Nobody that you admire has gotten there without good debt. Good debt is tied to something that appreciates. We've been doing so much with so little for so long, we'd almost do anything with nothing. Black Africans and black Caribbeans and black Americans are different. They have high self-esteem and lower levels of confidence. Black Americans have higher levels of confidence and lower levels of self-esteem. No matter how much I love you, my son or my daughter, if I don't have wisdom, all I can give you is my own ignorance. Nothing much scares me. Um, that was the scariest conversation of my [Music] life. Everything around me around me around me around me. Money don't grow on trees but I still believe I can achieve cuz cash everything around me around me around me around me. Money don't grow on trees but I still believe that I can achieve cuz cash rules everything around me. So we are so honored to have you here today Mr. Bryant. We appreciate all the work that you're doing. I'm going to start out with a question that I've been asking a lot quite lately. Um, the Houston Chronicle actually wrote an article and they said that it takes 2.3 billion dollars in order to be rich and this was based upon a Charles Schwab survey. I want to know do you agree with that definition and how do you define rich? The reason I say that I most of the people that start businesses, most of the people that's coming here, they're trying to build wealth. They're trying to be rich and sometimes they don't really define what that is. How do you define rich? Um I I don't agree with that uh survey. Then then I black. Um it's like it's like somebody the opposite of that. Well, how do we deal with the tariffs and how do we deal with the current environment? There seems to be a crisis coming in America. But hey, black folks, we had a crisis every Tuesday. We've been doing so much with so little for so long, we'd almost do anything with nothing. Um, and so my mother passed away with a million dollar net worth. She wor she had worked 32 years at McDonald Douglas Aircraft. She worked she made $15 to $18 an hour. She was divorced from my father who left her with nothing. She bought and sold seven homes. She had a health insurance policy. She had a life insurance policy. She had a term life insurance policy and a whole life policy. She had a will with a with a poison pill in it. Anybody who protests this will is excluded from it. She was gangster. I asked my mother when she was divorced. I said, "Mom, you going to get married again?" She said, "Yeah, baby. when I get married, it's gonna be a BMW. I said, "Mom, don't be so vain. I asked you a real question." She said, "No, it's a real answer. A black man working." So, mom's credit score, you'll get that later. My mom's credit score was 854. So, she wasn't black, she was green. Um, her when she passed, her credit score, it was 740 or something because she wasn't using credit anymore. But my point is when she passed away with a million dollar net worth given the story I just told you from East St. Louis, she was incredibly wealthy. She didn't want for anything. She didn't need anything. Her car was was paid off. Uh she had a Mercedes. It wasn't Mercedes payments because it was completely I'm giving you good stuff was going right over your heads. Mercedes Mercedes payments. That's what it says. See, you ain't laughing because a lot of y'all got that. Um, so I think it's I think first of all, rich is a contract. Let me answer your question. Rich is a contract. That's different from wealth. You make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep. Wealth is stocks, bonds, home ownership, business ownership, brand ownership. Uh, education is a form of wealth. Uh, I was talking to a guy from your conference. He was complaining about his student loans and I said, "Why are you complaining that is an asset in you? Because that allowed you to take your earning power from six figures to seven figures. Without the education, you'd be making in your lifetime a few hundred,000." He didn't see it that way. So, you build wealth in your sleep. So if you and this is where we get in trouble. If if you have a contract, you could be $30,000 working with the city contract of $300,000 with a contract with the city. You have a contract with $3 million or three or 30 thou $30 million with the NBA or the NFL. But when your outflow exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall. So, if you have that contract and the income stops, but your expenses continue, and you've created a a lifestyle that is equivalent to your income, which is what everybody does, you will be broke. You'll be broke at 30,000, you'll be broke at 300,000, you'll be broke at 3 million. And we've seen you can be broke at 30 million. So, rich, first of all, we need to define rich as just a ability to earn an income, but you've got to translate that into wealth creation. And I think everybody has a capacity to be a millionaire within five years. But if you're a person of color, you're spending less. You're hustling harder. You you've got a better sense of surviving skills, which means you don't spend as much, waste as much as somebody else might who might need two and a half million or more in order to feel comfortable. That was a long answer to your question, but basically I said if you're black, you're lucky. All right. So, let me ask you this. My My dad always told me, he said, "Son, the key to having money is spend less than you make." And he would always say, "Stay away from credit cards. Stay away from debt." We talked a little bit about this yesterday. As you said with your mother, your mother had the 840 credit score. And I hear a lot of videos and Operation Hope. I know a big part of it is restoring credit. So, reconcile kind of my dad's perspective. um just managing your money, don't have credit with what you guys teach. And I will say I I don't think my dad was quite a millionaire, but he certainly left us debtree. Two houses paid off, gave me and my sister a car, and left us with about $70,000 in the bank. So, he did all right growing up in in Louisiana, you know, driving tractors, picking cotton. But reconcile what my dad taught me versus what you guys teach. First of all, your dad was wealthy because I met you. I met you yesterday in person and I can see in your eyes your dad's soul. We're not human beings having a spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having a human experience. Energy matters. So your dad was promoted in his sense of his life activity and he transferred the most important thing which were values to you and because of his life experience he was scarred by certain things that made him more conservative. Black people tend to be very conservative uh when you get the traditional black experience. I think what your dad was talking about was bad debt. So there's good debt and there's bad debt. There's good capitalism and there's bad capitalism. Bad capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a price for it. Slavery was bad capitalism. Good capitalism is where I benefit and you benefit more. This conference is good capitalism. Um bad debt are things that tie to things that depreciate. financing jewelry, financing clothes at a g at a department store. They give you that shiny credit card. You didn't look on the back or look at the details. That's 28 to 35% interest rate. Um, financing most automobiles actually is bad debt. Um, depending on unless it's taking you to a job and that is its primary purpose. Good debt is tied to something that appreciates. But let me be very blunt. This is, you know, Malcolm X, I'm going to say this a couple times today, so I'm going to say it once because it's going to apply to a lot of stuff. Malcolm X and Dr. King had a lot in common actually toward certainly towards the end of Dr. King's life. One of the things that Malcolm X said that I love is we've been bamboozled. We've been tricked. We've been fooled. We've been hoodwinkedked. We've been run a muck. What do I mean by that? No centmillionaire, no billionaire, no growing city like Houston, no country like America ever became a huge successful economy without good debt. I'm going say it again. Nobody that you admire has gotten there without good debt. Good debt. debt is as old as as humanity itself. And it was by We don't have time for this, but actually capitalism and free enterprise and trade was created by black people, Jews, and those in the Middle East 6,000 years ago. It It's just we forgot our own memo. Jews then went off and mastered finance because they couldn't own land in Europe. And so that's why they're so good at financial literacy. uh even though discriminated against, we decided to master culture versus capitalism, culture versus commerce. So where the rules are published and the playing field is level, we kill it. Think about it. The arts, professional sports, by the way, I got low self-esteem. I need to I need to know that you that you out here. Yes or no? the arts, professional sports, faith, politics, these areas. We've killed it because the rules are published and the playing field is level. No one ever taught us a game of capitalism. So, it's not like we got the memo and screwed it up. We just never got the memo. And part of this memo is using good debt. Uh, that means using it conservatively, using it appropriately. Uh, but but using it. I mean, I've I got a these these rap stars that call me their mentor. My brother TI, my brother Killer Mike, a lot of these brothers, they're just paying for thing for cash. Like, yo, man. I mean, they're paying paying for a building for cash. $2 million, $3 million. Man, I love you. I love I love the ability you can hustle like that. You can floss like that. You can lay it down like that. But that is not a good use of money. Like, so we got to refinance that out. get you some cash out, get you a modest mortgage on that thing, take the rest of that cash, and you do something else with it, put it in the bank if you like, put it in the stock market. But, but good debt is an incredible vehicle for wealth creation. The most gangster business on the planet is banking. That's why they wear this nice old conservative suit and a little buttoned up tie and they walk around the gangster. For every dollar a bank owner puts in their capital account, sorry. For every dollar you see in a bank, 6% Jerome is owned by the owner, the shareholder. The rest, 94% is you and me. So we put in 94 cents, they put in six cents, they lend out the dollar. This is gangster. They get the whole return on the dollar as long as you pay your loan back. So somebody will say, "Oh, you know, John Bryant, he's going to talk about he talking about debt." Now he's going to talk about home ownership. I should buy a home. Yeah. If I own the home, I don't own a home. The bank owns the home. If you don't pay, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Color is green, not black or white, not red or blue. If I loan you money to buy a house with the best of intentions and you don't pay me back, I'm going to own your home. So, so we've got to take the emotions out of this. We got to upgrade our software, uh, and just master this capitalism game. like we've mastered every other game. All right. So, you were once a CEO driving a Honda, buying cash cars, living conservatively. I would imagine you're still living conservatively. So, I want to know what I live under my means. Living under your means. Living under your means. Tell me what lessons you learned that you're still using today from those days starting out. Oh, I'm paranoid. I'm paranoid about cash. I think I'm I think I'm going to go broke every day. Um, I was homeless. I don't know if you guys know my story. We probably don't have time for this, but you can research it offline, but I've been pretty transparent about it. You know, my mom and dad divorced over money when I was four, five years old. They domestic abuse. Um, my mother, this California community property state, she could have taken them for everything. We owned a gas station, an apartment building, a eight a 18 unit apartment building. We bought for $18,000 is now worth millions. We we own our own own home. We own a business. Anyway, we my dad lost it all and my mother left with nothing. We lived with her girlfriend to save money for her first house. Um, and I saw two murders before I was 9 years old. and got a financial literacy when I was nine, course class. Um, and but then I was homeless when I was 18 and lost it all. Um, and my credit score was like 3400. I didn't even know it went that low. Um, I was at Latte Heron Airport. Anybody knows Los Angeles? There's a cat there's a there's a caddy corner right near the airport. Latte airport. It's Italian restaurant on the corner. I lived in the parking lot. Um, and I used to live in the and I take the car cover and put it over the Monttero Jeep at night so the license plate was covered so that the tow truck looking for the the the Montto couldn't identify when I was sleep. So this is real for me. And so yeah, I mean there was the story is more involved, but I'm still paranoid to this day about going broke. It's not a it's not it's I mean I closed a deal for a million dollars sitting in your back in your green room. uh deal literally a deal closed for uh for a million dollars for a house that I was selling. And but I'm still I'm still paranoid uh about about about never running out of cash. I got lines of credit everywhere. I got cash everywhere. I got I I want to know what I I appraise everything all the time. But that paranoia is part of my success. That insecurity, you got to make your insecurities work for you. I mean, the biggest economy in the world is the United States of America. The most insecure place in the world is the United States of America. The country is incredibly vain. I mean, we're constantly trying as a country to prove because we're only a few hundred years old. We're constantly trying to flex. We don't have royalty in the in like the UK does, which is where we got our freedom from. Well, some people got their freedom from. Are you guys slow? Am I Am I just Is this landing flat or we on a different planet? You know, black people, we got on the wrong boat. You you realize that, right? Anyway, uh we're gonna be family before this is over. Uh but anyway, my European friends uh have royalty. Well, we created celebrity in America as our own form of royalty. No one else in the world has celebrity. America created celebrity and exported it around the world as a response to our insecurity and not having royalty. Like royal business owners in America are royalty as an example. I mean that is the the as the journeyman class. So our insecurities the houses are bigger in America. The the the the music is louder. We are louder. We wear our we wear our asses on our um this is being recorded somewhere. Um so but is that vanity and that insecurity that also drives us to get up earlier, stay up later, work harder, which is why, by the way, black people should be incredibly incredibly incredibly successful going forward. or hope we get to that in the future before we in the business plan for America relies on black America to continue to be successful. I'm getting ahead of your question. So it just generally speaking I I I I want to make sure I never go broke ever again and and it's just mathematically impossible actually that I would. But that's but fears aren't rational. And I tell people all the time never making an emotional decision ever. Whenever you make an emotional decision, it's going to be a bad one. So, think three times, act once. But I do acknowledge everything about me. I I'm not as good as my compliments. I'm not as bad as my criticisms. I'm God's child. I am who I am. And I take these things that are insecurities in me and I use them as as coal to feed the fire of my ambitions and my projects. If you want me to answer a question more specifically, I will. By the way, you said I live conservatively. I don't live conservatively. I live under my means. Um, that may be conservative to some, but I mean, I have I have a car collection. I don't need those cars, but I also have to I don't have to think about it. If I got to if I have to think about it, I don't need it. If I got to think about what a payment is, I don't need it. I don't If I got to think about what something's going to cost, I'm not going to do it. So, I I do live I do live my dream. We have a you know, we have a we have a a beach house in Turks and Caos. Um, I bought it for $2 million uh two and a half years ago. The appraisal on it, it says it's now worth $3.8 million. Uh, we don't even go there, but and it and it's and it's rented out when we're not there because I'm a capitalist. Uh, so it's making money when we're even when we're not there. When we go there, we we go for free. I use Amx points to fly there. I use Herz points to rent the the rental car when I get there. I use the proceeds from the rent when I go there next month with my wife. I use the the the the money in the account in there to buy a a a previously owned SUV in Turks and Caos to keep there. So, it doesn't cost me anything. Oh, I'm a straight up capitalist. Um, but you know, when you if your if your outflow exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall. So, I'm just I just make sure I live under my means, which still allows me to live a good life. All right. All money is is freedom. Yeah. That's all it all money is is freedom. So what what do you think is the root of the insecurity as you said of of America that makes us want to flex and floss? And you said America. It wasn't African-Americans. So get I'd rather I'd much rather get I'd much rather get to African-Americans and why we're insecure. But but I can deal with your I mean I sort of deal with both of them. Do you guys want to hear this? So, so because this this to me this really is everything drone. Um, I've already dealt with America sort of visa v the world. I mean the world is 5 billion years old. Organism life, organism life four billion years old. Uh, Neanderthal life 200 million years old. Modern human life 200,000 years old. You know the, you know, Jesus 3,000 years. You know, you got BC and before Christ and after 6,000 3,000 years. So, as humans as we relate to it, 3,000 years old. America lasts 400 plus years. So, America is a pretty new situation. Uh, and we're insecure because we're new and we're trying to prove ourselves. We're good enough. And so, we overdo everything. And actually that plus freedom and democracy, you know, democracy and capitalism are horrible systems except for every other system. I mean, China and Russia want to be us. They're communist countries with a capitalism overlay and they're cheating at capitalism. This is the only way they can beat us. Uh and and and and by the way, that's part of why black people are going to succeed is that this country literally can't succeed for the next 20 years without black people succeeding. that. But um but the first thing we got to do in order to get to that demographic and and mathematical I like math because it doesn't have an opinion. But the reason uh before we get to that, let me answer the core question because we got to get it out of our own way first. It used to be the white man or racism, whatever was our problem. Now we're our problem. Only she got it. Let me let me break this down. Thomas was on the stage, by the way. Brilliant. Amazing. And and and is a future for a future model. What he did by acquiring an accounting firm in Atlanta. I'm hope to get to that. That's part of a business a business model for I think how we're going to to grow because 30% of all nonprofits are going to have to merge in the next couple years. uh you're going to have I mean so let me back to your black Africans and black Caribbeans and black Americans are different black Africans and black Caribbeans are closer almost identical they have high I'm generalizing now but generalization is pretty accurate they have high self-esteem and lower levels of confidence black Americans have higher levels of confidence and lower levels of self-esteem Because if slavery lasted here longer, it was turned into a business. And it was an intentional desire to destroy your spirit. Because if they had this black man here coming here with all that building and all that bronze from, by the way, they say they went to Africa. Oh, we're dumb. We're stupid. Knock that off. 1600s, 1500s was an agricultural age. The wealthiest gold in America, in the world, were uh cotton crops and sugar crops and and and tobacco crops which were in in areas where which were very humid, very hot and the and the the the soil was almost dead. Who could master dead soil? Africans. So they went halfway around the world to find the geniuses of the soil. They brought us halfway around the world because we could be make build wealth for them and income. But they didn't need this brother's attitude. They needed his body. So they they they separated from his family so he had no hope. They abused his wife and held him down so he couldn't protect her until he gave up his selfesteem. Now he's just machinery. So now 400 years later, we never healed. So, if I don't like me, I'm not going to like you. If I don't feel good about me, I'm not going to feel good about you. If I don't respect me, don't me expect me to respect you. If I don't love me, don't I don't have a clue how to love you. And here's the big one. If I don't have a purpose in my life, I'm going to make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around. So, we have high confidence, Jerome, because we've competed and succeeded against all odds in the biggest economy on the planet. So, we have high confidence because we're competent, but we have low self-esteem, which is why you have crab in the barrel. It's why somebody's sitting there going, "What is he talking about?" My life, why would anybody have anything with something positive to say right now? So, if you got a problem with me, you need to check yourself. I don't even know you. So, as Quincy Jones once said, "Not one ounce of my self-esteem depends on your acceptance of me." So, is it okay if you don't like me? I like me. Now, black Africa, y'all, come on now. We having church in here. Now, black Africans and Caribbeans experience slavery lower for a shorter period of time, and they experience family structure and role modeling for a longer period of time. The mayor was black. The governor was black. The prime was black. The dentist was black. The barber was black. The thief was black. Everybody was black. New together families. So they have high higher self esteem, but they have lower confidence because they didn't succeed in the market economy. It makes perfect sense. So when you come, that's why when black Africans or Caribbeans come here, within two or three years, they're killing it. Yet the Ethiopians in Washington DC, they're at the park hyatt parking the cars. Within a couple days, they've hired the buddies to be valet. Within a few weeks, they're also the taxi drivers. Within a couple months, they got some they got they putting money in for an Uber car. Now they got a black car. Now they got three black cars. Now they live together. Now they entire they have the their entire staff of the front the front of the of the of the lobby. They have the ballets. They got the taxi. They got the Ubers. They they willing to rent you an apartment if you want one. I mean they but that's because the hustle was the only ingredient that they missed the opportunity. Black people, black Americans are the role models for the world. But but we but but we've got a a little bit confused because we think that's enough. We're also depressed. I think that 70% of black Americans clinically undiagnosed depressed. And you I can't prove that number. I love number. I can't prove that one. But when I whenever I talk to somebody, our people in a real conversation, can I get an amen? So when we're having a real conversation, we just have to heal so we can deal. Now if we can heal, which is real wealth, and heal ourselves and love ourselves. Now, now we can have a relationship. Now in a relationship is the only time where it should be multiplication and not math. So if a relationship, if 2 plus two does not equal 6, 8, or 10, what are you doing? If you're not better together, what are you doing? Will you go to the club tonight? What's tonight? Tonight's Saturday. Will you go to the club tonight? What's tonight? Friday. Entre entrepreneurs. We work 18 hours. They keep getting a job. We We can work 18 hours and six and we have a nap for three hour for six hours. That's it. So, yeah. I don't know what day it is. You go to the club tonight. Oh, man. She's fine. Oh, he's so handsome. What's your name? Oh, what's your credit score? And I'm only partially joking. After the after the the looks fall away and the body falls away, that's your business partner for life. 2 plus two should equal 6, eight, or 10. If you're not better together, what are you doing? So, so, so this thing we're talking about is not self-esteem is the entire ball game. If we can't fix this, we're done. No one else can hurt us will hurt us. If we can fix this, I believe we will and we are. No one can stop us. 40% of black 40% of America is black and brown today. Within 10 years, it'll be a majority of minorities. The economy is 29 trillion dollar. The biggest economy in the world. Most of the wealth is here, by the way, in the United. economy is 70% consumer spending. 70%. 70% of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck by the way everybody. But it's the economy is consumer spend not wealthy people not the government you and me if we're 40 if so if we're 40% now heading to 50%. And you have more people over under 18 than over 65. And you have the largest group of Americans who are baby boomers today who are 65 years old which means wealthy, rich, white, trying to go play golf. all at the same time. So they're leaving this they're leaving the stage room in 10 years all together. Am I you with me so far? That's $150 trillion of wealth. $50 trillion created in the last 25 years. You're going to have a hundred trillion dollar wealth transfer in the next 10 to 20 years. $15 trillion trillion dollars of that is business uh business assets. The people who own these assets, they're going to give the do inheritance, the car, sorry, the cars, the houses, the stocks, the bonds, the cash to their husbands, their wives, their children. The the the family don't want the businesses. They're like, "We good. That's too much work." These are successful businesses with brands. They have assets, cash flows, customer lists. Thomas, when I'm talking about you, they're perfectly fine. Nobody wants them. $15 trillion dollars worth of that and all you have to do is go buy it. And let me tell you what, it is easier. If you didn't listen to anything I had to say, listen to this. It is easier to go to Wall Street and to get and to get Wall Street to finance a $10 million acquisition of a profitable business with a cash flow, a customer list, and assets and real estate already there. It is easier to get that done than to start a pizzeria with a $50,000 GoFundMe campaign or a mortgage that you got to personally guarantee. It's called nonreourse debt. Private equity will finance that on its cash flow and assets alone. You're just a placeholder. The owner is a placeholder. Am I losing you? That's a trillion dollars of potential asset transfer for us in the next 10 years. The color is not black or white. is not red or blue. I over answered your question. Now, that was good. I I'll keep the rest. I I saw my brother looking at his watch, right? Y'all ain't got to kick me out. I'm gonna leave. You never want to be You never want to be the old guy at the club. So, before y'all kick me out, I'm gonna leave. I do there's a couple things before we wrap up. I do want to I do want to make sure I I leave with you, but I'm gonna I'm gonna make my my answers much shorter. Okay. So, next question. Now, not a lot of people know, but you had a hand in kind of shaping uh AI. You sat down with Sam Alman. You talked about AI and how our community is represented in it. So talk a little bit about that conversation and how AI is the the role of AI in the future in wealth transfer and creation our society. Talk a little bit about that conversation. Um nothing much scares me. Um that was the scariest conversation of my life. Um I wish we had more time. I'd unpack the how. We don't have time for it. But um I went to go meet Sam. He's a nice guy. I think he's I think he's a Steve Jobs of this generation. And he showed me a a um prototype of what chat GPT was going to be. I had no idea what I was looking at. Showed me to Chamino's laptop. And um he asked me, "John, what's your opinion about tech leaders in Silicon Valley?" And he said, "We know all the same people. I won't name names, but the biggest names." And I said, "Well, they most of them are technical geniuses with a blind spot called people. And he said, "You know, I love I love the honesty of your answer. I need another honest answer. What am I missing as I'm launching Chat GPT?" I said, "Well, the internet didn't ask for underserved communities opinion. The industrial revolution didn't ask for it. The automobile revolution didn't ask for it. The horse and buggy revolution didn't ask for it. You with AI should ask for the opinion and the engagement of what will soon be half of the population who are going to drive the American economy. Go talk to him and most importantly listen to him because God gave you two ears and one mouth if you listen twice as much as you talk. And he said okay help me. Fine. So a few weeks passed his office called said you know Sam really wants to do this thing black and brown America these tours you're talking about but he's in Europe right now. He won't have time. I said, "No, he will have time." So, I hung up from them and I called, you know, but nobody washes rental cars, by the way. Middle managers are cool, but their answer, their job is to say no. A middle manager's job is to say no. Why? Because you don't get no. You don't get fired for saying no. You get fired for saying yes to the wrong thing. So, the answer is no. So, I then called the guy whose job it is to say yes. I called Sam Alman and Sam I said, "Sam, you got to do this." He said, "I hear you." They called me back and said, "Look, the White House just called. I got to be in the White House in uh three days. Uh I'd like to come to your house after that. Come to Atlanta. Can you do it? This was two in the morning. I said, "The answer is yes." Uh hung up, called George French, president of Clark Atlanta. Woke him up. Hey man, I I need you to help me host this meeting. Three days. We had the King family, the Young family, all the heroes and shields in Atlanta in at Clark Atlanta. And he laid this thing out and drone basically said in you know within 10 years we'll probably solve cancer. That's the good news. The bad news is there's going to be unintended consequences and I have no idea what they are. They pro and they're probably going to be very bad. I just can't tell you what they are. His honesty on the second answer made him my brother because it was it was just transparency. It was truth. Like he doesn't know what this it's this is like where the horse and buggy was from 1850 to 1910 and we went to the automobile and things shifted like this. This is going to go from between between 2025 and 2030 your whole world's going to change very much like so what happened in 50 years is going to happen in five and I don't know if you remember now you remember sorry history books will show you that in 1850 to 1910 it was all about the horse and one out of 10 jobs were friers people who did horse uh did horseshoes by 1910 a horse was glue just real talk and you had a 100 automobile manufacturers created in between uh 1900 and 1910 most of them failed very much like AI is going on right now a few of them survived like Henry Ford Ford Motor Company paid his workers enough to buy the automobile they were making ethics and by the way Mottown got their idea for Mottown from the Ford auto plant manufacturing facility manufacturing line we are at this inflection point again now where literally if you have a high school education and no hustle, you're done. You don't Okay, you don't believe me. Uh you go go to CVS, go to go to Walgreens, go to your grocery store. 10 years ago, five no five years ago, it was a a tester panel and you had eight checkout counters. Now go to that same grocery store today. It's one person checking you out and eight selfch checkouts. That's automation. That's AI. Go to the go to go to go to the airport. Uh you go you went to your f your favorite fast food restaurant. It used to be 12 people behind the counter. Somebody with what you want my food and your and not your attitude. Well, I got a break coming up. Yeah. You on your break right now. You're retired on the job. Now you got two, three people in the back doing quality control and everybody's check is pushing. This is happening really subtle. It's right in front of you. Like you put a a a a a frog in burn in in burning water. They jump out. Put a frog in some water and just slowly heat it up. So this like everything has changed. But versus seeing this as a threat, we should see it as an opportunity. That's really what I'm getting out round to. And so I'm co-chair of the AI ethics council with Sam Alman. Um I've gotten a bunch of H.B.CU on the board with that. The King Bernice King and Andrew Andrew Young was 93 is on the board. Uh I love this dude. I mean that is the Nelson Mandela of our time. Um uh and and we have this AIP3 uh council we put together with all the school districts in in uh in Atlanta from from kindergarten all the way up to college to to reimagine the future of jobs with artificial intelligence. Reimagine the future of economies. Every literally everything around you is going to change. It's going to be AI and speakers, a AI and furniture, AI and manufacturing of suits, AI and jewelry, AI and creative. literally just pick what you're passionate about and become an expert in that with AI attached to it and you've got a future that creates jobs and opportunities versus destroys it. So somebody saying, "Well, John, isn't this the end of everything?" No, calculators weren't the end of math. What calculator did was free you up from spending all that time? So now you were had more time to then have highest and best use for your brain. So So the So the internet didn't make you dumb. Well, some of us a smart some people use smartphones for dumb stuff. But but you have this this is a computer. This is a computer in your pocket. I mean, nobody should be complaining about anything. You have chat you have chat GPT. You have you you have the smartest assistant on the planet in your pocket. I I do these I do these opeds and luckily I'm I'm a public figure. I was uh trying to do his op-ed. Took me three weeks. My staff wasn't available. It was Sunday. I'm at church. I'm at I'm going to the Okay, cool. I respect how you gonna argue with church. You're at church. Okay. So, I'm trying So, I call I call Bishop TDJs. You know, man, how you doing? I'm good. What? I'm trying to get this dang on OpEd done. He said, "John," he said, "John, you're just not very bright. We're boys. You're not very bright. What?" And it's midnight. He said, "John, I'm going to tell you what you told me. Chat GPT." He said, "You're a public figure. It knows who you are. Just simply say,"This is John Hope Bryant. I need to do an op-ed or 800 words on this topic in my voice and hear the framework." And I hit that three seconds and I read it. It was tripping. I was like, "This is me." I said, "What?" I said, "This is plagiarism." No, it's me talking about me. It freaked me out. It freaked me out. I'm telling you like and if I was a really a bad employer, I'd have fired like 20 people on Monday. Yeah. But but so right now chat is about reducing costs. I'm sorry. AI is about reducing costs. It's they have not yet figured out how to make money. But here's the good news. 99% of black people don't know a thing about AI. But to quote my brother Van Jones, 99% of white people don't know a thing about AI. Like this is equal opportunity discrimination. like like we're this is rock paper scissors for everybody like all at the same time, right? So people like, "Oh, I've got a safe job. I'm an accountant." No, that's you're done. Right. I got a safe job. I'm an attorney. No, no, you're done, too. Right. Like everything's going to get reimagined. You can see I'm really excited about this topic. Yeah. I before we run out of time, I got to talk about the business plan for America and a couple of things, but but this AI thing. We could spend a whole hour just on artificial intelligence. There are two things you've got to get, you have got to obsess about. If your day is not about God or love, your day is about money. You heard me say that financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. What the civil rights leaders did in the streets, you all as business leaders are going to do in the sweets. I call it silver rights. So financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. AI literacy is the silver rights issue of this generation. You need AI literacy and financial literacy and God. You you and hustle and and you you will dominate what comes next. I set up my answers are going to be shorter. Go ahead. So, I I got one more question and I'll let you talk about the uh the project you were talking about. So, in your book, you said something that stuck out. You said, "Out of love, we pass down habits from one generation to the next." Now that I have you here, I want you to break that down and and and and concisely tell me what that means. No, no, you're being too nice, Dr. I did not say that. Okay. I said straight up, out of love, we pass down bad habits from generation to generation. No matter how much I love you, my son or my daughter, if I don't have wisdom, all I can give you is my own ignorance. You want to have a real conversation because if you hang around nine broke people, you will be the 10th. This is why I say you got to take emotions out of it. Capitalism is a gladiator sport. Business is not personal. It's just business. Business is two people sitting at this table. There's a table between us. You're the producer. I'm the consumer. Your job, your job is to extract as much money from me as you can while giving me the least value. That's your job. My job is to give you the least money while getting the most value. That's my job. Every good negotiation is where both people leave the table slightly irritated because nobody got everything that they wanted. That's life. Love is work. Non- love is laziness. Anti- love is evil. Evil exists, but it's very rare. Most people are just lazy. Intellectually lazily, spiritually lazy, physically lazy, financially lazy. They want everything. They don't want to do the work. Only in the dictionary does the word success come before the word work because it's alphabetical. Get your rear end up and go to work. I love you, but if you going to do the crime, you going to do the time. I love you. If you going to have these kids, you are going to take care of them. You are not a baby daddy. You are a father. You're not a baby mama. You are a mother. get up and go to work. I'm tired of this. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. There's nothing wrong with us. But we got to get out of our own way. No matter how much I love you, my son or my daughter, if I don't have wisdom, all I can give you is my own ignorance with the best of intentions. I can only give you what I got. It's what we don't know that we don't know that's killing us. But we think we know. It's what you don't know that you don't know. But you think you know. I mean, people be arguing with me on Instagram. I you if you see comments, it's me. People like, "You didn't check your direct message." This is a direct message. I'm commenting right here. People like, "Hey, people bring me everywhere. I want to meet with you. You're meeting with me right now." Like what? Anyway, you guys are a hard audience. I've been giving you stuff. So, so, so, you know, commenting on trying to tell me about capitalism. I'm like, which one of us is broke? Because, you know, I don't need any of this. I'm I'm good. I'm trying to help you. I presume you're on my page because you like what you're hearing and you want to learn. Why are you argue to argue with a fool proves there are two? God gave you two ears and one mouth. So you should listen twice as much as you talk. So I was on I I I did my I do my own whole global forum. I want you to come the biggest meeting for the empower of the poor in the world. And I had it was me and TI and Killer Mike billionaire Tony wrestler is worth 200. He's worth $15 billion. Bishop TD Jake is in the audience. Ambassador Young's in the audience and TI, we're buddies. He wants to start arguing with me about money, about banking. Uh, you know, I don't like that. You might even watch this clip online. I don't like this. I don't like that. I don't like banking. I don't, you know, TI, stop it. What? What? Look, I went to the studio with you and you broke down publishing rights and licensing rights and this industry and that industry and and and all I did was listen because that's your world. You're brilliant. You You're amazing. You're you're a master in the music business. You're even now doing comedy. I mean, except you've done movies. I I shut up and listen. If I want to know how to build wealth, I talk to Tony Wrestler and I shut up and listen. If I talk to want to talk about spirituality, I go to Bishop G. Jinx, the the black pope, and I shut up and listen. Talk about the civil rights movement and what Dr. King was thinking and all that stuff. I go to Andrew Young and I shut up and listen. I said, 'When I'm talking to you about money, shut up and listen. So, and luckily, he was smart enough to shut up and listen. So, I think that what we've got to do is love each other enough to tell us the truth. I'd rather you respect me and learn to like me than like me and never respect me. And and you have parents trying to be best friends with your kids. I I don't I mean, how low is our self-esteem? My my my mother back in the day the law changed. You couldn't beat your kids, right? So I I'm at school and I come home. My mother, she didn't like something I did. Go get a switch. You know, if you went in the backyard and you got something too small, she'd go back there and have the tree. So Wanita Smith, so I I'm at the She says, "Go get a switch." No. Now, this is the generation of black women. They could be in another room, hear you, take off that pump, throw it around the corner, and knock you on the head. It come back, they put it back on, they say, "So, girl, what's we having lunch?" So, so we're talking. My mother's my mother said, "What' you say to me?" She cocked her head cuz she couldn't quite process. Yeah. Did you just talk back to me? What? What did you say to me? I always love these white families. Typically white families, wealthy white in the grocery store or now Johnny stop cursing at me. And my so mom's like, "What'd you say to me?" I said, "You can't you can't you can't beat me." The law says the law change. The law changed. Can't get it out. You can't You can't touch me. You can't You can't beat me no more. Mom's like, she said, "First son, I wasn't beating you. I was whipping you." But, "Okay, here's a phone." Back in those days, it was the rotary one, you know. So, here's a phone. I want you to call the folks with the red light. That's the police. You call them for me. And then when you're finished, baby, I want you to pick up the phone again. I want you to call the people with the blue light. That's the morg. That's for you. I brought you in this world. I damn sure going to take you out. And so then I had made the mistake where then she started hitting me and I I'm telling my my daddy, oh yo, daddy ain't paid child support in how many years? My my mother would leave to go to work at McDonald Doug's aircraft. She had no problem with her kids. We lived in Compton, California. You went to the street behind you and you may not come back. I was more afraid of my mother than the drugs and the and the thieves and the gangsters on my neighborhood. My mother was a terror. I loved her. I didn't like her. It took me 20 years to love to like my mother. That's that that's when you know you're a good parent. Stop trying to be your your children's best friend. So, we got we have some work to do and we have to level set. We have to love each other enough to say the truth. The truth is our business plan's not working. In fact, we don't even have a business plan. We just tripping and and we we flossing. We we we out here profiling. We out here trying to rent in a place that don't want you, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't know, to talk about stuff that don't matter. Well, what you should be doing is buying you a house hood adjacent. Buy it, rehab it, and rent it or buy rehab it and live in it. Then build some equity. Then use the equity in three years. Get a home equity line of credit. Buy another house in hood adjacent near transportation, jobs, e economic activity. Buy it, rehab it, and rent it. Do that three times. Get you a term life insurance policy or a whole life bought. It gives you a one-page uh wheel so nobody can steal your money when you're dead. Everybody's going to die. I don't know how you're going to live, but you're going to die. And make sure you direct that. It's called generational wealth. You'll be a millionaire within five years. I did that in in three minutes. By the way, everybody here knows. Everybody has got a cousin that makes $38,000 a year with three children. You go home and you tell them, have you ever heard of EITC? They say, "What's that?" You say, "Congratulations that Jerome and the and the black Texas black house just gave just gave you a check. If you make $38,000 a year and you have three children, this is financial literacy. The government owes you $7,500 cash and you've never filed as retroactive for three years. Hello. So that's almost $20,000 and you can buy a house in the hood of Jason for whatever wet, you know, find some city $100,000. I don't mean like in Houston, but I mean go someplace where the puck is going. buy it for $100,000, $10,000 down payment. Get you a get you one of these banks to give you a down payment assistance because that's the only time you being black is an advantage. Get you a get you a CRA loan mortgage from them, which is under under interest rate because again, being black is an advantage. Buy that house, rehab it, rent it, and live in it. build equity and build wealth and then buy another one and buy another one and get and and this the only time where like being poor and underserved is an asset and this is your time. Like everybody else is just like they're ready to jump off of the first floor building. They they never had problems before. You boo you were born with problems. So So what was your question? out of love when you pass down uh feedback. You No, you knew you just You just hit that. You just knew I was going to take off. I just I'm just so I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm just I'm just worn out with these raggedy conversations. I'm so tired of these fake influencers on internet talking about how to make you wealthy, selling you books and tapes to and that's how they've gotten wealthy. Like just knock it off. Like stop. Do you go do you have somebody do cancer surgery on YouTube? I mean, go to somebody who's an expert. My payroll is $1.5 million every two weeks. I have to make $300,000 a day. I'm losing money being here. But but you but you've got to understand I'm the largest black malefounded community-based nonprofit by budget in American history. I'm not selling you wolf tickets. I'm not telling you some motivational speech. I'm telling you what I did from nothing. Invested 4.8 billion dollars in our community. So I know we can do it. But we got to put a put that drama aside and to get that toxicity out of your life. Say you ain't got to go, but you got to get out of here. You can't take everybody with you. Yes, I said it. Ladies and gentlemen, John O'Brien. Thank you. So, thank you. Go ahead. But so I have a gift for you. Uh I've got two gifts for you. Can I do it if I do it quick? Can I Y'all won't kick me out? Um number one, I want you to go to the business plan to to dream forward and download the business plan for America. I wrote a business plan for women, one for rural America, one for black America, one for Latino America, one for Native American Indians. And here's what it the black one says. Why are you tripping on the government? Like why are we upset about de andi? We're fifth on the list. Who cares what they're doing in Washington? Don't you have enough stuff to focus on? Pay your mortgage. Pay your car note. Raise your kids. Volunteer in your local community. The all the cities the cities are where GDP comes from anyway. Volunteer in your school board. Like wait for this drama to be over. It's not your drama. Go on about your life. By the way, if the government just gets excited and wants to give black people reparations, I don't think it's going to happen. But that's 300 to$600 billion dollars by estimates over 20 years. But if you just raise your credit score a 100 points, you get the churches to do it. You get black expo members to do it. Just raise credit score 100 points over the next five years. That's 750 billion dollars for black America by 203. You take that credit score increase to 700 because half of us have a credit score below 620. Let that sink in for a minute. Half of all black America has a credit score below 620. Which means we wake up, forget police brutality and and all the stuff that upsets you, racism, all legit. But that means half of us wake up in the morning locked out of the free enterprise system. You can't get a decent mortgage, car loan, anything at 620. Can't get a small business loan at 620. So credit score 700 billion, 750. Then you buy a home. Move it from 44% home ownership to 62% by over five. Actually, this is over 20 years. That's $800 billion. That's $1.6 billion. I didn't mention anything about the government. You can do that by yourself. Buy a trillion dollars of these businesses I just talked about. That's another trillion. AI, that's another trillion. That's $3.5 trillion in 20 years. That's all self-actualized. It's the James Brown version of affirmative action. Open the door. I get it myself. You don't need anybody to help you change your life. You got to get organized. Follow him. Now, I'mma give him some help. Met with some young people today. You're helping them out with some grants. I'mma double the grant money. Number two. Oh, no. No. I'm I just That That's little. So, this is why you should always check your spam folder. After uh Rainbows After Storms, I was talk after George Floyd's murder. I talked to Toby Lukey, the wealthiest man in Canada, uh Shopify, talking to people. He he was all torn up about George Floyd's murder. He said, "John, this is really horrible. What can I do to help?" I didn't say, "Hook me up, hook my cousin up, hook my friend up." I said, you know, I don't know, help me create a million new black businesses in America. Said, "Well, send me something." So, I went to to my computer, typed out something. By the way, don't let the perfect be the death of the good. I typed up something, sent it to him before he got distracted because he's wealthy and busy. A week goes by, you nothing. Two weeks go by, nothing. The old John Bryant would have, hey man, I knew you ain't We won nothing. You ain't You just wasted my time. That's the old John Bryant. This one. Hey, man. Thanks for caring. I appreciate that you didn't want to do it. You probably didn't want to tell me no. I appreciate you asking me what could you do. I know you're busy. We'll get, you know, I didn't hear from you. Cool. We'll do something down the road. Love you, man. He wrote back, "What are you talking about?" I said, "Yes." In my spam folder, $130 million commitment over 10 years. He then increased that in December, another 60 million. There's $190 million of business of of capital to create a million new black businesses in America. Free domain name, free website, free business plan, free payment systems, free Shopify account, free credit score counseling, free budget counseling, free attorney for two week for two hours, business manager, business consultant, marketing consultant. The package is worth $25,000 per business. I'm leaving a million dollars here. See you. Thank you so much.