FEBRUARY

2010
Love Leadership
by John Hope Bryant

The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World

QUICK OVERVIEW
In his book Love Leadership, successful and internationally recognized social
entrepreneur John Hope Bryant examines the secret to his own success and the success
of other entrepreneurs and businesspeople. Drawing on his personal experience in
developing the nonprofit Operation HOPE, as well as the experiences of successful
people such as President Bill Clinton and Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, Bryant tells an
engaging story of how love makes money. by John Hope Bryant
Bryant claims that much of the current economic crisis is the result of leading through Jossey-Bass
fear and a failure to run businesses with compassion. He points to the subprime mortgage © 2009, John Hope Bryant
lending crisis as a main example, where businesspeople acted based on the get-rich-quick ISBN: 9780470428788
scenario of the short term instead of focusing on the tougher, but ultimately more 224 pages
profitable, road of leading (and, in some cases, lending) with compassion.
In Love Leadership, Bryant makes a strong case for overhauling the world’s economy by
leading with vision and love. He maintains that the more leaders give, the more they get SUCCESS Points
in return, both in financial gains and the rewards of pursuing life with purpose. From this book you
will learn:

APPLY AND ACHIEVE • How to succeed

Love Leadership makes the case, as unlikely as it sounds, that the best way to get ahead through giving
is to figure out what you have to give to a world seemingly obsessed with only one
question: What do I get? • The two styles of
Love Leadership suggests that the best way to do well and to achieve true wealth over leadership and which one
the long term is to do good. The book takes a new approach to leadership, one that works for the long term
allows you to strive as hard as the next person and achieve as much as you are humanly
capable of. But it is a uniquely humane brand of leadership that lets you sleep well at night, • The five laws of
too, one that reminds you that your life has purpose and meaning, and that even as you love-based leadership
receive, you have something valuable to offer this world.
Whether you’re a small-business owner or the CEO of a large company, Bryant’s book • How relationship building
will inspire you with the power (and return) of doing good works, and give you clear is different from (and
lessons in how to succeed for the long haul. Bryant makes a strong case that businesses better than) networking
that ultimately fail, even if they’re initially wildly successful, come to their ruin by
• Why love makes money
their lack of attention to compassion. If you want long-term success, you have to be

Page 1 [Link] SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES

 Love Leadership

passionate about what you do, care deeply for your employees and it steels your mettle. You have experienced your own
and colleagues, and operate with an attitude of service toward personal pain: the loss of a job, a personal betrayal, a major
your customers. And you have to be real. Love leadership is disappointment. And out of that pain, you gain not only strength
authentic leadership. and a competitive advantage, but also something even more

L
essential: learning. Learning is the source of your advantage.
oss is personal for me. I learned the importance Operation HOPE was a way for me to do well and do good,
of the first law of love leadership—loss creates as well. Ultimately, this work has saved me—from myself. If it
leaders—when I was a child and my family struggled hadn’t been for the work of Operation HOPE over all these years,
with money problems. I’m sure I would have been obnoxious, self-absorbed and very
Within a short period of time, my mom and dad accumulated wealthy, but lonely. Giving other people dignity gave me dignity.
their own home, an eight-unit apartment building that we rented Loss has saved me.
out, a nursery my mother ran, a gas station in South Central And it is saving others. We have served over a million people
L.A., and a construction company my dad ran. There was only to date. We’re changing the face of poverty. And all because
one problem: My dad was financially illiterate, and too proud to I experienced loss. Loss really does create leaders. It puts you
admit it. He would make a dollar and spend a dollar and 50 cents. on the path toward love leadership—leadership based on the
I got my work ethic from my dad, but I learned financial literacy strength born of struggle.
from my mother. She worked for many years and retired from
McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing. In addition to working at her
job, she often sold things to her co-workers, from candy to a FEAR FAILS
range of handicraft and food products that she would sew and What I’ve learned time and time again is that fear doesn’t
cook herself. This augmented her income and provided her a work. In the long term, letting fear motivate your actions—how
measure of independence as well. you treat others, how you conduct business, how you live your
My mother understood that life wasn’t about making more life—leads to failure.
money; it was about making better decisions with the money you A lot of powerful people in this world, oddly enough, have
made. When she said she was going to purchase a car, she meant a poor image of themselves. Outwardly, low self-esteem
in cash. The entrepreneur in her would often tell me growing up, manifests itself in arrogance, in a sort of brutality in the way
“The man will set your salary, but you decide your income.” leaders manage. Business for them is a zero-sum, winner-takes-
The interesting thing is that once you understand what loss all competition.
really is, once you lose someone dear to you, or once you lose Self-esteem is critical to combating fear.
yourself, you gain the world. You’ve got to feel good about yourself before you can feel
Once you learn that the world didn’t come to an end and that good about anything else. You’ll fail in life if you don’t have self-
you could work your way back to being whole again, you gain confidence. You’ll fail even more spectacularly if you lack what
enormous confidence and wisdom about how to live: how to have leadership expert Bill George calls a “True North”—if you don’t
humility, what matters and what doesn’t, how to succeed against have a purpose in your life, if you don’t believe in something larger
all odds. and more important than yourself.
There can be no strength, no real inner growth, without the Look around you in the corridors of business today, from the
pain of legitimate suffering. biggest corporation to the tiniest mom-and-pop operation, and
Loss creates leaders with a competitive advantage earned you’ll see a picture of fear just as vivid as some of the streets
in the school of hard knocks. The advantage comes from the in the inner city where I grew up. Everywhere around us, we
tremendous personal and professional growth loss generates. see seemingly successful leaders who practice what I call fear-
Loss strips away your physical crutches, and even your based leadership.
emotional crutches, and leaves you with nothing but the spirit. Fear-based leadership tactics include the following:
And in the spirit lies your true power. Loss fires your spirit, • Using aggressive language, tone and eye contact

Page 2 [Link] SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES

 Love Leadership

• Criticizing unfairly LOVE MAKES MONEY

• Blaming, without offering reasonable recourse I recognized that I didn’t want to make money just any
• Applying rules inconsistently old way.
• Stealing credit It had to be honorable. I began to understand, through my own
• Making unreasonable demands mistakes, that there was a difference between good capitalism
• Excluding others from opportunities and bad capitalism. I wanted to do well for myself, make no
• Personalizing problems mistake about it, but I also wanted to find a way to serve society,
• Breaching confidentiality not just serve myself and get paid. As I would eventually learn,
The problem is that the entire business world seems to have doing well by doing good is the essence of the third law of love
come down with a case of attention deficit disorder. The disease leadership: Love makes money.
goes by another name: short-termism. Short-termism is similar to There are only two things in this world: love and fear. What
fear and laziness, in that it relies on shortcuts to achieve results. you don’t love, you fear. In my teens, I was running my early
One of the most significant examples of the failure of fear-based businesses out of fear. As we’ve seen, fear is me-focused.
leadership motivated by the desire for a short-term fix or shortcut It is short-term. It is based in greed.
is the subprime mortgage crisis that has gripped the capital The alternative is love-based prosperity. The third law of love
markets the world over. Huge losses on foreclosed homes have leadership—love makes money—breaks down into a set of
morphed into a full-blown credit crisis, a liquidity crisis, and interlocking and related goals: creating long-term relationships
ultimately a crisis of confidence that, at the time this book was built on caring for others and in service of a larger good.
going to press, rivaled the Great Depression in its severity. Each goal is guided by love. When you operate this way, the
The root of the crisis lay in a toxic combination of fear, greed by-product can’t help but be prosperity for everyone, which
and laziness. And it emerged from the bedrock of American naturally leads to money for you, too.
wealth: housing. Everyone in the mortgage industry was trying to That’s because love always leads to money. Money is nothing
get rich quick while the sun shined. No one cared what happened more than one of the many by-products of love leadership. That’s
if homeowners couldn’t repay their mortgages. Everyone was busy right: Money, over the long term, is simply another confirmation
cutting the biggest slice of the pie—for themselves. that you’re doing good work. It’s a by-product. It’s never the
product. No entrepreneur worth his salt—and I think of game-
changers like Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Richard Branson and many
others—ever started a business just because he or she wanted
The Five Laws of to make billions of dollars. These people probably didn’t mind
Love Leadership: the idea of making a lot of money, but they started in business
• Loss Creates Leaders (There can be no strength because they were obsessed with an idea. They were idealists, in
without legitimate suffering.) the broadest sense of the word.
The third law of love leadership—love makes money—means
• Fear Fails (Only respect and love lead to success.)
thinking about others more than you think about yourself. It
• Love Makes Money (Love is at the core of means caring for others: what they think, what they need, what
true wealth.) they want. It means not just putting customers first, but also
• Vulnerability Is Power (When you open up to thinking from the customer’s point of view—what they think,
people, they open up to you.) what they need, what they want. Caring for others means giving
a damn about people as people, not as transactions or as means to
• Giving Is Getting (The more you offer to others, the
an end—and not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also
more they will give back to you.)
because it’s in your own self-interest.
If you want to grow your business wildly over the next few
months and meet your profit projections over the next few

Page 3 [Link] SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES

quarters, there is no more effective way than the fear-based VULNERABILITY IS POWER
model of leadership we saw in the last chapter. Nothing works How I communicate with my board of directors is a lesson
better in the short term than intimidating the hell out of people in the fourth law of love leadership, vulnerability is power. I
and coercing them to do exactly what you want. They’ll jump tend to over-communicate, even at the risk of irritating some
to attention every time you come into the room and agree with people. I would rather tell my board members what they don’t
everything you say. need to hear than risk not telling them something they thought I
If you lead with love for the long term, people will follow you should have. I would rather over-communicate, under-commit,
forever, wherever—for their own good as well as yours—and you and over-perform than under-communicate, over-commit,
will be remembered as a person of greatness. and underperform.
I learned through trial and error that if I treated my business The love-leadership approach to managing problems and bad
partners and clients as transactions and not as relationships, I news is different, and it pays dividends. It brings people along
would get that one sale, but not 20. There would be no customer with you and helps them buy in. It operates from vulnerability
next year, and my business wouldn’t be sustainable. If, in contrast, and transparency rather than pride and secrecy. Often, this
I treated others the way I wanted to be treated, I learned that they vulnerability gives others the comfort and confidence to stay with
actually wanted to do business with me more, they trusted me you when things get really rough.
more, they were more loyal to me and they had more confidence The fourth law of love leadership—vulnerability is power—says
that admitting weaknesses and owning up to mistakes have
in me.
counterintuitive benefits. When you are honest, people are more
My favorite thing to say to people I care about and respect is
likely to forgive any weaknesses and mistakes. When you open
“What can I do to help you?” This really floors people. When was
up, people open up to you. Vulnerability is the door to your heart,
the last time someone asked you what he or she could do for you,
and being vulnerable grants important benefits to those who are
and meant it?
strong enough to leave that door open. Vulnerability shows that
Want to hear something crazy? A big part of my job at the
you are human, and it makes you loved—and all great leaders are,
nonprofit I run is fundraising, but I never ask anyone for money
at their core, deeply human and much loved. That’s why people
for Operation HOPE or any of my initiatives. Of course, at the
follow them. It’s the source of their power. Rather than ceding control
appropriate time, I may send a proposal outlining a pressing need,
to others, being vulnerable actually puts you in the driver’s seat.
or mail something to document the substance of what we do, but You’re not waiting around for anyone else to open up, to get in
I never ask. I have raised $500 million this way, by not asking and touch, to care. You see what’s needed and you do it, out of care
not selling. I have found it much more powerful to share, but this, for others.
of course, means that you actually have to believe in what you are When you love, you’re taking charge of the situation, even if it
sharing and doing. You cannot fake authenticity. makes you vulnerable.
I am all for free enterprise and capitalism. Without a clearly Delivering bad news and admitting mistakes as soon as you
defined profit motivation, a business simply will not be viable become aware of them is one of the most powerful ways to show
for long. vulnerability. Love is work, and doing the work means dealing
Everyone needs to have an enlightened self-interest in the with bad news before it deals with you. Why wait for someone
outcome of a business transaction, and it should start with a to whom you owe money to call you? You knew Tuesday you
genuine understanding of and concern with what’s best for the didn’t have it. Surprise him, and give him a ring first, saying, “Joe,
client, the customer, the borrower. That concern—what I call I don’t have the $100 I owe you, and I won’t have it until next
love—was fundamentally absent during the events that led up to month, but I do have $20 today, and I want to send it to you today.”
this economic crisis. Calling him first is the entire ballgame, because if he has to track
Your reputation depends on something greater than making you down, he has also already assumed you are a bum with no
money. It depends on creating prosperity for all. intention of making good on your commitments.

Page 4 [Link] SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES

 Love Leadership

Relationship Building
Beats Networking
Long-term relationships based on genuine caring are
the financial engine that drives love leadership. At the
GIVING IS GETTING end of the day, we don’t do business with governments
By late 2008 Operation HOPE was facing a major revenue or companies or organizations, but with people.
crunch as a direct result of the global economic crisis. The
Real relationships also take a real investment. If you
organization had to tighten its financial belt. I needed to push
treat your customer like an object in a transaction,
and inspire our team to do more with less, and that started
is that work? Probably not. If you take the time and
with me setting the example: I worked longer hours than ever
nurture a relationship, is that work? It’s a hell of a lot
before. The result translated into more stress on me and my
of work. But there’s also a huge payoff. You won’t get
senior management team. I was the one charged with raising 100
paid one time; you’ll get paid several times as that
percent of the additional funding we needed to survive. My senior
person gives you multiple levels of business.
management team was dealing with greater levels of organizational
stress, because they had to grapple with the real effects of The problem is, relationship building is often
tightening financial resources on the ground and with their people. misunderstood as networking. Traditional networking
Let me say it plain: It would have been easy to have simply cited “techniques” and the building of real relationships
the recession’s impact on our finances, and thereafter rapidly are radically different activities, however. Networking
moved to cut a significant percentage of our staff, services and is a one-way relationship; building relationships is
program offices. I know many leaders who would not have thought two-way. Most people walk in with their hand out.
twice about axing employees to boost the bottom line. But that did They think the meeting is all about the “ask” or the
not make sense to me, or make it right. “sale.” In contrast, I look at a meeting as a wonderful
This approach, more often than not, ends up winning battles and opportunity to gain a new friend, colleague or partner
losing wars. To me, people on our staff are not numbers on a page. in the world. And that is the differentiating factor
They are friends and dedicated employees. They are mothers and between building solid relationships and networking.
fathers, proud providers for their families and human beings. Our Networking is about me, not we.
paycheck pays the mortgage, the car note, the insurance and the
grocery bill. Although they are fairly compensated to be sure, most
of them still live from paycheck to paycheck, just as approximately do the job. In other words, back then, if people were not getting
70 percent of all Americans do. They love helping others, and most something accomplished, oftentimes it was either because I
would do the work for free if they could afford to, but, as a practical unreasonably expected them to be superhuman or because I was
matter, they also need this job to provide dignity, shelter, education not giving them the time or the tools to achieve the task at hand.
and hope for themselves and their families. Giving starts by giving to your people; and giving must be done
The message of this story is the premise behind the fifth law of without expectations and instead with a purpose of doing good
love leadership: Giving is getting. The more you give, the more for others. Employees want to know that their employer takes an
you get. interest in them for the long term and wants them to succeed.
The fifth law of love leadership translates into a long-term There’s another critical way you get people to give their best:
commitment to serving others, starting with serving those who You help them find and follow their passion.
work in your organization and expanding out to serving your A good business plan is the opposite of taking. Good capitalism,
partners, vendors and customers, and the world. It fundamentally as I call it, means to have an open hand, not a closed fist. It involves
requires that you serve without expecting anything in building a group of people who believe in you and your vision, who
return—because it is the right thing to do. trust you, whom you don’t have to buy off or coerce.
So what is the “special sauce” that makes people stick Let’s make this plain: Giving is also in your own enlightened
around? The answer is this: a powerful combination of passion, self-interest. I call the concept good selfishness. When you want to
authenticity, purpose and servant leadership. help others, they want to help you. When you want to do good,
In the early years of my career, I would often confuse a desire to the universe wants you to do well.
get a job done with the real capacity for someone else to actually

Page 5 [Link] SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES

 Love Leadership

CONCLUSION: GOOD CAPITALISM

AND LOVE LEADERSHIP
When we look closely at how we got here, it’s easy to point
a finger at our economic system. I still believe that capitalism
works. In fact, I would go further and say that nothing has done
more to lift the world’s poor out of poverty than market-based
economics. But the current economic model is broken, and what
has been done to the system has given business a bad name.
Of late, there has been increasing criticism of our basic economic
model. But what has been going on is not so much capitalism as bad
capitalism. Bad capitalism is a result of an obsessive focus on a fairly
narrow band of short-term financial results. The aim is to make
money, to the exclusion of all other considerations.
Why should we care about how someone less fortunate does?
The short answer is that caring for the success and prosperity
of others, particularly those at the bottom rungs of the success
ladder, is the only way, over the long term, that those who are
well-off are ever going to be able to keep the precious wealth About the Author
that they have been able to accumulate. John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman and CEO of
Gated communities will not save anyone. The only thing
Operation HOPE, the first nonprofit social-investment banking
that can save us all is hope made real in people’s lives. The most
dangerous person alive is a person without hope. operation in the United States. Operation HOPE has raised
Prosperity is the partner of peace. But without hope, when more than $500 million to empower poor communities since
people don’t believe in the future and don’t value their own life
its founding in 1992. Vice chair of the U.S. President’s Advisory
or others, there is simply not enough law enforcement available
in the world to maintain order. Council on Financial Literacy and chairman of the Under-Served
As we move to restructure our global economy, we need to Committee for the U.S. President’s Council, Bryant is an
make sure that the conversation is based on a love-leadership internationally renowned motivational speaker. He is also a Young
model, has a long-range vision, and empowers people to
Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. A guest on Oprah,
participate and to become legitimate stakeholders in the system.
Bryant has also appeared in feature articles in the New York

Recommended Reading Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. Bryant has
If you enjoyed this summary of Love Leadership, received more than 400 awards and recognitions for his life’s
check out:
work of empowering low-wealth communities, including Oprah
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature Winfrey’s coveted Use Your Life Award. Bryant is a native of Los
of Legitimate Power & Greatness by Robert K. Greenleaf
Angeles, where he lives with his wife.
Leadership for a Better World: Understanding
the Social Change Model of Leadership
Summarized by permission of the publisher, Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, 989 Market St., San
Development by Susan R. Komives, Wendy Wagner, et al. Francisco, CA 94103. Love Leadership by John Hope Bryant. © 2009 by John Hope Bryant.

How Remarkable Women Lead: The © 2010 SUCCESS Media. All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in whole or in part
Breakthrough Model for Work & Life by Joanna Barsh, in any form without prior written permission. Published by SUCCESS Media, 200 Swisher Rd.,
Lake Dallas, TX 75065, USA. [Link]
Geoffrey Lewis and Susie Cranston

Page 6 [Link] SUCCESS BOOK SUMMARIES