John Hope Bryant

Special From Gainesville Sun: Banquet speaker talks class, money

John Hope Bryant was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Hall of Fame Banquet.

Buy PhotoBRAD McCLENNY/Special to the Guardian

By CLEVELAND TINKER
Special to the Guardian

Published: Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 5:27 p.m.

Life in the 21st century is about economic freedom more than anything else for blacks in Gainesville, the U.S. and people around the world.

That was the message delivered by John Hope Bryant at the 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Hall of Fame Banquet Sunday night to more than 325 people at the Paramount Plaza Hotel.

Read the complete story here.

 

John Hope Bryant 'Financial Literacy and Shame' Quote of the Day

"The biggest thing to overcome in helping to get people out of poverty, and to give them some measure of financial dignity, is the shame. People feel shame, in not understanding money and how it works. They feel shame in having these problems."


John Hope Bryant is an entrepreneur, thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), the sole African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.

RARE Youth in Northern Virginia School Listen to Operation HOPE John Hope Bryant during Virtual MLK Session Featuring Banking on Our Future

Wow -- this proves the power of technology.  Here I gave a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr speech and didn't even know it.  The kids simply pulled up a video of me on their iPad (YouTube) and made it happen for themselves (smile).  The youth were taught a Banking on Our Future financial literacy session as well by HOPE's own Jena Roscoe.

Here at Operation HOPE we believe that financial literacy is the new civil rights issue for this generation.

 

 

John Hope Bryant Speaks Before Denver Public Schools for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebrations Tomorrow

SPECIAL FROM THE DENVER POST

MLK program "Painting the Seed, Growing the Seed," will be from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Evie Dennis Campus Building, 1 West Commons, 4800 Teluride St., Denver. The keynote speaker will be John Hope Bryant. Music selections: First Lady of Denver Mary Hancock (Mary Louise Lee); solo selection, Sia Chandler. Info: Sylvia Bookhardt,Sylvia_bookhardt@dpsk12.org, 303-229-1997, or Ani Reddy,Reddy@dpsk12.org, 970-310-4526.

Read more:Colorado events for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19749758#ixzz1jaoCN424
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

 

John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass) the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. 

 

I Believe in our Youth so Much, I am Backing Them in Business!

In early 2012, Operation HOPE (HOPE) will unveil its HOPE Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship (HOSBE), operating from the Office of the Chairman.

On the eve of HOPE’s 20-year anniversary, the HOSBE will connect the 19-year plus track record of HOPE’s ‘input’ power (youth and adults accessing and utilizing HOPE’s battery of financial dignity programs and initiatives) with HOPE’s mostly untapped and transformational ‘output’ power. 

The goal internally at HOPE is to finally translate the well-known qualitative ‘good works’ of HOPE into undeniable quantitative impact; as measured by the HOPE Office of Innovation, Research & Assessment (HOIRA), and the Gallup-HOPE Index.

The goal externally is nothing less than 21^st century transformational change at the level of the local under-served community eco-system. To create a new culture of self-empowerment and entrepreneurial spirit at the level of community, and a new culture of self-generated job creation amongst our youth.

A new ‘silver rights’ culture for youth financial literacy and economic energy in America fired by the Gallup-HOPE Index Cities Initiative. We intend to be the absolute global authority on youth hope, youth economic energy and youth financial literacy, period.  That work starts here, now.

HOPE Business-In-A-Box 

Operation HOPE Launches Arabic Version Financial Literacy Curriculum

I was honored to be in Morocco recently, speaking as the closing keynote for the annual meeting of the African Securities Exchange Association and before 22 CEOs for their respective country's stock exchanges, throughout the whole of Africa.  More than 400 delegates attended from countries beyond the African continent, and I was also thrilled to again spend some time with my friend and our HOPE Global Board of Advisors' Chairman, Mr. Sean Cleary, whom I lovingly refer to as the "South African James Bond."  Mr. Cleary, a legend in South Africa who helped to draft the South African Constitution, was also a featured speaker.  The conference was organized, hosted and held by my friend and fellow global advisory board member Karim Hajji, CEO of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

The launch the Arabic contextualized version of our Banking on Our Future financial literacy curriculum, and a featured part of our Wikia-HOPE Global Money, Morocco Initiative, was no small feat. The actual work to get this done came through the staff of the CSE (for whom I and we are very thankful), but the importance of getting this done, and at this particular time and place in history cannot be understated.

Financial Dignity and Financial Literacy: A Time and Place

As I wrote in a recent piece for the Huffington Post, after helping to establish financial literacy as federal policy in the United States in 2008, and working closely with the White House and our committed President Barack Obama to make financial literacy real for every American (even a requirement for every child in school), respectfully, I am actually now moving away from the traditional definition of financial literacy, per se.  I am now moving actively towards an operational vision for financial dignity. The Operation HOPE website  actually now describes our organization as a "global leader in financial dignity."  Our global vision was but one of the reasons why the world could find me in Morocco earlier this week, launching the Arabic version of our Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative.

I don't believe that you can find any truly successful brand or company in America that wasn't "aspirational," and I believe the same is true for financial literacy.  It has been positioned (by well intentional people) as a left-brain/left-brain, mostly analytical issue.  In other words, a logic table.  But that is not the way people operate, nor even the way they see their lives or priorities. If you want to speak to people, and to get them to "move" in their lives -- you must speak to their aspirations in life.  This is particularly true amongst inner-city, under-served and low-wealth communities.  Places where people are more poor than they are poor.

"There is a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of the soul. We must vow to never, ever be poor again."

And so, financial literacy still has a role in what comes next, and I would even say a critically important role, but financial literacy is tactical, while financial dignity is more strategic.  

Why I Know Morocco Can Win

Because country planners were smart enough to install good quality roads (and I mean first quality interstate travel roadways), and even five bar, 3G uninterrupted cellphone service (covering nearly three straight hours of car travel) in otherwise rural Morocco.

Take a look for yourself, at the images below.

John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

- Posted from my iPhone4S

First Class Service in Rural Morocco

Halfway between Casablanca and Marrakech in Morocco.

From the gentleman cleaning the windshield of each and every car parked in front of this convenient store, to the counter clerks who prepared my sandwich (and who took the time to even set up the place I was to sit and eat inside the convenience store), every person at this rural outpost was the definition of professionalism and care. You could tell, they took great pride in their every task. This sort of service level use to exist in the United States, but no more.

The people here have something special -- a pride and dignity in their work -- that will help to propel their entire nation forward if they do not lose this sense of excellence in everything.



I am proud to consider myself a friend of Morocco and her people. Their King is even a fan of my book Love Leadership, which I am humbled and honored by.

Morocco is on the mov, and sometimes it is the smallest of things that tell you this is right. Stay tuned.


John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

- Posted from my iPhone

GLOBAL DIGNITY DAY 2011 in Afghanistan

 

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For the first time, we celebrated the Global Dignity Day in Afghanistan. The GD country chair went to a school in a suburb of the capital Kabul where he talked to a group of students and their teachers about GDD and its aims. Both the students and teachers in the school liked the idea and made contributions by talking about the dignity theme and narrating their personal stories and experiences.

Three students volunteered to come to the front of the classroom and tell their stories about dignity, what it meant to them and how they helped others to increase their dignity and the dignity of others. One of the students narrated his story by saying that how he helped an injured man without knowing him. Another said he fed a stranger.

The class teacher also narrated a couple of stories while explaining the importance of helping others and being nice to eachother.

Both the students and teachers promised that while keeping the GDD message in mind, they will celebrate the day every year.

 

Global Dignity was co-founded by HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland, and John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation HOPE of the United States. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum.