April 25, 2024 • 44 mins
In this episode, John Hope Bryant shares some knowledge on taxes. He also beaks down the difference between self esteem and confidence, and explains while you need both!
To learn more about John's Operation Hope initiative, visit: https://operationhope.org/how-we-help/credit-money-management/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the Money in Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of The Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey Hey,
it's John O'Brien This is money and Wealth. And I'm
popping my collar because I paid my taxes and I'm
(00:26):
happy about it. Right. Actually, I got a pretty good
deal this year. Last year was an okay deal. In
the year before that, it was a painful deal because
I paid the most taxes I'd ever paid in my life.
It was seven figures in taxes alone. In fact, my
state tax bill was larger than any tax I'd ever
(00:50):
paid period in my life, just my state tax bill.
My federal tax bill was seven figures by itself. But
I was happy to do it. Listen to me, now,
I was happy to do it because that meant I
made money. I even generated some generational wealth. I forget
what year it was, but it was, you know, two, three,
(01:11):
four years ago where I paid this enormous tax bill.
But don't get upset with Uncle Sam. Because you're paying
a tax bill, it means that you're actually making some money.
You might want to be upset when you're not paying
a tax bill because it made mean you're broke and
don't be smarty pans and decide you're going to skip
out on your tax bill. I'd rather rather steal from
(01:33):
my mother got rest of her soul, than still from
from the federal government of the irs. They didn't get
alcohpoone from murdering mayn They got an alcopone on tax evasion
and put that man under the jail. He died in prison,
cool smooth, all that he avoided, all those things he
actually did, which was literally murders and stickups and all
(01:56):
kinds of stuff. But they couldn't catch them. But they said, basically, look,
we can't prove you broke these laws and committed these primes,
but you seem to have a lifestyle that doesn't make
any sense, and we can't You can't justify where you
made this money. So you have evaded taxation because you
(02:21):
didn't report the income. So it's really deep. Get American American,
American capitalism is American government is deep. It's like, we
maybe convict you that it's illegal, but you dang if
you're gonna pay your taxes on your comp on your
on the income that you made, or we'll get you
that way. And so they got them that way, and
(02:41):
they're not gonna get me that way. I'm gonna pay
my taxes. Uh. Now, we just had tax season, and
you shouldn't be paying more taxes than you have to.
And uh, this tax system is designed for you to
maximize your tax benefit. The whole thing about owning a home,
(03:02):
the tax structure, the tax system. I don't want to
use that word again. The taxing infrastructure in America is
designed to benefit home ownership. That's what I was trying
to say. So, you write off the most of a
thirty year mortgage twenty on average, twenty of the thirty
(03:23):
year mortgage. You write it off through mortgage interest payments,
and you will be able to get a lot of
that back in a tax refund at the end of
the year. So if you're renting from me a home
or an apartment, or from some other investor, you're opening
a window and throwing your money out the window. There
are times for you to be a renter. Okay, I'm
(03:45):
not hating on that. I've been a renter. There's been
times to be a renter, but you get no benefit
from that. But if you own a home and you're
basically paying the same for rental for mortgage ownership home
ownership as you would for rental. If you own a home,
then you're going to get a lot of that money
you paid against the mortgage back through a tax refund.
(04:09):
At the end of the year. You get the benefit
of appreciation, the benefit of depreciation, a tax benefit, and
you get to write off a lot of the mortgage
payments because a lot of it mortgage interest in those
first those first years. Now, writing things off you, I'm
(04:32):
gonna be a little tongue in cheek here. Now. You
can't write off the strip club guys. You can't write
off you know, your girlfriend, You might not even man it.
Write off your wardrobe. I'm actually serious about this. Now,
if you if you're in a profession where like the
entertainment business, and you think, well, this is directly tied
to I mean, I'm a businessman. I'd like to be
(04:55):
able to think that my wardrobe is complement to my
business and it's directly ti to it. It is not
a ford on conclusion. And you can write off your wardrobes.
You need to talk to your tax person. You can't
write off if you work from your house. You can't
write off the whole house. Please, I don't want you
to be audited. I don't want you to get in trouble.
Please listen to me. You can write off the portion
(05:17):
of the house that you're using for business purposes. There's
an office in your house, right you can tax that
should be tax deductible. Check with your tax professional. Don't
just take my word for it, but that part of
the house you're using for tax for business purposes should
qualify as a tax write off. All of your car
may not be tax deductible, but the part that you're
(05:39):
using for business purposes. Even if you want to be
very specific, you can do mileage calculations and do it
that way, but you need to be very thoughtful about
what's a business expense and what you can write off
and what you can't. Certain things you absolutely will not
be able to write off because this well nuts. I've
(06:02):
mentioned a couple examples there. But you can write off
things that have a direct business correlation, or things that
are covered by the tax code, like many kinds of
real estate and mortgage payments and interest expense on businesses
(06:23):
and again anything if you have a side business or
a primary business, then those direct business expenses you'll be
able to write off. I also want to very briefly
touch on this really falsehood that politicians play games, what
they say that rich people don't pay money. The reality
(06:45):
is that most taxes actually in this country, most income
for America is paid by the wealthy people. I guess,
like me, seventy or eighty percent of all the taxes
in the country are paid for by those at the
highest income bracket. So what's all this about the wealth
You don't pay taxes, Well, they don't pay a lot
of percentage wise of income taxes, so that if they're
(07:10):
not paying income taxes, and what are they paying. They're
paying in many cases capital gain taxes. So income taxes
might be thirty percent, thirty five percent, forty percent, forty
five percent, uh, if you can stayan. Federal taxes might
even be in some cases like California, might be approaching
fifty percent. If you're making a bunch of your money,
you know, from performing as an actor or an entertainer
(07:31):
or a sports figure or whatever, you're making a lot
of income. W two income they I guess it called
you're in a sitcom, a t a situation commedy, You're
on a TV show or something, and you're getting a
W two paycheck, then they may withhold, you know, thirty
five forty percent of your taxes. You may be in
(07:52):
that tax bracket. Uh. That's why they say that Warren
Buffett pays less taxes than its secretary. What do I
mean by that, Well, she's getting an income. Well, Warren
Buffet's not getting a paycheck. He may choose I don't
want an income, don't pay me a paycheck. Because what
he does is he when he sells stock, he gets
hit with a capital gains tax. When somebody sells like
real estate like me, they that you get hit with
(08:13):
a capital gains tax, which is typically about twenty percent
twenty one percent of whatever the thing you sold is value.
That so if it's worth a million dollars, you may
get hit with a two hundred thousand dollars tax bill
all at once, and you know, happy to pay it.
We're not happy to pay it, but you pay it.
(08:33):
And that's a lot of money. And so a lot
of this country eats. Income comes from the wealthy paying
a combination of income tax and capital gains tax. There's
other kinds of taxes, but I'm trying to make this simple.
But don't listen to people who tell you that just
because a wealthy person is not paying income tax their
tax bracket, well they're paying less an income tax in
(08:57):
this secretary because the secretary has got to sell and
is earning a paycheck every two weeks, and as with holdings,
and the boss may not be on any salary at all,
like which means you can't tax something it doesn't exist.
Very very very wealthy people don't want an income Okay,
as a funny one for you, all right, John O'Brien,
(09:17):
this is money and wealth and this is uh the
tax season. So I want you to be tax smart.
Pay your fair share because well that means you're doing
really well and you live in the most secure economy
in the world with the best laws and its best infrastructure,
the best protections of the law that costs something, and
(09:41):
the government is that if you get in a lawsuit
the government, there are the laws. You know you can
rely on the laws to be sturdy and resilient. You
have intellectual property rights that are preserved, you have real
property rights that are you know will be preserved, then
protect it. That's the government of work. I'm not advocating
(10:03):
for the government just saying that those things call something.
You look roads, gutters, street lights, subways that somebody's got
to pay for that. The government pays for that. You're
in a highway and you're making money because you want
to sell something to somebody. Well, you're on driving on
the highway. That's the public and you, as a taxpayer,
you pay for that. Schools are not free. Schools are
paid for by you and me. So that's why you
(10:26):
should also want to vote. Because you're you're a shareholder.
You have assets, and your assets are not just on
your ass. You own things. That's why when you see
a house that's got line up to you know, your net,
it's because that's probably a renter. Because nobody washes rental cars.
But once you own a home, there's a quote for you,
nobody want nobody washes rental cars. Once you own a home,
(10:49):
are you owned some property all of a sudden you
become real concerned about it, and now you're a stakeholder,
and now you typically want to vote to protect your
stake in what you have and to have a say
in how governments do their business. And so there you go,
all right, So there's a civics lessons and a tax
lesson and the first positive things somebody's ever said to
you about the government of the IRNS. I bet all right,
(11:12):
And I haven't been audited yet. I'm sure it's coming
at some point, but I've been audited, so I don't
think I've been audited. But there was a time where
I didn't pay taxes for years and I got hit
with very serious penalties back in the day when I
was in my teens, from the Franchise Tax Board and
from the state of California. It hit me hard and
I had to catch up. So it's not Life's not
(11:33):
always been a better Roses, but I think I've been
relatively smart about, you know, paying my fair share of taxes,
both income tax and capital gains taxes, but also taking
my reasonable write offs of things that are legitimate business expenses.
And a lot of my life is business because I'm
(11:54):
always doing it. So there you go. I hope this
has been helpful. Make sure you have a tax pro.
Make sure that your tax pro gives back to the community.
Choose one that does give back to the community. By
the way, they can donate that a few hours of
their time as a tax pro to help businesses come
up like the one Men Black Business Initiative, like my
firm Apryo does here in Atlanta. So get a tax
(12:15):
pro get a lawyer, and of course get a life.
You're listening to this, you already have a life, all right,
Love you, John Hope Brien. Hey, this is John Hope
Brian on money and wealth, and I'm going to tackle
(12:37):
a topic today that is a little controversial, which is
self esteem versus confidence, particularly with reguard to my African
American brothers and sisters. So why is this important and
why does it have to do with money and wealth?
Because if your assets are all on your ass, is
(13:01):
a reason for it. If you spend, if you produce
one point six trillion dollars in consume economic output as
a race, but ninety one percent of that is consumption,
there's a reason for it. If they number one way
to build wealth is home ownership, and we don't really
own homes. There's a reason for it. And there's a
(13:24):
reason why America has African American ghettos and not really
any kind of other kind of ghettos. And it has
to do with slavery. It has to do with destroying
and destroy self esteem, We're brilliant people, African Americans. We've
been doing so much with so little for so long.
(13:46):
We could almost do anything with nothing. We have, you know,
succeeded against the odds who were brought here as brilliant
agricultural geniuses of the land and had the self esteem
beaten up out of us for literally three hundred years.
So I had to do the math sixteen nineteen to
(14:06):
the really the mid nineteen sixties, even before America was America,
you know. And this is not even a podcast of
race or slavery or it has nothing to do with it.
I'm just giving you the backstory to understand you could
make a mistake and not be one. We're actually the
opposite where geniuses were amazing. But there was an intentional attempt,
(14:28):
which I'll do in another podcast to break down the
why as to why African Americans, with all our genius,
with all of our outside success all around the world,
I think of the majority of us are clinically undiagnosed depressed,
and that depression creates a surviving mindset, and a surviving
mindset is directly in conflict with a thriving mindset and
(14:50):
a winning mindset. Winners of builders. If you're a surviving mindset,
you are always looking for risk and issue, and the
glass is half fifty note half full. You tend to
be more cynical than skeptical. Now you generalize, you discriminate.
So yes, these are generalizations, but they tend to stick.
And I'm going to frame this in a way that
(15:13):
makes it perfectly clear. I'm going to give you the
economic framework first, because it's a raise to white people too.
So if the issue is only race, right that defines
success or failures, self esteem and confidence and all that
kind of stuff, then you would not have rich whites
and poor whites. You just have rich whites. If the
(15:35):
issue is just race, you just have rich whites. But
the largest population of poverty in this country is actually
white poverty. I'll go one step further. The number one
group dying in this country are high school educated white men.
Lack of hope. Opioid addiction is the trigger, but it's
(15:56):
really lack of hope. Not go to African Americans for
a minute. If black was the same, just like I
just said, the white was the same, and it wasn't
a cultural issue because somebody didn't say, John, why are
you picking on your own people. I'm not picked on anybody.
I'm breaking some stuff down so that we can understand
it so we can fix it. Just the opposite. Actually,
I said, we've been picked on, and we picked ourselves up.
(16:19):
Like as I said, we've been doing so much with
so little for so long. We could almost do anything
with nothing. But I don't want you an expert in surviving.
I want you an expert in thriving and winning. Can
I get an amen? So I talked about whites, now black,
poor whites and poor blacks. These are obvious, but no
one ever says it. So the issue was only raceed
and all blacks should be the same too. But the
Federal Reserve at Boston did a survey about five to
(16:43):
seven years ago on the net worth of everybody in Boston.
They found that whites had a six figure net worth.
They found that Caribbean blacks had it I think it
was a twelve hundred dollars net worth. And they found
that African Americans had net worth of seven bucks. That's right,
seven dollars. And when they put this on the front
(17:06):
page of the Boston Globe and you can pull it
up on the internet. By the way, it said blacks
net worth seven dollars, and it had to say this
is not a typo in the headline because it was
so dramatic. And if it was just race, why wouldn't
all blacks have the same networth? Why wouldn't all whites
have the same network? Because culture and environment matter, and
(17:29):
so we can be proud that we have survived and
all this torture. But if there's some PTSD there, there's
some damage to our psyche and our spirit and our
self esteem. And as I've often said, if I don't
like me, I'm not gonna like you. If I don't
feel good about me, I'm not gonna feel good about you.
If I don't respect me, don't expect me to respect you.
If I don't love me, I don't have a clue
(17:50):
how to love you. And if I don't have a
purpose in my life, I'm gonna make your life a
living hell. Because whatever goes around comes around. So now
broken down and hopefully in the way, it's sufficient the
economic differences even within the same group of black people.
(18:11):
And I'm gonna say something I can't absolutely true say
is the fact, but I believe it based on me
traveling the countless cities across this country. They're not Ghanaian
ghettos in America. They're Ghanaian communities. They're not Jamaican ghettos
in America. There are Jamaican communities where Jamaicans live together,
working class, middle class neighborhoods. I can think of some
(18:32):
in the Five Boroughs right now, as example. There are
Ethiopian communities, lots of them. There are South African communities
and so on and so forth, right, but they're only
black ghettos. African American so African American communities where you
(18:52):
see check cashers, patio only. Now you see these other communities, right,
But it's intensely focused in African American communities because us, well,
we were broken and people are now praying on that brokenness.
Where so now I'm going to get to a self
esteem and confidence. So you can't fix this stuff unless
you recognize it. If you look at the majority of
(19:15):
ghettos and inner cities in America where people proliferate, they
tend to be mostly African American versus communities where different
people live, and there's oppressive environments in those neighborhoods and
communities because those impressive environments are profitable to some people
and negative to the people that they're subject to it.
(19:39):
But maybe you don't even notice it because we're so
used to surviving and so used to brokenness that we
think it's okay. We think it's okay for a check
cash or to the extra payda on lender, to a
rent store, a title linder link store, pansha. By the way,
that actually does exist in low wealth communities of all kinds.
I'm not just praying on that, but I'm just get
(20:00):
and that as an example, right and now now I'm
going to pivot to something that I think does differentiate
healthy from those trying to heal those who need to heal.
So self esteem versus confidence, those things are different. Self
esteem is internal and confidence is really external. And so
(20:23):
confidence comes from your competence. You're confetent about something, so
you express that through a confidence. I'll come back to
that in a moment. Self esteem is how I esteem myself.
So if you look at Caribbean blacks and you look
at African blacks as an example, you see people and
I'm generalizing. Whenever you generalize, you discriminate that it's true.
(20:45):
But follow me for a moment. I'm making a point.
If you go, if you look at those who come
from the Caribbean and come from Africa, you generally speaking
see fine people who have high self esteem but low
levels of initially of confidence when they come to America.
Why because they the self seem comes from nuclear families,
(21:10):
mom and dad, husbands and wives. It comes from seeing
the Dennis that looks like you, the mayor that looks
like you, the governor looks like you, the CEO that
looks at you, the saint looks like you, the passion
looks like you, and the crooks looking like you too.
Everybody looks like you. So there's a self esteem that
(21:30):
comes from having a healthy spiritual, emotional, psychological environment. Are
you with me so far? But they have a low
level of confidence because they come from a small and
developing economy that's not cutting edge economically. It's not where
you take your skills and put it to work against
(21:52):
other people who at the top of their game. And
so as a result of that, you don't really know
whether you've been taught is truly top of the mark,
So you may not have the confidence that comes from
competition at the highest level and winning. So you may
have low confidence but high self esteem. The opposite is
true for African Americans. In American you have people who
(22:15):
have high confidence, extremely high confidence, but typically low self esteem.
Now low self esteem for the meat reasons I just mentioned.
People have beaten the love out of us, beaten the
confidence and self esteem out of us, beaten the joy
out of us because they needed us to not create
a problem back in the day. Keep you in that
(22:39):
box just become human machinery for hundreds of years, but
it damaged our spirit and it ruined our families. I
think the fire pillows of success as much education as
you can shut down your throat. This is from my
book Up from Nothing. I have six books now, three
or four bestsellers, the last one being Out being Financial
Literacy for All Just out that's entered the fray at Amazon,
(23:01):
number one in economics, etc. CEA picking up if you
don't have it, but Up from Nothing in my last book,
there's a much education you shut down your throat, understanding
the math, financial literacy, wealth, creation, etc. Family structured and
resiliency number three, A self esteem and confidence number four,
Role Models and environment number five. Now I've done a
(23:22):
podcast episode just on this, so you can go back
and listen to that, and I break these things down
in some detail, and if you have three or four
of those things, of those five things, you're going to
be very successful. But three groups were denied those three things,
and not in any order here Native American Indians, poor Whites,
(23:44):
and African Americans and out of you know, a couple
hundred ethnic groups in this country, and there's actually more
than that if you want to get into cultures. Everybody
seems to come here and be able to succeed within
a short period of time because they have self esteem intact,
and their confidence comes ultimately from competing on the playing
(24:04):
field called life. But our experience was just the opposite.
We're denied. Actually it was legally barred to educate us.
They destroyed our family, separated our children, sold wives off
from husbands, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So we
did not if out of the five pillars of success.
But if you have three four of those things, of
those five things, I guarantee you, no matter what's in
front of you, over around it, through what you're going
(24:24):
to get to it. I know that because that's my
story and I'm African American. My mother told me she
loved me every day of my life at a sense
of yes I can from my dad and the yes
I am from my mother. I know was taught about
Fangel literacy when I was nine years old. I have
self love, self esteem, which I'll get to in a
moment in great detail. I had good role models and
(24:46):
an enabling environment. Thus I succeeded at scale with from
the bottom quartile of poverty and struggle, not the very bottom,
but the bottom quartile to the top one percent. And
you can do it too. You can rehabilitate yourself, but
you've got to understand what ghosts is chasing you and
what healing you're pursuing. So there's self esteem and confidence.
(25:10):
So here's self esteem. And you're gonna repeat myself a
little bit. I apologize, but it's really important to get this.
If I don't like me, I'm not gonna like you.
If I don't feel good about me, I'm not gonna
feel good about you. If I don't respect me, don't
expect me to respect you. If I don't love me,
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 gonna make your life a living hell.
(25:33):
Whatever goes around comes around, and hurt people hurt people.
The opposite is also true. Hurt people hurt people is
an old saying, no matter how much I love you,
my son or my daughter, if I don't have wisdom,
I can only give you my own ignorance. So out
of love we pass down bad habits from generation to generation.
(25:54):
I know this is gonna be a deep, deep, deep
controversial podcast, but this is also because wealth is mindset.
Anybody can make money. A drug dealer can make money,
Pip can make money. Wall Street banker can make money,
the engineer can make money. Anybody legit illegit can make money.
But building wealth, you build wealth in your sleep. You
gotta think. You gotta do it for the neck up,
(26:15):
not the shoulders down. It's a mindset that builds wealth.
And I want you to have that mindset, not only
in financial wealth, but mental, spiritual, emotional wealth. I want
you to heal. So confidence comes from competence. So why
are African Americans confident in America? Because we competed in
the biggest economy in the world, the most incompetitive place
(26:37):
in the world, and we killed it. Where the rules
are published and the playing fielders level, we succeed. What's
examples of that, professional sports, the arts, government service and
elected office, the faith community, the rules of published, the
playing rules level, we kill it, but capital isn't. And
(27:00):
free enterprise of why gave us that memo? That's my
Is that my third or my fourth book? It's my
third book. No one gave us that memo. I think
it's my third book of how things work. Freedman's Bank
eighteen sixty five, Abraham Lincoln a bank chartered to teach
free slaves about money. He was killed the next year
for the doubt destruct to run the bank. So we're
(27:20):
not dumb and we're not stupids. Well, we don't know that.
We don't know this killing this, but we think we know.
But you know, in spite of that, we've done actually okay,
pretty okay. But we are so focused on getting that bag,
getting that money, getting that hustle, getting that dollar, getting
that money, that we don't realize and that's short term,
that's just transactional. You can get rich, but you don't
build wealth. You build wealth and you're sleep. It's mindset
(27:42):
but the reason we're so successful is that we actually
are the most competitive group of people of color I
believe in the world, and we should be proud of it.
We've got our share of billionaires, we have our share
of you know, of multi multi millionaires, of which I
would qualify. We have tons of you know, one hundred
thousand airs. You know, we have a solid middle class.
(28:03):
Thank you, Andrew Young, doctor King, doctor Dorothy Hye, credit
Scott King, et cetera. Heroes and she rose red from
CTVV and John Lewis who created the civil rights movement. Right,
but we got to go from cashing checks to writing them. Mindset,
becoming wealth creators and not just consumers. Mindset to loving
ourselves so we can love each other, so we don't
(28:24):
have crab in the barrel mindset. Why is somebody watching me,
listening to me and going, he ain't nothing that has
nothing to do with me. If I'm succeeding and you're
listening and you're I mean, you should be like bravo.
I mean, maybe he's not doing what I'm doing. Maybe
I don't want to be of those injuries, but god,
that's fantastic. He's succeeding. That gives me some sense for
(28:45):
what I can do. Was there anything negative in it?
But you'll find people who are hurt trying to hurt people.
Doctor King once said that evil and hurt. I'm adding hurt.
I'm pretty sure it was just evil, he said. Corrodes
to container. It sits within. Hello, your body seventy percent water,
So you getting all worked up and hot, you're just
(29:07):
killing yourself. You're cooking your own organs. Whatever goes around
comes around. So self esteem not only it helps you
live in the world, it helps you to live. That's
why in these low wealth communities the credit score was
launching my last book, Financial Lewacy Forrawl. I was in
CNBC Last Call and I broke down how credit scores
our whole financial wellness index. How credit scores are lower
(29:30):
in low wealth communities. And you also lived twenty years
a shorter life than you live in a seven hundred
credits community credit score community. Yeah, I said it. You
lived at sixty one years old in a five hundred
credit score neighborhood. You lived at eighty one years old
in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood twenty year delta,
and I think that that is state of mind. It's mindset.
(29:52):
It's what I'm talking about. So we've got to heal.
And I mentioned check cashers, payday loan lenders, rental own stores,
title lenders, liquor stores, pawn shops, and a church down
the street trying to make you feel a little bit
better once a week. That's your neighborhood psychologists, that's your
neighborhood shriek, trying to keep you go from crazy, going
completely crazy and going postal on somebody once a week.
(30:12):
Just calm you down. While we black folks were emotional,
we're going ha ha, we going hoop and a hollow.
We get it out of our system. Replace that anger
and that frustration with joy. That's a depressed person who
needs to screen to get it out of them. You
just you just you're on you wake up on nine
on the scale of one of ten. You need to
release some tension. By the way, not just black people.
You go to a poor white neighborhood, you see the
(30:34):
same thing. Check cash or paint on in their rental
own store, title, their liquor store, pawnshop, church. They just
do things. They move in different way. We riote when
we angry on the streets when they're angry, they riot.
It appears at the ballot box. Poor whites. You figure
that out for yourself. What am I saying and what
they relate to? Hello, so we've got to heal. Three
(30:59):
ways to live suicide, you can die alive. We're not
human beings having a spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having
a human experience, and energy matters. I just refuse to
have toxicity around me. It's like, you don't have to go,
you gotta get the heck out of here. I just
try to be clean. I try to have a toxic
(31:20):
free zone people. I go to dinner, Like, what you
know anything you're allergic to? Yeah, bad food and toxic people.
I'm just like, I'm done. Like you hang around nine
broke people, you'll be the tenth. Like you just keep
that mess over there. I don't want to jump in
on me. Life's about energy. What are you? Who are you?
What are you attracting? How long can I get a man?
We have some church today. All these things are related,
(31:45):
and they're interrelated, and they're interconnected, and you and wells
tends to hang around wealth, and poverty tends to ringing
around poverty, and we need to start doing some transfers
to get people out of poverty, rebuild the ladder and
get them back up to wealth. And by the way,
when you are depressed, distressed, when you're angry at the world,
you actually don't believe in the dream anymore. And that's
(32:05):
and that's by the way, suits wealth just just fine.
You stay over there and be angry, being expert in
what you're against, not what you're for. Fine with them
then leads more for them. What in Malcolm X Savy,
you've been bamboozooed, you've been tripped, you've been fooled. Is
what we don't know that we don't know this killing
is what we think we know. We have to heal,
(32:27):
We have to deal with our stuff. Suicide, coping, healing.
Three ways to live suicide You can die alive. The
most dangerous person in the world, well, the second most
dangerous a person would know hope. First, most dangerous someone
with power, money, wealth, different things, power, money, wealth, position,
(32:48):
low seale, esteem, fear. Now you think about what I'm
talking about, that person is very dangerous because they can
actually use they can weaponize their unhealed nature to hurt
somebody that threatens them. Or anger at them. I mean,
a narcissist literally believes everything somebody else's fault, like it's
never themselves. And a malignant narcissist, well that's a whole
(33:12):
nother situation. I don't want you trading in any of
that stuff. So there's suicide, right, then there's coping and
there's healing. Coping An addiction is literally a response to
emotion you can't handle. So you have all kind of iengs.
You don't need shopping, drugging, drinking, you know, texting, texting
(33:32):
all day all night, you know, oversleeping. These are negative eyengs.
You need to replace them with some positive engs, like healing.
Because you cannot have a rainbow without a storm first.
It's a scientific fact. You cannot have a rainbow without
a storm first. So and then of course that the
third way to live is to heal. And that's really
what I'm talking about. Before you heal, you got a deal.
(33:55):
And when you're not dealing, somebody's taking advantage of you. Either.
If you're not using your money, your money's using you.
Angel young quote to live in a system of free
enterprise and not to understand the rules of free enterprise
must be the very definition of slavery. People who are
surviving mindset. The glass is half full, not half empty,
whether you remember whether you believe you can or whether
you believe you can't. You're right. They don't like success.
(34:17):
They're like, oh, I hate rich people. No, you don't.
You hate rich people till you become rich. What you
hate is a game system, but the latter's broken, and
you don't believe the system works for you. You think it's corrupted,
and so you throw your hands up and decide to
live short termism coping. You start to see all this
(34:40):
works together. And then if you're taking your advice from
somebody who's just coping, dealing, not healing, that goes that
quote in a blind town, a one eyed man's king.
If you don't know better, you dang sure can't do better,
no matter how much I love you, my son or
my daughter. If I don't have wisdom, I can only
give you my own ignorance. The definition of insanities the
(35:00):
same thing over and over again, but expecting a different outcome.
Let's assume you disagree with half of what I've said
on this podcast. Why don't you try it? It can't
possibly that's somebody says, well, why should I try? God,
he cannot possibly mismanage your life worse than you have.
You and me, by the way, I'm in that same bucket.
I decided to try, and it worked beautifully. He's never
(35:23):
let me down. But maybe you should try a different
business plan, the one that has not worked. But a
lot of wealth, or the lack thereof, is mindset. Poverty
outside of roof over your head, food on the table,
healthcare susten this poverty. That's susten this poverty, every other
foreign poverty is mindset. Is how you're thinking, and whether
(35:44):
you believe you can and you believe you can't. You're
absolutely right. I want you to have high self esteem,
not one answer. My self esteem and self respect depends
on your acceptance of men. As the Quincy Jones quote,
it's okay if you don't like me, I like me.
That's a John O'Brian quote. Life is ten percent what
life does to you, but nine percent how you choose
(36:05):
to respond to it, how you're going to write, what's
your respond's going to be. Success is going from failure
to failure without loss of enthusiasm. That requires self esteem
and confidence. But never give up. I take no for vitamins.
That requires self esteem and confidence. I don't want you
to just have confidence, because you'll be cocky, you'll be arrogant,
and you'll over compensate by trying to put your assets
on your ass. You're going to try to wear your
(36:27):
self esteem to prove to everybody else to have loud
music and a loud life, because you're trying to communicate
to everybody else externally your value where itsus realizing internally
you're already valuable because you're God's child. When you got
the power, you don't need to use it. Okay, this
was deep. Let me know what you think. Spread the
word that's hard a conversation. Go to Operation Help get
(36:49):
your financial literacy counseling from my team and Hope in
side locations and three hundred locations across the country. Pick
up my book of Financial Literacy for All, which is
now out and debuted number one on economics and a
couple of other categories. Thank you all who supported it.
It is your weekly workshop toolbox as you sit down
and have a discussion every week about money with your
(37:11):
family at the kitchen table, and there's a bunch of
tools coming out tied to that, but it starts with
the book Yeah, take your life back. It starts with
making that decision. I believe in you do you yo? Yo.
(37:34):
This is John O'Bryant and this is Money and Wealth
on the Black Effect Network. And we have a great
fan question today billionaire Underscore Freddy from Instagram what a
great inspiring Instagram handle? A billionaire Underscore Freddie at Instagram says,
what's one surefire away to generate cash flow with one MBB? Well,
(37:59):
that answer is is fairly actually obvious and interesting to
you because it's part of one MBB. One MBB is
one Million Black Business Initiative, which Operation Hope launched after
George Floyd's murder, and it is committed to creating a
million black businesses by twenty thirty and we already have inspired, created,
nurtured and supported over four hundred thousand black businesses, which
(38:22):
would be about twelve percent of all black businesses in America.
Yay for Operation Hope. And the way you would do
it is to get to it. You would if you
have a barbershop or any physical business, as I said,
you make money during the day, you build wealth win
now in your sleep. So you would say you have
(38:43):
a barbershop business, and right now somebody has to call
you while you're doing the cut. Now you can apply
this to any kind of business, restaurant, whatever it is.
You're like, okay, you're doing the cut, and they say,
can I get an appointment? Let me get to my
appointment book. I can't really talk right now, I'm doing
the cut. Can I call you back? What's your number?
Can you call me back? They'd never call you back
(39:05):
because they're going to the airport to catch a flight.
What you want is for that person to be on
the flight. It's midnight, and they should be able to
search your business online from the plane. Wireless Internet is
on most planes. Now. I know this example because I
use this process myself going into the city or barbershops
(39:26):
for black barbershops in New York City as an example,
or in Harlem or wherever the name of your shop
would come up because it will be registered through Shopify,
our partner for one MBB, which we give you the
account for free for four months, and we give you
a website, domain name, payment systems, delivery system support, business
plan support, all that through one me and Black Business
(39:47):
Initiative counseling and coaching on the back end on e
commerce as well. Anyway, in this example, they know they
can now go onlines, go to the scheduling app schedule
and appointment. Now you're sleep it's midnight or at home,
schedule an appointment for their haircut. Put their credit card up,
so now you're the business. Whether they cancel or not,
(40:08):
there's a twenty percent or fifty percent cancelation fee, So
they would lose that amount of money if they don't
show up, and that goes into your cash register while
you're sleeping cash flow. While they're on your site. You're
now saying now that thank you for booking your appointment.
Do you need a wave cap? Do you need a brush?
Do you need conditioner? And they ordered items from you,
(40:30):
and what might have been a simple haircut for seventy
five bucks, fifty bucks whatever it is, you know, might
end up being one hundred and fifty two hundred, three
hundred dollars order. Maybe even have a subscription service tied
to the business where you're teaching hair conditioning or hair
growth or hair stabilization techniques. In this case, the black
(40:51):
men that can somebody can subscribe to that you know,
become a subscript subscriber for five bucks a month or
whatever it is. So now you've got cash flow profit
and little wealth creation because you've built money. You've made
money in your sleep. Billionaire underscore Freddy from Instagram. I
hope this has been steady, Freddy. I hope this has
been good advice for you. All of you don't know
(41:14):
what MBB is, Go and sign up. It will change
your life. It's a commitment from one hundred and thirty
million dollars from Shopify's founder to be an Operation Hope
to create black businesses in this country. And it's working
and it's completely no cost to you. Invest your time
and energy and we do the rest. We get your
credit score up, your debt down, your savings up, help
(41:35):
you with a business plan, etc. You go to you
download the Hope and Hand app on your Android or
Apple platform. You can call our toll free line for
Operation Hope, and you can go online Operation dot Org.
I also encourage you to buy this book, Financial Literacy
for All, which is now a bestseller. It's on all
platforms including black bookstores, by the way, but you can
(41:56):
get this book now on Amazon, number one in several
categories in the world on economics and business, finance, etc.
And that is your toolbox at the kitchen table as
you transform your life, your families, and in this example,
your business. You don't want to confuse business with busyness,
our profit with cash flow, as my dad unfortunately did.
(42:17):
I tell that story in the book. All Right, piece
and light love, Let's go. This is John O'Brien on
money and wealth. I'm out Money and Wealth with John
(42:39):
O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. The Protect
Welcome the Money in Wealth with John O'Briant, a production
of The Black Effect podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey Hey,
it's John O'Brien This is money and Wealth. And I'm
popping my collar because I paid my taxes and I'm
(00:26):
happy about it. Right. Actually, I got a pretty good
deal this year. Last year was an okay deal. In
the year before that, it was a painful deal because
I paid the most taxes I'd ever paid in my life.
It was seven figures in taxes alone. In fact, my
state tax bill was larger than any tax I'd ever
(00:50):
paid period in my life, just my state tax bill.
My federal tax bill was seven figures by itself. But
I was happy to do it. Listen to me, now,
I was happy to do it because that meant I
made money. I even generated some generational wealth. I forget
what year it was, but it was, you know, two, three,
(01:11):
four years ago where I paid this enormous tax bill.
But don't get upset with Uncle Sam. Because you're paying
a tax bill, it means that you're actually making some money.
You might want to be upset when you're not paying
a tax bill because it made mean you're broke and
don't be smarty pans and decide you're going to skip
out on your tax bill. I'd rather rather steal from
(01:33):
my mother got rest of her soul, than still from
from the federal government of the irs. They didn't get
alcohpoone from murdering mayn They got an alcopone on tax evasion
and put that man under the jail. He died in prison,
cool smooth, all that he avoided, all those things he
actually did, which was literally murders and stickups and all
(01:56):
kinds of stuff. But they couldn't catch them. But they said, basically, look,
we can't prove you broke these laws and committed these primes,
but you seem to have a lifestyle that doesn't make
any sense, and we can't You can't justify where you
made this money. So you have evaded taxation because you
(02:21):
didn't report the income. So it's really deep. Get American American,
American capitalism is American government is deep. It's like, we
maybe convict you that it's illegal, but you dang if
you're gonna pay your taxes on your comp on your
on the income that you made, or we'll get you
that way. And so they got them that way, and
(02:41):
they're not gonna get me that way. I'm gonna pay
my taxes. Uh. Now, we just had tax season, and
you shouldn't be paying more taxes than you have to.
And uh, this tax system is designed for you to
maximize your tax benefit. The whole thing about owning a home,
(03:02):
the tax structure, the tax system. I don't want to
use that word again. The taxing infrastructure in America is
designed to benefit home ownership. That's what I was trying
to say. So, you write off the most of a
thirty year mortgage twenty on average, twenty of the thirty
(03:23):
year mortgage. You write it off through mortgage interest payments,
and you will be able to get a lot of
that back in a tax refund at the end of
the year. So if you're renting from me a home
or an apartment, or from some other investor, you're opening
a window and throwing your money out the window. There
are times for you to be a renter. Okay, I'm
(03:45):
not hating on that. I've been a renter. There's been
times to be a renter, but you get no benefit
from that. But if you own a home and you're
basically paying the same for rental for mortgage ownership home
ownership as you would for rental. If you own a home,
then you're going to get a lot of that money
you paid against the mortgage back through a tax refund.
(04:09):
At the end of the year. You get the benefit
of appreciation, the benefit of depreciation, a tax benefit, and
you get to write off a lot of the mortgage
payments because a lot of it mortgage interest in those
first those first years. Now, writing things off you, I'm
(04:32):
gonna be a little tongue in cheek here. Now. You
can't write off the strip club guys. You can't write
off you know, your girlfriend, You might not even man it.
Write off your wardrobe. I'm actually serious about this. Now,
if you if you're in a profession where like the
entertainment business, and you think, well, this is directly tied
to I mean, I'm a businessman. I'd like to be
(04:55):
able to think that my wardrobe is complement to my
business and it's directly ti to it. It is not
a ford on conclusion. And you can write off your wardrobes.
You need to talk to your tax person. You can't
write off if you work from your house. You can't
write off the whole house. Please, I don't want you
to be audited. I don't want you to get in trouble.
Please listen to me. You can write off the portion
(05:17):
of the house that you're using for business purposes. There's
an office in your house, right you can tax that
should be tax deductible. Check with your tax professional. Don't
just take my word for it, but that part of
the house you're using for tax for business purposes should
qualify as a tax write off. All of your car
may not be tax deductible, but the part that you're
(05:39):
using for business purposes. Even if you want to be
very specific, you can do mileage calculations and do it
that way, but you need to be very thoughtful about
what's a business expense and what you can write off
and what you can't. Certain things you absolutely will not
be able to write off because this well nuts. I've
(06:02):
mentioned a couple examples there. But you can write off
things that have a direct business correlation, or things that
are covered by the tax code, like many kinds of
real estate and mortgage payments and interest expense on businesses
(06:23):
and again anything if you have a side business or
a primary business, then those direct business expenses you'll be
able to write off. I also want to very briefly
touch on this really falsehood that politicians play games, what
they say that rich people don't pay money. The reality
(06:45):
is that most taxes actually in this country, most income
for America is paid by the wealthy people. I guess,
like me, seventy or eighty percent of all the taxes
in the country are paid for by those at the
highest income bracket. So what's all this about the wealth
You don't pay taxes, Well, they don't pay a lot
of percentage wise of income taxes, so that if they're
(07:10):
not paying income taxes, and what are they paying. They're
paying in many cases capital gain taxes. So income taxes
might be thirty percent, thirty five percent, forty percent, forty
five percent, uh, if you can stayan. Federal taxes might
even be in some cases like California, might be approaching
fifty percent. If you're making a bunch of your money,
you know, from performing as an actor or an entertainer
(07:31):
or a sports figure or whatever, you're making a lot
of income. W two income they I guess it called
you're in a sitcom, a t a situation commedy, You're
on a TV show or something, and you're getting a
W two paycheck, then they may withhold, you know, thirty
five forty percent of your taxes. You may be in
(07:52):
that tax bracket. Uh. That's why they say that Warren
Buffett pays less taxes than its secretary. What do I
mean by that, Well, she's getting an income. Well, Warren
Buffet's not getting a paycheck. He may choose I don't
want an income, don't pay me a paycheck. Because what
he does is he when he sells stock, he gets
hit with a capital gains tax. When somebody sells like
real estate like me, they that you get hit with
(08:13):
a capital gains tax, which is typically about twenty percent
twenty one percent of whatever the thing you sold is value.
That so if it's worth a million dollars, you may
get hit with a two hundred thousand dollars tax bill
all at once, and you know, happy to pay it.
We're not happy to pay it, but you pay it.
(08:33):
And that's a lot of money. And so a lot
of this country eats. Income comes from the wealthy paying
a combination of income tax and capital gains tax. There's
other kinds of taxes, but I'm trying to make this simple.
But don't listen to people who tell you that just
because a wealthy person is not paying income tax their
tax bracket, well they're paying less an income tax in
(08:57):
this secretary because the secretary has got to sell and
is earning a paycheck every two weeks, and as with holdings,
and the boss may not be on any salary at all,
like which means you can't tax something it doesn't exist.
Very very very wealthy people don't want an income Okay,
as a funny one for you, all right, John O'Brien,
(09:17):
this is money and wealth and this is uh the
tax season. So I want you to be tax smart.
Pay your fair share because well that means you're doing
really well and you live in the most secure economy
in the world with the best laws and its best infrastructure,
the best protections of the law that costs something, and
(09:41):
the government is that if you get in a lawsuit
the government, there are the laws. You know you can
rely on the laws to be sturdy and resilient. You
have intellectual property rights that are preserved, you have real
property rights that are you know will be preserved, then
protect it. That's the government of work. I'm not advocating
(10:03):
for the government just saying that those things call something.
You look roads, gutters, street lights, subways that somebody's got
to pay for that. The government pays for that. You're
in a highway and you're making money because you want
to sell something to somebody. Well, you're on driving on
the highway. That's the public and you, as a taxpayer,
you pay for that. Schools are not free. Schools are
paid for by you and me. So that's why you
(10:26):
should also want to vote. Because you're you're a shareholder.
You have assets, and your assets are not just on
your ass. You own things. That's why when you see
a house that's got line up to you know, your net,
it's because that's probably a renter. Because nobody washes rental cars.
But once you own a home, there's a quote for you,
nobody want nobody washes rental cars. Once you own a home,
(10:49):
are you owned some property all of a sudden you
become real concerned about it, and now you're a stakeholder,
and now you typically want to vote to protect your
stake in what you have and to have a say
in how governments do their business. And so there you go,
all right, So there's a civics lessons and a tax
lesson and the first positive things somebody's ever said to
you about the government of the IRNS. I bet all right,
(11:12):
And I haven't been audited yet. I'm sure it's coming
at some point, but I've been audited, so I don't
think I've been audited. But there was a time where
I didn't pay taxes for years and I got hit
with very serious penalties back in the day when I
was in my teens, from the Franchise Tax Board and
from the state of California. It hit me hard and
I had to catch up. So it's not Life's not
(11:33):
always been a better Roses, but I think I've been
relatively smart about, you know, paying my fair share of taxes,
both income tax and capital gains taxes, but also taking
my reasonable write offs of things that are legitimate business expenses.
And a lot of my life is business because I'm
(11:54):
always doing it. So there you go. I hope this
has been helpful. Make sure you have a tax pro.
Make sure that your tax pro gives back to the community.
Choose one that does give back to the community. By
the way, they can donate that a few hours of
their time as a tax pro to help businesses come
up like the one Men Black Business Initiative, like my
firm Apryo does here in Atlanta. So get a tax
(12:15):
pro get a lawyer, and of course get a life.
You're listening to this, you already have a life, all right,
Love you, John Hope Brien. Hey, this is John Hope
Brian on money and wealth, and I'm going to tackle
(12:37):
a topic today that is a little controversial, which is
self esteem versus confidence, particularly with reguard to my African
American brothers and sisters. So why is this important and
why does it have to do with money and wealth?
Because if your assets are all on your ass, is
(13:01):
a reason for it. If you spend, if you produce
one point six trillion dollars in consume economic output as
a race, but ninety one percent of that is consumption,
there's a reason for it. If they number one way
to build wealth is home ownership, and we don't really
own homes. There's a reason for it. And there's a
(13:24):
reason why America has African American ghettos and not really
any kind of other kind of ghettos. And it has
to do with slavery. It has to do with destroying
and destroy self esteem, We're brilliant people, African Americans. We've
been doing so much with so little for so long.
(13:46):
We could almost do anything with nothing. We have, you know,
succeeded against the odds who were brought here as brilliant
agricultural geniuses of the land and had the self esteem
beaten up out of us for literally three hundred years.
So I had to do the math sixteen nineteen to
(14:06):
the really the mid nineteen sixties, even before America was America,
you know. And this is not even a podcast of
race or slavery or it has nothing to do with it.
I'm just giving you the backstory to understand you could
make a mistake and not be one. We're actually the
opposite where geniuses were amazing. But there was an intentional attempt,
(14:28):
which I'll do in another podcast to break down the
why as to why African Americans, with all our genius,
with all of our outside success all around the world,
I think of the majority of us are clinically undiagnosed depressed,
and that depression creates a surviving mindset, and a surviving
mindset is directly in conflict with a thriving mindset and
(14:50):
a winning mindset. Winners of builders. If you're a surviving mindset,
you are always looking for risk and issue, and the
glass is half fifty note half full. You tend to
be more cynical than skeptical. Now you generalize, you discriminate.
So yes, these are generalizations, but they tend to stick.
And I'm going to frame this in a way that
(15:13):
makes it perfectly clear. I'm going to give you the
economic framework first, because it's a raise to white people too.
So if the issue is only race, right that defines
success or failures, self esteem and confidence and all that
kind of stuff, then you would not have rich whites
and poor whites. You just have rich whites. If the
(15:35):
issue is just race, you just have rich whites. But
the largest population of poverty in this country is actually
white poverty. I'll go one step further. The number one
group dying in this country are high school educated white men.
Lack of hope. Opioid addiction is the trigger, but it's
(15:56):
really lack of hope. Not go to African Americans for
a minute. If black was the same, just like I
just said, the white was the same, and it wasn't
a cultural issue because somebody didn't say, John, why are
you picking on your own people. I'm not picked on anybody.
I'm breaking some stuff down so that we can understand
it so we can fix it. Just the opposite. Actually,
I said, we've been picked on, and we picked ourselves up.
(16:19):
Like as I said, we've been doing so much with
so little for so long. We could almost do anything
with nothing. But I don't want you an expert in surviving.
I want you an expert in thriving and winning. Can
I get an amen? So I talked about whites, now black,
poor whites and poor blacks. These are obvious, but no
one ever says it. So the issue was only raceed
and all blacks should be the same too. But the
Federal Reserve at Boston did a survey about five to
(16:43):
seven years ago on the net worth of everybody in Boston.
They found that whites had a six figure net worth.
They found that Caribbean blacks had it I think it
was a twelve hundred dollars net worth. And they found
that African Americans had net worth of seven bucks. That's right,
seven dollars. And when they put this on the front
(17:06):
page of the Boston Globe and you can pull it
up on the internet. By the way, it said blacks
net worth seven dollars, and it had to say this
is not a typo in the headline because it was
so dramatic. And if it was just race, why wouldn't
all blacks have the same networth? Why wouldn't all whites
have the same network? Because culture and environment matter, and
(17:29):
so we can be proud that we have survived and
all this torture. But if there's some PTSD there, there's
some damage to our psyche and our spirit and our
self esteem. And as I've often said, if I don't
like me, I'm not gonna like you. If I don't
feel good about me, I'm not gonna feel good about you.
If I don't respect me, don't expect me to respect you.
If I don't love me, I don't have a clue
(17:50):
how to love you. And if I don't have a
purpose in my life, I'm gonna make your life a
living hell. Because whatever goes around comes around. So now
broken down and hopefully in the way, it's sufficient the
economic differences even within the same group of black people.
(18:11):
And I'm gonna say something I can't absolutely true say
is the fact, but I believe it based on me
traveling the countless cities across this country. They're not Ghanaian
ghettos in America. They're Ghanaian communities. They're not Jamaican ghettos
in America. There are Jamaican communities where Jamaicans live together,
working class, middle class neighborhoods. I can think of some
(18:32):
in the Five Boroughs right now, as example. There are
Ethiopian communities, lots of them. There are South African communities
and so on and so forth, right, but they're only
black ghettos. African American so African American communities where you
(18:52):
see check cashers, patio only. Now you see these other communities, right,
But it's intensely focused in African American communities because us, well,
we were broken and people are now praying on that brokenness.
Where so now I'm going to get to a self
esteem and confidence. So you can't fix this stuff unless
you recognize it. If you look at the majority of
(19:15):
ghettos and inner cities in America where people proliferate, they
tend to be mostly African American versus communities where different
people live, and there's oppressive environments in those neighborhoods and
communities because those impressive environments are profitable to some people
and negative to the people that they're subject to it.
(19:39):
But maybe you don't even notice it because we're so
used to surviving and so used to brokenness that we
think it's okay. We think it's okay for a check
cash or to the extra payda on lender, to a
rent store, a title linder link store, pansha. By the way,
that actually does exist in low wealth communities of all kinds.
I'm not just praying on that, but I'm just get
(20:00):
and that as an example, right and now now I'm
going to pivot to something that I think does differentiate
healthy from those trying to heal those who need to heal.
So self esteem versus confidence, those things are different. Self
esteem is internal and confidence is really external. And so
(20:23):
confidence comes from your competence. You're confetent about something, so
you express that through a confidence. I'll come back to
that in a moment. Self esteem is how I esteem myself.
So if you look at Caribbean blacks and you look
at African blacks as an example, you see people and
I'm generalizing. Whenever you generalize, you discriminate that it's true.
(20:45):
But follow me for a moment. I'm making a point.
If you go, if you look at those who come
from the Caribbean and come from Africa, you generally speaking
see fine people who have high self esteem but low
levels of initially of confidence when they come to America.
Why because they the self seem comes from nuclear families,
(21:10):
mom and dad, husbands and wives. It comes from seeing
the Dennis that looks like you, the mayor that looks
like you, the governor looks like you, the CEO that
looks at you, the saint looks like you, the passion
looks like you, and the crooks looking like you too.
Everybody looks like you. So there's a self esteem that
(21:30):
comes from having a healthy spiritual, emotional, psychological environment. Are
you with me so far? But they have a low
level of confidence because they come from a small and
developing economy that's not cutting edge economically. It's not where
you take your skills and put it to work against
(21:52):
other people who at the top of their game. And
so as a result of that, you don't really know
whether you've been taught is truly top of the mark,
So you may not have the confidence that comes from
competition at the highest level and winning. So you may
have low confidence but high self esteem. The opposite is
true for African Americans. In American you have people who
(22:15):
have high confidence, extremely high confidence, but typically low self esteem.
Now low self esteem for the meat reasons I just mentioned.
People have beaten the love out of us, beaten the
confidence and self esteem out of us, beaten the joy
out of us because they needed us to not create
a problem back in the day. Keep you in that
(22:39):
box just become human machinery for hundreds of years, but
it damaged our spirit and it ruined our families. I
think the fire pillows of success as much education as
you can shut down your throat. This is from my
book Up from Nothing. I have six books now, three
or four bestsellers, the last one being Out being Financial
Literacy for All Just out that's entered the fray at Amazon,
(23:01):
number one in economics, etc. CEA picking up if you
don't have it, but Up from Nothing in my last book,
there's a much education you shut down your throat, understanding
the math, financial literacy, wealth, creation, etc. Family structured and
resiliency number three, A self esteem and confidence number four,
Role Models and environment number five. Now I've done a
(23:22):
podcast episode just on this, so you can go back
and listen to that, and I break these things down
in some detail, and if you have three or four
of those things, of those five things, you're going to
be very successful. But three groups were denied those three things,
and not in any order here Native American Indians, poor Whites,
(23:44):
and African Americans and out of you know, a couple
hundred ethnic groups in this country, and there's actually more
than that if you want to get into cultures. Everybody
seems to come here and be able to succeed within
a short period of time because they have self esteem intact,
and their confidence comes ultimately from competing on the playing
(24:04):
field called life. But our experience was just the opposite.
We're denied. Actually it was legally barred to educate us.
They destroyed our family, separated our children, sold wives off
from husbands, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So we
did not if out of the five pillars of success.
But if you have three four of those things, of
those five things, I guarantee you, no matter what's in
front of you, over around it, through what you're going
(24:24):
to get to it. I know that because that's my
story and I'm African American. My mother told me she
loved me every day of my life at a sense
of yes I can from my dad and the yes
I am from my mother. I know was taught about
Fangel literacy when I was nine years old. I have
self love, self esteem, which I'll get to in a
moment in great detail. I had good role models and
(24:46):
an enabling environment. Thus I succeeded at scale with from
the bottom quartile of poverty and struggle, not the very bottom,
but the bottom quartile to the top one percent. And
you can do it too. You can rehabilitate yourself, but
you've got to understand what ghosts is chasing you and
what healing you're pursuing. So there's self esteem and confidence.
(25:10):
So here's self esteem. And you're gonna repeat myself a
little bit. I apologize, but it's really important to get this.
If I don't like me, I'm not gonna like you.
If I don't feel good about me, I'm not gonna
feel good about you. If I don't respect me, don't
expect me to respect you. If I don't love me,
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 gonna make your life a living hell.
(25:33):
Whatever goes around comes around, and hurt people hurt people.
The opposite is also true. Hurt people hurt people is
an old saying, no matter how much I love you,
my son or my daughter, if I don't have wisdom,
I can only give you my own ignorance. So out
of love we pass down bad habits from generation to generation.
(25:54):
I know this is gonna be a deep, deep, deep
controversial podcast, but this is also because wealth is mindset.
Anybody can make money. A drug dealer can make money,
Pip can make money. Wall Street banker can make money,
the engineer can make money. Anybody legit illegit can make money.
But building wealth, you build wealth in your sleep. You
gotta think. You gotta do it for the neck up,
(26:15):
not the shoulders down. It's a mindset that builds wealth.
And I want you to have that mindset, not only
in financial wealth, but mental, spiritual, emotional wealth. I want
you to heal. So confidence comes from competence. So why
are African Americans confident in America? Because we competed in
the biggest economy in the world, the most incompetitive place
(26:37):
in the world, and we killed it. Where the rules
are published and the playing fielders level, we succeed. What's
examples of that, professional sports, the arts, government service and
elected office, the faith community, the rules of published, the
playing rules level, we kill it, but capital isn't. And
(27:00):
free enterprise of why gave us that memo? That's my
Is that my third or my fourth book? It's my
third book. No one gave us that memo. I think
it's my third book of how things work. Freedman's Bank
eighteen sixty five, Abraham Lincoln a bank chartered to teach
free slaves about money. He was killed the next year
for the doubt destruct to run the bank. So we're
(27:20):
not dumb and we're not stupids. Well, we don't know that.
We don't know this killing this, but we think we know.
But you know, in spite of that, we've done actually okay,
pretty okay. But we are so focused on getting that bag,
getting that money, getting that hustle, getting that dollar, getting
that money, that we don't realize and that's short term,
that's just transactional. You can get rich, but you don't
build wealth. You build wealth and you're sleep. It's mindset
(27:42):
but the reason we're so successful is that we actually
are the most competitive group of people of color I
believe in the world, and we should be proud of it.
We've got our share of billionaires, we have our share
of you know, of multi multi millionaires, of which I
would qualify. We have tons of you know, one hundred
thousand airs. You know, we have a solid middle class.
(28:03):
Thank you, Andrew Young, doctor King, doctor Dorothy Hye, credit
Scott King, et cetera. Heroes and she rose red from
CTVV and John Lewis who created the civil rights movement. Right,
but we got to go from cashing checks to writing them. Mindset,
becoming wealth creators and not just consumers. Mindset to loving
ourselves so we can love each other, so we don't
(28:24):
have crab in the barrel mindset. Why is somebody watching me,
listening to me and going, he ain't nothing that has
nothing to do with me. If I'm succeeding and you're
listening and you're I mean, you should be like bravo.
I mean, maybe he's not doing what I'm doing. Maybe
I don't want to be of those injuries, but god,
that's fantastic. He's succeeding. That gives me some sense for
(28:45):
what I can do. Was there anything negative in it?
But you'll find people who are hurt trying to hurt people.
Doctor King once said that evil and hurt. I'm adding hurt.
I'm pretty sure it was just evil, he said. Corrodes
to container. It sits within. Hello, your body seventy percent water,
So you getting all worked up and hot, you're just
(29:07):
killing yourself. You're cooking your own organs. Whatever goes around
comes around. So self esteem not only it helps you
live in the world, it helps you to live. That's
why in these low wealth communities the credit score was
launching my last book, Financial Lewacy Forrawl. I was in
CNBC Last Call and I broke down how credit scores
our whole financial wellness index. How credit scores are lower
(29:30):
in low wealth communities. And you also lived twenty years
a shorter life than you live in a seven hundred
credits community credit score community. Yeah, I said it. You
lived at sixty one years old in a five hundred
credit score neighborhood. You lived at eighty one years old
in a seven hundred credit score neighborhood twenty year delta,
and I think that that is state of mind. It's mindset.
(29:52):
It's what I'm talking about. So we've got to heal.
And I mentioned check cashers, payday loan lenders, rental own stores,
title lenders, liquor stores, pawn shops, and a church down
the street trying to make you feel a little bit
better once a week. That's your neighborhood psychologists, that's your
neighborhood shriek, trying to keep you go from crazy, going
completely crazy and going postal on somebody once a week.
(30:12):
Just calm you down. While we black folks were emotional,
we're going ha ha, we going hoop and a hollow.
We get it out of our system. Replace that anger
and that frustration with joy. That's a depressed person who
needs to screen to get it out of them. You
just you just you're on you wake up on nine
on the scale of one of ten. You need to
release some tension. By the way, not just black people.
You go to a poor white neighborhood, you see the
(30:34):
same thing. Check cash or paint on in their rental
own store, title, their liquor store, pawnshop, church. They just
do things. They move in different way. We riote when
we angry on the streets when they're angry, they riot.
It appears at the ballot box. Poor whites. You figure
that out for yourself. What am I saying and what
they relate to? Hello, so we've got to heal. Three
(30:59):
ways to live suicide, you can die alive. We're not
human beings having a spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having
a human experience, and energy matters. I just refuse to
have toxicity around me. It's like, you don't have to go,
you gotta get the heck out of here. I just
try to be clean. I try to have a toxic
(31:20):
free zone people. I go to dinner, Like, what you
know anything you're allergic to? Yeah, bad food and toxic people.
I'm just like, I'm done. Like you hang around nine
broke people, you'll be the tenth. Like you just keep
that mess over there. I don't want to jump in
on me. Life's about energy. What are you? Who are you?
What are you attracting? How long can I get a man?
We have some church today. All these things are related,
(31:45):
and they're interrelated, and they're interconnected, and you and wells
tends to hang around wealth, and poverty tends to ringing
around poverty, and we need to start doing some transfers
to get people out of poverty, rebuild the ladder and
get them back up to wealth. And by the way,
when you are depressed, distressed, when you're angry at the world,
you actually don't believe in the dream anymore. And that's
(32:05):
and that's by the way, suits wealth just just fine.
You stay over there and be angry, being expert in
what you're against, not what you're for. Fine with them
then leads more for them. What in Malcolm X Savy,
you've been bamboozooed, you've been tripped, you've been fooled. Is
what we don't know that we don't know this killing
is what we think we know. We have to heal,
(32:27):
We have to deal with our stuff. Suicide, coping, healing.
Three ways to live suicide You can die alive. The
most dangerous person in the world, well, the second most
dangerous a person would know hope. First, most dangerous someone
with power, money, wealth, different things, power, money, wealth, position,
(32:48):
low seale, esteem, fear. Now you think about what I'm
talking about, that person is very dangerous because they can
actually use they can weaponize their unhealed nature to hurt
somebody that threatens them. Or anger at them. I mean,
a narcissist literally believes everything somebody else's fault, like it's
never themselves. And a malignant narcissist, well that's a whole
(33:12):
nother situation. I don't want you trading in any of
that stuff. So there's suicide, right, then there's coping and
there's healing. Coping An addiction is literally a response to
emotion you can't handle. So you have all kind of iengs.
You don't need shopping, drugging, drinking, you know, texting, texting
(33:32):
all day all night, you know, oversleeping. These are negative eyengs.
You need to replace them with some positive engs, like healing.
Because you cannot have a rainbow without a storm first.
It's a scientific fact. You cannot have a rainbow without
a storm first. So and then of course that the
third way to live is to heal. And that's really
what I'm talking about. Before you heal, you got a deal.
(33:55):
And when you're not dealing, somebody's taking advantage of you. Either.
If you're not using your money, your money's using you.
Angel young quote to live in a system of free
enterprise and not to understand the rules of free enterprise
must be the very definition of slavery. People who are
surviving mindset. The glass is half full, not half empty,
whether you remember whether you believe you can or whether
you believe you can't. You're right. They don't like success.
(34:17):
They're like, oh, I hate rich people. No, you don't.
You hate rich people till you become rich. What you
hate is a game system, but the latter's broken, and
you don't believe the system works for you. You think it's corrupted,
and so you throw your hands up and decide to
live short termism coping. You start to see all this
(34:40):
works together. And then if you're taking your advice from
somebody who's just coping, dealing, not healing, that goes that
quote in a blind town, a one eyed man's king.
If you don't know better, you dang sure can't do better,
no matter how much I love you, my son or
my daughter. If I don't have wisdom, I can only
give you my own ignorance. The definition of insanities the
(35:00):
same thing over and over again, but expecting a different outcome.
Let's assume you disagree with half of what I've said
on this podcast. Why don't you try it? It can't
possibly that's somebody says, well, why should I try? God,
he cannot possibly mismanage your life worse than you have.
You and me, by the way, I'm in that same bucket.
I decided to try, and it worked beautifully. He's never
(35:23):
let me down. But maybe you should try a different
business plan, the one that has not worked. But a
lot of wealth, or the lack thereof, is mindset. Poverty
outside of roof over your head, food on the table,
healthcare susten this poverty. That's susten this poverty, every other
foreign poverty is mindset. Is how you're thinking, and whether
(35:44):
you believe you can and you believe you can't. You're
absolutely right. I want you to have high self esteem,
not one answer. My self esteem and self respect depends
on your acceptance of men. As the Quincy Jones quote,
it's okay if you don't like me, I like me.
That's a John O'Brian quote. Life is ten percent what
life does to you, but nine percent how you choose
(36:05):
to respond to it, how you're going to write, what's
your respond's going to be. Success is going from failure
to failure without loss of enthusiasm. That requires self esteem
and confidence. But never give up. I take no for vitamins.
That requires self esteem and confidence. I don't want you
to just have confidence, because you'll be cocky, you'll be arrogant,
and you'll over compensate by trying to put your assets
on your ass. You're going to try to wear your
(36:27):
self esteem to prove to everybody else to have loud
music and a loud life, because you're trying to communicate
to everybody else externally your value where itsus realizing internally
you're already valuable because you're God's child. When you got
the power, you don't need to use it. Okay, this
was deep. Let me know what you think. Spread the
word that's hard a conversation. Go to Operation Help get
(36:49):
your financial literacy counseling from my team and Hope in
side locations and three hundred locations across the country. Pick
up my book of Financial Literacy for All, which is
now out and debuted number one on economics and a
couple of other categories. Thank you all who supported it.
It is your weekly workshop toolbox as you sit down
and have a discussion every week about money with your
(37:11):
family at the kitchen table, and there's a bunch of
tools coming out tied to that, but it starts with
the book Yeah, take your life back. It starts with
making that decision. I believe in you do you yo? Yo.
(37:34):
This is John O'Bryant and this is Money and Wealth
on the Black Effect Network. And we have a great
fan question today billionaire Underscore Freddy from Instagram what a
great inspiring Instagram handle? A billionaire Underscore Freddie at Instagram says,
what's one surefire away to generate cash flow with one MBB? Well,
(37:59):
that answer is is fairly actually obvious and interesting to
you because it's part of one MBB. One MBB is
one Million Black Business Initiative, which Operation Hope launched after
George Floyd's murder, and it is committed to creating a
million black businesses by twenty thirty and we already have inspired, created,
nurtured and supported over four hundred thousand black businesses, which
(38:22):
would be about twelve percent of all black businesses in America.
Yay for Operation Hope. And the way you would do
it is to get to it. You would if you
have a barbershop or any physical business, as I said,
you make money during the day, you build wealth win
now in your sleep. So you would say you have
(38:43):
a barbershop business, and right now somebody has to call
you while you're doing the cut. Now you can apply
this to any kind of business, restaurant, whatever it is.
You're like, okay, you're doing the cut, and they say,
can I get an appointment? Let me get to my
appointment book. I can't really talk right now, I'm doing
the cut. Can I call you back? What's your number?
Can you call me back? They'd never call you back
(39:05):
because they're going to the airport to catch a flight.
What you want is for that person to be on
the flight. It's midnight, and they should be able to
search your business online from the plane. Wireless Internet is
on most planes. Now. I know this example because I
use this process myself going into the city or barbershops
(39:26):
for black barbershops in New York City as an example,
or in Harlem or wherever the name of your shop
would come up because it will be registered through Shopify,
our partner for one MBB, which we give you the
account for free for four months, and we give you
a website, domain name, payment systems, delivery system support, business
plan support, all that through one me and Black Business
(39:47):
Initiative counseling and coaching on the back end on e
commerce as well. Anyway, in this example, they know they
can now go onlines, go to the scheduling app schedule
and appointment. Now you're sleep it's midnight or at home,
schedule an appointment for their haircut. Put their credit card up,
so now you're the business. Whether they cancel or not,
(40:08):
there's a twenty percent or fifty percent cancelation fee, So
they would lose that amount of money if they don't
show up, and that goes into your cash register while
you're sleeping cash flow. While they're on your site. You're
now saying now that thank you for booking your appointment.
Do you need a wave cap? Do you need a brush?
Do you need conditioner? And they ordered items from you,
(40:30):
and what might have been a simple haircut for seventy
five bucks, fifty bucks whatever it is, you know, might
end up being one hundred and fifty two hundred, three
hundred dollars order. Maybe even have a subscription service tied
to the business where you're teaching hair conditioning or hair
growth or hair stabilization techniques. In this case, the black
(40:51):
men that can somebody can subscribe to that you know,
become a subscript subscriber for five bucks a month or
whatever it is. So now you've got cash flow profit
and little wealth creation because you've built money. You've made
money in your sleep. Billionaire underscore Freddy from Instagram. I
hope this has been steady, Freddy. I hope this has
been good advice for you. All of you don't know
(41:14):
what MBB is, Go and sign up. It will change
your life. It's a commitment from one hundred and thirty
million dollars from Shopify's founder to be an Operation Hope
to create black businesses in this country. And it's working
and it's completely no cost to you. Invest your time
and energy and we do the rest. We get your
credit score up, your debt down, your savings up, help
(41:35):
you with a business plan, etc. You go to you
download the Hope and Hand app on your Android or
Apple platform. You can call our toll free line for
Operation Hope, and you can go online Operation dot Org.
I also encourage you to buy this book, Financial Literacy
for All, which is now a bestseller. It's on all
platforms including black bookstores, by the way, but you can
(41:56):
get this book now on Amazon, number one in several
categories in the world on economics and business, finance, etc.
And that is your toolbox at the kitchen table as
you transform your life, your families, and in this example,
your business. You don't want to confuse business with busyness,
our profit with cash flow, as my dad unfortunately did.
(42:17):
I tell that story in the book. All Right, piece
and light love, Let's go. This is John O'Brien on
money and wealth. I'm out Money and Wealth with John
(42:39):
O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. The Protect
Host
John Hope Bryant
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