John Hope Bryant

Bryant Snippet: My Take on the Minimum Wage Debate

If and when asked, I will make the case that my argument for raising the minimum wage is not actually a moral or even social justice issue. It is an economic issue.

If people do not make enough money (call it a living wage) to participate in the economy, and further, if they're fearful or nervous about whether they can cover the basics of life (food and shelter for instance), then they are not going to have the confidence to purchase or lease a car every 4-6 years. They are not going to have the confidence to upgrade household appliances, say every 7-10 years, or to purchase a home. They may not feel that they can 'afford' to invest in the higher education of their children.

All of these necessary activities lift GDP, actually help to keep the rich, rich, as they are owners and shareholders in a range of consumer goods manufacturers and product providers, and all of this drives continued economic growth.

The argument for a living wage, not a minimum wage, is actually a hard-nosed economic argument. It is not a Republican argument, nor a Democrats argument, but a common sense argument.

This is but one example of a Love Leadership philosophy, placed into a hard-nosed business context.

Doing the right thing, actually makes money.


John Hope Bryant

My Word for 2013

Every year I pick a word, just one, that represents my goal for that year. What everything else for me, is all about. Previous words have included:

....Intentionality in 2011 (thank you Atlanta Mayor Reed. His word, he told me Christmas, 2010, was to be 'intentional,' and I immediately connected with that, but went a step further, with 'intentionality.').

....Balance in 2012

...Authenticity before that, and so on, and so on.

My word for 2013, is Empowered.

Once you have drained the negative energy (and people) out of your life and environment, filled that space with authenticity and goodness, been focused and specific about what you want next, and then made moves to achieve that.

Once you have taken steps to "reset" your life and environment, so that all of the pieces come back into it with a sort of balance --- then it is time to MOVE FORWARD, boldly in the direction of your dreams.

To fulfill the mandate and aspirations of your higher self.
To be a servant, and of service, to both society and your own soul.
To live your truth, with no regrets, and no looking backwards.
To create the life, environment, and to the extent possible, the world -- you want to live in.
The world you want your children to see, to feel, and to be bathed in the backdrop of.

This is the essence of my new commitment. My word for 2013, Empowered.

You will see a lot of it as I move through the balance of my year, integrated into the whole of what I do, what I am about, my life's journey...

What is your word for today, this week, this month, this year? What are you about, beyond paying your bills, going to work, coming home (assuming you are blessed enough to have either or both), and doing the things on your to-do list today?

Answering these questions, for yourself, is the essence of living a fulfilled life.

Okay, let's to......

John Hope Bryant

Love Leadership Available in Digital Audiobook Right Now!

LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World digital audiobook (Jossey-Bass), as read by the author, available here.

 

 

 

Love Leadership Book Interview Airs on PBS Stations, Barry Kibrick Show, in Los Angeles and Oklahoma, March, 2013

KLCS-TV - www.klcs.org/btl    

Sunday Night, March 17, at 12:00 Midnight

John Hope Bryant - Love Leadership

John Bryant is the chairman and CEO of Operation Hope.  President Clinton called John Hope Bryant; "A whirlwind of ideas and action."  He is a philanthropic entrepreneur who founded America's first nonprofit banking organization and recognized as a world wide leader for his work in empowering low wealth communities. With his book, Love Leadership, John pioneers the new way to lead in a fear-based world.

OKLAHOMA

KRSC-TV

www.rsupublictv.org

Wednesday Evening, March 20, at 7:30 PM on Channel 35.2

John Hope Bryant - Love Leadership

John Bryant is the chairman and CEO of Operation Hope.  President Clinton called John Hope Bryant; "A whirlwind of ideas and action."  He is a philanthropic entrepreneur who founded America's first nonprofit banking organization and recognized as a world wide leader for his work in empowering low wealth communities. With his book, Love Leadership, John pioneers the new way to lead in a fear-based world.

 

Love Leadership Book Interview Airs in Austin, Texas, March 5th, 2013

AUSTIN, TEXAS

KLRU-TV - Channel 18 - www.klru.org

Tuesday mornings and afternoons, March 5, at 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM

John Hope Bryant - Love Leadership

John Bryant is the chairman and CEO of Operation Hope.  President Clinton called John Hope Bryant; "A whirlwind of ideas and action."  He is a philanthropic entrepreneur who founded America's first nonprofit banking organization and recognized as a world wide leader for his work in empowering low wealth communities. With his book, Love Leadership, John pioneers the new way to lead in a fear-based world.

 

Huffington Post: Solving Poverty ~ Poverty Is the New Racism

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

Solving Poverty: Poverty Is the New Racism

Racism use to be the worst thing that those outside America's corridors of power had to deal with. But today, racism is sorta like rain. Racism is either falling somewhere, or it's gathering. So we might as well get out an umbrella in a color we like, and start walking through it; because it's not going to change -- so we must.

In Dr. King's day the issue seemed to be one of love or hate, but today the issue is less about love or hate, and more about of what I would call "radical indifference." Today, folks don't even care enough about you to hate you.

I remember a young man, years ago, going on and on to me about how then President Reagan hated black folks. That he was a racist. I had to correct the young man. I told him that to the best of my knowledge, President Reagan didn't know any black folks (well), didn't grow up around any black folks, didn't have any real lifelong relationships with black folks, and there were no black folks in his immediate family. When he awoke in the morning, it's not that he hated black folks -- he wasn't even thinking about black folks. It was not love or hate, but simple indifference. With no real relationship with black and brown America, no rational link, and no reason to be compelled to really care, this situation doesn't so much suggest he was a good or a bad man, but rather a human one.

Today I look at what's going on in Greece, where 150 immigrants were recently attacked, and it becomes obvious that underneath the violence was a corroding economic tension. A country that was broke, and people who were quickly losing hope, and jobs too. They saw 'those immigrants' as a threat to them, their prosperity, their stability, and the future aspirations of both themselves and their families. The problem was economic. The problem, was poverty.

There is a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke was economic, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of one's spirit. And we must vow to never, ever be poor again.

Read, comment on and share the full article on the Huffington Post here.

Media Report: Bryant Speaks Before ISFiT 2013 Global Youth Conference in Trondheim, Norway

adressa.no

TOR 14.02.2013

21:13

TRONDHEIM

ISFIT 2013:

Se foredraget til Obamas rådgiver

Adressa.no sender direkte fra Isfit-møtet i kveld.

Den internasjonale studentfestivalen i Trondheim (Isfit) har mange møter å by på i løpet av de elleve dagene festivalen varer. Kveldens arrangement handler om sosialt entreprenørskap - Nyskapende løsninger på verdens mest akutte problemer.

John Hope Bryant tok initiativ til Global Dignity Day. Onsdag kveld holdt han foredrag på Samfundet.

Trykk på play-knappen på videoen for å se møtet fra Storsalen på Studentersamfundet i Trondhjem fra klokka 19.00.

Det er ikke bare internasjonale organisasjoner og myndighetene i de ulike landene som forsøker å komme opp med gode ideer. Isfit ønsker å presentere noen av de sosiale entreprenørene som gir sitt beste for å gjøre verden til et bedre sted.

Kveldens talere er:

• James Fierro (CA), grunnlegger og administrerende direktør i Recipco, the Capacity Exchange. En alternativ transaksjonssystem som reduserer en organisasjons behov for kontanter eller kredittkort.
• John Hope Bryant (US), er grunnlegger, styreformann og administrerende direktør i den amerikanske organisasjonen Operation HOPE som jobber for å utrydde fattigdom og styrke mennesker som mangler økonomiske ressurser i amerikanske samfunn. Han har vært aktiv rådgiver for president Barack Obama. Han var sammen med kronprins Haakon og Pekka Himanen initiativtakere til Global Dignity Day.
• Celine d'Cruz (IN), koordinator for Slum Dwellers International, et nettverk av samfunnbaserte organisasjoner bestående av de urbane fattige som har utviklet en vellykket mobilisering og problemløsende strategier.

MER Å LESE: Se deltakernes egne Isfit-minner

MER Å LESE: Har du ei seng, noen brødskiver og hjerterom?

Media Report: John Hope Bryant Speaks on 'Leadership and Life' Before Student Body at Lillestrom High School, Oslo, Norway

Foto: Roar Grønstad

Her vekker Obama-rådgiveren elevene

Lillestrøm: John Hope Bryant er rådgiver for president Barack Obama og personlig venn av Kronprins Haakon. Tirsdag fikk han 350 nye beundrere på Lillestrøm videregående skole.

Lars Petter Hallingstorp

Publisert 12.02.2013 kl 15:34 Oppdatert 13.02.2013 kl 07:41

Med et «hello, there» stiger amerikaneren ut av den store svarte bilen, før han entrer aulaen på Lillestrøm vgs.

Der venter nærmere 350 ungdommer og lærere på mannen, som har tatt seg fra fattigdom i Los Angeles til å bli rådgiver for USAs siste tre presidenter.

 

Global Dignity

Sammen med blant annet kronprins Haakon er han stifteren av Global Dignity, et prosjekt VK1-elevene på Lillestrøm vgs har har jobbet med i snart fire år.

I beste amerikansk vekkelses-ånd sitter etter hvert «high fives», «wow» og spontanapplausen løst hos så vel publikum som hos foredragsholderen.

– Jeg har kommet hit, fordi bare unge mennesker kan endre verden, sier Hope til full jubel.

Med Global Dignity Day, som markeres av stadig fler verden over den 17. oktober, vil han vekke folks bevissthet for verdighet og respekt, for de selv og for andre. Kort fortalt.

Bryant Speaks at ISFiT 2013 Global Youth Conference, Trondheim, Norway

ISFiT 2013

Feb 13 2013 06:00 PM - Feb 13 2013 08:00 PM

---

 

Studentersamfundet

Elgeseter Gate 1, 7030 Trondheim, Norway

 

ISFiT is arranged every other year, and each festival has a theme related to social and political topics with international relevance. The theme for ISFiT 2013 is global trade, and the festival is held from the 7th to the 17th of February, in the city of Trondheim, Norway. Here, over 450 students from all over the world gather to attend 17 different workshops and take part in the festivals culture program. ISFiT is a non-profit organization and is brought to life with the efforts of more than 400 student volunteers.

Social Entreprenuers on Social Challenges Panel

Humanity is facing many severe social problems. Governments and international organizations are not the only ones trying to come up with solutions. This plenary session features social entrepreneurs, individuals with innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, trying to tackle major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

Social entrepreneurship is about believing that change can occur also at the lowest levels, and that there are great possibilities to make a change if we, the people, work together. This is not only about big ideas and utopian visions, but about the practical implementations necessary to reach those goals, which are not only aimed towards immediate and small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change.

Featured speakers:

James Fierro (CA), founder and CEO of Recipco, the Capacity Exchange, an alternative market and transaction mechanism that reduces organizations dependency on cash and credit. 

John Hope Bryant (US), an American financial and poverty eradication activist. He is the founder of operation HOPE and co-founder of Global Dignity. 

Celine d'Cruz (IN), coordinator of Slum Dwellers International, a network of community-based organizations of the urban poor that has developed successful mobilisation, advocacy and problem-solving strategies.

 

Huffington Post: On Leadership ~ Just Borrow My Ladder

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

Fear is the ultimate prosperity killer. This was the basic premise of my bestselling business book, LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead In A Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

I went on to say there were two things in the world, "love and fear... and what you don't love, you feared." I concluded by suggestng that "most of our so-called leaders today were actually leading by fear."

What I didn't consider when I wrote this in the book was the possibility that the internal threats of fear, far outweighed the external threats of fear (bosses, government, private sector, societal leaders, etc). What we fear most, is actually ourselves.

Getting over our own sometimes paralyzing fear and insecurities, is key to finding success and long-term stability in our lives. I remember as a child, all my friends just wanted to get rich, but I wanted to become wealthy. At an early age, I knew the difference, but that didn't just 'happen' to me either. It was intentional. My mother told me she loved me every day of my young life, and over time I began to believe it. Today I may have problems and challenges, but basic self esteem is not one of them. I believe in myself, and this along with a vision for myself has proven to be my ultimate strategic advantage in life.

I believed in myself because my mother told me so, and I believed in what I could do and who I could become because my father showed me so. My dad has owned a business for more than 50 years now, and my earliest memory of him was meeting a payroll out of the front door of our home in South Central Los Angeles.

My dad wore a suit two to three times a week growing up. A banker showed up in my inner-city classroom and taught us financial literacy, or what I now call 'the global language of money.' He wore a suit too. And so, of course when I was ten years old, I wanted to wear a suit.

All of this was intentional in my life, so I have a great deal of compassion today for those who did not have the benefit of a loving and supportive mother and father growing up. Half of success in life today I believe is simply self-esteem and self-confidence.

Read, share and comment on the complete article here.