The Chavis Chronicles

>> Armstrong Williams -- noted social visionary and entrepreneur extraordinaire.

Next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following... At Wells Fargo, we continue to look for ways to empower our customers.

We seek broad impact in our communities, and we're proud of the role we play for our customers and the US economy.

As a company, we are focused on supporting our customers and communities through housing access, small business growth, financial health, and other community needs.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

>> We are so pleased to welcome Armstrong Williams.

>> Oh.

>> Welcome to "The Chambers Chronicles."

>> It's a distinct honor to be on your broadcast today.

There's no other place I'd want to be except here, having this exchange with you.

>> Well, thank you, Armstrong.

You have such a storied career and evolution.

You own about 10 television stations.

You own The Baltimore Sun.

You're on the radio.

You have your own television show.

How do you do all that?

>> You know, life is a mystery.

So much of life is about the unknown.

Most people plan for what they think they know.

I always learned -- and it goes back from days of reading a quote from Abraham Lincoln.

He said, "I will give my best, and when the time comes, the preparation in giving my best will make me ready for the occasion."

My father, when I was a child, would take me to the train station.

And... >> In South Carolina?

>> Yes.

When the trains were running through Florence and Marion and Horry County.

And he would have me stand on the track, and he would -- and all these trains would be passing by.

[ Exhaling rapidly ] And he said, "You see all those windows passing by that you can barely see?"

I said, "Yes, Daddy."

He said, "Those are all windows of opportunity.

But they move so fast you got to be prepared to grab yours and make it your footstool."

And opportunity is just that way.

It moves so quickly.

You just got to be prepared to grab it.

And so for me, I always give credit to God because He's given me more than I ever thought possible, more than I ever deserved.

And my parents always taught me that, whatever we have in life, it's on loan to you.

It does not belong to you.

It's how you use it to build and empower and help others, so philanthropy is a big part of my life, but the best gift I had growing up -- I had two great parents, a mother and a father.

And not only that, I grew up in a household with 10 brothers -- 8 boys and 2 girls.

And they're my best friends, my anchors today.

There's never been a day in my life when my mother and father were alive that I didn't talk to them.

Whether I was in Africa or Asia, it didn't matter.

I talked to my parents every day.

And the same with my brothers and sisters.

4:00 a.m. in the morning, when I'm out running, I'm on the phone with them until I complete the run.

And so that is my connectivity to the family, to the foundation, to the roots.

Strangers come and go, but family is the source for me, and that was passed on to me by my parents.

>> Well, you know, you were blessed to have such great parents, such great family.

Obviously, they contributed immeasurably to your success.

You mentioned the word preparation.

I once asked Reginald Lewis what word out of the English language contributed to his financial success.

And he said that word was preparation, preparing oneself for success.

Can you explain the importance of reading -- you said what you read from Abraham Lincoln -- writing?

You're a distinguished journalist.

James Baldwin once told me that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Talk to us -- the importance of reading and writing.

>> Books took me to places before I ever got there in the physical.

Reading always enriched me.

My father always said that when we were in high school.

Whether it was the English, the math, or the history book, I would always read the book ahead of time before the class.

I was always reading.

And I realized that, when I was in the classroom, it made the assignments and the lessons much easier for me, because the reading and writing takes you on a journey, because it helps you form words.

It helps you learn about cultures.

It helps you learn about yourself, and communication is very important, so reading, because I was such a voracious reader, it also made me better at writing.

But the most fascinating thing about reading and writing is that it's like continued education.

If you're a lawyer or if you're a physician -- because technology in the legal world and the medical world changes so much with the new drug, with the new technology that they use for surgical procedures, you got to be on top to know exactly what those new technologies are.

>> Continuing education.

>> You have to continue education because somebody could die, somebody could have a permanent injury, and it's the same way for all of us.

I mean, education doesn't stop when you leave high school, it doesn't stop when you leave college, because, you know, wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from having had bad judgment, but through that wisdom and through struggle and through strife, there are things that replenish the soul.

There are things that the soul opens up to you that gives you this better understanding, and so even if you go and read a book that you read 10 years ago, it's not the same book you read today, because you're so much wiser.

It helps you understand your growth and how your knowledge and your experience has expanded.

>> Many African-American youth and youth from other communities of color cannot pass the third-grade reading exam.

And so in New York, they use the statistic of the failure of the third-grade reading tests to build the number of juvenile prisons, because they know if you can't read at third grade, you may not make it out of elementary school, certainly not out of high school, and certainly not to college.

So given what you've just shared of the importance of reading and writing, why doesn't our society put more emphasis on early childhood education, on the fundamentals of reading and writing?

>> That is much more complicated.

You know, if you'd ask me this question years ago, I would have blamed the kids.

There are all kinds of answers I would have given, but, you know, if you -- you've got to examine these issues a little deeper.

Because in a household with 10 children, you see every child in society.

It's fascinating.

I was a quick learner.

I had a brother who had to repeat third grade two or three times.

So in my household, I could see the world, and then we had the same parents, exposed to the same things, but why is it that some were more quicker to adapt to the lessons than others?

Because every child learns differently.

Every child requires something differently.

And what we've learned, particularly through our internships where we've had hundreds of kids come through our program -- Some of them could barely speak English.

Some of them could barely write.

You know, these kids -- first thing you got to make these kids believe is that you care about them.

If a kid believes that you care -- and listen, getting a kid to learn, getting a kid to be excited about learning requires so much time, so much energy.

It is such a commitment.

Do you think every parent is proud when they realize their child comes home and they cannot read and they cannot do simple mathematics?

No, it's because of the investment.

And in classrooms now, teachers are finding themselves in hostile environments where they're abused, disrespected, not paid, and they don't have the enthusiasm teachers -- like my teachers taught because of the love of teaching.

It was not about the money.

They just got a joy knowing that, 15 years later, they're gonna say, "Oh, that boy was in my classroom, and that's a reflection of me."

But learning has changed.

There's so many dynamics as to why kids are failing today.

It's an indictment about government.

It's an indictment of corporate America, it's an indictment to parenting, but I know from firsthand, with my own family members growing up, the way we toured it and worked with my brothers who we thought could not learn, and they began to thrive, but it's hard work.

And people are so overwhelmed in their own lives today that they're just not willing to make those kind of commitments anymore.

>> So a lot of what you just described about education is determined by public policy decisions.

From your perspective, why can't we achieve more to solve these problems?

You talked about the investment in young people, the importance of parenting, the importance of discipline.

How should Democrats and Republicans and Independents be working together to improve our nation?

>> Well, the problem is the simple mantra -- your party, my party, right or wrong.

We have become -- We have sworn such fidelity to political parties, even when we don't believe in the party's agenda, we're gonna support that party.

I'm not gonna ever sacrifice morality for political expediency.

You know, I was once a supporter of Donald Trump, I voted for him, but morality matters to me.

Character matters to me.

Insulting and being inhumane towards people matters to me.

And so I had to take a look and say, "I am not gonna become an enabler for this man's behavior.

I don't care what you think he's done for you."

And so I operate on morality, not on man's law, because it changes with the wind.

Until we have men of principles and values who are willing to stand and stand alone, if it means you lose power, if it means you lose resources -- I am willing to take that stand.

For me, I am as free as they come.

So I am beholden to nobody but the truth and honor and integrity.

I'll tell all of them I am my own man.

I have to sleep with me at night.

I've got to live with my conscience and my character of who I am, and I'm not gonna compromise who I am for political expediency, and not many people are willing to do it, and when they do don't do that, I know one thing for sure, that I know that we don't work alone.

This country is teetering on the brink of collapse unless moral men stand up and take a stand, and until we do that, not much is gonna change.

>> I hear echoes of Martin Luther King Jr. in what you just said.

>> Well, he's a man of faith.

All men of faith who believe in God would say the same.

>> His concept of the beloved community... >> Yes.

>> ...was that everybody was included.

Inclusiveness, not exclusiveness.

Unity, not division.

You own these media properties, which allows you to have the freedom to express what you just expressed.

Talk to us about how important it is to know the business side of public morality.

>> You know, listen, my parents were entrepreneurs.

And the family estate still remain in the family.

You see, I didn't grow up poor.

That's not my story.

I'm not one of those stories where people can say -- >> That's okay.

>> Yeah, it's -- Everybody thinks that, if you're risen to realize the American dream and if you're perceived to be a minority, you had to come from rags to poverty.

That's just not my story.

I'm living the way I've always lived.

Let me just be clear.

I may live a little better and do a little more, but this is the life -- this is all I know.

My parents had, my parents paid us to work on the farm.

The 500-acre farm remains in the family today.

>> 500 acres?

>> Yes.

It's a cattle farm.

Yes, it remains in the family today.

My brothers and those manage it, because my brothers and I get along.

We don't squabble, because we need the farm to take care of us because we can't take care of ourselves.

And so we don't allow the government or Farm Bureau to take our divisiveness and take our farms away from us.

A lot of people have lost their farms and land through strife and just through plain manipulation, and so we've been able to keep the farm in the fam-- but listen, business is interesting because sometimes, you know, I wrestle.

We're always wresting with angels, and, you know, I wrestle with mine, and sometimes doing the moral thing in business is not as easy as it seems.

It's just not.

>> Right.

>> Even in your darkest hour, even in your darkest hour, if you're patient, if you learn from your mistakes and your bad judgment, God will raise you higher than ever before, but you got to be patient, because sometimes you think, "Well, God, when are we gonna make this transition?

I'm still in the valley."

It's not in your time.

It's in His time, and, you know, I learned from that, and He's prospered me with the real estate, with the hotels, with the television station, with the newspapers, and, you know, for me, business-wise, I don't know if I've ever had a business to ever lose money.

Doesn't make any sense to me.

I've always done well financially.

Doesn't make any sense, because I started out with "Dick Gregory's Bahamian Diet."

I remember, when I graduated from college, my parents said -- because my parents paid for my college cash money.

I had no debt when I graduated from school, so this stuff about student debt-- my parents always said, "Any of our -- the kids who want to go to kids' school, college," they'll give them a four-year free education.

And even when my father passed, because that tradition was so important, I thank God that I had been in a position where all my nieces and nephews that wanted to go to school, I financed it for them.

Because I think, if you're born with wealth, that you should use your wealth and power for your family.

You should not have the government pay for something that you can pay for yourself.

So many people have been given wealth and given prosperity still want the government to take care of their kids and provide their kids in areas that they can for themselves.

I never want the government to do that for me, and so what you have to do -- I think if every family could take of their family and we have a big family, you teach them about entrepreneurship.

Every one of my nieces and nephews, I've helped them buy their own home.

I've put them in a home, pay it down.

Some of them I give them a little debt, some I give no debt, give them the potential to understand home ownership.

Even in our companies -- Let me just tell you this, even in our companies, this may sound crazy -- 90% of our employees never leave us.

They've been with us for the last 17 or 18 years.

Why?

Because they're not employees.

They're entrepreneurs.

Whatever deals I have -- with the exception of the broadcasts because that's a unique deal with the FCC.

That's a very unique ownership which I own 100%.

Any business deal that I get in, I give my employees a scrape.

They have an ownership position in my businesses.

So they're not just working for me, but they're working for myself, and even during COVID -- people talk about COVID.

I had to give my an employees a reason -- and I call them executives -- to stay in the office.

So I started playing the stock market.

I used to be pretty good at the stock market, so I started playing the stock market, and I say this publicly.

So I had about seven of my executives, I took $26,000 during COVID, and I started playing the stock market.

In eight months, it had gone to $1.4 million.

But guess what.

Some one of my executives had taken $20,000, gone to $300,000, $200,000.

They've made a lot of money during COVID.

So my employees -- 50% of my employees are millionaires.

I want them to be millionaires.

In my environment, nobody talks about how they're gonna make -- no one talks about paying bills.

No one talks about being locked in their paycheck.

All they talk about is working, and what corporations don't do today -- they become so greedy they want it all for themselves.

You know, I may go to the bank and I may have a few more zeroes, but they got zeroes, too, so everybody's happy.

They don't expect what I make, because they don't put in the time, but if you empower -- you cannot empower others without empowering yourself.

So it's not just my home.

In my work environment, I provide with them the best healthcare.

I take care of my employees the way I want to be taken care of so they never have a reason to leave or they never have a reason to feel resentful of my success.

In fact, they embrace my success.

And it becomes better, and then God prospers you.

People have lost that concept of empowering others.

Yes.

>> You talk about investing in the market or investing in an entrepreneurial experience.

In order to do that, you have to have the basics of financial literacy.

And it's not usually in a lot of the curriculums in public or private schools.

I know a lot of families -- and you come from a family of entrepreneurs, so you got it at home, but can you just speak about the importance from your informed perspective about financial literacy?

>> I think the biggest problem with people who have accumulated money is that they're too insecure to invest it themselves.

They trust their resources with others that they've not put in the sweat and the tears to achieve it.

This is the importance of reading, is this.

If you read, whether it's studying the stock market or studying the crypto market and the bubbles, the Internet is such a place -- it's the best university in the world.

While some people use the Internet to look at videos and like and look at people half-naked, there's also a place on the Internet -- If I want to learn about geology, I could go on the Internet and learn it in a day.

If I want to understand what do options mean, what do calls mean on the market, what do these treasury notes mean, what does it mean when they said the Fed has raised its rate, and how does that tie into the other markets across this country -- if you go in and dedicate yourself to learning that, you can become an expert.

There's no excuse.

This is the beauty of the Internet now.

You can learn anything.

Now, you can say, "Well, I may not have the basics.

I didn't get the basics in high school."

There are tutorials on the line that you can absolutely learn the basics, because even for me, as sophisticated as I think I am sometimes, I wanted to do a little more with the stock market.

And I've had my chief financial officer I've had a lot of confidence in, but for me I wanted to learn it for myself.

But let me tell you, some of this stuff is so complicated, but I must tell you, after staying up late, reading, go and back and forth if I didn't get it the first time -- and sometimes you say to yourself, "Well, I can't learn this.

This has passed me by."

No.

You got to dig deeper.

And once you dig deeper, you can learn there's nothing you cannot learn unless you're willing to try.

Just like you look at these little girls on the basketball court during halftimes when the mothers have their daughters out and they have these dance routines that they do so well and so coordinated, that's the same brain that they can go on the Internet and use these kind of financial skills about how to invest, buying real estate, when and how to buy real estate, which is very important, and also studying the market.

Just like Google and Facebook and Apple, those stocks are still around today.

There are future companies just like those companies that were formed during the '80s and the '90s, but you got to keep your ear to the ground, so I'm always teaching myself, because sometimes Brandon is not there when I need financial advice.

And sometimes I'm so curious I just want to do it myself, and I find myself going online.

And then you can build a circle of influence for long enough that you can just pick up the phone and call somebody, but sometimes they don't answer.

So for me, the thing that I felt good about when we played the stock market, is that 90% of that was self-taught during that period of COVID.

I had to learn it myself.

And it's one thing to learn it.

It's another thing to see the results in terms of the returns you got on your investment.

>> Armstrong Williams, what gives you your greatest hope about America?

>> My success has to do with my faith in God, my morality.

The hardest work I do every day?

The hardest work is working on myself 24 hours a day.

And when I work on myself -- And I find this out.

When I work to be a moral, good person, to be a better person, the Lord blesses me, because His -- there were Ten Commandments, not suggestions.

America can talk about transgenderism, America can talk about DEI, America can talk about abortion, but listen, God gives us free will to accept Him or to reject Him.

Until America gets back to who's in control and what matters most -- Because we've seen great nations with great military might, great economic might, and that's why they fall, because of lack of moral striving, because we have it so good, we feel we don't need God anymore, but, listen, I need Him every hour of the day.

Because listen, if I don't, I take my eyes off the prize, I could just as greedy, I could be just as corrupt, I could be the worst of the worst, but it's He who holds the reins to my life.

And until get back to that in their household and corporate America where you realize that faith matters, charity matters, and how you serve others matters -- and that's something we have to do in our individual lives.

It's not even something the government can do for us.

So that's what America's fate is.

If America believes that it doesn't need God, America will go the way as the rest of these great civilizations and will cease to exist.

>> Armstrong Williams, thank you very much for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> My brother, thank you.

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, visit our website at TheChavisChronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following... At Wells Fargo, we continue to look for ways to empower our customers.

We seek broad impact in our communities, and we're proud of the role we play for our customers and the US economy.

As a company, we are focused on supporting our customers and communities through housing access, small business growth, financial health, and other community needs.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.