John Hope Bryant - The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation

Praise for The Memo

There are two books every black person in America must own and read: the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s Chaos or Community and John Hope Bryants The Memo.

Roland S. Martin, Host/Managing Editor, NewsOne Now, TV One, and Senior Analyst, Tom Joyner Morning Show

John Hope Bryant offers a simple message for personal success and a better world. In a complex, challenging, and confusing world, we all need clarity, honesty, and insight. Theres a great deal of all three in this fine book.

Sen Cleary, Executive Vice Chair, FutureWorld Foundation

The Memo exalts wisdom and educationdrawn out of the darkness of ignorance, misunderstanding, self-devaluation. Drawn out of poverty.

Rev. Cecil L. Chip Murray, retired Pastor, First AME Church, Los Angeles; Professor, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC; and cofounder, Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, USC

The Memo is a means for us to begin leveling the economic playing field and creating a much broader sense of ownership in our shared economic future.

Bryan Jordan, Chairman, President, and CEO, First Horizon National Corporation

Bryants rules for economic liberation are applicable to all who recognize that inner capital is the currency for success.

Susan Somersille Johnson, Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, SunTrust Banks, Inc.

Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. presented for America a vision that is still uncompleted. This book presents a simultaneously inspiring and hands-on memo on what is needed on the way there.

Dr. Pekka Himanen, philosopher and cofounder of Global Dignity

Through Johns vision and approachable guide to economic well-being outlined in The Memo, I believe a path to prosperity and happiness is well within a persons reach.

Zak Pym Williams, actor

Read this book and reclaim your power to live to your full potential.

Peter Ueberroth, Managing Director, The Contrarian Group, and former Major League Baseball Commissioner

John Hope Bryant provides a formula for upgrading your personal software and understanding how to leverage yourself in todays society.

Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution, and cofounder of AOL

Too many of us in America have lost our way. John Bryant gives you hope. All youve got to do is read, listen, act. Every one of us can do it. You can do it!

Peter Georgescu, Chairman Emeritus, Young & Rubicam

John Hope Bryant is a beacon of light for the economically disaffected. If ever there was a one-stop shop for 21st-century life and career advice, this is it.

Clare Woodcraft-Scott, CEO, Emirates Foundation

This book gives us the necessary vision and real-life practical tools to climb our financial mountain and enjoy the beautiful sunny summit that we deserve.

zlem Denizmen, entrepreneur, Young Global Leader, author, and spearhead of the financial literacy movement in Turkey

This book delivers the missing ingredient in the financial lives of too many people today: hope.

Chris Gardner, owner and CEO, Christopher Gardner International Holdings

John is giving his readers raw examples of his personal life in hopes of empowering them to invest in themselves, to be responsible, and to make the world a better place for all of us.

Rev. Dr. C. T. Vivian, founder of C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute

Johns call for people to aspire to build something has the power to transform America and the rest of the world at a time when technological breakthroughs are making millions more jobs obsolete.

Karim Hajji, CEO, Casablanca Stock Exchange

John Hope Bryant has once again written an essential book. The Memo is nothing less than a field manual for success in the 21st century.

Paul Smyke, Head of North America and Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum, LLC

The Memo is a fresh and inspirational take on how to think about money, success, and personal fulfillment.

Ellen Alemany, Chairwoman and CEO, CIT Group

This book will ensure that wealth is developed not only in financial capital but also through the mental capacity that makes it timeless.

Phuti Mahanyele, Executive Chairperson, Sigma Capital

At a time when so many believe that the American Dream is dead, The Memo offers hope in the form of a prescription for prosperity.

Frank Martell, President and CEO, CoreLogic, Inc.

The MEMO

History has shown that when societies fall apart, they fray first from the bottom, and then the top falls inward. So it is an article of common sense to me that we all need to work hard to strengthen the so-called bottom of our society. Particularly because this is the group that has always made up the true strivers of society.

The bottom is where societys builders come from every hundred years or so. We must once again become a Nation of Builders.

We must continue to work to revitalize hope and a sense of opportunity for the people at the bottomthe people for whom the system is not currently workingto create a pathway forward. Expanding opportunity, providing a level playing field where the rules are published and there exists fair play for all, and ultimately providing the tools and essential services for the true empowerment of the personthese are the aims of Operation HOPE.

Providing dignity for all. Building an economy for all. These and more are the building blocks of hope.

We live today in strained and trying times, from racial tensions and poverty in the United States, to immigrant tensions and poverty in Europe, to military tensions and poverty in the Middle East, to abusive tensions and poverty in Latin America, to authoritarian tensions and poverty throughout large parts of Asia and the African continent. And then you have a toxic mix of these things in many truly troubled parts of the world. But consistent among all the regions of the world is the challenge of poverty.

The poverty I speak of is different than the poverty you were taught about in school or you hear about in the news. The poverty you were taught about is what I call sustenance poverty, a numerical understanding of at what level the available food, shelter, and health care is simply not enough. Beyond solving for the critically important human dignity areas of hunger, shelter, and other basic life necessities, the sort of poverty I speak of here is the most devastating to the human spirit.

This poverty, which I first outlined in the HOPE Doctrine on Poverty in How the Poor Can Save Capitalism, is first and foremost one of lost confidence and devastated esteem (the first 50 percent).

Bad role models and a negative, repressive environment follow (the next 25 percent).

The final 25 percent consists of a lack of aspiration, which is a code word for hope, and no clear path to mainstream opportunity.

The most dangerous person in the world is a person with no hope.

A poverty of the soul and spirit perverts the good direction of a person, leading to a whole host of bad things, including depression and lost hope. This type of poverty is dangerous to the very fabric of a sustainable global society. It is the one thing that works against our own well-being in the world the most.

I formed Operation HOPE to combat poverty in all its guises and forms.