STORE i don't want to work for you in your
(32:58):
Candy then this candy Shot max Liquor store was AT
i Think Atlantic Atlantic, boulevard AND i think. MIRTH i
think it was The Cross. STREETS i think it's a
muffler shot there. Now but, anyway SO i told HIM
i didn't want to work for. HIM i didn't realize
how wise this. Was LIKE i didn't want to rock the.
MIC i wanted to own. IT i didn't want to
(33:19):
be a. PERFORMER i wanted to be the guy who
owned the. Publishing if you in the music business, Vernacular
Quincy jones once told, me if you think you're in
the music business and you don't own music rights or licensing,
rights or publishing rights or some kind of. Rights you're
not in the music. Business you're just a temporary. Performer,
whooh that's. Wisdom god Rest quincy's, so he also told.
(33:39):
ME i asked him he did he get so? Smart he,
Said i'm just nosy as. HELL i want to know
everything about. EVERYTHING i got that from. HIM i got
two ears in one mouth Because god gave it to,
us because he wanted to know. That we wanted us to.
Listen twice as much as we. Talk most of us
do the opposite that we talk and don't. Listen no,
(34:00):
wonder you don't learn anything. Anyway i'm. Nosy i'm looking
at his liquor store and this candy. Counter i'm, saying
you're selling. Them that's all the candy we don't. Like
but you're the Only you have no competition in, town
so of course we're buying. Candy you're not even in
a good. Location we're going out of the way to
come to your you're out of the way for the elementary,
school and you're out of the way to the middle,
(34:21):
school which is way they junior. High everybody Mentioned my
elementary school Was Elsigonda, elementary which is now called him
P Kelley elementary today in content and he just sort
keeps dismissing, me but he's impressed with my confidence and
my gift for. Gap SO i, said, LOOK i. Don't he,
Said i'm gonna hire. You he was getting. Presumptuous i'm
gonna hire you to pay you top. Dollar come here
(34:42):
after school And i'm gonna hire. YOU i, SAID i
don't want to work for, you. SIR i don't care
what you want to pay. Me he, said, well then
what do you? WANT i, said, well ACTUALLY i do
want to be a box. Boy you know what a
box boy? Is that somebody who breaks the boxes up of.
Inventory it's the worst Job i've, Got it's lowest. Job,
YEP i want that. One if you work at a,
(35:04):
CORPORATION i don't want you to stay at. HOME i
want you to go to the office AND i want
you to walk past the boss's office five times a
day until the boss, says when everybody's trying to stay
at home and work, remotely and you're there and you
come in, early you stay, late who are? You what
are you? Doing and whatever assignment they have that nobody
wants take that. One, OKAY a wealth mindset now you
(35:27):
just got a promotion, Anyway So I'm i'm taking this
job as a box. BOY i go into the cold
box where you take, inventory open the boxes and you
put them in the back of the coal box for
liquor and. Milk and this when you open a you
go to a convenience store and you open the. Front
you pull that drink out the. Front i'm the person
(35:47):
pushing the inventory from the. Back it was, cold it
was not, glamorous BUT i loved it BECAUSE i got
to see inventory for the. CANDY i opened the. Box
there was then inventory. List on the inventory list was
the address where he bought his. Candy he Was iris
(36:08):
Food store And smart and final on my Little jewish. Family.
That oddly, enough forty years, later forty five years, Later
i'm on the board of a company Called Ares, management
which is a private equity firm in based In New York.
City today's six hundred billion dollars of assets that my
Friends Michael waghtty And Tony wrestler run together along with,
(36:31):
others but they bought that company forty years. Later forty
five years, later unbeknownst to, Me i'm on the board
AND i see this list of. ASSETS i can't believe
they own this company that gave me my, life my starting. Business,
anyway back to the. Story so This jewish couple very.
NICE i went to go SO i saw that that's
where you bought's. INVENTORY i saw the wholesale, RATE i
(36:51):
saw the retail. RATE i saw the, markup which was the.
PROPHET i learned all this in the financial literacy course
that that banker taught. Me now it's our. Clicking this
is Like i'm going FROM PhD TO. PhD i'm building
a wealth mindset step by, step break by, brick and
frost bite by frost bite Because i'm in this. Cobox
so NOW i got. IT i got where he bought.
(37:13):
IT i got worried where what his source. IS i
got his oh cell, rate his retail. Rate i'm. DONE
i quit. IT i was only there for a few.
Weeks go, home go to my. MOTHER i have this.
Idea i'm gonna start this business neighborhood candy. House where
you're gonna start it in your. Den please don't charge, me.
Rent my mother was a capitalist through and through she
(37:35):
But i'm not going To, okay but how much you need
to start? It forty? Bucks, Okay i'm not gonna charge you,
rent BUT i. Will i'm gonna rent you the. Money
you're gonna pay this money back to. ME i got
forty dollars loan from my mother whenny To Smith. Wrestler
so we went To smart And final And Iris Food.
STORE i Think smart And final was the wholesaler that
was inside of or tied To Iris Food, store which
(37:58):
was a retailer that sold retail food to the neighborhood
consumers neighborhood. Residents BUT i think it Was smart And
final that sold wholesale To Max Liquor. Store and SO
i went there like it was a school project with
my mother with the forty dollars in my, hand and
they were so impressed with. Me oh, yeah let's give
his kids some biased. Kids let's go kid buy some
(38:21):
candy for his school. Project thank god THAT i was
a school project BECAUSE i did not have a business,
permit which you needed to be a proper. Business, Sorry
mayor Of. COMPTON i just. VISITED i apologized to the
mayor WHEN i went to go visit her in person last.
WEEK a very very nice, lady by the, WAY i might,
add that couldn't be more gracious and kind to, me
(38:46):
and we were going to be doing some stuff together coming.
Up That's Mayor Emma sharif In. COMPTON i apologized to
her for robbing the city of city. Funds so they
give me this. STUFF i go, home set up the
name Candy, house and eight through half of the. Inventory
never eat your. Product but what the miracle? WAS i
(39:07):
sold the other half of the of the inventory and
still had made a. Profit So i'm abusing the business,
model abusing my lessons in financial, literacy AND i still
made a. Profit that's how amazing this capitalism thing. Was
and it was, legal AND i got cavities because of. It,
RIGHT i hate candid this. DAY i don't, hate BUT
i am not addicted to it BECAUSE i got overdosed
(39:28):
as a. Kid SO i go back To smart And
final now with a, focus get a new set of.
Inventory go. Back they give me some free racks because
they're now impressed with me in my. Hootspa only in
the dictionary does the word success come before the word,
work because it's. Alphabetical by the, Way, hello every place,
else work comes. First So i'm putting in the work
and putting in the hours on the way to school
(39:51):
for my. Friends of, Course i'm the marketing. Agent so
the neighbor candy house makes three hundred dollars a week
at its, height AND i put the liquor store out
of the candy. Business THEN i found. Girls loss of
business became a recurring theme my. Life but which is
WHY i got really focused on being serious about business
(40:11):
and not being emotional about. It BUT i learned a
lot of lessons. There imagine what happened to my self
esteem as a result of that. WIN i put the liquor.
Store this grown man with a college, degree with a successful.
BUSINESS i put him out of the candy. Business he
could sell, liquor but he couldn't sell. CANDY i was his.
Competition he shared a partner with. Me never underestimate, me
(40:33):
OR i have a sign on My walt, says underestimate
me at your own. Risk that'll be. Nice you want
to make it so when you when your feet hit
the ground in the, morning the devil, says oh, crap
he Or she's. Up so this is the phase one
version of this. Story there is a phase two THAT
(40:55):
i can do in another. Episode BUT i sort of
bore myself WHEN i talk about, Myself so you have
to tell me whether this was important to, you and
if it's important to, You i'm the one when you
put in, comments when they put pieces of this podcast
or go on social, Media i'm the one. Responding if
you see a response on in the, comments that's. ME
(41:16):
i do it between business meetings and all this stuff
When i'm. Traveling so tell me in those comments if
you want me to do part two of this and
take you from age ten to age twenty and tell
you about my successes and my failures and the continued
growth of my wealth creation. Mindset but it's really started
the essence of me becoming an entrepreneur and the essence
(41:39):
of the future founding Of Operation, hope which is now
the biggest in the country and one of the best
biggest in the world by. Extension it all started there
with that kid who was nosy and who had these
loving parents who were divorced and too much month in
their money and all the other problems that you can relate.
(41:59):
To STILL i, rose And i'll just tell you that
that was the beginning of, everything AND i started a
bunch of, businesses probably one hundred business ideas from ten
age twenty probably one. Hundred most of, them the vast
majority of them, Failed and so failure was not a.
(42:21):
Thing it was an outcome to an. EXPERIMENT i was
not a. FAILURE i just felt it. Something it just didn't.
Work and here's WHAT i found out about failure and.
Success success has a thousand mothers and. Fathers everybody will
claim you when you, succeed but failure as a bastard.
Child you can fail in ninety nine times no one
(42:41):
will say a word about. It and In america you
can fail and get back up all over, again no.
Problem it's different than In europe where it's. Stigmatized but
you have to succeed just, once just fall. Forward success
is going from failure to failure without loss of. Enthusiasm
and entrepreneurs eighteen hours day to keep from getting a.
(43:02):
Job whether you believe you can and whether you believe you,
can't you're absolutely. Right the glass set full or is half,
empty depends was looking at the. GLASS i can't guarantee
you that making being positive is going to make you a,
success BUT i absolutely guarantee you that being negative is
gonna make you. Fail mindset. Matters you can mess with my,
(43:23):
money you can't mess with my, time and you can't
mess with my. MIND i walked through life today consciously
oblivious the most things around me because it just doesn't.
Matter here's WHAT i, learned but too. LATE i spent
a lot of time BECAUSE i was not the cool.
KID i was a dorky. KID i spent a lot
(43:44):
of time trying to impress, people the sixth square blocks
celebrity in my, neighborhood trying to impress people THAT i
ultimately did not want to be. LIKE i can't repeat.
THAT i spent a lot of time trying to impress
PEOPLE i really didn't want to be like they were
the six square block. Celebrity they were the drugs the
(44:04):
dealer or the, gangster the guy who had the woman or,
whatever most of which later on asked me for a
job if they were still alive or not in. Prison
And i'm not. Joking they would ask me for jobs for,
contracts but they were Not their storyline didn't work out
for them like it worked out for, me and there
(44:28):
was nothing special about. ME i just had a business
plan my, life AND i focused on things that, built
things that, mattered AND i didn't have, wealth SO i
had to CREATE i take hustle and turn it into
a business, plan and hustle on muscle on hustle with
a business plan creates compounded, hustle which creates, energy and
(44:49):
at some point you outrun your. Problems that's WHY i
say The devil was a. Punk he's a fallen. Angel
god gets the a permission to. Exist darkness is defined
by light and not the other way. Around devil was a.
Punk WHEN i get up in the, morning the devil,
says oh, shit he's. Up he's a, punk and and
(45:11):
and and AND a quote THAT i can't quite say
the way he says it for my Friend Tony restaer
is if you don't, quit you can't. Fail i'll tell
you the way he says. It this is a. Podcast
is my. PODCAST i can say. This if you don't fucking,
(45:31):
quit you won't fucking. Fail so there you. Go you
can delete that part you're going to. Give let the
young person listen to this. Podcast BUT i want to
say it just as strongly as he. Says and he's
a two hundred richest man in the, world and he
came from a working class. Family if you don't, quit
you can't. Fail just don't give. Up and not giving
(45:52):
up is a mindset WHICH i cover in my book
the Memo Surviving, mindset throbbing, mindset winning. Mindset relationships give
her and a giver is exotic, given a taker is,
neurotic taker and the taker is. Psychotic the first RELATIONSHIP
i want you to have is with. YOURSELF i want
you to learn to love, yourself not be in love with,
yourself but to love, yourself to be, consciously become consciously
(46:16):
comfortable in your unconscious well consciously unconsciously Meaning i'm consciously
going at, it but, unconsciously And i'm not thinking about
it every. Day BUT i am reasonably comfortable in my own.
Skin no one's comfortable in their own, skin. Right But
i'm as good As i'm not as good as my.
Compliments i'm not as bad as my. CRITICISMS i am
WHO i, am BUT i Am god's, child AND i
(46:36):
am unique and different as you. Are and that is
my real, asset That i'm just reasonably comfortable in my own.
SKIN i learned to love, myself not be in love with.
Myself love, myself hold and, complete AND i am the,
product and so are. You you can do anything anything
you set your mind. Too just punched through it over
(46:57):
and to round it through. It we're going to get to.
It if you're black listening to, this you're born on
probation In. America you've been doing so much with so
little for so. Long you Know i'm gonna do anything with.
Nothing my podcasts for. Everybody but if you're a, Black, Brown, Indian, latino,
women held, back stepped, on looked, over, ignored then this
(47:17):
is really a message for. You because when Mainstream america
has a, headache black and brown folks have. Pneumonia but
we're all. Sick but you can get medicine for a.
Sickness AND i just gave you some medicine for. Depression
it's called your aspirational, dream AND i just gave you
part of the ladder to get. There this Is john.
O'Brien this is money And. Wealth this is the making
(47:39):
of a wealth, creator lessons from my life early. On
let me know if you want me to do part
two and part, three AND i. Will i'm. Out money
(48:03):
And wealth With john O'Brien is a production of The
Black Effect Podcast. Network for more podcasts from The Black
Effect Podcast, network visit The iHeartRadio, App Apple, podcasts or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Host
John Hope Bryant
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.