Jeremy Weisz
Where were you? Robert in 1968 when Martin Luther King got assassinated, what was that like for you at that time?
Robert Wallace
Oh, my goodness. So I was a teenager. And I was in Baltimore. And I’ll never forget Jeremy enough. Forget when they came on with watching, watching black and white TV, Jim. You mean I’m not sure how old you are. Black and white TV right? And we’re watching the TV and especially poor comes up. It’s got the king has been shot, right. And then later on, it comes Death The king has been assassinated. He is, he is he’s dead. Right? And I remember that time as a young teenager, right turning to my mother and father and same same mom and Daddy, why? Why does? Why does America hate us so much? Hmm, what did we do? permit him hate us so much. I mean, here’s a man who preach non violence, love for humanity, and they kill him. So mommy and daddy, what does this mean? What does this mean? And so if for me, Jeremy, it was
Jeremy Weisz
looking as a parent now. Yeah, like that’s, that’s First of all, just a depressing question that you even have to ask it. And second, that’s a tough question as a parent to answer for your kid. Right. So what did they tell you?
Robert Wallace
But even while you know what I’ll tell you, I think my father realized Jeremy, in the moment that this was a critical he need to answer this question for me and my older brothers, five of us in my family, five boys, that he needed to answer this question in a very deliberate way. And daddy pause for a moment. And then he says something that really helped us to put this all together. He said, Well, sounds like this. He said, he said, in America, you’ve got you got you. He said, he got white people who are good, and some who are bad. He said, You have black people, some of them are good. Some of them are bad. And that’s just how it is. He says, Son, your job is to seek out the good in people and defend against the evil. Because you’re always going to have good people and bad people, regardless of color. You said in the pharmacy, your son, there’s some there’s some good white people. And there’s some good and some bad, white people. They’re good black people. And there are bad black people. So you need to you need to, you know, as you go through life, you need to figure out who they are. And then you know, making decisions based upon that.
Jeremy Weisz
Robert, what did you want to be when you grew up at that time?
Robert Wallace
Well, you know what, I came from a family but I didn’t come from me. We didn’t have any, any entrepreneurs, my family. My mother was a janitor. My father was a laborer. My grandfather, grandfather Kerry worked on the railroad, he was a sleeping car Porter. And he helped create the first African American union in America called the Brotherhood of sleeping Car Porters. And so that was my foundation. But I live in a community where they were business people who, unfortunately, were not African American people. But I but I admired them in terms of what they were able to build. And as I looked at them, and what they were doing, I always aspired to, I want to do that I want to have a business, I want to be able to help people to make their lives better, I want to be able to make money, create wealth. And so that became the basis of my a, my my interest in, in, in technology and in business. And it helped me to build my businesses without motivation. And I was mentored by many of these men, they primarily have a mentor, I was mentored by many of them know, Mr. President. You know, Mr. 90, Mr. Sanford, you know, these men, I guess they saw something in me and they just said, Okay, what we want to teach you, we want to mentor you, and they did.
Jeremy Weisz
What were some of the best advice you got from them?
Robert Wallace
Well, I think a couple of things, Jeremy, I mean, I’ve always and I’ve used these things in my life. Number one is, is you have to maintain the ability to dream. I think what happens in life, see, when you’re young, you know, you you’re dreaming, you you know, you’re not bound, you’re not confined, you know, by society, anything, you just let your mind just just roam and explode, right? But as you get older, what tends to happen is to be out of the realities of life began to put you in a corner box you in your eye, and you start thinking what you can’t do, all right, and then fear begins to increase because then you you’re become more fearful. And I think what I teach, what I learned from this minute is never lose the ability to dream. And tied to that it’s a lesson I learned from my grandfather and from my parents, about the fact that even though we’re in poverty today, we don’t have to be in poverty in the future. In other words, my present condition condition does not dictate my future condition. So if I can change how I think it was, would change my actions Am I am I how I spend my time, then I can change my outcomes in my life. I’ve changed my outcomes in my life, and I can change my reality and I can change who I am and who I can be. And I think that helped me a great Ideal because we started in poverty. I mean, we I can take some stories about, you know, scarcity, scarcity, you know,
Jeremy Weisz
talk about that a little bit because I mentioned, you know, obviously, you know, through the research, you know, growing up in the Baltimore projects and in just kind of add some color to that, what, what did that look like for you?
Robert Wallace
Well, it’s very vivid to me very, very vivid. So we lived in a place that had, you know, a kitchen living room, one bathroom and had two bedrooms, right, that was our house. And you could imagine, you know, Penny seven
Jeremy Weisz
people,
Robert Wallace
seven people. Yeah, so mommy and daddy in one room, and five boys and the other. We had cases where we had to sleep two or three kids to a bed. We had situations where mom and Daddy, you know that they couldn’t make enough money to pay the heating bill or the electricity bill. So we would, you know, oftentimes had to go to bed wrapped and not put our coats on, and huddled in the bed to stay warm in the winter. We know sometimes you couldn’t pay the electric bill. So we had no electricity. So we had to study by candlelight. And it was just, I mean, I mean, I can I mean, just into the basics of like water, right? We, you know, when they couldn’t, we couldn’t pay the water bill back in the old days, not sure how it is now, they would cut your water, you just didn’t have any water. So we had to go to our neighbor’s houses to borrow water to cook and clean with with mom and daddy couldn’t pay the bill. And my mother and father were hot, sometimes two or three jobs. And so I know what it’s like to be poor. I know what it’s like to go to bed hungry. I know what it’s like to not be sure about tomorrow, or what tomorrow holds for you. I know what it’s like to be abused by the police. I know what it’s like to wonder if you live to see to see tomorrow. So So I understand poverty. And I ran I ran for mayor recently in Baltimore City. I came in second place. I was born and raised independent against the democratic machine. In one of the things I was running on, is how do we use entrepreneurship as a as a tool to to change the economic inequality that has been built and baked into society in Baltimore, and in most places, most cities now in our nation. Because I recognize that until we did to fix that the economic inequality in society in our cities, we’re gonna we’re not going to change the violence, we’re not going to change crime, you’re not going to change the hopelessness or helplessness. So my campaign was focused on big a big part of it was economic empowerment of people in the cities.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. I’m curious, Robert, at that age, when you first really experienced the racial inequality for the first time and you realize that but what the most understand thing you said, I think, is one bet. I mean, you said there’s no one there’s one bathroom with seven people, right? That’s my grandma. My my dad is one of four my my grandparents, you know, very modest house. Amazing love, but there was one bathroom in the house. Okay. And they have Thanksgiving. Okay, there’s 30 people at their house and I every time we go over there for Thanksgiving, I’m thinking, Okay, I’m a little worried. There’s one bathroom. Yeah. with whatever. 30 people in their small I don’t know how that she produced the food out of that small kitchen. But that was my concern. I don’t know why. I don’t know why, but but understated is the seven people. There’s one bathroom. That’s one bathroom, you know? Yeah, exactly. So anyways, the first time you experienced that you felt that racial inequality. Do you remember? Like, is there a time? Oh,
Robert Wallace
oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes, it was. It was 19 I’m sure my age. You know, Jeremy. It was 1963 1963. I think it was 6364. I was when I was young. I was a I was a big student of the civil rights movement. I mean, every newspaper article, every book that was written about the civil rights movement, I would I would read and I would study and I think was 63 or 64. I forget the year but but the year that they killed both three civil rights workers in Mississippi, okay. It was Cheney, Shriner and Goodman. These three young men who have gone to Mississippi to register voters in that and that in that state, and, and they they killed them, the KKK killed them. And I remember being in school, and having to pledge and to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for some. And I will say it that way. I remember my teacher saying, getting really mad with me. Radek we don’t that’s not right said again say it again I will say it again I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for some she would get so mad at me. And she take me to the principal. And he would tell me the same thing you got to say it? And I will keep saying it. Because I said, Sir, ma’am, my reality is that that is not true. And until it is true, then I will say it the way that it is. And boy, I tell you, I create all kinds of havoc. But that was Jeremy that was for me. Because it was a lie. It was a lie. And when I saw these three, these three men killed by the KKK, when I saw people with dogs and fire hoses, and I saw people that bled who couldn’t vote, and that their lives were in danger. And my grandfather came back from the war he would he would tell me these stories of how these black soldiers who came back for fighting for democracy, to keep democracy safe throughout the world, yet came back to their home, came back to America couldn’t vote, couldn’t hold couldn’t couldn’t tap into the GI the GI Bill to to get money to buy homes and buy farms and start businesses because they were black because the color of their skin. And I said how can I good conscience repeat this say this, this, this oath. That’s not true. And so until it is true, I told my datas I’m going to say it the way that it is a reality. And one day when that changes, then I will say it the way that you want me to say it. So I get a lot of trouble for that. But But you know, at some point you say enough is enough. And that’s not fuck, like that’s yesterday with it with the situation at the Capitol, right? Enough is in a window good men, and good women of goodwill, encourage stand up and say this is not right. This is enough for this and we’re gonna we’re gonna fight this. I remember again in the module of Washington, 1963.
And most people who study that they will talk about Dr. King’s famous. I Have a Dream speech. And it was a very, it was one of the best features that they’ve that we’ve seen in our lifetime, right. But there was a speaker that was a speaker before Dr. King, and he was a rabbi. His name was Rabbi jaquan Prince and Rabbi yaka Prince was a rabbi happen to be a rabbi in in Germany, within in Berlin, as Hitler was consolidating his power. And he saw, he saw firsthand the incremental dehumanization of the Jewish people. And he saw the violence perpetrated against them by Hitler and the Nazi regime. He saw it happening and what he said in his speech in 1963, before that, the kingdom and I’m going to paraphrase here, he said, You know, when I was a rabbi in Berlin, I saw appalling things. I saw the you know, the term ism that was perpetrated against the Jewish people. I saw that they that their property, and their and their rights were taken away by the Nazis. I saw they were taken away to to two camps, all that was appalling. But he said, what was more possible with more polling, and all of that was the absolute silence of the German people who saw what the Nazis were doing to their neighbors and to their fellow German citizens, and said and did nothing. And when I saw that chaos and evil in an insurrection yesterday in Washington, DC, my mom went back to 1963 with Rabbi Yaakov Prince gave that speech. And I said, Where are the Americans who call themselves patriots? Right? Where are they? Where’s their where their voices now, a Korean American Korean American flag and marching through the Capitol does not make you a patriot. And you get these people who think because they waved the flag, and they and they talk this talk about patriotism and the second amendment and all that, somehow, their pages, they’re not patriots, they’re traitors. And so until people in this country recognize that as Rabbi jaquan Prince reminded us in 1963, it is the appalling silence Have the rest of the people. There’s more that that is what got him. What made him more, more disturbed. And I think that we as Americans must have that same kind of anger, righteous, anger, righteous indignation for this country to be what it needs to be.
Jeremy Weisz
Yeah. And first of all, thanks for sharing that. Robert and I want to talk about Black Wealth the book for a second but but you’re right appalling silence. And I don’t know if you knew this, my grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. And when you’re talking about this, and he you know, if you go to inspires people go to InspiredInsider.com my about page, there is a interview with my grandfather with the holocaust foundation on there. He’s not alive anymore. But luckily, they captured that interview. And he talks about how they’re, you know, would whip whip people like dogs? Yeah, with people like animals, you know, have them lay down on their stomach and whip them. And that’s what that when you were talking that’s what I picture in my head. That’s what this that’s what it reminds me of?
Robert Wallace
You bet. You bet. You bet me his lesson for me. And I bet your grandfather, if he were alive today, he would tell you the same thing is that is that democracy and freedom is not free. And is not a foregone conclusion. So so so what happened to your to your grandfather, and in in Germany and Europe during that time? And what happened to people in America in the civil rights movement? And what’s happening now? That is those things unless good people stand up and be counted? can very easily happen again. I mean, look at me, look at Jeremy. You know, the church in South Carolina, eight people were in church and a prayer meeting. Okay, killed by this crazy is crazy, right wing guy, the synagogue in Pittsburgh, I think 11 people lost their lives. Right? So so this this can, this is not you we can’t sit back and think, Oh, this can’t happen again. Well, this can’t happen in America. Yes, it can. And it will, unless good women and good men, people of goodwill and consciousness in good conscience, if they don’t stand up, like the rabbi said, like, I think your grandfather would tell you if you were alive today. And my grandfather told me he’s passed away to you got to be big, we have good minimum of good, we’ll have to be vigilant about freedom, and about democracy. And if we lose that, then those who don’t, it doesn’t take much for evil to get root. The only way that happens is with when good men and good women do nothing and say no. And I saw it yesterday at the Capitol. And I said, Where are the people of goodwill? Where are the voices? Where are they are their actions against this evil? Right that I saw there? I mean, it’s incredible.
Jeremy Weisz
I guess I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we had happen to have this interview scheduled this morning, Robert, thanks for the amazing conversation and stories, but Black Wealth, the book, okay. What is a favorite story in that book that people should, should know about?
Robert Wallace
So in black wealth was started when I was a graduate student at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and back in the 80s. And I began some research, right, because we were getting as an MBA student at Dartmouth at the time, we were getting this was just the, the the dawn of the PC, and it revolution, right. So you had PCs, just being created, you got loads 123, you got WordPerfect. Remember that Jeremy, that was the one the original word, we’re processing software. But all this this explosion of technology opportunity. And we were blessed to have that many, many of the leaders coming to our school to lecture on, you know, these were some pretty amazing entrepreneurs. But I noticed that none of them were people of color. None of them were women. And I said to myself, and I was, you know, in this, in many cases, I was the only African American in that in my class, not very many African Americans at Dartmouth at that time in a business school. And I say to myself, this is this is not right, this is this doesn’t feel right, there’s something wrong. And so because of that, I began doing research for my graduate work to look at, okay, why do we not have more minority and women entrepreneurs in this situation? And what can we do to help change that, that that became the basis of my research on black wealth? And you know, in that in that book, I give number of case studies of successful minority and women entrepreneurs who overcome who overcame amazing odds to go on to build amazing businesses. And I wanted to highlight those people and want to highlight what they did that helped them be successful. And one of the things that I learned the main things that I learned in this research, but this one, I learned one thing, and that is the importance of building strategic partnerships and alliances. So as I love it, every case study of every successful entrepreneur, that that I studied, I recognize a lot of commonality. But one of them was they were successful at identifying, creating and building successful strategic alliances and partnerships. And if I can leave one lesson or one one thought, what if your audience is that they really need to spend time Mastering the Art of building alliances and partnerships. And for me, it has served me in my own businesses. Now, Jeremy, everything I do, I have partners and alliances, I do nothing by myself anymore. I used to when I was younger. But now as I, you know, learned and hate my experience, I recognize I can do a lot more when I can find good people to partner with. So that’s part of my business strategy.
Jeremy Weisz
Robert, I mean, it’s a you have an amazing background. And I didn’t mention in in the I mean, I mentioned your amazing background, the bio, but like you were engineering a pen, yes. Okay. And I think there’s, there’s something I’d love for you to talk about mindset for a second. Because, you know, if someone’s parents went to college, you kind of have a mindset. Okay, I could do this. And part of just doing something is believing you can do it. Yes. Right. Right. Right. So, at that time, did you have a mentor? Do you have someone pushing you coming from, you know, living in the projects to University of Pennsylvania, engineering work, you know, you know, Dartmouth business school? At what point did you like, Listen, your mindset had to be different from other people.
Unknown Speaker
arranger, I
Jeremy Weisz
imagine.
Robert Wallace
Amen. That’s true. You’re in forever a true. And there’s so many examples I can give you, Jeremy, bro, I’ll give you I’ll give you a few. So in high school, this is in Baltimore in high school. So I go from junior, from middle school, to high school. Now, keep in mind, in middle school, I came up from K through the ninth grade, we were in a very segregated education system in Baltimore City. So all my classmates were African American. All of my teachers were African American women. That was my reality from from kindergarten to ninth grade. Integration comes to Baltimore. I go from that to all what was previously an all white High School. So now I’m in an integrated school environment called Cal Poly tech, which is a school for in Baltimore for kids who are gifted in math and science. Right. So So I go to school. My dad made me go to the school, right. So I’ve always
Jeremy Weisz
been Jeremy, this culture shock.
Robert Wallace
Yeah. It really was. It really was. And you can imagine
Jeremy Weisz
a picture that Norman Rockwell painting of the little African American girl yeah, that’s what I picture in this.
Robert Wallace
Right? That’s right, as I felt right, so now I’m in school with you know, white kids. Now, not only way kids, but kids from upper middle class, economic, socio economic environment, so I’m totally caught shot, right. But but I’ve always been a good student. I’ve always done well in school. I mean, I just by God’s grace, I just always got I was a student just at law school. So I go to this visit this special school, and I still do well, I’m still getting A’s I’m still you know, but there were two professors there. And this one I want to share with you. The name was Mr. knighting. And Mr. Stanford. One was Polish American background in global Jewish American background these two men in my junior year at this high school pulled me aside so while we want to talk with you after class So Jeremy I’m think I’m in trouble I think I’m gonna get you know, I did something wrong, right. So after class, they come to me say and said Wallace, quite by last name in my in ESCO, wireless wireless, we’ve been talking and we think that you are smart enough to attend an Ivy League school. Now Jeremy, I teacher, at the time, I had no idea what Ivy League school was, I had no idea what that was. I felt some kind of Cologne you were something like that. Right? What what are the IV what they said, trust us. They said we think that you got what it takes, and we’re going to help you and these white men right now keep in mind, I came from a all black school system, all black teachers to integrate school now with primarily all white teachers. Almost not totally, but just pretty much and these two these two white men, one Polish American one Jewish American For whatever reason, Jeremy, they saw something in Bob Wallace. And they said, This kid, we’re going to help this kid, pull me up. And they mentored me. And I said, Mr. 90, Mr. Sanford, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have no idea what this is. But if you tell me that it’s important that I should do this, because we had built a relationship over my time, and at that school, I trusted these men. I said, I will do what you told me to do. So we proceeded to apply to Ivy League schools. And that’s how I got that’s how I got because these men told me maybe planted a seed in my mind, that said, we think that you’re good enough, or smart enough, right? To do XYZ. And I believed them. And I believed in Jeremy. And so because of that belief, didn’t like you said, that’s a witch, as they say, I can do it and not, you know, they’re not going to do it. And so we did. And so I got the pin. And there was another mentor, that helped me a pin. And his name was Dr. Jacob, April. No, forget him. He’s like a father to me. He was he was head of the head, I believe, close to being head of the mechanical engineering department at University of Pennsylvania. He was a Jewish American from Brooklyn. He taught me my first bit of Yiddish that I haven’t learned, right. And we would, we would, he mentored me through pin and that engineering program, and became like a father to me. All through my journey journey. I’ve been blessed with these mentors that have come into my life, Dr. Abel, and Mr. knighting. Mr. Sanford, I mean, you can go on this, so that I give a speech one time recently, and they’re talking about what I had done last, you know what all that’s fine. But there’s so many other people who deserve the credit, better, more than me. And I listed them started my grandparents and my parents and uncles, onsen, Dr. Abel, Dr. Mr. knighting, so forth. There’s so many people who helped me. So I can’t take any credit, oh, powerful,
Jeremy Weisz
you know, our mentors. And oftentimes, they see something in us that we don’t even know is there. Or even though we don’t see ourselves, and I know that you, I don’t want this conversation, and I know you have a meeting. I’d love if you have a minute to talk about. Specifically, you’ve worked with so many amazing companies, maybe Toyota or the CIA, what you did with them, if you have time for another story, if you don’t, I totally get it. But we’ll
Robert Wallace
let me do that Jeremy, then we can, hopefully we can, we can chat again. So so so with Toyota, Toyota was one of my best clients, I love that company as well. All my trucks in my in my energy company in my business are all Cleveland trucks. I love that company, right? Because they’re smart. They make a good product, and they’re decent people. So they hired me to help their supply chain to implement some of my some of my methodology for creating alliances and partnerships. I’ve written a book, my fourth book is on alliances and partnerships. And and I use that book to train executives and entrepreneurs on how a methodology for building alliances and partnerships, I’ve done this training all over the world, and it works. So Toyota hired me to help with their supply chain to help their businesses in their supply chain, to use this powerful tool of alliances and partnerships to build their businesses. With the CIA. I was invited to speak with their with their executives, because they were at a point where they wanted to bring in outside people
to share
their views on business and life and so forth. So I think it was, was was a very good idea. So I was I was invited to come and dress them at the headquarters in Virginia. And it’s so funny, I tell a funny story. So so we’re, you know, we’re having conference calls, preparing for me to come down again and deliver my my comments. And, and I’m Silly me, I say something like, well, don’t you have to do a background check on me a political thing before I come to the CIA. And it was looked at was chuckling on the other end, they said it seems to want you to understand, they said before we can pick up the phone to call you. We’ve done a very thorough background check.
Jeremy Weisz
We already planted a camera in your house. Don’t worry, right. Yeah, I
Robert Wallace
says we did a very thorough background check with you. And the guy came back and said, Sir, you were squeaky clean. So I’m not sure what that means. But it was just so fun. Good thing. Yeah. That’s a good thing.
Jeremy Weisz
I love it. Robert. Thank you. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Thanks for sharing your amazing stories in. You can’t see it right now. But I have a page up. You can anyone go to RobertWallace.com I’m at the RobertWallace.com/store page where you can see all your books. If you have questions about, you know, for Robert, he does do talk about some of the services you offer. I mean, you do go in and you do talks to companies, what other things do you offer, so people can reach out. And
Robert Wallace
we do. We do a lot of work with corporate corporations. We do something that we work in the area called what we call intrapreneurship training, where we work going corporations and we work with their with the employees on how they can do their jobs in a more entrepreneurial way, even though they are in a corporation and we call that intrapreneurship. Of course, my my my training program or hybrid alliances and partnerships. We work with large groups and corporations and nonprofits and government, as well as I do individual mentoring and tutoring of executives and coaching.
Jeremy Weisz
Thank you, Robert. Everyone, check out RobertWallace.com for more and I appreciate you taking the time this morning.
Robert Wallace
Thank you. God bless you. Take care
