sharecropper to shareholder this short
yet powerful phrase holds great
significance for me and my family it’s a
story of hope inspiration empowerment
opportunity and ownership you see
today’s theme of No Limits speaks
directly to what I’m going to share with
you today it’s about not placing limits
on ourselves our families but most
importantly one of our most precious
resources our children you see my
journey has taken me from the West
Garfield Park neighborhood here in
Chicago to the Latin School where I
graduated in 1996 and now serve on the
board to Tulane where I studied
engineering to Procter and Gamble for my
first job to New York to get my MBA at
Columbia Business School and now back to
Chicago I work as a private equity
investor at a firm that manages over a
billion dollars now that’s not exactly
where my story started it goes back
before the west side but there’s no data
that you could have viewed there would
have predicted that I’d be standing here
today
least of all we’re in this fancy blue
suit in this little red circle this is a
sharecropping family from the 1800s for
those unfamiliar with the term
sharecropper these were families that
pick cotton and fields on behalf of
landowners and were provided meager
wages and a place to live it was the
next iteration of slavery in our country
it evokes feelings of fear misery
hopelessness these are two obituaries we
need to start crying this is Dave
Barnard born in 1885 and Kathleen
shorter Barnard born in 1910 1885 just
20 years after the end of the Civil War
and the supposed end of slavery
they also happen to be my
great-grandparents you see they were
sharecroppers in Mississippi and a small
town called ruleville they had eight
children and number four sitting with us
in this room today her name is Ruby
Riley
my grandmother aka granny I post online
about granny all the time so she comes
out and I bring her to these events and
everybody runs up to her and I’m like
you see granny pigs cotton in those
fields as a young child with her
siblings and her cousins so that their
family could have a place to live and
like millions of African Americans
during the 1950’s as she grew up they
wanted to come north in search of better
opportunity and they fled the South
moved north as part of the great
migration and they settled in Chicago in
North Lawndale neighborhood before
ultimately buying a home in Austin the
picture you see here is my granny her
husband my late grandfather i call him
papa his name is Carrie Riley and the
three kids are my mother my aunt and my
uncle my mother you see highlighted
there and granny was focused on
providing food shelter and clothing for
her kids she wanted to protect them you
see she barely got high school education
but through all of that hard work her
three children did finish high school my
mom went on to marry my father whom she
met at lindbloom and they went on to
have three children I’m the oldest I
have a younger sister Quinn essa and my
baby sister Adrian she’s 30 but I still
call her my baby sister and so my mom
liked the focus that her mother had
before her also focused on food shelter
and clothing we had limited economic
resources in the household she worked
two jobs for as long as I could remember
but that didn’t stop her she didn’t
allow the neighborhood the crime the
poverty the lack of resources to
stop her from focusing on something that
perhaps granny wasn’t quite prepared to
push and that’s education and so my mom
given those limited resources were still
able to put three children through
college me from Tulane both of my
younger sisters from the University of
Illinois I then went on to Columbia as I
said earlier to get my MBA now my middle
sister had the first child of the family
my little niece cadence that you see
there but before that something
unfortunate happened in my life I lost
my mother
granny’s daughter February 19 2006 I was
a Sunday my sister called me that
Thursday and say Adele you need to come
home I say is this really the time See
Mom had been sick for a while and I
couldn’t afford to fly home every single
time she went to the hospital my sister
said yep this is the time you’d come
home wasn’t able to get home that Friday
flew home that Saturday my mother passed
on that Sunday about a year later my
sister learns that she’s pregnant take
one guess what the due date was February
19 2006 didn’t happen that way because
cadence is a little stubborn and she was
born February 21st of 2008 as I thought
about my experiences over all those
years college throughout high school
back to Chicago where I was now working
I thought about how could I take the
next step to move my family forward and
I said I was gonna pour everything into
this young girl see I don’t have any
kids right now so she gets spoiled at
this time but I became the uncle that
was going to buy her more functional
gifts and not just toys didn’t always
make me the most popular uncle but
she’ll be okay I bought her books to
read a globe so she can think about
traveling the world I started a college
savings plan since birth so she wouldn’t
have to face some of the financial
challenges that I had in college and the
most profound moment came about two
years ago I decided to buy cadence
shares in Nike Apple
Disney and to explain to her what that
meant I walked her into each store just
down the street here in Chicago on
Michigan Nike town an Apple Store Disney
store at the time they were right next
to each other and I said cadence you own
the toys the dolls the basketballs the
laptops the phones everything here is
yours this Castillo works for you
cashier didn’t find that as funny as I
thought it was and then cadence responds
I’m cool uncle Rin like you free stuff
now I said it doesn’t quite work that
but then she said uncle Rin do I make
money when people buy stuff I said what
she’s eight years old at this point guys
do I make money when people buy stuff I
say you kind of do let me explain that
couple weeks later I say it caters how
you doing have you looked up your stock
see how they’re doing
yep I want some more well what do you
want more of what you already have it do
you want a different stock now I can
talk to her about diversification she
said I want Starbucks I said why
eight-year-old want Starbucks she said
well my mommy by his coffee from there
all the time and I saw that their stock
was up today good enough for me
I get cadence some Starbucks stock a
couple weeks later she’s in a Starbucks
with her mother my sister and she grabs
her mother by the arm and says mommy you
know I own this place a little bit mommy
you know I own this place a little bit
it was at that time that I had this very
simple yet magnificent idea I said if I
can get an eight-year-old to think about
ownership from the simple act of giving
her shares then why can’t I do that with
10 more kids a hundred more thousand
more and keeping with the theme of no
limits that’s exactly what I set out to
do I started an organization called one
stock one future with the mission to
turn 1 million underserved youth into
public company shareholders we do that
by teaching basic classes about what it
means to own stock and ownership and the
nonprofit donates shares to each kid
with the goal as I mentioned earlier to
provide us a sense of hope inspiration
empowerment and opportunity picture you
see here is the first class that I
conducted in July of 2016 we partnered
with nonprofits government agencies
schools religious organizations sports
teams we don’t discriminate I want to
turn every child into a shareholder
now what I want to do that what’s the
impact what’s that going to do I’m gonna
describe that using something I call ABC
pretty straightforward right attitudes I
want to change children’s sense of self
and belonging I want them to better
understand their place in this world and
the value that they bring to it I want
to change behaviors at home in their
neighborhoods in their schools their
ultimate relationship with money how
they think about jobs and
entrepreneurship and simply being better
citizens and last but certainly not
least I want to change the conversation
that we have with children we can talk
to them now about economics money and
wealth but I can also talk about
fairness inclusion social justice and
equity sharecropper to shareholder it’s
not it’s a long-term proposition to
change attitudes and behaviors it’s not
going to happen overnight and we can’t
solve all the issues overnight but I
believe I’m on to something you see in
just 68 years and three generations just
within my family we learnt from picking
cotton in the field to pick up stocks on
the weekend sharecropper to shareholder
every one of you in this room has a
cadence somewhere in your life it could
be your child your daughter your niece
your nephew a friend’s child a godchild
or maybe even a random kid on the street
that you can assist now imagine a world
where every child believes that they are
an owner and that they belong there’s a
lot more work to do but I believe we can
change the world and the future one
stock at a time thank you
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
yet powerful phrase holds great
significance for me and my family it’s a
story of hope inspiration empowerment
opportunity and ownership you see
today’s theme of No Limits speaks
directly to what I’m going to share with
you today it’s about not placing limits
on ourselves our families but most
importantly one of our most precious
resources our children you see my
journey has taken me from the West
Garfield Park neighborhood here in
Chicago to the Latin School where I
graduated in 1996 and now serve on the
board to Tulane where I studied
engineering to Procter and Gamble for my
first job to New York to get my MBA at
Columbia Business School and now back to
Chicago I work as a private equity
investor at a firm that manages over a
billion dollars now that’s not exactly
where my story started it goes back
before the west side but there’s no data
that you could have viewed there would
have predicted that I’d be standing here
today
least of all we’re in this fancy blue
suit in this little red circle this is a
sharecropping family from the 1800s for
those unfamiliar with the term
sharecropper these were families that
pick cotton and fields on behalf of
landowners and were provided meager
wages and a place to live it was the
next iteration of slavery in our country
it evokes feelings of fear misery
hopelessness these are two obituaries we
need to start crying this is Dave
Barnard born in 1885 and Kathleen
shorter Barnard born in 1910 1885 just
20 years after the end of the Civil War
and the supposed end of slavery
they also happen to be my
great-grandparents you see they were
sharecroppers in Mississippi and a small
town called ruleville they had eight
children and number four sitting with us
in this room today her name is Ruby
Riley
my grandmother aka granny I post online
about granny all the time so she comes
out and I bring her to these events and
everybody runs up to her and I’m like
you see granny pigs cotton in those
fields as a young child with her
siblings and her cousins so that their
family could have a place to live and
like millions of African Americans
during the 1950’s as she grew up they
wanted to come north in search of better
opportunity and they fled the South
moved north as part of the great
migration and they settled in Chicago in
North Lawndale neighborhood before
ultimately buying a home in Austin the
picture you see here is my granny her
husband my late grandfather i call him
papa his name is Carrie Riley and the
three kids are my mother my aunt and my
uncle my mother you see highlighted
there and granny was focused on
providing food shelter and clothing for
her kids she wanted to protect them you
see she barely got high school education
but through all of that hard work her
three children did finish high school my
mom went on to marry my father whom she
met at lindbloom and they went on to
have three children I’m the oldest I
have a younger sister Quinn essa and my
baby sister Adrian she’s 30 but I still
call her my baby sister and so my mom
liked the focus that her mother had
before her also focused on food shelter
and clothing we had limited economic
resources in the household she worked
two jobs for as long as I could remember
but that didn’t stop her she didn’t
allow the neighborhood the crime the
poverty the lack of resources to
stop her from focusing on something that
perhaps granny wasn’t quite prepared to
push and that’s education and so my mom
given those limited resources were still
able to put three children through
college me from Tulane both of my
younger sisters from the University of
Illinois I then went on to Columbia as I
said earlier to get my MBA now my middle
sister had the first child of the family
my little niece cadence that you see
there but before that something
unfortunate happened in my life I lost
my mother
granny’s daughter February 19 2006 I was
a Sunday my sister called me that
Thursday and say Adele you need to come
home I say is this really the time See
Mom had been sick for a while and I
couldn’t afford to fly home every single
time she went to the hospital my sister
said yep this is the time you’d come
home wasn’t able to get home that Friday
flew home that Saturday my mother passed
on that Sunday about a year later my
sister learns that she’s pregnant take
one guess what the due date was February
19 2006 didn’t happen that way because
cadence is a little stubborn and she was
born February 21st of 2008 as I thought
about my experiences over all those
years college throughout high school
back to Chicago where I was now working
I thought about how could I take the
next step to move my family forward and
I said I was gonna pour everything into
this young girl see I don’t have any
kids right now so she gets spoiled at
this time but I became the uncle that
was going to buy her more functional
gifts and not just toys didn’t always
make me the most popular uncle but
she’ll be okay I bought her books to
read a globe so she can think about
traveling the world I started a college
savings plan since birth so she wouldn’t
have to face some of the financial
challenges that I had in college and the
most profound moment came about two
years ago I decided to buy cadence
shares in Nike Apple
Disney and to explain to her what that
meant I walked her into each store just
down the street here in Chicago on
Michigan Nike town an Apple Store Disney
store at the time they were right next
to each other and I said cadence you own
the toys the dolls the basketballs the
laptops the phones everything here is
yours this Castillo works for you
cashier didn’t find that as funny as I
thought it was and then cadence responds
I’m cool uncle Rin like you free stuff
now I said it doesn’t quite work that
but then she said uncle Rin do I make
money when people buy stuff I said what
she’s eight years old at this point guys
do I make money when people buy stuff I
say you kind of do let me explain that
couple weeks later I say it caters how
you doing have you looked up your stock
see how they’re doing
yep I want some more well what do you
want more of what you already have it do
you want a different stock now I can
talk to her about diversification she
said I want Starbucks I said why
eight-year-old want Starbucks she said
well my mommy by his coffee from there
all the time and I saw that their stock
was up today good enough for me
I get cadence some Starbucks stock a
couple weeks later she’s in a Starbucks
with her mother my sister and she grabs
her mother by the arm and says mommy you
know I own this place a little bit mommy
you know I own this place a little bit
it was at that time that I had this very
simple yet magnificent idea I said if I
can get an eight-year-old to think about
ownership from the simple act of giving
her shares then why can’t I do that with
10 more kids a hundred more thousand
more and keeping with the theme of no
limits that’s exactly what I set out to
do I started an organization called one
stock one future with the mission to
turn 1 million underserved youth into
public company shareholders we do that
by teaching basic classes about what it
means to own stock and ownership and the
nonprofit donates shares to each kid
with the goal as I mentioned earlier to
provide us a sense of hope inspiration
empowerment and opportunity picture you
see here is the first class that I
conducted in July of 2016 we partnered
with nonprofits government agencies
schools religious organizations sports
teams we don’t discriminate I want to
turn every child into a shareholder
now what I want to do that what’s the
impact what’s that going to do I’m gonna
describe that using something I call ABC
pretty straightforward right attitudes I
want to change children’s sense of self
and belonging I want them to better
understand their place in this world and
the value that they bring to it I want
to change behaviors at home in their
neighborhoods in their schools their
ultimate relationship with money how
they think about jobs and
entrepreneurship and simply being better
citizens and last but certainly not
least I want to change the conversation
that we have with children we can talk
to them now about economics money and
wealth but I can also talk about
fairness inclusion social justice and
equity sharecropper to shareholder it’s
not it’s a long-term proposition to
change attitudes and behaviors it’s not
going to happen overnight and we can’t
solve all the issues overnight but I
believe I’m on to something you see in
just 68 years and three generations just
within my family we learnt from picking
cotton in the field to pick up stocks on
the weekend sharecropper to shareholder
every one of you in this room has a
cadence somewhere in your life it could
be your child your daughter your niece
your nephew a friend’s child a godchild
or maybe even a random kid on the street
that you can assist now imagine a world
where every child believes that they are
an owner and that they belong there’s a
lot more work to do but I believe we can
change the world and the future one
stock at a time thank you
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
Please follow and like us: