John Hope Bryant

Huffington Post ~ Solving Poverty: The New Philanthropy is a Job

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

The thing I am most proud of in my professional career is that I meet a payroll every two weeks, and have been doing this successfully for more than 20 years now through Operation HOPE alone. In 20 years, I have never bounced a payroll check, and never had an employee arrive at a hospital emergency room only to be told that their benefits were no good. I am proud of that.

The Power of Role Modeling

But I didn't just 'become' a guy who could do this out of no where. I meet a payroll, because my father did. I saw my father meet payroll when I was a small child, typically on Friday nights, out the front door of our modest home in South Los Angeles. My entrepreneurship DNA was planted at an early age. Thank God my parents instilled in me a powerful sense of "who I am," and "yes I can." Being a victim just wasn't an option in my household. Creating something, making something, developing something, adding to something, becoming something -- was the only option my mom and dad gave me. And yes, I was also fortunate to have a mom and dad at home. This is not a foregone conclusion in an inner-city home.

Today, I am who I am, because my father was who he was. And I am thankful.

Those who make payroll possible once or twice a month in this country are a very unique breed, and as far as I am concerned, represent true American royalty. Why? Because they create the thing that drives most all other good things -- JOBS.

Read, share and comment on the full article here.

 

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Huffington Post ~ Solving Poverty: Fighting Blight and Poverty with Credit Scores

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

In the 50 years since the civil rights movement and Dr. King's dream, one problem (racism) has been replaced or at least matched by another -- poverty. Urban poverty, rural poverty, and poverty that hits blacks, whites, browns and others alike. As I have said previously in the Huffington Post, poverty is the new racism. If you are poor, everything pretty much sucks.

The old model of racism was based on race and the color line. The new model of racism is rooted in class and poverty. The old racism was obvious in signs that read White Only, from the southern states in the U.S. to South Africa. The new racism is more obvious in Misery Row.

Whether it is a feature on a boulevard in an urban city or a rural town, or whether it is at the entrance of a military base, the Misery Row looks pretty much the same. Predatory check cashers, next to rent to own stores, payday lending stores, title lending stores, and liquor stores.

One group of financial predators takes advantage of your financial problems and misfortune, while another associated group benefits by helping you to forget you actually have any.

Read, comment and share the complete article here.

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A Mother's Day Tribute, and a Rose, for A Mother-Leader to us All

 

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On April 27th, 2013, the King Center unveiled the Coretta Scott King commemorative rose, and I was honored and pleasantly surprised to return home from one of my many trips to find two of the beautiful roses at my home.

The roses were a gift from my friend and HOPE board member Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center (a post once held by her mother), and destined for a special planting location in my private park here in Atlanta, Georgia. But as I reflected on the Coretta Scott King commemorative Rose, I also began to reflect on the woman.  The woman, as leader, mother, wife, keeper of the King legacy flame.  I decided I had to write something in honor of her, on this special day.

Solving Poverty: Hard Work and Managing Pain

People often ask me "John, how did you do it?" My answer is always the same. I work, hard.

I actually believe that an "entrepreneur is someone who works 18 hours a day to keep from getting a real job." That pretty much sums it up.

Or as the late author Dr. Scott Peck once said, "love is work, non-love is laziness, and anti-love is evil." I believe that there is very little actual human evil in the world today. It exists, but it is very rare. Most people are just, well, lazy. They simply do not want to do the work that success requires.

If you love anything, you are going to have to work at it.

Operation HOPE 21: Telling The Story of Our Founding

21 years ago, this day, May 5th, 2013, the bold vision of and for Operation HOPE was born in South Central Los Angeles, immediately following the Rodney King Riots of April 29th, 1992.

"Rainbows, after storms.  You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first."

After the Rodney King verdict came down, so many things just went dark in the community I loved so much. The community I still love.  But not all things were negative, in the days and weeks and months that followed.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her local leadership group, led by Brenda Shockley as I recall, stood up their vision of and for Community Build. Today, Congresswoman Waters serves on the financial services committee for Congress, continuing to push her agenda for her people.

Then City Counciman Mark Ridkey-Thomas, who today is an esteemed and accomplished lead member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.  I fondly remember Supervisor Ridley-Thomas for so many reasons, but a couple stand out for me.  Mark (as I respectfully call him as a friend) served on our first board of directors for Operation HOPE. I remember our parting conversation. It was our first letterhead. We were committed to "eradicating poverty across America," and Mark (Ridley-Thomas) wanted to eradicate poverty and empower people IN THE 8TH DISTRICT!  We were both right, but Councilman Ridley-Thomas was more right than me.  He was 100% focused on empowering and serving the people in the district he was elected to serve.  This impresses me now, as much as it impressed me then.  I was sad to see Ridley-Thomas leave our board back then, by I so respected "why" he did it.  I also got the phrase "With HOPE," which has become my global signature sign-off statement on all correspondence, from Mr. Ridley-Thomas.  Finally, back then I would say that Ridley-Thomas was the only sitting elected official who really knew and understood community development, community empowerment, and the power of financial dignity in one's life.  

Huffington Post ~ Solving Poverty: What South Africa Needs Now Are Jobs

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

 

I just returned from an inspring, and in parts equally frustrating trip to South Africa, supporting my on-the-ground team working for Operation HOPE, South Africa.

Inspiring because, well who would not be inspired by all that is South Africa. The cultural richness, the spirit of the people, and the energy present wherever you go. Or the natural beauty of the place, all the untapped resources, and the incredible opportunity to create real, even transformational change throughout the country. And all the stories...

The young boys and girls we spoke with me in a local school, who once exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship, vowed to keep both their heads and their grades high until graduation. They wanted very to become their own job in the future (owning their own business). Imagine looking out over a sea of young 16 year-olds, witnessing for yourself a new generation of committed entrepreneurs, job creators and leaders being born. Inspiring indeed.

Or the elderly women whom we met at a cheetah observation park who proudly announced to us that she had achieved an 'NQ4 financial business management designation' from the local Cape Technical College, allowing her to become (her description here) an "advanced and better skilled" small business owner. This wonderful lady was selling handmade South African products under a covered tent at the cheetah park, but for her this might as well have been a ritzy brick and mortar facility in downtown Cape Town. She was anowner of her own destiny, and she even made me feel this immense sense of pride she had, in doing for herself. An pride of creating her own job.

Read and comment on the full Huffington Post article here.

 

 

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Bloomberg Businessweek Archives: IF BILL GATES WERE BLACK...

Companies & Industries

If Bill Gates Were Black...

This is still one of my favorite articles.  As appropriate now, as when it was first published in Bloomberg Businessweek.  Share, comment, reflect, and let me know what you think.

It's time for a new movement.

If Bill Gates were black, it would be less important that President Barack Obama is black. This is no slight to President Obama. It is an acknowledgment that while the route to success has changed, for too many in the black and minority community, their game plan has not.

For much of the past century, African Americans pursued social justice through government intervention, the ballot box, and ultimately elective office. While the number of black mayors and elected officials in this country is impressive, the number of black entrepreneurs is not. As a result, job creation in underserved communities, and among the black middle class, is stagnant.

The main driver of freedom in the world today is not the vote but access to capital. When I speak of capital, I obviously mean financial capital, but I also mean the Latin root word capitas, or “knowledge in the head.” That means financial literacy education, financial capability, and financial and economic empowerment.

Read the complete article on Bloomberg Businessweek here.

 

 

Impressive Leader for Africa's Future, Who Also Happens to be Black

Funeka Montjane,
Image by: Arnold Pronto

I am so very impressed by the smart, focused, intelligent, educated, thoughtul and thoroughly results oriented leadership talent that I continue to see at the top of some of South Africa's top businesses and corporations.  This young lady, Ms. Funeka Montjane, is but one example.

I have the pleasure of meeting her tomorrow morning around our growing portfolio of 'silver rights' empowerment work in South Africa, being done by Operation HOPE, South Africa; but I wanted you to meet her first.  That's how impressed I am with her.  I want you to know her here, even before I meet her in person (smile).

You can read the complete article on her here.  What an inspiration.  And no, we have no examples of a Black woman running a major banking division in the United States.  At least, not yet (a positive challenge to all of my friends in U.S. banking here).

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 is a thought leader represented by the Bright Sight Group for public speaking. Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE), a specialty finance company that is managed by an affiliate of Ares Management LLC, a global alternative asset manager with approximately $59 billion in committed capital under management as of December 31, 2012. 

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The HUFFINGTON POST ~ Solving Poverty: Atlanta in Black and Green, the Tale of Two Cities

   

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

As I noted in another 'Solving Poverty' piece for The Huffington Post, the new racism today is actually poverty.

Yes, it feels really bad if a racist calls you a highly offensive name, but it is completely un-dignifying when you cannot pay your rent, make your mortgage payment, or you find that your car has been repossessed by the lender while you were sleeping. You can walk away from the racist. And more so, when you know who you are, there is actually very little the racist can say or do to change the way you feel about yourself.

You cannot walk away from poverty.

The reality of poverty faces you as a parent every morning when your child looks up at you for lunch money, and as you reach into your pocket, finding only lent and marked up job wanted ads instead.

Or every time you stop for gasoline and have to stop the pump at $6, or you're at the grocery store, intent on collecting the ingredients for that special meal for your family, but finding that you are $20 short and have to put the healthiest choices back.

Poverty faces you in the unfortunately regular arguments you have with your spouse or mate (money is the number one cause for domestic abuse and divorce in America today), or the first time you have to address your teenage child, whose daydreaming about which four-year college they desperately wish to attend. And today, what I am describing is not a 'Black thing,' it's a 'green thing.'

Whether you are white, black, red, brown or yellow, today you just want to see some more green. U.S. currency, that is. We are all in this mess together.

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

 

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John Hope Bryant and Operation HOPE Team Visits South Africa This Week

I am honored to be spending the week in South Africa this week, focused on our silver rights empowerment work at Operation HOPE, South Africa, being done in more than six provinces in the country.  

While here I will be encouraging a spirit of entrepreneurship, small business ownership and what I call individual job creation (self-employment projects) amongst the generation of young people coming up today in the country.  

These young people have benefited from the incredible and life-changing civil rights justice work done by the likes of former President Nelson Mandela, and my friend Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Tutu, but all too often these same young people are not seeing that history and tradition translate into what I would call silver rights empowerment opportunities for all, today.  And that means they are then less interested in school, less interested in their families, less interested in "doing right," and less hope for themselves. And the most dangerous person in the world, is the person with no hope.

Our financial literacy work started here 6-years ago has been helpful, and I want to publicly thank the likes of Angela Motshekga, Sean Cleary, Ambassador Andrew Young and former mayor Herman Bailey, all who encouraged me early on to start the office here.  That said, it is not enough.