college he never keeps his word doesn’t
know how to treat women you don’t want
to be anything like him his name is big
Jeff and that happened to be my father
this narrative potted my memory for
years and years until it mutated the
affinity of man should have for his
father into animosity animosity that
mutated into my day-to-day behaviors
where I wanted to be a man of my word
I wanted to ensure that I went to
college and graduated and did I wanted
to do everything other than big Jeff and
then one day when I finished my second
master’s I was trying to get a job God
spoke to me and said Jeff my commandment
to you is for you to honor your mother
and your father and in order for you to
get to the next level of blessings I
have for you you’re going to have to
start to repair that relationship with
your father
so I was obedient and that day I started
to call my father more and after having
conversations with him in meeting with
him and being of experience my father
big Jeff this liar cheater stiller
hustler I realized there were things
about myself that I didn’t know there
was this untapped potential that I had
not unlocked
there was this vision for myself that I
had not articulated clearly I didn’t
really understand my value and what I
can contribute to the world and most
importantly I didn’t understand that
there was a village wrapped around me
that was there to support me it was at
that day in my life that I understood
that my calling was to ensure that every
young person that grew up in the hood
just like me was going to be able to
have the access to that vision that
value that village and be able to tap
into this innate potential that we all
call hustle now you might look at the
city or the County of Los Angeles and
you know that we are separated from
north to south by what I call the
mason-dixon line of quality of life
that’s called the 10 freeway when you
cross the 10 freeway
when you cross the 10 freeway great
schools vanish when you cross the 10
freeway grocery stores dissipate when
you cross the 10 freeway police are no
longer Guardians they’re warriors when
you cross the 10 freeway the land of
Economic Opportunity is barren but when
you cross the 10 freeway
you also see Talent you see two hundred
thousand young people that are
disconnected from the world of work and
school called opportunity youth you see
two hundred thousand young people that
are currently costing the Los Angeles
economy three hundred and thirty million
dollars in lost tax revenue in loss in
an economic burden based upon public
assistance and across this County you
also have over three hundred thousand
jobs that are currently vacant now
Nelson just reported in his last report
on economic consumerism of minorities
that minority buying Power has grown
four hundred and fifteen percent in the
last two decades that means
african-americans Latinos Asian Pacific
Islanders are essential to the economy
not just here locally but across the
nation but when we reverse and think
about those 200,000 young people in LA
County that are out of school out of
work over 70% look like that growing
multicultural consumer base so the
question to industry and our economy
today is how can you ignore this talent
that resides on the bottom half of the
ten and what is allowing you to ignore
this talent and what is allowing this
talent not to be able to carpe diem and
seize the opportunity that’s right in
front of them well I’ll break that down
for you I’m glad you asked there are
three gaps that are actually impeding
the progress of this talent base that is
in South LA the first gap is the
exposure gap when you look at South LA
in the south accounting environment
these young people lives in lives and
it’s like living in our communities
that’s like living in a house with no
windows and we all letter that window
allows you to see past a wall or barrier
towards opportunity the reality is that
young people don’t see
successful folks that look like them on
a day to day basis in South LA then I
see a teacher a principal a counselor or
caseworker but now I’m not seeing social
entrepreneurs they’re not seeing the
CEOs of color that looked like them and
the reality is in our young people in
South LA and other underserved
communities across this nation they
become what they see the exposure gap is
plugging the talent base that we need to
move our economy forward the second
thing is the skills gap now interesting
enough and the work that we lead at
leaders up which is a non-profit focused
on bridging the divide between the
untapped potential of young people in
the business challenge of finding and
keeping the right talent that business
leaders across the nation they do
struggle with technical skills necessary
to drive their business forward but more
importantly they struggle with what we
call power skills empower is often often
refined in communities of color in the
hood power is persistence and resiliency
power is an orientation towards goals
and action power is a strong work ethic
power also is effective communication
but most importantly with a community
like the hood provides for you is
relationships power is about ensuring
that you’re able to collaborate and move
a business or your community for it and
that power that I learned back in 2005
when I started to build that
relationship with my father is called
hustle now the reality of this skills
gap is also exasperated by the fact that
we don’t have employers investing in our
community colleges we don’t have the
employers investing in K through 12
education why because it’s seen as an
education system and not a talent
development system the reality today is
is that businesses must invest in these
communities not just because it’s the
right thing to do but it’s great for
business it’s great for your consumer
base but most importantly it’s a great
way to connect to that next set of
skilled talent so there’s this exposure
gap there is the skills gap but the
biggest chasm between young people and
job opportunities is what I call the
opportunity gap and that opportunity gap
actually ensures that a young person
doesn’t have
access the opportunity not because they
don’t have a great skillsets not because
they don’t know what they want to be but
because they don’t have the simple
social capital see social capital
actually manifests itself in our day to
day relationships little johnny has an
uncle who runs the law firm so little
Johnny on the west side has an
internship that allows him to prove
himself and then become so one who’s in
law school and then four years later or
three years later excuse me he is back
in that same law school law firm getting
the job the work of leaders up on a day
to day basis ensures that young people
of color and opportunity you’ve across
the entire nation have access to the
capital to tell the business community
and other employers that this young
person is worth it this young person is
not just worth it because they have the
power skills but they have the talent
and the hustle that the 21st century
economy needs today and the reality that
we are facing today is that it is hustle
that show leader like me that we can
grow from one bit one market to three
markers across this nation Chicago Los
Angeles in the San Francisco Bay Area
it was hustle that allowed us to procure
the services of over 80 businesses
across the nation there are now pumping
job opportunities into underserved
resource erv communities it was hustle
that also how leaders up to connect over
1500 young people in a year-and-a-half
it was also a hustler that poured into a
young man named Jeffrey Wallace to be
the social entrepreneur that you see
today so the reality of America in the
21st century is that we cannot ignore
the talent that lives below the ten we
cannot ignore the talent that we need to
drive our businesses forward in America
because your future is in colored you
cannot ignore the talent that lives in
South LA thank you [Applause]