e x e C u t i v e

f o r u m

LeadING WItH LoVe IN a FearBaSed WorLd
John Hope Bryant

I

n the poor neighborhood where I was raised, as in so many communities in the country, petty thugs preyed on individuals, but white-collar criminals in fancy suits also preyed on people’s ignorance. Individuals with a low level of basic financial knowledge were and continue to be easy targets for what I call bad capitalism.

payday loan for $800; by the time he finished paying it off six years later, after rolling this payday loan over countless times, he had paid $15,000 in interest on that $800 loan. these businesses are in many cases shortterm-oriented, purely transactional business models that add little value, and even deteriorate the customer base they purport to serve. these businesses are ultimately led by one thing: fear. People are afraid to lift themselves up, to lead themselves out of their situation, to think for themselves. Bad capitalism preys mercilessly on these fears. throughout my journey from the inner city to my work as a social entrepreneur, I’ve had a front-row seat for witnessing how fear destroys a community. But I’ve also learned that there is another way to live and to do business. It took almost 30 years for me to understand that the antidote to fear is love.

For example, during the recent subprime lending boom, people making $25,000 a year were lured by unscrupulous brokers and lenders into taking out $500,000 loans with low initial teaser rates that reset much higher—to levels they could never afford. at one point, my own family lost its home to a predatory lender. In these communities, people spend roughly $10 billion each year on what I call ghettoized financial services—high-interest and high-fee check cashing, payday loans, refund anticipation loans, title lending, rent-toown, and the like. I know of one individual who got a