Why Education Must Change Now! Billionaire, Robert F. Smith Explains.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:17:01 Speaker 1 But when the murder of George Floyd occurred, I watched my children there. They did not hesitate. Dad, I'm going out there and I'm like. And this was in Austin, Texas. I mean, what do you mean? You're going out there? I'm going out. During Covid, he put on a mask and they are going out there and protesting the treatment of African-Americans in that state. 00:00:17:01 - 00:00:33:09 Speaker 1 And I give them a lot of credit for that. So while they may not have had the full context of the journey that Doctor King was speaking about. I saw when they saw an injustice displayed on their devices because they were home. They acted. That gives me some hope. 00:00:33:13 - 00:00:45:14 Speaker 2 If we think about higher education systems today, they are not that different than they were back in Doctor King's day. But class, your credit, get a degree, hopefully get a job and that is not serving as well anymore. 00:00:45:16 - 00:01:03:06 Speaker 1 Robert Smith is the founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. How do you assess what's happening right now? You know, software has proven to be not only the most durable, but one of the most resilient in these environments. It has become enterprise software mission critical, business critical. All industries rely on it. 00:01:03:09 - 00:01:27:18 Speaker 2 We are investing in a top core of administrative professionals that we have teamed up business intelligence officers, and we want to affirm and remind people of how important this experience and this education is for future generations. And Dillard is right in the middle of that. We see there is really an existential crisis in higher education today. What does it mean to be well educated now? 00:01:27:20 - 00:01:48:04 Speaker 1 Did the introduction of compute created massive economic productivity globally? What is this economic system that creates influencers? It is an advertising model. We have to educate them to what is the advertising model and how the economy of that works and flows and how and when you tap into that. 00:01:48:08 - 00:02:03:05 Speaker 2 Well, good evening everyone. Thank you all so much for being here. And, we always appreciate the opportunity of the partnership with Baldwin and Company Books. And this is such. 00:02:03:07 - 00:02:21:03 Speaker 2 D.J. and his community there. They have really elevated the intellectual dialog and exchange in the city of New Orleans. And Dillard is trying to keep up with them. So, we are so delighted to have them here once again. And absolutely the ultimate honor of having Robert Smith on our. 00:02:21:03 - 00:02:25:15 Speaker 1 Campus this evening. Thank you. And it was. 00:02:25:17 - 00:02:48:11 Speaker 1 Just thank you for welcoming me here. Always love to come to New Orleans. And, the book service is spectacular. I just really enjoyed it. I FaceTimed my daughter. Yes. Well, one of them, who is who actually has a book club and and, you know, I had Dave offer around. And so we're just excited to see all that, new Orleans is doing and promoting authors intellectual discussion dialog. 00:02:48:13 - 00:03:00:19 Speaker 1 It turns out I actually have the same favorite book called standing at the Scratch Line, by Guy Johnson. So if you haven't read it, read it. And that should be required reading for everyone in our community. So go pick it up. 00:03:00:21 - 00:03:22:07 Speaker 2 Duly noted. Duly noted. Well, let's start off by, I mentioned earlier to you that I want us to thank you for writing this book. You know, and when we hear you speak generally, typically, you know, out on the circuit and whatnot, you're really talking about your business, the industry that you helped to transform. Technology. There's a lot of technology in there. 00:03:22:09 - 00:03:47:22 Speaker 2 I am so grateful, as an educator, that you published a book where it includes complete whole speeches. All right. And speeches that were delivered at a very important analog moment. That is an interesting foil to this digital moment that you talk so much about, talk about why you felt it was important to write this book. And what do you think Doctor King would think about the country today? 00:03:48:00 - 00:04:09:07 Speaker 1 Two great questions. One, I can answer. The second, I hope, speculate. Because I can't answer, you know, see what I think he would think because I think that he would think we made a lot of progress. We're still we have a long, long way to go. But let's get to that second. So the King Center, doesn't have to collaborate with anyone on this. 00:04:09:07 - 00:04:40:22 Speaker 1 This sort of work. They. And while he said, listen, we'd like to collaborate, part of the message that Doctor King was really espousing was of course, economic justice not always gets lost. You don't see this. It's the March on Washington for freedom and Jobs. Yeah, okay. The jobs part always gets lost because of the I have a dream speech, which was just, as you probably all know, inspired first by a speech that he gave in Detroit earlier that summer. 00:04:40:23 - 00:05:24:21 Speaker 1 But as he was walking on stage with his prepared remarks, Mahalia Jackson, who, as you all know, is really the mother of the Civil Rights movement, said, tell them about the dream. And as all brilliantly inspired people do, he spoke from his heart. And that is what changed the nation. And it changed the tenor of the nation and it and it resonated and reverberated globally about, you know, what it is, to to be human and to embrace aspects of humanity that that that get lost in, you know, the cycle of the day to day and all of that, the dynamics that occur in economies like America. 00:05:24:23 - 00:05:47:22 Speaker 1 And, you know, the good news, on the one hand is, I was at that speech in my mother's arms, the bed as I remember it, because I was only nine months old. But as I grew up in my neighborhood, which was a black neighborhood, getting my haircut, it was always playing on the record players. 00:05:47:22 - 00:06:07:13 Speaker 1 It was always playing in the home. And so, you know, the albums were out of the speech and it helped you resonate in so many ways about the journey, the journey that he was on, the journey he was encouraging America to go on. And, you know, I always, you know, as a young man, I grew up in Colorado, fourth generation from Colorado. 00:06:07:13 - 00:06:25:04 Speaker 1 And so when he talked about the Rockies and, you know, I was like, oh, he's talking to me. He's talking about me. They I see what you're what you're talking about. And then I started to understand truly what freedom was. And truly, you know, my generation, our generation was the first generation that actually had all of our rights in America. 00:06:25:08 - 00:06:50:04 Speaker 1 Okay? The right to be educated at any school, okay? The right to live where we wanted to. Right to borrow money to buy a house where we wanted all of those rights came during our generation, the right to actually work for a government institution and have a pension. Think about that. Right. And which which changed the risk profile of America's Americans, changed the risk profile of African-Americans. 00:06:50:04 - 00:07:13:08 Speaker 1 You all probably know this as we went through reconstruction, you know, establishment of Social Security, they carved out agricultural workers. Well, what did we do? We're agricultural. So we did not participate in that GI Bill. We had modest participation in that. And so as a result of that, you know, his speeches started to really carry the collective narrative of what America can be. 00:07:13:08 - 00:07:40:01 Speaker 1 And it manifested in real activities in my neighborhood, in these beloved communities which were in our time, you know, all African-American communities where everyone was the saying, okay, how do we make America a better place for us? And what do we now need to do? And what is your role and responsibility? So what that led to, in the conversations with, with, you know, with the King Center and Bridges and others was how do we make sure that that for teens words. 00:07:40:03 - 00:07:59:19 Speaker 1 Continue to, to to resonate in the hearts of all Americans and especially in our young people, who in some cases they have a martyr King Day and they get a little snippet and that's kind of that, but they don't actually go deep about what it is that we were attempting to do, how far we've gone and what it is that we still need to do. 00:07:59:21 - 00:08:18:17 Speaker 1 And so we don't. What would he think about this? I don't know, but what I, I know one thing, I think he would be excited about the fact that we have changed some of the economic dynamics of this country. I think he'd be disappointed, that we haven't educated. Maybe our young people don't understand how important it is to keep the pressure on. 00:08:18:18 - 00:08:46:06 Speaker 1 With all that said, I was highly encouraged, by tragic event when they murdered George Floyd. Our generation didn't go out in the streets. That younger generation did. They didn't hesitate. Okay? Our parents got out in the streets. They put their bodies in the line of fire so that we could do other things and access other parts of the bounty that is America. 00:08:46:08 - 00:09:01:03 Speaker 1 And, you know, I know I'm forever thankful for all the men and women in my neighborhood who are encouraging me to go to Cornell and do the things and a group of kids that I was with and how we were able to. But I will tell you, they weren't encouraging us to go out there and put our bodies on the line. 00:09:01:03 - 00:09:19:17 Speaker 1 Some of us did during apartheid and all that. So, so, but that was there was just a distant, distant thing that we didn't we didn't face that the way that they did. But when the murder of George Floyd occurred, I watched my children and they, they did not hesitate that I'm going out there and I'm like, and this is in Austin, Texas. 00:09:19:17 - 00:09:44:14 Speaker 1 I mean, what do you mean? You're going out there? I'm going out during Covid and put on mask, and they are going out there and protesting the treatment of African-Americans in that state. And I give them a lot of credit for that. So while they may not have had the full context of the journey that Doctor King was speaking about, I saw when they saw an injustice displayed on their devices because they were home, they acted. 00:09:44:20 - 00:09:53:22 Speaker 1 And so I guess that gives me some hope, and I'm sure that would give him some hope as well about, you know, what it is that these young people are actually thinking about and what they use important. 00:09:54:00 - 00:10:22:10 Speaker 2 You talk a lot about arbitrage, right? And that that has been kind of an underpinning, theme in your success and the recommendation and advice and guidance that you give for people is kind of find that thing in an industry or in a sector that is not being done and then do it better than anybody else. Right. Can you talk a little bit about what might be the arbitrage in higher education? 00:10:22:12 - 00:10:46:19 Speaker 2 You know, if we think about higher education systems today, they are not that different than they were back in Doctor King's day, pretty much, you know, go to class, your credits, get a degree, hopefully get a job. And that is not serving as well anymore. We see there is really an existential crisis in higher education today. That the the we don't really know how to respond to. 00:10:46:20 - 00:11:02:03 Speaker 2 What does it mean to be well educated now and what could be a source of disruption in higher education, specifically for HBCUs that have never really been resourced or equipped to think about taking those types of risks? 00:11:02:03 - 00:11:45:06 Speaker 1 Yeah, this this is a big question that is in in Portland engagement point for your students and all HBCU students, faculty, administrators, etc.. The educational system in America, as many of you probably know, was designed to deliver, a working class to support, industry and ultimately support depend upon who's in office, government. Right. Let's let's fuel and enable these institutions that provide economic, sustainable economic activity with people who can understand why constructs are the way they are, how you contribute to those constructs and how to advance it. 00:11:45:11 - 00:12:09:02 Speaker 1 And all the while, advance to a higher standard of living middle class, upper middle class, because that enables a conservative dynamic to work to to continue. And that has been a wonderful model for some, not so wonderful for others, but by and large, relative to all other economies on the planet, it has been the most successful in the period of time that it has, you know, that it has proliferated. 00:12:09:04 - 00:12:36:04 Speaker 1 Com and however, there is now a major disruptive influence or a force, that has been introduced into our economy. So the first part of that for us is actually a highly productive influence called compute. Okay. The introduction of compute created massive, economic productivity globally. It first was, of course, here in the US, because we were the only ones with access to this computing and it was higher ed that had access. 00:12:36:04 - 00:13:01:23 Speaker 1 Remember the first computers that were in the colleges and the large, you know, the large corporations and then ultimately you, you know, the university systems in government systems. And then as compute got cheaper, this whole Moore's Law dynamic would get distributed compute. And it created much more efficacy across every industry on the planet. Okay. It is and software is the big part of the most productive tool introduced in the business economy, frankly, ever. 00:13:02:01 - 00:13:33:13 Speaker 1 Okay. And now we've got a new disruptive force, which is a derivative of that, which is artificial intelligence. Well, it has the ability to disrupt exponentially relative to what compute did. Why? Because it has. When managed properly, I call it reasonably reasoning capabilities that eliminate what we did as humans in some respects on certain tasks. And it does it much more efficiently at a higher rate, a higher frequency with the lower, you know, a lower, lower error rate. 00:13:33:15 - 00:13:52:22 Speaker 1 As a result of that, it is going to disrupt every industry from a labor component. So if you are a knowledge worker, where you're interacting with a system, reasoning on that system, and then putting some information back in the system, it is highly likely that that job is going to be massively disrupted in at some point in time. 00:13:52:22 - 00:14:15:04 Speaker 1 They will need you in that, in that, in that cycle. So how do you now participate in the economy with, with, with that dynamic? There's massive opportunity, but there's also existential risk that you have that we have to be thoughtful of as a community. So I want to just put that as a construct first of all, and then to get to the question, how do you think about that? 00:14:15:04 - 00:14:32:19 Speaker 1 You have to think about how do you engage in the ecosystems of IRA, HPC use? Okay, in some respects, I get a chance to meet a lot with the president. You know, we not surprisingly, with a great degree of pride, everyone has. Oh, my college does as my university does is we produce this that sort of a thing. 00:14:32:21 - 00:15:00:10 Speaker 1 But you haven't used what I call the shared systems of an ecosystem well enough to reduce the cost of what it is that you do. So you all have some of the highest marginal cost in education I've ever seen. Okay. It still serves an important community, but you do it at a high cost. And as a result of that, that diminishes in many respects your ability to use call it profit potential to actually improve other parts of your, of your ecosystem. 00:15:00:12 - 00:15:19:05 Speaker 1 So you all have to, as presidents get together, say, okay, how do we do it? You know, simple things like shared services. I'm in the business of bringing efficiency to software companies. We do shared services all the time and it can reduce costs 80 or 90%. But I said, hey, why do we all have separate systems? Let's just use one and reduce across the board. 00:15:19:05 - 00:15:38:21 Speaker 1 So that's kind of one thing. There has to be an understanding. And often that happens when there's an existential risk and say, oh, we got to do this or we're not going to be in business anymore. So that's kind of put that as point one, that is a delivery of education, artificial intelligence for education. Like I've got, one of my children now. 00:15:38:23 - 00:15:57:02 Speaker 1 He goes to school part time and he uses a system. It's called Alpha Academy part time. And he's, you know, fourth grade. Okay. And it's an AI driven system. And we were talking about this. It's been around ten years now. You know, one of my friends built it there just anyway it's been around it. Their average sat score coming out is 1460 the average. 00:15:57:04 - 00:16:20:01 Speaker 1 So my son spends two hours in class and spends about two hours doing work. And what I can do most efficiently is it's a teacher of one and in some respects. So if you're learning factoring it can determine if you know the right program. Okay, where are you? Where are you having problems. And it will continue to, to to to engage until you have figured out where it is. 00:16:20:01 - 00:16:42:16 Speaker 1 It's taught you in a way that you will understand how to do that. That is a dynamic that is going to change education globally. Why? Because compute is now available globally. And so you can implement these systems globally. And as a result of that, as a competitive country of people we are no longer competing with, with scarce resources. 00:16:42:16 - 00:17:13:00 Speaker 1 Everybody has these resources. And so from a global perspective, if we aren't leaning into that, the fact that we are going to be farther behind in terms of our educational capabilities, because other students are and other governments are. So that's an important aspect of that, what it actually does do also, from a business perspective of it is what I can do is actually can eliminate the need for certain things that we held. 00:17:13:00 - 00:17:34:16 Speaker 1 Precious and true. I was a Stem student, chemical engineer. A lot of what we spent time doing as engineers is learning and memorizing formulas and figuring out how to go. I guess what, this does all that at a fraction. So now how do I use what I can do uniquely, which is be human, have relationships, use that data and information. 00:17:34:17 - 00:17:58:16 Speaker 1 Draw insights to draw some as opposed as opposed to spending time coming up with the the data analysis. The analysis is done faster higher frequency lower, lower, lower. You know, lower incidence of failure and, and and error rate. And now engage with how you find arbitrage of opportunities to use that. And that's what the education systems are going to have to start thinking about. 00:17:58:18 - 00:18:21:12 Speaker 1 But if you don't have time or energy or resources to put on to that, then your your students will not have that opportunity. And that that I think would be the biggest travesty if we don't lean forward into the into leveraging this technology. It is not going away. And it is it is hyper productive and it is it is, you know, I call it extensible globally now. 00:18:21:12 - 00:18:42:04 Speaker 1 So everyone has access to this to the extent their governments let them have access. And some are embracing say, no, you're going to meet in this way because it eliminates the work that is time consuming and not as productive for a human to do, so that human activities can become even more productive in the work that we do. 00:18:42:09 - 00:18:52:15 Speaker 1 That's the nature of how our world is shifting and changing. And it is. It is here. It is now. This isn't a pipe dream. This is here. Now. I deal with this every single day. Every single day. 00:18:52:19 - 00:19:25:14 Speaker 2 Right. You know, the title of the book is, is, lead boldly. Right. And what we are talking about, that whole cycle of disruption, of the arbitrage, leaning into it, seeing an opening. But that requires you to actually do something different. Right? Can you? And again, as an HBCU president that faces the realities of that job, you know, there are a lot of kind of realities and challenges and every day things knocking at the door. 00:19:25:16 - 00:19:49:17 Speaker 2 How do you lean into risk? You know, when you look at the example of Martin Luther King and his clear knowing he was putting his life on the line to do the things that he was doing to lead in the way that he was. But he was leading the world, right. He gave us an example that the world followed in order to inspire a kind of civil rights movements globally. 00:19:49:19 - 00:20:06:08 Speaker 2 How do we embrace that today when we know if we are going swimming upstream, if we are speaking anything besides black excellence at HBCU is if we're trying to say black innovation, not, you know, in a different way, how do you weather that? 00:20:06:09 - 00:20:39:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a great question. And it it you have to weather it, you know, to that point by leading boldly. What does that actually mean? It means taking risks. You have to take risks. You know, you have to take risks. You know, I go back to, you know, my family, you know, both of my parents were schoolteachers, you know, administrators, ultimately, and their generation was thrilled, on the one hand, to had the opportunity to teach our generation in ways they thought that we should be taught, which was great. 00:20:39:20 - 00:21:03:12 Speaker 1 And it was a wonderful thing because you you emerged from that not only having knowledge and skills, but also a sense of being as to where you belong. In, in the great Tapestry, because they took time educating us on what is black history, African American history, African history, etc., by parents. And you know, that that grew. And so that was a wonderful thing because it gave you confidence, because you're rid of all black community. 00:21:03:12 - 00:21:30:09 Speaker 1 For the most part, you felt confident about that and you entered other communities that had different resources. But if you didn't have that confidence, that would have been highly disruptive. Personally, let me just let me just put it out with with with with all that said, if you think about their narrative of what they wanted my life to be and my contemporaries, it was, I can't wait till you graduate so you can go get a good job. 00:21:30:11 - 00:21:53:19 Speaker 1 Okay. And guess what? I graduated Cornell and I got a great job. Okay? In fact, the first year I made more money that year than my dad had made at the peak of his career with a doctorate. Education. Great job. And then I call my granddad and I'm like, hey, I'm going to leave this job and go back to school. 00:21:54:00 - 00:22:14:12 Speaker 1 He's like, well, why? Why would you leave that? Good job. I started my first year 30,000. I didn't think you could make well, 32,500. I didn't think people made make. Okay. And then I got this magazine, which is so important, a black press called Black Enterprise. And they had this Wall Street edition. I was like, what Wall Street? 00:22:14:14 - 00:22:39:04 Speaker 1 And I see all these handsome brothers and good looking. We're making $1 million a year. And I'm like, wait, what do you mean a year? You made $1 million. You know, I put my little spreadsheet together trying to figure out $30,000, 8% raise. How long was one? A day. I need to change my career. Three things happened. 00:22:39:06 - 00:22:56:03 Speaker 1 The first thing was, I understood the difference between labor and capital because I was very high price labor. Because by the time I read that, I was making about 42,000 to 4000. Okay, I'm like, I'm getting paid now, right? 00:22:56:05 - 00:23:04:05 Speaker 1 But I realized that people value people who utilize capital effectively hired that they valued highly. 00:23:04:05 - 00:23:05:09 Speaker 2 Paid. 00:23:05:11 - 00:23:26:19 Speaker 1 Labor. Look, I had already developed patents I had saved as well as companies. Maxwell House Coffee Company saved them 7 to $0.14 a pound. And every kind of coffee made through an invention that I had, I got a beautiful flat, $7,000, some patents, all that kind of stuff. Right? But they didn't value that more than what people get paid on Wall Street. 00:23:26:19 - 00:23:47:17 Speaker 1 So I tell my great aunt to go back to business school. Why would you ever leave that great job? So, grandson, you get up. You've you've got, you know, a retirement, you've got a pension coming. You just stay out and I'm like, because I understood his framework where he came from, born in 1915, didn't get GI Bill access, all those sorts of things and, you know, and then ended up working at the post office. 00:23:47:17 - 00:24:08:05 Speaker 1 Right. Ran three post office. And for him, it's like now I have a secure position for my family and my granddad. I have to go do this too. I do get that. And I go to this place called Goldman Sachs. He's like, oh, oh Grant, it's great. So that was good. Move. Yeah. So now I'm Goldman Sachs M&A. 00:24:08:05 - 00:24:27:05 Speaker 1 I move out to California and my granddad that's a soul would send me every article that was ever printed on Goldman when I was doing the deal or not. And he just made it to good job grandson. I have a lot to do with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got my grandpa Goldman Sachs and my husband, he's running. 00:24:27:05 - 00:24:47:15 Speaker 1 At least we were in that place by now. Well, I've been at least six months, you know. But that's what we are. That's the love we have for our children in the privates is a beautiful thing. And it's kind of interesting. They're very actually. And I think about the very few of my contemporaries who had that support from their folks. 00:24:47:17 - 00:25:06:07 Speaker 1 You see, to me, I mean, it was kind of, you know, it's say that to me. I kind of crack up in it. Oh, that's kind of cool. Your granddad to me, my my peers, you know what I do. Right. Like, oh that's interesting vessel anyway. So then I say, and I learned this arbitrage. Okay. So a couple things that happened not to take you down that the, the, the dirt rabbit hole. 00:25:06:08 - 00:25:25:22 Speaker 1 Short answer Moore's law distribution of compute separate hardware from software. A software becomes most, you know, effective I call it you know, in productive tool. And no one was doing buyouts and software. I don't do that because I don't. If you take buyout software, you do it this way. You can do this and you can make a whole bunch of money. 00:25:26:00 - 00:25:43:16 Speaker 1 Great. And I'll get ready to do this. People, are you out of your mind? You leave. And Goldman Sachs grandson, you crazy Goldman Sachs, you going to be a partner one day there. And I left and I started my firm four years later I made more than the chairman of Goldman Sachs. 00:25:43:18 - 00:25:45:06 Speaker 2 Did. You know you were going to be able to do that? 00:25:45:12 - 00:26:05:10 Speaker 1 You were clear. Yes. Okay. How did I know that the back pattern. Okay. Back pattern recognition. Yeah. Okay. Couple things I recognized I was uniquely capable to do that. Why? I was an engineer I went out, I was asked to help start our tech group. I was our first M&A banker on the ground in San Francisco, focused on tech. 00:26:05:12 - 00:26:22:07 Speaker 1 And everybody's like, tech. That ain't gonna last. That ain't a big thing. Okay? And so I actually had a lot of food clients and they were like, well, why don't you keep some of your food clients? So I had, you know, Unilever and in a little, little company called Earth's best big food law Company called, Ben Jerry's Ice cream notes. 00:26:22:07 - 00:26:41:02 Speaker 1 Right. And so the first company they gave me, because I think they thought it was food, was a company called Apple Computer. And I want to go handle that dang thing called Apple. It's got some problems. Okay. And then I said, go work on this other company. We took public call. Microsoft said, okay, I'll go do that one to. 00:26:41:04 - 00:27:01:11 Speaker 1 And in, a company called Texas Instruments and there was this little company called eBay was start a little company called Yahoo. And because I was taking risk and I had moved out to the West Coast, there were no senior people above me. So here's risk taking. Okay? If I stayed in New York, it was like two three. 00:27:01:11 - 00:27:20:23 Speaker 1 Every time you close a deal, you know, some senior partnership. Hey, that was great deal. We did even see you. But they had the closing dinner and shaking hands and all that sort of stuff and the opportunity that the attribution was. And then. And I just can't. What do gonna do? You went out to the West Coast. Nobody was thinking about tech. 00:27:21:00 - 00:27:40:08 Speaker 1 And so you were the lead do okay work. There was it was dude. Right. Work it on these on this deal. You were the only ones talking to the CEO, addressing the boards. All that sort of stuff. That was a risk. And I remember talking to the senior partner at In the Name M&A Group when the other senior partner said, I want to come help me start this temple in California. 00:27:40:08 - 00:28:05:04 Speaker 1 I said, what do you think? You know, Matthews? Like, I wouldn't go. I'm like, why? He said, everybody who goes out of the head office gets promoted late because you're out of sight, out of mind. I said, you know what, land of the blind. What I mean is key. These folks didn't understand what I knew about technology because I was a chemical engineer, and I saw the productivity that software brought to what was called, you know, process industries, because one of the plants that I had manage, I built a lot. 00:28:05:05 - 00:28:27:02 Speaker 1 I had to install a system, create a 26% efficiency for a plant that was built in 1946. So that's a whole shift, if you think about it, right, of extension. And I'm like, you take this and you start driving that into accounting and finance and into massive productivity. No one was recognizing that from a buyer perspective. I said, that's why I need to go take that risk. 00:28:27:08 - 00:28:52:15 Speaker 1 So part of what we have to do as I hate using this word, but it now applies to elders. Speak for yourself. That doesn't mean old. That means old. Part of what we have to do is absolutely encourage our children to take risk, and it's going to feel very strange. You're going to feel like my granddad. You'll be like, you have lost your mind, friends. 00:28:52:17 - 00:29:23:05 Speaker 1 You got a good job plan. Benefits. But understand, the dynamic of change in our young people's lives is going to be accelerated relative to ours. There are no longer 30 year jobs, not even ten year or careers. They are leveraging technology to deliver unique solutions to markets that actually may be short term markets, because that arbitrage window is actually shortening with every single invention. 00:29:23:07 - 00:29:29:14 Speaker 1 Okay. Because the speed of changed enabled by is going to continue to accelerate. 00:29:29:16 - 00:30:02:06 Speaker 2 Let me challenge you there just a little bit about the taking risk part, right. Because as an educator who talks to students all the time about their five year plan and whatnot, you know, they all want to be entrepreneurs and they all want to be influencers, okay? And I have to really think about, like, how do I teach influencing, you know, what does that look like if that's what they aspire to be and if they are wanting them to understand, you have to know something to be able to influence in that area. 00:30:02:08 - 00:30:23:17 Speaker 2 You know, some. But that's not what they see. You know, they see a flash in the pan kind of thing on TikTok and whatnot. They see these young people. I went down the rabbit hole of Mr. Beast because my nine year old loves them, you know, and saw what this young man did. And that's when I had my own existential crisis as an educator. 00:30:23:19 - 00:30:48:02 Speaker 2 Young man, when you went to college for two weeks and is one of the 16 billionaires under 30, and only a few of them are self-made, and he's one of them. Right? Right. And it's all the things that you're talking about. So I think part of the challenge for us on this side of the the elder side of the river is all we hear students talk about is taking risks. 00:30:48:05 - 00:30:56:10 Speaker 1 And on my side of the elders, you're saying you ain't over here, right? Well, I'm. I look it over. You know. What y'all doing over there? Yeah. 00:30:56:10 - 00:31:18:16 Speaker 2 I just it's like, you know, they are not seeking job security. They're not you know, they think that is going to happen. And I never want to like rain on that parade. But it's like, you know, they don't know what things cost. They don't know what it's this is why a lot of them are sleeping on parents couches in basements right now, which again, is the crisis of the college degree. 00:31:18:16 - 00:31:19:00 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:31:19:03 - 00:31:44:00 Speaker 1 So I will address this in a couple of ways. Part of what we have to educate them is what is the economic system that they are engaging in. Okay. So you have to say what is this economic system that creates influencers is an advertising model. We have to educate them to what is the advertising model and how the economy of that works and flows and how and when do you tap into that? 00:31:44:02 - 00:32:08:11 Speaker 1 You know, I've got, you know, one of one of my, my daughters, you know, 4.0 Barnard, you know, magna cum laude. And she's like, dad, I think the sense you got this bookstore, things work. But she's like, dad, I think this can be a play. And so I spend time with her on that. Why? And so I just she just went back to, you know, Columbia to learn about advertising and publishing because I said, if you're going to do it, understand the business model, understand how they act. 00:32:08:11 - 00:32:34:12 Speaker 1 So what you can do is educate them on this business model, what is that business model? And then they can think about, well, what is it that I need to do to participate in that model, and at what level and what creates massive, I'ma say long term value in short term value because these windows open and closed advertising models are some of the most efficient because of the algorithms, some of the most efficiently priced models out there. 00:32:34:14 - 00:32:53:04 Speaker 1 And it's just a function of utility. Okay, you get this amount, you deliver this amount is what you get, okay, as a return. And at some point there's a that law of diminishing returns based on the, the, the, the, the access to the community that you're that your influence saying or being an influencer of that there's a limit to it. 00:32:53:05 - 00:33:30:05 Speaker 1 There's no question about it. You just have to teach them business models that make them effective in participating. One of the business models is building the platform. Not surprisingly, now you got multi trillion with the de dollar companies who are built on advertising models, period. That's what it is now. There's a new evolution of that because now we can create AI influencers who actually appeal board, because I can design that AI person to be more appealing then, you know, they act for us because I can look at the data and I can reshape the data. 00:33:30:05 - 00:33:50:21 Speaker 1 Korea was the great model for that in terms of how they set up the, you know, the cocoa melons and all that sort of stuff. And I spent some time at the companies over Korea that do this. Well guess what, you should see the data repositories. If they have, in terms of how you resonate and how little kids resonate with certain shades and certain sounds and how they and they test it, it's a Cosmo test and so they can tune it in. 00:33:50:21 - 00:33:59:05 Speaker 1 So a kid hears that little cocoa melon, they go crazy, they wake up, they oh my God, there's a whole dynamic of that. So teaching your kids data. 00:33:59:05 - 00:34:00:05 Speaker 2 Science. 00:34:00:07 - 00:34:27:08 Speaker 1 Teaching, you know, data analytics, okay, all of those are underlying aspects of what this industry has enabled. So you can be in nor or you can beat that and forms that create massive amount of values in this new digitally called a compute centric world. So that is a big part of what we now have to do. That's an important part of what we have to do as teachers and educators and as parents. 00:34:27:10 - 00:34:54:19 Speaker 1 But you will argue, when I hold my kids sitting around playing games and I see all my kids sit around playing and but then you see, there's now professional gaming networks. And I have to say that I won't be there. But leagues, it's a different world than how we grew up. And so we as parents and as educators and as elders on this side of the stage, have to now release certain biases that we have had. 00:34:54:19 - 00:35:14:15 Speaker 1 And I deal with that now because I've gotten I've got seven children and I look at where they are in these stages. And, you know, my son, I look my eldest, I'm like, what are you thinking about? But then I was like, oh, now I see what you're thinking about. But I had to actually go down that rabbit hole and try to understand what he's thinking about in that of I'm like, wow, you do that right, man. 00:35:14:15 - 00:35:41:03 Speaker 1 Shoot. I'm gonna work for you. Right? So but I also had to teach him the business models and help them understand these business models. And and I will admit, don't record this because you'll watch it one day that as I was teaching him business models, he taught me about what it is that is valuable for the consuming population, that he understands that I don't. 00:35:41:05 - 00:35:47:13 Speaker 1 That was a revelation. I was like, oh, that's what they value. And it's very different than what our generation. 00:35:47:14 - 00:35:58:18 Speaker 2 And that's a very different dynamic of education, right? Partnering with students, understanding that in some ways they know more than what we're teaching them. Yeah. You know. 00:35:58:19 - 00:36:31:16 Speaker 1 Yes. You do that. You you actually have to create the forums to listen and be willing to adapt and change. And if you think about what Doctor King was doing, he was he understood why the constructs were the way that they were. They were economic constructs designed to extract economic value from communities, a community in many respects, it had given 400 years of free labor, and they weren't about to give that. 00:36:31:18 - 00:36:59:06 Speaker 1 I'm gonna give you all one thing to listen to. It's called a it's a podcast called Empire. Okay. I'll invite that in here. Okay. We got work down. Best podcast. That's right. Amazing. Okay. Top five. You say, I say top one. But okay, so part of what that does is it helps you understand over time how economic constructs have changed really empires for hundreds of years. 00:36:59:06 - 00:37:30:20 Speaker 1 And what happened and what occurs. And then you start to say, I understand why the construct was that put me myself in this position here today. None of which had to do with me, but everything I have to deal with. And it was an economic construct of extraction of value. And when you understand that, then you're like, oh, okay, now how do I think about what is the next phase of how this is going to evolve and still try to do my best to liberate those who may not necessarily understand the constricted? 00:37:30:20 - 00:37:50:05 Speaker 1 I now understand it's a really fascinating way to think about how the US has evolved and where it is in its 500 year journey, and I'm gonna say it that way, 500 year journey, 250 years as a country, but a few hundred years before. Right? Okay. As a community. Yes. 00:37:50:06 - 00:37:57:23 Speaker 2 So we have, a few moments for a few questions. I'm sure people out there have questions. So I think there are some many questions. 00:37:57:23 - 00:37:58:20 Speaker 1 Great. 00:37:58:22 - 00:38:00:16 Speaker 2 Because you have all the answers. 00:38:00:18 - 00:38:17:17 Speaker 1 We just stand up and shout it out. But you have time. We have some mics coming around, if I may ask. And when you get the mic, please make sure that it's a question we try to squeeze in three really quick question. Okay. So the question. 00:38:17:17 - 00:38:49:21 Speaker 2 I have is okay, you guys are highly educated. What about the population of youth who are not there? Articulate. They're bright. But what is it going to take for them to subsist, to find economic subsistence now. Yeah. And let me add to that real quick, because even the highly educated people are going to have to find economic subsistence, because I is going to eliminate the need for any many of these jobs. 00:38:49:21 - 00:38:53:21 Speaker 2 Correct. So we're looking at a human existential crisis, correct? 00:38:53:21 - 00:39:15:14 Speaker 1 Yeah. There there are 1 billion knowledge workers out there. Knowledge workers, for the most part, are quote unquote educated, right? They're engaging with computer systems that are not at a right. Okay. It all of their jobs are going to change. If you are not participating in that class of work, you have to think about what is valuable that I will not supplant. 00:39:15:16 - 00:39:36:18 Speaker 1 Okay. And there are some things like for a period of time, being a plumber, a pipefitter, an electrician, a farmer. Okay. But I will guarantee you the next generation and wave are going to be robotic automation of certain of those tasks as well. So that's going to be a short term arbitrage of opportunity. Okay. And and probably you all know if you call a plumber you're going to take you three weeks to get them in your house. 00:39:36:22 - 00:39:59:03 Speaker 1 Right. Because it's just hard. Okay. So you've got to now start to think about those sorts of dynamics. If you are not, you know, able to to embrace and utilize AI tools for your work. And, you know, like I tell, you know, our teams all the time, I say they is up and replace you. The person next to you who actually commands I will replace. 00:39:59:03 - 00:40:19:06 Speaker 1 All right. That's really what's happening. I see it every day across our entire portfolio. Okay? Every single day. So it comes to that, you've got to now start to look at the different parts of the supply chain that will add value that are humanistic in their content, in their custom. That's what I see in the back. So yes. 00:40:19:07 - 00:40:44:03 Speaker 2 Yes. I have to preface this. So you don't think I'm speaking in a vacuum has been built our first computer back in the 80s, and I live in a high tech house. But my question is based on what about the liberal arts? And a Cooper shortage back in the late 1800s that, the fear was that people would become automatons. 00:40:44:04 - 00:41:07:04 Speaker 2 Today, we call it robots. They are just aspects of a conversation between human beings that we need to have, and philosophy and history in literature. How do you approach that? That's not just about, Stem and computing and so on and so forth. 00:41:07:09 - 00:41:28:07 Speaker 1 Yeah. I think and I'll let you address the second part of that from from my perspective, the utilization of compute. And I'll just say it that way, which is AI, you know, all those sorts of things will make parts of our jobs highly, highly, highly efficient. And so that we can actually focus on what are the more human parts of the interaction. 00:41:28:09 - 00:41:43:17 Speaker 1 Okay. So rather than collecting a bunch of data so that you and I can have a conversation, that data will be collected and analyzed so we can actually spend more time on that conversation about what it is we want to accomplish and what it is that we can achieve by utilizing the system and the selling of whatever it is to you. 00:41:43:19 - 00:42:05:15 Speaker 1 So I think the efficacy part of that, that's why I say a lot of the Stem stuff, believe it or not, which I'm a big you know, I have a bunch of Stem scholarships. A lot of that stuff will be delivered. I mean, I've got my own agent Q which is like ten times more effective than anybody who I've ever hired in in prepping me for anything, I can put 15 questions in that you are likely to ask me, and it will give me my answers in my voice. 00:42:05:17 - 00:42:22:23 Speaker 1 Okay? And if I put it into my team, it'll take them, you know, two, 3 or 4 days to give something that's 80% as efficient because it takes all the things that I've ever said. And now, you know, and things that I am leaning towards, am informed by in terms of how AI is changing and says, here's, here's kind of the differentiation, and I've done it. 00:42:23:01 - 00:42:35:21 Speaker 1 And what that does is rather than me spending weeks preparing for something, I can do it in 48 seconds walking. And so now I can think about what we're going to talk about and engage more effectively. That's the dynamic that I am seeing today. 00:42:35:23 - 00:43:04:11 Speaker 2 I would just add to that too. I mean, we're in this really authentic, amazing, rich, artistically cultural city, right, that is known for its opportunities for human interaction. Okay. And I think that that's one of the things that's exciting about the AI revolution is we might actually see this pendulum swing swing in the other direction, where we really value art and creativity and, you know, human ingenuity, those things. 00:43:04:16 - 00:43:32:07 Speaker 2 AI is only as good as the best human. You know, it's going to borrow from the things that we create. So we have to continue to imagine and dream bigger and dream, you know, things for AI to make better. And so that's one of the things that I'm hoping for that in a city like New Orleans, where we have certain experiences and opportunities that that draw millions of people from all over the globe to experience these things here. 00:43:32:09 - 00:43:52:21 Speaker 2 How could I replicate that, you know, a second line or one of our festivals or, you know, jumping in from a right like it is, it's you have to really experience it. And I'm so excited to be a dealer, to really lean into that and elevate that for our city. 00:43:52:21 - 00:44:13:17 Speaker 1 I will say that all of that is exactly right. There is a next phase of this as compute becomes more effective, because I've already met with people who are working on the next phase, which is a, I'm going to call it using the digital replication of reality, which hasn't been done quite yet. Okay. So when you think about it, oh man, I want to go to New Orleans and I want to go in there. 00:44:13:17 - 00:44:28:20 Speaker 1 Okay. Do can you actually put on something that is even more effective at giving you those experiences that doesn't require you to travel, but requires you to pay? I mean, that's if people are working on that two day today. 00:44:28:23 - 00:44:34:06 Speaker 2 We ain't going well, okay, well, here's us in this room. Well, we're going to be a long time. 00:44:34:08 - 00:44:44:10 Speaker 1 Yeah. But here's the thing that's so interesting. I know you all have a better sense for what that experience should feel like. So you should figure out which of your students should be working on that. 00:44:44:12 - 00:44:45:02 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:44:45:03 - 00:45:06:07 Speaker 1 Okay. As opposed to ceding it to somebody else, let one of your groups of students say, let's create, you know, the digital representation of our world in a way that we can now take that and you think about it gives a subscription. So you want access to the data of our life, okay. And our experience and our words and our culture and our music. 00:45:06:07 - 00:45:09:20 Speaker 1 And because guess what? It is going to happen. 00:45:09:22 - 00:45:15:12 Speaker 2 To sounds a lot like The Matrix. I have to say it. It's just, I mean, really, are we just going to be plugged in? 00:45:15:12 - 00:45:36:03 Speaker 1 I don't know, I'm just telling the computer, you know, go ask Zuck. I don't care what he's trying to get you plugged into. Right. And guess what 90% of y'all plugged into the system right now, and you just gave all your data to a three. Yeah. So don't act like you haven't done it already. You just build back in systems and made it in paying people $1 billion, $800 million for two people to go do that work. 00:45:36:09 - 00:45:47:16 Speaker 1 Think about that. Oh, I know that's the dynamic. So get in the game, participate, be part of it. Get your get your kids in this. You know what I mean. Get them right in that getting them right Nicole. So you got one more question. 00:45:47:18 - 00:46:09:00 Speaker 2 And the data centers right here in Louisiana, 2.5 hours away. My question is, this week I was in LP summit and someone asked me what was one of my favorite stories ever. And ironically, I said a letter from Birmingham Jail. Or two reasons. One, because it's up to the mayor to get those. Secondly is up to the white moderate. 00:46:09:01 - 00:46:15:12 Speaker 2 I'm curious to know, what do you think Doctor King's uphill will be today and to. 00:46:15:14 - 00:46:44:03 Speaker 1 My sense that's good. I again, it's because I get people that. What do you think I don't know what do you do. I can just go home that he would be focused on what I see as part of the, you know, the group of things, the things he would be focused on poverty, I'm sure still. And ensuring that our people were poor, uplifted and had access to the economic bounty that is America, okay in all its facets. 00:46:44:04 - 00:47:09:04 Speaker 1 I would hope that he would also look at, if we do not participate in this fifth duster revolution, its size and scale. There is a massive obsolescence of of utility that can occur and will occur. And, you know, they got no problem saying, all right, yeah. Are you to anything useful even though you were useful, we've all missed you out of this country because we don't think you as useful as we want right now. 00:47:09:06 - 00:47:46:05 Speaker 1 And political, you know, times change and that happens. It happens. You mean you list the empire? It happens. Countries like now. We just decided we don't want these people here, and we're going to use this period of time to displace them. It happens. Yeah. Anyway, point is I would hope that he would focus on it. We have, a place right in the next in the Industrial Revolution as one of the things that we to focus on. 00:47:46:07 - 00:47:54:07 Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay. All right. One last question. I gotta go. I gotta go to Singapore. Singapore to visit. 00:47:54:09 - 00:48:21:05 Speaker 2 So my question to you is this in which we speak about Doctor Katie, we speak about the civil rights movement. We also speak about history being erased, black history being a test, and the understanding that people will say, oh, that's not true. That didn't happen. It's I what do you think would be Doctor King's approach about when someone says, oh, that's something they made up because, you know, that's you get ready to come to. 00:48:21:08 - 00:48:42:18 Speaker 1 I'm sure he would say, how can he erase a history that you have the chance to digitize and distribute globally when you get your kids? Catherine, the stories and the pictures and and you got a you got a broadcast megaphone here, you can get to a billion people with the right story tomorrow. Get your creative genius right. Those right stories. 00:48:42:18 - 00:49:02:23 Speaker 1 Putting it out and making sure that it becomes part of the fabric of reality. That's what you do. And you know what? You can't deny this because now it's the present everywhere. You don't have to go to a place to see it. It's coming to see you. And oh, by the way, brought to you by Dillard University. I mean, that's kind of what you got to do. 00:49:03:01 - 00:49:22:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I think. Because without him, that's what I'd be advising. Day, man, is what you would do to those people. That right. Because that's that you cannot erase you cannot erase it if you I call it put enough live down field of truth, you can't ignore that. Are we going to take some pictures out of a couple museums? 00:49:22:23 - 00:49:37:22 Speaker 1 Guess what I can digitize that picture and put it in 10 billion hands. And you can take that out of the frame. If you want to go map this. Right. You see what I mean? You got to make sure it doesn't matter. That's the point, Mr. Smith. 00:49:37:22 - 00:49:40:18 Speaker 2 Thank you so much. Thank you for everything. Kennedy. 00:49:40:20 - 00:49:54:02 Unknown Thank you, thank you. Okay. If you all please.