John Hope Bryant

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.

A Book That Changes Everything: THE COMING JOBS WAR

I am still reading this book by my friend and Operation HOPE Partner Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup, but already I now this -- this book (THE COMING JOBS WAR) changes everything. It changes a nation's and its leaders approach to public policy, to civil engagement, to job creation, to growing a nation's GDP -- and to what comes next o the other side of this global economic crisis.

I am proud to be a partner with Jim Clifton and Gallup in the Gallup-HOPE Index, and I am honored that Operation HOPE and our work is also featured in Jim's groundbreaking new book.  Look for Jim Clifton and I to collaborate strongly in 2012 as we "talk in" the power of both the theories incorporated in the Index, as well as this important book.

Stay tuned, and READ THIS BOOK!

 

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

SPECIAL FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST: On Leadership: Why Financial Dignity is the New Movement for Financial Literacy

 

 

John HopeBryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

I am a supporter of financial literacy. I am a constructive critic of financial literacy. Both are legitimate and essential in an honestdialogue. As HOPE Global Spokesman Ambassador Andrew Young said, "John, be skeptical, but don't be cynical. To be cynical is to be without hope."

Operation HOPE pioneered financial literacy as policy within the U.S. federal government in 2008, when we inspired then President George W. Bush to sign an Executive Order establishing financial literacy as new federal government policy, and with it the creation of the first ever U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. I was honored to serve as vice chairman for this first council, with Charles Schwab as chairman, and to serve as chairman of the Council Committee on the Under Served.

President Barack Obama took this vision to another level; bringing to life his own Executive Order during his Presidency, and thereafter establishing the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability (on which I am proud to serve), and then the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau.

President Obama named smart people to head both, with Ariel Capital Management's extremely smart founder John Rogers chairing the Council, and my friend Professor Elizabeth Warren spearheading the foundation of and for the Bureau. I recall one conversation in particular with Professor Warren, where I asked her what she would think if I said, "financial literacy was the new civil rights issue?" Not only did she agree with me, but she went on to say that she thought that "done right," while regulatory review and policy making might consume the formative years of the Bureau, its legacy should be a new foundation of financial literacy in America. Professor Warren and I agree 100%.

Read the complete article here on the Huffington Post.

 

 

 

The Vision for the Operation HOPE Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship

No, it doesn't exist right now as I write this, but it is our vision for our tomorrow.  The future lies so much in us understanding that what is going on around us right now, globally, is not so much a traditional recession (or traditional anything), as a reset (as I have written about before here).  

Our success moving forward will be greatly enhanced if we are willing to accept that even with all the important things our President and others are trying to do to move the economy forward, that structurally (and confidence wise) we may be stuck with 9% unemployment as a new norm for a while.  That means that many of us, and particularly those of us who come from or presently live in low-wealth and under-served communities, may need to once again embrace the spirit of small business, entrepreneurship and what I refer to as "self-employment projects" in the new America.  And this should not scare or frighten us, as small business and entrepreneurship is in many ways the foundation of America itself (along with her democracy). Or as I heard uttered in the halls and meetings at the White House recently, "a capitalist democracy."

My Position on Occupy Wall Street

While I will write something more thoughtful and respectful of the consideration that the Occupy Wall Street Movement deserves (probably as part of my article series in the Huffington Post), given that some HOPE field offices have received calls wanting to know our view, I thought it important to issue a brief public statement for now.

First and foremost, I believe that the OWS movement is as authentic at its core as the movements that made America the great country that she is, and this includes the civil rights movement, the women's sufferage movement, and even the call by average citizens for freedom from Great Britain, or the movement that created this country itself.  

Where else in the world, not the least of which the most powerful nation in the world today, can average citizens march against their government, and sometimes even their president (and other powerful interests), and not disappear tomorrow?  The fact that these marches and demonstrations exist at all, underscore the greatness of the American experiment.  It has been said that "every great marriage is made of constructive friction."  This applies to OWS as well.

That said, I have as yet made no attempt to engage the OWS movement personally, because respectfully, I just don't think they need me or Operation HOPE right now, and may not even be ready for the conversation I would like to have. Not just yet.

An Unspoken Truth, About Me

Some talk of me and say, maybe..., "John is this or that, or arrogant, or pumped up, or about himself."

Someone once told me, of course through someone else (smile), "he seems only interested in his own ideas."  Well, okay.  Fair enough but wasn't Steve Jobs interested (or mostly) in his own ideas?  

Wasn't Bill Gates, or Quincy Jones, or Oprah Winfrey, or former President Bill Clinton, or Queen Elizabeth?

Or even social innovators such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or my hero Ambassador Andrew Young, Dr. Dorothy I. Height or Hilary Clinton, or Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Tutu, or Ghandi?  

I don't mean to the exlusion of others ideas, but just well -- mostly their own?  

Weren't all these leaders, pioneers, innovators and doers pretty much obsessed with their own ideas?  

Of course they were.  This is precisely also why they have been so successful.  It is the power of their ideas, and their ideals (along with action), and their single-minded focus (maybe even their obsession) with achieving them.

Which brings me to the issue of excellence.  

All of the individuals I admire seem to also be "excellence freaks," and the same could be said to apply to me.  

I believe that on a scale of 1-10, say 1-5 is the level of mediocrity. You could say that 5-7 is the level of entertainment or fun -- or the person you might date but you do not marry. 

But 8-10, well this is the level of excellence.

SPECIAL FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST: On Leadership: Jobs, Confidence and Debating Obama

   

As the founder, chairman and CEO of a large non-profit organization which is the global leader for financial dignity, the only way we succeed (for our client) is to build bridges and to create successful partnerships. I am a common-sense guy, and I tend to want the right answer, even if it is not my answer. So I don't find hardened partisan politics generally useful in my efforts to both bring leaders together, and ultimately, bottom line -- my efforts to create solutions and to empower the poor and under-served of our nation. Increasingly, the middle-class feel poor, and we serve them, too.

My clients are not partisan politics nor, respectfully, politicians -- but poor people.

Over the years I have worked with Democratic and Republican presidents alike, from President Clinton, to President Bush and ,now, President Obama. Our work has been noted by the last five U.S. presidents, I have been honored to serve as an advisor to three U.S. presidents, and I have served as a Presidential Appointee for President George W. Bush, and now serve proudly as an appointee under President Obama. I try to keep my personal bias out of the discussion, and just keep the trains running on time. Poor people simply do not care about my political persuasion or yours, frankly. They simply want a reasonably better shot at a life for themselves and their family tomorrow than they had yesterday.

And all of this brings me to this conclusion -- I believe that President Obama is right to call for a Jobs Bill, and our Congress and U.S. Senate would be right (and smart) to pass every aspect they can find agreement on, and fast.

Read the complete story here, and register your comment.

 

Special From The Hutchinson Report News: Exclusive Interview with John Hope Bryant on Love Leadership and Operation HOPE

Exclusive Interview with John Hope Bryant, Founder/CEO Operation HOPE.

In an exclusive interview on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour with host Earl Ofari Hutchinson on KTYM 1460 AM Los Angeles on October…

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 Earl Ofari Hutchinson's Blog 

Saluting An American Icon: Farewell Steve Jobs, You Will Be Missed

And so, a book is closed, and an era in many ways defines by the imagination of one Steve Jobs comes to an end today, with the stunning announcement of his death.  

That said, because of what he built, who he empowered, where he applied his transformative powers, and how he changed the way we worked and lived (and even felt), his legacy will live on forever.

We had no idea of course, when we asked the question in our forthcoming announcement of the Gallup-HOPE Index, "which one of these young people will be the next Steve Jobs," that we would be doing so in the backdrop of his literal passing -- but what a fitting tribute to a man who changed so much, and inspired so many -- including me.  And so, next week, Gallup and the Operation HOPE family will release national data that will hopefully help insure that there will be hundreds more Steve Jobs of and for our future.  

The Operation HOPE family joins me in saluting an American icon, and a global leader for change -- Mr. Steve Jobs.  You will be missed sir.  Your legacy, lives on, and I am not talking about an iPad. I am talking about our way life, our possibilities, and how we actually "see" our world.  Thank you sir. Thank you.

Finally, our hearts go out to his family, and those who obviously loved him so very much.  Please know that he has been "promoted." Gone on, to a better place.

Onward and with HOPE

John Hope Bryant

 

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), and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is 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.

 

 

 

Introducing the Gallup-HOPE Index Forum 2011

Want to help Operation HOPE to change the world?  Check out the new authorative national audit of financial literacy and the level of economic energy of our 50 million young people, in grades 5th through 12th across America.  This is the lead initiative of the new Operation HOPE Office of Innovation, Research & Assessment, now lead by Ms. Jennifer Thibeaux.  Check out the amazing four minute video Jennifer recently produced here.

Find complete information on the coming Gallup-HOPE Index, and the Gallup-HOPE Index Forum here.