Bravery is not the absence of fear, it is overcoming it.
Mellody Hobson
When I wanted the CEO of Starbucks to keep me in mind for their board, I sent him a note rather than calling. I call it dripping: You don't want to be like a faucet full-on; you want to drip just enough that they don't forget about you.
I'd like to see great textbooks, great opportunities for kids to really understand stock market investing, because at the end of the day, they are going to be all they have in terms of creating a life for themselves, a retirement account, and things like that.
We've got one shot at this life, and to not be productive with what we've been given, to me, is a travesty. I think the biggest waste is when a human life is wasted. It's unforgivable.
I believe in civility, inclusion and diversity. I believe that everybody can contribute. I don't believe in labelling and stereotypes. These things are the antithesis of what I believe in and go against everything I love in America. And I do love America.
How many people, though, do I meet that I think have talent? Well actually a lot. That's what drives my enthusiasm in the conversation about diversity.
Now, race is one of those topics in America that makes people extraordinarily uncomfortable. You bring it up at a dinner party or in a workplace environment, it is literally the conversational equivalent of touching the third rail.
Being aware of challenges doesn't make them sting less, but once you see them, you can assess the best way to handle them.
Having a financially illiterate society is dangerous, and we have to do something about that.
I think the one thing about the Zoom calls is unlike being in a room with people where you can look away or drift off, I feel like with Zoom, everyone's face is just dead center, head on, there is no drifting. It takes a lot of energy from me.
I have a strong point of view, and that's a double-edged sword. It can be a phenomenal characteristic in terms of getting things done, but it can also mean I will be relentless in my pushing for my point of view.
The role of a board of directors is to be a sounding board for the vision of the company - to hold executives accountable in executing that vision and to ensure a management succession plan is in place.
I take vitamins when I wake up. One of them I need to take is to wake up my brain. It has some caffeine in it, and it stimulates my brain and I'm literally not a person without it.
I'm an interested party in obviously the name and reputation of Lucas - because I'm a Lucas, even though I don't go by Lucas.
I love Obama. And Michelle. I was so grateful for them. They were such stunning people. We were lucky to have them. They were great symbols for our society.
People can be sensitive, so if I need to, I'll suck it up and be more flowery. I'll do what it takes to get the outcome I want. As I like to say, sometimes you have to crouch to conquer.
I always felt very insecure financially as a child. I was desperate to understand money as a child. I was desperate to be secure. Because I always felt like the rug could be pulled from under me.
I've told stories about people coming to my office and giving me their coats and requesting that I hang them up and get coffee - which I dutifully do. And then I come in and sit at the head of the table. It's awkward.
The way I go about it is that we should all be inviting people into our lives who don't look like us, speak like us and don't come from where we come from.
We don't prognosticate macroeconomic factors, we're looking at our companies from a bottom-up perspective on their long-run prospects of returning.
We talk about long-term patient investing, and that idea that slow and steady does win the race, that time can be your best friend when it comes to investing. That's why we have a turtle as a logo at Ariel.
Sometimes those apartments we lived in weren't finished, sometimes the rooms would be heated by the gas stove, sometimes we would heat our water on hot plates to take baths, and that was very sobering, especially as a child.
On my worst day I always tell myself I'm not in a field picking cotton.
My mother always wanted me to be in the best environment that I could be in. She wanted me to go to the best schools. Every now and again she'd save up enough for us to get a nice apartment in downtown Chicago, but we were never able to sustain it.
Now I know there are people out there who will say that the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity, right? But I work in the investment business, and we have a saying: The numbers do not lie.
In the spirit of debunking racial stereotypes, the one that black people don't like to swim, I'm going to tell you how much I love to swim. I love to swim so much that as an adult, I swim with a coach.
People feel a great deal of their wealth or lack thereof in their home value. Despite the fact they're living there and not going to sell it per se, it does have a big psychological effect.
I know that my life is a miracle and because of that, I can't think my success is because I was so great at this, that or the other. A lot of things happened and came together. A lot of people went out of their way for me.
When you grow up in America today, most schools don't teach you about money and investing. You could literally take a class in woodshop or auto in high school and not take a class on money.
You can teach someone with basic smarts to be smarter; you can't teach cultural fit or personality. But you also want someone who has a passion to win; someone that is all in.
The first thing I do after waking up is check my phone for news. I like to make sure the world is still here and understand what happened overnight.
As citizens, I'm asking you not to leave any child behind. I'm asking you not to be color blind, but to be color brave, so that every child knows that their future matters and their dreams are possible.
When you feel house poor, you don't buy anything. Housing immediately impacts the job numbers because there are so many housing-related jobs within the industry, and in adjacent industries.
A year's worth of Social Security for an individual is not considered to be below the poverty level, and yet we know that would be extraordinarily tough to live on.
The average American has 11 jobs in their lifetime, and I've only had one.
I grew up in Chicago with a single mother. I'm the youngest of six kids, and my older siblings are much older than me. When your siblings are that much older, you never get to ride in the front seat of the car, you never get the chicken breast.
I was in the Woodrow Wilson School of international relations and public policy at Princeton. You have to apply to get in, and I did not originally get in. I lobbied really hard and called many people. I just would not take no for an answer.
When people look at all the things I do, they say it's overwhelming, but I don't feel overwhelmed. I get it done. I'm very organized, and it's all tied together.
Even though I will never be evicted again, I am haunted by those times and still work relentlessly.
When I think of my career and why I leaned in, it comes down to basic survival.
I found my own orthodontist, my own high school. I set up interviews and did college trips. Despite her incredible concern and caring, my mom didn't have the capacity for that. It was outside her experience, and she knew I was on top of it.
We cannot afford to be color-blind, we have to be color-brave.
You know, when you're the youngest kid, you kind of get the last of everything.
I grew up going to a school where there weren't a lot of black kids. And so my mother, from a very, very young age, has sensitized me to race.
I loved college, I loved Princeton.
I don't want to be a victim. I want to be a victor.
I was desperate to understand money. Not to make it, to understand it. I wanted to know how it worked, and I wanted to know so that I would have enough and would be able to make good financial decisions. That led me to Ariel.
Black women have a kind of advantage over white women in the workplace. They go in prepared to face some discrimination, so when it happens, they aren't shocked.
I've used some of my differences as a way to stand out and to hopefully count and matter - and hopefully create an opportunity for others.
Norman Rockwell - even though we think of him as a great American artist, in a lot of museums he has not garnered that kind of attention. And it's this kind of accessibility that we're trying to bring - not looking down on any art.
