How This Investor Creates A Lasting Legacy With Smart Investments [20:05-25:06]

There were no emails. There were no cell phones. When I was coming, I didn't know it was you, Jake, when I was coming up there, emails were still getting there though, right? We had typewriters. If you made a mistake, you had to start typing the letter all over again. Now, we can go on and on, but that young Jake, that call 14 times, left messages, put the phone down, went and worked and then came back to check the messages. What do you tell that young Jake about Wall Street and what it's going to be like? So I was determined to work on Wall Street. And everybody told me that you don't have those connections, right? You didn't go to those schools. And it was a really funny thing that when you look back at my childhood photos, like I was always dressed up. And sometimes my mother would have me dressed up twice in one day. And she always said that her sons should look like they owned a bank. I have no idea. I never really questioned her on it, but she always dressed us as if, when I was in high school and middle school, I wore ties. I didn't wear sneakers. I wore shoes. I wore blazers and my brother went to military school where he had wear uniforms each and every day. But she always wanted us to carry ourselves in a way that made us feel really important. And she always understood that there is a perverse reality to looking how you and I look today. People assume certain things about black men when they've got a fresh white shirt on, a crisp tie and a suit on. And so she understood that that was part of the path. And so she had me believing at a very early age that I was going to one day own a bank or run a bank. And I always went to the library and I got black enterprise, I got Ebony and I got jet. And those magazines were the closest thing I ever got to black excellence and black wealth. I just didn't exist in my hometown. And so those stories motivated me even more. And then by the time I got to college, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to study business. I wanted to do finance. I wanted to work on Wall Street. I didn't really know what Wall Street was, but I knew I wanted to work there because that's where the money was. And that's where New York was about. And I was tired of being a big fish in a small pond. I wanted to prove myself in an environment like this, where you're challenged by the people in front of you, the people behind you, the people who are coming up underneath you. I wanted to be in an environment where I could really prove myself because I always believe that iron sharpens iron. And so not having the connections, not having the pedigree, I had no choice but to get on the phone and call these banks until someone returned my phone call. And finally, I got that guy and he was a guy named Henry Leneer and he said, can you make it down here to meet with me? And I did. And we hit it off and again, back to my anthem. They let me into Lehman Brothers as an intern and I never went home. At one point, I had worked 32 or 33 days straight without a day off because I was determined to prove that I was the kind of person who they wanted to hire full time. And at the end of that experience, they presented me with a job offer. And they presented me with, I think it was like a $2,200 bonus. When you think about $2,200 at that time, it was a big deal for me. I gave $1,100 to my mother and I took $1,100 and I bought the tombstone from my good friend and cousin who passed away when I was 13 years old and he had never had a tombstone. And that's what I did with my first bonus. But more importantly, I had gotten there. And I was on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. I had a book of vouchers for cars taking us all over city. I'm eating at restaurants. I couldn't even pronounce the foods that were on the menus. But I had finally got there. But then I realized I had to stay there. And that's when I really understood the power of mentorship. And so when I got to Lehman Brothers, there was George Haywood and Chris Williams and Greg Jones and all these guys who pulled me under their tutelage and said, this is the way this game works. Take it seriously. We don't have spontaneous conversations. We work seven days a week. Nobody is going to outsmart us. Nobody is going to outwork us. Nobody is going to outmaneuver us. Follow what we're telling you and you will have a long career on Wall Street. Yeah. I love that, man. And obviously you did and so I wanted you to sit back, right?