September 4, 2025 • 52 mins
In this episode, John steps away from the usual topics of business, real estate, and investments to deliver a candid truth: mindset is the foundation of wealth. Drawing from decades of experience, he breaks down why arrogance, bravado, and chasing appearances will never replace humility, wisdom, resilience, and discipline. John challenges listeners—especially ambitious young entrepreneurs—to stop talking, start listening, and build the quiet confidence that sustains real success. This isn’t about looking rich—it’s about becoming wealthy, from the inside out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome The Money in Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Yo Yo,
this is John O'Brien and this is the Money and
Wealth podcast series, season two. And this is a gut
(00:21):
check episode. This is out of sequence. I didn't mean
or intend to do this episode at this time. I
would like to think that this episode is not actually necessary,
but something has happened in the last week or so
that it's caused me to think and to feel, yes,
(00:46):
to feel deeply that I need to double back and
relay the foundation for this house before we start talking
about building a business and building and buying a house
and and you know, buying assets and what it is
(01:06):
and what is that and talking about you know, all
these exciting topics that I have coming up, family offices,
et cetera. We've got to make sure we're not rearranging
the deck chairs on the Titanic. This episode just might
upset a few people, because I'm coming right at you.
I carry you, and I care about you enough to
tell you the truth. And I rather you respect me
(01:28):
and learn to like me than like me and never
respect me. And I wouldn't respect myself if I didn't
tell you what I believe is the hard earned truth
about success and about failure. There's a lot of attitude
out here, and I hate to have to point out
(01:52):
a group, but it is overwhelmingly coming from a group
I absolutely am rooting for that I want to win desperately, Millennials.
The comments that I am reading are on the one hand,
(02:17):
inspiring because they're very ambitious, and on the other hand,
extremely troubling because they're overconfident for no good reason. And
God gave you two ears, all of us, including myself,
two ears in one mouth, so we listen twice as
much as we talk. Quincy Jones, God rest his soul.
(02:39):
How'd you get so smart? John? I'm just nosy as hell.
I want to know everything about everything. I look at
the success that I've had a lot of it has
to do with me being nosy, of being curious, of
(03:00):
literally seeking out success stories the best in the game.
This is way before social media, digital media, so you
have to do it the hard way. You had to
meet somebody somewhere and decide whether to talk or to listen.
(03:21):
If you can meet them somewhere, I mean you can
meet this generation can meet anybody theoretically online, no matter
how big the star is or how influential or wealthy
or successful, if they're online, you can get a comment
to them or a message to them. Heck, I'm reading
(03:42):
your comments. That's why I'm doing this episode. So you
can reach me. You are reaching me if you see
me commenting on particularly Instagram. I try to get to
all the platforms Facebook, etc. Threads, etc. But if you
see me commenting, or you see somebody comming in my name,
that's me. And typically I love the common section. I
(04:04):
live for the common section because that's an opportunity to
have a subtopic conversation, another opportunity to educate and to
grow a couple posts that I put out, and I
don't talk unless I know what I'm talking about. If
it's about health and wellness, I don't know a thing
about that. I go to my wife, Shaeitra. If it's
(04:26):
about spirituality, even though I think I'm deeply spiritual, I
don't know a thing about religion and deep deep spirituality.
I go to Ambassador Andrew Young, Reverend doctor Cecil Chip
Murray raised me. But I don't know a thing about
this topic. I go to the Hero the iconic person
in my life Ambassador Reverend doctor Ambassador Andrew Young, who's
(04:51):
on that balcony with doctor Kingen he was assassinated, but
also is a minister who marries and councils and knows
the Bible inside out. I go to Bishop TD Jakes
who's a friend also, and Reverend Dwight Andrews First Church,
(05:13):
where I just spoke this Sunday, where they're trustees. Sunday.
I go to people who are experts in their area.
If it's entertainment, if it's music, I go to my
brother Ti or Killer Mike. When the area is political,
(05:33):
there are you know why range of folks I go
to and I listen. Even though I was a presidential
advisor for three different administrations from both parties and recognized
by five you as presidents, I've known nine you as presidents.
But I am not political, so I don't presume that
I have the answers there either. I call my head
(05:53):
of government relations in public Policy all the time, Jenney Roscoe,
asking questions. I've succeeded on a grand level by anybody's definition,
so I'm told, but I have four hundred employees, not
(06:13):
four thousand, not forty thousand, not four hundred thousand. So
if I'm going to get to four thousand or forty
thousand or four hundred thousand employees, I'm currently a four hundred.
I need to talk to my fortune five hundred friends
and ask questions and shut up and be curious and
(06:39):
not just hear them, but listen, truly listen. I'm not
hearing the silence of listening. I'm hearing hearing to respond,
or worse, hearing to react, waiting, worse, waiting for one's
turn to talk. Wealth is a mindset, Please hear me.
(07:04):
Money can be made on labor, for sure, money has
been made on labor. But money makes more money on
money than money will ever make on labor. And technology
will follow after that. But the overarching, overarching component of wealth,
and you want to come from the latter work capitalism
(07:25):
or copy toss copy toss copy TOAs is Latin for
knowledge in the head lucy translated. That's also really about learning,
and so when you stop learning, you start losing. You're
rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic. The ship is sinking,
but we're picking drapes. And there was a couple times
(07:52):
where again I love a very interesting debate and discussion.
But there was one post where I talked about the
difference between poor neighborhoods and unfortunately a large number of
black and brown neighborhoods are poor, and I grew up
in one, so I have credibility to say it. They're
poor white neighborhoods that are poor. Clearly, they're more poor
(08:14):
Whites and America than poor anybody else goes without saying
anybody knows their facts, but this is these are neighborhoods
that I grew up in. I was concerned about these neighborhoods,
and I was complementing the black community in brown community
for most of this post. But I started out by
saying that black and brown in poor neighborhoods tend to
be noisy urban neighborhoods, and wealthy neighborhoods tend to be quiet.
(08:35):
Didn't mention the race. And clearly they are black neighborhoods
that are that are wealthy. I've lived in many. We
all know them. The emotionalism in the comments about that
there were people were triggered by the fact that there's
some inference that I don't know what the inference was.
I didn't say it because I didn't say it, but
black in brown neighborhoods were only noisy. That was not
(08:58):
the point at all. That's not what I said. It's
not what I meant. Anybody knows me, knows that what
I meant it was, and smart people in the comments
would correct the others. Look, you guys are missing the
point all together. I mean, statistically, half of hate to
say it, behalf of black communities have a credit score
below six twenty. That's that's just a fact. So that
(09:20):
means that the majority of our communities can't get access
to prime credit. Now, you can call that what you want,
but it's not a prime rate community and probably is
a poor community. If you live in a five hundred
and six hundred credit score neighborhood, you seeing a check
casher and next to a pati loan lender, next to
a rental own store, next to a title lender, next
to a liquor store, next to a pawn shop. Okay,
that's gonna be a lot of noise physical. But what
(09:42):
I'm really talking about is mindset, right, mindset. People missing
them all together because they're so busy winning the battle,
win the battle, you lose the war. You're picking up
stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime, and
we got to knock this off. There are people coming
(10:04):
from completely separate disciplines. I'm a businessman, right, I'm talking
about the investments I'm talking about I was literally talking about.
I walked through like consciously oblivious of most things around
me because it doesn't matter. I'm just quiet in the head.
And while it is symbolic, a symbolic truth that poor neighborhoods,
(10:29):
be they poor, white, rural, or black and brown and urban,
that these neighborhoods tend to be louder and noisier. It's
just a lot of stuff going on. People, aren't You
aren't building your own business. Typically you're working somebody else's
and you're entertaining yourself to keep yourself away from the stress.
And you've got a surviving mindset, a surviving mindset. It's
(10:52):
different from a winning mindset or a building mindset. So
having mindsets just trade and tende, trade and drama and emotions.
It's not an opinion, and it's just a fact. The
fact that folks could not even get beyond that to
get to the point to talk about through what I
was really talking about, which is you can live in
(11:12):
these neighborhoods as I did, as my friends did, and
still walk through it with a clear, quiet mind. Because
you cannot create symphonies, you cannot create beautiful music. When
Quncy Jones went into the studio, the noise had to
stop so the music would began, so he could hear
(11:37):
at some point in order to create genius, in order
to create a business, in order to do a budget,
in order to have a serious conversation, or you need
to think, you need time to reflect, You need to
quiet the noise. All a patterns is a monetized idea.
(11:57):
You need a space and a place to create eight.
The idea ideas are not created in noisy environments. There's
too much of us. There's too many things competing for
your focus. There's no time, space, or place for the
magic of creation. We never got to that conversation. Let's
(12:18):
fast forward beyond that. As another brother who was referred
to me by a very big celebrity. I don't want
to name names, but the celebrity said, you should speak
to John O'Brien and before that guy could be before
that gentleman who's a young man who brags about making
seven and eight figures. If you're making that kind of money,
(12:38):
you tend to not brag about it, by the way.
But I'll get to this in a moment. That guy
just starts going off about he's got this paper, he's
making seven figures, eight figures, he's doing cryptocurrency, he's doing stocks.
He he don't have time for talking to older dudes
and listening to them talk about boring businesses in real
(12:59):
estate takes too long. And even though he says he
owns real estate's complete contradiction. But he didn't ask me
a question. He didn't even know who I was. He
was too busy talking. I'm not concerned about me. I'm
concerned about him, because, yes, anybody can make money in
a moment for a minute, but if you go far
(13:19):
enough for the north Pole, you end up south. I
love you enough to tell you the truth. Sometimes you
need to just shut up. You just need to shut
your mouth and listen to somebody who's done it. Not
only have I am I one of the I think
top one two percent of all African American business people
who own who have a payroll of over a million
(13:42):
dollars every two weeks, a million a half almost two
million dollars every two weeks, four hundred employees full time.
But it built it from nothing, literally, from nothing to something.
It's the largest black male founded community based nonprofit new
US history. That's just my philanthropy. Not only have I
created these businesses and all this stuff, like the stuff
(14:03):
she'd sort of speak for itself, credentials. I mean that
alone should tell you to be quiet and listen, at
least in this space where I am noteworthy and this
person doesn't. I mean, if people are talking to me
don't have employees, they're confusing busyness with business. You can
(14:23):
be a wonderful self employment project. You can be a
personal services contract genius and have yourself and three contractors
and you're making seven figures. But riches is a contract,
so you're gonna make money, and God bless you. But
unless you're building wealth, what you do in your sleep,
what you need compounding for, which is infrastructure scale systems.
(14:45):
Just between a hustler, I said, this is my last podcast,
and a business person is paperwork. Okay, the paperwork takes time,
it takes patience, it takes details. Right, you can't learn
when you're talking. When you're running your mouth, we need
(15:10):
to knock it off and listen. I don't care how
much intelligence you have, That doesn't mean you have wisdom.
Wisdom comes with time, experiences, in years, it comes with bruises.
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first. It's
a scientific fact that you cannot have a rainbow without
a storm. First. Success is going from failure to failure
(15:32):
without loss of enthusiasm. When I was coming up, I
wanted to meet two successful business people. It was Quincy
Jones and Ambassador Andrew Young. These I wanted to be international,
and the only two people I knew who were international
were these two people, to these two black men, And
so I just went about trying to meet them. And
it took me ten years to get Ambassador Young's attention,
(15:53):
and I literally chased him all around the country in
the world. I'd find out where he was speaking. I
would buy a plane ticket, out, buy an event ticket
I'd buy, I'd get an hotel room, I'd show up
and I would just try to get his attention. But
I would listen to the speech in the midst of
all that, And for ten years he would be gracious
to me, but he basically ignored me as he had
(16:15):
a right to do. He didn't know me from a
hillo Beans, but I knew he was the best in
the business in what he did. Quincy Jones, I wanted
to meet Quincy Jones didn't know I was going to
meet him. There was no social media back then, and
so I made I took a consulting contract a retainer
(16:36):
that I had for a thousand dollars. He was holding
a fundraiser at his house for a congresswoman. Congressmen Woman
we Needham and Linda mcdonnald got rest of his soul
who represented a district in south central La Compton, I
believe Watts and I bought up a ticket event ticket,
went to his house in bel Air. It was bel Air,
and got to meet Quincy Jones and we became dear friends.
(17:01):
But I invested in these relationships. When I was with
my first conversation with Quincy, I mostly listened. He talked
for four or five hours, just pouring into me. When
I met. When I finally got in bassilor Jung's attention,
we talked for four or five hours, but I mostly listened.
I talked Ambassador Young earlier tonight we've been now, dear friends,
(17:25):
I'm like a surrogate son. I'm told i've known him now,
I had a great relationship for twenty years. I still
today shut up and listen because what he has done.
I can't hold a candle to He's the best. He's
the closest thing to Nelson Mandela we have in the
world today. I can't compete with that. DOT wouldn't want to.
(17:46):
What I need to do is shut up. So we're
confusing bravado with confidence, we're convincing. We're confusing arrogance with
self esteem. We're confusing loudness with strength. When you got
the power, you don't need to use it. I don't
(18:07):
need to scream and holler. If I want to profile,
I guess I can hit you with my American Express
black heart, knock you out. But I don't even need
to do that. When you've got the power, you don't
need to use it. So I'm trying to give you
a message before it's too late. And it's not just
from millennials. These are for anybody who is too insecure
(18:29):
to acknowledge that you might be a little insecure. Like
my number one trade is I'm just reasonably comfortable in
my own skin. No one's comfortable in their own skin.
That's a lie. Anybody who says that or believes that
is just lying to you and lying to themselves. We're
all a little insecure. I'm insecure. Part of our success.
We get up with reason, we get up early, to
stay up late and work hard. Is a little insecurity
(18:50):
in our system. A little insecurity, A little fear is healthy.
Is why you run away from a bear, right. It
is what God put in you to have a proper
amount of fear at the appropriate time. God didn't put
a mouth lips on both sides of your head, He
put ears one mouth. So one of the reasons I'm
(19:11):
troubled is that there are people who excuse me for
being blunt. Just might be absolutely broke, but certainly are
struggling and striving. I just look at their profile because
I take the time and don't want to assume who
are on my page. This is my trade talk Live,
not the podcast. Obviously on my pages for social media
(19:32):
because I believe they want to learn about what it is.
I'm an expert, and I'm the guy who me and
my organizations who are responsible for financial literacy becoming the
policy of the US federal government. Me right, I've served
three US presidents. I've been in the Treasury Department, the
US Treasury Department, that's where I counseled, the White House
(19:53):
and the Treasury Department. I've been in this game for
a long time. I've built I've invested four point eight
billion dollars billion. Okay, my payroll is a couple of
million dollars just under that. Every two weeks, just the payroll,
and I'm up from nothing. No one gave me anything.
So I'm stunned that people are talking when they should
(20:16):
be listening and competing with me for opinion on a
topic that I think I'm pretty clear on. If you
are to compete with me, at least bring receipts. At
least I can respect that. But it is so obvious
that it's emotionalism and insecurity and vanity. But worse, there's
something about what's going on now where people actually, unfortunately
(20:40):
think because I guess you can comment with anybody. The
level of plans was level with digital media. Anybody can
talk to anybody, So maybe you think maybe anybody can
think they can be anybody without the work and let
me tell you that's wrong. Please hear me. Only in
the dictionary does the word success come before the word work,
(21:00):
because it's alphabetical. If you don't learn this lesson, whoever
you happen to be, you're going to fail. If you
don't shut up and listen, you're going to fail. You
may win the battle, but you're going to lose the war.
At some point. The money's going to run out, the
lights are going to turn off, the social media is
(21:21):
going to turn to somebody else or a morph into
something else with AI who knows. But this game we're
playing is going to be over because the fundamentals of
success are basically the same. They have it changed in ages,
and I'm trying to break them down for you, and
I'm doing it for free. Right, it's free game. As
(21:42):
Jay Z said on his four four four album, which
is a financial literacy album. In my opinion, I'm trying
to give you a million dollars worth a game for
nine ninety nine. I'm giving it to you for none
ninety nine. So let's get into some fundamentals. Right. There's
a difference between looking successful and being successful. So there
(22:06):
is there are too many people, particularly young people who
confused ego, arrogance, and even raw intelligence. Very smart people
out of here. I mean, there's not many dummies I
see in these comments. These people are really smart, but
they confuse that with wisdom, resilience and hard work. You see,
(22:27):
it's hard to compete with me because I've been homeless.
I've lost it all. I almost filed bankruptcy. I've written
one hundred thousand dollars check and given it to my
chief of staff and said if the income does not
revenue does not come in by This was Friday on Monday,
when payroll hits cash my check. That was back when
payroll for me was one hundred thousand dollars. I've slept
(22:47):
in my office. I never got a payroll. I never
had a fancy car, well, at least not at that time.
I remember my car that was forty twenty seven dollars
a month. For a long time, I didn't have a
fancy place to live. I mean, my god, even think
about this. I've been in business now for forty years ish,
(23:12):
thirty years of founding five, founding Operation Hope. I think
my first fancy house was fifteen years ago. Quasi fancy,
really fancy you know, seven years ago something like that.
(23:32):
Fancy cars, same thing. But I've been at this game
most of my life. I've been at this game most
longer than the folks who are in the comments, many
of them have been alive. I can believe I'm saying
that I feel forever young. But that is a that
is that you know, you hear your parents saying that. Here,
your uncle saying that. I never thought i'd say it,
but that is the true. And my uncle used to
(23:53):
tell me. My older folks would tell me to say
shut up and listen. Right. Do you know my I
could not have given my I couldn't give my John
O'Brien of twenty twenty could not give John O'Brien of
twenty twenty five advice. I'm not picking on you. I'm
(24:13):
trying to save you time, space and inconvenience. I'm trying
to make sure you don't trip and fail because this
world doesn't care about you. It's not about lover or hate. Today.
That was the old game. Today is increasingly radical indifference.
People who don't care enough about you to hate you. Rather,
they'd like you to fail, they'd like you to move aside.
(24:36):
They don't mind you playing in your ego and your drama.
And do you know the seventy six percent of all
luxury goods are bought by poor and struggling people, not
by the wealthy. They'd love you to buy all this
stuff and spend all your time going to clubs and
passing around business cards at two in the morning, where
you should be at home, studying, trying to impress somebody.
I don't know what you're trying to do leasing a car,
(24:57):
leasing an apartment, or or tipping over tipping the doorman,
or or buying a first class plane ticket to Paris
when you should when you you should be flying coach
to Detroit to try to get a contract or whatever
the deal is, you know, trying to floss with friends,
or or all these folks who are flying at different
places just when you get an Instagram photo. I don't
(25:18):
know what people are doing, but you're wasting time, and
all you really have is your time. You can mess
with my money, you can't mess with my time. I'm
ruthless about my time. You cannot waste my time. And
part of why I'm doing this table setting podcast episode
(25:38):
this one is I want to make sure that I'm
not wasting my time and wasting your time by giving
you the tools but not telling you what talents you
need to focus on. So it is the wisdom which
comes with time and experiences. It is the resilience. It
is taking no Forrovidemen is shaking things off. It's moving on,
(26:02):
getting through it, around it, to it, to get to it.
It's not talking bad. It's being bad. And being bad
is not loud. It's not punch it's not punching your chest.
It's not banging on your chest. It's not popping your collar.
It's popping payroll. It's paying your vendors on time. It's
getting multi year contracts. It's getting intellectual property rights in
(26:25):
your name. It's getting real estate in your portfolio. It's
owning patterns. It's having a business with employees. It's having
a business with a brand. It's showing up time for
showing up on time for meeting or letting people know
within fifteen minutes you'll be there. So it's not to
(26:45):
be disrespectful. It's listening to people who've made it out
of respect and regard, if nothing else, because you never
know who you're going to meet them on the playing
field of success. Be careful that toe you step on.
It maybe connected to the rear end. You've got to
kiss tom mark and keep in mind, truly successful people
don't need you. I don't need to do this right.
(27:08):
So do I remember people who were disrespectful to me?
You bet? I do? Do I make them pay a price? Nope?
But will I give them the time of day? Probably not. Again,
it's radical indifference. You need people to root for you.
You need people to be invested in you, which means
you need to be investable. Wisdom, resilience, hard work, basic stuff. Humility,
(27:37):
somebody said, people talking about humility. No, No, it's forgets
he being humility. We need to be loud and boastful, boteful, wasteful.
I don't know where people are getting this crazy stuff from.
Where in God's name is humility not an asset. I
may not be humble when I talk about my vision
and my ideas. I'm very bold about that, but I
have a humility about how I receive information and insights.
(28:03):
Can we disagree without being disagreeable? I'm not going to
reject a possible lesson on his face. You may say
ten minutes of discussion to me. If you're successful and
I may disagree with a lot of it. I might
disagree in part because I've never been to where you are,
and so I just have no context and already come
with an opinion. But there may be one little nugget
(28:23):
in there that made the whole conversation worthwhile. I need
to shut up and listen. Maybe this podcast, the episode
should be called shut up and Listen. So let's now
move to the mask of bravado. Surface level confidence is bravado.
Showing off is bravado. Looking rich is bravado. I don't
(28:47):
care about your chains, real or fake. I don't care
about the car you're driving. I don't care about the
house you're leasing or by whatever that you're in. I
don't care about all this stuff and all this this is,
this is, none of that matters. I care about your
balance sheet, your income statement. I care about your credit rating,
(29:07):
whether you pay your bills again, whether you're whether you
have institutional credit access as I do. I've done a
tunity of million dollar credit facility. Have you not you you,
but you know without a personal guarantee. I have unsecured
lines of credit for seven figures that get renewed repeatedly.
(29:34):
I pay my bills on time. I have an organization
as a four star Charity Navigator rating. That's my organization,
Operation Hope, which is like I've done in Bradstreet tripled
a bond rating. If you check the credit of my businesses,
all of them which there which are transparently available, you
see that we run an honorable enterprise. You go Teck
(29:55):
to check the Better Business Bureau and they have things
to say about how we do business. These are the
things that you want on your record, not an Instagram
post of you profiling for the record. Social media culture
is over indexing on designer clothes, least cars, fake luxury lifestyles,
(30:20):
posting a vacation on credit cards versus building a savings account.
It's not smart. Do you know what if you take
two hundred dollars a month for thirty five or forty years,
just that alone will make you a millionaire, just that
act alon. Imagine what we waste on stuff. It's not
(30:41):
about what you make, it's about what you keep. There's
one for you. You make money during the day, you
build was in your sleep. There's another one for you. Right,
you want boring businesses, Right, you want boring business advisors?
You don't want people going to the club with you
and going to want to hang out with you, and
they're your business advisors, They're going to rob you blind.
That's the last thing you wanted your boys who are
(31:02):
handling your money and your business hanging out with you.
If you are one to hang out. I was always
the one who hung in by the way when I
was coming up in business. This is a very interesting
point my boys, my friends growing up. This is why
I'm so I'm so strong on this right because I've
been to this I've been to this game before, I've
been to this party before, I've read this memo before.
(31:24):
All of my friends told me I was wasting my
time studying. They told me, is wasting my time working,
staying at home. Come out and hang with them. They'd say,
go have fun, be visible. I was like, that's cool,
go and do that. I mean, I have no I'm
not hating on your game. To go enjoy yourself fantastic.
I mean, I had no opinion about what they were doing.
(31:45):
Is knew what I was doing. Working from can't see
in the morning, I can't see at night. An entrepreneur
works eighteen hours day to keep him getting a job.
All I know is today, including a call I got
to say afternoon, These same people are calling out ask
me for a job or for contract, are mad at
me because they don't have either from me. You had
(32:07):
the same option I had. You chose them to invest
your time or use your time elsewhere, and you thought
you knew better than me. God bless you, fantastic, But
that didn't work out so well? So did it? Like
literally my folks who I grew up with, the folks
who just chose a different path, and I'm talking about here,
literally all of them, if they're still with us, A
(32:31):
lot of it is prison, probation, parole, unfortunately, and death.
As people know my story know the two people before
I was even nine years old close to me were
murdered right in front of me. But the rest of
them are just struggling. And while I'm writing checks, they're
trying to find someplace to cash when they're trying to
get a job. There's nothing wrong with a job, but
(32:52):
I think that in many ways they're smarter than me.
They were smarter than me, they had more intelligent than me,
but they didn't hustle better than me, they didn't study
better than me. They didn't get their put their head
down more than me. They weren't more resilient than me.
They weren't more consistent than me. I do the same
thing over and over and over and over again. That
is compounding. That's if you don't have inheritance in money,
(33:13):
you should have inheritance as in hustle and hustle on
the hustle creates more hustle. That plus organization in paperwork
creates a businessman or a business woman. Can I get
an amen? Bravado is buying liabilities to impress. Real confidence
(33:36):
is building assets to sustain. Good debt is tied to
something that could rise in acid value. Bad debt is
tied financing something that decreases in acid value, like financing
jewelry or whatever, or a lease for a Lamborghini you
can't afford, or whatever. The substance of confidence real confidence
(33:59):
is competence plus consistency plus humility. I would add also
self esteem, true self esteem. If I don't like me,
I'm not gonna like you. If I don't feel good
about me, I'm not gonna feel good about you. If I
don't love me, I can't love you. If I don't
respect me, I'm a clue how to respect you. If
I don't have a purpose in my life, I'll make
your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around.
(34:20):
So you can have hot you can have high confidence
and still have low self esteem. If you have low
self esteem, you to make the wrong choices, and you're
gonna start making emotional decisions. And I guarantee you that
every emotional decision is going to be a bad one. See,
you're getting real. Everybody listening to this podcast is getting
the benefits of the frustration that someone delivered to my
(34:40):
digital door this week. So please take it all in.
I'm giving you crib notes shortthand for success, so you
walk right around the stuff that just does not work.
I'm telling you this stuff will not work. I'm banking
my whole net worth and reputation on it. If I'm wrong,
don't listen to me another day. Right, But success is
(35:04):
pretty obvious, and so is failure. Wisdom equals time plus
scars plus reflection, rainbows after storms. How could you possibly
have wisdom at twenty five years of age? You have intelligence,
but you don't have the experiences. I was homeless at eighteens.
(35:25):
That didn't mean I had wisdom by twenty five. See
what I'm saying. I had a hustle, I had hard work.
I was smart, but I didn't have I mean the
stuff that I know now, Oh my god, the people
who I spent time trying to impress who I now
upon reflection, I didn't want to be like, oh my god,
I just wish I could go back and tell my
eighteen year old self by twenty five year old self,
(35:45):
my thirty year old self to knock it off. Stop
trying and impress somebody. You don't want to be like,
here's the financial layer. Here's I want to make smart sexy.
Here's here's sexy. A seven of the credit score. That's quiet,
confidence and open doors. A savings cushion, that's peace of mind.
It's not a flex investing monthly. That's discipline that builds freedom.
(36:11):
And I mean, you can invest. You can invest twenty
five dollars in a fractional investment account, don't have to
be big dollars. You can save fifty to one hundred bucks,
right And I just told you. You do that repeatedly, compounding,
you'll be a millionaire by time you're at age for retirement.
Confidence is when your bank statement speaks louder than your Instagram. Hello,
can I get an amen? The trap for millennials. This
(36:37):
is why this generation is vulnerable. I've already said you're brilliant,
but this is why you're vulnerable. Social media pressure to
be big by thirty. Just forget about it. Knock it off.
You'll lift a ninety or a hundred years of age
if you take care of yourself. This is a rounding error,
don't you know? Thirty is just the first leg of
(37:00):
the marathon, and you should be trying to get bass
and butts and not a home run. Hank Aaron had
record for the most home runs, but he also had
the record for the most strikeouts. So did my friend
Reggie Jackson. I knew Hank Aaron and Reggie Jackson. Reggie
still with us and is a great businessman, and believe me,
he'd be saying amen on all I'm talking about about
what really sustains the work. I mean, my man Alice
(37:22):
Rodriguez would say the same thing. He had a bunch
of strikeouts. But people don't only focus on the home runs.
The flashy part. Student debt plus rising living costs is
a vulnerability. Even though I think student loan debt if
you get your degree, could be could be an asset.
So I'm not hating on that, but I'm just saying
(37:42):
these are vulnerabilities that I didn't have in my generation
growing up, confusing intelligence, smart ideas with wisdom, proven decisions.
Please write that down, go back and listen to this
part again with somebody you love. Here's some stats for you.
Average first time millionaire a each fifty seven. That's a
sustainable millionaire. Anybody can make money for a minute, you
(38:05):
can make it three, four or five years later. It's gone.
Seventy percent of all professional athletes bankrupt in five years.
Seventy percent of all those win the lottery. As far
as farther concerned, if you're doing crypto trading or you're
doing I have no problem with crypto. I'm I'm just
saying this is this is literally true because most crypto
currencies failed, by the way. But if you're a future
(38:28):
you're you're an option's future trade you aah, you're a
day trader whatever. Okay, you're you're trying to make quick
money whatever. How are you trying to However, you're trying
to do it right. You just want it now. The
chance of you being bankrupt are broke in five to
ten years is about seventy percent because you don't have
the discipline, and because there is no if if you
(38:49):
find a free lunch, it's probably stale. Again. Success only
becomes before the work, work, because it's alphab because in
the dictionary, because it's alphabetical. Every place else is just
the work. And it takes twenty years to change a culture,
including your own, to build a culture. That's Quincy Jones quote, right.
But folks don't want to wait twenty years. They want
it in two years. Well, you can get something in
(39:10):
two years, but it may not be sustainable. You may
re rearranging the deck chairs and the Titanic, but it's blinging, singing,
and people to tell you what you want to hear.
And you think that what you're doing right now is
going to last. Don't believe what I'm saying. Investigating for yourself.
First generation makes it, second generation spends it. Third generation
(39:30):
loses it because the second generation didn't learn the lessons
of the second and the third generation just thought it
was going to last forever. And if you made the
money and you didn't have hurt or pain tied to it.
You think that it's here forever, that you don't have
to work hard for it, and you give it away easy.
(39:52):
I'm not giving away ten thousand dollars. I know what
ten dollars. I'm not giving away two thousand dollars, and
I can afford both easily. I'm not giving away at
dime right, I still pick up a dime by seat
on the ground. By the way, when I ran a business,
multi multi business, I sold for one hundred and twenty
million dollars. Actually my partners had wired me in this example.
(40:16):
I don't want to say exactly that much, but it
was tens of millions of dollars. Do you know they
never asked me for a financial statement or not audit.
I didn't want anyway, and gave it to them. But
they just knew I wasn't going to go rent a limousine.
They knew I wasn't going to go do five star
hotels with penthouse suites with their money. They knew I
wasn't going to rent a jet or LEAs a jet,
(40:38):
or do net jets or trying to plot. They knew
I was flying at most business class, but it really
had fly coach and get upgraded. They knew I was
going to treat them money like it was mine, with humility.
The average millionaire, first time millionaire, fifty seven years of age.
(40:59):
Most overnight success, It's took fifteen to fifteen years of
grinding to get there. And every legitimate millionaire, a real one,
has real estate, boring real estate in their portfolio. The
path to real success keys to move from bravado to
true confidence hard work, show up every day. It's not
(41:22):
in late, long lunch, leave early, show up early, stay
late and forget a break. Resilience fail, learn, keep moving,
rent and repeat wisdom, Learn from mentors, mistakes and time. Purpose.
(41:42):
Anchor in something bigger than your ego. I cannot stress
that enough. Folks I see coming with me with ego
and all that drama, I would never invest in them.
I wouldn't tell them. I don't want to fight, I
don't want an argument. I just keep it moving. Fine.
That works for you. You think that works for you. Great.
There are nobody the biggest, the most successful people. I
(42:04):
don't mean the loudest people. I'm not people. I'm not
people who are rocking in mic. I'm talking about folks
who own the mic. The folks who own the stage,
the folks who own the venues, the folks who own
the licensing rights, the publishing rights, the folks who own
the hotels you have. There's a family that owned the
Four Seasons Hotel on Doheiny. I know the family, the
(42:25):
four Season of Donhee or first hotel on Dolheini in
Los Angeles. I know, I've known the family for thirty years. Now.
You will never not know their name, even though you
know the names of everybody coming through their doors because
they're celebrities. But the celebrities just are renting a room.
This guy owns the room. You have no idea who
he is. That's gangster, right. Well, true wealth is quiet, right,
(42:48):
or it's not intentionally loud. Financial layers start automatic savings.
Confidence in knowing you've, knowing you've you're covered right invests
two hundred three hundars a month early. The boring millionaire
player just told you'll be a millionaire by a sixty five.
Do that two hundred dollars a month. Build a credit
to prime seven hundred credit score, because that's truly gangster.
(43:12):
The computer just says yes at midnight to whatever it
is reasonable you ask for own something, a stock, a home,
a small business, something sustainable, something real, something foundational, something
I don't want to buy. I learned to stop chasing
the appearance of success and start building the infrastructure of success.
What I'm doing now is building economic plumbing for an
(43:35):
entire group of people, everybody who's struggling. That's why I
have fifteen hundred offices, fifteen hundred offices in forty two states.
Nobody has infrastructure like that serving the people who are
trying to come up. No one right. I've done that
by grinding, by working, by having my head down. And
that's a seventy five million dollars a year plus budget.
(43:57):
That's just one organization, not the other. There four divisions
that I have through John O'Brien Enterprises. And my wife
will tell you all I do is work, and I
love it. It's not work for me. I enjoy it.
But a lot of my friends who have the yachts
and the this and the that, they'll tell me, John, here,
that's throw me the keys. You can hear it. You
can take my yacht or take my car because they
(44:18):
don't have time to drive them. They're time to use
it because they're they're off fulfilling commitments. A lot of
my stuff sits in the garage. I love racing. Anybody
knows me. I love driving race cars. If I can
get there one day a month, two days a month,
my god, that's a treat. But I do that after
the work, after the work. At some point I'll be
(44:41):
able to enjoy this much more time. But at the moment,
I'm in the venue, and capitalism is a gladiator sport.
If I don't take the seat, somebody will take it
from me. And if I'm not keep it continuing to learn,
somebody's going to clock me because they've been learning while
I was out flossing, which is not going to happen
to me, by the way I may go out and
(45:02):
not going out that way. You want to be Netflix,
not Blockbuster. You want to be Walmart, Amazon, not Sears
or Macy's or not Mason. Sorry, seers are Macy's is
still with us and still thriving. Actually seers are Kmart
or J C. Pennies which is still hanging on, which
(45:23):
just barely. But you get my point. Are we projecting
or are we building? Here's my question to you. Are
we investing or are we spending there's a difference. I
think I'm investing my time. I might be wasting my
time if people are not getting them INMO. That's what
(45:45):
frustrated me about the comments. I was taking my time
to try to answer what I thought was an intelligent
set of questions, having a truly robust discussion, and folks
just want to say something they think it's funny or cool,
which meant that that just wasted my entire air time.
It didn't offend me because not one of that, not
none of that affects my self esteem and my belief
in my one ounce of my life. It just wasted
(46:07):
my time. I want to encourage humility, mentorship, and patience. Again.
I've followed my leaders, people who I who I have
great relationships today. I follow them one year, two years,
I emails occasional meetings, you know, two years, ten years. Right.
I invested in them so they would invest, so they
(46:28):
would see the investment back in meeting that was worthwhile.
But I always made sure my signature was listening more
than I talked. Here's a call to action for you.
Audit your finances and audit your time, and audit your environment.
If you hang around nine bro people you're going to
be the tenth at around nine loud people, You're going
to be the tenth. You hang around my nine bochous people,
(46:49):
my nine arrogant folks. We confuse confidence with arrogance because
we don't see a lot of confidence. Confidences not boastful,
it's not. That's not confidence. That is arrogance, and arrogance
is tied to insecurity. When you're confident, you you're competent.
There's no need to scream and holler. Your work speaks
for yourself, for yours, for yourself, and for what you're building.
(47:14):
It speaks for your work, is your brand. If your
wealth is in your closet or your car, you're living bravado.
You can't fake wisdom, real folks, we'll see you coming.
You can't fake wealth. Build both the right way. And
(47:38):
if you have some money left over from your first budget,
which is your living budget and your teching budget, with
your investment budget, and you got it in the room
in your third budget, which is your flossing and enjoyment budget,
God bless you. Go least that ferrari or buy it.
Go take on your vacation. Go go. I have a
nice watch. I've got I've got nice things right, but
make sure you're taking it from the right pocket and
(48:02):
the right pool, and don't be a fool. So this
has been hopefully helpful to you that mindset is more
valuable than money. Mindset actually is wealth. That you can
(48:26):
be educated, but that doesn't mean you have wisdom. You
can win the battle, but you may not be winning
the war. You may be stepping in mess and not
stepping over it. If you do this wrong, somebody's gonna
tell you then let the doorknot hit you where the
dog should have bit you. If you do this wrong,
(48:47):
you may be stepping on the toe of somebody who's
rear and you've got to kiss a little later. If
you do this wrong, you've made the cast which you
didn't build a wealth. If you do this wrong, you've
built you burn the bridge that you got to cross
over later. If you do this wrong, nobody's going to
care when you find out that you're out of air.
(49:12):
I want you to win. I want those you know
to win. If you know somebody, this doesn't relate to you.
Your mindset's right, tight and full of light. But you
know somebody needs to listen to this message. Share this
podcast with them, ask them to subscribe because I'm this
is my ministry of finance every week. No one else
(49:34):
is going to talk to you like this. They don't
want to hurt your feelings. They don't want you to
turn away from them. I care about you enough to
tell you the truth, and the truth is that I
can't guarantee you that being positive is going to make
you a success, but I absolutely guarantee you that being
negative and rude and nasty and arrogant is going to
(49:56):
make you fail. No one wants to be bothered with
all that drama. No one wants to hear all of that.
It sounds cool, but you look like a fool. Real
success whispers. This is John O'Brien. This is Money and Wealth.
This is a Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio. This has
(50:18):
been another episode of season two in my growing library
of success formulas for you. Let me know when you
see me around what you want me to talk about,
and I will make sure to put it in a
rotation for the information. This is John O'Brien investing in you.
(50:42):
See you at the success table, I'll make sure I
save a seat just for you. Money and Wealth with
(51:05):
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 in Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Yo Yo,
this is John O'Brien and this is the Money and
Wealth podcast series, season two. And this is a gut
(00:21):
check episode. This is out of sequence. I didn't mean
or intend to do this episode at this time. I
would like to think that this episode is not actually necessary,
but something has happened in the last week or so
that it's caused me to think and to feel, yes,
(00:46):
to feel deeply that I need to double back and
relay the foundation for this house before we start talking
about building a business and building and buying a house
and and you know, buying assets and what it is
(01:06):
and what is that and talking about you know, all
these exciting topics that I have coming up, family offices,
et cetera. We've got to make sure we're not rearranging
the deck chairs on the Titanic. This episode just might
upset a few people, because I'm coming right at you.
I carry you, and I care about you enough to
tell you the truth. And I rather you respect me
(01:28):
and learn to like me than like me and never
respect me. And I wouldn't respect myself if I didn't
tell you what I believe is the hard earned truth
about success and about failure. There's a lot of attitude
out here, and I hate to have to point out
(01:52):
a group, but it is overwhelmingly coming from a group
I absolutely am rooting for that I want to win desperately, Millennials.
The comments that I am reading are on the one hand,
(02:17):
inspiring because they're very ambitious, and on the other hand,
extremely troubling because they're overconfident for no good reason. And
God gave you two ears, all of us, including myself,
two ears in one mouth, so we listen twice as
much as we talk. Quincy Jones, God rest his soul.
(02:39):
How'd you get so smart? John? I'm just nosy as hell.
I want to know everything about everything. I look at
the success that I've had a lot of it has
to do with me being nosy, of being curious, of
(03:00):
literally seeking out success stories the best in the game.
This is way before social media, digital media, so you
have to do it the hard way. You had to
meet somebody somewhere and decide whether to talk or to listen.
(03:21):
If you can meet them somewhere, I mean you can
meet this generation can meet anybody theoretically online, no matter
how big the star is or how influential or wealthy
or successful, if they're online, you can get a comment
to them or a message to them. Heck, I'm reading
(03:42):
your comments. That's why I'm doing this episode. So you
can reach me. You are reaching me if you see
me commenting on particularly Instagram. I try to get to
all the platforms Facebook, etc. Threads, etc. But if you
see me commenting, or you see somebody comming in my name,
that's me. And typically I love the common section. I
(04:04):
live for the common section because that's an opportunity to
have a subtopic conversation, another opportunity to educate and to
grow a couple posts that I put out, and I
don't talk unless I know what I'm talking about. If
it's about health and wellness, I don't know a thing
about that. I go to my wife, Shaeitra. If it's
(04:26):
about spirituality, even though I think I'm deeply spiritual, I
don't know a thing about religion and deep deep spirituality.
I go to Ambassador Andrew Young, Reverend doctor Cecil Chip
Murray raised me. But I don't know a thing about
this topic. I go to the Hero the iconic person
in my life Ambassador Reverend doctor Ambassador Andrew Young, who's
(04:51):
on that balcony with doctor Kingen he was assassinated, but
also is a minister who marries and councils and knows
the Bible inside out. I go to Bishop TD Jakes
who's a friend also, and Reverend Dwight Andrews First Church,
(05:13):
where I just spoke this Sunday, where they're trustees. Sunday.
I go to people who are experts in their area.
If it's entertainment, if it's music, I go to my
brother Ti or Killer Mike. When the area is political,
(05:33):
there are you know why range of folks I go
to and I listen. Even though I was a presidential
advisor for three different administrations from both parties and recognized
by five you as presidents, I've known nine you as presidents.
But I am not political, so I don't presume that
I have the answers there either. I call my head
(05:53):
of government relations in public Policy all the time, Jenney Roscoe,
asking questions. I've succeeded on a grand level by anybody's definition,
so I'm told, but I have four hundred employees, not
(06:13):
four thousand, not forty thousand, not four hundred thousand. So
if I'm going to get to four thousand or forty
thousand or four hundred thousand employees, I'm currently a four hundred.
I need to talk to my fortune five hundred friends
and ask questions and shut up and be curious and
(06:39):
not just hear them, but listen, truly listen. I'm not
hearing the silence of listening. I'm hearing hearing to respond,
or worse, hearing to react, waiting, worse, waiting for one's
turn to talk. Wealth is a mindset, Please hear me.
(07:04):
Money can be made on labor, for sure, money has
been made on labor. But money makes more money on
money than money will ever make on labor. And technology
will follow after that. But the overarching, overarching component of wealth,
and you want to come from the latter work capitalism
(07:25):
or copy toss copy toss copy TOAs is Latin for
knowledge in the head lucy translated. That's also really about learning,
and so when you stop learning, you start losing. You're
rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic. The ship is sinking,
but we're picking drapes. And there was a couple times
(07:52):
where again I love a very interesting debate and discussion.
But there was one post where I talked about the
difference between poor neighborhoods and unfortunately a large number of
black and brown neighborhoods are poor, and I grew up
in one, so I have credibility to say it. They're
poor white neighborhoods that are poor. Clearly, they're more poor
(08:14):
Whites and America than poor anybody else goes without saying
anybody knows their facts, but this is these are neighborhoods
that I grew up in. I was concerned about these neighborhoods,
and I was complementing the black community in brown community
for most of this post. But I started out by
saying that black and brown in poor neighborhoods tend to
be noisy urban neighborhoods, and wealthy neighborhoods tend to be quiet.
(08:35):
Didn't mention the race. And clearly they are black neighborhoods
that are that are wealthy. I've lived in many. We
all know them. The emotionalism in the comments about that
there were people were triggered by the fact that there's
some inference that I don't know what the inference was.
I didn't say it because I didn't say it, but
black in brown neighborhoods were only noisy. That was not
(08:58):
the point at all. That's not what I said. It's
not what I meant. Anybody knows me, knows that what
I meant it was, and smart people in the comments
would correct the others. Look, you guys are missing the
point all together. I mean, statistically, half of hate to
say it, behalf of black communities have a credit score
below six twenty. That's that's just a fact. So that
(09:20):
means that the majority of our communities can't get access
to prime credit. Now, you can call that what you want,
but it's not a prime rate community and probably is
a poor community. If you live in a five hundred
and six hundred credit score neighborhood, you seeing a check
casher and next to a pati loan lender, next to
a rental own store, next to a title lender, next
to a liquor store, next to a pawn shop. Okay,
that's gonna be a lot of noise physical. But what
(09:42):
I'm really talking about is mindset, right, mindset. People missing
them all together because they're so busy winning the battle,
win the battle, you lose the war. You're picking up
stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime, and
we got to knock this off. There are people coming
(10:04):
from completely separate disciplines. I'm a businessman, right, I'm talking
about the investments I'm talking about I was literally talking about.
I walked through like consciously oblivious of most things around
me because it doesn't matter. I'm just quiet in the head.
And while it is symbolic, a symbolic truth that poor neighborhoods,
(10:29):
be they poor, white, rural, or black and brown and urban,
that these neighborhoods tend to be louder and noisier. It's
just a lot of stuff going on. People, aren't You
aren't building your own business. Typically you're working somebody else's
and you're entertaining yourself to keep yourself away from the stress.
And you've got a surviving mindset, a surviving mindset. It's
(10:52):
different from a winning mindset or a building mindset. So
having mindsets just trade and tende, trade and drama and emotions.
It's not an opinion, and it's just a fact. The
fact that folks could not even get beyond that to
get to the point to talk about through what I
was really talking about, which is you can live in
(11:12):
these neighborhoods as I did, as my friends did, and
still walk through it with a clear, quiet mind. Because
you cannot create symphonies, you cannot create beautiful music. When
Quncy Jones went into the studio, the noise had to
stop so the music would began, so he could hear
(11:37):
at some point in order to create genius, in order
to create a business, in order to do a budget,
in order to have a serious conversation, or you need
to think, you need time to reflect, You need to
quiet the noise. All a patterns is a monetized idea.
(11:57):
You need a space and a place to create eight.
The idea ideas are not created in noisy environments. There's
too much of us. There's too many things competing for
your focus. There's no time, space, or place for the
magic of creation. We never got to that conversation. Let's
(12:18):
fast forward beyond that. As another brother who was referred
to me by a very big celebrity. I don't want
to name names, but the celebrity said, you should speak
to John O'Brien and before that guy could be before
that gentleman who's a young man who brags about making
seven and eight figures. If you're making that kind of money,
(12:38):
you tend to not brag about it, by the way.
But I'll get to this in a moment. That guy
just starts going off about he's got this paper, he's
making seven figures, eight figures, he's doing cryptocurrency, he's doing stocks.
He he don't have time for talking to older dudes
and listening to them talk about boring businesses in real
(12:59):
estate takes too long. And even though he says he
owns real estate's complete contradiction. But he didn't ask me
a question. He didn't even know who I was. He
was too busy talking. I'm not concerned about me. I'm
concerned about him, because, yes, anybody can make money in
a moment for a minute, but if you go far
(13:19):
enough for the north Pole, you end up south. I
love you enough to tell you the truth. Sometimes you
need to just shut up. You just need to shut
your mouth and listen to somebody who's done it. Not
only have I am I one of the I think
top one two percent of all African American business people
who own who have a payroll of over a million
(13:42):
dollars every two weeks, a million a half almost two
million dollars every two weeks, four hundred employees full time.
But it built it from nothing, literally, from nothing to something.
It's the largest black male founded community based nonprofit new
US history. That's just my philanthropy. Not only have I
created these businesses and all this stuff, like the stuff
(14:03):
she'd sort of speak for itself, credentials. I mean that
alone should tell you to be quiet and listen, at
least in this space where I am noteworthy and this
person doesn't. I mean, if people are talking to me
don't have employees, they're confusing busyness with business. You can
(14:23):
be a wonderful self employment project. You can be a
personal services contract genius and have yourself and three contractors
and you're making seven figures. But riches is a contract,
so you're gonna make money, and God bless you. But
unless you're building wealth, what you do in your sleep,
what you need compounding for, which is infrastructure scale systems.
(14:45):
Just between a hustler, I said, this is my last podcast,
and a business person is paperwork. Okay, the paperwork takes time,
it takes patience, it takes details. Right, you can't learn
when you're talking. When you're running your mouth, we need
(15:10):
to knock it off and listen. I don't care how
much intelligence you have, That doesn't mean you have wisdom.
Wisdom comes with time, experiences, in years, it comes with bruises.
You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first. It's
a scientific fact that you cannot have a rainbow without
a storm. First. Success is going from failure to failure
(15:32):
without loss of enthusiasm. When I was coming up, I
wanted to meet two successful business people. It was Quincy
Jones and Ambassador Andrew Young. These I wanted to be international,
and the only two people I knew who were international
were these two people, to these two black men, And
so I just went about trying to meet them. And
it took me ten years to get Ambassador Young's attention,
(15:53):
and I literally chased him all around the country in
the world. I'd find out where he was speaking. I
would buy a plane ticket, out, buy an event ticket
I'd buy, I'd get an hotel room, I'd show up
and I would just try to get his attention. But
I would listen to the speech in the midst of
all that, And for ten years he would be gracious
to me, but he basically ignored me as he had
(16:15):
a right to do. He didn't know me from a
hillo Beans, but I knew he was the best in
the business in what he did. Quincy Jones, I wanted
to meet Quincy Jones didn't know I was going to
meet him. There was no social media back then, and
so I made I took a consulting contract a retainer
(16:36):
that I had for a thousand dollars. He was holding
a fundraiser at his house for a congresswoman. Congressmen Woman
we Needham and Linda mcdonnald got rest of his soul
who represented a district in south central La Compton, I
believe Watts and I bought up a ticket event ticket,
went to his house in bel Air. It was bel Air,
and got to meet Quincy Jones and we became dear friends.
(17:01):
But I invested in these relationships. When I was with
my first conversation with Quincy, I mostly listened. He talked
for four or five hours, just pouring into me. When
I met. When I finally got in bassilor Jung's attention,
we talked for four or five hours, but I mostly listened.
I talked Ambassador Young earlier tonight we've been now, dear friends,
(17:25):
I'm like a surrogate son. I'm told i've known him now,
I had a great relationship for twenty years. I still
today shut up and listen because what he has done.
I can't hold a candle to He's the best. He's
the closest thing to Nelson Mandela we have in the
world today. I can't compete with that. DOT wouldn't want to.
(17:46):
What I need to do is shut up. So we're
confusing bravado with confidence, we're convincing. We're confusing arrogance with
self esteem. We're confusing loudness with strength. When you got
the power, you don't need to use it. I don't
(18:07):
need to scream and holler. If I want to profile,
I guess I can hit you with my American Express
black heart, knock you out. But I don't even need
to do that. When you've got the power, you don't
need to use it. So I'm trying to give you
a message before it's too late. And it's not just
from millennials. These are for anybody who is too insecure
(18:29):
to acknowledge that you might be a little insecure. Like
my number one trade is I'm just reasonably comfortable in
my own skin. No one's comfortable in their own skin.
That's a lie. Anybody who says that or believes that
is just lying to you and lying to themselves. We're
all a little insecure. I'm insecure. Part of our success.
We get up with reason, we get up early, to
stay up late and work hard. Is a little insecurity
(18:50):
in our system. A little insecurity, A little fear is healthy.
Is why you run away from a bear, right. It
is what God put in you to have a proper
amount of fear at the appropriate time. God didn't put
a mouth lips on both sides of your head, He
put ears one mouth. So one of the reasons I'm
(19:11):
troubled is that there are people who excuse me for
being blunt. Just might be absolutely broke, but certainly are
struggling and striving. I just look at their profile because
I take the time and don't want to assume who
are on my page. This is my trade talk Live,
not the podcast. Obviously on my pages for social media
(19:32):
because I believe they want to learn about what it is.
I'm an expert, and I'm the guy who me and
my organizations who are responsible for financial literacy becoming the
policy of the US federal government. Me right, I've served
three US presidents. I've been in the Treasury Department, the
US Treasury Department, that's where I counseled, the White House
(19:53):
and the Treasury Department. I've been in this game for
a long time. I've built I've invested four point eight
billion dollars billion. Okay, my payroll is a couple of
million dollars just under that. Every two weeks, just the payroll,
and I'm up from nothing. No one gave me anything.
So I'm stunned that people are talking when they should
(20:16):
be listening and competing with me for opinion on a
topic that I think I'm pretty clear on. If you
are to compete with me, at least bring receipts. At
least I can respect that. But it is so obvious
that it's emotionalism and insecurity and vanity. But worse, there's
something about what's going on now where people actually, unfortunately
(20:40):
think because I guess you can comment with anybody. The
level of plans was level with digital media. Anybody can
talk to anybody, So maybe you think maybe anybody can
think they can be anybody without the work and let
me tell you that's wrong. Please hear me. Only in
the dictionary does the word success come before the word work,
(21:00):
because it's alphabetical. If you don't learn this lesson, whoever
you happen to be, you're going to fail. If you
don't shut up and listen, you're going to fail. You
may win the battle, but you're going to lose the war.
At some point. The money's going to run out, the
lights are going to turn off, the social media is
(21:21):
going to turn to somebody else or a morph into
something else with AI who knows. But this game we're
playing is going to be over because the fundamentals of
success are basically the same. They have it changed in ages,
and I'm trying to break them down for you, and
I'm doing it for free. Right, it's free game. As
(21:42):
Jay Z said on his four four four album, which
is a financial literacy album. In my opinion, I'm trying
to give you a million dollars worth a game for
nine ninety nine. I'm giving it to you for none
ninety nine. So let's get into some fundamentals. Right. There's
a difference between looking successful and being successful. So there
(22:06):
is there are too many people, particularly young people who
confused ego, arrogance, and even raw intelligence. Very smart people
out of here. I mean, there's not many dummies I
see in these comments. These people are really smart, but
they confuse that with wisdom, resilience and hard work. You see,
(22:27):
it's hard to compete with me because I've been homeless.
I've lost it all. I almost filed bankruptcy. I've written
one hundred thousand dollars check and given it to my
chief of staff and said if the income does not
revenue does not come in by This was Friday on Monday,
when payroll hits cash my check. That was back when
payroll for me was one hundred thousand dollars. I've slept
(22:47):
in my office. I never got a payroll. I never
had a fancy car, well, at least not at that time.
I remember my car that was forty twenty seven dollars
a month. For a long time, I didn't have a
fancy place to live. I mean, my god, even think
about this. I've been in business now for forty years ish,
(23:12):
thirty years of founding five, founding Operation Hope. I think
my first fancy house was fifteen years ago. Quasi fancy,
really fancy you know, seven years ago something like that.
(23:32):
Fancy cars, same thing. But I've been at this game
most of my life. I've been at this game most
longer than the folks who are in the comments, many
of them have been alive. I can believe I'm saying
that I feel forever young. But that is a that
is that you know, you hear your parents saying that. Here,
your uncle saying that. I never thought i'd say it,
but that is the true. And my uncle used to
(23:53):
tell me. My older folks would tell me to say
shut up and listen. Right. Do you know my I
could not have given my I couldn't give my John
O'Brien of twenty twenty could not give John O'Brien of
twenty twenty five advice. I'm not picking on you. I'm
(24:13):
trying to save you time, space and inconvenience. I'm trying
to make sure you don't trip and fail because this
world doesn't care about you. It's not about lover or hate. Today.
That was the old game. Today is increasingly radical indifference.
People who don't care enough about you to hate you. Rather,
they'd like you to fail, they'd like you to move aside.
(24:36):
They don't mind you playing in your ego and your drama.
And do you know the seventy six percent of all
luxury goods are bought by poor and struggling people, not
by the wealthy. They'd love you to buy all this
stuff and spend all your time going to clubs and
passing around business cards at two in the morning, where
you should be at home, studying, trying to impress somebody.
I don't know what you're trying to do leasing a car,
(24:57):
leasing an apartment, or or tipping over tipping the doorman,
or or buying a first class plane ticket to Paris
when you should when you you should be flying coach
to Detroit to try to get a contract or whatever
the deal is, you know, trying to floss with friends,
or or all these folks who are flying at different
places just when you get an Instagram photo. I don't
(25:18):
know what people are doing, but you're wasting time, and
all you really have is your time. You can mess
with my money, you can't mess with my time. I'm
ruthless about my time. You cannot waste my time. And
part of why I'm doing this table setting podcast episode
(25:38):
this one is I want to make sure that I'm
not wasting my time and wasting your time by giving
you the tools but not telling you what talents you
need to focus on. So it is the wisdom which
comes with time and experiences. It is the resilience. It
is taking no Forrovidemen is shaking things off. It's moving on,
(26:02):
getting through it, around it, to it, to get to it.
It's not talking bad. It's being bad. And being bad
is not loud. It's not punch it's not punching your chest.
It's not banging on your chest. It's not popping your collar.
It's popping payroll. It's paying your vendors on time. It's
getting multi year contracts. It's getting intellectual property rights in
(26:25):
your name. It's getting real estate in your portfolio. It's
owning patterns. It's having a business with employees. It's having
a business with a brand. It's showing up time for
showing up on time for meeting or letting people know
within fifteen minutes you'll be there. So it's not to
(26:45):
be disrespectful. It's listening to people who've made it out
of respect and regard, if nothing else, because you never
know who you're going to meet them on the playing
field of success. Be careful that toe you step on.
It maybe connected to the rear end. You've got to
kiss tom mark and keep in mind, truly successful people
don't need you. I don't need to do this right.
(27:08):
So do I remember people who were disrespectful to me?
You bet? I do? Do I make them pay a price? Nope?
But will I give them the time of day? Probably not. Again,
it's radical indifference. You need people to root for you.
You need people to be invested in you, which means
you need to be investable. Wisdom, resilience, hard work, basic stuff. Humility,
(27:37):
somebody said, people talking about humility. No, No, it's forgets
he being humility. We need to be loud and boastful, boteful, wasteful.
I don't know where people are getting this crazy stuff from.
Where in God's name is humility not an asset. I
may not be humble when I talk about my vision
and my ideas. I'm very bold about that, but I
have a humility about how I receive information and insights.
(28:03):
Can we disagree without being disagreeable? I'm not going to
reject a possible lesson on his face. You may say
ten minutes of discussion to me. If you're successful and
I may disagree with a lot of it. I might
disagree in part because I've never been to where you are,
and so I just have no context and already come
with an opinion. But there may be one little nugget
(28:23):
in there that made the whole conversation worthwhile. I need
to shut up and listen. Maybe this podcast, the episode
should be called shut up and Listen. So let's now
move to the mask of bravado. Surface level confidence is bravado.
Showing off is bravado. Looking rich is bravado. I don't
(28:47):
care about your chains, real or fake. I don't care
about the car you're driving. I don't care about the
house you're leasing or by whatever that you're in. I
don't care about all this stuff and all this this is,
this is, none of that matters. I care about your
balance sheet, your income statement. I care about your credit rating,
(29:07):
whether you pay your bills again, whether you're whether you
have institutional credit access as I do. I've done a
tunity of million dollar credit facility. Have you not you you,
but you know without a personal guarantee. I have unsecured
lines of credit for seven figures that get renewed repeatedly.
(29:34):
I pay my bills on time. I have an organization
as a four star Charity Navigator rating. That's my organization,
Operation Hope, which is like I've done in Bradstreet tripled
a bond rating. If you check the credit of my businesses,
all of them which there which are transparently available, you
see that we run an honorable enterprise. You go Teck
(29:55):
to check the Better Business Bureau and they have things
to say about how we do business. These are the
things that you want on your record, not an Instagram
post of you profiling for the record. Social media culture
is over indexing on designer clothes, least cars, fake luxury lifestyles,
(30:20):
posting a vacation on credit cards versus building a savings account.
It's not smart. Do you know what if you take
two hundred dollars a month for thirty five or forty years,
just that alone will make you a millionaire, just that
act alon. Imagine what we waste on stuff. It's not
(30:41):
about what you make, it's about what you keep. There's
one for you. You make money during the day, you
build was in your sleep. There's another one for you. Right,
you want boring businesses, Right, you want boring business advisors?
You don't want people going to the club with you
and going to want to hang out with you, and
they're your business advisors, They're going to rob you blind.
That's the last thing you wanted your boys who are
(31:02):
handling your money and your business hanging out with you.
If you are one to hang out. I was always
the one who hung in by the way when I
was coming up in business. This is a very interesting
point my boys, my friends growing up. This is why
I'm so I'm so strong on this right because I've
been to this I've been to this game before, I've
been to this party before, I've read this memo before.
(31:24):
All of my friends told me I was wasting my
time studying. They told me, is wasting my time working,
staying at home. Come out and hang with them. They'd say,
go have fun, be visible. I was like, that's cool,
go and do that. I mean, I have no I'm
not hating on your game. To go enjoy yourself fantastic.
I mean, I had no opinion about what they were doing.
(31:45):
Is knew what I was doing. Working from can't see
in the morning, I can't see at night. An entrepreneur
works eighteen hours day to keep him getting a job.
All I know is today, including a call I got
to say afternoon, These same people are calling out ask
me for a job or for contract, are mad at
me because they don't have either from me. You had
(32:07):
the same option I had. You chose them to invest
your time or use your time elsewhere, and you thought
you knew better than me. God bless you, fantastic, But
that didn't work out so well? So did it? Like
literally my folks who I grew up with, the folks
who just chose a different path, and I'm talking about here,
literally all of them, if they're still with us, A
(32:31):
lot of it is prison, probation, parole, unfortunately, and death.
As people know my story know the two people before
I was even nine years old close to me were
murdered right in front of me. But the rest of
them are just struggling. And while I'm writing checks, they're
trying to find someplace to cash when they're trying to
get a job. There's nothing wrong with a job, but
(32:52):
I think that in many ways they're smarter than me.
They were smarter than me, they had more intelligent than me,
but they didn't hustle better than me, they didn't study
better than me. They didn't get their put their head
down more than me. They weren't more resilient than me.
They weren't more consistent than me. I do the same
thing over and over and over and over again. That
is compounding. That's if you don't have inheritance in money,
(33:13):
you should have inheritance as in hustle and hustle on
the hustle creates more hustle. That plus organization in paperwork
creates a businessman or a business woman. Can I get
an amen? Bravado is buying liabilities to impress. Real confidence
(33:36):
is building assets to sustain. Good debt is tied to
something that could rise in acid value. Bad debt is
tied financing something that decreases in acid value, like financing
jewelry or whatever, or a lease for a Lamborghini you
can't afford, or whatever. The substance of confidence real confidence
(33:59):
is competence plus consistency plus humility. I would add also
self esteem, true self esteem. If I don't like me,
I'm not gonna like you. If I don't feel good
about me, I'm not gonna feel good about you. If I
don't love me, I can't love you. If I don't
respect me, I'm a clue how to respect you. If
I don't have a purpose in my life, I'll make
your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around.
(34:20):
So you can have hot you can have high confidence
and still have low self esteem. If you have low
self esteem, you to make the wrong choices, and you're
gonna start making emotional decisions. And I guarantee you that
every emotional decision is going to be a bad one. See,
you're getting real. Everybody listening to this podcast is getting
the benefits of the frustration that someone delivered to my
(34:40):
digital door this week. So please take it all in.
I'm giving you crib notes shortthand for success, so you
walk right around the stuff that just does not work.
I'm telling you this stuff will not work. I'm banking
my whole net worth and reputation on it. If I'm wrong,
don't listen to me another day. Right, But success is
(35:04):
pretty obvious, and so is failure. Wisdom equals time plus
scars plus reflection, rainbows after storms. How could you possibly
have wisdom at twenty five years of age? You have intelligence,
but you don't have the experiences. I was homeless at eighteens.
(35:25):
That didn't mean I had wisdom by twenty five. See
what I'm saying. I had a hustle, I had hard work.
I was smart, but I didn't have I mean the
stuff that I know now, Oh my god, the people
who I spent time trying to impress who I now
upon reflection, I didn't want to be like, oh my god,
I just wish I could go back and tell my
eighteen year old self by twenty five year old self,
(35:45):
my thirty year old self to knock it off. Stop
trying and impress somebody. You don't want to be like,
here's the financial layer. Here's I want to make smart sexy.
Here's here's sexy. A seven of the credit score. That's quiet,
confidence and open doors. A savings cushion, that's peace of mind.
It's not a flex investing monthly. That's discipline that builds freedom.
(36:11):
And I mean, you can invest. You can invest twenty
five dollars in a fractional investment account, don't have to
be big dollars. You can save fifty to one hundred bucks,
right And I just told you. You do that repeatedly, compounding,
you'll be a millionaire by time you're at age for retirement.
Confidence is when your bank statement speaks louder than your Instagram. Hello,
can I get an amen? The trap for millennials. This
(36:37):
is why this generation is vulnerable. I've already said you're brilliant,
but this is why you're vulnerable. Social media pressure to
be big by thirty. Just forget about it. Knock it off.
You'll lift a ninety or a hundred years of age
if you take care of yourself. This is a rounding error,
don't you know? Thirty is just the first leg of
(37:00):
the marathon, and you should be trying to get bass
and butts and not a home run. Hank Aaron had
record for the most home runs, but he also had
the record for the most strikeouts. So did my friend
Reggie Jackson. I knew Hank Aaron and Reggie Jackson. Reggie
still with us and is a great businessman, and believe me,
he'd be saying amen on all I'm talking about about
what really sustains the work. I mean, my man Alice
(37:22):
Rodriguez would say the same thing. He had a bunch
of strikeouts. But people don't only focus on the home runs.
The flashy part. Student debt plus rising living costs is
a vulnerability. Even though I think student loan debt if
you get your degree, could be could be an asset.
So I'm not hating on that, but I'm just saying
(37:42):
these are vulnerabilities that I didn't have in my generation
growing up, confusing intelligence, smart ideas with wisdom, proven decisions.
Please write that down, go back and listen to this
part again with somebody you love. Here's some stats for you.
Average first time millionaire a each fifty seven. That's a
sustainable millionaire. Anybody can make money for a minute, you
(38:05):
can make it three, four or five years later. It's gone.
Seventy percent of all professional athletes bankrupt in five years.
Seventy percent of all those win the lottery. As far
as farther concerned, if you're doing crypto trading or you're
doing I have no problem with crypto. I'm I'm just
saying this is this is literally true because most crypto
currencies failed, by the way. But if you're a future
(38:28):
you're you're an option's future trade you aah, you're a
day trader whatever. Okay, you're you're trying to make quick
money whatever. How are you trying to However, you're trying
to do it right. You just want it now. The
chance of you being bankrupt are broke in five to
ten years is about seventy percent because you don't have
the discipline, and because there is no if if you
(38:49):
find a free lunch, it's probably stale. Again. Success only
becomes before the work, work, because it's alphab because in
the dictionary, because it's alphabetical. Every place else is just
the work. And it takes twenty years to change a culture,
including your own, to build a culture. That's Quincy Jones quote, right.
But folks don't want to wait twenty years. They want
it in two years. Well, you can get something in
(39:10):
two years, but it may not be sustainable. You may
re rearranging the deck chairs and the Titanic, but it's blinging, singing,
and people to tell you what you want to hear.
And you think that what you're doing right now is
going to last. Don't believe what I'm saying. Investigating for yourself.
First generation makes it, second generation spends it. Third generation
(39:30):
loses it because the second generation didn't learn the lessons
of the second and the third generation just thought it
was going to last forever. And if you made the
money and you didn't have hurt or pain tied to it.
You think that it's here forever, that you don't have
to work hard for it, and you give it away easy.
(39:52):
I'm not giving away ten thousand dollars. I know what
ten dollars. I'm not giving away two thousand dollars, and
I can afford both easily. I'm not giving away at
dime right, I still pick up a dime by seat
on the ground. By the way, when I ran a business,
multi multi business, I sold for one hundred and twenty
million dollars. Actually my partners had wired me in this example.
(40:16):
I don't want to say exactly that much, but it
was tens of millions of dollars. Do you know they
never asked me for a financial statement or not audit.
I didn't want anyway, and gave it to them. But
they just knew I wasn't going to go rent a limousine.
They knew I wasn't going to go do five star
hotels with penthouse suites with their money. They knew I
wasn't going to rent a jet or LEAs a jet,
(40:38):
or do net jets or trying to plot. They knew
I was flying at most business class, but it really
had fly coach and get upgraded. They knew I was
going to treat them money like it was mine, with humility.
The average millionaire, first time millionaire, fifty seven years of age.
(40:59):
Most overnight success, It's took fifteen to fifteen years of
grinding to get there. And every legitimate millionaire, a real one,
has real estate, boring real estate in their portfolio. The
path to real success keys to move from bravado to
true confidence hard work, show up every day. It's not
(41:22):
in late, long lunch, leave early, show up early, stay
late and forget a break. Resilience fail, learn, keep moving,
rent and repeat wisdom, Learn from mentors, mistakes and time. Purpose.
(41:42):
Anchor in something bigger than your ego. I cannot stress
that enough. Folks I see coming with me with ego
and all that drama, I would never invest in them.
I wouldn't tell them. I don't want to fight, I
don't want an argument. I just keep it moving. Fine.
That works for you. You think that works for you. Great.
There are nobody the biggest, the most successful people. I
(42:04):
don't mean the loudest people. I'm not people. I'm not
people who are rocking in mic. I'm talking about folks
who own the mic. The folks who own the stage,
the folks who own the venues, the folks who own
the licensing rights, the publishing rights, the folks who own
the hotels you have. There's a family that owned the
Four Seasons Hotel on Doheiny. I know the family, the
(42:25):
four Season of Donhee or first hotel on Dolheini in
Los Angeles. I know, I've known the family for thirty years. Now.
You will never not know their name, even though you
know the names of everybody coming through their doors because
they're celebrities. But the celebrities just are renting a room.
This guy owns the room. You have no idea who
he is. That's gangster, right. Well, true wealth is quiet, right,
(42:48):
or it's not intentionally loud. Financial layers start automatic savings.
Confidence in knowing you've, knowing you've you're covered right invests
two hundred three hundars a month early. The boring millionaire
player just told you'll be a millionaire by a sixty five.
Do that two hundred dollars a month. Build a credit
to prime seven hundred credit score, because that's truly gangster.
(43:12):
The computer just says yes at midnight to whatever it
is reasonable you ask for own something, a stock, a home,
a small business, something sustainable, something real, something foundational, something
I don't want to buy. I learned to stop chasing
the appearance of success and start building the infrastructure of success.
What I'm doing now is building economic plumbing for an
(43:35):
entire group of people, everybody who's struggling. That's why I
have fifteen hundred offices, fifteen hundred offices in forty two states.
Nobody has infrastructure like that serving the people who are
trying to come up. No one right. I've done that
by grinding, by working, by having my head down. And
that's a seventy five million dollars a year plus budget.
(43:57):
That's just one organization, not the other. There four divisions
that I have through John O'Brien Enterprises. And my wife
will tell you all I do is work, and I
love it. It's not work for me. I enjoy it.
But a lot of my friends who have the yachts
and the this and the that, they'll tell me, John, here,
that's throw me the keys. You can hear it. You
can take my yacht or take my car because they
(44:18):
don't have time to drive them. They're time to use
it because they're they're off fulfilling commitments. A lot of
my stuff sits in the garage. I love racing. Anybody
knows me. I love driving race cars. If I can
get there one day a month, two days a month,
my god, that's a treat. But I do that after
the work, after the work. At some point I'll be
(44:41):
able to enjoy this much more time. But at the moment,
I'm in the venue, and capitalism is a gladiator sport.
If I don't take the seat, somebody will take it
from me. And if I'm not keep it continuing to learn,
somebody's going to clock me because they've been learning while
I was out flossing, which is not going to happen
to me, by the way I may go out and
(45:02):
not going out that way. You want to be Netflix,
not Blockbuster. You want to be Walmart, Amazon, not Sears
or Macy's or not Mason. Sorry, seers are Macy's is
still with us and still thriving. Actually seers are Kmart
or J C. Pennies which is still hanging on, which
(45:23):
just barely. But you get my point. Are we projecting
or are we building? Here's my question to you. Are
we investing or are we spending there's a difference. I
think I'm investing my time. I might be wasting my
time if people are not getting them INMO. That's what
(45:45):
frustrated me about the comments. I was taking my time
to try to answer what I thought was an intelligent
set of questions, having a truly robust discussion, and folks
just want to say something they think it's funny or cool,
which meant that that just wasted my entire air time.
It didn't offend me because not one of that, not
none of that affects my self esteem and my belief
in my one ounce of my life. It just wasted
(46:07):
my time. I want to encourage humility, mentorship, and patience. Again.
I've followed my leaders, people who I who I have
great relationships today. I follow them one year, two years,
I emails occasional meetings, you know, two years, ten years. Right.
I invested in them so they would invest, so they
(46:28):
would see the investment back in meeting that was worthwhile.
But I always made sure my signature was listening more
than I talked. Here's a call to action for you.
Audit your finances and audit your time, and audit your environment.
If you hang around nine bro people you're going to
be the tenth at around nine loud people, You're going
to be the tenth. You hang around my nine bochous people,
(46:49):
my nine arrogant folks. We confuse confidence with arrogance because
we don't see a lot of confidence. Confidences not boastful,
it's not. That's not confidence. That is arrogance, and arrogance
is tied to insecurity. When you're confident, you you're competent.
There's no need to scream and holler. Your work speaks
for yourself, for yours, for yourself, and for what you're building.
(47:14):
It speaks for your work, is your brand. If your
wealth is in your closet or your car, you're living bravado.
You can't fake wisdom, real folks, we'll see you coming.
You can't fake wealth. Build both the right way. And
(47:38):
if you have some money left over from your first budget,
which is your living budget and your teching budget, with
your investment budget, and you got it in the room
in your third budget, which is your flossing and enjoyment budget,
God bless you. Go least that ferrari or buy it.
Go take on your vacation. Go go. I have a
nice watch. I've got I've got nice things right, but
make sure you're taking it from the right pocket and
(48:02):
the right pool, and don't be a fool. So this
has been hopefully helpful to you that mindset is more
valuable than money. Mindset actually is wealth. That you can
(48:26):
be educated, but that doesn't mean you have wisdom. You
can win the battle, but you may not be winning
the war. You may be stepping in mess and not
stepping over it. If you do this wrong, somebody's gonna
tell you then let the doorknot hit you where the
dog should have bit you. If you do this wrong,
(48:47):
you may be stepping on the toe of somebody who's
rear and you've got to kiss a little later. If
you do this wrong, you've made the cast which you
didn't build a wealth. If you do this wrong, you've
built you burn the bridge that you got to cross
over later. If you do this wrong, nobody's going to
care when you find out that you're out of air.
(49:12):
I want you to win. I want those you know
to win. If you know somebody, this doesn't relate to you.
Your mindset's right, tight and full of light. But you
know somebody needs to listen to this message. Share this
podcast with them, ask them to subscribe because I'm this
is my ministry of finance every week. No one else
(49:34):
is going to talk to you like this. They don't
want to hurt your feelings. They don't want you to
turn away from them. I care about you enough to
tell you the truth, and the truth is that I
can't guarantee you that being positive is going to make
you a success, but I absolutely guarantee you that being
negative and rude and nasty and arrogant is going to
(49:56):
make you fail. No one wants to be bothered with
all that drama. No one wants to hear all of that.
It sounds cool, but you look like a fool. Real
success whispers. This is John O'Brien. This is Money and Wealth.
This is a Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio. This has
(50:18):
been another episode of season two in my growing library
of success formulas for you. Let me know when you
see me around what you want me to talk about,
and I will make sure to put it in a
rotation for the information. This is John O'Brien investing in you.
(50:42):
See you at the success table, I'll make sure I
save a seat just for you. Money and Wealth with
(51:05):
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
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