Here is our prime time lineup for tonights. The thunder and ceo of operational bandaid member of president obama said lazar kelso on Financial Capability for Young Americans argues that we can put our economy back on track by Building Financial the trustee and a spending and opportunities in poor communities in the United States. This is an hour and 15 minutes. Welcome to the Gallup Organization. We have a couple people that will speak, and then i will introduce our new bestselling author. His book is number one on amazon movers and shakers list. And youre not following it closely. Thirtysomething. So congratulations on that. [applause] really important american here today, and for those of you who no galop, our biggest business sector around the world is actually banking. We have a lot of sectors for all kinds of corporations, but our biggest sector is banking. Banking has been a very good friend to this organization. I am on johns board of operation. I think most of you know that john has built a colossus organization, operation hope and john, i would say, Board Members to my best friends of banks of operation hope. The banks have an organization here in town that is a powerhouse for Financial Services round table, and the ceos here today. I really admire the Financial Services round table because it was a really popular, dandy governor of the state of minnesota. Form of the reasons i admire you know, that state, ten, is just one of the great societys in the whole world. The advancements that you all have from health, the very first big, big city to ban smoking to i mean, such a great business environment, but congratulations on all of the work that you did there. I want to say one other thing. He was a really dindy president ial candidate. I mean, really, really well qualified and a great experience and hopefully will be a president ial candidate again. Thank you for all that should do. Please welcome governor tim pawlenty. [applause] thank you, jim. Thank you judy Gallup Organization for hosting this event. I have a bone to pick with gen. He brought up my lfaded president ial campaign. It was painful and brief. In fact, it was so brief like to say it lasted more briefly than a marriage. I am delighted to be here. Delighted to be with my friend, John Hope Bryant, and i love minnesota. We are proud of it. It is a modest state. We dont brag about our performance too much. We are all the land of 10,000 lakes. We actually have 15,000 lakes, but we just say 10,000 on our license plates because we dont want to be accused of overstating the case has midwesterners. Would like to finish up my career in chicago because of a sellout politics even after i die i want to keep my political career active there by voting, but beyond all of that let me talk to you about why we are here tonight, and that is because of Financial Literacy and empowerment and the cause of getting more opportunity economically for our nations. In johns but he has a very salient point amongst others. 7 billion people in the world, 2 billion jobs. That is one measure of a system that has been a work mathematically set aside politics, rhetoric, all of the noise that so much of us here in this town every day. At some level it is a math exercise. 7 billion people and 2 billion jobs. That is not a great trajectory. We need to get those who are disenfranchised, disconnected, not aware, not empowered, dont have opportunity connected to the big engine that is the economy in this country and hopefully more broadly than that. How do we do that, jons book provides a prescription for that. Takes someone with a platform, a vision who excites people, educates, ignites, catalyzes activity, excitement, enthusiasm greedy as all of that as a leader. Thank you for your vision and for being a spark plug for so much of this discussion, but as Thomas Edison said, vision without execution is delusion. So i do not think that john is delusional. In fact my know that he is not. The big gap then between the book and the result is execution and so much of what he does, so many people in this room do and the nonprofit world and otherwise is to fill that delta. We all need to be working together. We will make one final point because i know that jim is a strict disciplinarian when it comes time and my time is five minutes. You cannot connect to the economy of today and tomorrow unless you have the skill and education. So the world that was in my dads generation, i grew up in a meatpacking town. Might that was a truck driver. My mom died when i was in tenth grade and i was the youngest of five kids. Might experience was as a tenth grader mom is dad dead, mom realize many things, one of which is i better get my reran year. Back in the day you miss the educational wrong because you were disenfranchised, disconnected, this was never as long as you are not disabled you could go down to the meat packing plants and make a living wage job for you and your family would benefits. Those kinds of jobs that my dad used to call strong back jobs are mostly gone, at least at the level of pay and benefits that we knew in the 50s and 60s so now the challenge and the opportunity is, we need to give more folks having a skill or an education that allows them to connect to the economies of today and tomorrow. If we do not have that we get marginalized and maybe gary. One component of that is financial a trustee and understanding personal finance. Theres a lot of great programs, technology, nonprofit, speeches, everything going on in this space, but it is too little, too slow, not deep enough, scalable, not nationwide. So we are really excited about the cause of trying to get, as one piece of a much larger piece, not the only piece, as many people as possible more educated and further educated and more aware of personal finance and Financial Literacy. You cannot come even if you can get money, you cannot optimize what you can do with it unless you have some awareness and education around that. My personal view is the best way to do that is embedded in School Curriculum across the country. It is a big country. We cannot burden our schools and do it from washington d. C. , but at the state and local level in betting financial interests and personal finance in the School Curriculum is important and probably the best way that we can scale this and sustain it across the country. We cannot say, hey, is cooled and add another class, but we can say if you are already teaching social studies, chemistry, economics, a class, can some of the modules be in the context of a financial example that teaches the skill and a point. So one of the exercises could be a personal finance exercise. A lot of great work being done, but it is episodic, not coordinated and not to scale, and we are way behind. We cannot have onethird of our people in this country deemed under educated, uneducated, under skilled, or unskilled and expect that to work economically, socially, culturally, politically, or in any other way. It is just not going to work. It is in all of our best interest morally, culturally and politically, legally to get all of us having the same connection to the economy. So this book, this work, these thoughts that you are going to hear from john are really important. We are proud to be here finland our voice to this piece and other pieces as well. And thank you for hosting this. I will have to leave a little after the speech because my dear friends son passed away and i want to get to the morning to night to beat for the funeral. But just want to let you know that i have to leave early. Thank you for listening. I appreciated. [applause] thank you. Thank you, governor. We have another honored guests today. A great american. I have a lot of admiration for him a partner right now on a venturecapital firm. I like people to do that because they go and find people and start businesses and create jobs good for you. I read about him. The youngest ceo of the naacp. He may ceo of 35. I did not admire him for that. I admire him for what went on in the story many took it over and all of this was done but not working well. Revenue was not good. What i admire him for is turning it around. Most people say turnaround is harder than start up. But good for you. I also know that working with the program to help rehab and prisoners. I guess i dont know, but he reached way across the aisle to Grover Norquist and Newt Gingrich and got them involved. You know what, it worked because newt comes wandering around here whenever you did to him, you brainwashed him believe he is still involved. He is working on that. So with that, please welcome Benjamin Todd jealous. [applause] engaged let us first recognize that there is no Port Community in this country. Floats out of work now descend from someone who has worked toward. If you go to San Francisco where i spend a lot of my time every single problem a rich person in San Francisco has literally. Apparently if youre rich it is really bothersome to have to go to a ups toward us in the package. Now you can take a photo of what you want to send and someone will show a better place, wrapping up for you, millet for you, and you can pay for it all the religious goes on and on. All kinds of problems that need to be solved. Its unclear whos going to solve them. That is what we do we look for entrepreneurs the trying to solve problems for the have nots , lockouts, people who quite frankly have a lot of money and ideas. In the black community is painful. The percentage of black poverty has not gone down 1 . We support entrepreneurs. Well, its now illegal in colorado he created the private ups are marijuana dealers all been successful came out highly frustrated. So extensive. Applying Technology Local connected to their homes. I have been in there for a long time. It speaks to the need to solve the problem. The dialogue, Washington Heights, came back come to Washington Heights frustrated says that every time he tried to send a hundred dollars to his grandmother Via Western Union and the Dominican Republic it would cost and 30 she would only get 70. He looked around at what was happening in the developing world, that technology, cut the cost by about 90 . Solving problems for people in need problemsolving for the huge market. Thats of the port conserve capitalists the last thing i will leave you with, fighting over who is in first class. He said we ought to keep fighting. Everyone on the plane needs to recognize the real losing altitude. The plan is falling fast. Either a sleeper drunk. Get our economy headed back up think about that for a second. Travel this country. A meeting. More welcome one and the other. We take it for granted for centuries. We have taken for granted that every generation would be better off and now what is a certainty its time for us to come together and figure out the rich get richer and the poor state poor. That is not how it is supposed to be. Douglas. Thank you. Thank you. Sometimes john says im his mentor, but i have learned more from i think im your white on goal. Data something. I learned a lot more from them. One thing i learned in the book, working on poverty. Did not realize that. The 25 years we dont make any progress. , down. Pirellis world problems. We got one right here. Everything we do just does not work. If whites and hispanics and blacks, but it just days right at 15 . But youve got to be open to the fact that all of the solutions that really caring people just does not work and it is awful when it is not working, but you wonder if we have got all of those little kids will wrong and responding to the wrong well. You know, my biggest take away from johns book is and i think that much of this comes from your study of Martin Luther king and andrew young, i think i admire andrew young as much as any living i think that is the most admired person that is living. It is about language of money. You know, kids want money. And rich is relative. One guy, as some of you know, i was asking, if it is ten years from now when youre so ridge you cannot believe it and you go, holy cow, how did i get to this place in life, how much would you be making . He said, 8,000. If we cant deliver that for that guy and he has plenty enough talent, something is very wrong with america. You know what, he is 20 years old and no one talks to him about money until he walked into until he walked into this building. I was trying to tell johnson today. I think in your book you might have found a solution. You know, as kids when i talk still white, black, whenever, you are always wondering about, the nba, what they are thinking about is those big money contracts, there are thinking about money. And then, well, if i cant play that i will be an agent. Theyre thinking about money. They have no idea that there is far more money the money in health care is 100 times bigger than all sports added together. But maybe we should be talking with them right then. If they cant talk the language of banking, teach them math and reading and have them reading tom sawyer, whenever it might be, theyre not going anywhere and it is not what those guys are thinking about. But but all wrap this up. I read every word of your book and i think you have a breakthrough. All kinds of junk. It is magnificent. This is your best work, your best work. I like all of the math in it. I hope that our banking clients and everybody agrees this because my breakthrough, and i just got done reading it, on the plane from new york, but theyre is a breakthrough there. I think were digging in the wrong place, not talking to kids about what they want to talk to. The kids, every time you move the money the conversation gets fun. I just wanted sell you a quick story. Theyre is a guy in southcentral los angeles, maybe it is not very hard. He was ten years old. I do not know, whenever he saw central los angeles, but the 10 yearold goals goes to school and has been thinking about joining a gang. You know why he is thinking about it . For the money. He knew no other way. So that day a banker comes in and sends an need. And the kid was on his way to being a gang member. He would have been the best. This derails him. He asked the banker question. You know what this question was . The United States of america, how do you get money illegally . He had no idea that is what i am going to do, start a business columbia business owner. He had no concept that he could be a businessman, and that was in los angeles. Is that what you wear to work . He knew he would like to dress that way when he went to work. Guess where that is now . Sitting right here. That is a story about John Hope Bryant please read it makes you wonder, maybe it is even easier, it might even be easy to fix if we were not working in the wrong place. Thank you. Why did you get up. Just spent his so they try to fix america. Where do people like that come from . Please welcome John Hope Bryant. [applause] if all you see this we want to be. Theres a difference. Being broken is economic, but being poor, yvonne never to be poor again. 5 billion people who do not have as much freedom and justice the freedom. That determination you cannot sell determine yourself in the modern laureled except through economics. We dont understand. Smallbusiness owners are more entrepreneurs generate all the job growth in america, the largest economy in the world busy need the middleclass. The goal of a ladder. It is a rapid momentum this says you have got to give people the memo. The language of money. Some people got the memo, and there are probably 5 billion people would never get the men up to. It is history. It is political in any way, shape, or form. It is not about a rich or poor, west or east. It is about living a life. John obrien. John hope bryant. [applause] i want to reverse it thank you for being here. You can make this coincidences gods way of staying anonymous. Its the best netting the same the same thing. That is what they are for. The place where no one in the long. At the end of the day in southern bell white, black and red camille of the green. The issue today is class and poverty. If you are poor it should hurt, and there are more poor white people in america than pork anybody else. But the face of poverty, of course, is the minority. We give you another take on this. Making less than 50,000 a year. Struggling to make ends meet. Can i get in a man . Amen. Living in maryland, baltimore making 40,000 a year startling to make ends meet living in new york city making less than 70,000 a year struggling to make ends meet, living in a small city in america, which is most of america, making less than 2,530,000 a year startling to make ends meet. That is not the black problem or brown problem orange problem to matane problem, that is a problem in america. 70 percent of all americans are living from paycheck to paycheck and if youre living in maryland so says the comptroller to my friend, you make the live in maryland to my third of all People Living in maryland have to sell their car to raise 3,000. This is american problems. Before i get too far on this let me just say thank you first to the organization that is just like what tmz is to hollywood to washington d. C. [applause] again, who says folks on take this. I think them for taking this seriously. I was told that minorities to not buy books. I was told that black people involved in serious topics, ownership and opporunity was not something that we focused on. I was, what a young black man bites a boring book about money and economics and it fails. Get amazon sold out in 24 hours the audience to me told the audience to go by the buck. To make a long story short the book went to number nine to my dont mean on the blacklist, the Homeboy Shopping Network list, i mean number nine on amazon worldwide. Tearing of the airwaves with this great book. He was number three. So dont tell me what we cannot do when americas sets its mind to change our reality. We can do anything we set our minds to. I will tell you something. The man sitting to my left. We will tell you two quick stories to get a sense of who he is. He hates the for story. It did not happen, but i saw this way and i have the mike. By the way, probably fighting republicans. I am in his office. I see a couple things on the wall. The scholarship. What do you like black people so much . He said to my really dont. Here is problem. He did not exactly say it this way, but anything close to that, that is just probably not the best thing to say in washington or any place. Im going to give you, this is the easy one. Relativity you one more time. What do you like black people some much . Answer any way that you want. I really dont. John, i just want america to win. Let that sink in for a moment. I fell in love with it that moment. It was not about black or white or orange or purple, he just wants everybody on the water in a boat growing as fast as they can in a point that says prosperity for all. And in my opinion he is a great american. I would not have written this book if it was not for jim. When i came and he opened my head and poor all of the facts and statistics that i can now back up when i knew in my gut was right it changed my whole life. We have a 100 your commitment to provide free Economic Energy and strength finders for every kid in Public School in america for free. They do it out of their pocket. Thank you. [applause] he has no selfesteem. State capitalism i said it. We already are. 70 percent of this economy is Consumer Spending, gingrich take. That is you and me pain condos and rant and mortgages, utility bills, water, a cup of coffee, buying gas at the gas station. It is micro transactions that you were talking about in silicon valley. That is what is driving this economy, but we give almost no credit. And 70 percent of all americans are living from paycheck to paycheck. This 70 number you hear over and over again is a fascinating number. Lets get underneath that number for a minute. Just give me some examples. Well, lets look at the plane. You know that it was a tool for the ridge when it first came out. Lets look at automobiles. Automobiles were a toy for the rich when they first came out. Cell phones, some of your old enough to remember that big break motorola 10pound phone that you put you know what i am talking about on your shoulder . And you were bolling let me explain what bolling meanspirited can explain some of this for you. You were rolling if you had a motorola brick farm on your shoulder the cost about 3,000 when they came out. Now african equality, the first wireless. They will jump right over landline phone. People have thaws in africa. They dont have Running Water in their house. One of our u. S. Ambassadors. We just had a bunch of kids coming in here. Can we give them some love . Thats what im talking about. [applause] the first wireless economy. Almost a billion people Running Water are good streets. Really sports for the rich. A gas station and you will find many restaurant. It was only when people by the way, half of america is 50,000 or less than half of all families. It was only when they decided to take up these products and to monetize that they have market share. Lets go the market share. Henry ford, not only smart to not only to the automobile, renovated it, and made available to all people, he was smart enough to hire workers and pay them enough to buy them a car. You follow me . And you had a middleclass. I think its the wrong are yen. In fact, i know. What would you want to pay somebody minimum wage . To minimumwage jobs to pay your bills and have enough left over for Consumer Spending. You want to play somebody living wage. Let me tell you why. This is not socialism, communism to market. Ina hardcore capitalist, capitalist with the heart. Let me sell you the longterm view. If i cannot afford to pay only my rent payment or mortgage and may be some food, how do i go to dinner every two weeks so that the restaurant can pay its employees and they can buy Vendor Services and pay their taxes . [inaudible question] afford to buy a refrigerator every seven years, lease or purchase from sears. Upgrade household utilities. Are you with me . How can i afford to go on vacation toys year which the vacation Companies Need me to do how can i afford to lease or purchase a car every three, five, or seven years with the automobile Companies Need me to do. They need to be able to finance these things to pay reasonable rate of interest so that they can also have the irony. With their rich need to port the port is a better if only to stay rich. More of that money back into the economy because of their socalled race because it is an economy driven by Consumer Spending. Over 90 percent of every dollar back into the economy with more Consumer Spending westars more gdp which draws more growth, more jobs, more taxes. Am i talking to myself . I am going to review here a little bit. I dont want to talk at you. Our want to talk were already driving the largest economy in the world. Let me tell you the one story in the book i just love. The Parent Company for cadillac was in trouble. And they were the board of directors was struggling. The company was on the verge of shutting down, and one position, cadillac, they were struggling with whether or not to shut it down to read this into gatt to go check it out and he came back and found out that while the numbers, he was driving around the city and kept seeing black people driving cadillacs. There was a policy could not sell cadillacs to buy people in the 30s, the 20s and 30s. Doing well. They wanted some way to show how simple their work. You can make this up. By a cadillac. A strong buyer to go by in a cadillac. It was black straw purchasers keeping cadillacs alive. This guy went and basically remove the restrictions of the policy. Then when one step further and hired a bunch of people of color and literally dismissed, save the Parent Company. Add on of of the people who were black and relates to this, but until we stop by mercedes about 20 years ago we were buying cadillacs to more and we . That was a 50year run. We need to go get our shareholder value right now. [applause] i am not talking about an ounce. I am talking about shared legitimate prosperity. One of the numbers here, you have three nap billion people on the planet who dont make enough, you dont earn enough, who dont own enough than 85 the wealthiest people on the planet. It is is not sustainable. That is not against rich people. Eat rich people . You are lying. You hate people al qaeda rich people until you are rich yourself. The system is not working. It is the love of money, the agreed. Let me put this in his seventh comeback to the of insanity. That may define poverty. Im going to break some eggs year. 23,000 change. I have no argument with the government. But if you think that is where poverty is a start putting the losers against that based upon a number youre going to fail we are not human beings having a spiritual. Here is what poverty is. Have a poverty is low selfesteem low confidence, low believe in yourself, low levels of safety. If you do not know of who you are at nine in the morning by midnight someone will tell you preachified all like me and not try to like you. Five auto good about me and not kind of feel good about you. You cant expect me to respect here is a big one. If i dont have a purpose in my life im going to make your life a living hell because whenever goes around comes around. So let me now i was not cursing. I was talking about a place in the world that has a name. So let me now define poverty in the context. You have got to believe in yourself. You have to have believed. That first piece is critical to success. Then you have a pistolero modeling. Imi businessmen . Because my father was. For 54 years. It is not rocket science. It is not brilliance. It is draw modeling. He is a businessman. He wears a suit. That is why you were arrested. Every woman in there has yet as the to where a suit and has a business card, use of a woman somewhere and said, i can do that. Am i right . My mother told me she loved me every day of my life, and i believed her. So i dont have the selfesteem problem. I wasnt like to do. So here is the analogy. When you go into a neighborhood we care about and see a kid who wants to be a rap stars, athletes, or drug dealer, those kids are dumb or stupid. I said that is wrong. Those kids are brilliant. Modeling what they everybody wants to be aspiration of. Let me be dumb and stupid and irrelevant. Let me be as schooler. There is not a welfare mother in her right mind in this country that does not want her child to be successful, hardworking, and taxpaying if for no other reason than to feel proud of them. But you cant give what you dont have. In a blind town a onenight man is king. If you dont know that you cant do better. So when a kid wants to be a rap star it is because it is aspiration only. Everyone wants to be successful. Twenty years of change. In the last 20 years we have made some sexy. We have gone down and celebrated it, and we have got to make smart sexy in. So what do i mean by that . These kids are modeling what they see. Here is what i know. A drug dealer, a successful one may be bad character, bad habits may be immoral, may have to pay a debt to society, sure. Maybe a special place in that place i wont say again reserved just for them because god said i have a place for you. But one thing a successful drug dealer is not as dumb. They understand important export, demand for marketing, wholesale, retail, Customer Service to my territory. These are not dumb kids. They are misdirected kids with that role models. Are you with me . Here is the irony. And we may be locking up the very 20 percent of low Wealth Community who have the capacity to create jobs because they have the entrepreneurial mine said. Game organizers, drug dealers actually have the risk profile. An entrepreneur works 18 hours a day. You guys are tough audience. This is some good stuff i am throwing at you. Get up early to mostly a place to creative, a challenge, challenging, innovative. These are dealers are in. Let me make it clear. I am not rationalizing drug dealing. I hope that to hear me. It is bad, you will. Pay your debt. To deal with gun on your own terms. But from an intellectual perspective these are not dumb people. How do we end up where we are . I say all that to say this. It from the state toward you can tell everyone that you care about why poor people are poor. Are you ready . They never got the memo. There is in a mall for how Free Enterprise and capitalism works. I would give you a couple of modern examples of the memo. What example to the memo gives Junior Achievement . I love Junior Achievement. I love history. Worded Junior Achievement comes from . Agrarian farmers about hundred years ago trying to figure out how to pass on the farm to the next generation. There was no place to teach people. They created achievement. Follow me . A Junior Achievement. Teach them import, export, demand to marketing, macroeconomics so that the kid can go up to run the data in mommys store. Now, where does everyone else get the memo . They did not. 1865. Listen to this. Mar. Third 1865 changed everything. President lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation. We all know that story. What we dont know is that right after that he side the Friedman Bureau act creating hospitals. I just left one at here in the district, one of the universitys. Also created the three men bank. The friedman bank mission march 3rd 1865. Holon. The Mission Commander teach free slaves about money. This is march 3rd 1865. Lankans of the most important thing that he could do was to teach them how the Free Enterprise system works in a capitalist country. Democracy reason capitalism. He loves the eddy is so much. The department of war on the left. On the right to, there being here, our partners. Acting commissioner. On the left to the department of four. The u. S. Treasury department. Money. Work and the policy, money. Or, policy, money. Those of the most important things. Right across the street where bank of america yesterday was the friedman bank. It, meant that kill of says, look out the window and sees the candles burning you cant make this up. The general comes along and says president lincoln, why dont we give them 40 acres and a mule . Again says, not my policy, wasnt my idea, but i can deal with that. He was killed two weeks later. The bank follows a different path. Andrew johnson, probably the worst president we have had in history because he was a southern segregationist of lincoln brought in big is he figured he would never get killed after the war. He figured he would kill them the war. Black residents takes over. He then tried to cancel the Friedman Bureau. The Republican Congress said no. He told the governors in the south that is where it came from. Completely separate the banks failed them. Ten more years of slavery. The hundred years past. Now 1957. Dr. King, my hero, ambassador young. Go take a picture. Living history. 1965, 68, the Poor Peoples Campaign do you just cannot make this up. You cannot pass law enforcement. The only way to achieve social justice is through economic parity, ownership. It was not about black people, white, black and red, brown, others. Why were in this together. He realized the color. The Civilrights Movement was not about black people by redeeming the soul of america. Going back to why i love my jim clifton so much. I just want america to win. He knew that everybody had to be on the field rowing for our team dr. King was killed two weeks before his first march on the Poor Peoples Campaign in 1968. Guess what . We never got the memo. We have never in history of this country tried to use the power of the Free Enterprise system the set people free. What is freedom today . Selfdetermination. Selfdetermination. You cannot sell determined yourself in america today. If youngest in the language of money. I believe in america. I also believe that doctor king did not go to a mall and say i have a dream that black gdp will grow by 2 the year. He would every imagined the possibility as he brought before. Nothing, brought together want to be brought together. [applause] i think we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Retired up hitting each other against each other, and here is the real irony. Not the white man the black man they asian and indian man. Competitor is changed. Billionaires in africa. With this one is still. Africa once the stuff. He was to wrap this up. Hed tell me this. Seven people of the planet. These a the numbers. 6 million. One jobber more. San thousand people in some grand not yet. Let me finish with a number. You get 18,000 company, 1,000, 10,000 people. Employment, 100 employees and less. 70 percent of unemployment, 500 employees are left. Think about the transaction, taught the people, the medical office you went to, the place you went and got your hair cut, or your hair date as they say in my neighborhood. The restaurant you went to. Fifty, 70, 80, hundred, 300. That is what is driving the largest economy on the planet. We are looking in all the wrong places and digging in the wrong holes. So what do we tell our kids . We tell our kids to go to school k12. Short periods to that. Go get it agreed. Great. To that. Go work for a big company. If you want to be a football player, in school they identify you and track you all the way through. You want to be a basketball player, they track you. You in canada, the National HockeyLeague Players are, theyll tell you in Elementary School who they are. We have a sim called grades, act and gpa. Bill gates, herman russell, reginald lewis, entrepreneurs, jim clifton. The people i just told you at that time create jobs, theres no system for it. The most Important Campaign in americas history right now has no history. We disconnected education from as precision. Today aspiration, today is the 77th anniversary of the marshal plan. I just found out two ways ago when an intern told me. The Marshall Plan rebuilt europe after world war~ii, we rebuilt the countries that bombed us, germany and japan. Now two of our our biggest allies. We have a problem here in america. 40 Million People unbanked and underbanks. Half of americans have too much month left at the end of their money, an American Dream that is really at risk and we have to reimagine everything. I think we got everything we need right here. I call it this hope plan. Im making you a premier miss on tv promise on tv. If you read that book and dont find hope and a solution and answer, you dont find a plan, send the bak to me and ill send you a check, goodbye. [applause] we got time for a couple of questions. We have a very nice a lot of these questions are between you and liquor. You cant say that on booktv. Oh, sorry. Back the tape up. John, i have a question for you. He and i have been looking through data. If you want to be depressed, the number that he was talking about, with the six million businesses, theres only two million of them are if you take the mom and pop shops out, theres two million. And 500,000 companies are started each year, and 400,000 close. So, a net of 100,000. A really fragile Economic System that keeps america alive. Four years ago, those numbers went upsidedown. So now were starting 400,000 and 500 are closing. Its not to hard to argue that america is going broke, and ill say what brookings said because i dont want this to come from my lips. Free enterprise is dying. Our survey, john, that you 15 million kids in high school, this is really encouraging. Really hopeful. Half of them said they dream of starting a business. Those kids can of all the problems we have had this might be the easiest one to fix and the fix is free. You dont need taxes, probably spend less money. But if you had, with all your experience, being in school, but if you had all 15 million kids sitting right in front of you some probably dont have the talent to start a business and keep it going. What would you say to them . Is it wrong to want to be rich . Wrong to want to be your own boss . What would you say to 15 Million High School kids that might fix that what i think is americas most serious problem of not enough business, the starting . Let me say this. Thank you for the question. Number one, we need government, we need the private sector, we need community. Its not either or. Its and. Government enables Free Enterprise in the right environment to grow. You need entrepreneurs but not everybody can be an entrepreneur or a Small Business owner, some people are supporting the people many people are supporting entrepreneurs. Tell you a quick story. The young man in detroit, named derrick, goes to our future Financial Literacy program. And derrick goes through the Financial Literacy program, and when i was growing up, 35 kids wanted to learn in class, 30 kids wanted to learn, five kids act like a knucklehead. Nothing wrong with thats another story. This example, the kids are chilling but they they call it chilling, sitting around, and a banker shows fun the classroom with a suit on, and he comes once a week for six weeks, as we do it intentionally to give time for the coaches to sit in. The first time people arent paying attention. The third time derrick i raising his hand very timidly. By the fourth time derrick is punching the hole in the air with questions. By the fifth time he wears the only suit he owns. His sunday best. He wants to be like the guy in the front of the auditorium. The six time he graduates, walking down thenal detroit can make this up his friends say, why do you hang out with those people . Hang out if was. I tell derrick, tell your friends to come here, make a decision about nike. The two friends, we dont need we want air jordan. They know you need another 30 bucks. Derrick says i want to buy one share of nike stock. Is that the beginning of the story or the ending . Its the beginning. The guy, his socalled friend jumps on him, emotionally. You want to buy stock. Thats stupid you. Need air jordan. Everybody in school has air jordan, black air jordan, purple, fuchsia, everybody in school who is cool as air jordan. You need air jordan. I go to the derrick says, its cool. I want them to buy those shoes. [applause] because when they do theyre making me money. A light came on in his head. No different than the young aj . Galup, he came to you and you were a role model to him and you didnt take him to the ballpark or museums, you let him hang out with you, gave him a serious job, made him wear a suit. He was nine when he started, probably 12 now. So, a. J. , basically one day jim gets an email in the middle of the night, and ajs agreeds were skittish, and aj wanted to brag to jim he has an aminus. But my point is that jim ignited the right side of ajs bridge, the aspiration, hope, opportunity, the sense of, i believe in you. It was ajs confidence that turned around. Derricks confidence that turned around, and once they had a vision for themselves they tried to figure out what die do with that . When i was growing up, i didnt notice all the drama around me. I was on fire with this idea of becoming an up a trend knew. I didnt know what it was. Didnt know about banker financing, and i think that if we can get every kid to ignite that right side of their brain, the hope side, the aspiration side, the excitement side i dont im going to ask the question again. That do you think the aspiration is . To succeed economically. Either want a good job or a shot at economic opportunity. You want to crush the dropout rate, give kids a course in entrepreneurship, everybody tells them what theyre bad at. We want to help them understand what theyre good at. And then give them 25 businesses you can can start for 500 or less. We do a picture of that in their auditorium. The kick is two minutes. Theres a timer, go. When they do well we fund the business, up to 500 bucks, changes everything. I want you to think deeply when i ask you this next question. Im trying. You started up what is now a very large enterprise. You could have been a really dandy guy at disney or i dont know. A really dandy executive. Why did you want to take a road of creating energy where none previously existed . Do you know. I wanted freedom. I wanted to be free. No different than my mother and father wanted the right to vote, or my grandparents. Is that in the book . That should be in there. I dont know. Thats my answer. You said to give you a crisp answer. My backup driver from pakistan, i asked him why did he come to america. Give you a short version. He said because of freedom. I asked him why did you start a business . He makes 80,000 a year and he drives six days a week, and i said why did you start a business . Not going to get rich running this business. He said, freedom. I said, i gave you it wases a different question. The same answer. I get up when i want, i do what i want. I go to bed when i want. I work this many hours. Want my kids to go to Public School, private school, work a little more, and whoever comes to my car, its my choice, its freedom. Its selfdetermination. My argument with the book in the 21st century you cannot have freedom without selfdetermination and now cannot have selfdetermines without opportunity. One question we asked a huge same sample of high school kids, one to five do you want to be your own boss . And a huge percent said five. So, dont get me to the exact percentage but 45 of 77 of all kids say they want to be their own boss. 91 pressure of kids were not afraid to take a risk and 54 want to own a business. Then after they went to the academy, 80 want to open their own business. [applause] that would be a good thing for you to get to the bottom of. This super behavioral economist do we want to take questions from the audience . No. In one minute. He said that to start a business, that no matter who you are, you need to be in a state of mind of overconfidence because people that start businesses are smart, but the statistics are so against you. Everything is so against you, that if you use logic you wont start that business. So you need to be in such an extreme state of mind, of aspiration and inspiration, if we knew what it was to flip the toggle switch on the kid that do you have questions for john . By the way, the next time when when you leave here and drive by an inner city and see a liquor store next to a check casher, title lender, and renting rim store, thats not racism. And thats not discrimination. Thats target marketing. Theyre simply targeted 500 credit score customer, and what we do with 5117 is move Credit Scores 120 points. Nothing that changes your life more than god or laugh or love than moving your credit score. What is real yip supplementings, you have a government check, say a Social Security check. Theyre charging you up to 5 for the facest check on the planet. They charge you for your own money. Thats what happened when you dont understand the language of money, dont have a high financial iq and some people are actually depressed. We actually have lost our hope, the most dangerous person is a person without hope. You have to get the credit score up because then the liquor store is a convenience store, and the check cash returns into a credit union or bank. That poor neighborhood becomes an emerging market. Question. Oh, hi. I am shirley. Thank you for your information hold on a second. Well get you a mic. My name is shirley friend, and i want to thank you for your information. Youre awesome. Its turned on . It is. Do you want to speak now it works. I get what youre saying. I love teaching the young people how to be successful in life. Its very important. They are their own future and they are carrying on our legacy. The issue here is that once you teach or inform or just guide these students and these young folks how to build a business, where do you go when theyq,e43 n that business, they build that business, but they have the large conglomerates to deal with for competition. Thank you. John . Thats life. There is no easy answer to that. The book, the road less traveled by scott peck, first line, first sentence, first page, life is difficult. Translation, dont understand dont read the rest of the book. The thing i learned at nine or ten years old, with my first business, neighbor candy house, i borrowed from my mother, 300 a week. But the next 60 Business Ideas failed. From age 10 to age 20. But what i learned was to be resilient. What i learned by the way, the gallup found that kids in inner cities are more resilient than kids from wealthy neighborhood because youre always managing around pain, risk, security issues, so actually kids from inner cities are more equipped to become entrepreneurs and Small Business owners than anybody else. But my point was, i could have went and got a job after that. But what im going to run a household, i need to be resilient. Run a department, be resilient. Deal with discrimination and an unfair playing field, be resilient. Life is 10 what life does to you and 90 of how you choose to respond to it. What i learned from age 10, age 20, was to manage my response, and to manage pain. My first book, i said that courage is nothing more than your faith reaching through your fear, displaying itself as action in your life. And the key to life is managing pain. The pain you create for yourself and the pain visit upon you by others. The beauty of this exercise, you create young people who are resilient to pain and to disappointment, and their perseverance level is through the roof and you cant stop them. So that point it doesnt matter what else they do over and around or through it, theyre going to get to it, and thats the generation im looking for, resilient generation of builders and leaders,om