 Well, thank you so much to all of you guys for coming. I'm super excited. I must say, when I heard all of your high schools, I'm like, are you serious high schoolers? Just kidding. You guys are great. So in any case, what I want to talk to you about is something that really greatly matters, at least to me. And I think it will also matter to you guys once you know about it. You know, we're all here in this beautiful country that America is. And we're blessed with a lot of things, even though sometimes you don't feel so blessed. But you know, however crappy you think your life is, think about the life of those who come from a faraway land like me. So I come from Senegal. Who here has ever gone to Africa? Cool. Where in Africa did you guys go? Ghana? Tanzania. So you were on my side of the coast, West Coast of Africa. And you were way down south there. In any case, so Senegal happens to be the most Western continental part of Africa, meaning if you're standing in New York, you probably can see my city, Dakar, which is a capital city of Senegal. So that's how close those two countries are. Most of you don't know that. I can catch a flight any time, every day, from New York, Atlanta. Yeah, I know some of you here from Atlanta. As well as DC, and it's a direct flight. And once you get home to my home, it takes you less time to get to my country than it would take you to go to Paris, or to go to London, or to go to Spain. Guess that. Most of you fought. Anywhere in Africa, it takes days, right? Well, there goes one myth right there busted for you. And then when you get there, in my country, at least, the weather is as beautiful as the weather in San Francisco. Who here has ever been to San Francisco, lived in San Francisco? You know the weather is beautiful. I lived in San Francisco for more than 10 years. But that's the weather you get in my country. Did you ever think so? Most of the time, people think, oh, they're dying under the sun, blah, blah, blah. No. I'm by the ocean. I'm having a good time. It's good. Jet lag. Well, when you go to my country, you have less jet lag than when you go to anywhere in Europe. Much easier to deal with. So these are the things that people need to know. But one thing that you know about that is probably true is most African countries are poor. That is a truth. Mine is no different, unfortunately. Why do I care so much and why should you guys care if anybody who has a little bit of heart should care about these issues? And actually, more than just the heart, if you have a mind, you should also care. Because see, when some people are poor and other are rich, what happens? Conflict. And don't think that, oh, it's because it's way there. First of all, it's not way there. I told you, it's very close. It's not way there. And oh, I don't want to do that thing. We do what my thing. I have my borders to protect me. No. You see it every day. People coming and trying to attack you or whatever. Now, I'm not saying my people are terrorists. Please don't go there. But when some have and some don't have, it creates problems. Now, what bothers me the most about where I come from? Imagine if I took all of you guys in this room, all of you. How old are you guys? 16, 17, 18. How young is the youngest one of you in this room? 14. So I'm taking all of you guys. And it turns out that you guys happen to be also the most entrepreneurial people that this country has. And that's why actually you're trying to emigrate, to have a better life somewhere and start a new life somewhere. Those are entrepreneurial people. Those who try to live and do something new, whether you live in a state, to go to California, whatever, usually those are the people who have it in their guts, the guts to get out of the comfort zone and go do something. Well, imagine now I have you all of you. You're 14, you're 16, you're 17, you're 18. And I put you all in a fisherman's boat. You're living in Senegal, you're Senegalese. Imagine yourself, you're like me. You're living in Senegal. And then you decide you're going to put yourself in a fisherman's boat. I'm going to put you all in a fisherman's boat. Now what are you doing in that boat? It's a tiny boat, right? It's wooden. You're trying to cross the ocean to make it to Europe. Why are you going there? You're going there because there you're going to find, you hope to find a job, a job so you can do what? Make money. Yes, I heard it. Take care of your families. But now what if I told you that all of you guys in that boat now you're dead? Now you're at the bottom of the ocean serving as fish food. These guys, how many of you has heard a story like this before? I see a few hands. This is a type of story I wake up to almost every single day and use from my home of young people that I know in some cases that basically are now dead, serving as fish food. The goal here is not to make you guys feel bad. There is no need to feel bad. You can feel sad, but there is no need to feel bad. I told you and you told me yourself, too, you think these people did that because they wanted to go get a job. They wanted to go make money so they can feed their families. There's nothing wrong with that. Who here would not want to be working to feed their families? I don't see any hands up. So from that standpoint, those people are just like us. Before I move on to further, let's go back a little bit. These people are poor, established. Now why are people poor? Let me just ask you that question. Why are people poor? You may say, we told you already, my god, but why are people poor? Just that simple question. Can anybody tell me why someone is poor? Yes? They don't have a job and they don't have a source of income. Thank you. Does everybody agree with a gentleman over there? Because I always like to make sure that whatever talk I do, we always, always agree. And anytime in this discussion, if we don't get to a place where everybody agrees, please be brave, raise your hand. You may teach me something. They are poor because they don't have a job. They don't have a source of income. Absolutely right. You know what you just told me by the way? Sometimes I speak to Harvard students and they don't know that. That's how shocking it is. Yes, so people are poor because they have no money. They have no money because they have no source of money. Usually, it's salary from a job. Now why don't they have jobs? So we're now seeing that the solution to poverty, the solution to making sure that people go from being poor to being able to sustain themselves, to being prosperous, it's like making sure that you have that income, making sure that you have that job that gives you that income. And we know that the people who create those new jobs are usually small and medium enterprises. So we're talking about just people who have small businesses, hiring two people, five people, 10 people, 50 people, 100 people, that type. See, really, it doesn't have to be anything too fancy, but that's where it comes from. Now, oftentimes, those of us who have said, oh, I do care about Africa. By the way, who here would like to see those young Africans no longer be dead at the bottom of the ocean? And who here would love to stop that? Who here feels like that needs to stop? Let me try to see which hands are down. OK, good, thank you, guys. So if we want this situation to end, I think we have just established that we need more jobs for them. So if we need more jobs for them, it means the people who are creating those more jobs, maybe we need more of those people. We need more entrepreneurs. Now, let's stop there for a second. Now, if I tell you you hire someone, but you can't get rid of them, there's a problem of any kind. Whether they're cheating from you, whether they're stealing from you, too, it's not their fault, they're the best employee in the world. You really would have loved to go to the end with them, but right now you've got to save this boat so we can all, and then I'll bring you back. If you knew that if you hire me, you can't let go of me. Would you ever hire me if you knew that you can't fire me if anything happens? Would you ever hire me? Who would? Who in this room would hire me if you knew that whatever happens along the road, you cannot fire me? Probably the company will be dead before you can fire me. Who here would hire? No one. You guys are smart? Well, that's what it is. It's not even a matter of being smart, it's common sense. Well, talking about the ease of doing business when you look at the labor laws, that's one of the biggest problem, for example, in my country compared to this country. And then think about it. I, African, who, unlike a lot of my Senegalese friends, I can go anywhere I want in the world because I have different passports, whatever, but I can go anywhere I want. So when I get to choose, where do I go? I'm an entrepreneur. So far, I've built two companies. Where do you think I've built those companies? I've built them in the USA. Why? Because the USA is much easier on me to do what I need to do, which means everything I was able to produce, all the value I was able to produce and create in this world, the United States has benefited from it, but not my country. And this is the ways in which African countries keep on shooting themselves in the foot. Now, and by the way, this type of story, I have 20 million more. You know, the labor laws in my country, they say you can fit, I don't know how many trucks with it, the laws alone. So much that if you wanna be legal with that, you have to hire lawyers also to help you figure out how, what to do to be legal. That doesn't help. You want things to be super simple. And let's talk about permits. I need to build a building for whatever reason. Takes you a year to get your permit, more than a year sometimes. And you need so many signatures from a notary. By the way, here, notary is almost free. But in parts, in my country because notary, a signature is worth, you have to pay $500. Who can pay $500 for every signature? Even you guys couldn't if I asked you to do that. So what happens then is you have to rely on bribing. You say, look, I don't have a $500, but I give you 10, give me the signature. Because the 10 you're gonna give to that person, they're gonna put it in their pocket. It doesn't go to their company. That's what we call bribes. You knew that, right? Corruption and everything, that's how it works. So the harder you make it for people to get to do what they need to do, then you create more corruption. Because the only way people can go around that is to bribe. So this is why, and you touched it, ease of doing business. So anyone here who wants for those young people to no longer serve as fish food, I would like for you to spend more time on that doing business index ranking. Because I see a lot of young people in this country who care about African and wanna help the Africans. But we're gonna talk about that in a minute. Because all the way straight from here, from this country in America, you are screwing with me back home. We'll talk about it in a minute. But the same way people here have been messing with me back home, the same way you can turn around and be now part of a solution. So, human return aid when it is well put, no problem. The other form of aid is what we call foreign aid. So let's say the US sends money to my government so that they can use it to supposedly grow their government. Well there, we have a huge problem. And for that, I will tell you only one thing. Make sure you get your hands on a movie called Poverty Inc. Because there is such a thing as the aid industry. Now think about it, hundreds of thousands of people in the world, especially from the developed countries, who basically are living on the trillions and trillions of dollars spent on aid every year. So the way it goes is, Carmen, you're from the US. And the US sends money, I'm the government of Senegal. So, your country sends me money. You know, you send me money. So what I do is, what's your name? Jury. Jury? Jury. Jury. So, sorry. So you send me money. And Jury, right, there's a consultant for you from USAID, let's just use them. USAID, right? Or like some consultants who work in the aid thing. They're gonna come and they're gonna teach me how to fish or how to catch a fish. All of this thing, because you know what, I'm so stupid, I didn't know how to catch a fish. I had to wait for her to come and tell me. There, you see how patronizing that is. First of all, by the way. Do you guys think that works? But that's what has been going on forever. Now why do you think that something like that doesn't work for me? Because two things, not only you're teaching my people to become dependent and to wait and to have this mentality of handouts, but at the same time, you are making sure that me as the head of the country, I'm not interested in my people getting better. Because guess what? If my people get better and they start to be independent, that money that I'm able to put in my pocket, do you think I still can put it in my pocket? No, because you stop. You stop sending it, we don't need it anymore. But what the problem is is when so many of you in this country advocate for that, I see every day people having petitions for more foreign aid being given to the Africans as a way to help them. Every single time you do that, you're delaying forcing my leader to make doing business easier. Because if that happens, then eventually more people have jobs, less needs, less aid money coming in, I can't line my pocket anymore as a leader. Another way you guys are hurting me from here. Who here has tom shoes? Or both tom shoes? Or loves tom shoes? Raise your hand and raise them high, please. Free people. Why do you guys buy their shoes? What do you love the most about tom shoes? Tell me. I know what it is. I was there. When you buy a tom shoe, another pair of tom shoes gets sent to an African child. Yes. When you buy a pair of tom shoes, another one gets sent to an African child and you feel good, don't you? Like I said, I was there before too. Except that stuff is some of the most toxic, toxic thing you can do for me. Let me walk you through. So first, tom shoes was making their shoes in China. Nothing wrong with that. Making their shoes in China, selling them to you and saying, you buy one pair, I send a pair to a poor kid somewhere in Africa. That sounds awfully nice, isn't it? And they say, that's what's gonna alleviate poverty. That's what's gonna end poverty. That's another thing that they tell you. How exactly that wearing, having shoes is gonna end poverty when we talked about what we talked about? How exactly is having shoes gonna make doing business better or gonna create more entrepreneurs? If you guys find a link, you come talk to me. If you find a link between only giving someone shoes and creating entrepreneurs who are gonna create jobs, if you get that process, tell me. Now, you buy these shoes, tom shoes, collect the other pairs, it's all going into a fancy truck. Truck is gonna be flown somewhere. I mean, the container is gonna be flown somewhere and let's say today it comes to my country. Oh, it's happening, it's coming to Senegal. Let me give you a really good example here. Senegal turns out where we're gonna be establishing our plant in this village that's very known for really amazing, beautiful craftsmanship when it comes to shoemaking. I mean, these guys, they make you custom shoes. Anything you want, you can pick your colors, the leather, anything you want, your exact size, shape of your foot, it's beautiful. They've been doing it for decades now. It's from family to family to family and they're hiring more people in this and creating more jobs. Now imagine, today, the truck comes. Yay, we're tom shoes, all of these free shoes. Put yourself in the shoes of that shoemaker. The truck arrives in a damn village and all of these shoes are given away for free. Do you think the people who are getting the shoes for free are gonna go buy now shoes? They don't buy shoes. That happens once, truck comes. Maybe the first time people are like, oh, maybe it was just one time, you know. In the meantime, I need shoes, I'm gonna go buy shoes. But then the second time again, the truck comes. Now people are really thinking this is real business, it's gonna be on forever. And by that time, you, the shoemaker, you gave up because now you think this truck is gonna come all the time, this is it. Who can compete against free? No one. And at the same time, by the way, you just thought, tom shoes, I just taught all the little kids that you don't pay for things. You get them for free from the white people. See there? Me, black kid, I get free stuff from the black, from the white man. That's how the world works. But guess what? Third time, no truck. Because by that time, the tom shoes and the little cheerleaders were now in Guatemala somewhere. They forgot about me in Africa in that village. But it's too late, it's too late because you gave up. You closed your company. You fired 100 people. And they're doing the same thing in Guatemala and the next time, again, over there. So people like me have been complaining and the only thing that tom did is like, oh, okay, we get it. So we're gonna build a factory in Haiti, whereby the way they're suffering so much for any jobs. That's great. Except it's not changing the business model. He's still destroying companies and jobs all over the world. So what has to go is that by one, give one model, doesn't it? But by one, give one model is fundamentally flawed. It is unsustainable. The only person who benefits from that is tom's. That's it. And maybe that one kid who, that one, for those maybe one year in his life or her life, has shoes that probably are gonna be ripped within a week, by the way. You feel good. Tom's feel good. We're all having a freaking party here in the USA. We are saving the Africans and that's great. You keep thinking you superior to me because you helped me and I keep thinking I'm inferior to you because you helped me. You see there how we're continuing to be part of a problem that has been gone forever. Now, compare that to another company. In this situation I'll use mine because I know it best. I have this skincare company for example where I am, it's all inspired by the traditional and ancient wisdom of the traditional healers of my country. You see we know that in this country, women use most of the beauty products you guys use, turn it around full of chemicals that are really no good for you. And don't even get me started. Especially when you're starting and you're 14, 15, 16, 17 and you're starting to mess with your body with all of these chemicals that are gonna start messing with your endocrine and your hormones and the way they work or don't work. Well, where I come from we have amazing recipes that you keep really nice, clean, clear skin with none of that crap. It's 100 and 100 and 100 years of knowledge. For now the products, we're buying the ingredients from Africa which is good because that's creating jobs there because the suppliers we buy it from create this, you know, they can keep those jobs going. But guess what? Next, we're going and we're gonna do a crowdfunding where we move production to Africa. At that point what happens is the jobs are created there. Now, when you buy a product like that, imagine the difference between buying a product like Tom's because I am not destroying any job anywhere. And because also I am bringing back here things that come from my tradition, I am also teaching you something new. I am teaching you that I'm not just this clueless, pathetic little African that has nothing to contribute to the world. I'm bringing to you really good stuff that can help you, help you with your skin. So you see how there even you reverse mentalities. And this is why in the fall our campaign is gonna be something along the lines. Instead of buy one, give one, we are all about buy one and bust a myth. In this situation bust a myth that Africans have nothing to contribute. Bust a myth with oh, there is no beauty coming out of Africa. I hear people telling me that. I have had people, very well-intentioned people telling me I'm so glad I got to know you because before you, I never equated Africa with beauty or beauty products. It sounds racist, but this is true. And this is a challenge that I face, but it's okay. That's why we call it buy one bust a myth. Every time you buy one of our products, you're sending the strong signal to your friend, to the world, and to me. Oh no, my God, I am not one of those idiots who think poverty is just about giving you shoes. I have understood that you Africans have things to contribute to the world. You are my equal. You are giving me wonderful stuff. You're making these great products for me. I'm gonna buy it from you and I'm sending you this ultimate message of I am on your camp, I'm working with you, and you're no different than me. But all you needed was to be part of this game. That's all. Thank you.