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I was 14 years old
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inside of a bowling alley,
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burglarizing an arcade game,
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and upon exiting the building
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a security guard grabbed my arm, so I ran.
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I ran down the street
and I jumped on top of a fence,
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and when I got to the top,
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the weight of 3,000 quarters
in my book bag
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pulled me back down to the ground.
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So when I came to, the security guard
was standing on top of me,
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and he said, "Next time you little punks
steal something you can carry."
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(Laughter)
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I was taken to juvenile hall
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and when I was released
into the custody of my mother,
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the first words my uncle said was,
"How'd you get caught?"
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I said, "Man, the book bag was too heavy."
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He said, "Man, you weren't supposed
to take all the quarters."
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I said, "Man, it was small.
What am I supposed to do?"
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And 10 minutes later, he took me
to burglarize another arcade game.
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We needed gas money to get home.
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That was my life.
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I grew up in Oakland, California,
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with my mother and members
of my immediate family
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addicted to crack cocaine.
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My environment consisted
of living with family, friends,
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and homeless shelters.
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Oftentimes, dinner was served
in breadlines and soup kitchens.
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The big homie told me this:
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money rules the world
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and everything in it,
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and in these streets, money is king.
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And if you follow the money,
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it'll lead you to the bad guy
or the good guy.
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Soon after, I committed my first crime,
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and it was the first time
that I was told that I had potential
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and felt like somebody believed in me.
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Nobody ever told me
that I could be a lawyer,
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doctor, or engineer.
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I mean, how was I supposed to do that?
I couldn't read, write, or spell.
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I was illiterate.
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So I always thought
crime was my way to go.
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And then one day
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I was talking to somebody
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and he was telling me
about this robbery that we could do.
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And we did it.
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The reality was that I was growing up
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in the strongest
financial nation in the world,
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the United States of America,
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while I watched my mother
stand in line at a blood bank
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to sell her blood for 40 dollars
just to try to feed her kids.
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She still has the needle marks
on her arms to day to show for that.
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So I never cared about my community.
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They didn't care about my life.
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Everybody there was doing what they
were doing to take what they wanted,
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the drug dealers,
the robbers, the blood bank.
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Everybody was taking blood money.
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So I got mine by any means necessary.
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I got mine.
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Financial literacy
really did rule the world
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and I was a child slave to it
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following the bad guy.
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At 17 years old, I was arrested
for robbery and murder
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and I soon learned that finances in prison
rule more than they did on the streets,
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so I wanted in.
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One day, I rushed to grab
the sports page of the newspaper
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so my celly could read it to me,
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and I accidentally
picked up the business section.
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And this old man said,
"Hey youngster, you pick stocks?"
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And I said, "What's that?"
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He said, "That's the place
where white folks keep all their money."
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(Laughter)
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And it was the first time
that I saw a glimpse of hope,
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a future.
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He gave me this brief description
of what stocks were,
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but it was just a glimpse.
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I mean, how was I supposed to do it?
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I couldn't read, write, or spell.
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The skills that I had developed
to hide my illiteracy
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no longer worked in this environment.
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I was trapped in a cage,
prey among predators,
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fighting for freedom I never had.
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I was lost, tired
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and I was out of options.
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So at 20 years old,
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I did the hardest thing
I'd ever done in my life.
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I picked up a book,
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and it was the most agonizing
time of my life,
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trying to learn how to read,
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the ostracizing from my family,
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the homies.
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It was rough, man.
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It was a struggle,
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but little did I know
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I was receiving the greatest gifts
I had ever dreamed of:
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self-worth,
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knowledge, discipline.
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I was so excited to be reading that I read
everything I could get my hands on:
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candy wrappers, clothing logos,
street signs, everything.
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I was just reading stuff!
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(Applause)
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Just reading stuff.
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I was so excited to know how to read
and know how to spell.
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The homie came up, said,
"Man, what you eating?"
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I said, "C-A-N-D-Y, candy."
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(Laughter)
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He said, "Let me get some."
I said, "N-O. No."
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(Laughter)
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It was awesome.
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I mean, I can actually now
for the first time in my life read.
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The feeling that I got
from it was amazing.
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And then at 22, feeling myself,
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feeling confident,
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I remembered what the OG told me.
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So I picked up the business section
of the newspaper.
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I wanted to find these rich white folks.
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(Laughter)
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So I looked for that glimpse.
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As I furthered my career
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in teaching others how to
financially manage money and invest,
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I soon learned that I had to take
responsibility for my own actions.
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True, I grew up
in a very complex environment,
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but I chose to commit crimes
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and I had to own up to that.
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I had to take responsibility
for that, and I did.
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I was building a curriculum
that could teach incarcerated men
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how to manage money
through prison employments.
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Properly managing our lifestyle
would provide transferrable tools
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that we could use to manage money
when we reenter society,
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like the majority of people did
who didn't commit crimes.
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Then I discovered
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that according to MarketWatch,
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over 60 percent of the American population
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has under 1,000 dollars in savings.
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Sports Illustrated said that
over 60 percent of NBA players
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and NFL players go broke.
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40 percent of marital problems
derive from financial issues.
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What the hell?
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(Laughter)
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You mean to tell me
that people worked their whole lives,
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buying cars, clothes,
homes, and material stuff
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but were living check to check?
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How in the world were members of society
going to help incarcerated individuals
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back into society
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if they couldn't manage they own stuff?
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We screwed.
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(Laughter)
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I needed a better plan.
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This is not going to work out too well.
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So ...
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I thought.
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I now had an obligation
to meet those on the path
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and help,
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and it was crazy because
I now cared about my community.
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Wow, imagine that.
I cared about my community.
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Financial illiteracy is a disease
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that has crippled minorities
and the lower class in our society
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for generations and generations,
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and we should be furious about that.
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Ask yourselves this:
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how can 50 percent
of the American population
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be financially illiterate in the nation
driven by financial prosperity?
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Our access to justice, our social status,
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living conditions, transportation and food
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are all dependent on money
that most people can't manage.
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It's crazy!
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It's an epidemic,
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and a bigger danger to public safety
than any other issue.
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According to the California
Department of Corrections,
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over 70 percent of those incarcerated
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have committed or have been charged
with money-related crimes:
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robberies, burglaries,
fraud, larceny, distortion --
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and the list goes on.
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Check this out:
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a typical incarcerated person
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would enter the California prison system
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with no financial education,
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earn 30 cents an hour,
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over 800 dollars a year,
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with no real expenses and save no money.
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Upon his parole, he will be given
200 dollars gate money and told,
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"Hey, good luck, stay out of trouble.
Don't come back to prison."
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With no meaningful preparation
or long-term financial plan,
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what does he do?
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At 60,
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get a good job,
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or go back to the very criminal behavior
that led him to prison in the first place?
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You taxpayers, you choose.
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Well, his education
already chose for him, probably.
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So how do we cure this disease?
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I cofounded a program
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that we call Financial Empowerment
Emotional Literacy.
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We call it FEEL,
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and it teaches how do you separate
your emotional decisions
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from your financial decisions,
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and the four timeless rules
to personal finance:
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the proper way to save,
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control your cost of living,
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borrow money effectively
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and diversify your finances
by allowing your money to work for you
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instead of you working for it.
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Incarcerated people need these life skills
before we reenter society.
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You can't have full rehabilitation
without these life skills.
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This idea that only professionals
can invest and manage money
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is absolutely ridiculous,
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and whoever told you that is lying.
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(Applause)
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A professional is a person
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who knows his craft better than most,
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and nobody knows how much money
you need, have, or want better than you,
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which means you are the professional.
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Financial literacy is not a skill,
ladies and gentlemen.
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It's a lifestyle.
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Financial stability is a byproduct
of a proper lifestyle.
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A financially sound incarcerated person
can become a taxpaying citizen,
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and a financially sound
taxpaying citizen can remain one.
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This allows us to create a bridge
between those people who we influence:
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family, friends and those young people
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who still believe
that crime and money are related.
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So let's lose the fear and anxiety
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of all the big financial words
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and all that other nonsense
that you've been out there hearing
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and let's get to the heart
of what's been crippling our society
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from taking care of your responsibility
to be better life managers.
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And let's provide a simple
and easy to use curriculum
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that gets to the heart, the heart
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of what financial empowerment
and emotional literacy really is.
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Now, if you're sitting out here
in the audience and you said,
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"Oh yeah, well, that ain't me
and I don't buy it,"
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then come take my class --
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(Laughter)
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so I can show you how much money
it costs you every time you get emotional.
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(Applause)
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Thank you very much. Thank you.
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(Applause)