The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation
By John Hope Bryant
True power in this world comes from economic independence, but
too many people have too much month left at the end of their
money. John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE,
illuminates the path toward liberation that is hiding in plain
sight. His message is simple: the supermajority of people who
live in poverty, whom Bryant calls the invisible class, as well
as millions in the struggling middle class, haven’t gotten “the
memo”—until now.
Building on his personal experience of rising up from
economically disadvantaged circumstances and his work with
Operation HOPE, Bryant teaches readers five rules that lay the
foundation for achieving financial freedom. He emphasizes the
inseparable connection between “inner capital” (mindset,
relationships, knowledge, and spirit) and “outer capital”
(financial wealth and property). “If you have inner capital,”
Bryant writes, “you can never be truly poor. If you lack inner
capital, all the money in the world cannot set you
free.”
Bryant gives readers tools for empowerment by covering everything
from achieving basic financial literacy to investing in positive
relationships and approaching wealth with a completely new
attitude. He makes this bold and controversial claim: “Once you
have satisfied your basic sustenance needs—food, water, health,
and a roof over your head—poverty has more to do with your head
than your wallet.”
Bryant wants to restore readers’ “silver rights,” giving them the
ability to succeed and prosper no matter what very real
roadblocks society puts in their way. We have more power than we
realize, if only we can recognize and claim it. “We are our first
capital,” Bryant writes. “We are the CEOs of our own lives.”