I’m going to be honest with you. When I held that Forbes magazine in my hands and saw Dr. Dre, another Black man from Compton, California on the cover, and me listed amongst the 250 — at number 145 on the list — I didn’t feel special. I felt grateful. And then I felt the weight of what this moment actually means — not for me or a Dr. Dre, but for every kid who’s ever been told the game was rigged before they even got to the starting line.
Forbes just named me to their list of the 250 Greatest Living Self-Made Americans — a list created in honor of this nation’s 250th birthday, recognizing individuals who built extraordinary lives and legacies through vision, determination, and grit. The list was built around the Forbes Self-Made Score, which doesn’t just measure financial success. It measures the obstacles you overcame to get there.
That part matters to me most.
I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. My parents divorced when I was nine. Our neighborhood caught fire during the 1992 Los Angeles riots — and I stood in the ashes of that community and decided I would spend the rest of my life being an economic plumber. Not a politician. Not a celebrity. An economic plumber. Someone who goes into communities that others write off and fixes the pipes — the financial infrastructure that allows people to build real lives.
That’s what Operation HOPE, Inc. was built to do. That’s what it has been doing since 1992. And that, I believe, is why my name is on this list.
This isn’t about me. It’s about proof of concept. Proof that the American Dream isn’t dead — it just needs to be expanded and understood.
I am deeply moved to be named alongside people I admire enormously — Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Thasunda Brown Duckett, Janice Bryant Howroyd, and so many others who built something from nothing. Friends who have been on this journey with me. I will be sending each of them a personal note, because that’s what you do when the people around you win. You celebrate them. We rise together or we don’t rise at all.
Financial literacy is the new civil rights issue of this generation. Not the right to sit at the lunch counter — the right to own the lunch counter. This recognition from Forbes lands in a season where that message is reaching more people than ever, with my new book Capitalism for All on bookshelves now and conversations happening at every level about what it really means to build an inclusive economy.
The dream isn’t dead. Your story matters.
Let’s go.
All: Inclusive Economics and the Future-Proofing of America — Available now at all major booksellers.
John Hope Bryant — founder of Bryant Group Ventures, Operation HOPE, Inc, publisher of the Bryant Journal and author of his 7th book Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future Proofing of America, now a bestseller. Bryant was recently named a member of the Forbes 250.
