The Best Form Of Capital For Entrepreneurs, According To John Hope Bryant

By Elizabeth MacBride, Senior Contributor
Originally Published by Forbes | Aug 27, 2025, Updated Aug 31, 2025

When it comes to finance, the difference between a life of constant fear, and a life of feeling in control, is only – only is a big and small word – knowledge.

However, knowledge about money is a strangely gate-kept in the United States, as John Hope Bryant writes in his accessible and straightforward book, Financial Literacy for All. Most children, unless they were born into wealth, receive next-to-no financial education about good money habits. Meanwhile, they see plenty of examples of bad money habits.

“What I have seen firsthand, coming up from nothing in Compton, Calif, … it’s not a lack of desire or ambition that holds so many of us back from long-term financial freedom. It’s bad role models, and a fundamental lack of the essential building blocks for financial success, including the knowledge and comfort to talk about money.

Where I grew up, there was a check cashier next to a lender, next to a rent to own store, next to a title lender, next to a pawnshop,” he writes.

“Here’s a little secret that no one successful tells you,” Bryant told me. “You make money during the day, but you build wealth in your sleep.”

That was coincidentally also the title of one of my books! I interviewed Bryant some time ago about his book and his effort to extend financial literacy into what he calls a Business Plan for America. He contends that personal financial literacy can be a powerful force for community development, and has convinced leaders in the business world and pre-Trump politics to agree

His nonprofit, focused on financial literacy and economic empowerment, has funneled more than $4.5 billion into underserved communities, it says. Atlanta-based Operation HOPE offers financial literacy programs, one-on-one coaching, credit score improvement and small business development.

The basics of financial literacy are reasonably easy, middle-school level math: the power of compounding, the value of time, and the importance of budgeting. And, perhaps more importantly, the awareness of your own emotional baggage, which can get powerfully in the way.

Bryant relates the story of O.C. in his book – his sister’s partner, who was too proud to reveal that he was not earning enough to sustain the family. Instead of working with the other adults and teen-agers in the house to develop a budget, he turned to selling marijuana, and was killed in a street-corner dispute.

Bryant eloquently addresses the first barrier to financial literacy but, in my view, not the second. The first barrier is…[MORE]

+

To read the entire article, visit the Forbes website, via: The Best Form Of Capital For Entrepreneurs, According To John Hope Bryant