I recorded a recent episode of Money and Wealth from Maui, in the middle of the night, with the Pacific Ocean in the background, and what struck me was the quiet. Not empty, not lonely. Simply quiet. It reminded me of an observation I made that went viral. Go into many wealthy neighborhoods, and they’re remarkably quiet. Then, go into many poor, struggling neighborhoods, like the ones I grew up in, in South Central L.A. and Compton, and they’re often noisy. This isn’t about race. I’ve lived in Black neighborhoods in Atlanta that were dead quiet. The color isn’t black or white. The color is green, as in economics. Because poverty doesn’t just take money out of your pocket; it takes peace out of your environment. The rent is due, the car broke down, the hours got cut, and it’s not only physical noise, but it’s also emotional, psychological, and spiritual noise. That’s a surviving mindset, and when your brain spends all day reacting to emergencies, there’s no bandwidth left for imagining possibilities. Survival asks, “How do I get through today?” Creation asks, “What can I build tomorrow?”

This is bigger than money. Our Hope Financial Wellness Index at Operation HOPE shows that in a 500-credit-score neighborhood, average life expectancy is around 61 years. Fifteen minutes away, in a 700-credit-score neighborhood, it’s 81 — a twenty-year difference, fifteen minutes apart. The credit score isn’t magic; it’s a trending indicator of the ecosystem around you. The important thing for you to see is that wealth buys control over your environment, your schedule, your attention, and who gets access to you. Peace has economic value. What if quiet isn’t something you get after you become successful, but one of the ingredients that makes you successful in the first place? Quiet gives you space to think, and thinking produces ideas. Ideas produce creation; creation can become intellectual property; intellectual property becomes ownership; ownership creates assets; and assets create wealth. Meanwhile, your phone can turn a mansion into a noisy neighborhood — Google, Meta, and TikTok spend billions to capture your attention because they know it’s one of the most valuable assets you possess. If everybody else understands the economic value of your attention, why don’t you?

The good news is that quiet is free. You don’t need Maui. What you need, and what should become a non-negotiable, is 15 or 30 intentional minutes, before the family wakes up, in your car, in a park. Turn off the phone, take out a notebook, and ask yourself, “What problems do I understand that others don’t? What could I create once and sell repeatedly?” And my favorite – “What is my future trying to tell me that my present is too loud for me to hear?” Somewhere right now, there’s somebody driving a bus, waiting a table, or sitting in a community college classroom with a billion-dollar idea in their head. First, you’ve got to hear it. Wealth whispers. Make sure your life gets quiet enough to hear your dream.

Listen to the full episode of Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and pick up my new book, “Capitalism for All.”