John Hope Bryant

The latest episode of the Building Black Biz podcast features The Breakfast Club in conversation with John Hope Bryant as he debunks the myths Of capitalism, talks inclusive economics, his new book, and more! Watch the full interview on Netflix!In Partnership with @DriveToyota

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Everybody is dj n V just hilarious charlamage to God.
We are the breakfast Club Law and the Roses here
as well. We got a special guest in the building. Indeed,
John O'Brien is back. Welcome to be with you right now.
Capitalism for all available right now now.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
You know that's a provocative title, capitalism for all. People
will say it sounds good, but has capitalism in America
ever actually been for all?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Not? Really?

Speaker 4 (00:26):
And is it good for all?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Can be? I mean, look, the Bible says money's not evil.
It's the love of money that's evil. And look, you
know two thousand eight economic crisis was really bad for
a lot of people, wasn't bad for me. I didn't
take one of those reverse subprime mortgages with a negative
amortization loan. Pick a payment where every payment you made,

(00:52):
you're a broker, you owed more money after every payment
was a negative amorization loan. That's financial literacy as people
take advantage of our people. You know, good capitalism is
where I benefit and you benefit more.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
No, you've been benefiting for a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
No, No, stand by good capitalism. My definition good capitalism where
I benefit and you benefit more so it's a boy
designing a comb or glasses into that jacket. Uh. And
you know, okay, I like the jacket. The glasses make me.
It has my look. That's worth the money I'm paying for.
Bad capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a

(01:29):
price for it. Rate murder, sex, trafficking, drug dealing. Uh.
You know, we can talk with gangsterism on Wall Street
or Main Street. Good debt and bad debt, right. Good
debt is something just tied, is something that appreciates, real

(01:50):
estates stocks, bonds, and businesses. Bad debts tied something into
depreciates financing, jewelry, you know. And so all these things
are neutral. It depends how you use them. Right. So
something hit me two days ago when I was preparing
to come in here, and I didn't want to come

(02:12):
in here with just talking about a book because it's
not about the book. It's about this is about a
business plan for the rest of our lives, and how
to explain that. It hit me like we're in the
third reconstruction right now, from the streets to the suites.
The color the only, the only, the only color blind
color is economic green. That's the only color blind color now. Second, Reconstruction.

(02:35):
We thought we I'm talking about black people now, we
thought we made it. We thought we were free. Uh,
reality is, we didn't make it. Somebody made it for us.
Andrew Young, who is here, Ambassador Andrew Young, Doctor Martin U.
King Jr. Doctor Dorothy Hyke, REDA. Scott King, the heroes
and she ros of the Second Reconstruction, and the president,
President Johnson, and the legislatures created these this infrastructure slavery,

(03:00):
First Reconstruction Freedom where we had a furtive action. We
had do you call it DEI? Now you had set
aside contracts, you have, you have, you have voting rights
and all public access laws. So we're like, okay, cool,
we're free. No, you're in a bubble. We're in a
seventy year bubble of protection. It's deep when you think

(03:23):
about this. We thought we were operating in the free
enterprise system and the capitalism and we were out here
doing our thing, and no, you're operating in a padded sale.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Expound on that.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
This. I mean it only hit me a couple of
days ago. I mean I've been wondering, like, why am
I so uncomfortable? Why do I think we're in trouble?
We thought that when we got that job in the sixties,
we are to go to the lunch counter in the sixties,
that we were free. We thought, okay, we got the
right to fold. We got no. That was dependent upon
somebody else, according you respect and dignity. It was dependent

(04:01):
upon the government always being fair and reasonable. It was
dependent upon the popular public turning against us. It was
dependent upon doctor King Andrew Young others given their life
so that we might have life, so that we had
the right to vote. I mean it's literally codified in
the you know, in the amended Constitution, so we would
have the right because we were considered property. So these

(04:24):
things were afforded us, not provided to us. It wasn't
an original thing. It was a layered on thing. It
was a box of protection that thank god, all that
came before us gave us. But they gave it to us.
We didn't give it to ourselves. And we don't own it,
and it could be taken away. We're seeing boom and

(04:47):
what hit me? Why am I so uncomfortable? We cast
a check, we don't write it. We had access to
the lunch counter, we don't own it. We bounced the basketball.
We don't own the stadium. I was hit a basketball
game with Tony, wrestler owner the Land of Hogs, my
business partner's friend, two weeks ago. They won that night
and he was very happy. But I was in the

(05:10):
players area where they parked the cars. I mean, it
looked like a parking lot. It looked it looked like
one of your car shows. It was absolutely beautiful, and
I'm so proud these brothers legitimately making them money and
all that kind of thing. The humblest car in the
whole parking lot to was Tony, the only one not
dripping in jewelry. Tony, Tony Jean's on a pullover, his

(05:35):
wife Jamie Gertz dressed down. They worth I don't know.
I don't want tell their business. But fifteen billion.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Executive producer of the Magic City documentary too, by the way,
I'm very.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Black people, really cool people. They put their money where
their mouth is, but we don't own that they do.
And he paid the players with his petty cash. But
the players are not flossing, but they're flowing like they
owned the whole situation. I mean, they own the I
asked Tony, how much is the front of road costs?
I looked there, Tony. By the way, Tony's up at

(06:06):
the tenth row.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
We up.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
You call it a nose billion seats where ever, the
tenth row, I'm cool with it. I'm with the owner.
But down he's like, oh yeah, that's he knew the
price of every seat thirty five hundred per ticket, per seat,
per game. He knew and because he che chean cha
chan cha chean. Another Billionai friend of mine used to
own strip clubs and and uh in all kinds of

(06:28):
other clubs. And he said to me one day, we
should go to one of these clubs. I'm like, we mean,
we mean we should go to the You know, then
you own these clubs. I've never been no one. My
children have never been the one. My family have never
I won't let them go. He for twenty years, he
bought them, owned them, sold them. So I'm looking at

(06:52):
the system and saying, we cast that check. We never
wrote it. We didn't, We weren't. We didn't graduate to
own in the company or CEO at scale. We didn't
graduate to ownership. We didn't take the next leptic. We
got comfortable in the second reconstruction, and then when the
mood shifted in this country. It all fell away, and

(07:14):
and what hits me now is falling away all at once.
And now you have a government that's either neutral to
you or hostile. We've never had this in the history
of this country at the federal level. You had a mayor,
you had a governor, never at a federal level. So
now the civil rights assumptions are fading away. People a
talking about white people are being discriminated against. They're flipping

(07:37):
the civil rights Acts on some on their heads. You can't,
so you're on your own. You cannot rely on the government.
You've been thrown into three hundred thousand black women last year,
conservative number were unemployed, qualified competent people. The unemployment rate
for black people is double the national average today and growing.

(08:00):
So you have economically, we're been thrown into the fire.
Politically we've thrown in the fire. Socially, you're thrown into
the fire right an AI changing the game all of
the same time. So you know what, we've been doing
so much with so little for so long. We could
almost do anything with nothing. We just need to master

(08:21):
this new game. Because, to quote Reverend Jesse Jackson, where
the got rest of soul, where the rules are published
and then playing for this level. We kill it the arts,
Top of the Game Combat. Congratulations on Netflix, by the way,
congratulate top top of the game, not the Black game,
not the Brown game, the game Faith, our brother, our brother,

(08:43):
Bishop TD Jakes, and many others. Politics, from slavery to
the President of the United States of America, President Barack Obama.
Professional sports, too many examples to name. Jordan's not gone
from basketball to NASCAR. Other way, congratulates on your on
your sponsorship of a NASCAR team. I'm paying attention, but

(09:05):
we haven't done it. In capitalism, and we're in a
capitalist democracy. It's the music business. It's the business of music.
It's the sports business. It's a business of sports. Nothing
happens without understanding how the money moves and the dollar works,
and how wealth was created. But no one gave us
that memo. That's my fourth book, and no one taught

(09:25):
us about financial literacy. That's my last book. And no
one gained us an ungained capitalism. That's this book. And
God has a sense of humor. Coincidence is God's way
of remaining anonymous. Andrew Young quote. We're on the two
hundred and fifteth anniversary of America. It's one hundredth anniversary
of Black history. Mom, thank you. Carter G. Woodson can't

(09:46):
make this up. And for the first time in the history,
you cannot have a future. You cannot have a country.
That's you never had a country. It wasn't the superpower
of the world. If it wasn't the economic power ever
Rome for you cannot now have a superpower. The economic
power without black, brown people and women never happened in

(10:08):
the history of America. But the democraphics have shifted, and
so now they need us to succeed.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
When you say we've never done it in capitalism, what
about the Bob Johnson, Robert Smith's, David Stewart's the Byron Island.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Somebody told me yesterday forget who it was. I don't.
I think it was Bishop TD Jakes. If you've got
a when you can name the success stories we failed,
mm hmmm, name white entrepreneurs. It's just name name white billionaires,
name Jewish billionaires. If you can't, it's just too many.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
Do you have to be a billionaire to be at
the top of the game?

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Account? No, No, I just know I was just I was
just given that as a as a category I mean
name black, sorry, name white. Multi millionaires are centim millionaires.
There's too many to name. It doesn't matter what category
small business owners. Fortunately, i've heard of CEOs. It's too
many to name. But when you come to black people,
you literally can go, oh, you know, and uh, by

(11:10):
the way, kudos on that. Fantastic. It's a north star.
But it's the exception, not the rule. I want to
make it the rule. I sent you a video yesterday.
Remember of all these all these white folks there on vacation.
Everybody's walking around on their phone, short pants, t shirt,
everybody's wanting to It's like this is business leader with
business leaders look like on vacation, everybody's on there. I

(11:30):
want to see that with Black America and Brown America
everywhere every city.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Are you trying to fix capitalism or sell people on
believing in the system that hasn't always.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Worked for I want to. I want to. I don't
want to do either. I want to upgrade the software.
Uh so, I guess you call it fix it, but
I I want to. I want to. I want to
repair it and I want to upgrade it. I also
want to upgrade us as we do it, because even
if capitalism was was repared, we aren't prepared for the
for the moment. In my opinion, there was like one

(12:01):
hundred billion dollars committed to black people and brown people
after George Floyd's murder.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
You ain't see none of them.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
None of it, not one dollar. The press release was issued,
but we we never get we never got to the
point where we went to with the business plan to
whoever was was on the press release. Hey, I want
to I want to move on ten million dollars of
that equity, twenty million dollars of that debt. I want
to buy that company. I've got my my, my, my

(12:28):
lending set up. I already got the credit right, I
got you know, I understand the economic structure of my
l season place. I already got bonding from. You know,
we weren't playing the game and the way the games
need to be played.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
You know who used to make uh, make sure that
those corporations you know, did what they said he was
gonna do.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, yes, but we got it. Yes, but we now
we even he would say he shook the tree. He
needed us to make He needed us to plant the
seed and make it and make it into something. We
don't need tree shakers now, just just tree shakers. We
need plant makers. We need to build the plant we
need to. We need to we need to go from
PhD to PhD. And we have to do this right now.

(13:09):
I mean, this is the fierce urgency of now. To
quote doctor King, this is this is that moment of
both problem and opportunity artificial intelligence. To quote Van Jones,
nine black people don't know a thing about AI, but
nine percent of white folks don't know a thing about
AI either.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Mhm.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
And the first jobs is taken are white people, white
middle class attorneys, accountants, anybody who's in it need to
be processed. That six figure incomes gone away instantly. That
is gonna come for customer service jobs. But we we
you can't fall from the floor. And the very and
the very thing that we uh we're good at has

(13:50):
never valued being creative, duckling, diving, being innovative, being resilient,
over the round and threw it, gonna give to it,
being creative. These a very leadership. These are the very
things that AI can't do.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Now, this conversation that would happen. I feel like we
have this conversation every two years, right We talk about put.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
A mirror into our community.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
We talk about that we don't have home ownership that
you know, we don't have assets, and we look at
all the things that a lot of us do have,
whether it's cars, it's jewelry, it's this. When does that
change and we start going into a plan to do
something different? Right, when does that change? Because we have
these conversations every year, you know, and you know, we'll say, hey,

(14:33):
look at the owner of the company. He's wearing an
ugly pollo on some khakis and everybody else is wearing
ten thousand dollars Chromehaart jeans. Right, we go through this
every couple of years. But how do we change that?
Because if not, it's just the same conversation over and
over again.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Right.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
And you talk about the two thousand and eight market,
the real estate market that fell, and yeah, it fell
because I think a lot of people that didn't have
means found it their only way to get in, right,
because a lot of people's credit scores were low, a
lot of people didn't have the finances to put down
on their first home.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
A lot of people don't know much about it.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I remember in that two thousand and date market, I
think my interest rates at the time when I bought
my house was like twelve percent.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
That's right, that was the average, right.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
I didn't know any better my average friend at the time,
which was was busterin ROMs and Bustin Robs like use
my guy, and you use this guy and you think
twelve percent is what it is, and then you learn,
So how do we change that?

Speaker 6 (15:25):
You know?

Speaker 5 (15:26):
Because people don't know who to trust anymore.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Right, So first of all, I never let the perfect
become the death of the good. So I'm glad you
got in the game in two thousand and eight. I
almost lost my house in two thousand and eight. It
was even not because I got a bad mortgage, but
it was some other things going on. But you know,
it went down in value. All my friends told me
to sell it. They were broke. Luckily I didn't, but

(15:51):
I couldn't pay the property taxes easily, and I rented
it out to a police officer, a black police officer
to be specific in LA. He didn't pay it rent
right on time, but I held onto it and it
went from two hundred thousand. I bought it for two
hundred thousand down one hundred and sixty or something everybody
sees sales sale. I holed out onto it, and five
years later I looked up It's worth seven hundred and

(16:12):
fifty thousand dollars and I sold it, got a capital gains,
took that money ten thirty one tax free exchange, flipped
the dinnerital property now worth five million. But so I
don't begrudge you or anybody else trying and getting the game.
You were actually pioneering, actually, and everybody who tried were pioneering.
But pioneers get arrows. Here's what gives me a hope.

(16:32):
Man trying to do so right get emotional. I went
to Delta last night late we coach all on hundred
thousand Delta employees that opational. But the person who sent
me in the curb, young lady. She put out her
Marria Express Blue card and then there were a mary
Express Platinum card and she's like, I've been on this

(16:53):
this grind for two years, John, my credit score is
seven eleven. And she knew she knew everything about her
entire financial picture. To start this conversation, she ran her
mouth from the time we had that curve the time
I got on that plane, talking about her life and
how it completely transform and her self esteem is up.
I get on the plane, three people walk on. Can
I get a picture? This is? This is? This is

(17:16):
y'all in the use of this. I've been doing this
for thirty three years. I don't know what happened. It's
like it's like a switches flipped and I've had a
billion video views in two years. But this thing I'm
having to talk about right now, this is like the
last eight months. I can't go anywhere. I'm on the plane.
Can I get a picture? I get off the plane? Yo, man,
what's up coming at midnight? Something's happened. Man, I don't

(17:40):
know what it is, but it's inspiring.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
And you're not saying that because of for ego purposes.
You're saying that because of the information.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
I know what I'm saying. People are information. It's not
nothing to do with me. I've been saying this for
thirty three years. If I was special, I should have
been special thirty years ago. There's nothing to do with me.
I'm on emotional because I'm like, WHOA my people smart?
We get in the memo. I'm not screaming into the wilderness.

(18:08):
I just think, you know, doctor King gave that I
have a dream speech man a hundred times before the
march on Washington, so many times that Mahela Jackson said,
if you looked at the tape, she's off to the left,
tell him about the dream. Martin translation, I've heard this
speech so many dang on times. Will you please give
me something original? And he ripped. He started rapping black children,
white children, using But before that he thought he was

(18:32):
not effective. And there's almost so many leaders. I'm sure
you show up here and what you're saying it now,
we've been talking about this for every two years. I
just think you gotta wait for the moment. You can't
go to grace, but you prepare yourself well for the
coming of grace to you our people as smart man.
But if it looks easy, if it looks like there's

(18:53):
an easier route, we don't take it. That's in human nature.
Nobody changes in good times. Why would you you just
go shopping? We only change in bad times.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
But capitalism is a dirty word to a lot of people,
Like they don't even want to hear it. They hear
the word billionaires, they hear the word capitalism, they just
think it's something evil. They think that it's ruined America.
It hasn't worked for everybody. What do you say to
those fours?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
That's wrong? It's wrong on several levels. First of all,
people say, let's go let's not even talk about billionaires,
just talk about rich I hate rich people. I hear
it's all over the time. I hate rich people. No,
you don't. You hate rich people until you become rich.
What you hate is a game system. What you hate

(19:41):
is that you've been working two jobs. You toe it
from the floor, You got too much month at the
end of your money, and no matter how hard you work,
you can't seem to get by. And so you look
at these people who are half wits and people are
half as smart as you are at the top, and
you go, if they're winning and I'm losing, if I'm
taking an al, they must be crooks. This system must
be rigged. No, if you hang around nine broke people,

(20:03):
you'll be the tenth. Right, Why do you go to
Harvard because it's gonna make you five times smarter than
state university. No, the class of twenty twenty six at Harvard,
it's gonna hook each other up for the next forty years. Connections,
connections relationship capital. Why are you part of Why are
you part of a country club? Why are you part
of a fraternity or a sorority? Why are you? I mean,

(20:23):
if you don't think about it this way, these are
all clubs. What kind of clubs are you hanging out?
Are you just hanging out in the club? Are you
a member of a club? Right? And if you're a
member of a club, what kind of club is it?
Most places I go, I'm the only brother there. I
want to change that. It's not something that makes me proud,
But somebody's got to put their foot in the door.

(20:44):
Somebody's got to get in the door and stand there.
I was with last week. It was Robert Smith. God
blessed what he's doing. He did this awaarfest and for
PCUS raised money last week. Yeah yeah, yeah, And we
just happened to run each other in our hallway. Robert
Smith comes over. Is Tyler Perry yo? Dapping it up?
We have a private moment conversations. When he takes a picture,

(21:05):
they posted like, oh no, that's what we that's what
we want to see you now. You can't you can't
make this up. But that's basically three businessmen, right and
now we need to see business women too, but we
I just think that I think business celebrity is a
new celebrity. I think capitalism has to include us in
the capital stat When I was growing up, I didn't

(21:28):
know until I walked down the street. There's our taugh
financial literacy that the muffler shop was a capitalist. I
didn't know the nail salon the nail salon, and I
got my nails done yesterday. They didn't do it for free.
I paid them. You got children, No one's taking care
of those children for free unless it's your grandma. I mean,
real talk. Help me out here getting your hair done,
they're not doing that for free. Somebody doing your your

(21:51):
your your what they call it, my wife calls it.
What's white? Does your your clothes? Your wardrobes, you're dry clean?
They're not doing that for free. But even that one's
an easier when wardrobe is a little bit more nuance.
They're not doing that for free.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Right, even if you don't believe in capitalism, your behavior
will be that of a capitalist because of the system
that we're.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
No no go. Once that further Charlamagne, we're all capitalists.
So okay, if you're going to work and they paying
you a salary or hourly. You're just using your human
capital and you're trading it for compensation. Now, it made
the lower lower level of risk. You're not taking the
risk in the enterprise. You're not Bob Pittman at our Heart, right,

(22:33):
You're not Charlemagne at Black Effect Network, but you are.
You are risking your time and you wanted to be
compensated for for compensation. Otherwise you show up for free, right.
So capitalism is at every level. It's just a matter
how much risk reward. Now I'm an entrepreneur, it's the
highest level of craziness, but I take a lot of risk.

(22:53):
I want a lot of reward if it pays off.
We need more people who look like us, who are
getting reward for at risk if and do it. Like
what's the drug dealer? Come on, what's real talk now, entrepreneur,
I legal and anthing. Okay, let's set that out. Just
make that clear. But then if you're a successful drug dealer,
know it's an oxymoron. You're not dumb. You understand import, export, finance, marketing, wholesale, retail,

(23:18):
customer service, employee security HR.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
The h is a little more dangerous and distribution.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
If you're a if you're a gang leader, you're a
frustrated union organizer. These are people with These are folks
with talents and skills. Man, I mean you wouldn't look
it's real talk. Where did NASCAR come from? Moonshine running
in the Appalachian Mountains? Poor white people running from the police,
selling selling alcohol which was illegal. They realized this is

(23:50):
you know, we're gonna end up in dead or in
prison probation for role. We can't do this. Let's let's
stop the moonshine part. What part of this are we
good at? It's legal. The driver, now, we can't drive
on the street like that. Okay. So they went up
on the beach and then they were found a field
and they were going circles because was it's just the
found It was a small field. That's how that started

(24:11):
running in a circle. Nobody would naturally drive a car
in a circle, is what it was. It was a
real estate somebody gave them. Well, that same family that
that started that, don't trust me, go do your research.
Four of those families are billionaires in NASCAR to day,
same families that are running the moonshine. They just mainstreamed it,
legitimized it. Now, it's got logos on it now. Now

(24:32):
Michael Jordan is in the game. Right. All I'm saying is,
let's stop hating this game and let's master it.

Speaker 7 (24:39):
Question for you, Right, So when you say something like
that and people you talk about people having an issue
with capitalism, it's the fact that, like you got people
that get to a certain point. So, like you said,
you go in the country clubs, wherever you go, you're
normally normally black person. Jay Z I've heard him talk
about capitalism and somebody has to get in because when
you get to a certain point, you're not doing business
with people that look like you.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
This four four four album was, by the way, financial
literacy album.

Speaker 7 (24:59):
Right, But when you get to these places, the truth
of the matter is a lot of people don't make
it there.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Right.

Speaker 7 (25:03):
So when we're trying to get to this equal for
all capitalism for all plays, who's more responsible to make
that happen. Is it the person that's in the room
to throw down the resources or is it the person
that really doesn't have the ladder? I know you have
that chapter in your book, right to climb up and
continue climbing, even when it gets to the point where
like I can't even see the person that's already made
it in the room, and nor can they see me

(25:25):
because there's such a disconnect.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
So you've asked a really, really good question and you
actually answered it to it's both. I'm responsible if I'm
in the room or don people's or whoever it is.
Because to whom much is given, much is required. Service
is the pay, is the rent you pay on your success,
and giving back and lifting up because we were lifted up.

(25:48):
I mean, somebody opened the door for me. So we
must go out of our way to help our brothers
and sisters to come up. But it's a hand up,
not a hand out. If you tell your real in
if you I'll hire you because you're black. I will
fire you if you're You're in competent, straight up right.
And I have a bunch of black vendors. In fact,

(26:09):
most of my vendors are black and women in minority.
But if they tear their air in three four times,
you done with me. I'm not tolerating that mess. You
can waste my money, you can't waste my time. On
the other side of that, that that situation if I'm
trying to come up and I'm trying to get that
John Bryant contract, I'm trying to get that Charlet Manka
or you know whoever Laura in the contray what I

(26:30):
need to make sure I'm top of the mark. I
make sure that that when I leave the room, nobody
should say, but you know, I like I like Lauren,
you know I like but but I like I like them.
But no, no, no, that's a problem. When you're born
black in America, you gotta be twice as smart, twice
as intelligent, twice as well addressed, show up twice as early,

(26:51):
leave twice as late, and understand you don't get half
the pay, and don't have an attitude about it. Just
let the haters make you better. Over the round. Through it,
We're gonna get to it. Life's not and there is
no perfect. Don't let the perfect be the death of
the good. I was saying that earlier, but I lost
my point. Don't let the perfect be and the death
of the good. There is no perfect. This game is
not changing. It's getting worse, harder, quicker, faster, and it's

(27:13):
going to leave us behind. With us in here noodling
around rearranging the deck chairs and the Titanic. We have
got to get our hustle focused on the right thing.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
I don't disagree with you, but you say, work twice
as hard to have to pay initially.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
That's why people don't like capitable.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
So what.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Life? Life's not fair. I didn't create the system. I'm
telling you how to work it. Look, there's some things
that are just isn't Why is a black neighborhood worth
less than a white neighborhood Because in the nineteen twenties
nineteen thirties, the federal government redlined. We don't have time
to go into details here, but literally the federal government
put a red marker and said these neighborhoods a dangerous

(27:53):
And then there was a green neighborhood and yellow neighborhoods.
So where did the federal guarantees go for mortgages? Went
to the green and the yellow neighborhoods, where the bank's
finance loans in the green and the yellow neighborhoods, where
that nobody finance a loan in the red neighborhoods, though
the real estate got depressed in values in the red neighborhoods.
You follow me, and the real estates increased in value

(28:15):
because they were able to get financing at prime rates
in the yellow and the green neighborhoods. Now, that's historic,
and that's one hundred years old. I can't change that,
and I'm not going to sit here in debate about it.
But when I bought that condover two hundred thousand dollars
and sold up to seven and fifty thousand dollars, I
cleared a profit of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

(28:38):
I'm not saying yeah, but the guy across the freeway
was double that. It probably was double that, by the way,
But that ain't got nothing to do with me. That's
still my five hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and I
still turn that into five million dollars. My money still
works for me, My wealth works for me, My success

(29:01):
works for me. But if you spend your time being angry,
angry is not a strategy. Frustration is not a business plan.
And by the way, I asked people this, how's that
work for us? So far? So we've been We've tried
everything else. So what I said about when I first
came in here, we tried everything else. We tried government,

(29:23):
we tried civil service, social justice. We've tried working for
the man, not working for the man. We've tried illegal,
we tried you know, we tried all we tried. How's
it worked? Is that set us free? It's like, well
you would ask me about this said, It's like somebody saying, well,
why should I try God? Because God cannot possibly mismanage

(29:45):
and scripup your life worse than you haves. So give
them a shot.

Speaker 5 (29:49):
My question is, you know, people like easy conversations.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Right, They're like, not an easy one.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
They like to be guided, right.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
And the reason I say they like to be guided
because a lot of times people just don't know, right.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
We only see what.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Our environment is, right. That's why for a long time
people wanted to be rappers. They wanted to be basketball players,
they wanted to be baseball players. What people see what
they see fast. They want to be drug dealers because
they see the local drug.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Dealers, that's right.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
So for people that's out there, what do you tell
people because they want to be got it?

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Right?

Speaker 2 (30:16):
I see you post something that says, you know, think
about buying a business rather than starting one from scratch.

Speaker 5 (30:22):
So break that down of those recommendations.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
So now we're getting into real let's let's bust up
another myth. I want that bag, I want that cash,
I want that dollar, I want that money. Get that
out of here. It's useless. All money is is an
exchange of value. I could take your jacket right in
the back of your jacket, pay to the order of
routing number, checking account number, and an amount, take your

(30:49):
jacket to the bank, and they have to go in
in the bank in the back and start huddling about
whether they are under a legal responsibility. You know where
I'm going to cash your jacket, because all a check is.
When we used to use checks, all a check is
is a medium to transfer the value of the money
that's in your account. So we've gotten obsessed. We look

(31:10):
up a love and all the wrong places and obsessing
about the only thing, the wrong thing about money. You
make money during the day, you build wealth and your sleep.
This is a big one. Where are we spending all
of our time short term cash? So if your outflow
exeeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall.
If I'm an NBA player, By the way, seventy percent

(31:31):
of NBA players seventy percent of NFL players bankrupt in
five years after retirement. Seventy percent of those who win
the Lobbry lottery bank rupp five years after they get
the money. So it's not just about the money. If
it was about the money, everybody be cool. They are
not financially literate and they're not using the money to
build wealth. Take that money and put it into an asset,

(31:53):
and the asset can be on your ass Put it
in an asset, can I say that? And and and
by homes, by tangible assets that will compound. That's the
first key to building wealth because when the income stops,
the bills continue. This is really important. I don't know

(32:14):
why we don't get this. If you're making it. If
you're an NBA player, you're making five million dollars a
year and your bills are three and a half million
dollars a year, you're gonna be broke.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
You broke, I arrested a half.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah. But even okay, let's make it easier because you're
you're really you're you're really smart. You got that already.
Let's assume you you make five million dollars a year
and your bills are a million and a half dollars
a year, and you have no other skills, and you're
twenty eight and your contract lasts eight years, you're gonna
be broken because when you finish that contract, guess what

(32:50):
your bills still are one point five milli year. What's
your income now? Zero? Zero? So it's just simple math.
At some point it's gonna cross. The lines are gonna cross,
and it's happened now for thirty years. We've been watching
the same movie for thirty years. It's a slow moving
train wreck, right, but we don't learn so right now,
you said another key thing, why are we spending twenty

(33:11):
thousand dollars for a GoFundMe campaign, a start you know,
to raise money from our relatives are gonna be upset
with us or in the pizza shop startup that's gonna fail.
Why not go and buy a million dollar business, a
seven figure business in your town that's already successful. There's
ae hundred between eighty eight trillion and one hundred trillion

(33:32):
dollars of wealth it's gonna transfer in the next ten
to fifteen years by baby boomers. These are white wealthy people,
mostly men, who are all trying to retire at the
same time. In the book, I talk about that there's
ten thousand people leaving the economy every day. It's this
is a deep number. Let me phrase that, there are
ten thousand baby boomers leaving the economy every day.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
By death.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
You're dying, another retire, tiring. Everybody wants to go play
golf at the same time. So they own businesses. Now
now where they're doing this money. They're gonna give the stocks,
the bonds, the cash, the houses to their wives, the
husbands and their children. Kids don't want the businesses. Is
too much work. There's nothing wrong with the business. This
is an opportunity for us. Go meet yourself. A white person.

(34:18):
I'm being sarcastic, Go meet you, an Asian person, Go
meet you, Go meet go meet a black person that
owns a business. I don't care what color they are.
It's a green person. Go find somebody. When you drive
down the street, you listening to this on the radio.
Driving down the street, you see that office building in
those little squares, those are all businesses. An architecture business,
a dentist is a business. The lawyer is a business.

(34:43):
Whatever you're going to in those little squares or the
retail those are all businesses. Find one that looks around
sixty five, befriend them, get to know them, Prove to
them that you are competent because their kids don't want
the business, and they may not even like their kids,
and then real talk and say, look, I like to buy.

(35:06):
After about six months or a year building that relationship,
it can't be a game. Now a real Really, mister Joe,
a missus jail, I'd like to buy this business. Are
you interested? Well, you know, I really, I really would
like to transition. Do you have any money? Well no,
but I got a lot of hustle and I can
probably take get a bank loan for half of this.
I've already done a run the numbers. And if you

(35:26):
carry back paper, which means a finance the owner finance
is part of this carry back paper for forty percent,
I can get the ten percent. It's a million dollar purchase.
I'll get five thousand loan, forty percent carry back from you,
and I'll bring one hundred thousand and I'll buy your business.
And by the way, if it doesn't work, you get
it all back. If I fail, you get the business

(35:47):
back in three to five years. That's a great deal.
Everybody wins. Fair change is no robbery, right so, and
I already said in negotiation is where everybody leaves the
table slightly annoyed.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
Explain it now real quick.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
People wouldn't understand capitalism. Okay, So this is a this
is a consumer, This is the this is the this
is the producer. The eclumnists here economic, this is economic.
This is the capitalist here and this is the consumer.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
You got left hand and right hand because members radio,
so people driving in the cause.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Left hand is the consumer, right hand is the capital.
This is negotiating table at the mic. The consumer's job,
please listen to me, is to pay the least amount
of money while getting the most amount of value. The
capitalist job is to is to get is to extract
the most amount of money while giving the least amount

(36:40):
of value. That's your job, the consumers, that's your job
is to pay the least for the most. The capitalist
job is to get the most while giving the least.
Everybody has a job a negotiation. Now in our economy,
the price is already set. You go to the store,
it already has a price or it. But you go
to the third world country or a second world country,
you're you're hackling with the you're talking to the merchants

(37:01):
of the corner. You try to figure out the prices.
A good negotiation is where everybody leaves that negotiation slightly
annoyed because nobody got everything they wanted.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
I want to ask you a few questions, right, because
people arehead John.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
I'm just want to make sure that we're covering all
the ground. Because you just you said something really important,
which is big, and I went in underscore. Go find
you a business broker. Stop all this, jan Yang, Go
find a business broker in your town. Stop talking about
a billion dollar company. Stop talking about one hundred million
dollar company. You ain't got fifty dollars of your name.
Go to your in Columbus, Georgia, or wherever you live.

(37:38):
There is a dentist with three locations making seven figures.
Buy that business.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
But see, that's where I wanted to start, right. We
always here build well by the business. But how do
you build well by the business when you're starting with nothing?
You got bills and bad credit.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
That's where I started. Builds bad credit, afford the credit score.
I was homeless at Latti hair and Airport in Los Angeles,
or anybody your listeners who are driving by lot there
and airport. That parking lot was my home for almost
a year as homeless person. My credit was tow up
from the flow up, and I could have filed bankruptcy,
but I wanted to honor my debts. My mother treated

(38:12):
me to train me to live up to my responsibilities
in my dad. So I had to work my way
back from nothing. So I'm not talking at somebody, I'm
talking with you. I'm saying I'm right where they're sitting.
The lowest credit score. Look, let's go back to the
original premise. I said, you thought that you'd wan No
somebody wanted for you. Now win for yourself. Because you

(38:34):
can't control legislation, racism, whether somebody going to hire you,
fire you, you can't control that. You can control your
credit score. Black people have the lowest credit score on
average in America six, which means that yours is seven hundred,
and yours is eight hundred, and mine is seven fifty,
and Pooky and them Jojo and our cousins are five hundreds,

(38:56):
and it's all bounced out. But on average six twenty
you can't get a decent and car Loan is six twenty.
You know, the car business an eighteen percent interest. About
that's that's not a Mercedes is Mercedes payments and it's
going to blow up. By the way, by the way,
a car a car dealership. It's three businesses. The sales

(39:18):
side the least profitable, the financing department, and the mainness department.
Those are the most profitable. Right, so that cars going
maintenance is most profitable. It's going back to them. So
we have the lowest credit score. If you want to
buy a house, you can't buy a house at six twenty.
You need seven hundred. Well, you can get a house.
It's going to be a really bad loan. And you

(39:39):
shouldn't get an adjustable rate loan ever to buy a house.
Nothing that is five figures of more should be adjustable rates.
Please hear me. You want to buy a business, you
cannot get a business loan at seven. At six hundred
credit score, the banker is not being racist. Where they
might be racist, but they're not being racist. When they
turn you down, it's bad. It's a bad credit decision
because small busines. This is the riskiest form of credit.

(40:02):
If you listen to me, if you have a job
and you've listen to what I'm saying, get your credit
score to seven hundred. Go to your computer at midnight,
just test my theory and ask for a thirty five
thousand dollars credit card. Watch a computer say yes. Don't
believe me, Go test my theory. Go get our coaching

(40:23):
or somebody's. Don't pay for it. We do. We do
it on scholarship, so I'm not charging you at operation
to hope. Get your credit scord to seven hundred. Just
don't don't believe the thing I'm saying. This is the
first step. Get your credit from toe up and the
flow up from six hundred to seven hundred. By the way,
for every fifty points of increasing your credit score, you
live five more years. I'm gonna reverse that. Back it up.

(40:47):
If you live in our neighborhoods, check cashers, pay day
loan lenders, rent their own stores, title lenders, liquor stores, pawnshops.
You live, your credit score is on average five eighty
to six hundred. You lived at sixty one years of age.
I agree.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
I believe that whole herd because people people.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
It's statistics show that people would wealthy people who live
like twelve years.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Longer twenty it's twenty oh. Got twenty, So fifteen minutes.
So somebody here is listening from Chicago Lincoln Park downtown.
That's seven forty credit score. They live, they live in
their almost their nineties. Fifteen minutes away is Garfield Park.
That's five eighty credit score. You lived sixty one years
of age. Fifteen minute drive on the freeway. Nothing else

(41:29):
is different but the but. But your money affects your mind.
Your mind affects your mindset, and your mentality, and your
depression or lack thereof, and a surviving mindset. If you
are struggling and hustling and worrying all the time, eating
bad food, not getting your rest, you're gonna die early.
So with affecting one affects everything else. So anybody who

(41:53):
listening to this, just take a I will put up
right now. I'll put a ten thousand dollars ten one
thousand dollars examples. You have ten people who call in
the year show contact you, and they're gonna take this test.
I'm gonna do what John Brian says. I've got a job.
My credits goo is tow up. I'm gonna get my
credit score within a year to seven hundred, and I'm

(42:15):
gonna go to the computer and ask something less than
seventy five thousand dollars, less than a hundred thousand dollars
consumer credit. And if I get declined, John Brin ows
me one thousand dollars, I'll pay it. Well, I know
the answer, and when they're gonna get approved.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
You at Operation Hope, you actually help people repair their credit.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
One hundred percentree And I've delivered four and a half
billion dollars worth of capital just through Operation Hope. In
what I'm talking about, we actually say no loans denied.
We're the only nonprofit allowed to operate inside of a
bank branch in US history and on the walls of
our office and says no loans denied. We approve you
subject to the resolution of your primary denial factors. We

(42:51):
figure out why you be declined for a loan. Figure
we figured it out. We tell you what's up, we
help you fix it, repair it, upgrade it, and then
we send you back over to the bank who wants
to make your loan, because if they don't, they go broke.
So that banks tells you we know what the bank's
criteria is. Otherwise you wouldn't send you back to them.

(43:12):
So when we have never had a situation where we
actually had to fund the loan in thirty three years
out of four point five billion dollars. Because the bank
always says yes once we prepair it. Because they want
is that about a black person or a Latino person,
or an Asian person or any person it's a green person.
They want good loans. But our credit score once once
again is the lowest in the country. So get in

(43:34):
the game. By getting your credit score up, you'll live longer,
You'll be happier. By the way, And as the lady
told me and again from Delta last night, I'm getting yeses.
She said, her whole life changed. The bank's telling me yes.
I mean, can you imagine what that does? Yeah, of
course to your confidence and your self esteem. So I'm

(43:55):
just very excited about this. I just think this is
our moment in our time. And then once you get
one win, it leads to the second one and the
third one, and all of a sudden, you're flying.

Speaker 6 (44:04):
I do have one.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
I gotta run. I'm sorry, but I just got one
question before I go. You know, the biggest conversation.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
I love you having you at the table. Man.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I don't want you to go now, you know it is,
I got a doctor's point, I got make sure I
stay healthy.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Okay, crazy, don't knock what's important. Everybody get your process right.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
It's not a prospect though, But you know, my question
to you is is when should parents start having these
conversations with kids?

Speaker 7 (44:32):
Right?

Speaker 2 (44:33):
And the reason I asked that is I have six
and I see the difference between when I started being
an entrepreneur and I started messing around with money. That
want my kids right? So like my kids they got
this thing. Now they're about to get in trouble, but
they'll go to Wolverines or they go five below. They
buy candy and they sell candy at school. That's right, right,
it's a profit. I let him do it because I
just love that they're starting business in business.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Mind that early.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
You know, he's mad at me because he doesn't have
apple pasts.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
He's like Dade.

Speaker 4 (44:58):
These kids would have.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
Pepen them will bet it can't maybe.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
So my question to you is, at what age do
you start with kids with credit, with credit cards, with
having a bank account, with whether it's real estate, whether
it's stock market, whether it's whatever it may be.

Speaker 5 (45:12):
At what age do you.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Start and what's the way they should start for parents
out there? So they're not forty year old parents just
getting their first home. So they're teaching these kids a
lot earlier. So what age and what's the mission or
the way that they should do it.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
First of all, you're a great parent man. Thank you.
This this is what you just said. That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
I'm setting my son down to you for a month.
I'm sending because he's on it. They'll train you, train
you come out with a look with muscles, but I'm
sending them to you.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
It's all good. So do you know what My first
business was.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
No striple Oh, by the way, I want to dance.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Run American Advances. Quite literally. I was a I was
a whole another part of my life years ago.

Speaker 5 (46:02):
First business, first business.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Sorry, I was iran a candy house, the same thing
as your kids doing. I was nine years old and
I went to a financial literacy lesson in Compton, California.
This banker did not want to be there. White banker
did not want to be there. As banker made them
come community service. We didn't want them there. Came in
once in a week for six weeks. All of the

(46:24):
rest of my kids, the friends of my friends, but
they're playing games and throwing paper planes, all kinds of things.
Because I saw my best friend get murdered with the
drug dealer try and sell for money, and because I
saw the guy who saved my life getting murdered two
years before that over money drugs, and my mom and
dad divorced over money. When I was four or five

(46:45):
years old, I was like, Okay, I don't get out
of this situation alive and legal and profitable. So I'm
looking for an answer, and this banker comes in my classroom.
So by the third time I raised my hand. He
came in the third week. Excuse me, sir, what do
you do for a living and how'd you get rich legally?
And I was serious. He said, I'm a banker and
not fans on entrepreneurs. I said, I don't know what

(47:06):
an entrepreneur is, but it is legal. I'm gonna be one.
And he started unpacking this. That's when I said. I
walked down the street and saw the muffler shop and
the candy shop, so at the liquor store and I said,
you're selling the wrong kind of candy, and he told
me to go away. He knew what he was doing
at a college degree. I said, I've got cavities, and
I didn't realize I was asking for a joint venture.
But I was like, work with being let me help

(47:26):
you sell candy, and he dismissed me. So I worked
as a box boy. He wanted something. He wanted to
have me up front at the candy counter, and he
was gonna pay me top dollar after school. This is
indicative of our community. Were always taking these filosphy jobs,
taking the high profile stuff, rocking the mic. We don't
own it. Now I don't want that job. I want
the box boy. So I want to know where the

(47:48):
inventory was. I want to open the inventory box, pull
out the inventory list of that banker told me about,
and look for the source of the inventory, the wholesale rate,
what he bought it for, in the retail rate, in
the profit margin. I found out out three weeks later.
I quit. I went home, borrowed forty dollars. My mother
made three hundred dollars a week selling candy, just like
your son, and put the liquor store out of the
candy business. Now that did wonders to my self esteem.

(48:12):
I was ten years old now in Atlanta, and kindergarten,
it thinks to Mayor Andre Dickens and Mayor Keisha lands
Botles before. We have a bank account called a Hope
Child Savings account for every kindergarten kid in Atlanta Public schools,
twelve thousand accounts. Now, studies have shown if you have

(48:34):
money in an account, sorry, you're a kid with no
money in the account, you're twenty five percent more likely
to go to college. If you put money in that
account fifty bucks, one hundred bucks, it's the kid is
seventy five percent more likely to graduate from college at kindergarten.
So kids are paying attention to consequences and connecting the
dots at a very early age. I don't think you

(48:54):
can start early enough because money transmits and transfers into
everything we do.

Speaker 6 (49:00):
I got to run.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
I'm so sorry, y'all.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
I was reading something where they say the Jewish community, right,
when they look at the job, they look at it differently.
Let me know if you think it's real, if you
think it's true, if you heard this right, They said,
when the Jewish community looks at a job, they look
at it as first. When they go to that job,
they look at it to understand the job, meaning learn
the process of actually what the job is about.

Speaker 6 (49:20):
They said, the second year.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
They look at the connects of the job to figure
out how to do it on their own.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
They said.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
The third year is they usually quit and start that
job as kind of like being in competition.

Speaker 6 (49:32):
Do you see that a lot?

Speaker 5 (49:33):
And is that true?

Speaker 1 (49:34):
One hundred percent?

Speaker 5 (49:35):
Break it down, because when I heard it, I was
I was amazed. I thought that was.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
By the way, the Jewish community is a model. I
joke sometimes and say we need a black Jewish business plan,
And I'm only partially joking. Jews are two percent I
think of the US population and the billionaire Let that
sink in. Wow, damn, Should I say it again? There's
only fifteen min's Jews in the world of eight billion people.

(50:03):
And black people have to come to Africa with Jews
are to Israel, which is a resource whole another conversation.
But Jews are only two percent of the US population,
but they are forty percent of the wealth of the
billionaires in this country. And they've done it on their own.
They've done it because they've been discriminated against. I mean
it's still being to this day and so and by

(50:23):
the way, anyway, it's hold another conversation. But I think
we have a lot to learn from from from the
Jewish community. I think we have to learn more African
brothers and sisters who come here from Ethiopia and Nigeria
and they go working at the box. They're the belman
at the Park Hyatt. Then they get their buddies to
be belman. Then they there, then they're in the first

(50:44):
they're in the front desk, and then they're at the
concierge desk. And then then they get an ubercar, and
they get a black car, and then they get an
apartment and they are all living together and they're all
running this business. It started as a job as a gig.
Just the exact point they learned the game. They want
Why Why the front desk, that's where people are checking in,

(51:07):
that's the trait that that now you know who can pay,
who can Why the concierge desk, because they're they're making
arrangements to go to concerts, to go to events, because
that's where the transaction for transportation goes. Why then Uber
because that's the easiest way to get into transportation, and
then they start ridding the car. Then they want to
then they buy the car, and why the why the

(51:27):
apartment they're living together so they can pool their money
until they can buy a house. It's it's really we
need to we need to make smart sexy again. We've
been making dumb sexy for way too long. We've dumbed
down and celebrated it. We've got to make smart sexy.
We got to make we got to make boring sexy.
A lot of what I'm saying is basic. We we
we have mastered the complicated. We now to now get

(51:51):
back to the base. And that's why I'm saying capitalism
for all. I'm saying, try it. It's not like we
tried this at scale and it didn't work. People want
to talk about Greenwood or you know, Tulsa or you know, Okay,
that was five square blocks. That wasn't the whole city,

(52:13):
It wasn't a whole state, It wasn't a decade. And people,
if you want to deal with great with Tulsa, let's
deal with with Tulsa example. So TUSA was an example
of black success, black ownership, black excellence. White folks burned
it down, racist, horrible. What happened next, because that's where
the story ends with a lot of people. We rebuilt it.
It lasted into the nineteen sixties. What happened integration once

(52:38):
we realized once the laws changed again, the second reconstruction
and we can go to a white man's barbershop, or
a white man's dennist or a white men's store. We
wanted to try it out. I understand that we wanted
the thing that was denied us. I get it. But
what happened to the core businesses that relied on that
closed economy?

Speaker 4 (52:58):
They failed to ask to a couple more questions, right, I.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Hope I answered your question. Send your send your son
to me. Man.

Speaker 4 (53:05):
Congrats you prostate.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
But listen, do you think too much emphasis gets put
on personal responsibility when it structural barriers are still very real?

Speaker 1 (53:15):
No, because it's not that this is a This is
an and conversation, not an or conversation. You have groundwater
effects and and and then you have tidal effects. Groundwater
are things you can't change, baseline things you can't change.
We need we need Washington, d C. Congress people. That's
why you're elected. Officials really matter. They've got to change

(53:37):
those laws and affect that in the way that changes
the groundwater change the system. Meanwhile, you got title effects.
Where's the wind blowing, Where's the opportunity flowing? What are
you doing about it? And to me, the one thing
I'm a control free I want to I want to
handle the thing I can control, and I build my

(53:58):
whole life without government's intervention. I'm not asking for permission.
All money is his freedom. Do you know how good
it feels going well? You know it is going to
a room as I did last week and give people
a five thousand dollars scholarship just because I felt like it.
I need to go to a committee. I didn't have
to go to a write a write paper. I love it,

(54:21):
you know, Yeah, you know what I think. I think
I'm gonna give five one thousand dollars scholarships today. You know,
I'm gonna give Clock Atlanta five million dollars of financial
coaching scholarships singing a board meeting. You know, I just
text my people. I just committed the five million dollars.
You know how good that feels. See that That's what
I'm talking about. And the government had nothing to do

(54:43):
with that. The groundwater effects had nothing to do with that.
I was in rental real estate. I gave people a
chance to go from rent to own. I built that
company and sold it for one hundred and twenty million dollars.
I have. I'm in digital media. I got a podcast
with you that's doing money and Well, Money Well podcast
that just was nominated for Image.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
You Will amazing.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
I've I've got these books, don't don't you know that
there's not of my lifestyle, but it is something that
fulfills me. I've got uh you know, I've created fifty businesses,
none of which are in finance and financial literacy and
real estate and all these different are AI now, none
of these involving the government. We're just we're traumatized. I

(55:24):
think we are we I think we are depressed, distressed, traumatized.
And and now what did Malcolm X say. We've been bamboozled,
you've been tricked, you've been fooled, you've been hoodwinked, you've
been running among So now it's the it's the shadow
the scaring us. It's the it's the threat of, it's
the history of it's the legacy of that keeps us
from moving. And all I'm saying is, this is your time.

(55:48):
This is your time.

Speaker 7 (55:49):
I think it's just like when I'm listening to you
say that, you know how, like there's always a conversation
about like the one like the person that makes it
out of their neighborhood or like whatever, right, And it's like,
what's that I always trying to think about, Like what's
the different friends? Like we went to the same schools
we went to maybe I went to college, maybe you didn't,
or we've experienced the same people.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
What is the difference?

Speaker 7 (56:06):
And it's that mindset, But like there's still that that
still happens, Like there's still people who are just as smart,
went to the same schools, who one thing threw off
their trajectory and then they fall back on the whole
blaming on the system conversation. So we just remove that
from our mind because there are people that are still
trying want to do things that still keep coming up
against this like something, so like what are we doing?

Speaker 1 (56:28):
And you're giving excellent questions, yes, removing from your mind.
I walk through life consciously oblivious of most things around
me because the stuff just doesn't matter. I am laser focused.
I tell people I'm coming that way. I'm going to
encourage you to move out of the way. I don't
want to run over you. I don't want to hurt you.
I'm giving you fair warning. I'm coming that way over

(56:49):
to rounded through it. I'm going to get to it.
I take no provitamins. Success is going from failure to
failure without loss of enthusiasm. I'm coming that way. I'm
warning you. That breeds confidence that people are like, oh dang,
I don't even like you, but I respect you. I mean,
that's that's sexy. Okay, maybe I'll join you. You know what
I'm saying. I was gonna get him your way with
Maybe I'll get so. Yes, you have got to ignore

(57:12):
the drama and and keep it moving. That's him, by
the way, right, ignore the drama, keep it moving, and
and let me let me now go to the other side.
The mainstream situation is they've got so many success stories
and so much infrastructure. They can be half the half
wits and half smart and half them and they just

(57:34):
get carried because their their boy is the CEO of
a company, and there and then and then, and his
sister is tired of the nephew sleeping on the couch.
Can you give him an internship?

Speaker 6 (57:45):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Right? So he's not all that smart but he still
gets in, So that is an unfair advantage. We need
to create that unfair advantage for our knit with cousins,
and you're only gonna do that ro modlic Why am
my businessman? I'm sorry? Why am I entrepreneur? My daddy
was a businessman, His daddy was a sharecropper, and his
daddy was a slave. Who's fault in the in the

(58:08):
Union Army and protected Memphis, Tennessee as a George Young
who is an officer? Why is my mother an investor in? Well,
she's so good to me and tell me she loved
me because her mother didn't tell her she loved her,
So she turned a negative into a positive. My mother
owned seven homes. My grandmother owned a shotgun shock. My
great grandmother owned one house from slavery with a border

(58:30):
a renter. I owned seven hundred. We're not geniuses, we're
role Modeling is an old saying, no matter how much
I love you, my son and my daughter, if I
don't have wisdom, all I can give you is my
own ignorance. So out of love, we passed down bad
habits from generation to generation. I can't guarantee you that
being being positive and doing this is going to make

(58:52):
you a success. I cannot, but I absolutely guarantee you
that being negative and not doing this is gonna make
you fail.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Now you keep saying try it a question, right, is
the wealth gap a capitalism problem?

Speaker 4 (59:04):
Or who has access to capitalism problem?

Speaker 1 (59:10):
The wealth gap is a historical problem because it already exists.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
How capitalism right?

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Because of bad capitalistm was we talked about earlier, if
slavery was bad capitalism. So let's go to the book
and an example. I gave this a fifty year old
it's a fifty year story. It's a fifty year old
history of what's already happened. That proves my point. So
in nineteen sixty eight, whatever, doctor King, and Andrew Young,

(59:40):
all these people, doctor Dorothy Heyde fought for civil our
civil rights, and we got affirmative action through President Johnson,
President Kennedy and Honorary President King, Doctor King, and then
doctor King gets assassinated and then Kennedy. Nixon comes in,
which is a reaction to by the way, it's still happening.
So Nixon was a reaction to Johnson, conservative reaction to

(01:00:02):
the supposed so called liberal By the way, Johnson was
a responsible reaction into Lincoln in eighteen hundreds, and some
would argue that what's happening now is a reaction to Obama.
To Obama, just go back to your point. So in
nineteen seventy two, women, a white woman could not get
a bank account in nineteen seventy two, not eighteen seventy two.

(01:00:23):
She couldn't get a loan unless her husband co signed it.
There was a whole debate about women's roles. You guys
couldn't have had You guys couldn't be sitting here in
nineteen seventy two, white version of you couldn't be sitting
here because you had to be at home with babies
or whatever. You were not supposed to be in the workplace.
It's a whole debate. So finally they said, break through debate.
We're gonna give it from rereaction, but we're gonna give

(01:00:43):
it to white women. I'm cool with that, No problem.
That helped the door to black women, Latino women, and
all women. What's the result? Today? Women are a third
of the US economy thirty three dollars economy, and women
are eight to ten trading of that every year. So
we hadn't got that experiment, right, this would be we
be in a second tier nation today and also ran country.

(01:01:07):
So we need to now apply that to what people
call diversity and inclusion or what some people will call DEI,
which I think is useless. I forget all these programmed names,
forget all this drama, the math says. The math says
that my rich friends need my poor friends do better,
if only to stay rich. The math says that forty

(01:01:28):
percent black of this country economy is diverse people us.
The math says that within ten years this will be
a majority of minorities. Now we're starting to get to
the real deal unless we want be speaking Chinese in
twenty years. There's not enough successful, college educated white men
for the first time in history to drive economic growth

(01:01:49):
in the next twenty years. Now, if you haven't heard
anything I've said, I hope you heard that that's never
happened in the history of this country. This country actually
needs you to be succes in order for them to
keep their cars, their boats, their yachts, their houses, their businesses.
We are a consumer base, we are a customer base.

(01:02:10):
We are untapped capital. We are smart, we are good
business people. We just have not been invested in and
I think that is what's happening. That is the new
that is the opportunity that's now in front of us
for the next ten years. And I've written a business
plan for Black America. I've given you copies of it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
We can people download this if they want.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
They can go to Dream Forward. You just you know,
go to John O'Brien and Dream Forward, or go to
the go to Capitalism for All the New website for
the book, or go to and get the book, or
go to Operation Hope. I made it really easy. Go
to Operation Hope website, Brian good Venture's website, Capitalism for
All website, Dream Forward. Are just typing my name and
business plan for Black America. Download it. There's not one thought,

(01:02:53):
There's not one mention of the government in here anywhere
right And this is and if we don't do this,
that's where I can tell you black net worth is
scheduled to be by twenty fifty three zero if we
do nothing but complain and wine and belly ache. This
is before the government walked away from you. This is

(01:03:14):
before we were thrown into the fires of capitalism. It
was scheduled to be zero. But with my plan says
it could be three point five trillion dollars in ten years.
That's a billion dollar. It's a trillion dollars. In business acquisition,
it's a it's a trillion dollar. So let me gives
the me someone. Man, if you raise your credit score

(01:03:36):
to seven hundred, if we go from six twenty to
seven hundred, less than one hundred points, that's worth seven
hundred and fifty billion dollars of net worth in ten years.
You take that sevenator to credit score, you do what?
Buy a house? The one way you build whether in
America is home ownership. Don't buy in New York City
or LA is too expensive. Go to a second tier city,

(01:03:57):
go to where the puckets going. Go to a city
that's on. I could have never been wealthy living in LA.
I had to go buy. I moved to Atlanta, and
I bought seven hundred homes for eighty eight thousand dollars
each in Atlanta. Those homes are now worth four hundred
thousand dollars each. Just do the math. But I moved
there in two thousand and nine. So find the next Atlanta,
find the next Nashville, find the next La, find the

(01:04:18):
next stop. Stop trying to do everything in one place, right, Yeah,
and buy a house with that high credit score, and
that's worth eight hundred billion dollars. Now that eight hundred
billion and seven hundred fifty billion, that's helped me out
one point five ish trillion. Go buy these businesses that
already exist. That's another trillion. Artificial intelligence levels of playing field.

(01:04:40):
You can start a business, a million dollar business with
one person and technology for a thousand bucks. That's never happened.
A million dollar business that's a trillion dollars in tenure
has three trillion dollars. And I haven't said government one time.
Why are we obsessing? Why are we screaming at the
TV all day about something you can't control. You've got

(01:05:01):
the largest reality TV show in the history of the
world going on in Washington, DC, and every day is
a new episode. And they got us. They got us,
They got us completely whipsawed and were sitting there obsessing
about something you have no control over as they keep
you distracted from something else. So focus, be obsessed with

(01:05:21):
your time in your mind. Focus on what you can control.
By the way, I said this in the book, ninety
percent of all GDP in this country comes from cities,
not the federal government. Go in your neighborhood, Volunteer in
your school board, Volunteer for your mayor, Volunteer at your

(01:05:44):
school where your kid goes. Start a business in your neighborhood.
Give back, get your own home, right, I mean that's
a full time job. Just get to the base, get
an insurance policy, get a will, get a job, get
a life, get your credit score. Right. Okay, I'm gonna stop.

Speaker 8 (01:06:04):
Do you want to say thank you John for helping
me and my husband putting us together, putting us with
a financial advisor. Oh no, you know, I appreciate it.
Shout out to Lance Virgil Operation Hope. I totally appreciated
because we was about to pay some money to learn
about financial literacy and John was like, now, it's like
he literally kicked into like the uncle who was ready

(01:06:27):
go off because he found out that, you know, we
were about to pay for some financial literacy that you
know that we can learn at Operation Hope. You just
put us with a financial advisor. We're about to start
these courses. Man, So I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
That's beautiful, and it's also beautiful that you were not
afraid to say that right on the air. This is
what I'm talking about. What this is what makes me
warns my heart. I can't I can't say these names.
But if you know the kind of folks are calling
my phone, these are these are household names, and they're like, look,
I'm sick and tired of being sick and TI yeah,
like help me, I'm trying to do this. I mess

(01:07:01):
this up, Help me fix this. Some of the biggest
stars and names on the planet are saying, I'm tired
of struggling.

Speaker 4 (01:07:08):
Oh yeah, some of them call me to get to you.
Can you connect me with John O'Brien.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
I'm just very inspired man about this moment. I think
we have a real shot, a real shot at turning
into tide on this Rainbows only follow storms. You cannot
have a rainbow with our storm. First. You cannot grow
except the legitimate suffering. And who has suffered more than us.
We've been doing so much with so little for so long.
We can almost do anything with nothing. Over the rounded

(01:07:35):
through it, We're gonna get that. We're not gonna give up.
So my wife friends are like, oh, there's a crisis.
We have a crisis every Tuesday. Christis, don't bother us
So the fact that you said this, I'm honored to
help you. But the fact that you acknowledge this, and
by the way, kudos in your book I ordered something.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
It says a lot about your maturity and your growth
because half of this is just showing up in your
own life. No one's coming to say of us. We
gotta do that for ourselves. Has this been useful? I mean,
has this been Is there very much?

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
Very much? And we got a couple of calls action
you know, we want you to go to uh, you
know what is it? Dream Forward?

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Dream Forward? Yeah, download the Business Plan for Black America.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Then Inclusive Economic Business Plan for Black America, and we
want you to go pick up the book Capitalism for All.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
John O'Brien Also, I wrote a business plan for Latino Americans,
for Native American Indians, for women's for rural white neighborhoods.
I wrote one for everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
So you gotta read both.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Yes, reoth.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
Is John O'Brien, go pick up Capitalism for All. To
make sure you download the Money and Wealth podcast on
the Black Effect Podcast Network. John O'Brien will actually be
with us at the Black Effect Podcast Festival in Atlanta.
Georgia on April twenty fifth. He's on the uh the
AI panel, I believe, Yeah, the AI panel.

Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
So come check out John O'Brien at it the.

Speaker 3 (01:09:00):
Black Effect Podcast Festival Saturday, April twenty fifth in Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
John, love you brother, Love you back, And let me
just say this, we wrap up. You are a bad brother,
and people have no idea how smart you are and
what an underground profit you are about the community. You
really care about your community. I get calls from you
at midnight on the weekend and it's never about you.
It's always about how do we make our community better?

(01:09:24):
And people don't know you're an owner and you're lifting
other people up with your book, imprint and your podcast platform.
You could have done this all for yourself by yourself,
but you bring other folks with you and that's the
kind of role model we need to immulate. Man.

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
Thank you, John, I appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
Go pick up Capital Loom for all available everywhere you
buy books now. Is John O'Brien is the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Yes,