Rebuilding the Path to the Middle Class
May 12, 2014
In his encouraging book, Operation HOPE founder and businessman Bryant argues that the mechanisms that enable upward mobility are simple and straightforward: education and guidance in personal finance, banking, and credit score management. With these tools, Bryant believes that the poor and working class can make great entrepreneurs, not in spite of their struggles, but because of them. “Youth from low-wealth communities,” he writes, “are forced to have much stronger coping skills, to deal with difficult people and difficult situations.... Just as loss creates leaders, so too does this sort of sustained adversity management create and cultivate a personality that better manages less-than-perfect circumstances.” Having grown up “in a diverse neighborhood of striving and struggling families,” Bryant writes from a place of authority. However, his ideas about improving financial literacy and expanding opportunity are actionable rather than groundbreaking; the book serves as an effective package for his programmatic plans and a manifesto for his organization. With luck, it will provide the needed instruction to boost working-class communities.
June 15, 2014
In this very readable short work, Bryant (founder of economic empowerment organization Operation Hope; Love Leadership: The New Way To Lead in a Fear-Based World) lays out his proposals to enable America's economically "struggling" classes to take charge of their economic lives. He argues that social class, rather than race, determines whether Americans will succeed or fail in the current political and economic climate. After working his own way out of poverty, Bryant came to believe that self-esteem, solid role models, and an environment that delivers hope and opportunity are the keys to restoring the American dream. He also gives achievable goals to empower people: promoting self-esteem through financial literacy and entrepreneurial spirit; providing inspiration to demonstrate that hard work and persistence pay off; and helping those left behind to find opportunity, not dependence, and to take control rather than submit to impoverishment. VERDICT Bryant's work is not ideological, partisan, or a panacea; rather it speaks in plain terms about how individuals, with help from society, can rise up out of poverty. A very uplifting and thought-provoking work.--Duncan Stewart, Univ. of Iowa Libs., Iowa City
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