John Henry: The Best Advice I Ever Received (Video)

“The best advice I’ve gotten is to focus on building generational wealth,” says John Henry—a Dominican-American entrepreneur and investor whose focus is on building vibrant communities. Learn the story of how his job as a doorman led to John’s first business: an on-demand dry cleaning startup for the film and TV industry in NYC. “Opening up doors for people helped open up doors for me,” he says. But it wasn’t until John sold the laundry business that he really started to learn what it takes to manage money and build wealth. Today, John oversees venture investments as a partner at Harlem Capital. He is also the host and star of the Viceland TV show, HUSTLE.

Video Transcript:

The best advice I've gotten is to focus on building generational wealth. Play for the long-term.

I was working for a very prominent real estate family, and when we drove down Fifth Avenue, it wasn't sightseeing that they were doing. It was checking on assets that they got from their family, and that they would pass on.

In my communities, we didn't grow up with that kind of mindset. And so, that day, I decided that I would build a firm that would create generational wealth.

My name's John Henry, and I'm a partner at Harlem Capital, which is a venture firm that is on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship. We invest in women and minority entrepreneurs. These are founders that are crazy enough to think that they can change the world. And we're crazy enough to believe they can. 

Only 2% of all venture funding goes towards women and minorities, and we saw a really great opportunity to invest in these founders

So I come from an immigrant family, and that largely has shaped the rest of my life. Uhm.. and in- in an immigrant family, you're expected to, you know, contribute to the household pretty early on. So that's why I got a job as a doorman.

I often say that opening up doors for people helped open up doors for me. There was one resident, in particular, that taught me about the value of time. And he said, "John, no matter how many times you open that door, or no matter how many times you smile behind that desk, your ability to earn is capped, because what you make is on a per-hour basis."

Once I understood the value of time I decided to go out on a limb and put matters into my own hands as an entrepreneur. 

Invest in assets, that’s how you can decouple your ability to earn from your time.

If you're not happy with your situation, then go hard right now. This is the time to change it. Get your overhead super lean, and I can't stress the importance of that. When your overhead is lean, that frees up your capital to invest into yourself, so you can learn more skills, invest into other assets. And with that, feel free to make mistakes with it. Make mistakes. Invest in yourself, in your ability to earn. And then, eventually, you find your passion. And once you find that, you go all in.

Get more advice from Journey to Launch founder Jamila Souffrant.