The Breakfast Club - Best Of Full Interview: Alex Rodriguez & John Hope Bryant Talk Money Mindset, Yankees Baseball, Ownership, New Podcast +More

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Best of 2024 - Recorded October 2024 - Alex Rodriguez & John Hope Bryant Talk Money Mindset, Yankees Baseball, Ownership, New Podcast. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Follow us on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning everybody, it's DJ Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Jess is on maternity leave, so Lorne LaRosa is filling in. And we got some special guests joining us back in the building. Yes, indeed. We got the brother John Hope Bryan, he's back. Welcome, Bryan. My honor to be here.

And also, A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez. Welcome. Great to be here. A lot of money, a lot of intelligence between y'all two, okay? How did this happen? This connection. Well, whenever you try to make smart sexy,

you know, it attracts, you know, like attracts like, you know, on Mindset. You know, this attracts, you know, like attracts like, you know, on mindset. You know, this is, all of us are up from nothing, by the way. All of this story is the same thing. You can go from the bottom to the top. Legally, ethically, honestly, pay your taxes,

do your stuff. Go from cash in a check to writing a check. And so Alec's story and mine are very similar. Like we had very strong mothers who were great influences to our lives. We're both extremely nosy. Quincy Jones, how'd you get so smart? I'm just nosy as hell. I wanna know everything about everything.

So we're nosy and when he got his first check in baseball, he went and asked Magic, like how do I turn this from a check and got his first check in baseball, he went and asked Magic, like, how do I turn this from a check to some wealth? And so he started talking to the folks on the front row at the games for business people, and he would trade his influence for a lunch. I'll go to lunch with you,

I just need to ask you a bunch of questions. That's what Magic used to do, I just saw him last week. And it was just brilliant because he gained a business acumen from that. Got a basically an MBA while he's playing baseball. And used that to then buy some real estate. And then buy some more. I think you worked the first piece

of real estate yourself, didn't you? Yeah, a duplex. Duplex for 250,000. So we did a financial literacy episode on money and wealth, which you know something about, it's on the Black Effect Network. That's right, make sure you subscribe to that. Yeah, it's actually the episode's out this week.

We did this episode together on financial literacy because we both believe it's the civil rights issue of this generation. When you know better, you do better. And we're talking about black and brown wealth. How does black and brown create some green? And at scale. And it's a conversation that many folks don't have. Most athletes go broke, by the way. 70% of all NBA and NFL players, bankrupt within five years of retirement and divorced. So this brother, just defying all the odds. He's cool, he's a humble dude.

He wanted to meet you guys. You've been up here before, ain't Rob been up here before? Yeah, yeah, but he wanted to get into it. He wanted to go to another level. And so it's a beautiful family re-reunion. Well, let's jump right into it. So, you know, what gave you the mindset to say,

I want to learn more about investing and making sure that I have wealth after retirement? Was it the fact that you seen so many athletes go broke? Was it the fact that you said, I'm never going back to where I was? Or what was it that said, I want to be different from 70% of those other athletes? Yeah, thank you.

I would say, you know, I was a kid here born in Washington Heights, 1975, July 27th. And I grew up right on the block, right by Yeshiva University. And my father was a baseball player and an entrepreneur. And both my parents are Dominican, I'm first-generation immigrant.

And I had this great appetite for two things, baseball and business, because my father was a money guy. And then my father left my mom and my two siblings when I was 10. What'd your father do if you don't mind me asking? So he was in our apartment in Washington Heights. We had a shoe store.

And it was before iPhones, obviously. It was like late 1970s. And they used to call them like the human calculator because obviously we didn't have the phone, the calculator and all that. So, you know, woman will come up, get four shoes, and he'll be like boom, boom, boom, plus tax, minus 10%. Boom, and every time he was right,

because then they would get the calculator out. But he usually had a calculator out, but it wasn't for him, it was for usually the women, so they can count and make sure that all the numbers were right. So I always had that, and then once he left, I saw my mother work at General Mortar's for about 12 years. She would have the early shift at 3 o'clock in the morning to 2, come home, nap for 2

hours and then go serve tables at night to midnight. And I saw this for years and years and years and I think my life changed one day we were at Publix which is a supermarket down in Miami. I was about 12 years old and the bill is about75, and I see her grab some of her tip money, and she's got like $56 or whatever, and I see that she's missing like 20, 25 bucks, and she goes into another pocket of her purse and grabs what I call funny money.

And I said, Mom, what is that funny money? It's like red, I've never seen money like that, only Monopoly, and she kind of with shame in her face looked down and she goes, son, the government's helping us out a little bit this month. And it changed my life. I mean, I can feel it today. And I know so many families out there have felt this.

And that's kind of where my ambitions grew. Is that what we used to call food stamps? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, food stamps. I used to love food stamps. Remember they were paper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I never seen it because it wasn't green, right? And I think she would hide it from me.

We were probably in food stamps for years. She just never disclosed that with me. And then like John said, I met with one of my heroes and mentors and great friend now, Magic Johnson, about 30 years ago, and he was going out to dinner with Cookie. And it was near LA Rodeo Drive, I think Mastro or something, and it was supposed to be a 30-minute, you know, we were in the back room, supposed to be like a little 30 minute meeting, we met for three hours.

He called cooking and said, I'm not coming home. And years later I said, Magic, why'd you give me like three hours? And I left with nine notes of paper that I still have today. He said, because you're one of the few athletes that came in all business, on time, no phone, and you were taking notes. So you were engaged, so I engaged with you. So that's my message to the next generation.

It's just like, the reason why I played baseball for so long is the fundamentals, whether it's Jordan or Tiger or LeBron or Magic or Bird, whoever, is fundamental in sports that makes you great. The same thing is in business. You gotta know the rules of engagement. And our young folks, while they're getting better, there's a lot of room for growth to

understand the way that money works and their relationship with money and financial literacy. So from day one, did you blow any money? Like when you first got your first big check, did you blow any of it? I was fortunate that I played for almost 25 years. So I would say from age 20 to 30, I made a bunch of mistakes. And then when I realized, like sports, when we won the championship with the Yankees in 09, we had a squad and we were as solid as anyone. And in business, the same thing,

you gotta create an incredible team that are way smarter than you, that have complimentary set of skills. But at the end of the day, you're the quarterback of that team. So then I put my lessons behind me and it's been pretty good ever since. What was the dumbest thing you bought

when you first became and made all that money in Major League Baseball? Well, I'm from Miami, so. Boat? You bought a yacht? A Benz and a Rolex. If you're from Miami, you need a Rolex. That's the gold standard.

Rolex is not dumb. Nah, that's not dumb, man. They hold it back. You can resell that. So by the way, me, him, and Don Peoples who's been on the show a few weeks ago, the three black men I know, black and and Don Peoples, who's been on the show a few weeks ago, the three black men I know, black and brown, same thing, we're all same family,

who have a couple hundred million dollars in a loan facility for real estate, on, as you know, this non-recourse basis, which means there's no personal guarantees. That's credibility, and that's where we need to go. Like, you make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep, and too many of us have hooked on that, I wanna get that dollar, I wanna get that cash, And that's where we need to go. Like you make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep.

And too many of us have hooked on that, I want to make that dollar, I want to get that cash, I want to get that book, I want to get that bag. This is useless. It's called literally cash flow. Cash will flow. And if your outflow exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall. And if you don't understand financial literacy, somebody's going to separate you from your wallet and this is just more zeros attached to it.

The first year, every athlete spends everything they got. Right? It's just, it's natural. If you look at baseball, to answer your first question, I was 18, 19 years old, and this article came out called broke. And then I think 30-30 did a real shot, right? And you saw the guys were having a bunch of kids,

and it was really sad, right, to see. And when you looked at the data in baseball, three numbers that jumped off the page was one, the average career in baseball is five and a half years. You make 90% of your money from age 20 to 30. So then what happens in 31 to 80? And then the last one is less than 5% of almost 800 players in the big leagues, less than

5% have a college degree. So when you look at those three data points, I was short the stock, meaning that I would bet that most guys would run into financial problems, most people, men and women. So that was a big issue. And then one of the biggest mistakes, John, I know we've talked about this, whether it's athletes or just people like my mom and my dad that grew up, I would say more like my mom, they don't really understand the difference between an asset and a liability.

So when you say, what was the first stupid thing you bought, I mean, one of them would be a plane, a boat, cars. Assets would be multi-family apartments, a business that throws off cash, and things that are gonna pre-shit over time. I was gonna ask, in terms jump into what you were saying. You know, growing up in Queens, there was nobody around me making money, right?

We were all the same. We didn't know anything about financial literacy, right? My son goes to University of Miami, calls me yesterday, him and his friends about to buy a restaurant, which is crazy to me, because at 20 years old, I wasn't thinking about that at all, but it's the mindset and the people that he's around.

So for people listening, and they might not have somebody around them that is knowledgeable in business, they might not have somebody around them that knows where to put money or what to invest in or how to do it. What do you tell those individuals? Coming from, you know, Washington Heights,

I'm sure that besides hearing your dad, there wasn't too many people around you that you could get advice from. So what do you tell those people to say, okay, I'm in this situation, I don't have a magic to speak to, you know what I mean? I. So what do you tell those people to say, okay, I'm in this situation, I don't have a magic to speak to, you know what I mean? I don't have an A-Rod to say, let me sit down with you. I don't have a John to say,

this is what I have and what I do. So what do you tell those individuals? Let me take that first, because I know this one includes John. It's the power of proximity to greatness, or proximity to intelligence is so powerful. In baseball, I wanted to be around Cal Ripken, Keith Hernandez, Doc Good, and Strawberry

because they had sets of skills that I needed and I wanted and great athletes can copy and paste better than anyone. In baseball skills? In baseball. Now you go over now to business, and it's the same exact drill. I want to be around John Hope because every time I'm around him, I get better. He inspires me. He gives me more hope.

He gives me my... No pun intended. He gives me... My self-esteem rises. Our community, Black and Brown, the number one issue is self-esteem issue. And they don't want to engage... They don't want to engage in a business conversation because they don't want to be embarrassed. We're some of the most prideful people in the world,

but we pay our rent on time. We're hardworking people. We have tremendous heart and grit, but we don't wanna be embarrassed, that's why Shark Tank works so well. You get an education while getting entertainment. And America gets an MBA from Shark Tank, that's why people say when I walk around,

oh there's the Shark Tank guy. I love Shark Tank. That's when I know I'm getting old. The kids watch the Shark Tank is amazing. They learn so early. So your job as an American citizen, as a youngster, man, boy, whatever whatever you are is to be around proximity of greatness So if you find a great mentor from age 20 to 30 forget about the money 20 to 30 go work for John go do an

Internship at a rock Corp go work for magic paid nothing pay whatever you got get a roommate But 20 to 30 is your extended education and then once you get into the 30s you open up that that black book How we say your your relationships, right? Because when you're 85, right, you look back, your net worth is gonna resemble your network. Amen. Right, so start, I had a mentor say, if you don't have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner

every single day to talk about money, you're falling behind because your competition's doing it. And another thing too, you said, when you said you sat with Magic and you was just dead with notes for three hours, don't be too proud to ask questions. If I'm around somebody that's doing more than me and got way more than me, I wanna know about everything

that that person is doing. But you know what happened with Magic? I still have his notes and I saw him last week at the Dodger game and he's such a goat. I love that guy so much. And he's done so much for our communities. But it was the proximity, I can touch him, I can touch him, but here's a man who was great on the court

and then put on a business suit and was a Hall of Famer also. And I said, well, wait a minute, if magic can do it, why can I? We look alike. And I can't do that just with a general white guy because I don't look like that guy. So to answer your question very specifically, great answer, I loved all of that by the way.

My job is to become the public's capitalist. That's my job. Black lives matter, but black capitalists matter. We gotta make smart sexy, we gotta make this, that's what you guys are doing by the way, ladies, guys are doing on this show. You're making intelligent thought interesting and fascinating by putting it where people

can relate to it. And this book, Financial Literacy, that I introduced when you introduced when I was on the show last, it's still number one. That's black and brown people buying that book. It's number one in business finance. Not black history, business finance. Nationwide, of all books, that makes me very proud.

When I go to the airport like last night, TSA agent, 670. Wow, credit score. Credit score, yo, yo, man, 670, 800. I mean, the people taking this stuff seriously. We're starting to change the game. So one, get the book, mark it up, write, make comments, have a family meeting once a week

with your family, talk about, I joke about this, but I'm serious. You go to club and you meet somebody, she's fine. He's handsome, that's cool, oh yeah. What's your credit score? That's right. And I'm only partially kidding because if you get serious about that person, that's your business partner for life.

That's right. The looks are gonna fade, the body's gonna drop, right? But that person's better have common sense. If two plus two does not equal six, eight, or 10 in a relationship, what the heck are you doing? If you're not better together, what are you doing? I can do better all by myself. Dr. King once said, he said,

I refuse to finance my own oppression. And Quincy Jones quote again, the only thing worse than being alone is wishing that you were. So if you're not in a relationship with somebody who adds to you, even if it's a casual relationship, what are you doing? Get the toxicity out of your life.

If you hang around nine broke people, you'll be the 10th. Understand you're an eagle surrounded by buzzards and turkeys. Eagles don't fly in packs. So start looking at your posse, your group. And then be really nosy. When you walk down the street in Manhattan, all these buildings, that's not JPMorgan Chase. That's a dentist's office, that's an attorney's office, that's an accountant's office. You can get to those people. Go, I know it sounds crazy, go knock on a door. I'd love to be an intern.

I love 15 minutes. Who's gonna deny you 15 minutes? And all you want to do is listen. God gave you two ears and one mouth. You listen twice as much as you talk. I'm nosy as hell. I don't want to know everything about everything. You know, my man Charlamagne, he's nosy. I call him, ask him about stuff.

He'll call me, okay, tell me about this so and so. We're not afraid of the facts. We're not afraid of knowledge, right? You know, he's mainstreaming mental health right now. That's a topic we all need to be talking about, right? So by A-Rod making this, talking about his family, talking about everything in GoWheel, being humble, having a humility about it,

well, it allows everybody else to have permission to begin to role model that, right? So we need to model what we see. We need to start role modeling folks who have the capacity to write a check, not just cash it, who build wealth, not just make some money, making a living. Literally making a living is what is,

that's all you're doing, you're not building a life. So this stuff is so easy, but no one's ever taught us. There's nothing wrong with us. We're not dumb and we're not stupid. Where the rules are published on the playing field level, we kill it. Professional sports, the arts, politics. Music.

Yeah, entertainment, music. Business now. Church, well, we're starting with business. But where the rules are published on the playing field level, we kill it. We have not been told the rules on free enterprise and capitalism. That has to become all of our roles.

And when you write, you get this book, have you finished with it, go donate it into your family's name to the local library. Go to a Title I school. Your name's in the book now. And you donate it to that, and you go and teach in that classroom. And now you're the role model in the hero in She-Ro.

We can start a whole new movement. Not in the streets, in the suites. My favorite question to your point is about asking questions. I'll stop a meeting and I'll say, wait, wait, stop. Explain that to me slowly like I'm a third grader. That's right. And you should not be embarrassed to ask that.

That's right. You should be embarrassed if you don't ask that. And if a business plan, I can't really understand it in five minutes, then I'm out. I want simplicity. Simplicity is your best friend. And what's crazy is the person you talking to, they know you don't know.

So why sit there and act like that? Just ask the question, like what that mean? Why not? Who got you into the franchise game? Which one? Well, the rumor now is that y'all got the cash ready to buy the Minnesota Timberwolves full ownership. So by the way, there's some things that he can't talk about today.

Yeah, they say it. It's a legal situation. He'll answer the question, he can answer. By the way, I loved by the way that it was like which franchise? He owned so much. That was a flex. I heard that. I caught that.

I should have said sports. He's like, which one? But there's some things he won't be able to talk about today. Just high level. I mean, just kind of my passion for sports. I think if you talk to most athletes and you do a secret poll, probably 90% or more will tell you, I would love to own part of a team someday.

Who doesn't want to convert from player to owner? That's the American way. We took a long run at the Mets. And we came in second to Steve Cohen. Thank god, because he's doing a phenomenal job. And we're having a great time with the Timbukus and the Lynx. Lynx almost won a championship a couple days ago, came up a little short,

but very proud of our young women. Look, this is the ultimate dream, to be in room with Adam Silver and, you know, 30 other owners. It's pretty spectacular, and I look at that, and talk about imposter syndrome. You're seeing Mark Cuban, you're seeing Jim Dolan, you're seeing Tony Wessler,

you're seeing guys like Mark Lazari, people that I've looked up and admired and studied my whole kind of adult life. And now you're in the room with them as colleagues. It's really an incredible feat. And yeah, I've been dreaming about it probably for a long time and finally made the move. I just gotta ask the sport question since we on sports.

How about them damn Yankees? Oh man, oh. How does it feel to see what it's taken so long to get back to and what do you think about the Yankees now? It seems like the Yankee, not Yankees, the baseball is more exciting now. It's, I'm watching the games more, the games are a lot faster, it's fast pacing.

So what is your thoughts on baseball now? Yeah, I'm so excited. This is, I can go on and on about this, but I'll keep it tight. I would say that baseball has needed this moment for at least a decade. I'm so tired of people saying baseball's born and old. And look, we went through a little bit of slow time.

It was, it was born for them, they got born. But, give Commissioner Rob Manford and Tony Clark, the head of the union of the players, and they came up with the clock, right, and made it a lot better pace. Made the bigger bases, now they look like Domino's Pizza, right, a big base. And it's a game that's driven by markets and superstars

in tradition and history. And this World Series here has it all. This is two franchises that have the two richest franchises in revenue, in star power, global. Yankee may be the number one franchise in the world. Dodgers may be top five, and I'm talking about all of sports, football, soccer, you name it. Oh, no, Cowboys number one, baby.

Yeah, yeah, number one. Be a Cowboy fan, man. But the Yankees are in that top five, right? And when you look at the Yankees conglomerate, it's well worth over 10 billion. When you look at the Dodgers, well worth over 10 billion. When you look at the Dodgers, well worth over 10 billion, okay? I would say there's Otani and Judger's

two biggest stars that you can have. You're gonna have probably 15 million people watching Japan, another 15 or 20 watching here. The fan bases, very interestingly, it's interesting when you go to Dodger Stadium, there's three type of fan bases. You have the corporate financial institutions in Hollywood

You have the Mexicans that you know, you know, L.A. Fernando Valenzuela who died He was a big pioneer in that movement. And then the other third is now Japanese and They're printing money like is no one's business Because of a tiny and obviously the success they've had with Mark Walters, Todd Bowley, they have an incredible ownership. Just traded his ball for $4.5 million. That's right. But they've had one championship in 37 years.

The Yankees have one championship in 24 years. So both franchises are gonna be starving. Tickets at O-chan today are going for $40,000 behind home plate, one ticket. So if you won two, that's 80 grand. 80 grand. A beer is probably 4,000. So it's gonna be the most watched World Series

since the Cubs in 2016. You won, right? The last one was 09, so we haven't been there in 15 years, so bring the glory days back to the Bronx. Yeah. Is Old Townie the best baseball player ever? Let me say why. I have never seen in my life that I've watched baseball,

a pitcher as a designated hitter, to hit that many home runs, to steal that many bases, and a manager allowing the pitcher to do it, because usually you're scared because you don't want the pitcher to get hit by a pitch, you don't want him to hurt his arm while he's sliding, you don't want him to hurt his leg while he's running. You don't want him to hurt his leg while he's running. But he does it all and he's amazing doing it.

You know what's amazing? He's also six foot five and is the fastest guy on the field. And he also fills 100 miles an hour. But I would say this, I don't know if he's the best because it's too early. I mean, Barry Bonds was the baddest son of a bitch I've ever seen on a field. I mean, he is one bad sucker, right?

And the uniqueness about Ohtani is he's Barry Bonds married with Roger Clemens, and he's won. So is he the best hitter? I would still put Barry Bonds probably a bit ahead of him. Is he a better pitcher? I would still put Clemens on top of him. But combined, there's only a class of two, Ohtani and Babe Ruth.

Jesus. My question, I donani and Babe Ruth. Jesus. My question, I don't know much about the players. It's not about the players. My question is about, it's back to the family stuff you were talking about. My first thought was, so that moment with your mom changed your thoughts on money and building money and family.

How do you keep now, you got all these franchises and all this stuff, how do you keep, like you take care of a lot of people, but how do you set your boundaries where it's like, no, because you gotta keep the money to make the money. But you also grew up watching so many people not have, like what's that battle like for you?

Yeah, it's a great- And you're from uptown, so everybody was calling you. Yeah, it's a great question. So in our company, look, we started with one little duplex about 20 plus years ago, and then we bought a fourplex and an eightplex, and over the last 20 years, we've bought about $5 billion of multifamily apartments, hotels, single family houses.

So we've gone from little mom and pop to mid cap to institutional level. I have five direct reports in my company. And the good news about them, they're always smarter than I am. So we vet things and we talk about what are the things that are important to us? We only play in places where we bring more than capital, right?

As an example, baseball would be a place that we bring more than capital because we have a certain expertise there. Basketball is just another, you know, sports, right? So we were good there. But the circle of competence is very small and if it doesn't hit that bullseye, we're not looking at it. Because the number one thing you have to have in business is discipline. hit that bullseye, we're not looking at it. Because the number one thing you have to have in business is discipline. Understand who you are and what you do

and do it over and over and over and over again until you're bored with it. Is that your sound on it? I think she was talking about family. Yeah, I was talking about personal. She was talking about family and your partner. I was going deeper. I'm talking about personally, like with grandma or,

you know, whoever you're dating. Let me get 100,000. I'm gonna call you. Let me get 5,000. From family to date, like you're also the celebrity, right? And people, your family, your booze, they don't understand what you're saying to discipline. They just see what they need and they call you.

How do you be like, no, I can't do that. That makes no sense for my discipline. So first of all, I'm almost 50 now. So I've had a lot of learning experience. I would say when I was in my 20s and 30s, that was a lot more challenging, right? But now when you're running businesses, you can give people opportunities where they can win.

So as an example, my sister does all my personal real estate. So if I'm buying a house for a dollar, she's making 3% on that or 6% on that. And my brother does- But they have to be competent now. It's not a giveaway. No, no, they know my, I don't play that game.

You gotta be by the book, there's no nepotism. It's not a giveaway. No, no. They know, Mike, I don't play that game. You gotta be by the book. There's no nepotism. That's it. That part. I'm a very tough boss, I would say that. But here are the rules, rules of engagement. If you play by them, you're gonna get first bid. And if you perform, I'm gonna come back to you

over and over again. If you don't perform, I have no problem quickly pivoting. Quickly. And it's not personal, it's business. That's right. Now, when my mom calls, I surrender. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

Mom calls you, whatever. But was there ever a time where you had to explain to people the business, meaning like, they just reported, oh, Atlas Robry, you guys get a $100 million contract. And somebody comes to you and asks you for something, like, bro, I gotta pay taxes, I gotta pay taxes. Do you have to explain that?

Oh yeah, yeah. Now, thank God for me, I guess, is I don't have a huge family. It's really we're a family of five, right? My mom, cousin, and my, the three of us, we're all the siblings. So we keep it tight, and they've grown with me, and they do great work, and they work hard,

and I'm really blessed to have people that really understand money, and they have great work ethic, comes from my mom, and on that that aspect I've been pretty fortunate. Can you expand on something John that A-Rod said he said bringing to the situation more than capital he want to be with situations you want to be involved in situations where you bring more than capital. Yeah well most I mean the word capital comes from the Latin root word capitas knowledge in the head

the word credit comes from the Latin root word credito, which is credibility. It has nothing to do with money. Banking actually is a trust business. It's about do I trust you? Do you have credibility? And do you have the knowledge? Do you have the understanding?

Relationship capital is really the real capital. I mean, what's a country club? Why don't you go to Harvard? Is Harvard gonna make you smarter than the state university? Maybe, maybe not. It's the context that people let you out there. The glass of 2024 is gonna hook each other up for the next 40 years.

So that's why you go to a country club, that's why you go to a private club, that's why, that's why, any small group, that's why you go to college other than the education is that, so you gotta figure out what your capital is, you gotta figure out who your circle is. that's why I said earlier you hang around nine broke people you're gonna be the tenth so you got a you know you look at who who everyone's hanging around he didn't mention a bunch of people he mentioned

we both mentioned we both saw him last week magic magic working a business suit these days anybody in sports or entertainment nothing now which is a canvas, everybody who comes through here, anybody in sports and entertainment, whether it be in front of them, billion, did it in business. They translate it, you can't sell enough, you cannot sell enough concert tickets. You cannot get a big enough contract to become a billionaire.

That's not the way income works. You gotta translate that into business. Every, literally every athlete and every entertainer. Jay-Z, business. Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan, business. Dr. Dre beats business. My man has got a billion dollar portfolio.

That's why he can just be so cool and just, you know, understate. Don't need to scream and holler. When you got the power, you don't need to use it, right? So it is about getting your mind right. All poverty, Charlemagne, beyond sustenance poverty, roof over your head, food on the table, reasonable healthcare, all other poverty's mindset.

That's why I say there's a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is economic, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind. A depressed condition of your spirit, you must vow never to be poor again. The first thing you gotta do is get your mind right, and then the money will follow. Now for parents listening out, when is a good time to start getting their kids involved in financial literacy?

When you start breathing. So when you start spending money, I mean you're spending money 24 hours a day.. So, when you start spending money. I mean, you're spending money 24 hours a day. When you sleep, you're spending money. The bed sheets, the government didn't buy the bed sheets. The government didn't buy the alarm clock. You did that. The government's not paying for your light bill, right?

So check this out. We have a kids' account in Atlanta Public Schools, Operation Hope. By the way, everybody can go get financial coaching scholarship from the company of the Breakfast Club. Call Operation Hope. We'll give you a thousand dollar free from the company of the Breakfast Club. Call Operation Hope, we'll give you

a $1,000 free scholarship just because you mentioned Breakfast Club to get coaching and counseling, get your credit score right. So we have, with Mayor Andre Dickens in Atlanta, we have a kid's account in kindergarten. 50 bucks in the kid's account. Now, you may say, what's the big deal of that? If you have a bank account at kindergarten,

you're 50% more likely to go to college. Hold on a minute, watch, check this out, the JNB. If you have $50 in that account in kindergarten, you're 75% more likely to graduate from college. Because now you're connecting education with aspiration. The lights on in the kid's head. Now you're talking about stocks and bonds and investment. I mean, and don't create an investment account. investment account don't get a ride on me or you

you know to come you know don't DJ Envy go in and talk about cars you know talk about because really it's technology these days right talk about it but through that it's investment. Now now these kids you hooked them right so it's about role modeling it's about the language of money at the earliest age, because this is the aspiration generation. We can literally build the next generation of America. We have to, by the way, because we're going to be a majority of minorities, literally. We don't do that, this country is done.

But we can do that at kindergarten with a $50 hope savings. Let me add to John's answer, and I agree with everything he said. I'll give you a real life example. So I remember I have two daughters, Natasha and Ella. Natasha is a sophomore at Michigan today. Ella is a junior in high school. I remember when they were in kindergarten and second grade. And I said, all right, girls, here's the deal.

Every day, Pop strives you to school. I'm going to give you three business lessons. And on Friday, be ready, girls, here's the deal. Every day, Pops drives you to school. I'm gonna give you three business lessons. And on Friday, be ready to pick your five companies for a portfolio. I'm gonna put $1,000 in each one of your accounts. And they were confused. And I said, well, you're overthinking it. Give me five products that you use every day.

Why I use my phone, Apple. Are you on Instagram? Not yet, but I know what that is. Okay, meta, social media. Google, because I Google things. They wanted to get CVS, because that's where mom takes them. And one more, maybe Disney. And I put $1,000 every year.

So it's not really about big numbers, it's really about the practice, the habit of honing your craft. You look today, both their accounts got over 150,000. And they've outdone the performance of some of the smartest hedge fund people in the world because they kind of didn't overthink it. They thought really fundamentally about what they used.

But they now, by the way, by the time they were freshmen in high school, they're like, dad, no more business, we're done, we're sick. But now I hear them as many adults and they're repeating my language and they learn in first grade, second grade, third grade. Although they were fighting it, they were absorbing it. That's right.

You know the biggest thing, I'm sorry, the biggest thing that my son, who's nine, the thing that I love is my son watches shark tank. So he's nine, so he doesn't know you for baseball. He knows you from shark tank. Wow, that's deep. And like I was talking on the phone, we was talking business with somebody and he started asking me questions that I know that knows you from Shark Tank. Wow, that's deep. And like I was talking on the phone, we was talking business with somebody

and he started asking me questions that I know that he got from someplace else. I said this the other day, he was asking me, so dad, how much equity do you get in that deal? I'm like, where the fuck you getting that from? Whoa. And then he was like, well, what about, he was like, well, I said, well,

where did you hear about equity? And he's telling me, Shark Tank. And he was like, Ed, I wanna know what royalty fees are and this and the other. And now I was like, I just want to play baseball. But you know, it was just, it was great that they have these type of shows on. And I know you got to go, I know you had a question.

Yeah, I do have a question. So y'all are talking about your families and your kids. And these two always talk about how when they locked into their marriages, everything like floors for them. You talk about your baby girls a lot. Last time you were here, you were talking engagement with JLo.

I know you're right now dating Jacqueline. Is engagement marriage, is that a conversation for you right now? Like how does that, where does that fit in all of this business and the portfolios? Well, I'm very lucky to have an incredible person in my life.

Jack's Canadian. She's right outside of Detroit, which is very beneficial because my daughter goes to school in Michigan. So I get two for the price of one. So we're already cutting a good deal. So she's 20 minutes from Detroit. She's a former nurse. She's transitioned her nursing to an incredible business called Jack Fit where she helps out you know thousands of women online get a better

life. I personally lost 30 pounds because of her. I haven't really thought about that. This is really the best place I've been in my life. I'm very fortunate, grateful to be where I am. I'm helping out tons of people involved, like you said, with the Timbuktu's and the Lynx and doing my Fox, deal with the Yankees and the Dodgers. And I'm open to anything, but right now, I'll let you know if there's some big announcement coming.

Maybe I'll come back. I would think it would be difficult for you to trust anybody in a relationship, you know what I mean? Like, romantically. Just because you are a Herod, so the celebrity within the money, like. It's hard, it's hard for sure.

But you know, you take your time, you try to surround yourself with people that are better than you, but it's no question, it's difficult. Now that man is married. John Holbr it's no question, it's difficult. Now that man is married, John Holbron. Oh yeah, Shadrem. And you know, I've known her for 25 years,

we've been married for six. She has no agenda, she just loves me. And you can feel it, right? And it's hard to trust people because you're not a person to them, you're just an opportunity, you're a cash register. And I've had people try to take me down because they didn't get what they wanted.

So that makes you really. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together. On the Really No Really podcast. Our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like. Why they refuse to make the bathroom door

go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stunt man reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us. How are you? Hello my friend Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park Wayne Knight welcome to really really sir bless you all hello Newman and you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about

judging really that's the opening really no really yeah no really go to really no really calm and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's skittish, but you know, if you have the right relationship, as I said earlier, two plus two equals six, eight or 10. It really does enhance your life and and roots you and grounds you,

and they love you no matter what. Ups and downs, by the way. But that goes back, Charlamagne, to what you said about your circle. As your world gets bigger, your circle should get smaller. As your world gets bigger, your circle should get smaller. I would love to talk about, very quickly a mistake that I made because people hear about all these wins and we're doing this and doing that. We don't you know they can't really necessarily relate

to that. You know I made a mistake since I saw you last. What did you do? In business. I sold a company. So technically it wasn't before I saw you because I sold the Promise Homes company two years ago, but I just realized I made a mistake in the last month. So I invest just real talk, I've never said this before, but I invested three and a half million dollars in an investment account. I put in the market and I tell people, let it sit there.

And I messed up, I didn't take my own advice. The market went crazy January 2022, interest rates started going up. By March and April, interest rates were still going up, stocks were taking a beating. I just put my money in the account January 2022. I lost $500,000 in three months. So what did I do?

Pulled it out. I pulled it out and put it in treasury bills. So I said, take me the cash. I took it all and put it in treasury bills and just let it sit there. And so what happened? I asked my broker, broker, Rockefeller Capital Management

as a family office, I asked him two weeks ago. So I'm just curious, what would have happened if I had left it in? Well, you would have lost another $200,000. So I'd have been down $700,000, which is, you know, hold on to your butt cheeks. Right.

But DJ Envy, if you had kept it in, just let it sit there. This is the magic of markets. If you, this hurts. Don't repeat the same word. John, you gotta stop. That edit is gonna be crazy. Cause he said, hold on to your butt cheeks, DJ envy. If you just let it in, then he said it hurts.

I had your back, I said don't repeat that. Hold on, hold on. Me and him are like, we're like children. We saw it, we're children. We're children. There's gotta be another way to say it. We understand what you said. Go ahead. If you didn't tell me. It was just, Charlotte, man. Oh no, they're gonna know he was in the Butchers.

Oh man, that is. I'm gonna get you out of this completely. I'm out. So, this really hurt because the guy told me if I had just done nothing Just let it sit there. Let the markets do his thing that I'd have made the seven hundred thousand dollars back and Another seven hundred thousand dollars on top of it I'd have doubled my money over the losses if I did nothing. This is the magic So if I had had so by the way, I don't, I don't, I don't deny, I don't, uh, but I don't beat myself up about this decision because if I had had money in the market in that account,

it had made some profits. So it wasn't house money. Right. Okay. I would have left it in there because if I lost my profits and that's fine, this was, this was core capital. My goal for this core capital was just to let it sit and it was, the goal is money was to be safe. So somebody might be thinking about a 401k plan they've got at their employer or they got a thousand dollars in that savings account. They don't want anybody to touch that, right? So think about that in that example. So this was for me that. So I didn't need to make any money. I just

didn't want to lose any on that particular investment. If I had made something, I would have left it there. So in hindsight, statistically I made a mistake, but from what my priority was, which was safety and security, not return, I'm completely cool with it. I'm just saying that as an investor, I tell people, put it in the market. What did I say about homes? Buy it and don't sell it, right? It'll just go up in value. I'm just giving, I'm telling you, here's a guy who is pretty good at the investment and business game, and here's an example where recently, I made a mistake and paid for it.

And the magic of markets, you make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep. That's right. Go ahead. I was gonna ask, why would you put safe money on the market like that? Because they also tell you too, if it's something that you want to keep safe and to not let, like you don't want to lose it, you don't play with it.

Oh, this is a great conversation. And A-Rod, if you have an example, please weigh in. There's three things that have never gone down in American history. I'm so glad you asked this. GDP, gross domestic product of this country, the income, real estate values, and stock market value. It goes up, there's a recession. All recession means is it recedes. It recedes, and if you stick with it,

it corrects above the line. What people who are financially illiterate do is they get freaked out, and they ah, and they sell it. I had a townhouse in LA, I bought it for 220,000, went down to a hundred and some odd thousand dollars in 2008. All my friends were telling me, Sal, get rid of it. They're broke, so I didn't listen to them. I kept it, it said 7122 La Tijera.

Somebody listening to this know exactly what I'm talking about, La Tijera Airport. I kept it, it was 1,500 square feet. Oh yeah, I know what that is. Know what that is? I rented it out to a police officer who didn't pay rent on time. But ultimately he paid me. I paid the property taxes. I forgot about it. Five years later, I'm trying to buy a property for $750,000. I'm like, where can I get $750,000 from? I call my broker, black real estate broker in LA.

I want you to sell this condo for me. Mind you, I bought it for $220,000. Last time I checked it was $150,000, $180,000. I'm like, I'm going to sell it for $250,000. I'm like, I'm going to sell black real estate broker in LA. I want you to sell this condo for me. Mind you, I bought it for $2.20. Last time I checked it was $1.50, $1.80. What can I get for that? $7.50. All I did was let it sit there and it just went up in value. So I did a 1031 tax-free exchange, took the home in La Tijeras, sold it for $ Harris sold up 750 bought the other property for free with no tax impact. So You just don't go wrong

Investing in the biggest economy the sole superpower in the world the flight equality people in China talking mess about us They're investing here folks in Russia talking about us. They're investing here Iran You're all these places talking mess about us in front of the camera all of these folks including Putin, investing in America. So we have this great thing in front of us called the sole superpower in the world, the biggest economy, and most of us are not taking advantage of it. So I love the stock market. Everything that you love is publicly traded.

I got two more questions. Well, I was not publicly traded yet, but maybe we can take you public. Well, you know, what I was gonna say is like, Lauren, to answer your question is, money's not emotional. That's it. Money doesn't care who owns it or what pocket's in.

The emotional ones are the humans. And what John Hope is talking about is something that 90% of Americans do, is they panic when things go down. But when you see guys like Tony Restler, Warren Buffett, the greatest investor in the world. Tony's a friend of ours, a billionaire. Tony Restler, who owns the Hawks.

I don't read black man. Tony. I love Tony. When John is selling that situation, Warren Buffett is buying, and he's buying a lot of it. So if you can remove your emotions from investing, which is really hard to do and counterintuitive, money doesn't care about you. As long as you know that and you're playing

the long game and know that along the long way, you're going to have some hiccups. How do emotionally you're going to be prepared to do that and not overreact, right? But when things go down, do you have the guts to kind of go in and make sure you understand the business and what you're doing, right? I would suggest do this with a professional. But thinking about a philosophy, big picture before it happens, is being prepared.

It's like in baseball, I'm thinking, if this ball gets hit to me, I'm gonna throw it to Jeter, or I'm gonna throw it to Cece, or whatever. Same thing with markets. If I have $4 million, or $400,000, or $4,000, and the market goes to $3,000, what am I gonna do? You gotta know that before it happens,

and anticipate and have a little bit more of a proactive approach. By the way, on that example, to what, again, he's a hundred percent right, it's like double down on a good investment. The same time I pulled out of that investment with the cash, I bought some real estate in another country, Turks and Caicos, I bought it for two million.

In the same time period, it's now worth 3.6 million. So I lost a little bit here on return, but I gained over here, almost doubling my money on real estate, secured real estate, and so I achieved my objective, just not in the way that I, yeah, in different ways. I was gonna ask, for somebody listening, maybe possibly thinking about buying their first property,

their first investment property, or even their first house, or even thinking about refinancing the home that they have. What do you say to them? Do they wait until after the election? Because a lot of people are saying, wait until after the election, this, that, and the ever. What do you say to somebody that's trying to buy a home right now,

interest rates shot up since COVID, I'm sure we're never gonna get to 2.9% ever again in life. So what do you say to those individuals listening right now that thinking about buying their first investment property, their first home or even refinancing their home? I have a strong opinion but go ahead, you go first. Well I would say look, I have a different outlook when it comes to houses.

I don't think houses is necessarily an investment. Is an investment to your lifestyle, is an investment and for a lot of Americans, it is your biggest investment right? Because it's the biggest asset you own and you got it. Usually a 70-75% mortgage or whatever it is but I would say buy a home that you can afford. Buy a home locking your rates. So I like locking in for five or seven years so I know I'm almost renting the house. I know exactly what my what my nuts gonna be every

month right. That's really important and I would say buy a house that you're gonna be happy in. That you're gonna be able to raise your kids. They're gonna be every month, right? That's really important. And I would say buy a house that you're gonna be happy in, that you're gonna be able to raise your kids, that you're gonna be safe, and lock in your interest rates, and understand that you have to be able to afford these payments no matter what happens, right? And give yourself a margin of error, right? A safety net.

But I do think that interest rates could lower, but I'm not into timing markets when it comes to my personal houses, but I defer to John. But to say that, I would always say to people that are looking for their first property, if they necessarily don't know and are scared, I always would say get a multi-unit, right?

Because that way they can rent out other units and make sure that they can pay their bills until they're more successful, take their equity out and get their own property. That's why I would say multi-unit. What's your thoughts on that? So the key with what Alex just said was he said houses. Okay, so this is a whole nother situation.

That's why he's not all in the houses as an investment. He's got houses, plural. That's a different tax bracket. The average person listening to this, please listen to me. As fast as you can, buy a home. The number one way you build wealth in America is home ownership. The average African American, we have 41, 42, 43% of us own a home compared to 75% of our white counterparts.

That 30% delta, that difference is massive home ownership. And prices are not going down. When I started buying those 700 homes from the Promise Homes Company, by the way, Tony Rester was one of my partners and Michael Arigetti, who we've been talking about a couple times here, good guys. I ran it up to 150 million dollars of assets under management of that particular portfolio.

I bought for 88,000. I sold them at 350,000. No one moved the house. There was no genius to it. It's a magic of compounding. And so, they're not growing any more land. Most of the places where we live are inner cities. What's an inner city in France? It's called Paris. What's an inner city in Britain? It's called the UK. We have centrally located real estate, and we're walking away from it

to rent from somebody we don't know, to spend money we don't have, to impress people we don't know, to talk about stuff that don't matter. Like knock it off. Buy the worst house and the best block in the hood. D-A-H-O-O-D, the hood adjacent. Buy it near transportation, economy, economic activity,

activity in a vibrant environment. Buy it, rehab it, live in it. Use equity a couple years later and buy, I know you know what I'm talking about here at DJNV, buy the second home three years later. You do that three times over five to six years. This is my mother's story, worked an hourly job. You're a millionaire. And you can get the down payment through the Earned Income Tax Credit.

All right? You can go to Operation Hope. We can help you get Qualified for EITC. If you're making $38,000 and have three children, the government owes you about $7,000 cash. So you just gave everybody listening to this who makes $38,000 a check, and it's retroactive for three years if you've never filed. That's almost $20,000. There's your down payment right there, right?

So we can get your credit score up, get your debt down, get your savings up, get into that house because it costs just as much to rent as it does to pay a mortgage payment. You're right, interest rates are 2% not coming back. That's fine. 4%, 5% is just fine. That's still very, very low. But prices are not coming down. Oh, I'm going to wait.

No, no, no. Don't wait. It's going to get worse. It's going to get more expensive. Buy right now. Let me add one thing to that? Because I think when it comes to finance, especially in our communities, people get foggy and

the listeners, they're so smart that they don't even believe, they don't even understand how smart they are. Problem is America's kind of confused them with all these acronyms and you know ROI and all these like fancy terms, you know and What they have to understand is their gut and their instincts is the best asset they have the best asset class is talent Number one, but I'm gonna do something here. What's your favorite basketball player of all time? Me. Yeah, just name one LeBron LeBron MJ Just name one. LeBron.

LeBron. MJ. Alan Iverson. Okay, perfect. All right, so in this case, if we were to say, all right, we're gonna go to the park and play two on two basketball, pick your partner. And you're gonna win a million dollars, okay?

You pick LeBron, you pick MJ, you pick Iverson. You guys are all solid, okay? Now we say the same drill, and we say, okay, now you won the million dollars, okay? Who you gonna give it to? Oh, I grew up with a guy in high school and I'm gonna give it to him. And I don't understand how in one case you're so intelligent by picking your partner, but when it comes to controlling your personal finances, which is the single most important

decision you make besides your wife or your partner, right? Is you go pick some high school guy that you know or someone that is basically a guy that didn't make it in Wall Street or didn't make it in Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan. So taking the same approach as going to play basketball and picking the best of the best, go find the very, very best. And it's okay if you pay them a little bit more, but you can't go wrong when you pick the very best. And I find too many times people don't pick the LeBron James, Michael Jordan, or Allen Iverson to handle their money

or to partner with. I would tell your son, son, pause in that restaurant. Who's the best restaurant people in the world? I have a great platform, I'm your dad. Let's go see if we can put 5,000, because they put it in 5 million, and put a shoulder to shoulder. And don't cover me fees, just let me win.

And if that 5,000 becomes 15,000, then I can run it back and run it back. So the competitive advantage we all have to identify is, and with complete self-awareness, is what is my weakness, my blind spots, and what are my assets? Well, for all three of you, you have an incredible platform. So if I have a company that needs eyeballs,

I may come to you and say, hey, you guys wanna throw in 25 grand. Don't worry about big numbers. It really pisses me off because it's what kept my mother out of investments, right? And what we're trying to do is democratize this whole thing and simplify it. Both in opportunity and in verbiage.

So if you have $2,000 and somebody like Tony Restler has put in 20 million, say hey Tony, can I put in 2,000? And I guarantee you a guy like Tony will find a way to bring you along. I wanna ask a question, cause I think sometimes we have these conversations and we have these conversations from our perspectives, well, y'all in a different tax bracket, but I'm just saying everybody here for the most part

has money, what about people who have no money? People from our communities who have zero dollars, how do the poor even get to the middle class? I got you there, I mean, he's the master, but I'm just gonna give you really simple, right? Money is the easiest part to get, and I know this sounds crazy to the folks listening, money, there's over a trillion dollars sitting

in the sidelines looking for great deals. So if you don't have money, can you find deal flow? Can you hustle? If you find me an asset that costs $10 million, and you bring it to me for eight, you basically own $2 million of that. So if you bring me a $10 million deal, and I can buy it for eight, you basically own $2 million of that. So if you bring me a $10 million deal, right, and I can buy it for eight, you say,

hey, give me a million dollars on that. Because I'm still getting a million dollar discount. I'm paying nine for a $10 million asset, so I'm getting a discount. So looking for opportunities, understanding where the train is going, and you as an entrepreneur says, how do I get in the way so when that train goes by, I can jump on

and jump in that bandwagon, right? It's creating opportunities. If you find deals, you got money. Is that possible for everyday people to achieve? Yes, yes, yes. You know, you can open a fractional stock account and put in $25 to buy some stock. Now, you've spent that on Starbucks.

You can do 10 ducks, you can do five bucks of fractional stock on any stock that you want. So there's no excuse. If you wanna get in this game, Operation Hope will help you. Again, if you're listening to Breakfast Club, we'll give you a scholarship for coaching and counseling. We're gonna get your credit score up.

The average credit score for black people, by the way, is 620. Latinos are a little above that, not much more. But that means half of us are locked out of the free enterprise system. You can't get a decent home loan at anything below 700. Can't get a decent auto loan below at 650. You can't get a business loan at all unless you're 700 or better.

Cause this is risky credit. So we think the issue is racism or discrimination. It might be, but it also might be that you don't understand there's a game. There's a credit box and you're not in it. So the bank is like, you're just not a good credit risk. So what we've done is we know to get your credit score up, your debt down, your savings up at Hope, so the bank will say yes. At midnight the computer doesn't know what color you are. That computer will say yes. Somebody's listening to this and saying is he talking

about debt? Yes, it's called good debt. Bad debt is financing jewelry. Good debt is financing a home mortgage, financing a business, right? Going into an investment in A-Rod to do a multifamily apartment building, which is his bread and butter. So good debt is tied to something that might appreciate. Bad debt is tied to something that will depreciate. Every billionaire you know has used good debt. Every city or country that grows, including this one, has used good debt. There's nothing wrong with debt

as long as you're intelligently using it. The question about can any person win? I can make almost anybody a millionaire if you follow, again, he talked about basically good habits, being disciplined, if you come to Operation Hope and you follow our plan, within five years, you're a working class perkin making $48,000. We will give you a plan and make you a millionaire

in five years. It's not complicated. But you have to have discipline. You have to live below your means. You have to understand this game. You've got to be financially literate. And everybody can be a winner at this game. I'd love to come back at some point.

We need to talk about a whole, this whole thing of relationship capital, which you talked about a little bit. Like behind all of us is a backer. A partner that we're not talking about. Magic has it, I know who they are. I mentioned, I love talking about Tony Ressler and Michael Reagetti, right?

They backed me, $80 million, and I paid them back plus 7%, right? It's important, because our community feel like capitalists, you said talk about making smart sexy, they feel like that's a bad thing. A lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of people in our community feel like capitalism is a horrible thing. Having people back you is a horrible thing as well too. Yeah, so people say, let's go one step further, oh I hate rich people.

No you don't. You hate rich people till you become rich. What you hate is a game system, to your point. What you hate is a system that's rigged so that you don't think you can succeed. The money's not evil, it's the love of money that's evil. It's the greed. Ambassador Andrew Young says that men and women fail for three reasons, arrogance, pride, and greed.

What did Malcolm X say? We've been bamboozled, we've been tricked, we've been fooled, we've been hoodwinked. We've been hoodwinked on this topic. Black people, I'm picking on black people because I'm black. We have never had an economic infrastructure in the history of us being here. That's our problem. Government not going to save you? Even if you want to distribute money like a socialist, you gotta collect it like a capitalist. So we have gotta, what's the entertainment business? The business of entertainment. The sports business.

It's the business of sports. What we don't understand is the business. I'm gonna give you a, I've never said this, and it builds on Alex and what you were saying. I'm gonna give everybody here free game. Jay-Z did basically a financial literacy album called 444. That's right. He said, I'm gonna give you a million dollars

worth of game for 9.99. This is no 99. There are about $100 trillion about to co-hit the market in the next 10 years. All these baby boomers are retiring at the same time. They're gonna give their cash and their stock to their kids. They're gonna give their house to their family. Kids don't want the business. Those businesses have cash flow, client list, real estate, a brand. They're sitting, what did Alex say to you a minute

ago? Bring me an asset for 10 million that I can get for 8 million and you have the upside between 8 and 10. So these business so if you come to me and say I have a startup idea Give me a million dollars get out of here, right? You come to me and say I've got a business has got a million dollars of cash flow That's got a that's got a valuation of 10 million dollars Will you finance that the acquisition, so one time, one time, so revenue, so you got 10 million dollars, in this example it says 10 million dollars of revenue, will you finance a 9 million dollar acquisition? The answer to that is absolutely yes. Non-recourse, meaning no personal guarantee. Wall Street does that all day, it's called private equity. So

you got literally trillions of dollars worth of businesses that are about to hit the market. And people listening to this can go become capitalists right now with an existing cashflow business, existing assets, existing employees, not no risk, but low risk because it's already successful. So we need to stop being self-employment projects because 96% of all black businesses don't have an employee. I don't know what the Latino numbers are. already successful. So we need to stop being self-employment projects because

96% of all black businesses don't have an employee. I don't know what the Latino numbers are. But again, you build wealth in your sleep. It's compounding. This is a huge opportunity. So if you have... in sports it's so easy. I always use sports as a great metaphor because it teaches about life and business, right? If you say, you know, who's a better basketball player, Shaq or John? Well, they walk in the room, immediately 100% will say Shaq, right?

Business is the exact opposite. Like, let's say you have 4,000 billionaires in the world today, 4,000, just for a number, and you say, everyone press delete, everyone goes to zero. The math would tell us and the science would tell us and the data would tell us that in 10 years, you'll have basically the same 4,000 billionaires again. Because what it is like Shaq is a set of skills

and is an ear and is a rewiring of the brain. So all of us here walk into opportunities every single day. But it's taking your eyeballs and your brain and your ears to think about opportunities when you hear them. So you hear opportunities all the time. Poor guy and a rich guy go through a bad neighborhood. The poor guy goes, God, what a terrible neighborhood.

I would never want to live here. The rich guy goes, let's try to see if we can buy all this up on a cheap because in 10 years you're going to be different. You go to a barber shop and you hear through a terrible divorce and you hear this gossip all the time. And you guys are here, man, what a terrible situation. I have to sell their house. I go to a barber shop and you hear through a terrible divorce and you hear this gossip all the time and you guys are here man what a terrible situation I have to sell their house I have to sell their car. If you're an entrepreneur in the ear you hear oh that might be an opportunity well maybe I can not to take advantage of anyone but if you have to sell your house quickly

maybe I can provide a quick buy and sell for you off market right and there goes that seven million dollar deal for ten right so it's about a rewiring of the brain and looking at opportunities and not looking at problems because problems Business is not personal. And there goes that $7 million deal for 10. So it's about rewiring of the brain and looking at opportunities and not looking at problems. Because problems is really opportunities. Well, ladies and gentlemen, John Hope Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, Don't Be Strangers. And the Hope Global Forum is happening

December 9th to the 11th in Atlanta, Georgia, man. That's right. I'll be there. That's right. We'll give you more information. I'm sure you'll come back before that. All right, well it's The Breakfast Club, good morning. Wake that ass up.

Early in the morning's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor what's in the museum of failure and does your dog truly love you we have the answer go to really no really calm and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason bobblehead the really no really podcast follow us on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast