John Hope Bryant

Operation HOPE and Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti Stand in Support of Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline in Los Angeles

This week Operation HOPE stood with my friend and HOPE Partner, Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, as we announced the results of the work of the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline, and stood with families and individuals who have had their lives positively impacted, and in each case their home saved, because of our work.

What most do not know is that the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline, which is now national, has modified or helped to restructure more than $450 million in mortgages (half a $ billion) and served more than 100,000 individuals and familes, was originally the idea of one Eric Garcetti.  That's right -- a politician actually doing his job, as public servant.

Why I Do What I Do

I do it for THIS reason.  To see THIS expression on a young person's face.  Just look at this ~ it is literally priceless. And all I had to do here was to sign and give him a copy of my bestselling business book LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).  Did you "get" what I just said?  I gave the young man a BUSINESS book.  Not fiction (all good by the way), or a comic, or some rap lyrics (all good too).  But a book on business and leadership, and inspired in the right way, this young man just lit up like a Christmas tree.

This is why I do what I do, and why I believe so passionately in our work in financial dignity at Operation HOPE, and the promise of the silver rights movement.

Our young people increasingly don't have something tangible of even aspirational to believe in, and as a result, we are losing them.

Operation HOPE founder John Hope Bryant meets with President Bill Clinton

Today I was deeply honored to meet and spend substantive time one on one with former U.S. President (and my friend) William Jefferson Clinton, in his Clinton Foundation office in Harlem, New York.  I was also pleased to have with me Mrs. Mary Hagerty Ehrsam, our global chief of financial dignity.  Our government relations chief, Ms. Jena Roscoe who worked for President Clinton in the second term at the White House, did not join us but she was there with us in spirit.

We covered a range of items of mutual interest to both his foundations and the Operation HOPE family, both domestic and international, including the new Gallup-HOPE Index and the Gallup-HOPE Index Cities Initiative.  We actually presented President Clinton and his staff with the first draft copy of the Gallup-HOPE Index 2011 Report, which will be mailed out nationwide to leaders later this month.  We also briefed the President on the HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Ebenezer which is presently under construction in Atlanta (at the King Center complex and within th new Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex), our new HOPE Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship which will be formally announced to the public on my birthday, February 6th, 2012, along with our new HOPE Business-In-A-Box and the HOPE FILE Program (HOPE Fellows, HOPE Interns and HOPE Loan Executive Programs).

John Hope Bryant and Operation HOPE Meets with Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke

Today I was honored to meet with friend of HOPE and friend to underserved communities everywhere -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C.

Meeting with the Chairman reminded me of why we gave him our HOPE Award in the first place, when he came to speak at our last HOPE Global Financial Literacy Summit in Anacostia. The Chairman has been a big supporter of financial literacy in the past, and today I formally briefed him on what I believe comes next in the silver rights movement, or financial dignity for all. We spoke about HOPE's 20th Anniversary (May 5th, 2012), our domestic and global work, our Gallup-HOPE Index results, the Gallup-HOPE Index Cities Initiative, the new HOPE Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, HOPE Business-In-A-Box, the Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative, and our on- the-ground results. Separately, I discussed my new role as chairman of the new Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the US President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, a Council chaired by John Rogers. Specifically, I briefed him around our coming Local Financial Literacy Council efforts.

The Chairman has breathed confidence and a sense of stability in these times, in America and around the world. I wanted to thank him, personally. I also told him to remember that "no good deed shall go unpunished." To keep on moving forward, serving, helping.

Stay tuned for more to come from my meeting with the Chairman, and his team. Jena Roscoe, HOPE Government Relations Chief, staffed me for this important meeting.


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

Unsung Heroes for Financial Dignity: Members of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability

 

Last Thursday, January 19th, 2012, in a full capacity meeting in the Cash Room at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, members of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability met to kick off 2012 with a strong agenda and plan on behalf of President Obama and the nation.

Some of the accomplishments of this meeting included:

• A formal and Council approved recommendation by my friend and Council Partnership Subcommittee Chair Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz around financial literacy and federal employee engagement.
• An Interim Report from the full Council to President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner.

Additionally, the Council and the public heard from Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Cyrus Amir-Mokri, Council Chairman John Rogers, Josh Wright, acting director of the Treasury Office of Financial Education and Financial Access, and substantive subcommittee reports from Council members Arty Arteaga, Ted Beck, Amy Rosen and Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz.  Council vice chair Amy Rosen moderated an in-depth discussion with Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Later, friend to the Council, Ms. Michelle Greene, vice president of corporate responsibility for NYSE Euronext and executive director of the NYSE Foundation, moderated a panel discussion with Steve Bigari, CEO of Stellar Restaurant Solutions and founder of America's Family, Brad Wenger, general manager of Hilton, Wilmington, Mary DuPont, director of financial empowerment for the State of Deleware, and Mateen Ali, senior manager of retirement and wealth strategy for Best Buy.

An Unsung Hero for Financial Dignity: John Rogers, Jr.

Most people know of John Rogers, Jr, if they are aware of him at all (he is low key and humble about his noteworthy accomplishments), as the pioneering chairman and founding CEO of Ariel Capital, which became the first multi-billion dollar investor of private sector funds into the mainstream market (featuring amongst others, the very successful Ariel Mutual Funds), led by an African-American. Others know John Rogers, Jr. as a close friend and supporter of President Barack Obama.  

I know a different, but not an inconsistent John Rogers, Jr.  

The John that I know, and have known on some level for 20 years, partnered together with Charles Schwab & Co to produce a then groundbreaking study on the net worth differences between like-income, like-educated mainstream (Caucasian), African-American and Latino middle class Americans.  The differences in net worth between the racial classes was stark and startling, with much attributed to "what" people did with their money, more so that "how much" they actually earned.  In other words, John was pushing financial literacy empowerment before it had a formal name and definition.  I personally remember this study being one of the influencers that pushed me to call for more silver rights in American life, in addition to civil rights, in the lives of low-wealth Americans; including the black and brown middle class.

Love Leadership Now Available for Download on iTunes, Kindle and the Nook Book

                 

 

Purchase all versions of Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass) here or at your favorite online hardback book, digital and audiobook retailer.

 

LOVE LEADERSHIP Makes Business Bestseller List for 15th Month!

Inc. Magazine and 800-CEO-READ present the top selling business books.

November 2011

1.

Quest 
Daniel Yergin 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (6), Jack Covert Selects (1)

 

2.

Find Your Next 
Andrea Kates 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

 

3.

Relationship Economics 
David Nour, Alan Weiss 
Book Description

 

4.

End of Business as Usual 
Brian Solis 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

 

5.

Look at More 
Andy Stefanovich 
Book Description

 

6.

What Got You Here Won't Get You There 
Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (14), Podcasts (1), Jack Covert Selects (2)

 

7.

Trusted Advisor Fieldbook 
Charles H Green, Andrea P Howe 
Book Description

 

8.

Conversations That Win the Complex Sale 
Erik Peterson, Timothy Riesterer 
Book Description

 

9.

How Remarkable Women Lead 
Joanna Barsh, Susie Cranston, Geoffrey Lewis 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

10.

From Values to Action 
Harry M Jansen Kraemer 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

 

11.

What to Ask the Person in the Mirror 
Robert Steven Kaplan 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (2)

 

12.

Strengths Finder 2.0 
Tom Rath 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (28), Podcasts (1), Jack Covert Selects (4)

 

13.

Shift 
Scott M Davis, Philip Kotler 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

 

14.

Multipliers 
Elizabeth Wiseman, Greg McKeown, Stephen R Covey 
Book Description

 

15.

Brains on Fire 
Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, Spike Jones 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (5), Jack Covert Selects (1)

 

16.

Practically Radical 
William C Taylor 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1), Jack Covert Selects (1)

 

17.

M-Factor 
Lynne C Lancaster, David Stillman 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

 

18.

Tanning of America 
Steve Stoute 
Book Description

 

19.

How to Market to People Not Like You 
Kelly McDonald 
Book Description

 

20.

Curse of the Mogul 
Jonathan A Knee, Bruce C Greenwald, Ava Seave 
Book Description

 

21.

Love Leadership 
John Hope Bryant, Bill George 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

 

22.

It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand for 
Roy M Spence, Haley Rushing 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1), Jack Covert Selects (1)

23.

Go-Giver 
Bob Burg, John David Mann 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (13), Jack Covert Selects (1)

24.

Ultimate Question 2.0 (Revised and Expanded Edition) 
Fred Reichheld, Frederick F Reichheld, Rob Markey 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (2)

25.

Zappos Experience 
Joseph Michelli 
Book Description, Related Blog Posts (1)

Browse by year: 2011 2010 2009 2008 

Browse by month in 2011: Nov. Oct. Sept. Aug. July June May March Feb. Jan.

 

 

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.