Liberation for $500. Becoming the CEO of You.

"When you cannot find a job, create one.” John Hope Bryant, founder, Operation HOPE

People keep telling me, "John, I cannot find a job with this big Fortune 500 company, or that big Fortune 500 company."  I remind them that while big companies do a lot of important things right - from incredibly important aspects of GDP, to American competitiveness and global growth -- hiring lots of people as a growth strategy is not one of them.  That my friends happens to be the role of entrepreneurs, small business and start ups.  Most job growth comes from start ups, shoot ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses in years 3 through year 7.

Half of all jobs in America are 100 employees or less, and 70% of all jobs in America are 500 employees or less. 99% of all jobs in the 12th largest economy in the world -- Los Angeles -- are companies with 100 employees or less.  

In so many ways, we are looking for love in all the wrong places.

Here is the American Dream, for $500.00 or less.

Last week I flew into Denver, Colorado to speak before the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce.  My assigned driver from a car company didn’t show up at the airport, so I called an Uber car.  Literally 2 minutes later, my Uber driver showed up and my inspiration began. 

Introducing Jay Clint, CEO of I Ride 24.

You would know Jay as simply your Uber driver in Denver, but thankfully I asked this Uber driver many questions when I entered his car.  And boy was I pleasantly surprised.

Jay explained to me that he had been driving an Uber car for about a year now, and before that he worked a corporate job, for a major U.S. bank.  In fact, he was a corporate vice president there.  And then he told me this — he voluntarily left this big and impressive corporation to pursue his dream — business ownership.  

He said he found out how others built wealth, and he wanted a shot at doing this for himself. He knew that he could only do this, if he worked for himself.  

And while I presumed I was riding with yet another Uber driver, Jay made it clear that I was in fact riding with the American Dream.  Jay Clint was a small business owner, now owning 5 cars, and with 12 full time employees. 

And it all started 12 months ago with a  $500 investment, and an Uber contract. 

Today his average driver makes $800-$1000 per week, and he loves that he and his partner are able to pay his drivers a living wage.  He wants them to do better, as he does.  And his company — his $500 start up — is on track to do $1M in revenue this year!  

All from a leap of faith a mere 12 months ago, a lot of hustle, a $500 loan he gave himself, an audacious dream — and a Uber contract in one city, for one car.

What comes next for Jay?  He now plans on buying his 6th and 7th car for his growing fleet — a Mercedes Benz truck and a SUV -- he tells me.  He also plans on getting re-married next March.  In the meantime, he is also raising his 4 and 5 year old children, on his own!   Talk about an incredible man.  

We need a million more young men just like him, and the country’s future just might be okay. And that’s precisely my plan.

Operation HOPE launched Project 5117 in November, 2013, and with it our youth entrepreneurship movement work through HOPE Business In A Box Academies.  Our plan is to find, nurture, cultivate and help finance up to one million striving young men and women just like Jay Clint, between now and year 2020.  $100 to $500 at a time.

Our plan, between now and year 2020, is to stand up 1,000 HOPE Business In A Box Academies and HOPE B- Business Compact School Sites in some of our nation’s most challenged public schools. There are 100,000 public school houses in America alone.  

HOPE Business In A Box Academies will offer our young people, 4th grade through 12th grade, a course in financial literacy, a course in dignity, 25 business ideas you can start for $500 or less (from low tech to high tech, to no tech), and a 'pitch event' in the young person's school auditorium.  

Think 'Shark Tank' for kids!  

The young person has 2 minutes to pitch their new business idea, in front of a timer and a panel of judges (all local, relatable role models). If they win the pitch, Operation HOPE and our growing list of HOPE Partners and sponsors will fund their business, up to $500 per business.  

The money goes into a bank account (think about your own 'first bank account' experience growing up here), and we then assign a HOPE Business Role Model, who will work with the young person for one hour per week, for 6-10 weeks, to stand up their new business.

Our friends at Gallup will provide their Gallup Entrepreneurship StrengthFinders on the front end of the experience -- so kids know what they are 'good at' -- and our Gallup-HOPE Index will help measure the intervention impact on the back end.  We have already seen a significant increase in 'student engagement' for young people involved with our Academies. 

But, it's best to just see the impact for yourself.  Below is but one inspirational example of what's possible -- when we believe. 

Just imagine if we have even 1,000 of these young people in every mid-sized city across America, or 100 of them in an average small city?  

It would change, everything.  

Jay Clint proves that the American Dream is still alive and well.  

His story proves that you don't need to create a mind blowing high tech company, nor do you need tens of thousands of dollars in investment capital.  

He simply found a niche and a need, added hustle and a sense of commitment, and built a $1 million business in a year on the back of a phone mobile app.

Today that dream funds 12 new full time employees, who are now in turn strengthening nation, family and community alike.

Rebuilding a nation, can be done.

It starts, by deciding to become the CEO of YOU.

Okay, let's go...

John Hope Bryant is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Ventures, a Thinker-In-Residence 800-CEO-READ, and an Inc. Magazine/800-CEO-READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass). 

His newest bestselling book is How The Poor Can Save Capitalism: Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class (Berrett Koehler Publishing), which was voted aTop Book for 2014.

Bryant is a Member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index with the Gallup Organization, and co-chair for Project 5117, which is a plan for the rebirth of underserved America.

Bryant is the only bestselling author on economics in the world who is also of African-American descent.  

Operation HOPE, founded by Bryant, is directly responsible for the U.S. government establishing financial literacy as U.S. federal government policy in 2008.

Follow John Hope Bryant on LinkedIn Influencers here

Photo Credit: Taken by Jared Tennant Photography, at the Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit, 2015, where Bryant keynoted.