[MUSIC] [APPLAUSE]
>> Thank you, thank you. [APPLAUSE] >> Thank you. Thank you. [APPLAUSE]
>> Thank you, thank you. Thank you Dean Saloner. I appreciate that. Hi, hi. >> [LAUGH]
>> I'm so happy to be here. >> Let's jump right in. >> Yeah, well first, I just met Coach and
he's a cool dude too. And both Coach Dawkins, all my guys,
Coach Shaw, I love those guys. Clap, you got great coaches here. [APPLAUSE]
>> That was one of my highlights. I hope I get to meet him. I met his mom, but I didn't meet him. >> [LAUGH]
>> I'm sorry. >> [LAUGH]
>> [LAUGH] I'm giggly like [SOUND]. >> All right,
well then let's start with sports. Let's start with basketball. >> Okay. >> Many people may not realize that
you actually began preparing for your second career, your career in
business, while you were still in the NBA. Can you tell us what that preparation
looked like and what motivated you? >> Well, first we have to understand
that the same principles really apply from being a basketball
player as well as a CEO. When you think about focus,
strategy, discipline, so I'm still that same guy that has
those same principles as a CEO. And what I was doing as a basketball
player first and also a competitor. because I hate to lose at anything,
all right? Like my wife encouraged me to play my
daughter one on one when she was about 15, 16 years old. You know, I play her you know,
we go to ten. I let her get to nine. >> [LAUGH]
>> And then I gotta to crush her. >> [LAUGH]
>> And if I was playing my mother, I would let her get to nine and
a half, and then I'd crush her too. >> [LAUGH]
>> I love winning. >> [LAUGH]
>> And I took that same competitive spirit to the boardroom as well. I'm a perfectionist. So I was a perfectionist
as a basketball player. I did the drills over,
and over, and over again. And even today, I'm a perfectionist. And I want to do everything the right way. So when you think about
principles of being an athlete or a basketball player,
it's the same thing as a CEO. I am a guy who is going
to get there early. I am not about, I'm a professional. Today they said, okay about 11:30. Well I got on campus at five to 11. >> [LAUGH]
>> I just sat at the chapel for a half hour waiting. But, that's who I am. And so I think that I was preparing. What I did was asked Dr. Bus I said,
my dream is not to just win championships, but I want to become a businessman after
my basketball career with the Lakers. And he took me up under his wing and
became my mentor. One of my many mentors. And so he taught me Laker business,
opened the books up to me, let me see how the Laker business
was being run day to day. Then I took, and
I was one of these guys that was crazy so I called the PR man from the Lakers and
I said look I want to know, all the people who sit on the floor, I want to
know their phone numbers and names. So I cold called 20 people, and
said, will you go to lunch with me? And they said yeah, so. >> [LAUGH]
>> Surprise surprise. >> I took advantage of my platform,
trust me. >> [LAUGH]
>> And so I picked their brain about business,
what made them successful and I incorporated it into my own style. So while I was playing basketball,
yes, I was getting ready. But make no mistake about it,
I was 150% in with being a Laker and being the best
basketball player I could be. In the off-season, I was preparing for
this life after basketball. But I was a crazy basketball player,
much like I am CEO. Because, when you're trying
to prove people wrong. First they said I wouldn't be
able to play point guard at 6'9". So I had to prove them wrong. Then, they said I couldn't go from
the basketball court to the boardroom. And it's been my pleasure
proving them wrong again. And so, I'm a guy who goes all the way in. And I love doing what I'm doing, but basketball prepared me for
the business room. No question about it. If it wasn't for basketball, I don't
think I could be the CEO that I am today. >> I think you touch on some
good lessons that you learned in transitioning your career. There's a lot of people who come to
business school hoping to pivot out of one career and into another,
basketball pun intended. >> [LAUGH]
>> And what would be- >> Okay. >> [LAUGH]
>> What would be your top piece of advice for them? >> Well first of all,
you gotta take your ego out of it. See, what made me a great basketball
player, wouldn't make me a great CEO. I have to understand,
because I didn't know business. So that's why those mentors were so
important to me. And then, somebody finally
is going to say no to you. Mm. >> [LAUGH]
>> And then, you have to have a thirst for
knowledge, all right? And so, that's why I was meeting with so
many people, because I was hungry for knowledge, and
I wasn't shy about asking questions. And so I think for me, it was just
making sure I got in the right room with the right people, make sure I got enough
experts in terms of being my mentors. Experts in business. And then make sure that then I
apply what I learned from them. A lot of times athletes,
we're such in our own world that we forget that after we retire, you're still young and
you have a whole life to live. I retired in my 30s and so, I still had
a lot of life and a lot of living to do. And so I'm so happy that my, I knew that my
second life was going to be in business. I didn't think it was
going to get to this level. I never thought in my wildest dreams
it would get to where I am today. But I knew I wanted to
be a business man and I was going to do everything in my
power to become a successful one. >> Well you did become very successful. And I want to play back to
earlier in your career. You had an early partnership
with Starbucks, and around 1998, you opened 125 stores for
them in low income neighborhoods. It was the first time Starbucks
had done something like that. Your stores were more successful
than the national average. You don't own those anymore, but can you talk about how important
that deal was in your career? >> Well, let me go back before
that one because actually the Magic Johnson Theatre set up that one. And I did my homework and research and found out minorities were the number one
group of people going to the movies at that time, but we didn't have no
theaters built in our community. And I said wow, if we're the number
one people going to the theater, to the movies, if I build them,
they will come. The demand was already there. So I met with the Sony execs and
told them, look, the growth of your business
has to be through urban America. We've got an unbelievable spending power. Look at our spending power right now. African Americans, a trillion
dollars spending power, Latinos, another trillion dollars spending power,
and growing. And I'm sitting there saying, wow,
that's a lot of disposable income, and that could make my business
become successful very quick. And so they said let's do it. I put up half the money. They put up half the money. And the first thing people said,
oh, no way. They're going to tear it up. Graffiti going to be all on the walls. And what happened was my first theater
in Crenshaw in LA was in the top ten highest grossing
theaters in the nation. And what we had to do was tweak
the concession stand a little bit. >> [LAUGH]
>> because minorities, we're a little bit different
than everybody else, so. >> [LAUGH]
>> We grew up on Kool-Aid, so I had to have strawberry,
grape, orange, soda. We don't drink just coke. >> Yeah. >> [LAUGH]
>> So. >> [LAUGH]
>> Now, the reason I said that because my per caps
were some of the highest in the industry. Wait a minute, so if I keep that coke
just in there, and my customer base don't drink coke,
I'm not successful, right? Then I had a spicier hot dog. Some jalapeno peppers, that was the first time in theater
history that ever happened, right? And so I was able to understand my
customer base and overdeliver to them. And I'm going to use that word all
the time, and you students out there, I want you to write that word down,
and that's overdeliver. because if you going to be in business,
and especially today's marketplace,
you gotta overdeliver to the consumer. Or guess what,
they're going to leave you that fast. I have overdelivered to my
customer base for 30 years. That's why I have the number
one brand in urban America. And so,
if I had have just kept coke in there, not the hot dog change,
it would have been a problem. Let me tell you a little quick story about how they looked at me
as a basketball player. So we're about to open my first
theater on Crenshaw in LA. And I asked the food buyer from Sony,
I said, how many hot dogs do we have for the opening? So he's like, man, the same amount we are going to give you is the same
amount we have in our suburban theaters. We opened the theater on Friday,
we sold out all the hot dogs that normally take a month to sell out
in suburban, sold out in one night. Why?
Because minorities, we're not going to go to dinner and
a movie. >> [LAUGH]
>> We're going to have dinner where? >> At the movies.
>> I can't hear you. >> At the movies. So that's another reason
my per caps were so high. You have to have an understanding
of your customer base. And I know what urban consumers want,
and I deliver that. So because we were very successful
with the Magic Johnson Theatres, I went up to Seattle
because I saw this long line outside this coffee
place called Starbucks. I'm like, man,
what kind of coffee they serving in there? >> [LAUGH]
>> So I said, I gotta get in that line,
I gotta see what's going on. So I got in the line and
waiting and waiting and waiting. I finally got up there, and
I don't drink coffee, I drink tea. So I said, man,
let me have your best tea, whatever. I took a sip of that tea. I said, wow. >> [LAUGH]
>> No wonder. I said, man, that's the next successful
thing that can happen in urban America. So I cold called Howard Schultz,
CEO of Starbucks and said look, I want to come up and see you. So I flew up to Seattle, and
we had a meeting, and thank god, he was a basketball fan and a season
ticket holder of Seattle SuperSonics. And we sat down and talked. And I told him the growth of this
business would be through urban America. because Starbucks got a store, man,
they saturate the market, which is great. They dominate the market. I said, but there's none in urban America,
and we got this great spending power, and I knew that it would be
successful in urban America. He said, well, we don't do franchisees. I said, I'm not here to become one. I want to be your partner. I'll put up half the money,
you put up half the money. So, he said, well,
I've got to sell it to the board, let's have a couple more meetings. So long story short,
we had about four more meetings, and then he finally decided to come down and
see how we managed my theaters. And this is really important to
a lot of you young people out there. You've got to make sure
that what you selling and what you tell people is
going to be the truth, right? When they come and see what your business
looks like, everything that you told them, it sure better look like that. So sure enough,
he comes down on a Friday night, and thank god, Whitney Houston's first movie
was coming out, Waiting to Exhale. >> [LAUGH]
>> So I had about 4 or 5,000 African American women wrapped
around the corner trying to get in. >> [LAUGH]
>> To see this movie. So Howard comes,
we come around the corner. He's like wow, man. He was amazed we had this many
people waiting to see this movie. Got inside, the concession stand was just, I mean we were making money like crazy
because everybody was ordering something. And then finally, the movie started, so we sat in one of
my biggest house was like 500 seats. And the movie got going,
about 20 minutes in. And every African American
woman in there thought they knew Whitney Houston personally, so
they start talking to the screen. >> [LAUGH]
>> Girl, why you still with him? >> [LAUGH]
>> You should dump him. And so Howard grabs me out the theater. True story. And said, Irving, I've never had a movie going
experience quite like this. And he said, you got the deal. So we did three as a test. And this is where that word
comes in young people. So he gave me three to test. And I had to overdeliver with the three. So when I looked up, I said okay, we gotta tweak Starbucks just
a little bit to fit In urban America, the coffee was great,
but the dessert was not. We don't quite know what scones are. [LAUGH]
>> So I had to take the scone's out of my Starbucks and put sweet potato pie, pound
cakes, sock it to me cake, peach cobbler. They said no way minorities will
pay $3 for a cup of coffee. Well, we proved everybody wrong. My per caps were higher than his per caps. And, it went from building
3 to building 125. The multiple was already negotiated. >> [LAUGH]
>> So when the [LAUGH]- >> [LAUGH] >> So when my contract was up in terms of the number, 125,
I sold them all back to Howard. And I walked away,
with a big smile on my face. >> [LAUGH]
>> And he did too. Because he says already,
in all the interviews that he's been able to do after our partnership, he said how
our stores really changed Starbucks. Brought in a lot of minority managers,
district managers, employees. And now he's built now,
500 to a 1000 stores in urban America. And it's great. So its great for
me to be the guy who opened the door for Starbucks going into urban America. And we should clap for
that because that's that's a great thing. >> [APPLAUSE] >> So, it's still about overdelivering. See, if I had of kept
those scones in there, my per caps wouldn't have been 459. It wouldn't have been that high. So, because I changed
out those desserts and then I also took out the Lawrence Welk
music that they played in- >> [LAUGH] >> The regular Starbucks and I put in Prince, Motown music,
Earth, Wind, and Fire, things that resonate
with the urban consumer. So now if I got you sitting there, and you made your first purchase,
and you're comfortable. And you got your head moving, and you've
got your favorite drink next to you, you're going to sit there long
enough to make your second purchase. And then minorities,
if we call a place, that's my place. Like, that's my restaurant,
that's my burger place. Whatever it is, that's where
we're going to go all the time because they've overdelivered to us. And you're the same way. And so,
that's why you have to overdeliver. And also,
stay in touch with that customer base. In terms of asking them questions,
do you like this? Do you like that? We always stay intune and in touch
with our customer base to make sure we're doing the right thing, and
that's why I've been successful, as well. >> I hear you talking about
diversity of perspective and how important that was for you. There's been a focus recently on the lack
of diversity within Silicon Valley and the tech industry in general. How does that play into your
investment and partnership decisions, and also how do you think
about recruiting and retaining diverse talent now that
your head of your own organization? >> Well the first one is,
when you think about Silicon Valley and you think about what is only 1% of
engineers that are African Americans and about 3% I think is Latinos. Now that's way too low. But they keep using that as an excuse. Well we can't find enough
engineers who are minorities. Okay, that's fine. But what about, you have lawyers,
accountants, the HR department, there's other areas that you can hire
minorities who are qualified, right? And allow them sit on this campus too. And other campuses. So, we just don't want to be engineers. We'd love to work at Google. We would love to work at Facebook and
on and on and on. And so, diversity starts at the top. If it's not a part of your DNA, it's not
who you are, it's not going to happen. That's why I love Stanford, see? And we don't want a hand out. We just want an opportunity. Now look at those two coaches. They just wanted the opportunity, and
they're delivering, overdelivering. And that's all. We just ask for an opportunity. Look, you want to hire
the way America looks. In the next twenty years,
half of America or even more than half of America,
is going to be minorities. So, the first companies
that understand that, and start hiring minorities now, they will
understand how to really deal with them not only as employees but
also as consumers. And so for me, it's easy for me. I like to hire smart, young people. Matter of fact, I got one of your
own that work for me, stand on up. Yeah, Ryan, yeah [COUGH]. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> And Ryan, I'll tell you
what's great about Ryan. Ryan was here on the campus
a couple years ago, and he was doing some internship work for
us, right? And so, that's when we were
thinking about buying the Sparks. So, we put Ryan on the Sparks deal. He analyzed the numbers,
he came back to myself and said, he thought that the number that
we were going to pay for the Sparks, it was going to be a good deal. If he had said, don't do the Sparks deal,
I wouldn't have done the Sparks deal. So, we got young,
bright minds like Ryan in our company. And so Stanford you're
producing some great, young, smart, also too he's single so
any ladies out there [LAUGH]. >> [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE]
>> [LAUGH] They start clapping. And then once he analyzed that deal and
broke it down for me. I knew that I wanted him because you have
to have people skills to work for me too. It not just being smart. I want somebody who can also go out and
on behalf of our company, represent us. And he does a wonderful job of that. And so,
my brand is everything to me, and so I gotta make sure that the thing
that I protect is the brand. See, I have everything else. Sustainability, I have growth. I have all that now, right? But, the one thing that could ruin it all,
is a tainted brand and a diluted brand. And so, I want to make sure
that I protect that brand and that's why I hire people like Ryan who
can not only protect the brand but grow the brand, and
the bottom line all at the same time. And so, we're buying the Dodgers,
that's sustainability. I have a $14 billion Insurance
company that I just bought called Equitrust out of Iowa. That's our headquarters. We're going to move that to Illinois. It's doing gang buster business. We're growing it. So, when I look at it I have
everything that I want now. I have I was fighting for first respect
because they didn't respect me when I first came into the boardroom because they
still look at me as a basketball player. But that Starbucks deal changed
all of that, see I drove ROI. I took Howard's brand, it was already huge
but I took that brand to another level. It was the first company ever. Jay Leno picked up a Starbucks cup,
live on TV, and said why you charging those people that
kind of money for a cup of coffee, right. And we all laughed but
Howard Shaw was happy, like, wow. I was just on the Tonight Show and
didn't cost me a dollar. >> [LAUGH]
>> You see what I'm saying? So we were able to grow
the brand of Starbucks for free, and also at the end of the day also be able to grow the bottom
line too, and that's why that partnership was the one partnership that
really got me everything that I wanted. And then,
I've had the number one real estate when you think about fund
in terms of urban fund. So, I did, we did 300,000,000,
we did 600,000,000 our second fund. And our third fund,
we did a billion dollar. And then, we had an equity fund worth
around Burkle's company, Yucaipa Johnson. So, we went out and
raised about 500 million. So that's when I bought a lot of the,
we bought about 20 radio stations, we bought Soul Train brand on and
on and on. With the real estate fund,
if you think about the W in Austin Texas, you think about the Hilton
in Washington D.C., all those things,
all those properties we still own. And the Trans America Building downtown
Los Angeles, we used to own that. And so, those are the type of
properties that we invested in. And so, it was really unique and special that I can go from the basketball
court dribbling that little basketball to having a real estate fund, having an
equity fund, and now I'm with Guggenheim. And Mark Walter told me, you don't have
to go out and raise money no more. We manage about $200 billion,
just come see us, okay. [LAUGH] And I tell you,
this is a quick story for some of you. because some of you
going to be disappointed. I gotta stand up for a minute. >> [LAUGH]
>> Is that okay? >> Yes.
[LAUGH] >> I know I'm at Stanford and everything so all these smart people. because I might be working for
one of them one day. You don't mind me changing
a little bit Dean do you? Okay cool, because I can't
just sit down all the time. Young people. >> [LAUGH]
>> So when I first went out
to raise my first fund I went up to Cal Pers,
right down the road from here. And they turned me down, four times. And the last time
the committee turned me down they said well why haven't
some other minority come to raise money and
do what you're talking about doing? And I couldn't answer that
question I was up there to have them give me around $50,000,000
to invest in Urban America. That was unheard of at that time. And so, finally I went up,
the time after that, the fifth time and they finally said, you know what,
we're going to give you the 50 million. And if you, I'm going to come back
to that word, if you over deliver with the 50 million, you can come back and
get 100 more million. I bought a shopping center for 22 million, it was 40% occupied. I made that center 100% occupied. I resold that center for $48 million. Took the 26 back up to Sacramento and
said, here you go. >> [LAUGH]
>> And guess what happened. They started respecting
me like a businessman. Now, a lot of you going to get
turned down five times like I did. Are you going to get back up and
try again? Or you going to go,
have your head down, disappointed, and not get up and try again? See, I knew I had a great business plan,
I knew I had a great strategy. And I believed in it. That's why I kept going up to Sacramento. And finally they said yes and
that's when I took off. So remember, you going to get turned down. Somebody not going to
like your business plan. That's all right. You can tweak it,
you can make adjustments to that. But keep going if you believe in it. And if you've done your homework and
your research and you find that you have a good chance to be successful
with your business, keep going. Never let anybody define who
you can become and who you are. They said oh Magic just a point guard. No. >> [LAUGH]
>> I was more than that. And now I'm proving it each and every day. Jack Dorsey just said, hey, Magic,
come on, join my board of square. I've been turning down boards left and
right, and I finally believed in in him and
what he's built and so I finally said yes. But if I hadn't proven myself,
he would never come and ask me to join his board of square, okay. Back to you now. >> [LAUGH]
>> Thank you. >> See that's how we do it at Stanford. We-
>> Experience through learning. [APPLAUSE]
>> Yeah, everything-
>> Something I live by too, young people write this down. Always be ready to adapt
>> [LAUGH] >> And adjust. >> [LAUGH]
>> I'm serious. Market change,
you got to be ready to adapt and adjust. And we did that. With my real estate fund,
we had built some condos. The market just, remember, banks weren't loaning, no more money,
and everybody was in trouble. But quickly we said oh, wait a minute we can change to
a renter's model [SOUND] Just that fast. And guess what happened? It didn't affect our bottom line. We still were successful because
we were smart enough to say okay, it's not going to work
because nobody can get loans. But we can go to a renter's model and
it can still work for us. Make sure you're quick and
nimble enough to say, you know what? I can adapt and adjust to what's
going on in the market place today. I can change my business, or
tweak my business to make it still work. >> You're talking about
resiliency throughout that and I want to shift to a more, Personal
issue before we turn to questions. And that is your health. And you contracted HIV at the height
of your super-stardom in basketball and overnight you became the face of a disease
that at the time people thought was a gay, white man's disease. Can you talk about the experience
of having to become a leader in a community that you might have
otherwise never been associated with? >> Yeah. Well, first it was tough. It was tough because in the beginning, getting that phone call,
come to the doctors office, we're in Utah, fly all the way home
from Utah, couldn't play in the game. I didn't know what was wrong,
what was going on. And to walk into the doctor's office and
him to tell me I have HIV, it was just devastating. I mean, I'm talking about I
was on the floor devastated. And it took me hours just to come to
grips with what he had just said. And then what was more devastating than
that was, I had just gotten married, my wife was pregnant. So now I've gotta drive home
to tell her I have HIV. And more than thinking about myself, I was thinking about her and
my baby at that time. And I tell you, I never thought and I had did everything right, I thought. I was married to the game,
I put in maximum effort. And I'm now, boom. This happens. I married the woman that I
met on Michigan State campus. That I've always wanted
to marry my best friend. All those things are going through
your mind as you're driving home to now face the toughest
challenge in my life. More than Michael, more than Larry. >> [LAUGH]
>> Yeah. [LAUGH] Yeah, I'm glad I can
laugh about it now, I tell you. But it was, when I hit the door,
she knew something was wrong. She knew it. And so I sat her down, and I began to tell
her I had HIV and she cried like a baby. And the thing that makes it tough,
young people, your mistake not only hurts you,
but those who love you. It hurts them too. They are affected by your mistakes. And here she is, been nothing but
a great wife, great friend and I'm putting her at risk and
putting her in this situation. As we're talking about it and
I'm trying to console her, and then I told her I understand
if you want to leave me. And then she hit me so
hard up side my head and she said, we're going to beat this together. This is the only time I knew that I
was going to have a chance to live. Because if Cookie had have left,
I don't think I would be here. Because I needed her as a support system. And that was a difficult time, so you need the ones that love you to help
you through your toughest moments. And so I'm so happy she stayed and
supported me. And then, we got the best news
about a couple weeks later. She was okay, the baby was okay,
after the doctors ran the test. So I've been the face of this
disease now for 24 years. >> Was she also the person who
encourage you to speak out and help to educate everyone about AIDS? >> That's a great question. Great question! We went back and forth,
once we found out her status, we went back and
forth on if we should go public or not. So I met with a lady who was
living with AIDS at that time, Elizabeth Glazier, changed my whole life. She was dying at that time and she told me Earvin,
I want you to be the face of the disease, they need a face, it needs a face and
you will be perfect. You got to go public. It's going to help the world. And she said there's some great
drugs coming down the pipeline. And she was right. At that time there was only
one drug at that time, AZT. And so I'm glad she was there for
me as well. And then I promised her that I would
become the face, and I would do a lot of different things to help those who are
living with it and also to educate people. And she has a great foundation named
after her, doing great work too. And so Cookie and I after meeting with
her, decided to go public at that time. And now you look at the numbers
there's over a million people living with HIV in this country, but one
out of eight don't even know they have it. It's a lot of people walking around
right now they don't know they have HIV. And then it's effected the black and
brown community in a big way. When you think about the numbers,
especially the numbers of blacks in terms of 55% of men,
45% of black women. So it's really important that
we still go out and get tested. Also go back for your results. Now you can get it
tested in your own home. Now instead of one drug,
there's thirty drugs. That's why I'm living today. If you think about the drugs are so
much better today. Easier to take today. There's still a fear of minorities going
to find out if they have HIV or not. That's been really hurting
our community in a big way. And so I fight against discrimination
against those who are living with HIV. I go out, educate people,
and that's what I do. This is my life. And so I love what I do. I love going out, talking about HIV and
AIDS and also helping people. And that's what I'm all about. And then, when I joined
President Bush AIDS Commission, back at that time, this is the father,
I remember I went to Boston and they had a hospice, 30 beds. I walked in. Only one bed was,
one patient was in one of the bedrooms. And I was like,
what's wrong with the other 29 rooms? They had to take you through a process for
you to get a room. I mean don't these people
who need a room and they had to go through
a process to get one. It takes like a year or two to get
cleared, and just that day I quit. I said this is not right. There's people who need rooms who
have to be on the street, and we take them through this long process. And so I quit that day and
I built a Magic Johnson Foundation, and we've already given out over,
almost about $15 million to different aids organization We've tested
over 40,000 minorities. This is what I do everyday, I love it. Not just the HIV and AIDS side, we have 120 students on scholarship right
now, colleges all over the country. We've built 16 technology centers because a lot of minorities can't afford
to have a computer in their home. We give them access to one and these are
the things that we do every single day. Then the last thing I just started was
Magic Johnson Bridgescape Academies because right now,
the problem we have in urban America is so many dropouts right now. So we're building these drop back in
centers where kids can get off the street, get there high school diploma and it's so great that we've graduated 400 students so
far. And guess what,
a lot of them are in college right now. We should clap for that. [APPLAUSE] [APPLAUSE] We
should go to questions. [LAUGH]
>> We don't have much time left but if you just want to raise your hand, the
people with the mics will come down and find you and
we'll start with a question from Twitter. >> Let's take five or so. We can't just run off,
I came all the way here from LA. That's a long way. >> [LAUGH]
>> And not answer some questions now. My Dodgers are in the play offs, don't
be booing up here but it's Giant's fans. [APPLAUSE] Go ahead. >> First question from Twitter. What was the hardest lesson you
learned when you transitioned from basketball to business? >> I thought it would be easier
because I was Magic Johnson but actually it was harder. Ten banks turned me down. Besides, CalPERS turned me down. I was looking to grow and
I used up just about a lot of my income to get me to a level but now,
I wanted to go to another level and I wanted that growth and
I needed some big money. I went to the banks and
ten of them turned me down and then I said, if ten turn me down, I'm
going to make sure everybody turn me down, so I went to the next bank and
they said yes. It's really funny. What's your name? >> [INAUDIBLE]
>> Gracie, it's really funny. Now, Gracie, after the eleventh bank said yes,
and owning the Dodgers, all this stuff, all them ten banks
are knocking on my door saying, oh, we'll give you as much lines of
credit as you want, on and on and on. But I'm a loyal guy, so
I stayed with who got me here. Again, you're going to get
turned down sometimes but keep on going because
somebody may say yes. I was blessed that somebody said yes and
believed in me and my strategy and believed in urban America too. So, thank you. That, that was the hardest thing. Who got the next one? Oh, right here. >> Hey.
My name is George. I have a question. With the Equilife deal, you're-
>> EquiTrust. >> EquiTrust deal, your organization was the largest
black-owned insurance company in America. How do you see minority-owned financial
institutions changing the way American business is done? >> I think, first of all,
we gotta be successful, that's number one. Always remember that you can only
change things when you're succesful. I think more minorities will have access to capital so that they could build their
own businesses because I'm successful. I don't think that we're going to
change financial institutions, in terms of minorities owning
a financial institution, but I think what I can
do is open a door for other minorities to have an opportunity
to become business people. You see what I'm saying? Right now, we're seeing that everywhere. If you look at the hip hop community,
who do they credit for changing their mindset
on becoming businessmen? They credit me and athletes do the same
thing because I opened the door, and also changed their mindset and attitude, toward just being an artist,
or just being an athlete. Now we know that we can go from
the basketball court to the boardroom. So I think EquiTrust will
allow others just to say hey, there's an opportunity to own
a financial institution, hopefully. If not just, again,
being a pioneer for minorities to be able to know that you can be successful
as a businessman or a business woman. I'm sitting in a great spot, in a great
position, I don't take it lightly. Just like being a minority in baseball,
it's great. We've changed the Dodgers. I don't know where we were, we weren't
in the top ten in attendance before. Now for
the three years that we've owned the team, we've been number one in attendance
in the MLB, over 42,000 a night. We've enhanced the fan experience. We've changed the team and
we won our division three years in a row. We've changed everything and now we're what, Forbes said we're
the sixth most valuable sports franchise in the world behind three soccer teams
and, of course, the Yankees and Cowboys. We'll take that all day. >> [LAUGH]
>> The things that we've been able to do has been great. We'll see what happens in terms of
financial institutions but I'm just happy that I have a successful business and
that we're going to grow that business. We just sold another business that I
was into, which was Simply Health. We built that business over three years,
a Medicaid, Medicare business. My partner and I Mike Fernandez,
we took a business that we bought, it only had 17,000 members. Now about 300,000 members and we sold it. We grew it to 300,000 members and we just
sold it to Etna for about $1 billion. I've been doing a lot of great things and
this is what I do everyday. It's nice to not be in those hot pants
I used to wear and I wear suits now. Remember those short
shorts we used to wear? Johnny, you remember those shorts, man? I don't know how we got in those things. >> It's right here. >> That young man right there? Go ahead. >> My name is Aaron. I grew up in Inglewood down the street
from The Forum so this is special for me. Ciara, you are killing it. >> She is too, let us give her a hand. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> My question is can you talk about the conflict, or lack thereof, between
helping a community that you came from, that you grew up wit, a socioeconomically
disadvantaged community and also wanting to make money yourself? >> There's no conflict and
I'll tell you why there's no conflict. Minorities want me to be successful. When you think about retail options,
we were short retail options. Minorities, we were driving an hour, sometimes 45 minutes,
outside our community just to shop and go to a grocery store,
to go to the movies. >> What I was able to do was understand
what we wanted Because we were already driving to get it, but
it was outside our community. What I did was I just
brought it right to us. Minorities understand
that if I'm successful, then they have a chance to be successful. It'd be different if the prices were high or I'll price myself in
terms of to the urban consumer, but I hire people from the community. But first thing I did was to
train them to do their job. I'm going to say that one more time,
I trained them to do their job and then you get the retention
that you're looking for. And also I made it a workplace
that they have fun working at. And that again, gets you the retention
that you are looking for, as well. My Friday's was the hottest
place to work at and to go to. Right, my TGI Friday's that
I used to own right there. You been there? Right? >> [LAUGH]
>> Yeah. Man, a Laker game came on or Dodger game, you couldn't even get in the place,
packed. I was the first Fridays in the nation
to ever serve Dom Pérignon, Cristal, all the high end liquor,
I was the first one. They copied my motto. Because that's what my
customer base wanted. But the reason I'm saying it, is that now in urban America or Inglewood, or
wherever, you have a chance to now, in your own community, get a salad,
get dinner, go get Starbuck's coffee. And you didn't have the options before. So I look at it as, I'm putting
people to work and now that dollar, our problem in urban America,
the dollar only touches three hands. In suburban America,
one dollar touches about 20 hands. That's why I savor the grow. So I tried to make sure a dollar
could touch at least ten hands in urban America by
putting a business there. Hiring people from the community. Now they're spending their money where? In the community. Now the community grows. And so
I'm happy about what I've been doing. I was able to put people
that have good paying jobs. Those district managers, or
the managers, they make good money. And then a brother like Ryan,
getting ready to be a millionaire, so, it's going to be cool. >> [LAUGH]
>> I told him on the way here, man, if that deal work,
you going to be a millionaire. He said, okay. >> [LAUGH]
>> That's the first time he ever took the glasses off and was like, aw man. >> [LAUGH]
>> He started sweating, Stanford, he started sweating. But that's also my job, is to make as
many minorities millionaires as I can. And so, we're on the right track already. I've already been able to do that
with a lot of people so far. One of the people I hired went to UCLA. Don't be booing. She went to UCLA business school,
19 years ago, she became my receptionist. I told her, if you stick with me,
it was just her and I at the time, that we were going to do
great things together. I said, don't worry about this was not
the job you wanted out of college. So guess what? Now she's a millionaire. Now she's my COO running my company. Went from the receptionist out front,
now she's making the decisions. So that's what can happen. And a lot of you don't get caught
up in what job you get coming out, you know you smart. Sometimes it's good just to get in, get
the knowledge, and then grow from there. [CROSSTALK] I gotta have
her because she's short. Come up on stage. Come on stage, come on. >> [LAUGH]
>> Yeah, bring the phone. >> [LAUGH]
>> Yeah, hand it to somebody. Don't put it in your pocket. >> Okay.
Here you go. >> Yeah, set it up. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> All right, next, come on, come on. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> All right, hold it, hold it. Turn around.
Back to back. [LAUGH] [APPLAUSE]
>> All right. >> This is great. Well, I'm Maria. I'm a junior actually here at Stanford. >> All right. Put the mic up. >> And I kind of of just wanted to ask
you, you talk a lot about how powerful you are in the business community, but given
how strong of an influence you are to a lot of minorities and
just individuals all over the place. I kind of wanted to ask you what sort
of initiative you are kind of like, hoping to emerge yourself
in in respect to obesity, given that a lot of minorities
are facing this issue. And a lot of basketball players and
just athletes in general market a lot of their products
and they're not the healthiest, per se. It's a lot of sodas, and things like that. And I kind of wanted to ask you
since you have such a big impact and so much power like you were saying and
you want to empower those people, do you see yourself kind
of engaging in sort of any, I don't know, business opportunities,
whether it's like to like making those like culturally appropriate I guess foods,
or beverages, more healthy per se. >> Okay, well two things. First let's start with myself first. About two years ago,
I was 40 pounds heavier. And I knew that I was
snacking on the road. And I said to myself,
I've gotta make a change. So no, I'm serious. I gotta make a change. So I started putting nuts and fruit in
front of me, instead of those chips and things, and I dropped about 40 pounds. Then I own a company called SodexoMAGIC. We provide food for colleges,
school systems, corporations, so we have I do Disneyland and
Disney World. Yay! >> [LAUGH]
>> Mickey and Minnie eat my food. >> [LAUGH]
>> And their headquarters, John Deere, All State Insurance,
Drexel University, on and on and on. So now we're starting to see now even
corporations, school systems, colleges, they want healthier options for
students, for their employees and so on. I think before I was not
mindful of what you said, but since I changed my diet myself and
now I get up every morning at 4:00. I'm in the gym by 5:00. I work cardio and
lift weights for an hour. So now I can talk about it
because it's the truth. I'm living it. Before I couldn't talk about it,
but I'm living it now. So it's very important
that we do eat healthier. Because African-Americans, we're dying
earlier than any other group of people. So we gotta make some changes
when you think about our diet. And also too, it has to start at home. And then that's when I was
talking to the young men about Harlem hadn't had a grocery store for
over 40 years. So I put Starbucks there,
I put my theater there in Harlem. That's when Pathmark finally
built a supermarket in Harlem. Now we got fresh fruit, vegetables. See that's the problem we
were having in urban America. We just didn't have the opportunities
to buy things that were fresh and healthy for us and now we're
hoping Whole Foods come into urban Communities and others,
Trader Joes, whoever it is. So, we can have those type of options. And so yes I'm promoting it and
I'm actually going to invest in a company that providing
that type of food option. I can't tell you much about it right now. >> [LAUGH]
>> You know we're not there yet. Ryan, we're not there yet, right? Yeah, Ryan has, can I brag about him? Keep your eyes on him,
the guy with the glasses. >> [LAUGH]
>> He has bought me lately about three deals. We just invested in
a company called Job Wealth, that's a supplying minority talent to,
yes say that. >> Latino recruitment and
just minority recruitment in general. >> You heard about it. >> I heard about them.
I signed up. [LAUGH]
>> Man, give me some. >> [LAUGH]
>> I love it. No wonder we're friends.
>> [LAUGH] >> We're friends, I follow you on Twitter actually.
>> No, but Ryan has done just a tremendous job.
And if we can do me one favor because when
it's your own and they become successful, you always got to feel proud because see,
guess what, you're the next one. And if you don't bless somebody else,
how can you be blessed, right? And that's what I'm all about. I'm blessed to have a great wife, I'm blessed to have great three kids,
two grandchildren now. But also, I'm so happy that I saw
the talent in this young man, and that you guys really shape and
mold it into, he's going to be awesome. So if you can do me a favor, there's two people you need
to give a standing ovation. This beautiful lady,
she's so smart and talented. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> Come on, come on, come on. >> That's right. [LAUGH]
>> She did a wonderful job. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> Come on man. >> Thank you. >> And this one too, come on. >> Oh my god. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> So, Listen, I came from a very poor family. Sometimes we had, The peanut butter but
we didn't have the jelly. Sometimes we had something to drink and
sometimes we didn't. Sometimes it was tough. Six sisters, three brothers. But the one thing I never
had was poor dreams. Even though I grew up poor,
I didn't have poor dreams. And one thing I never lacked
was confidence in myself. I always believed in me, always. And the one thing that I could control,
is my work ethic and my work habits. First one in the gym, last one to leave. I'm the first one at work,
last one to leave. It doesn't change. If you want to be successful,
You got to get there early, you got to outwork your competition. And then, get your husband, or
wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, to understand and buy into your dream. That's one thing Cookie did. I said baby tonight I know it's not a real
date but I gotta take you to the theater- >> [LAUGH] >> To the Magic Johnson theater when we get there you go to your seat I
gotta kiss the babies for two hours and hug everybody that came in. Then when we leave we got to go by
Starbuck's and sit in the parking lot and watch how many people come into the store. >> [LAUGH]. >> That's going to be our date. But guess what? She was sitting right there with me. The hard work paid off. Five championships, led the Lakers
the nine finals in 12 years. What a run, right? Then here, the business world. Now I was struggling to get money and
capital. Now, I don't have to worry. If I need to raise a billion dollars
tomorrow, which we're starting a new fund, I wish I could tell you about it. But we already got 2 billion committed. We haven't even gone out, because I got a proven track record. >> Magic,
I'm going to interrupt there because- >> Okay, God bless you! >> [LAUGH]
>> Thanks. [APPLAUSE]
>> My track record won't compete. >> Thank you. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC]
