The Journey to Freedom Podcast
Journey to Freedom serves as an exclusive extension of the Living Boldly with Purpose podcast series—a platform that inspires powerful transformation and growth. Journey freedom is a podcast hosted by Brian E. Arnold. The Journey to Freedom is an our best life blueprint exclusively designed for black men where we create a foundational freedom plan. There are five pillars: Identity, Trust, Finances, Health and Faith.
The Journey to Freedom Podcast
Breaking Stereotypes as a Black Doctor, He Asks, What Legacy Are You Building For Your Grandchildren?
Breaking Stereotypes as a Black Doctor, He Asks, What Legacy Are You Building For Your Grandchildren
Breaking Stereotypes as a Black Doctor
Ready to grow your audience? Join the Podcasting Challenge at http://podcasting4leads.com!
Dr. Willie Underwood shares his journey from a challenging childhood in Gary, Indiana, to becoming a doctor and American Medical Association presidential candidate.
Hear how he overcame systemic bias, special education misplacement, and stuttering through faith, grit, and a self-taught process.
A powerful testament to resilience and strategic thinking, Dr. Willie Underwood's life story challenges preconceptions about intelligence, race, and achievement in America. From being wrongfully placed in special education despite his mathematical brilliance to becoming a pioneering urologist with patents in multiple countries, his journey reads like a masterclass in turning obstacles into opportunities.
Dr. Underwood articulates how a systematic approach to improvement, first developed through football training, became the blueprint for his academic and professional advancement. "I took what was in the bad to the good, what was in the good to the great," he explains, detailing how this methodical process carried him from struggling with reading to excelling in medical school where racism was an everyday reality. When instructors accused him of cheating because they couldn't believe his test scores, he simply kept demonstrating excellence until they had no choice but to recognize his abilities.
Beyond his medical achievements, Dr. Underwood's community impact resonates throughout the conversation. He describes creating the Family Leave Act for surgical residents, revolutionizing policy across all surgical specialties, and developing a comprehensive COVID-19 response plan that saved countless lives in Black communities. "When I look at my career in life, it's helping people who would never know my name," he reflects, emphasizing how true service extends beyond personal recognition.
Perhaps most compelling is Dr. Underwood's philosophy on parenting and legacy-building. "Who I am becomes who they are, de facto," he observes about raising children. Through rich anecdotes about teaching his daughters about opportunity costs and generational wealth, he demonstrates how breaking cycles of limitation creates prosperity that extends far beyond one's lifetime. His mantra—"The future is held by those who prepare for it today"—serves as both personal creed and call to action for listeners.
Join us for this transformative conversation about overcoming systemic barriers, creating meaningful change, and building a legacy that benefits generations to come. Subscribe to hear more inspiring journeys on our podcast.
Gain insights on fatherhood, teaching opportunity cost, and breaking stereotypes as a Black man. Understand the power of high expectations and community to shape identity and success.
👋 Follow me for more podcasting tips and exclusive offers:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbrianearnold
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianearnold
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@brianearnold1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianearnold/
X: https://x.com/DrBearnold
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brianearnold1
Books: www.brianearnold.com/books
Http://theposcastingchallenge.com
I can't teach what I don't know. So for my child to be a broad thinker, then I need to be a broad thinker. For them to be a reader, then I need to be a reader. If I'm sitting around, we didn't have video games when I grew up. But if I'm sitting around watching TV and playing video games, then they will sit around and watch TV and play video games. So if I'm smoking weed, they will smoke weed. If I exercise, they will exercise. Right, who I am becomes who they are. De facto. They got two choices they either assimilate into that environment, which most people do, or say I hate you, I hate that environment, and run from it.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome to another edition, another fantastic edition. I can't wait to do all these of our Journey to Freedom podcast because I get to meet and Dr Underwood I don't know if you have watched any of the shows before, but we're about 170 episodes in and so every time I get to do one I'm just so excited and so happy because I get to learn from other people. I say that I am the most fortunate one in here because I get to grow, I get to learn, I get to talk to folks who have been doing it and, of course, the Journey to Freedom program is just that. It's like what have we been doing as black men over the last? You know however old we are I happen to be 60. I know Dr Underwood pretty much went to high school the same time I did, so we're right around the same age. So what have we been doing with our lives to make a difference? You know we had I think I just kind of explained to you to make a difference. You know we had I took I just kind of explained to you I took a group of 18 black men down to Alabama in January to kind of do a civil rights tour and that I had only been there one time before.
Speaker 2:The group that I brought kind of from the West several of them had never been to Alabama, never been to the South and just going. Okay, this is a different world, this is a different place. You know, we see all the movies, we see all the pictures, we see. You know, sometimes we get a hold of books and things that folks don't want us to, or we get stories from relatives. But to me there was nothing like going there, feeling the atmosphere. It was palpable, it was thick, it was going to the Bryan Stevenson Museum and you know, I've been to the African-American Museum in Washington DC. But Washington DC is not the South. Right, there's just something about being here in New York. Now is not the South. There's something when you go to a restaurant and you ask a waiter or a waitress, like you know, how much are you getting paid? And they say we're getting paid $2.15 an hour. I said, well, you make a lot on tips. No, we don't make very much on tips. So you're about $500 a month.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're living on that in 2025?
Speaker 2:You're living on $500 a month. How is that even close to possible? And then you go through neighborhoods that you know were segregated back in the 60s and are still segregated in 2025. And you know the deficit. You see houses on one side of the street that are nicer and kept up, and then you go to the other side and they're project housing. And then you see food deserts where you're in a predominantly black neighborhood that has only liquor stores to buy food at and not grocery stores, and you're like this is really the platform where they sold slaves is still intact At Williams Memorial.
Speaker 2:I'm like, how come this is still here? I, whether it's memorial, but I'm like how come this is still here? Why, you know I, I get it, it's history and but you know, the pettus bridge is still called the pettus bridge, even though you know there's been. The historical society says that, you know, this man's name is important to remember, and I'm like this wasn't a good man, you know. And so to have that and to say, okay, that great. But then what are we doing? How are we impacting the world? How are we impacting society?
Speaker 2:And so, you know, I've asked Dr Anywhere to be on today so we can talk about his journey and talk about what he's been able to do. You know we were talking before the show and he's, you know, actually in the running for the president of the American Medical Association and you know, actually in the running for the president of the American Medical Association and, you know, you think, would that have been impossible in the 50s? Would that have been impossible in the 60s? No, it wasn't even. You know, for him just to be an MD in the 50s and 60s and be able to serve the people he's been able to serve and where we've come and the difference he's made.
Speaker 2:And so, like I do with all of our guests, I ask them to tell their story and then we're going to chop it up after that and, you know, kind of talk about the reality of our lives and what it means to be a dad and identity.
Speaker 2:And you know we'll talk about some health things. You know one of the things and I don't know if this has changed, but you know my understanding is that our life expectancy as black men is right around that 72, 73 years old and I'm hoping it's getting older. I have a father who's 86 now, who's running in track, meets and doing some phenomenal stuff, but I know health hasn't been, you know, something that we've concentrated on or that we spend time on, and I know we're doing better now, but there's probably some still pitfalls as a culture that we continue to do. That isn't good for our bodies, isn't good for our health and high blood pressure and diabetes and all those things and maybe we can talk a little bit about that. But before we do that, I really want to talk about your story and how you know, how you became to be and who you are, and so the floor is yours. Go ahead, I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 1:I want to start off with this. I've had the opportunity to do a lot of great things and I'm going to get into that, but what I want the audience to really understand that there's no difference between me and them. Period. I didn't fall out of heaven. There was no special thing that happened to me. I tell people I rose up out of hell and what I'm going to talk about is what that rise is like, and when I talk to my mentees, I share these things with them so that they can actually really understand what life is for us and begin to to think about well, if that's the reality, then what do we do to not make that a reality tomorrow? Okay, so you know I was. I was, as I said earlier. You know I was born in colorado springs, on the air force base, so my father was in the army in 1965. That makes me 60 as well. So then, what month in?
Speaker 2:1965, in 1965?.
Speaker 1:January, january. I came in Two months older than you, so you were in Colorado, france and I was born in Denver, general.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Same time, Same time. Right, you know so. Then you know and, and, and. Within six months they were in divorce. So you know, truth of the matter is that they were separated. My mother went to visit them, Things happened, and here come me Right now. Now there's a caveat to that. My mother, after having my sister, she was informed that if she tried to have another child she could die in labor. Hey, it's.
Speaker 2:Dr B, and let me ask you something just here real quick. Are you tired of doing the same thing over and over and not getting the results you want? Are you serious about making some changes this year that will impact you in a huge way? Maybe you're putting out content right now and it's not turning into customers. Or maybe you're uploading videos, but you're not sure why or how it's even going to help. You know, I see a lot of people that are making a whole bunch of cold calls to the wrong people and no one's answering. No one wants to talk to you. It might just be that you're just doing what you've been doing and crossing your fingers, hoping it finally works this year, but let me tell you what. That is not a strategy and it will continue not to work.
Speaker 2:That's why I created the podcasting challenge and it's coming up fast. In just a few days, I'm going to walk you through the mindset, the tool set and the skill set you need to create a powerful podcast. That's right, a podcast. You won't believe what a podcast can do, one that builds real value and creates new clients. And if you grab a VIP ticket, you'll get to join me for a daily Zoom Q&A sessions where I'll personally answer your questions and help you tailor everything to your goals. This is your moment. This is your year. Go to thepodcastingchallengecom right now and save your seat. The link is in the show notes and the description. Thank you for watching these podcasts. Now let's get back to the conversation. Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:All right. So that was in the circle, you know, in the backdrop of her carrying me for those nine months, understanding that she might not survive. So my mother says that I got a great piece. I read, I studied, I was preparing, you know, for the idea that that I may not live through this. I may not live through this. So luckily she did and I did, and that's why I was born at the Air Force Hospital, because they were providing better care than what my mother believed, the care she would receive in Gary and Deanna, right when she would have had me. That's where she grew up and where I ended up growing up up. So moved to gary, I'm there, I I start school.
Speaker 1:You know I'm in a loving family aunts, grandmother, cousins, I mean. You know we're, you know we're like that, that large, loving family, loving neighborhood, everyone you know knows each other. Like you know, I tell people you, I remember going trick or treating when I was five years old and we could name everyone who lived on going up 25th and Jefferson up to 27th, back down 27th, right to 25th, and we would lay the candy out and so if you got Snickers or whatever you could say, I've got three Snickers Mrs Jones, mrs Allen, mrs So-and-so right, and you can lay those Snickers out. You wouldn't know which Snicker came from which person, but you knew the three people who gave you Snickers, right, I mean, that's how close that community was. That also meant that whatever you did, they would drop down on you in a heartbeat. I mean, they were boom. They didn't have cell phones, but that phone, that phone be jumping off the hook. And you were held accountable for your behavior because you were representing the family. You don't represent you, you represent your grandmother, your mother, your cousins. Right, I'm going to call your grandmother, all, right, I mean, so that's important.
Speaker 1:So I started school. I went to kindergarten, through the second grade, saint monica's um elementary. It was a black catholic school and they believed in excellence. They believed that we all were capable of excellence. I mean, it was just clear. It was just a culture we expect you to produce. They had a television station within the school and we would have to do like each class would rotate to see who were the two, you know, the two announcers who would be given the news that morning.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean, it was like a phenomenal place and I didn't understand that, of course, why I was there and, to be honest, I wasn't that bright. My sister was an academic superstar to the point that the teachers would ask me there was a joke. I don't know it was a joke, but they would say we think he's adopted. Oh, my god, he's adopted because he can't be like you. Sure, marching your sister Because she seemed to understand stuff and you seem to just be like we can't say the word, but you're like what the heck?
Speaker 1:Then I would always say I'm a late bloomer, I'm a late bloomer, I'm a late bloomer. The idea that I was going to catch on, right, I just knew I would catch on, so, but I wasn't. But. But the interesting thing is that I was at grade level. Okay, right, it wasn't that I was behind, I was at grade level, but they were. You know, I'm average here and their expectations are here and my sister was performing here. So they're like she's performing here, our expectations here, and you're this average dude right here, and we'll understand why you can't get up here.
Speaker 1:That was, that's the backdrop, okay, but everything wrapped around me because the expectation was that I had it in me. So it was sort of like constant love. We expect you to be able to get a hundred on the spelling test. How come you never got a hundred on spelling test? That's what I'm talking about, you know, right, okay, so in 1974 we you know the supreme, 1973, I think the supreme court passed me getting rid of restrictive covenants so now blacks could move into white neighborhoods. My mother read it in the paper, jumped in a car, drove to Miller, part of Gary, where the lake is, and bought, bought the first house she saw for sale, really the first one she saw for sale, and that was the whole process. Right, because they were, you know. So we move in there and you know folks hate us. You know you're selling, you know you're lowering our property value. And that's the first time I realized that my skin made me a criminal. Right, I've never experienced that ever.
Speaker 2:Right you know. Correct me if I'm right though, because because I you know, all I know is the stories of gary indiana. Right, we hear about jackson five and all that, but what I understand it was a lot of gary was predominantly black and, you know, most of the folks that I talked to in that era really kind of didn't even interact with white folks at all, because the community was, like you were saying to me was, so close-knit, it was so tight, there was, you guys had your own stores, you had pretty much everything where you never really had to venture out, and now your mom goes. This is what my dad did too. My dad, he got into the affirmative action program and so we're down in Denver, we're down in the Five Points area and what they call Park Hill, and all of a sudden we move out to the white neighborhood and we're the only black folks in that.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like we got kind of similar, similar backgrounds. So when I say how, what happened? You experienced the same stuff. What the hell you doing here? No, no, no, no. Here's the interesting thing. To that point, to be honest, I had the only whites I remember interacting with were the nuns, and and, and, and the, and, the priests, right, and none of them ever. You know, I was just. You know, they were like. You know, we don't you, we think you're a really smart kid and we expect more of you, right, that's what I got, right, you know.
Speaker 1:So all of a sudden, I go to school and they're like well, you know, you're dumb, you're dumb, you stupid, you this, and that I'm like what, what, what, what, what, when did that happen? Right, how did that happen? So, so, so here I am. I'm now in the third grade. I start there and it was if I said culture shock, it would be an understatement. But I end up in a class and the teacher tells us to read and I'm Underwood, I'm listening to all them reading. It gets to me and she says don't worry about it. And I said, what do you mean don't worry about it? She says, well, what books did you read. So I told her which was different, because whatever the series they were reading in public school, public school, so you need to go back and read the books that we read. So they took me out of class and put me in a special ed class, which was kindergarten reading level, and that class was all black and predominantly male. Wow, and they were all dark skinned black males. So that's the thing too, because we had a couple of light skinned black males my age who did not. That didn't happen to them. Okay, so not, not. Here's just your thing. I went from the top third grade class, based upon my testing, to the bottom. Yes, okay, so now the work is easy, it's, they can't read, they're this and we had it so. And then the real teacher, mrs Burke, who's a decent person. She gets sick and the substitute comes in and we're clashing. Now here's the class, the class. You know, if I'm an educator, the class makes me rethink who I'm dealing with. So here's the clash.
Speaker 1:George Washington is the father of our nation. My clash is yes, he is Literally, because he owned slaves, raped women that's why the majority of black people are named Washington and Jefferson, because of the slaves and then producing reproducing. Matter of fact, I said Jefferson even said that the greatest valuable item you can have is a fertile black woman. We're better more than any land Third grader, and I'm saying these kind of things. Better more than any land, right, third grader, and I'm saying these kind of things.
Speaker 1:Now, what I got was you carry your butt home. I'm gonna call your mother, who works in chicago, to come pick you up because you're a menace. And no one says well, how does he know that? How does he use words like prejudice, that he could define them? How does he, right, you get what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:None of that came out. What came out was he's a menace to the point that that, even if the bus was going to leave in 30 minutes, they wouldn't let me on the bus. They would make my mother come pick me up, drive 45 minutes to come pick me up. That's how big of a menace. They saw me as OK. That's how big of a menace. They saw me as Okay, so I'm with this group. So in the fifth grade the teacher asked you know everyone, what do they want to be when they grow up? Now, I did play football and I started playing football at eight and I was pretty good at it. So I'm in a class fifth graders, and every single they're all predominantly black men. Every single, with a couple hispanic guys, no whites they would. Every last one of them said they want to be an athlete every last one of them the little short, little kid whose father is 5.53.
Speaker 1:You know he's going to be an nba player. I mean this is like, and I'm you know I he's going to be an NBA player. I mean this is like, and I'm you know I'm looking at this going. You guys are ridiculous. This is clowns. Now, there were two students in the class who actually played organized sports at that time. That even makes it worse. They didn't play organized sports. So two played organized sports. This guy, alan and myself. Alan does say he wants to be a baseball player and I said I want to be a doctor.
Speaker 2:Now are you still in special ed class?
Speaker 1:Yes, I am, yes, I am.
Speaker 2:When I look back at my, I mean we went to that school. I told you we went to the neighborhood all the way through high school. All of almost all of the black folks that went into that school district. We were all in special ed class. Correct, Correct, Backwards.
Speaker 1:And they were getting money.
Speaker 2:Because half of my heritage is Native American. I was supposed to not be heard and not seen, so I wasn't able. You know, I knew that George Washington had taken out his slave's teeth to make his own dentures. I knew that, but I didn't know. You know some of the other things. You know. I wasn't going to say any of that to anybody at all and I was told to be silent. And you're being disruptive and now you're telling folks you want to be a doctor. Oh, I can imagine how that went over.
Speaker 1:Oh dude they fell out laughing, of course, even the teacher. Even the teacher snickered. Now, many, you know, I've had black teachers, right, this is a black teacher at the time she snickers, right, because this is funny. What the hell are you talking about, dude? And I'm going. Why are you laughing at me? None of you guys play organized sports. You're not going to. Yeah, you, none of you guys play organized sports. You don't even play. Look at you, man, you five. Come on, man, I've been asked to do this. I apologize.
Speaker 1:Your mother and father, you know my father's five seven. Well, I said how the hell you going to be an NBA dude? Yeah, like, how does that make sense to you? Right, so I can't be a doctor, but you are going to be like, like, go for it, come on, but it's not going to happen, right? Yeah, so, so, um, um, so, that's so, boom, there you are.
Speaker 1:So now, sixth grade, my mother tries to put me back in the Catholic school. I take a test and the results are third grade reading level. They confused. They said, wow, your son has been. Has he gone to school? Has he gone to school? And they said, yeah, because, why? Because he. We looked at his exit tests and we looked at his repeating, trying to get back in entrance tests, and he's still at the same reading level. How's that third grade? How's that possible? Right? But he is at a seventh and a half grade math level.
Speaker 1:And that was because I used to sit around and do math problems. Wow, right, because you can teach yourself math. What I would do is get old math books and I would study the examples in the books and learn how to solve the problems. And then you do test questions, look at the answer in the back and you go on. I figured it out. There you go, boom, okay.
Speaker 1:So now I'm mentally devastated, of course. So the sixth grade I'm behaving poorly. But then, the same time, and the kids in the neighborhood, everybody's calling me a thief, a criminal. I stole their bike, I'm a horrible kid, right. All this is happening, ok. So now it hits to the point. They must be true, right? I'm dumb, I'm stupid, I'm a criminal.
Speaker 1:So I began to do things that would have ended up in me going to prison instead of the college, right? So you know, I was getting high, I was doing stuff, all these things is what I expected, that that I should be doing, all right, remember. So now, expectations, academically Right, going from that to now, we expect you to be lowered in law OK, great. Be lowered in love, okay, great. And you rise to your expectations, of course.
Speaker 1:So, so, um, in the summer of the seventh grade, I had a vision, and the vision said this to me what happened to you is criminal, but what you're doing to yourself is more criminal. And this is. And I prayed, I asked God, I asked God and I'm going to go back to a story then something that gives it put that in a little context why I prayed to God. So I prayed to God that God would help me, but not for me, but so that others could see me and know what's in them. Wow, wow, right.
Speaker 1:So the purpose is for others, because I, because what I was missing was for me to see someone and go wait a minute. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You said this about me, but that dude looks like me, so you can do it, I could do it, right, right, that's sort of what you're missing, right, that's the. That's what I was missing, because I was no longer connected to that black community, with the black doctors and all that sort of stuff that I saw on a routine, regular basis. I'm now in in a war that I don't know that I'm in, okay, okay, so why did I turn to that? So when I first moved to Miller, I developed a stuttering problem.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I couldn't get a sentence out. So my grandmother would come. So my grandmother went to church all Sunday with the church, bible study in the beginning, right, sunday school, and then going through church setting the first row and all that stuff. So my grandmother missed Bible, you know, missed Sunday school. And she would come over to my house and we would watch Oral Roberts. And she did that for about six weeks and she would say you know, oral Roberts used to stutter, oral Roberts used to stutter, oral Roberts used to stutter, old robbers used to stutter, old robbers used to stutter Right, but look at, look at the church, look at how people revere his words, look at, I mean, that's the stuff she's pointing out, right, right, so, so, so my grandmother.
Speaker 1:So finally, one day she says do you want to give rid of this stutter? And I said, yes, you know what I didn't say? Yes, what I said was you know, right, you got to understand. I mean, yes Was a 45 second thing, okay, right. So she says okay, do you believe? She says we're going to pray, so we pray. And what she said was if you believe God, what we're asking God to do is not take the stuttering from you but to give you the gift of words of language so that people will listen. That when you speak, people will listen, whoa, right, that's like a prayer and a half. When you speak, people will listen, right. So now, there you go. Oh, so don't. Stuttering goes away, so I saw that that's right.
Speaker 1:I saw it didn't go away like the next day. But so the next thing, you know, stuttering is gone. Okay, right. So now I realize I'm behind. I ask god for help. So I I need a process.
Speaker 1:So I lay out what I did was I went back to when I started Pond Horner football. I was eight, they were 10. They were faster, they were in better shape, they were all these things, and my grandmother would get me up at seven in the morning and we had a workout and food routine and exercise routine, a food routine to get me ready, which made me a better athlete. Yeah, so now I go okay, I remember I couldn't tackle. I practiced tackling. I remember I couldn't do this, I practiced that. I remember I couldn't run and I did this. So I knew how I had gotten better as an athlete. So I I took that and said, okay, great, academically, there are things that I'm not good at, bad at things that I'm good at and things that I'm great at. So the great has one thing in it math. The good at it had nothing and everything else was in the bad at right. So I said, okay, what I have to do is figure out how to take what's in the bad to the good, to the good, to the great. Okay, right. So let me just figure this out. So I would ask teachers questions, and now they know what I was asking them for and I was, you know. So I put a process together that really allowed me to do that right reading, writing, arithmetic. Reading, writing, arithmetic. Okay, right.
Speaker 1:So now I like, leap, like that summer, to the eighth grade. I leap the eighth grade, I leap, right. So then I get to the ninth grade. Now in the ninth grade they this okay, go back. So when I am in the um seventh grade, I take the first test in seventh grade, math and they call me in and they accuse me of cheating. So I take the test again. They make me take another test, another test, another test. Now no one says what's going on here. Then all of a sudden I show up and they take me out of my class to another class, which is the eighth grade class. Now you think back. I'm a seventh grader in a class for the eighth graders. You know they don't want me in that class. Of course not Because I'm a seventh grader. No one talked to me. One girl, one person talked to me in that class. Okay, so now I'm in seventh grade taking eighth grade math, and I finished the seventh grade and I still got to take math. So what do you think they did? They?
Speaker 1:made me take eighth grade math again. So what do you think the teachers thought when I showed up to eighth grade math again?
Speaker 1:that I failed, that's right. Oh yeah, yeah, you must have failed. And there was a guy who said that in class called me out in class. Now my classmates are, like you were in the eighth grade math last year like they're thinking some of this stuff makes sense, like how was he even right, you know? But there's teachers think that I flunked the eighth grade right. I mean it's like crazy. So they didn't say hey. So then then when I started high school, they put me in remedial algebra.
Speaker 2:No way except at the high level. They put you in the lower. Oh correct, remedial algebra.
Speaker 1:So I'm in remedial algebra and it was at the class after lunch. So I'm coming there and I'm putting my head down or whatever I'm tired man, you right putting my head down and stuff. And uh, mrs ford, black teacher, she said, and they were all like you know the other teachers, they were trying to figure out I think he's on drugs, I think he's this and that. Right, you know, none of that's true. So so then she said to me hey, I noticed you don't do your homework. Why not? And I said because it's busy work. She says what I said it's busy work. So you give us 30 problems to do. I can solve the problem, I can figure this out doing three. Why should I do the other 27? When I can go on and practice the things that I'm trying to be better at, like reading and that sort of stuff and writing, I can work on those other courses that I need more time to get done in, and this you know, I'm just doing your busy work.
Speaker 1:So she says, okay, but homework is half the grade. And I said, well, that doesn't make any sense. She said because if you get an a on the exam and you get an f on the homework, then you get a ci class. So how did that make sense to you? If the homework? So what's the purpose of homework? She says practice. So if I need to practice then I shouldn't get an a on the test. If I get an a on the test, obviously I didn't need to practice. How does does this make any sense? So I said, let's make a deal. If I get 100 on your exam, I want full credit for the homework. And she says well, I'll do it if you get a 98. I said nope, because if I get a 98, I should have done the homework. Now no one's looking at what am I? 15, 14?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 14, man great.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And no one says, hey, wait a minute, this kid may be onto something, right? He may be different than we think. Yeah, there may be something about him, right? No, they don't say that she goes. Okay, cool.
Speaker 1:So I take the test and I finish before anyone else I got finished it. So then I walk up to her and she says are you sure you're going to turn to? Said I said, wait one second. As I looked through, I said let me make sure that I answered every question, because I don't want to not answer a question and then miss that one. And then, right, because I didn't answer it. So I go through, okay, all the answers, they all answered.
Speaker 1:So I give it to her and she sits there and she grades it and she jumps up out of class and leaves, has another teacher come in to watch the class and everybody's like, ooh, so she go. What'd you do? You, correct, correct, you in trouble, right, correct, correct. You remember those days, right, ooh, you in trouble. So so what she does? She goes down to the school and was like what the hell, how was he in my class? This dude finished this test in 15 minutes. He didn't miss any. This was like. He just, you know like, we woke him up and said, hey, take the sat, and he got a, you know a 15, 50, like you know, like this there's something wrong. So so they wouldn't get me out of her class, but what we did was special work so that I could correct so I can get through the whole algebra thing.
Speaker 1:And I never did the homework, I just kept getting hundreds on the exams and went on my merry way and I was taking different tests than everyone else. And then you know geometry the next year, and all that right, and then I end up, um applying to one college. So I was a football athlete, um, um had some awards and stuff and I wrestled mediocre wrestler but I was. But I was captain because the calisthenics, you know, I ran.
Speaker 1:I used to do a thousand push-ups, thousands instead of let's do all these crazy exercise routines with which the the when the coach wanted to punish the wrestling team, he would turn it over to work out over to me and he would leave. He would say peace out, I'm gonna leave you with willie, peace out, right. And we'd be running the stairs. Okay, it's, there's something. And you're like dude.
Speaker 1:You know they would say this dude is crazy, right, he's like I'm like, I'm like, yeah, we've got to run up and down 10 times, let's see, we're all right, I'm running and I'm leading the pack and it was so was behind. I would run down to the last person. Push that person back up, right? I mean, it's like that kind of athletic, you know, kind of work ethic that I put to it and that's the same workout that I put in academia. So I get to apply to one college and that's morehouse, um, because that's where I was going, because king went there and the motto was be someone, be a morehouse man. I want to be someone, so I went to morehouse.
Speaker 2:It was a great experience, um from indiana, I went down to georgia and oh my which was something okay, which I really like school.
Speaker 1:You were at the white school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, correct, correct, which I learned which I learned that there was a finite area that I needed to stay in if I wanted to make it home a lot. All right, you know. So there you go. So we ended up Morehouse. Then I went to medical school, suny Upstate Syracuse.
Speaker 1:You know which was quite an experience, you know. You walk in the bathroom at the top. You know big, bold letters and on the chalkboard this was like all over is it too late to send these ends back to africa, or should we just kill them all? I mean, that's what, oh, that's. You know, you can imagine, right, you know the hostility, this stuff. And and then I created a thing, what I call the cat in kick ass and take names.
Speaker 1:You know, I struggled at first because of the environment and because of a whole lot of other stuff, and then, when I just said, you know what, it's time to kick ass and take names, and then, um, and that's sort of what we did, I had a crew with me going to Morehouse too and we just basically just said we're going to dominate this. And then that's sort of what happened, right, that's how I got honors and stuff. Matter of fact, there's a plaque on my picture on the wall outstanding young alumnus because once that process started and I was rolling again, it's going back to what I learned in the at eight playing football, what I learned in restructuring my academic process. I just applied that to now to medical school. It's the same thing.
Speaker 1:I'd applied it in college too to be able to, because I had to work my way through college 35, you know, 30 to 35 hours a week, you know, trying to do this so I can afford to go to school Right. So so there I'm in get through a match in urology which was very competitive, got a master's. Also got a master's in anatomy cell biology while I was there and then did residency, which brought on this whole different set of issues, challenges. Where did you do residency?
Speaker 2:at the University of Connecticut for urology two years of general surgery, all kinds of things bouncing around the.
Speaker 1:University of Connecticut for urology. Two years of general surgery. Yeah yeah, two years of general surgery Did four years of urological surgery and we were the first Black surgical residents that were there. Of course, right, which was you know which. Again, you know which was brought on all kinds of stuff, you know, just like in medical school, I had Tom Blocker in college who mentored me and helped me, taught me a lot. I had Greg Threat in medical school and I get a guy, lou Brown, who was the thoracic surgeon and you know that's the first time I'd ever heard the term a rabbi and he was like my rabbi. Lou Brown was a powerful, amazing guy and he took to me. He now says he did it because of my work, ethic and everything, which is what it was, what I knew. That's what I had to do to be considered a part of the team. I had to lead the team, right, you know, you just can't be a member of the team to be considered a part of the team, team to be considered a part of the team.
Speaker 1:So robertson johnson, clinical scholar as a fifth urologist to do that, which is pretty competitive fellowship in health services, research, and then I built an academic career, had millions of dollars in grants, published in top journals, did a lot of cool stuff, and then I left that uh in. Now, in this process, I've always considered myself a clinician scientist. I mean doing research and then scientific endeavors as a clinician entrepreneur, I have patents in New York. I mean patents in the US and Japan Prostate cancer biomarker. We created a startup company around that and now work with other companies and social change agent, and that's really about how we make the system work better. How do we do things?
Speaker 1:That led to me doing a couple of cool things that just really want to highlight. One was we created the Cannon Association society was now the resident social society of american college of surgeons, and the first thing we did was create the family leave act. So for so the family was this so if you were a female surgical resident and if you had a baby and you took off four weeks and a day, you had to repeat your whole year of residency. Oh my gosh, yes, ridiculous.
Speaker 1:And I learned that from a guy and his wife that I'd gone to medical school with and they were MD PhDs and we were talking. They mentioned that. So then we were looking for something to take on because we had just started and I suggested that and we took it on and we were able to get the surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, to back it. But the interesting thing is that once they adopted it it went out across all the surgical residencies urology, obgyn, thoracic surgery, everyone Okay. And we created it was called the family leave because they said, okay, great Men should be able to have paternity leave, they should be able to take off as a family member, sick, you know, not just around having a baby but around the whole process.
Speaker 1:And that was successful and that was important, I mean. I think I mean it has evolved into this thing on ACGME, has it? That accredits residencies. I mean this is, you know, great. So then, what else you know we created? What else you know we created?
Speaker 1:Um, when covet hit, we had and there's a whole lot of stuff in the middle. I can kind of be here all day talking about everything. So, you know, from doing the first prostatectomy in nigeria to getting a, an uh, uh, what is it called? A blessing from the pope, right not to you know, to the stuff I did in the Vatican, which I can't tell anyone. I mean it's like it's crazy. My life has been amazing. So we, so we, we, covid hit.
Speaker 1:I get a phone call from 20, it was 20, a bunch of ministers on the phone, one other doctor, and they said, hey, hey, can you get on call with us? And we were, okay, cool, and this is when covid first started. And, to be honest, I didn't even understand the implications of covid at the time. You know, my, my ex-wife said, hey, did you go grocery shopping? And I said, oh, yeah, you know whatever. Because you know, I don't, I don, you know. I was like, what are you talking about? She goes we're going to die. And I'm like, oh yeah, whatever. And I go to the grocery store and there's nothing.
Speaker 1:So people, so the call. You know we're on the phone with the county exec and the health county, health commissioner and the public service person, social service person from the county, and the ministers all told their stories and it was someone got sick on Thursday and they were dead by Tuesday and this was Tuesday morning that we're on this call. So no one, you know the county exec doesn't have a plan. No one has a plan, everybody's. We don't know we're going to do this any other. So we get off the phone with them and I said, listen, I promise that we don't know we're going to do this any other. So we get off the phone with them and I said, listen, I promise that we don't have a plan. And so let's create a plan again.
Speaker 1:You want to be a football player? You can't run, you can't catch, you can't tackle. Plan right, you want it. You can't read, you want to read. Plan right, you're in college with a bunch of kids who were prepared to be there. You want to catch them. Plan, you're in medical school. They don't want you here. You want to get through Plan. You're in residency and they don't want you here, and some do, some don't. But you want to be a great doctor, plan, right, boom, there you go. We need a plan. Okay.
Speaker 1:So I said let's write a plan, let's have it done by the end of the day, and they're like what I said. Now here's the plan. We're going to go from society, our area, to to the hospital. So what does that look like? Testing, right, if someone's sick but not someone gets diagnosed with it, but they're not sick, how do we? How do we protect their family? How do we social isolate? How do we give them the resources that they need, all these things? We thought of it like their children being able to have access to the things they need for school, like Wi-Fi and stuff like that. I mean, all this was laid out. It took us three days to do it, and then they said what do we do? No-transcript, look at it and figure out what you can do. So companies who had people at home, they were paying. They said, hey, you need people to call people to see how they're doing. We'll give you that. We got to write. You know all this stuff. Mortality rate in the black community crashed like this, saving lives. Those people never know who we are, right, they never know what happened. Right, the government, since they were looking for plans, gave us four million dollars to implement the plan I mean it was. It was like you know, we boom to the point that the plan was in the second wave of COVID. It was adopted by the entire county and the county took it over. So so those are.
Speaker 1:When I look back and say well, what are you proud of? Yeah, being a doctor. Yeah, I'm glad that I've been able to provide great prostate cancer care, great neurologic care. But when I look at my career in life, it's helping people who would never know my name. Yeah, never know I existed. Right, I mean, that's what this is about, because the woman who would see me as a kid walking down the street doing something stupid, who picked up the phone and called my grandmother, right, that person is partially responsible for the lives that I say Right, yeah, a few teachers that said you have talent. Responsible, the people that I named Tom Blockerer, greg Three, lou Brown. Responsible Mother, grandmother, aunts, responsible Cousins we're all responsible for help shaping the God that's been able to do the stuff that I've done. Spokesperson for NCI. Know, I mean this is like crazy. I look back and I laugh and like who is that guy and how did I get to do that?
Speaker 2:yeah, oh my gosh. Thank you for sharing all this, because it's so. You know, you think, like you said, the people that are responsible. And when I think about, like, like the identity that you were able to create amidst all the struggles, I mean I know you have a quote from Frederick Douglass, who you know was a man who taught himself how to read. You know, because the lady who was teaching him how to read, the husband, said if you teach that boy to read, he'll never be a slave.
Speaker 1:You can't be a slave.
Speaker 2:And so you kind of took on that whole persona of I'm going to figure out how to make this work despite the obstacles against me. I mean, there have been some amazing people in your life that probably helped you create that identity that I can tell the people that you talked about that you have reverence for, but what, intrinsically in your mind, you know, when those people are trying to shut you down, people are stopping you, that no, god has something greater for me, or I have. You know, you and your, your grandma, you pray and you stop stuttering and kind of just walk me through this identity stages.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean it's it mean it's interesting, I don't understand it Right. I mean, I do know my mother worked for Conroe and Railroad. She was the first you know black person in her area that they hired. And she was in that first and only for a very long time. And my mother did things to show me the world. So, for example, when we had put money on the house and we were trying to get in the house and I'd already started school at Marquette Elementary in that area, which was hard as hell to get me there and to pick me up every day, right. So so because we were always closing any minute. So then, and we were living in a roach infested place, right At the time, I mean, and we were living in a roach infested place, right at the time I mean, you know she was renting out, so we wanted to get out of that hellhole which got condemned after we moved out. But that's a side story.
Speaker 1:So my mother, the woman, calls Jones Williams. So she calls and she says I want to back out the deal. My mother understands, she wants to get out of the deal. So my mother says watch this son. So she says you know what I'm so excited the fact that you called me. Of course I will let you off this deal. The course is give me the earnest money back. And the woman's like well, why she goes? You know, because too many of my friends are moving in that area. And then she started making up people, wow, buying houses there, so and so, so and so looking at the house over here, so, and I'm thinking, and my mother said she goes, okay, okay, know, we'll have the thing, you'll get me the check back and we're all good.
Speaker 1:Mother gets off the phone and she says watch this. And then she said don't go nowhere, son, watch this. That phone started ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing. Well, I read that Mom says look, I think the house cost is too expensive, right? So you ask for out. You're out At the price you posted is not a price I'm willing to pay, especially since all those black folks are going to be moving in that neighborhood too. And my mother, that call cost her thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so I'm in the second grade. I said mommy, look, if they don't sell their homes, then we can't live there because we can't build houses. My mother said, exactly, see, that's thinking. They're not rational. You can't pick up the phone and call her neighbors and say, hey, you selling your house to a nigger, sorry, to a Negro, right. And they go no, okay, right, there's all kinds of stuff they could have done, but they were. But their emotions had driven them into foolishness, into selling a home less than its value, to move in another neighborhood that they're raised the prices for another neighborhood, that they're raised the prices for, that they're paying more for and everybody making money off their right emotional racism. Wow.
Speaker 1:So she taught me that, right, boom, okay, right, she worked. So since she got paid less than men, she had to work more overtime to make what they made. Yeah, so she worked 16 hour days month, five days a week and eight hour days in her so-called off day. I was a resident before I had thanksgiving or christmas dinner with her because she was working, because she got double time and a half for working on holidays Wow. So you put that in the backdrop, right? So of course I can go to college and work 35 hours a week.
Speaker 2:Never complain. No, that's right, because I saw it.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm like this is my education. You want me to mop floors, you want me to work security. You want me to my floors, you want me to work security. Whatever, that's what I gotta do. I ain't complaining to nobody, right?
Speaker 1:I took my daughter to to morehouse campus and up on the street they had they have a place. We got the fast foods like mcdonald's, burger king, all that stuff, right. And and I said, and I stood across the street and I said I want you to look at these places, sweetheart. Now she was like four, some four and a half, and I said I need you to understand that when your father came here for school, he didn't have any money and he would go there and beg for food. I need you to understand that. Yeah, right, look at them. Look at it and envision me this dude with all I got right now, used to beg them for food when I was hungry because I had nothing. I was working my way through school and I didn't have any extra Tuition.
Speaker 1:First food, second, right, you see, see, that's. You know where that came from. Is just grandmother right? Yeah, oh, my God, you read. My grandmother said make me read the King James Version Bible. King James Version. I'm like granny, why got to? She says, baby, if you can read this, make me read the King James Version Bible. King James Version. I'm like granny. She says, baby, if you can read this, you can read anything.
Speaker 2:You can read anything, so.
Speaker 1:I know you know how to read, because you can read this. So I need you to not only read it, but I need you to explain it to me. After church, when I didn't want to sit on the first row with her anymore, I went to sit on the first row with her anymore. I went to sit in the balcony with the kids, other young people. They said you can do that, but after church you have to give a five minute talk on what the minister talked about. So that meant that he read a scripture. I read stuff before it and afterwards and I put it together. You got to explain what it means for you and in current day society. Right, okay, so you think about that. So so I'm, I'm standing in front of my family, cause you, you know, you know how it is, man, you screw up in front of your family.
Speaker 2:They nice about it, not even a little bit Right, ain't nice about it.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is real. And my grandmother, you ain't gonna, you ain't gonna, you ain't gonna miss some box, some scripture stuff that ain't gonna work out well for you. Yeah, okay, right, so. So here it is right. So now people say, man, how do you give these talks all over the world, how you do all this stuff? Of course I can't, because when I was 12 I had to do it.
Speaker 2:I had to talk about the bible, yeah right, I had to talk about the bible.
Speaker 1:Well, how do you understand these scriptures and stuff? How do you wait? How you give a talk? And I had to talk about the Bible. Correct, I had to talk about the Bible. Well, how do you understand these scriptures and stuff? How do you give a talk and you weave all these things together? Because I was taught to do that as a child. Wow, you weave, and I would tell people oh no, you know. So when I was teaching myself, I said I said theology, right.
Speaker 1:History, yeah, right, geography, all those things, they all the same. Right, they all fit together. So if you're reading something over here like where is that on the map? Who are those people? What's their history? Right, literature ties into that, right, how does that fit into the? What I'm reading today, right, dante inferno is a, is a book, but it's a historical context to it, the right? So then you start developing those kind of skills medicine, medicine, the history of medicine, how we discovered this, how we do that. Now you say, oh, so then, as a scientist, that's what scientists do. Here's a problem how do we solve it? What do we need to know to be able to solve it? That's been my life.
Speaker 2:Wow, I do have a question for you as I think through this and I think about Black men in general, and one of the things that you haven't really talked about is a dad or male figures in your life, and you talked a lot about the women in your life and I know you're a great dad. I know that that has been something super important to you. How did that translate from you know from your childhood to now? I have to be step in and what your examples and the people around that allowed you to become the man that you are today? Oh, did you freeze on me? Thank you, hello, hello. Can you hear me now?
Speaker 1:hello yeah, yeah, I got dropped yeah, okay all right, all right.
Speaker 2:So so you're asking me about the male figures in my life yeah, the male figures, and then how to become the man that you become. You know, because you haven't talked about a lot of influence there, but it was important to you to make sure that you didn't that allow that legacy to continue without being because you took your daughter. I mean, you, you talk about how you were a dad, but you didn't talk about that other portion of your life, and so yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:So you know, my wife and I we were together and we weren't together, and I had an option to stay in this area, which I did in Buffalo. The only reason I'm here in Buffalo is because she's here and I've created a work balance thing where it allows me to be here with her. So so I did have men in my life. My grandfather was an amazing man, although he did not raise my mother, okay, but he was an amazing man. He put a lot in my life to teach me that my what, my obligation to society is right. So he was great with that, although he ran a gambling joint out of his place. So bootleg liquor, you know, right, he did a lot of hustling stuff, but that's what he could do. And if I, you know, know the history of where he came from, that's about all. Even though he was in the service, he didn't get the gi bill benefits. And my uncle, who was married to my joyce, you know he was a military secret service guy. You know he taught a lot about standing straight up, you don't pimp, you don't do those things. You're a man, right, you know. And my father though he didn't raise me, uh, was was a scientifically math guy. Okay, when my mother sent me to stay with him because I was going to kill a cat, I didn't get it, that but. But, um, she sent me to stay with him. He would. He had physics books, geometry books and all this stuff and he would say, open, grab one, I'll grab one. He opened it, I opened it to wherever and he could look at the chapter and then he could go to his chalkboard and teach it to me, like that kind of stuff, right, good, I'm glad I saw that, because I realized that that was in me if it was in him. So so, but also realize how devastating it is for people to grow up without a father, because I saw people who had fathers and I wish that I had someone to teach me how to catch. I wish I had someone to just talk to me about how to think through things as a man. Right, how to you know all these things? Now, the women in my life did what they could do. They said, hey, great, you know. Now you drive. You're going to pull up to the mall. You're going to open up the door, let all of us out. You're going to open up the door, let all of us out. You're going to go, park your car. You're going to come back and then open up the second door to let us in the mall. Okay, right, all the packages you carry, I mean stuff like that. Of course, you know, right, you know you provider, you're this.
Speaker 1:But there's something to not having a male in your life and it impacts men and women, right? So for me me, I wanted to be a part of that and I also understood this part of my education was about I can't teach what I don't know. So for my child to be able to be a broad thinker and stuff like that, that I need to be a broad thinker. For them to be a reader, then I need to be a reader. If I'm sitting around, we didn't have video games when I grew up, but if I'm sitting around watching TV and playing video games, then they will sit around and watch TV and play video games. So if I'm smoking weed, they will smoke weed. If I'm a smoker smoker, if I exercise, they will exercise. Right, who I am becomes who they are de facto. They got two choices they either become, assimilate right into that environment was most people do or say I hate you, I hate that environment and run from it, right? So, so, so, that's the case. So now we have now my second wife, you know, through merger and acquisition.
Speaker 1:I have three daughters, one's in their twenties, 27,. Other one's 21. And my daughter just turned 17 a couple of days ago. So dealing with that is at a whole nother level, and especially now in this society, because of course, there's a lot of things about me they don't understand, right, because their world is very different than my world. So when I say things that I know that's not really true, but we're learning, that is definitely true, okay. So so you know, although, and they're, and they're great students and they excel and, and um, um, my, my biological daughter's in the history and math, it's like I'm in into history and math, it's like I'm into history and math. That's why, you see, we, the people on one side, and Frederick Douglass a quote from Frederick Douglass on the other, right? So, of course, you know, imagine you in a house like that, with books everywhere, and you go out the door and you got to see the Constitution. That says a lot about her environment. So, and her mom's as a phd, and she's a, you know, a reader as as well. So she, of course she reads and and everything but. But but that's critical, so we don't have to have. Just because we don't have something in our lives, that doesn't mean that we have to repeat their failures.
Speaker 1:You know, my father and I didn't have a relationship until you know, later on in his life, and you know it's funny, we and I'll tell you this. So my father was in Vietnam. He got exposed, you know, agent Orange and stuff like that. So he ended up having four cancers. So he had prostate cancer, expert prostate cancer expert. Prostate cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer and throat cancer. Don't think I'm not an expert, so, okay, right.
Speaker 1:So so I mean, you think about that like that's interesting matter of fact, when he got his kidney surgery, one of my previous fellows operated on him and he couldn't understand why no one would touch him where he was without talking to me. They told him. They said, dude, we got to talk to your son, you don't know your son. Like you don't know your son, I mean, they didn't know, I didn't know him. But they were saying he, you know, I don't know what you see, but if we mess up with you, we got to deal with him and they're calling me up.
Speaker 1:You know, that's how I found out he had these things, so that's unfortunate, but what I did do is say, well, wait a minute, how do you be a father? Then? You need to read stuff, you need to grow stuff. You need to ask yourself, right, right, you know, how do I contribute to this person's life? How do I bring people around them that can benefit them? Right, you know, tiger woods father didn't have to be an expert golfer, but he got golf coaches yeah exactly right, so.
Speaker 1:So if you can't read, then you get somebody to help them, right, but the meantime you got to help you too. Yeah, right, if you don't understand money and you want your child. So my daughter understands money, our daughters understand money, right, not just having it, but how it works, how it works Right. So so my daughter wanted to be. So my daughter is daughter's smart, right, she's smart at the time, she's you know. So she goes. My, my, my mother is really, really frugal. My father is not as frugal. So what I'm going to do, I need glasses. So my mother's going to make me get the medicaid glasses, the free one. But my father, I can make, talk him to these glasses I want. So I want daddy to come get, pick me, go get the glasses. So we go, we get the thing, the glasses. So then I said, well, pick out the glasses you want. So she goes well, I know which ones I want, daddy, they're in the case. I said oh, they're in the case.
Speaker 1:Huh, so that means they must be glasses out of the case. So he pulls them out of the case and, um, these are some gucci glasses and they're 450 dollars. Now she's in the fourth grade, correct? Fourth grade, or whatever. I said that's interesting. So now I can't say to her that I can't afford them, because that's not true, right? She's like dude, you can, you know. So my mother could say that, but I can't say that. So I said okay, great, tell you what I'm gonna do, spirit, why don't you start over there in the free glasses? And I think this is way too much. I said but if you're willing to try on every pair in this entire place, and if I find one that I think looks better on you than them, you agree to get those. So then the guy's sitting there and I said well, how many are here? He said about 1600 or so. I said you better get going. I love it, 1600. So she does it to the point that people are done with their appointments and they're not leaving because everybody's watching this. Right, you know, I'm going up. Then the guy is there putting them back and she's taking them out. She's trying to do this as fast as possible.
Speaker 1:We narrowed down to 10. We narrowed down to two. One of the two is Gucci glasses and one is another pair. I said, fine, I'll give you the Gucci glasses. Okay. The guy said you want insurance. I said, fine, I'll give you the Gucci glasses, okay. The guy said you want insurance. I said, oh no, they break. They break. If you want them, you take care of them. We ain't getting no insurance, we ain't getting nothing. Okay, you want them, you better take care of them, right, end of story. So we get them.
Speaker 1:So then the next day before school I said sweetheart, how much those glasses cost? She said 450 plus tax. And she's saying all that. I said, no, baby, that was the price. She goes. Well, what's the difference? So let me explain the difference. I said if I take that same hundred four hundred fifty dollars and I put it in the in the right, the s&p 500, that gets 10.26 percent a year. I said but let's make it 10 percent, right, which means it's gonna double right every eight and a half years. But we're gonna make it simple it's gonna double every 10 years, boom, boom, boom, boom. By the time you get to 65. And I'm showing them we're walking through each step right by the. By the time I was 65, these glasses cost $32,000. She goes. Well, you think that way, daddy. A pencil costs $100. I said it does, it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I said you need to understand, sweetheart, you need to understand the difference between price and cost. I said so. She said, but I need a glass. I said, yes, you did, but you didn't need those. But I need a glass. I said, yes, you did, but you didn't need those. Right, the free glasses work the same as a $450 glasses. What you wanted was Gucci glasses. Yeah, you want it to look better, you want it to walk around in Gucci glasses. I'm fine, cause I can't afford it. But I'm telling you what you pay for it is $32,000. So I need you to understand that. So you better treat them like they're $32,000.
Speaker 1:You better understand what you gave up, not just for you but for my grandchildren, right, because my investments, your investments, become their investments. This is generational money. Money is generational. It ain't about you, right? Yeah, and I and that. That goes into what I would tell us. We are what I pour into. You ain't about you. I love you, I care about you, I want you to be your best you, but I'm doing it for my grandchildren, great--grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, everybody else going forward, because that's how I became who I am and this is how you become who you're going to become, and they become the unborn people. Who benefits from what we do today? Future is held by those who prepare for it today, right, today, right, so that's parenting to me. Future is held by those who prepare for it today, today, right, so that's heralding to me, right?
Speaker 1:Hey, let me show you. Let me show you this we were in, we were in Disney and she wanted to stand in line. She must have been since, like, yeah, since 2000. Yeah, so 14, so she's six, right, so we're in disney and uh, it was doing the frozen and they had the actresses and stuff and she wanted to get their signatures and she was getting everybody's signature. I'm cool with that. 90, some degrees outside.
Speaker 1:It's a three and a half hour wait. I said great, you want to wait here? I said, let's talk about opportunity costs. Yeah, we're gonna lose four hours in line. You can do all this other stuff. Yeah, you want to do it, we're gonna do it.
Speaker 1:I said, but you gotta stand in line. Now I know you're gonna see parents that will be standing in line for their kids, that's them. But if you want this, then you're gonna have to give it all up and you stand in this hot ass, son, with your father and you do this and I will stand with you. Okay, great, totally do that, right. Boom, boom, boom.
Speaker 1:She gets up front. That's the only photo I took. I took a picture because I'm like I've been standing this hot ass, son, I'm getting this photo too. So there we go. So we get the photo, and, and. But in that line she learned terms, yeah, like opportunity costs, right, and we're talking about economics, value, but we're also talking about making decisions and what those decisions mean. So now, when we're done and she's running again on this ride, that ride, I'm like you could have done all of this Because you got early admissions into the park. You spent the first beginning of the park where people were just getting in. Oh, you could have done several rides without no one in line, but you chose to get signatures of some actors pretending to be fake people.
Speaker 2:Yes, right.
Speaker 1:I'm okay with that, right, all the photos are turned into a yearbook Memories. I mean, we all land on Disney, but understand what it costs, understand what it costs. I took her, we went to like it's a campground or whatever, and we're there at the campground and people are there and most of those people come in their trailer homes right, their trailers and stuff right. So we're hanging out and people are talking, asking questions and stuff, and I'm just shooting this crap with them having a good time and she's talking to their kids and stuff. So so, um, she's like well, how come you'd ever tell anyone you're a doctor, right? Because you say I say you say why are you here?
Speaker 1:well, I'm in town, you know, I'm in health care, you know I get these vague answers I said sweetheart, because what I learned when you're dealing with certain people, it makes them uncomfortable when they realize your status compared to their status. And I'm enjoying the conversation, I don't want to make it uncomfortable. So she says I don't think so, daddy. So then the next conversation we did, I said well, I'm a doctor and we're staying at this freaking high-end marriott over here. And then she saw how they, how the whole thing changed right, and I said well, let me show you where they're staying. So I took her over there and I said see the difference? I said you flew down here in first class in the front of the plane. They drove here days to get to get to do this. You got here in hours, they got here in days. I said so I need you to understand. So I'm not devaluing that, I'm just letting you know you understand that people don't have what you have exactly and you don't stand that.
Speaker 1:But you eat. But but guess what? You don't have it either because you didn't do it correct. This is my, you standing on my shoulders and guess what? You don't have it either because you didn't do it Correct. This is my. You stayed on my shoulders and guess what? I didn't have it either and I'm glad I can give it to you. So she asked my sister. This is what she asked my sister. She says Auntie Vette, when is the first time you came to Disneyland? Did you go to Disneyland? She goes this is my first time. This is my first time you came to Disneyland. Did you go to Disneyland?
Speaker 2:She goes. It's my first time. It's my first time I didn't say I hadn't done it.
Speaker 1:Correct, she goes first time. So then I said, what about you Dad? I said, well, you know I was a resident, she goes. Well, didn't you guys go on vacations as kids? And we were like, no, she was like, why not? I said we didn't have any money.
Speaker 1:What are you talking about? You've been to China. You travel around the world. How do you think you do that? How does that happen? That happens from this kid blinding when everybody's telling him he's stupid and he can't achieve. That's how you got here, china. What are you talking about? Five-year-old running on the great wall of china because your father's giving a talk in china. He takes you and your mama. Would you come on, man, right? Wow? So I started this by saying I ain't nothing special, because it's not about me. It's about saying this is our ability and we have to tap into that. We have to have greater expectations for ourselves and our community and we can't expect anyone else to ever solve our problems for us. Yeah, because it's never going to happen. It hasn't happened in 400 years of America and it won't happen in the next 400 either.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely Well, cool, well, dr. Thank you so much. I mean, I hope we get to have another show. I look forward to it so much I got a couple of pages of notes here.
Speaker 2:Just I can't believe I fully believe that you've done all of this. I just can't believe I got the honor to be able to talk to you about it and pull it out of you to just have this conversation. I hope you're willing to have me call you back and do some more, because this is phenomenal and fantastic. The things just thank you for I mean the things that we got to talk about, I think, are exactly what our younger folks need to hear. I think it's that work ethic that you talked about. It's that willingness to go beyond. It's that willingness to say I'm going to do this, regardless whether you tell me I can or I can't. It's what has changed us to be able to become what we need to become, so that we can do. And that's where I really love your fact that we can do for others and help others become who they need to be. So thank you again for doing. Do you have any one like two last closing thoughts before yeah, no, I want to thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think this is awesome. I appreciate the opportunity to share my story, but the main thing is that the fact that you've taken this on, that you're sharing people's stories, that you want people to know, that people are out there who are doing the things that we do, so that the history of like AG Gaston in Alabama built a $150 million enterprise in Jim Crow, alabama, right, so that we don't let those things die, because those are our inspirations and our motivations, because if they can do it, then we can do it. So, no, thank you, I appreciate this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and so this is their first episode that you've watched. Go ahead and subscribe, hit the notification bell. We have many more like this for you to be able to do, and I want you not to forget that you, my friend, are God's greatest gift. He loves you, if you allow him to, and I cannot wait to talk to you guys on the next one. You guys have an amazing, awesome day. Dr Underwood will be back. I promise you that We'll talk to you guys soon. Bye, bye, bye, bye.