I didn’t have any intention of taking notes while attending the Detroit Policy Conference in February. I just wanted to listen to what people had to say because, personally, there’s nothing enjoyable about feverishly writing things down as people speak.

Well, that was until John Hope Bryant spoke.

Yeah, I didn’t know who he was either.

John Hope Bryant is a 50-year-old businessman who founded Operation HOPE, an organization designed to help under-served communities and teach financial literacy. At the Detroit Policy Conference, Bryant started out by saying something that I thought was really thought-provoking and interesting, so I decided to jot it down. Well, by the end of his 20-minute speech, I had written four pages of notes and quotes.

One of the main themes of Bryant’s talk was about redefining the public’s perception of poverty and how one becomes “poor”…

“Poverty has nothing to do with money,” he said. “Half of all poverty is a result of low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in yourself.” 

After living in Madagascar I would argue that poverty can be a relative to the country in which you live, however, this may very well be accurate in the United States. We are all products of the environments in which we are raised. Those of you reading this probably have at least one role model who served as your barometer for right and wrong, provided words of optimism at your lowest moments, or helped pave the path for your success. How many people living in low-income communities do you think have had this?

As Bryant explained, “success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

If you were fired from your job tomorrow, I imagine you would consider that to be a pretty big failure. After all, gainful employment is such an integral part of how western culture perceives success. It would probably take some time for you to process the information and get back on your feet, but more than likely, you would recover with the help of family and a support system working round the clock to ensure that transition takes place. In the low-income neighborhoods of Detroit and across the country, these support systems don’t always exist for young kids. Bryant believes that is what leads to cyclical, generational poverty.

As explained in the quote above, Bryant believes poverty is born out of a lack of self-confidence, a lack of support, and a constant feeling that you don’t matter in the world as a result of certain life events. He said statistically there are more poor black Americans than white Americans because after “250 years of slavery plus 100 years of Jim Crow you can imagine a majority of black Americans are probably clinically depressed.” Now, combine that with the absence of financial literacy in some of these low-income neighborhoods and you get, as Bryant called it, the “modern” definition of slavery…

“To live in a system of free enterprise and not understand the rules of free enterprise must be the very definition of slavery.” (quoting Andrew Young, Bryant’s mentor)

It’s a cyclical nightmare that has become a reality for far too many.

Going back to the importance of a role model in a person’s life – Bryant used the example of a drug dealer. “Drug dealing is morally and ethically wrong,” he said, “and there is a place in hell reserved for those who might try to destroy their own neighborhoods with drugs…but drug dealers are not stupid. They understand capital, wholesale, retail, customer service, relationships, and logistics. A drug dealer is not a bad kid, it’s a misguided kid.”

I had never thought of that. Imagine everything these kids could do with a little guidance!

EXAMPLE (not part of Bryant’s speech): Born into poverty, Jeff Henderson made $35,000 PER WEEK selling crack cocaine in San Diego. If you’re a poor kid from Southern California, this screams success (because American culture says you cannot possibly have one without the other). Unfortunately, it took a nine-year prison stint for Henderson to find guidance, mentorship, and support, but now he is nationally known as “Chef Jeff” and attributes a lot of his entrepreneurial success to lessons he learned while dealing drugs.

At one point Bryant made a small plea to the crowd saying, “watch how you live your life because you may be the only Bible someone else ever reads.” With the way communication mediums and social media work these days, we are all public figures. You never know the impact you might have on another person. If we all did as we said, this world, and Detroit, would be a much better place which is why Bryant said it’s so important that we start “to connect a PhD with a PhDo.”

A quick story/social experiment about building business sense from a young age…

John Hope Bryant said he was with three kids who were all given $70 to spend at a Nike store. Bryant said, “you have three minutes to spend your $70 on whatever you want.”

One kid responded, “I don’t need three minutes. I want Air Jordans.”

Another kid named Derek said, “I want to buy a shares of stock in Nike.”

The other kids start laughing and poking fun at Derek telling him he should get a pair of Jordans, too.

Bryant steps in to defend Derek and tells the two kids that maybe Air Jordans might not be the best purchase.

Derek politely cuts Bryant off and says, “No, I want them to buy those shoes.” 

Finally, a few more quotes that I thought were interesting…

• “70 percent of the population has too much month at the end of their money.”
• “You can’t practice freedom without financial freedom.”
• “Even if you want to distribute money like a socialist, you must first make money like a capitalist.”
• “Whether you’re black, white, brown, or orange; everyone wants a little more green.”
• “99.9 percent of DNA is the same which means race is stupid.”
• “The thing that made her [Crystal Nickson, Financial Management Counselor, Operation HOPE & formerly homeless] successful is that she is a dreamer with a shovel in her hands.”
• “There’s never been a middle class riot of any race in history. Middle class folks don’t want to go riot, they want to go shopping.”
• “A police officer should live and work in the community he/she polices. That is the definition of community policing.”
• “Coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous.”

A couple snapshots of Challenge Detroit’s day at the conference…