John Hope Bryant

Solving Poverty: This Generation Needs An Economic Backup Plan

I recently met a very impressive young man while visiting with my father, Mr. Johnnie Will Smith, in Los Angeles, California.  This young man, who lived next door and is the son of one who helps to care for my proud and still self-powered father of 88 years young, possessed incredible vocal, musical, and even writing and producing talent.   In other words, he could not only sing and dance, he could 'think,' analyze and strategize too. The only problem with this young man's life success plan, as I shared with him, was that his primary dream plan did not have a practical backup plan.  And worse from my perspective, his backup plan, should really be his primary plan instead.  Let me explain.

Responsible rap (meaning rap that is true to its origins and roots), Hip-Hop, the broad world of celebrity, and our varied professional sports, are so very important to cultivate and carry forward as part of the larger African-American and minority success story framework for a race.  As Quincy Jones repeatedly burns into my soul and pounds into my thick head, "music, art and culture shapes the soul, helps to heal and bring together our world. They help to shape more well rounded people."  I agree with Q 100%.  

That said, having a career in music, the arts, entertainment (in front of the camera) and sports as the primary life success solution for more than 30 million African-Americans alone in this country, is just plain dumb.  Sure, a few lucky ones will make it through, but I would argue that most of them are not in fact all that 'lucky,' at the end of their career-day. A couple facts.

70% of all professional football players file bankruptcy within 5-years of retirement from the game, and there is a 100% injury rate amongst professional football players.

70% plus of all professional basketball players file bankruptcy within 5-years of retirement from the game.

And a vast majority of the "celebrity" artists, from rap to Hip-Hop and beyond, find themselves dead broke after a short, and often even highly visible career.  

Honoring the Life and Legacy of the late Secretary Ron Brown

I commend and thank the White House and the Obama Administration for recognizing my late friend, Secretary Ron Brown, on the anniversary of his passing, along with 34 other nobel, dedicated Americans who gave their lives for public service.

Read the White House article in full here.

 

Gallup -HOPE Index 2012 Results Announced Today: U.S. Students' Entrepreneurial Aspirations Still Undeveloped

Children of business owners more entrepreneurially inclined

by Valerie J. Calderon and Shane Lopez

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Entrepreneurial aspirations among fifth- through 12^th-graders in the U.S. remained high and stable over the past year, according to the 2012 Gallup-HOPE Index. About four in 10 students (43%) say they plan to start their own business. Similarly, four in 10 students (42%) say they will invent something that changes the world.

Girls (46%) were slightly more likely to agree they plan to start their own business than boys (40%). Boys (45%) were slightly more likely than girls (40%) to say they will invent something that changes the world.

Read and download the complete report here at Gallup.

 

From the Archive: Pathways to Opportunity at CGI America

 

FROM OMAHA WORLD-HERALD: ‘Make smart sexy again,’ youths told

By Ross Boettcher
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The long-term future of the U.S. economy rests on the shoulders of young people who are eager to start businesses, create jobs and be their own bosses but don’t necessarily have the skills to pull that off.

The most recent Gallup-Hope Index, a measure of entrepreneurial engagement and financial literacy, found that 45 percent of students in grades five through 12 want to start their own company, and 77 percent want to be their own boss.

The students responded to a nationally representative poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in partnership with Operation HOPE. 

On Wednesday, about 300 high-achieving Omaha Avenue Scholars, community business leaders and 300 Gallup employees converged on the Joslyn Museum to hear John Hope Bryant, the chief executive and founder of Operation HOPE, encourage more students to fight back against “thug culture” and to “make smart sexy again.”

“Everything you do matters,” Bryant said. “This is not a recession we’re in. It’s a reset.”

The vast majority of the 1,721 students surveyed said they aren’t afraid to take risks, never give up and are regularly thinking of new ideas — qualities characteristic of entrepreneurs.

But only about half report that their schools offer classes on how to run a business and 54 percent learn lessons about finance and banking. Fifty-eight percent of students reported having their own bank account, and about one-in-five spend more than one hour a week doing a paid job.

Read the complete article here.

 

Founding Group of 20 Global Shapers, Atlanta Meet at City Hall to Frame Agenda

As the founding currator for the Atlanta Hub, I was proud and honored to join the first 20 members of the Global Shapers, Atlanta Hub tonight, for the first in a series of Action Meetings they will hold this year.  

The Global Shapers are part of the World Economic Forum and the Forum of Young Global Leaders, and were inspired and created by Forum founder Professor Klaus Schwab.  Professor Schwab asked me to consider setting up the Atlanta Hub, as as founding member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, I assumed and presumed that I owed him at least that.

This group is now 20 plus strong of some of Atlanta's top up and coming talent with an international agenda.  Soon they will be 30 strong, and one GS just returned from an organizing meeting for all Global Shaper Hubs around the world, in Geneva, Switzerland. This group is already on the move, and their business plan for local impact here in Atlanta is indeed impressive.  One of the many initiatives they have decided to engage themselves in and around is the upcoming HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summit, 2012, to be held November 14th and 15th, here in Atlanta.

An Example of Love Leadership, Majora Carter, A Green Movement Entrepreneur

 

Majora Carter is an example for every young girl or young woman who is seeking to purpose and reach her dreams. Even to design some new ones, for our world.  Majora is not only an example of what I call Love Leadership in my bestselling book, she even mentions it in her inspiring presentation.  Listen, watch, learn and be inspired by her example.

Okay, let's go....

 

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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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.   Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, an NYSE Euronext publicly traded company, and a division of $54 billion Ares Capital.

John Hope Bryant Stands With President Bill Clinton at CGI America in Chicago, June 2012

I am deeply, deeply honored to co-lead the Financial Inclusion Working Group for President Clinton and his CGI America meeting for 2012, held June 6-8th in Chicago, IL.  During the Friday lunch Plenary Session I spoke on a session around "opportunity," which was led by Clinton Foundation and CGI board member Chelsea Clinton.  Here I stand with my friend and politcal hero former President Bill Clinton during CGI America.

You can see the entire luncheon plenary session here.  Share it with friends and colleagues, and let me know what you think.

Onward and with HOPE

 

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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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.   Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, an NYSE Euronext publicly traded company, and a division of $54 billion Ares Capital.

 

 

 

A Father's Day Salute: To the Man, Who Made Me A Man

Today I salute Johnie W. Smith, my father and the very first businessman role model I ever knew in my life.  I am a businessman today, because my father was.  My dad is the man who helped to make me a man, and I thank him for that every day of my life.

My father was born in the south, some 86 plus years ago (he has a brother who is 101 years old, as amazing as that sounds), met my mother, Ms. Juanita Smith, in East St. Louis and then traveled northwest to the sunshine state of California.  There they made a family, and built an incredible life together.  Together they gave birth to my brother Dave Darnell Harris, my sister Mara Lamont Harris and me.  I also have another brilliant and hard working sister, Arleen Hayes, who has a different mom than Dave, Mara and I, but she is our and my sister nonetheless.  

By the time I was 5 or 6 years old, I could remember my family owning a gas station (the southeast corner of Vernon and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles), an 8 unit apartment building and our own home on Santa Barbara (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard), and a cement contracting business.  My mother also ran a nursery business on her own, in addition to working, just so that she could spend extra time with me.  It doesn't get much more special than that.

Bryant on Leadership: Hate Doesn't Kill, But 'Radical Indifference' Will

"The issue today is not love over hate, as it was during the civil rights movement of the 1960's.  In many ways, some could say that Dr. King had it better, in the sense that individuals let him know precisely where they stood; making it plain that they loved and backed him, or they hated and rejected him.  ...Today, increasingly, people do not care enough about you to hate you. I call this radical indifference. When someone does not care enought about you, to hate you."

A few years back, a young black man approached me, knowing that I had a minor relationship with the late and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, saying "hey John, that man -- former President Reagan -- he was a racist man...."  I had to reject what this young man had to say, while embracing the young man and his pain, and understandable frustrations.  To this man, President Reagan didn't care about him and his plight, and thus, he simply 'must be' a racist.  I had a different take on the problem.  I also saw a possible opportunity within this same problem, and decided to try to enroll this young man up in my vision, for what 'could be.'

I explained to the young man that I knew then President Reagan, though admittedly not that well. Enough to say I respectd him. I was a young man myself, like the one I was speaking with, when I was acquainted with this Administration. I explained that Reagan and I were actually born on the same day, and as such, I especially appreciated his ability to inspire, even while many listening to him might actually disagree with what he was talking 'about.'  

I went on to say that I thought that then President Reagan was basicallty 'a nice man.'  I don't think that anyone becomes President of the United States of America, wakes up the next morning and then says to himself, "now, how can I screw up America and hurt her people?"  They may screw up, and they may make incredibly damaging decisions and mistakes, but we have to beleive that they do basically mean well. If we don't, if we stop trusting the basic intent of our national leaders, then well all bets are off anyway.

I went on to explain that I was not at all crazy about most of Reagan's social policy framework for the least of these God's children (and there was no real economic policy framework to even be insulted by). I explained that in most cases I simply respectfully disagreed with the Administration.  I learned long ago from my pastor, friend and spiritual father, Reverend Dr. Cecil "Chip" Murray, "you can disagree, without being disagreeable."