June 21, 2022 • 51 mins
Today host Louis Carr speaks with Chris Gardner, American businessman and motivational speaker. Will Smith played Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness, an award-winning picture based off of Chris' book.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Louis Carr, host to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men
something where we have consistently given men a prescription of
cook not just for themselves, but also for their families
and their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and
motivate our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness,
(00:26):
and relationship. How you've been doing. I am out here
questioning it, Lewis. I am absolutely crushing it. And I
gotta say that, Lewis and all sincerity with a fair
amount of balance as well. I'm crushing it, but I'm
being crushed, you know what I mean. So let's let's
(00:47):
talk about that word balance. People define it differently. How
do you define balance? Not having to get up off
the ground. If you didn't fall, you're balanced, right, that's
a great definition, right, If you ain't getting about the ground,
(01:08):
you balanced. You can do like this. It's gonna happen,
Louis right, And for a lot of us, um, we
had this feeling every day. Oh hold up, now take
you know these baby steps, Lewis, Take these baby steps.
I get some traction, you know, I gotta tell you,
(01:31):
Lewis called us all off. God, nobody saw that coming.
I will never forget. The last speech at the Lewis
domestically here in the United States was February twelve. I
was given the opportunity to address the United Nations and look,
(01:53):
I'll tell you something. I tried to play like, Okay,
hey man, it's just another Evan. I mean, you don't
want to get yourself two psyched out Lewis. You know
what I mean. I'm going through this thing in my head. Okay, man,
You're spoken in eighty countries all around the world, government's foundations, institutions.
This is just another event. But let me tell you,
(02:14):
when you walk through that fourth level of security after
United Nations, you're going the front door and there's a
life size statue of Nelson Mandela standing there to greet
you with his hand extended and fresh show. That's when
it hits you. Now, this ain't just another event. This
is a big deal. This is a big deal. The
(02:39):
U n on this date Lewis for the first time
was beginning to ask how could we possibly end global homelessness?
And I got to be the last speaker, and I
won't bore you with all the gory details, but I
will say this. I expressed the concern that we must
(03:01):
expand who is at risk of becoming homeless to include
working women, because the truth of the matter is, we
both know and too many parts of our country women
are still pay substantially less than men for doing the
same job, and in certain parts of our country with
(03:21):
real estate doing what it has done the last few years,
those people know, Lewis, if I lose my job, or
if my husband loses his job, or if there's some
economic gyration someplace that happens around the world that we
had nothing to do with, we are at risk. My point, Lewis,
(03:43):
that was February we talk. COVID was already here. Okay. Now,
while it wasn't initially defined as an economic gyration, is
certainly has had devastating economic impact across the board. So
so so, Chris, I love your definition a balance. Uh.
(04:08):
Your whole brand has been about happiness. When did that
word become a part of the Chris Gardner. We've all
seen the movie The Pursuit of Happiness and Will Smith
played the role of you. We've read your books, but
(04:28):
I've never really known how or when that word entered
your environment, your orbit tell us about that. There was
a daycare, singer Lewis, that was a block away from
the place my son and I finally got to have
a home after a year of living on the streets
(04:50):
train station's bus Tromos Hotel lobbies in the Bay Area.
What year was that, Chris? That was three and they
did spell happiness with a why, and it was right there.
I realized what that why stood for and still stands
for me, that why is there to make us all
(05:12):
mindful that it is you and your responsibility, you and
your opportunity to create the life that you offer you
and your family because the calvalry is not coming. This
is on you, right And I'm comfortable with that, Lewis.
(05:32):
That goes back to that definition of balance we talked about.
I'm comfortable with that because if I'm all, like God,
if I'm all I can count on, I know where
I'm at. So if your balance, are you saying you
can have happiness or if you're not balance, you're unhappy. No,
(05:56):
I'm saying if you're a balance, you can have happiness,
and you can have happiness being unbalanced because it is
a fluid thing, Lewis. You don't just get to a
place called happiness and pull off. There's no exit rap
for that, right. It's all part of this destination, a
part of this road that we're on right now. It
(06:18):
was Bray that big wine in happiness, the big white
and happiness right now means Chris, you are healthy, your
family is healthy. But at the same time, Louis, you
cannot take your eye off the ball for a second.
(06:39):
You cannot let your guard down for a second. The
last thing a referee and a professional prize fight says
to both fighters is protect yourself at all times. That's
where we are right now, Louis. So so you know
the way making brand and it's about educating, motivating and
(07:05):
inspiring people to live their best life in order to
improve their families, their communities, and their country. Yes, sir,
how can balance and happiness play a role in helping
people do that? Let me tell you when I'm doing it.
(07:26):
I was working for me okay, uh, prior to the pandemic,
I was leaving Lewis what I'm comfortable calling my j
f K moments. Tell us about that. I saw some things, Lewis,
and still see some things are our country that concerned me,
(07:47):
particularly around young people. And I will never forget being
in my hometown Lewis, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, standing in front of
the elementary school that I went to when I heard
President and John F. Kennedy asked that question in this
inauguration address, ask not what your country can do for you,
but what you can do for your country? And right
(08:10):
there down the mean, wait a minute, how do we
know the next Chris Gardner, the next Lewis car or
the next Oprah Winfrey is not coming in going out
of the same school doors and public schools all across
our country right now. The truth is, Lewis, they are.
So I was in the process of doing this to
(08:31):
a man, I said, Okay, I'm gonna do a hundred schools.
Let me tell you something. We blew through that number.
We blew through that number, and now we had to
make the hard pitot Lewis from doing everything lies to
doing it virtually. Because we learned in twenty who it
(08:54):
could be in one we get to show who it
can be. I'm on pace right now to speaking of
thousand schools man, all across America, and Chris, what do
you talk to uh, these young people about I talked
to them very specifically, Lewis about the three most important
decisions I ever made in my life, all of which
(09:16):
I made at their age or young girl. And these
young people right now we're having to make some very
important decisions and their lives. Lewis, I talked specifically about
breaking the chain, breaking that cycle and all those that
chain of cycles that have plagued myself. Number one, growing
(09:38):
up a daughter father, I made a commitment I was
going to break that one linked child abandonment. And when
I broke that, when Lake Lewis, all of the other
associated links were instantly shattered, including child abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism, literacy, fear,
and generational poverty. That one decision, Lewis, didn't just change
(10:03):
my life, that changed the lives of my yet to
have been born children and my grandchild. That one decision
had generational impact. Number Two, I made the decision I
was going to become world class that whatever I did
with my life, not good at it, not pretty good
(10:23):
at it, but world class at it. And number three,
I made the decision as a young man that I
was going to do something that was bigger than what
I saw every day. Mm hmmm, Lewis, I wouldn't let
me tell you something. I don't know how much time
(10:44):
we God, but I'm gonna tell you this. I will
never forget going down to the Greyhound bus station downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I got no money, I got no ticket, I can't
go anywhere. But I would sitting to Lewis and I
would see these buses take off, and you know that
the names at the top of the bus the destination
(11:06):
sat Luis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Detroit. And I would sit
there and look at those buses and I'd say, one day, man,
I'm going to all those places. I'm going to all
those places now, Louis, I'm fifteen years old, right bottom line,
I've spoken in over eighty countries and now never forget
(11:30):
it was dr Ogelo I told her that story is
he just says to me, young man, God always has
a bigger plan. You wanted to go to Detroit to
round up and dubai ha uh goods. We'll be right
(11:53):
back with more of my interview after this quick break.
So christ And in these times where we've got COVID nineteen,
we've got social injustice, we've got unemployment, what would you
(12:16):
say to our listening audience as they are trying to
wrestle with one or more of these hurdles. What would
you say, Because you've been there, You've been there. Let
me tell you something. First of all, again, just the
second ago I makes the doctor, I cannot sit here
and not share with you my last conversation with her.
(12:39):
We were talking about struggles, and I will never forget
her saying to me, we have the people for this mountain.
We must all be mindful that there are people who
came before us, who came up a steeper side of
this mountain, carrying a bigger and heavier load, with little
(13:00):
to no opportunity, but they still kept going forward, onward
and upwards. This has been done before. It's just our turn.
This has been done before, Lewis, and it's going to
happen again. We just don't know the name of the
next event. This is going to happen again. So a
(13:21):
bigger question is what did I learn in twenty that
I'm gonna have in my toolbox as I go forward?
Right Lewis, you and I both we can go into
tool box and say, you know what I've dealt with this,
I've seen that. I know how this feels. I got
(13:42):
something in this toolbox that I could pull out right
now that's gonna help me navigate this current situation. And
a lot of us Lewis has some things in our
toolbox that we can reach down, draw down on, and apply.
This is the time to draw down on every loss
(14:05):
you ever took, every fear you ever felt, every thing
that ever hurt you and caused you pain, and say,
you know what, I've done this before. It may not
have been exactly this, I've seen something like this before.
So Chris, I'm gonna throw this word at you. Is
(14:28):
faith sort of closely related to that word happiness. Faith
is everything. Let me tell you something. You can have
faith all the faith in the world. See, now you're
making me think about my mouth. Look, you know, I
(14:49):
don't know if you noticed when you came and came
to my house, but I got with weird houses. You
got to come through the kitchen get an house, and
I don't know how that happened, but that's guess how
it happens. You see, you come in the kitchen. You
see a picture my mother and and Mr Coffee and
we have a cup of coffee every day because that's
what we did at the point of time. That was
(15:10):
the only place in time in the house where we
could have peace in the morning, just me and her.
My point is every day to this day. Now Mama
moved to heaven twenty six years ago, we still have
the same conversation every day, she says, son, did you
do your work, yes, ma'am. Did you pray on it, yes, ma'am.
(15:36):
We'll keep working because God's busy. God got to help.
Somebody needs some help more than you do. Right now,
keep working God's business. He's gonna get back with you.
Right But you know what lost this thing about faith? Man?
I believe, but I also no. I got to do
(16:00):
this work man. I got to stay focused. I got
to stay extremely disciplined. I couldnot allow myself to be distracted.
I am probably Lewis the most boring individual that you know.
I don't know about that. Christ the same thing every
(16:23):
day and Lewis, I'm grinding. Yeah, yeah, but you're doing
a different type of grind. Chris. You used you used
to be chose Lewis. I created this grind, So I
don't throw this other word at you, reinvention. So you
used to be in the field of finance, all right. Uh,
(16:46):
and you still are and what we are, all right,
but now you're in the field of motivating inspiring the
next generation. How difficult or maybe not difficult at all,
was to reinvent yourself or was it another iteration of
(17:10):
Chris Gardener and happiness? It was nothing to do If
they reinvention, Lewis is just an extension. I'm making different
types of investments now. I am making alternative investments, a
human capital, all right. I'm trying to help create the
next Chris Gardener. I'm trying to help create the next
(17:31):
Lewis car And let's be clear on what that means.
If a young man comes up to me and says
I want to become a billionaire, I've got to say
I've never done that. I can't help you with that.
If a young woman comes up to me and says
I want to become the CEO of a major fortune
five hundred company, I've got to say, I've never done that.
(17:53):
I can't help you with that. But when a young
person comes up to me and says I want to
do something that I love, I'm committed to become a
world class at it and I want to work for
myself because that young person I could say, I've done that.
I can help you with that. Okay, and let me
go back to something we talked about a moment ago.
(18:13):
This whole idea, this whole concept of being world class
at something, the second most important decision I ever made
in my life, Lewis. I made it after I heard
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Speak. He was speaking to
a group of Mustible employees Garbageman down in Memphis, Tennessee.
And this message to those men that night was, whatever
(18:35):
you're going to do with your life, you should seek
to become the best at it. I believe his exact words,
Lewis were, if you're going to be a garbage man,
you should seek to become the best garbage man and
sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Okay, that's what I'm
talking about, World class at it. Not good. Everybody's good, Lewis.
(19:00):
Everybody's good. Good enough, you don't get to sit where
you're sitting, and you certainly don't get to sit over
here by being good enough. Now you broth raising the
bar constably, not raising the body comparison to somebody else
Lewis raising the bar in comparison to a Lewis car
and Chris Gardner did yesterday. That's Chris. I heard that
(19:23):
message when I was in high school, when my coach
asked me, Louis, make a decision now whether you want
to be good or whether you want to be great.
And as I said many times before, until that question
was asked of me, I don't know I had a
real role in it. I thought it just happened once
(19:44):
he got it. They just got they just got. My
response to him when he asked me that question was
what do the people who are great due that the
people who are good don't do? In his response to me,
en is with that question, you've answered my question. Mhm. Soul.
(20:08):
We talked about COVID nineteen and it's a devastation on
society and our communities. Let's talk about social injustice. It
took a front row seat right next to COVID nineteen
m last year row co star and young people and
(20:29):
I applaud these young people brought it to our attention
in a major way. M hmm. When I talked to
young people now, Chris, as they made us aware and
they said we ain't gonna have the patience of our
parents and our grandparents. And what is your advice to
young people on what's next? We are totally aware. What's
(20:54):
your advice to what's next? Don't stop? Don't stop, Lewis.
Let me tell you this. I'm looking back, Okay, I
meet and you're right here in Chicago. Uh me and
you also we probably go back in day in the
day and we saw riot. Let me tell you something.
(21:15):
When I'm addressing this question, I'm not talking about the riote.
I am against the riote, whether it's the people, the police,
or politicians that incite them. But when I see the
young people who were out leading the church for change,
I see something very very unique. Lewis. Let's just go
back twenty years and look at the timeline of these
(21:38):
young people's lives. And they were born in the year
two thousand, Lewis, they were conceived in a storm. They
were conceived in the storm of nineteen nine. We were
all freaked out about something called y to K remember
that to be a nine parent. But the fear was
(21:59):
the world was going to in all the technology was
going to fail, the banks were going to collapse, the
utilities were going to fail, all government documents and records
were gonna be lost forever. Those children born than two
thousands were conceived in that store. You're fast forward on
their timeline of their lives, Lewis, just one year, two
thousand and one. What happens nine eleven? Fast forward seven years?
(22:24):
What happens global financial crises? Fast forward twelve years? What happens? Politics?
Polarization and a pandemic. My point is, what's the one
constant in that timeline, Lewis big, dramatic, frightening change. There's
never been another generation better prepared to embrace demand or
(22:46):
create change than this generation right here. Changes in their
DNA and it's not going back. Okay, and let me
tell you something about all this. I don't know if
this is the appropriate forum, but I'm gonna share this
with you. Back two thousand, in the summer, everything that's
(23:09):
happening is happening. I got a number of phone calls
from some CEOs of major businesses who wanted to make
statements and for some reason they thought they might want
to call me to get my opinion and share with
me what they were thinking. And my response, lewis, I'm
(23:32):
just not going to sugarcoate. And my response was, well,
why do you care now? Where was all this empathy,
concern and compassion not five ten years ago, but five
six months ago? Why do you care now? And if
you can't answer that question, maybe you shouldn't say anything.
(23:56):
And on a zoom called Lewis God just finally had
to you had to let me know why you care now?
As well. I'm being challenged by my children. My children
have said to me recently. When I was a little boy,
when I was a little girl, every time you saw
(24:16):
an African American on television, you said this, Mom said that,
Uncle Bobby said this. I couldn't say anything because I
was just a kid. But now I can tell you
you've been part of the problem all along. U h right,
(24:38):
being challenged by their children. So you talked about how
easy the young generation is to change. Well, corporations and
the older generations are just opposite. Look, look, let's take
that conversation and step further. I would make this challenge
(24:58):
and I have made it, and what cause sinue to
make it to every CEO in America you want to
talk about change, get up from your desk, walk through
the c suite and ask yourself. Who is out here
that does not look like me that could do my job?
Question number two? Why isn't there anybody out here that
(25:20):
doesn't look like me that could do my job? Question
number three? Whose job was that? Answer those questions that
called me back? Right, Louis, you're taking this stuff further.
You say to a guy, let me see if I
got this right. You've been at this company right here
for twenty five three years, and you saw what it
(25:42):
looked like as you were climbing the ladder the whole time.
But now thirty years later, oh, you recognize that there's
something wrong with this picture. The only reason you recognize
it is because you got shareholders and stakeholders who are
calling you on it. Louis, let me take this step
(26:05):
further than that. Let me tell you something now that's
just me and you're talking real straight. I do not give,
have not and will not have a give. And Martin
Luther King they addressed, Okay, I've been asked to do many, many,
many of those. I decline. You know why, because my
position exist. Let me see if I got this right.
(26:27):
Every year, every CEO comes out and gives the same
lane speech about Dr King's comments about the content of
your character being more important than the color of your skin,
and then they go back to doing the same things
they were doing the three hundred sixty four days before. Now,
(26:47):
I ain't gonna support that. So So, Chris, out of
all those people have that have called you, have you
seen change from any of them. I'm still looking, I'm Lewis,
I'm still looking. And you know what, I keep my
ear pretty close to the ground. You see something earlier,
you said I'm out of finance. No I'm not. I
(27:12):
keep my ear pretty close to the ground. And you
know what, Lewis is kind of funny. So I'm not
gonna say anybody's names. But people made these pledges. We're
gonna pledge a billion dollars to faith injustice. We're going
to pledge another billion dollars to close the economic disparity.
We're gonna address another billion mills over here. And I'm
still trying to find out has anybody written a check?
(27:36):
Has anybody gotten a check? Right, dude, A lot of
these people making these pledges, they got a p p
P problem, Lewis. And I'm not talking about the payroll
Protection Plan. I'm talking about the fact that every politician,
of preachers at their front throat saying pay me all right,
(27:57):
and some of those folks. Again, I'm not gonna say
anybody his name, but if you write about check Lewis,
they'll go away quietly. You know. I look here, don't
you say a word. I know your face. Lewis called you.
We know what we're talking about, my check and everything cool.
(28:22):
So Chris, you know, a couple of years ago, I
made a decision that I wanted to do something to
sort of get some comfort in my life. I've been
this guy for a long time who's trying to understand, um,
(28:44):
why God blessed me and why God sit certain people
into my journey. And I counted what I would call
nineteen way makers, people who entered my life and had
such a dramatic impact that if they had not, I
may be on another path, on another road right now.
(29:07):
Nineteen of them. Now, I believe that the majority of
successful people got to where they are because of a waymaker.
It may have been one, it may have been nineteen.
I don't know who was some of the way makers
and Chris Gardener's the first moment was my mama. I
(29:32):
had one of them old fashioned mamas, one of them
old fashioned mamas, and told me of the game boy,
you can do it, be anything. And I believe it's important, Louis,
I share with you. But she did not say. She
did not say you can have anything. She does not
say you could buy anything. She does not say that
you're guaranteed a sure food or entitled to anything. She
(29:54):
said you could do or be anything. And for me, man,
that was an even biggest statement, loo us, because if
you could do or be anything, all this other stuff
will come. My mother gave me permission to drink. Okay,
let me tell you some of the other way makers,
as you describe them. Public school teachers. Man, I am
(30:18):
so thankful I had some of the public school teachers
that I had in my life. And I'm you know,
what's a little little little things, Louis. I wrote my
first book, to Pursuit of Happiness. I talked about my
elementary school teacher and Mrs Broaden, who helped me to
fall in love with books and reading. Anything I'm doing today,
(30:42):
I'm doing because a public school teacher helped me fall
in love with books and reading. And I'm so glad
that I mentioned it. You know, in the book, because
you know what happened Louis last year. Mrs Broughton. Unfortunately
she passed away, but her son called me. Her son
(31:03):
called me and said, I want you to call Chris
Gardener and tell him. I knew he would. Yeah, Lewis,
we were talked. At this point, we're gonna make sixty years.
Tell Chris Gardener, I knew he would, all right, Mrs Spellman,
who helped me fall in love with mathematics, Mrs Mertz,
(31:27):
who taught me about civics. Man, Lewis, everything that I'm doing,
everything I've done my entire career on Wall Street thirty
five years, has made possible because I had some public
school teachers who told me I could, Lewis, I'm in
a business where I've had to compete with people who
(31:48):
went to Harvard for kindergarten and crushed them. So, Chris,
public school teachers, Lewis, those are my heroes. Everybody talks
all this stuff about Yeah, yeah, y'all, Okay, that's fine.
My heroes are public school teachers who right now today
(32:10):
Louis don't get the respect, nowhere near the respect that
they're deserving. Up So, Chris, that I can talk about
this a long time. You're raised the subject that, but
go ahead, go ahead. I'm sorry, so I'm a good listening.
You just said permission to dream. You got a brook
(32:30):
coming out, you got a book coming out called Permission
to Dream. Tell us about that and tell us why now?
First of all, the easy part why now. There's never
been a time in this country's history, individually and institutionally
(32:52):
where permission to dream was probably more important than right now.
And permission to dream is different for each of every
one of us. But one of the basics in that
that's non negotiable. We just want to be healthy, Lewis.
We want our families to be healthy and safe. Okay,
(33:13):
that's the bottom line where it all starts right there.
Everything else is negotiable. All this other stuff will work
itself out, all right. But this idea of permission to dream, man,
started as a result of me taking my granddaughter someplace
to get a musical instrument that was her dream instrument
(33:35):
at the time. Let's be clear on that she was
nine years old at the time she had had to
have it. Turns out, man, we wound up in a
place that are called going north of the Wall. I
don't know if you're a Game of Thrones fan or not,
but there's a place called going North of the Wall
that you don't go unless you absolutely got to. But
(33:56):
we had to go north of the wall. We got lost,
h stranded, no transportation and one of the worst no
storms in history, so we gotta walk and try to
find a bus. And as we're walking, Lewis she started
asking me these questions that allowed me to have this
(34:17):
time with my child, and say, you know what if
this was our last walk together, what would I want
her to know? What would I want her to hear
from me? The first question she asked me out of nowhere, Papa,
what's the difference between a dream and a plan? M
(34:43):
it's a nine year old Lewis, right, what the difference
between a dream and a plan? And we keep walking.
We walked past Cabrini Green Lewis on the way home.
It's been destroyed at this point in time, but she
notices there's one building what needs to be there? And
(35:07):
have to talk to her about urban planning and gentrification.
And her first question was, Lewis, she asked me, but
where did all those people go? That's the question I
don't think anybody in Chicago can answer. Right now, Louis,
where did all those people go? Did they have dreams?
(35:31):
This whole idea of where we are as a country
right now? Let me say this, I don't go around
talking to anybody about politics. You're not gonna change anybody's mind.
The red people are red, the blue people are blue.
And if you disagree with them, Lewis, now you gotta fight. Well,
I ain't got time to fight. I got work to there.
I got to go to school today. All right. My
(35:52):
point is a few times I've heard President Biden talk
about the way forward and some of the things that
we need to do in address and I kind of
asked myself, how did he get a copy of my book?
The book ain't even been released. Ye, Lewis, need my
(36:14):
ship man, How don't you get my book from? All right?
But this whole idea, let me tell you this. Um
speaking with young people across this country, and they asked me,
is the American dream still possible? Now? The American dream
was must be real clear on how I define that.
(36:36):
That definition was given to me by my mom when
she said you can do or be anything. That's my
definition of this American dream, and I said, absolutely, I'm
living it everything. But let me tell you something. It's
changed because of globalization and technology. The people that you're
now competing with are not in your classroom. Because globalization
(37:00):
and technology, the people that you're not competing with a
someplace all around the world. And while you are off
being young and join yourself, as you're perfectly entitled to do,
you gotta know this. You've got to know that the
people that you're competing with us someplace grinding, they're practicing
their networking, they're rehearsing their researching, and that's gonna make
(37:22):
the difference between who signs the front of the check
and who signs the back of the check. And when
you put it to him like that, Lewis, whoa you
see the lights come on? Right? To have a young
man or a young woman say to you, I just
never thought of it like that, right, I never thought
of it like that. So people ask me a lot
(37:45):
of times now, but what business are you really here?
I tell him I'm in the import export business. I
am trying to import our greatest export. And I asked
them questions. People ask me questions. Ask him a question back,
what would you say, is the greatest export in the
history of this country. Manufacturing now, technology now, Hamburgers. Now.
(38:10):
The greatest export in the history of the United States
is the American dream and this ideal that there's a
place where you can do or be anything. That's the
greatest export in the history of this country. And that's
why I'm working to help imported right now, because too
many of our young people don't believe, and with good justification.
(38:35):
Right So, the answer, the shortest answer I could give
you about this new book, Permission to Dream. It's an
effort to have what can be done as much of
a conversation as what cannot be done. There's no shortest
of people telling you what you can't do. Let's talk
(38:55):
about what's still on the table. We'll be right back
with more of my interview after this quick break. So so, Chris,
I'm not gonna ask you to get too much away
of the book, because we need to go out and
(39:17):
buy it. But I am going to ask you this
question because I hear it a lot myself as I
go around. I can't be what I can't see Your
response to that forward ship next question is that what
it said, is that what it says in the book,
(39:37):
Chris like Low Lewis Lewis. Lewis Lewis, I grew up
in the community probably not too much from what different
than yours. There were no black stock brokers for investment
managers in my neighborhood. There were no investment professionals in
(39:58):
my community, right. But what I did have in place
of that more important than seeing it. I hadn't already
planted in me that you could do or be anything.
And then when I saw it as a twenty eight
year old man boom Lewis the very first time. Then
(40:22):
I walked into a big time Wall Street trading room,
I knew, this is it, This is it. The ticket
table was rolling, the phones are bringing off the hook,
people are screaming and shouting out or this body of
flying all over the place, tickets against stamp and will
look like chaos for anybody else, Lewis. For me, it
(40:43):
was like I was reading shoot the music and I
could feel it and I knew right, I'm damn thirty
years old, But I knew it the second I saw
it because I had been given permission to dream, and
I made that decision. I had that permission clarified for
me about Dr King when you said, whatever you go
(41:05):
do with your life, you should seek to become the
best at it. But when I saw Wall Street, I
knew this is where I was supposed to play. This
is where I'm gonna play right here, all right. And
I wouldn't trade it for nothing, Louis, I wouldn't trade
it for anything in the world man. And the business
(41:26):
has changed tremendously, But I will say this, man, one
of the coolest things in the world for me personally,
is to be walking through a financial district in Chicago,
New York, London, any place in the world, and have
a young person stopped me on the street and say,
Mr Gardner, you don't remember me, but but I was
(41:49):
an intern at the Summer financi Academy in Chicago in
and you brought me to your office and we had lunch.
You let me be one of your interns ninety four
ninety six. But today lewis the running the trading desk
(42:10):
at ubs and Munich. Huh, they're running the desk at
Singapore from merle lynch Tu these cs have been planned already, right,
And to see a man around the world for me
and Louis that's the most exciting thing in the world. Man,
I just want to see it one more time. I
want to see this next weeve coming through. All right.
(42:35):
So Chris talked to the people who may be sitting
on the sidelines, who have the experience, the academics and
the resources to be waymakers, but they're not what they
should be. We need you. We need every weight maker
(42:56):
that we can possibly get right now. Okay, we need
you now more than ever before, because there are some
people all here who are lost, who are afraid, and
you know what, Lewis. Again, I don't know why, but
you're making me think so much of Dr Angelou. Lewis,
I'm gonna tell you this story I never told nobody o.
(43:20):
The last whooping I ever got I got from Dr
Maya Angelou. Who Louis, What did you do? Chris's something?
I said something. It didn't sound that stupid and small
minded to me when I said it, but after I
(43:41):
said it out loud to her, I realized that that
was stupid. Turns out, Uh, Folks, in my hometown Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
I wanted to name a street after me, right, cool? Hey,
that's cool? All right, Well, I'm on this street. I'm
(44:04):
on this street right here. I'm on Wisconsin Avenue, which
is the equivalent of Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Fifth
Avenue in New York City. Roast your Avenue in in
l A. I want this one. And dr ANDELU said
to me, you don't get it to you. You don't
understand that some place in the neighborhood where you grew up,
(44:28):
there's a little boy a little girl who feels alone,
a freed and unloved, and they need to know that
greatness came this way. So these way makers that are
sitting on the sidelines, folks need to know greatness came
(44:49):
this way. We need you right and let me tell
you something. As you see these people that you touch
reach out to it, you see them grow, that's gonna
be the greatest investment you've ever made in your life,
because that's how we're gonna change this country and we're
(45:09):
gonna change the world. I believe that. Well before we leave, Chris,
I've been knowing you for a long time, but I've
never asked you this question, But I'm gonna ask it today.
Do you ever sit back and pinch yourself and say,
how the hell the hell did. I not only saw
(45:36):
it at the bottom, but now I'm here, and on
top of that, I got a cherry that have to
have the one of the greatest actors of all time
play out my life story on the big screen. Do
you ever just pinch yourself? I do, Louis. But then
(45:56):
when I do it, I realized, Oh that was yes,
everything before this, Lewis, this is practice. It's the warm up.
I mean right now, I can't talk a lot about it.
I'm involved with something publicly treated company. We're about to
do something that I'm toomendously excited about. Um probably could
(46:19):
be the biggest thing I've ever done in my business career.
And I feel like, dude, you know, I had a
birthday last week. I am a sixty seven year old
start up the birthday, Louis, everything before this man was practiced.
Now we know how this thing works, all right. At
(46:42):
sixty seven is the perfect age. Lewis's old enough to
know what you're doing, but young enough to get it
done all right. Old enough to know what you're doing,
but young enough to get it done all right. That's
where I'm at. Baby, I've been blessed. I'm probably in
the best physical condition in my life. I feel strong mentally, emotionally, spiritually,
(47:09):
I couldn't be better. And but you know what, Lewis,
let me tell you this before we go. You know
what happens sometimes when you were playing and I'm just
Lewis being very honest with you. I would not say
this to anybody else. Somebody else out there is probably
not gonna take it the right way. They're gonna say
he's bragging. Look, I'm not bragging. But let me tell
you something. When you do the work for a long
(47:34):
time when nobody's watching, Lewis, when you're in the backgroup shop,
when you're in the wood shop and you're grinding, right,
ain't nobody watching. When you're in the gym, when you werehearsing,
and when you're just sitting here trying to really just
stay as highly focused as possible, you get a chance
to do something called your best work. And Lewis, for me,
(47:59):
that's the greatest feeling in the world. Man. I just
last week, Man came out of the studio taking it
to another level. All Right, the thing we're doing in schools,
we have to do it now virtually, okay, but now
we're taking into another level Lewis with green screens. Imagine
(48:19):
for a second that screen, you know, the ugly green
screen they using the movie business. I got one behind me,
I know. You Just imagine having that green screen in
front of you. You got a five for the young
people behind you. You got another five young people and
you're right there in the middle. And you're changing people's lives,
(48:43):
right and you know you're playing at the top of
your game, Lewis. That's a good feeling. And just driving
home from the studio, Lewis, all of a sudden, the snow,
the gray, ugly cloudy, the sun was Shannon, could nobody
see it? But all right, that's Philly Lewis. Are doing
(49:03):
your best work. That's what it's all about right now.
And sometimes, man, you got to do your best work
in the ring, Lewis. Everybody wants to work when this
the sky is clear and the sun is out, everybody
want to work. Sometimes you got to do your best
work in the rain. And I'm not talking about the
rain coming down from the clouds. I'm talking about the blood,
(49:25):
sweat and tears that you create when you're trying to
build something. You got to be able to work in
the rain. That's what's gonna make the difference. Everybody else
will go inside. That's like that coach. You ask you
that question, Lewis, do you need an umbrella? Son? And
we go work in the rain. Well, I'm going in
(49:50):
with this. You better creach, You're better keep preaching, but
you just start ruling my whole day. I had this
thing blocked off for two hours. Man. Oh, Louis man,
is so good to see you. Man, It has been
my pleasure. How is Mrs car Where is she? This
(50:13):
is cars here. She just went to answer the doorbell.
I think it was the Amazon mayor. Tell her I
want to see her face. Just haven't come up and
say hell for a secon. Literally, I hear that. I
talk to the Amazon man right now. I don't. Nobody
want to see Louis car all day. Man, it has
(50:33):
been great talking to the CEO of Happiness. You were
on your game today, you clean. You clearly was giving
us the goat. You were giving us the goat, Louis.
We got work to do, man, We got work to do, brother, okay,
and I appreciate it. I have joined uh your army
(50:56):
of people investing in human capital. That's right, that's right,
and uh, I'm looking for our alli, which we call
return on influence, not a return on investment, return on influence, sir.
And I hope that I can be as half as
good as you at doing what you do. Look, let's
(51:17):
just stay let's stay focused. Man, this is the most
exciting time. And let me tell you this. I'm gonna
say this one last thing because I believe in the
near term future of our country, near termment, long term
and I believe, man, we're about to have the greatest
comeback in the history of comebacks. This thing is gonna
(51:40):
be bigger than Rocky Bell bow up. And if you
don't believe that, then get off the field and get
off the way, because the bench is deeper and they
came to play
I'm Louis Carr, host to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men
something where we have consistently given men a prescription of
cook not just for themselves, but also for their families
and their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and
motivate our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness,
(00:26):
and relationship. How you've been doing. I am out here
questioning it, Lewis. I am absolutely crushing it. And I
gotta say that, Lewis and all sincerity with a fair
amount of balance as well. I'm crushing it, but I'm
being crushed, you know what I mean. So let's let's
(00:47):
talk about that word balance. People define it differently. How
do you define balance? Not having to get up off
the ground. If you didn't fall, you're balanced, right, that's
a great definition, right, If you ain't getting about the ground,
(01:08):
you balanced. You can do like this. It's gonna happen,
Louis right, And for a lot of us, um, we
had this feeling every day. Oh hold up, now take
you know these baby steps, Lewis, Take these baby steps.
I get some traction, you know, I gotta tell you,
(01:31):
Lewis called us all off. God, nobody saw that coming.
I will never forget. The last speech at the Lewis
domestically here in the United States was February twelve. I
was given the opportunity to address the United Nations and look,
(01:53):
I'll tell you something. I tried to play like, Okay,
hey man, it's just another Evan. I mean, you don't
want to get yourself two psyched out Lewis. You know
what I mean. I'm going through this thing in my head. Okay, man,
You're spoken in eighty countries all around the world, government's foundations, institutions.
This is just another event. But let me tell you,
(02:14):
when you walk through that fourth level of security after
United Nations, you're going the front door and there's a
life size statue of Nelson Mandela standing there to greet
you with his hand extended and fresh show. That's when
it hits you. Now, this ain't just another event. This
is a big deal. This is a big deal. The
(02:39):
U n on this date Lewis for the first time
was beginning to ask how could we possibly end global homelessness?
And I got to be the last speaker, and I
won't bore you with all the gory details, but I
will say this. I expressed the concern that we must
(03:01):
expand who is at risk of becoming homeless to include
working women, because the truth of the matter is, we
both know and too many parts of our country women
are still pay substantially less than men for doing the
same job, and in certain parts of our country with
(03:21):
real estate doing what it has done the last few years,
those people know, Lewis, if I lose my job, or
if my husband loses his job, or if there's some
economic gyration someplace that happens around the world that we
had nothing to do with, we are at risk. My point, Lewis,
(03:43):
that was February we talk. COVID was already here. Okay. Now,
while it wasn't initially defined as an economic gyration, is
certainly has had devastating economic impact across the board. So
so so, Chris, I love your definition a balance. Uh.
(04:08):
Your whole brand has been about happiness. When did that
word become a part of the Chris Gardner. We've all
seen the movie The Pursuit of Happiness and Will Smith
played the role of you. We've read your books, but
(04:28):
I've never really known how or when that word entered
your environment, your orbit tell us about that. There was
a daycare, singer Lewis, that was a block away from
the place my son and I finally got to have
a home after a year of living on the streets
(04:50):
train station's bus Tromos Hotel lobbies in the Bay Area.
What year was that, Chris? That was three and they
did spell happiness with a why, and it was right there.
I realized what that why stood for and still stands
for me, that why is there to make us all
(05:12):
mindful that it is you and your responsibility, you and
your opportunity to create the life that you offer you
and your family because the calvalry is not coming. This
is on you, right And I'm comfortable with that, Lewis.
(05:32):
That goes back to that definition of balance we talked about.
I'm comfortable with that because if I'm all, like God,
if I'm all I can count on, I know where
I'm at. So if your balance, are you saying you
can have happiness or if you're not balance, you're unhappy. No,
(05:56):
I'm saying if you're a balance, you can have happiness,
and you can have happiness being unbalanced because it is
a fluid thing, Lewis. You don't just get to a
place called happiness and pull off. There's no exit rap
for that, right. It's all part of this destination, a
part of this road that we're on right now. It
(06:18):
was Bray that big wine in happiness, the big white
and happiness right now means Chris, you are healthy, your
family is healthy. But at the same time, Louis, you
cannot take your eye off the ball for a second.
(06:39):
You cannot let your guard down for a second. The
last thing a referee and a professional prize fight says
to both fighters is protect yourself at all times. That's
where we are right now, Louis. So so you know
the way making brand and it's about educating, motivating and
(07:05):
inspiring people to live their best life in order to
improve their families, their communities, and their country. Yes, sir,
how can balance and happiness play a role in helping
people do that? Let me tell you when I'm doing it.
(07:26):
I was working for me okay, uh, prior to the pandemic,
I was leaving Lewis what I'm comfortable calling my j
f K moments. Tell us about that. I saw some things, Lewis,
and still see some things are our country that concerned me,
(07:47):
particularly around young people. And I will never forget being
in my hometown Lewis, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, standing in front of
the elementary school that I went to when I heard
President and John F. Kennedy asked that question in this
inauguration address, ask not what your country can do for you,
but what you can do for your country? And right
(08:10):
there down the mean, wait a minute, how do we
know the next Chris Gardner, the next Lewis car or
the next Oprah Winfrey is not coming in going out
of the same school doors and public schools all across
our country right now. The truth is, Lewis, they are.
So I was in the process of doing this to
(08:31):
a man, I said, Okay, I'm gonna do a hundred schools.
Let me tell you something. We blew through that number.
We blew through that number, and now we had to
make the hard pitot Lewis from doing everything lies to
doing it virtually. Because we learned in twenty who it
(08:54):
could be in one we get to show who it
can be. I'm on pace right now to speaking of
thousand schools man, all across America, and Chris, what do
you talk to uh, these young people about I talked
to them very specifically, Lewis about the three most important
decisions I ever made in my life, all of which
(09:16):
I made at their age or young girl. And these
young people right now we're having to make some very
important decisions and their lives. Lewis, I talked specifically about
breaking the chain, breaking that cycle and all those that
chain of cycles that have plagued myself. Number one, growing
(09:38):
up a daughter father, I made a commitment I was
going to break that one linked child abandonment. And when
I broke that, when Lake Lewis, all of the other
associated links were instantly shattered, including child abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism, literacy, fear,
and generational poverty. That one decision, Lewis, didn't just change
(10:03):
my life, that changed the lives of my yet to
have been born children and my grandchild. That one decision
had generational impact. Number Two, I made the decision I
was going to become world class that whatever I did
with my life, not good at it, not pretty good
(10:23):
at it, but world class at it. And number three,
I made the decision as a young man that I
was going to do something that was bigger than what
I saw every day. Mm hmmm, Lewis, I wouldn't let
me tell you something. I don't know how much time
(10:44):
we God, but I'm gonna tell you this. I will
never forget going down to the Greyhound bus station downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I got no money, I got no ticket, I can't
go anywhere. But I would sitting to Lewis and I
would see these buses take off, and you know that
the names at the top of the bus the destination
(11:06):
sat Luis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Detroit. And I would sit
there and look at those buses and I'd say, one day, man,
I'm going to all those places. I'm going to all
those places now, Louis, I'm fifteen years old, right bottom line,
I've spoken in over eighty countries and now never forget
(11:30):
it was dr Ogelo I told her that story is
he just says to me, young man, God always has
a bigger plan. You wanted to go to Detroit to
round up and dubai ha uh goods. We'll be right
(11:53):
back with more of my interview after this quick break.
So christ And in these times where we've got COVID nineteen,
we've got social injustice, we've got unemployment, what would you
(12:16):
say to our listening audience as they are trying to
wrestle with one or more of these hurdles. What would
you say, Because you've been there, You've been there. Let
me tell you something. First of all, again, just the
second ago I makes the doctor, I cannot sit here
and not share with you my last conversation with her.
(12:39):
We were talking about struggles, and I will never forget
her saying to me, we have the people for this mountain.
We must all be mindful that there are people who
came before us, who came up a steeper side of
this mountain, carrying a bigger and heavier load, with little
(13:00):
to no opportunity, but they still kept going forward, onward
and upwards. This has been done before. It's just our turn.
This has been done before, Lewis, and it's going to
happen again. We just don't know the name of the
next event. This is going to happen again. So a
(13:21):
bigger question is what did I learn in twenty that
I'm gonna have in my toolbox as I go forward?
Right Lewis, you and I both we can go into
tool box and say, you know what I've dealt with this,
I've seen that. I know how this feels. I got
(13:42):
something in this toolbox that I could pull out right
now that's gonna help me navigate this current situation. And
a lot of us Lewis has some things in our
toolbox that we can reach down, draw down on, and apply.
This is the time to draw down on every loss
(14:05):
you ever took, every fear you ever felt, every thing
that ever hurt you and caused you pain, and say,
you know what, I've done this before. It may not
have been exactly this, I've seen something like this before.
So Chris, I'm gonna throw this word at you. Is
(14:28):
faith sort of closely related to that word happiness. Faith
is everything. Let me tell you something. You can have
faith all the faith in the world. See, now you're
making me think about my mouth. Look, you know, I
(14:49):
don't know if you noticed when you came and came
to my house, but I got with weird houses. You
got to come through the kitchen get an house, and
I don't know how that happened, but that's guess how
it happens. You see, you come in the kitchen. You
see a picture my mother and and Mr Coffee and
we have a cup of coffee every day because that's
what we did at the point of time. That was
(15:10):
the only place in time in the house where we
could have peace in the morning, just me and her.
My point is every day to this day. Now Mama
moved to heaven twenty six years ago, we still have
the same conversation every day, she says, son, did you
do your work, yes, ma'am. Did you pray on it, yes, ma'am.
(15:36):
We'll keep working because God's busy. God got to help.
Somebody needs some help more than you do. Right now,
keep working God's business. He's gonna get back with you.
Right But you know what lost this thing about faith? Man?
I believe, but I also no. I got to do
(16:00):
this work man. I got to stay focused. I got
to stay extremely disciplined. I couldnot allow myself to be distracted.
I am probably Lewis the most boring individual that you know.
I don't know about that. Christ the same thing every
(16:23):
day and Lewis, I'm grinding. Yeah, yeah, but you're doing
a different type of grind. Chris. You used you used
to be chose Lewis. I created this grind, So I
don't throw this other word at you, reinvention. So you
used to be in the field of finance, all right. Uh,
(16:46):
and you still are and what we are, all right,
but now you're in the field of motivating inspiring the
next generation. How difficult or maybe not difficult at all,
was to reinvent yourself or was it another iteration of
(17:10):
Chris Gardener and happiness? It was nothing to do If
they reinvention, Lewis is just an extension. I'm making different
types of investments now. I am making alternative investments, a
human capital, all right. I'm trying to help create the
next Chris Gardener. I'm trying to help create the next
(17:31):
Lewis car And let's be clear on what that means.
If a young man comes up to me and says
I want to become a billionaire, I've got to say
I've never done that. I can't help you with that.
If a young woman comes up to me and says
I want to become the CEO of a major fortune
five hundred company, I've got to say, I've never done that.
(17:53):
I can't help you with that. But when a young
person comes up to me and says I want to
do something that I love, I'm committed to become a
world class at it and I want to work for
myself because that young person I could say, I've done that.
I can help you with that. Okay, and let me
go back to something we talked about a moment ago.
(18:13):
This whole idea, this whole concept of being world class
at something, the second most important decision I ever made
in my life, Lewis. I made it after I heard
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Speak. He was speaking to
a group of Mustible employees Garbageman down in Memphis, Tennessee.
And this message to those men that night was, whatever
(18:35):
you're going to do with your life, you should seek
to become the best at it. I believe his exact words,
Lewis were, if you're going to be a garbage man,
you should seek to become the best garbage man and
sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Okay, that's what I'm
talking about, World class at it. Not good. Everybody's good, Lewis.
(19:00):
Everybody's good. Good enough, you don't get to sit where
you're sitting, and you certainly don't get to sit over
here by being good enough. Now you broth raising the
bar constably, not raising the body comparison to somebody else
Lewis raising the bar in comparison to a Lewis car
and Chris Gardner did yesterday. That's Chris. I heard that
(19:23):
message when I was in high school, when my coach
asked me, Louis, make a decision now whether you want
to be good or whether you want to be great.
And as I said many times before, until that question
was asked of me, I don't know I had a
real role in it. I thought it just happened once
(19:44):
he got it. They just got they just got. My
response to him when he asked me that question was
what do the people who are great due that the
people who are good don't do? In his response to me,
en is with that question, you've answered my question. Mhm. Soul.
(20:08):
We talked about COVID nineteen and it's a devastation on
society and our communities. Let's talk about social injustice. It
took a front row seat right next to COVID nineteen
m last year row co star and young people and
(20:29):
I applaud these young people brought it to our attention
in a major way. M hmm. When I talked to
young people now, Chris, as they made us aware and
they said we ain't gonna have the patience of our
parents and our grandparents. And what is your advice to
young people on what's next? We are totally aware. What's
(20:54):
your advice to what's next? Don't stop? Don't stop, Lewis.
Let me tell you this. I'm looking back, Okay, I
meet and you're right here in Chicago. Uh me and
you also we probably go back in day in the
day and we saw riot. Let me tell you something.
(21:15):
When I'm addressing this question, I'm not talking about the riote.
I am against the riote, whether it's the people, the police,
or politicians that incite them. But when I see the
young people who were out leading the church for change,
I see something very very unique. Lewis. Let's just go
back twenty years and look at the timeline of these
(21:38):
young people's lives. And they were born in the year
two thousand, Lewis, they were conceived in a storm. They
were conceived in the storm of nineteen nine. We were
all freaked out about something called y to K remember
that to be a nine parent. But the fear was
(21:59):
the world was going to in all the technology was
going to fail, the banks were going to collapse, the
utilities were going to fail, all government documents and records
were gonna be lost forever. Those children born than two
thousands were conceived in that store. You're fast forward on
their timeline of their lives, Lewis, just one year, two
thousand and one. What happens nine eleven? Fast forward seven years?
(22:24):
What happens global financial crises? Fast forward twelve years? What happens? Politics?
Polarization and a pandemic. My point is, what's the one
constant in that timeline, Lewis big, dramatic, frightening change. There's
never been another generation better prepared to embrace demand or
(22:46):
create change than this generation right here. Changes in their
DNA and it's not going back. Okay, and let me
tell you something about all this. I don't know if
this is the appropriate forum, but I'm gonna share this
with you. Back two thousand, in the summer, everything that's
(23:09):
happening is happening. I got a number of phone calls
from some CEOs of major businesses who wanted to make
statements and for some reason they thought they might want
to call me to get my opinion and share with
me what they were thinking. And my response, lewis, I'm
(23:32):
just not going to sugarcoate. And my response was, well,
why do you care now? Where was all this empathy,
concern and compassion not five ten years ago, but five
six months ago? Why do you care now? And if
you can't answer that question, maybe you shouldn't say anything.
(23:56):
And on a zoom called Lewis God just finally had
to you had to let me know why you care now?
As well. I'm being challenged by my children. My children
have said to me recently. When I was a little boy,
when I was a little girl, every time you saw
(24:16):
an African American on television, you said this, Mom said that,
Uncle Bobby said this. I couldn't say anything because I
was just a kid. But now I can tell you
you've been part of the problem all along. U h right,
(24:38):
being challenged by their children. So you talked about how
easy the young generation is to change. Well, corporations and
the older generations are just opposite. Look, look, let's take
that conversation and step further. I would make this challenge
(24:58):
and I have made it, and what cause sinue to
make it to every CEO in America you want to
talk about change, get up from your desk, walk through
the c suite and ask yourself. Who is out here
that does not look like me that could do my job?
Question number two? Why isn't there anybody out here that
(25:20):
doesn't look like me that could do my job? Question
number three? Whose job was that? Answer those questions that
called me back? Right, Louis, you're taking this stuff further.
You say to a guy, let me see if I
got this right. You've been at this company right here
for twenty five three years, and you saw what it
(25:42):
looked like as you were climbing the ladder the whole time.
But now thirty years later, oh, you recognize that there's
something wrong with this picture. The only reason you recognize
it is because you got shareholders and stakeholders who are
calling you on it. Louis, let me take this step
(26:05):
further than that. Let me tell you something now that's
just me and you're talking real straight. I do not give,
have not and will not have a give. And Martin
Luther King they addressed, Okay, I've been asked to do many, many,
many of those. I decline. You know why, because my
position exist. Let me see if I got this right.
(26:27):
Every year, every CEO comes out and gives the same
lane speech about Dr King's comments about the content of
your character being more important than the color of your skin,
and then they go back to doing the same things
they were doing the three hundred sixty four days before. Now,
(26:47):
I ain't gonna support that. So So, Chris, out of
all those people have that have called you, have you
seen change from any of them. I'm still looking, I'm Lewis,
I'm still looking. And you know what, I keep my
ear pretty close to the ground. You see something earlier,
you said I'm out of finance. No I'm not. I
(27:12):
keep my ear pretty close to the ground. And you
know what, Lewis is kind of funny. So I'm not
gonna say anybody's names. But people made these pledges. We're
gonna pledge a billion dollars to faith injustice. We're going
to pledge another billion dollars to close the economic disparity.
We're gonna address another billion mills over here. And I'm
still trying to find out has anybody written a check?
(27:36):
Has anybody gotten a check? Right, dude, A lot of
these people making these pledges, they got a p p
P problem, Lewis. And I'm not talking about the payroll
Protection Plan. I'm talking about the fact that every politician,
of preachers at their front throat saying pay me all right,
(27:57):
and some of those folks. Again, I'm not gonna say
anybody his name, but if you write about check Lewis,
they'll go away quietly. You know. I look here, don't
you say a word. I know your face. Lewis called you.
We know what we're talking about, my check and everything cool.
(28:22):
So Chris, you know, a couple of years ago, I
made a decision that I wanted to do something to
sort of get some comfort in my life. I've been
this guy for a long time who's trying to understand, um,
(28:44):
why God blessed me and why God sit certain people
into my journey. And I counted what I would call
nineteen way makers, people who entered my life and had
such a dramatic impact that if they had not, I
may be on another path, on another road right now.
(29:07):
Nineteen of them. Now, I believe that the majority of
successful people got to where they are because of a waymaker.
It may have been one, it may have been nineteen.
I don't know who was some of the way makers
and Chris Gardener's the first moment was my mama. I
(29:32):
had one of them old fashioned mamas, one of them
old fashioned mamas, and told me of the game boy,
you can do it, be anything. And I believe it's important, Louis,
I share with you. But she did not say. She
did not say you can have anything. She does not
say you could buy anything. She does not say that
you're guaranteed a sure food or entitled to anything. She
(29:54):
said you could do or be anything. And for me, man,
that was an even biggest statement, loo us, because if
you could do or be anything, all this other stuff
will come. My mother gave me permission to drink. Okay,
let me tell you some of the other way makers,
as you describe them. Public school teachers. Man, I am
(30:18):
so thankful I had some of the public school teachers
that I had in my life. And I'm you know,
what's a little little little things, Louis. I wrote my
first book, to Pursuit of Happiness. I talked about my
elementary school teacher and Mrs Broaden, who helped me to
fall in love with books and reading. Anything I'm doing today,
(30:42):
I'm doing because a public school teacher helped me fall
in love with books and reading. And I'm so glad
that I mentioned it. You know, in the book, because
you know what happened Louis last year. Mrs Broughton. Unfortunately
she passed away, but her son called me. Her son
(31:03):
called me and said, I want you to call Chris
Gardener and tell him. I knew he would. Yeah, Lewis,
we were talked. At this point, we're gonna make sixty years.
Tell Chris Gardener, I knew he would, all right, Mrs Spellman,
who helped me fall in love with mathematics, Mrs Mertz,
(31:27):
who taught me about civics. Man, Lewis, everything that I'm doing,
everything I've done my entire career on Wall Street thirty
five years, has made possible because I had some public
school teachers who told me I could, Lewis, I'm in
a business where I've had to compete with people who
(31:48):
went to Harvard for kindergarten and crushed them. So, Chris,
public school teachers, Lewis, those are my heroes. Everybody talks
all this stuff about Yeah, yeah, y'all, Okay, that's fine.
My heroes are public school teachers who right now today
(32:10):
Louis don't get the respect, nowhere near the respect that
they're deserving. Up So, Chris, that I can talk about
this a long time. You're raised the subject that, but
go ahead, go ahead. I'm sorry, so I'm a good listening.
You just said permission to dream. You got a brook
(32:30):
coming out, you got a book coming out called Permission
to Dream. Tell us about that and tell us why now?
First of all, the easy part why now. There's never
been a time in this country's history, individually and institutionally
(32:52):
where permission to dream was probably more important than right now.
And permission to dream is different for each of every
one of us. But one of the basics in that
that's non negotiable. We just want to be healthy, Lewis.
We want our families to be healthy and safe. Okay,
(33:13):
that's the bottom line where it all starts right there.
Everything else is negotiable. All this other stuff will work
itself out, all right. But this idea of permission to dream, man,
started as a result of me taking my granddaughter someplace
to get a musical instrument that was her dream instrument
(33:35):
at the time. Let's be clear on that she was
nine years old at the time she had had to
have it. Turns out, man, we wound up in a
place that are called going north of the Wall. I
don't know if you're a Game of Thrones fan or not,
but there's a place called going North of the Wall
that you don't go unless you absolutely got to. But
(33:56):
we had to go north of the wall. We got lost,
h stranded, no transportation and one of the worst no
storms in history, so we gotta walk and try to
find a bus. And as we're walking, Lewis she started
asking me these questions that allowed me to have this
(34:17):
time with my child, and say, you know what if
this was our last walk together, what would I want
her to know? What would I want her to hear
from me? The first question she asked me out of nowhere, Papa,
what's the difference between a dream and a plan? M
(34:43):
it's a nine year old Lewis, right, what the difference
between a dream and a plan? And we keep walking.
We walked past Cabrini Green Lewis on the way home.
It's been destroyed at this point in time, but she
notices there's one building what needs to be there? And
(35:07):
have to talk to her about urban planning and gentrification.
And her first question was, Lewis, she asked me, but
where did all those people go? That's the question I
don't think anybody in Chicago can answer. Right now, Louis,
where did all those people go? Did they have dreams?
(35:31):
This whole idea of where we are as a country
right now? Let me say this, I don't go around
talking to anybody about politics. You're not gonna change anybody's mind.
The red people are red, the blue people are blue.
And if you disagree with them, Lewis, now you gotta fight. Well,
I ain't got time to fight. I got work to there.
I got to go to school today. All right. My
(35:52):
point is a few times I've heard President Biden talk
about the way forward and some of the things that
we need to do in address and I kind of
asked myself, how did he get a copy of my book?
The book ain't even been released. Ye, Lewis, need my
(36:14):
ship man, How don't you get my book from? All right?
But this whole idea, let me tell you this. Um
speaking with young people across this country, and they asked me,
is the American dream still possible? Now? The American dream
was must be real clear on how I define that.
(36:36):
That definition was given to me by my mom when
she said you can do or be anything. That's my
definition of this American dream, and I said, absolutely, I'm
living it everything. But let me tell you something. It's
changed because of globalization and technology. The people that you're
now competing with are not in your classroom. Because globalization
(37:00):
and technology, the people that you're not competing with a
someplace all around the world. And while you are off
being young and join yourself, as you're perfectly entitled to do,
you gotta know this. You've got to know that the
people that you're competing with us someplace grinding, they're practicing
their networking, they're rehearsing their researching, and that's gonna make
(37:22):
the difference between who signs the front of the check
and who signs the back of the check. And when
you put it to him like that, Lewis, whoa you
see the lights come on? Right? To have a young
man or a young woman say to you, I just
never thought of it like that, right, I never thought
of it like that. So people ask me a lot
(37:45):
of times now, but what business are you really here?
I tell him I'm in the import export business. I
am trying to import our greatest export. And I asked
them questions. People ask me questions. Ask him a question back,
what would you say, is the greatest export in the
history of this country. Manufacturing now, technology now, Hamburgers. Now.
(38:10):
The greatest export in the history of the United States
is the American dream and this ideal that there's a
place where you can do or be anything. That's the
greatest export in the history of this country. And that's
why I'm working to help imported right now, because too
many of our young people don't believe, and with good justification.
(38:35):
Right So, the answer, the shortest answer I could give
you about this new book, Permission to Dream. It's an
effort to have what can be done as much of
a conversation as what cannot be done. There's no shortest
of people telling you what you can't do. Let's talk
(38:55):
about what's still on the table. We'll be right back
with more of my interview after this quick break. So so, Chris,
I'm not gonna ask you to get too much away
of the book, because we need to go out and
(39:17):
buy it. But I am going to ask you this
question because I hear it a lot myself as I
go around. I can't be what I can't see Your
response to that forward ship next question is that what
it said, is that what it says in the book,
(39:37):
Chris like Low Lewis Lewis. Lewis Lewis, I grew up
in the community probably not too much from what different
than yours. There were no black stock brokers for investment
managers in my neighborhood. There were no investment professionals in
(39:58):
my community, right. But what I did have in place
of that more important than seeing it. I hadn't already
planted in me that you could do or be anything.
And then when I saw it as a twenty eight
year old man boom Lewis the very first time. Then
(40:22):
I walked into a big time Wall Street trading room,
I knew, this is it, This is it. The ticket
table was rolling, the phones are bringing off the hook,
people are screaming and shouting out or this body of
flying all over the place, tickets against stamp and will
look like chaos for anybody else, Lewis. For me, it
(40:43):
was like I was reading shoot the music and I
could feel it and I knew right, I'm damn thirty
years old, But I knew it the second I saw
it because I had been given permission to dream, and
I made that decision. I had that permission clarified for
me about Dr King when you said, whatever you go
(41:05):
do with your life, you should seek to become the
best at it. But when I saw Wall Street, I
knew this is where I was supposed to play. This
is where I'm gonna play right here, all right. And
I wouldn't trade it for nothing, Louis, I wouldn't trade
it for anything in the world man. And the business
(41:26):
has changed tremendously, But I will say this, man, one
of the coolest things in the world for me personally,
is to be walking through a financial district in Chicago,
New York, London, any place in the world, and have
a young person stopped me on the street and say,
Mr Gardner, you don't remember me, but but I was
(41:49):
an intern at the Summer financi Academy in Chicago in
and you brought me to your office and we had lunch.
You let me be one of your interns ninety four
ninety six. But today lewis the running the trading desk
(42:10):
at ubs and Munich. Huh, they're running the desk at
Singapore from merle lynch Tu these cs have been planned already, right,
And to see a man around the world for me
and Louis that's the most exciting thing in the world. Man,
I just want to see it one more time. I
want to see this next weeve coming through. All right.
(42:35):
So Chris talked to the people who may be sitting
on the sidelines, who have the experience, the academics and
the resources to be waymakers, but they're not what they
should be. We need you. We need every weight maker
(42:56):
that we can possibly get right now. Okay, we need
you now more than ever before, because there are some
people all here who are lost, who are afraid, and
you know what, Lewis. Again, I don't know why, but
you're making me think so much of Dr Angelou. Lewis,
I'm gonna tell you this story I never told nobody o.
(43:20):
The last whooping I ever got I got from Dr
Maya Angelou. Who Louis, What did you do? Chris's something?
I said something. It didn't sound that stupid and small
minded to me when I said it, but after I
(43:41):
said it out loud to her, I realized that that
was stupid. Turns out, Uh, Folks, in my hometown Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
I wanted to name a street after me, right, cool? Hey,
that's cool? All right, Well, I'm on this street. I'm
(44:04):
on this street right here. I'm on Wisconsin Avenue, which
is the equivalent of Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Fifth
Avenue in New York City. Roast your Avenue in in
l A. I want this one. And dr ANDELU said
to me, you don't get it to you. You don't
understand that some place in the neighborhood where you grew up,
(44:28):
there's a little boy a little girl who feels alone,
a freed and unloved, and they need to know that
greatness came this way. So these way makers that are
sitting on the sidelines, folks need to know greatness came
(44:49):
this way. We need you right and let me tell
you something. As you see these people that you touch
reach out to it, you see them grow, that's gonna
be the greatest investment you've ever made in your life,
because that's how we're gonna change this country and we're
(45:09):
gonna change the world. I believe that. Well before we leave, Chris,
I've been knowing you for a long time, but I've
never asked you this question, But I'm gonna ask it today.
Do you ever sit back and pinch yourself and say,
how the hell the hell did. I not only saw
(45:36):
it at the bottom, but now I'm here, and on
top of that, I got a cherry that have to
have the one of the greatest actors of all time
play out my life story on the big screen. Do
you ever just pinch yourself? I do, Louis. But then
(45:56):
when I do it, I realized, Oh that was yes,
everything before this, Lewis, this is practice. It's the warm up.
I mean right now, I can't talk a lot about it.
I'm involved with something publicly treated company. We're about to
do something that I'm toomendously excited about. Um probably could
(46:19):
be the biggest thing I've ever done in my business career.
And I feel like, dude, you know, I had a
birthday last week. I am a sixty seven year old
start up the birthday, Louis, everything before this man was practiced.
Now we know how this thing works, all right. At
(46:42):
sixty seven is the perfect age. Lewis's old enough to
know what you're doing, but young enough to get it
done all right. Old enough to know what you're doing,
but young enough to get it done all right. That's
where I'm at. Baby, I've been blessed. I'm probably in
the best physical condition in my life. I feel strong mentally, emotionally, spiritually,
(47:09):
I couldn't be better. And but you know what, Lewis,
let me tell you this before we go. You know
what happens sometimes when you were playing and I'm just
Lewis being very honest with you. I would not say
this to anybody else. Somebody else out there is probably
not gonna take it the right way. They're gonna say
he's bragging. Look, I'm not bragging. But let me tell
you something. When you do the work for a long
(47:34):
time when nobody's watching, Lewis, when you're in the backgroup shop,
when you're in the wood shop and you're grinding, right,
ain't nobody watching. When you're in the gym, when you werehearsing,
and when you're just sitting here trying to really just
stay as highly focused as possible, you get a chance
to do something called your best work. And Lewis, for me,
(47:59):
that's the greatest feeling in the world. Man. I just
last week, Man came out of the studio taking it
to another level. All Right, the thing we're doing in schools,
we have to do it now virtually, okay, but now
we're taking into another level Lewis with green screens. Imagine
(48:19):
for a second that screen, you know, the ugly green
screen they using the movie business. I got one behind me,
I know. You Just imagine having that green screen in
front of you. You got a five for the young
people behind you. You got another five young people and
you're right there in the middle. And you're changing people's lives,
(48:43):
right and you know you're playing at the top of
your game, Lewis. That's a good feeling. And just driving
home from the studio, Lewis, all of a sudden, the snow,
the gray, ugly cloudy, the sun was Shannon, could nobody
see it? But all right, that's Philly Lewis. Are doing
(49:03):
your best work. That's what it's all about right now.
And sometimes, man, you got to do your best work
in the ring, Lewis. Everybody wants to work when this
the sky is clear and the sun is out, everybody
want to work. Sometimes you got to do your best
work in the rain. And I'm not talking about the
rain coming down from the clouds. I'm talking about the blood,
(49:25):
sweat and tears that you create when you're trying to
build something. You got to be able to work in
the rain. That's what's gonna make the difference. Everybody else
will go inside. That's like that coach. You ask you
that question, Lewis, do you need an umbrella? Son? And
we go work in the rain. Well, I'm going in
(49:50):
with this. You better creach, You're better keep preaching, but
you just start ruling my whole day. I had this
thing blocked off for two hours. Man. Oh, Louis man,
is so good to see you. Man, It has been
my pleasure. How is Mrs car Where is she? This
(50:13):
is cars here. She just went to answer the doorbell.
I think it was the Amazon mayor. Tell her I
want to see her face. Just haven't come up and
say hell for a secon. Literally, I hear that. I
talk to the Amazon man right now. I don't. Nobody
want to see Louis car all day. Man, it has
(50:33):
been great talking to the CEO of Happiness. You were
on your game today, you clean. You clearly was giving
us the goat. You were giving us the goat, Louis.
We got work to do, man, We got work to do, brother, okay,
and I appreciate it. I have joined uh your army
(50:56):
of people investing in human capital. That's right, that's right,
and uh, I'm looking for our alli, which we call
return on influence, not a return on investment, return on influence, sir.
And I hope that I can be as half as
good as you at doing what you do. Look, let's
(51:17):
just stay let's stay focused. Man, this is the most
exciting time. And let me tell you this. I'm gonna
say this one last thing because I believe in the
near term future of our country, near termment, long term
and I believe, man, we're about to have the greatest
comeback in the history of comebacks. This thing is gonna
(51:40):
be bigger than Rocky Bell bow up. And if you
don't believe that, then get off the field and get
off the way, because the bench is deeper and they
came to play
Host
Louis Carr
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