YouSaid · the spoken record

A.G. Gaston

lines on the record: 40
first: 2020-03-05
most recent: 2020-03-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“And his opinion on a lot of this, this is AG's Gaston's perspective on the war for civil rights. And you need to gain economic freedom and he learned that from Booker T. Washington and Booker T. Washington, the book spends a lot of time about the criticism and comparing and contrasting other influential people at this time believe very similarly. And so there's a lot that you could say in this book about this, but I think this paragraph gives you like a good summary and an indication into the mind of A.G. Gaston. So he says, we cannot fight and beg from those we fight at the same time. His age and experience had taught him this much. Though it would be years before most participants and observers of the movement understood what he meant by this economic imperative. AG viewed, and I think he was arguably”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like a lot of people, it took Gaston decades to figure out what his life's work was going to be. But once he figured it out, I love that he switched the second most important turn of events in his life. And that's the mastery of his craft. He's like, okay, I'm in it now. I have it going and now I'm going to dedicate all my energy and all my singular focus to becoming the best possible person in my craft that I could be. To that degree, he continues his vertical integration here, starts out with bury insurance, then he's owning the funeral homes, which expands. And now he's like, you know what? I'm just going to own the cemeteries too. And inquiring the new Grace Hill Cemetery in 1951, along with the Mason City Cemetery, Gaston hammered the final nail into place in his vertically integrated business model. Gaston could now control every level of the business of dying from preparation to internment. He owned the company that ensured the burials, the mortuaries that prepared the bodies.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a telling picture of AG from this time period in which he's seated in his office, a frame photograph of Booker T. Washington hanging on the wall behind him. His desk is stacked with books and papers, but what is most visible is a placard. The placard bears just one word in bold letters. Think It was Gaston's new directive and his personal imperative. He had begun to climb”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so at this time, He's doubling down on the singular focus. And his singular focus is now mastering his craft. He decided to focus on, and this is his words, becoming the very best businessman I could be. I studied, read, listened attentively to the advice and counsel of auditors, lawyers, brokers, bankers, and other financial advisors. I learned to quickly digest a profit and loss statement. I realized the great importance of keeping good records, and I was scrupulous about detailed accuracy. I saved a part of all I earned. I was always watchful for sound investments. I insisted on top flight performance of my employees, another way to say I demand excellence. And learning the hard way not to make the same mistake twice.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not only does he open this up, it becomes a business that can maintain its own profit. And it's not just reserved exclusively for people that are going to work in his businesses. It grows and then people are trained and then they work in all kinds of businesses. So it goes back to him wanting to help his community and to realize that, hey, you're not going to be able to grab the opportunity that's out there for you if you don't have the required skills. So come here and gain that required skills. More about his personality. I think I mentioned this earlier, but the note says industry plus frugality. The survival of his business was his central concern. Remember, you go back to the singular focus. We talk about all the time. No matter what the immediate personal cost, he had remained since his early days at the mines, both an avid saver and an unabashed penny pitcher. Extravagances were indulged rarely, if ever.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now we're going to see fast forward way ahead in the story. Okay, so he's got a number of flourishing businesses, but he's running into a bottleneck. He can't find the talent that he needs for his growing businesses. So what do you think a person with his personality does? He's like, okay, that's fine. I'll educate and train these people myself. So this is where he starts another business. And it's called the Booker T. Washington Business College. It says the Booker T. Washington Business College was conceived of and founded by Gaston in 1939 to provide training to potential employees of the insurance company and funeral home. The growth of both companies had necessitated the hiring of additional employees, but Gaston was continually dissatisfied with the caliber of applicants who came knocking on his door in response to his employment ads. Few had the basic training required to work in an office environment. It didn't take long for Gassin to realize that the only way to ensure that his employees were properly trained was to educate themselves, and it's really smart.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now at this point in the story, AG is living through the depression. And now he's living through the depression, but his partner, Dad Smith, is what he's called, is dying of diabetes, and AG married Dad Smith's daughter. She's also dying. They don't ever say what her illness is. So Dad Smith dies, and then six months later, his daughter dies. But this is going to give you an insight into his personality. And that insight is that he relentlessly focused on things that he could control and he had a bias for action. So not once in his autobiography does he mention the Great Depression or they call it an economic holocaust No person who lived through that era was unaware of the devastation but like Criolla that's his wife and Dad Smith's illnesses the depression was nothing AG could do anything about as in those cases rather than dwelling on what”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Eventually, AG builds up the business, it's doing really well, and he has a deal with the companies that are doing the actual burial services, right? So the funeral home. And he's right now up until this point, he was just providing the insurance. He's like, wait a minute, why don't I buy the funeral home? And that's his whole, like eventually he becomes entirely vertically integrated into the death business. So it says, so he winds up buying the company. At this point, he already took on his partner. That's the father figure that I told you about earlier. Gaston had secured for himself a situation that virtually guaranteed a greater influx of money into his own hands because he now owned the mortuary that performed the services for which his insured customers would be paying. He held all the tools necessary for effecting profit and loss margins. He eliminated the middleman and freed up a greater share of the net gains for himself. Just another smart idea.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some people are like, I'm going all in, I'm going to risk it. What happens? So he leaves his job at the mine. And remember, his job of the mine not only pays somewhat well, although hell on earth, but it also allows him to run his other businesses. He's still selling box lunches. He's still loaning out money. He's still selling anything on the side that he possibly can. And in the little time that he's not doing all that, he's going door to door to sell his insurance. And so he's like, no, no, I am terrified of being a failure, of being financially insolvent. So I'm going to keep up with this grueling schedule as long as possible till by the time I do jump to this other business, it's a foregone conclusion that it's a success.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he's drawing inspiration for that business and for that life and the decisions he's making, doing the exact same thing that you and I are doing right this very minute. His endless thumbing through his copy of Washington's autobiography up from slavery had inspired him to action and taught him crucial lessons. One of these lessons is when opportunity knocks, open the door and invite him to tea. It had also instilled in him a genuine sense of self-reliance. This goes back to the discipline and the extreme experiences that he exposed himself back in the war. From that he learned he never complained. He didn't share his problems with other people. He said, this is my life. I'm a believer in extreme self-reliance. I will figure this out. And he kept that discipline and that confidence that he got in surviving these hardships through his entire life. And then once you get back, okay, I survived people shooting at me. Tell me I can't build a business get out.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then the note I left on this page that says the strength and inspiration AG got from the life of Booker T. Washington. I don't remember what's happening. So let's just read it together and find out. The Barrow Society has a concept fulfilled the two major conditions gasping required before you could invest in any business. It made a genuine need in the community and offered a real opportunity for him to accumulate wealth. The latter of these forces was reflected in the very name of the company. So he calls this company the Booker T. Washington Burial Society. Booker T. Washington had preached early and often of the necessity of economic independence for the black community. That's something AG believed into the day died. Washington believed that it was through industry that blacks could hope to ameliorate their position in the United States, A.G. believed that. What he did have by the time the 1923 rolled around was an emergent business interest. The faith of a sizable and growing clientele and the”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, funeral cost. So what he comes up with is like, well, why don't we, instead of what they would do is they would have like the church, you'd have to go, there would be a service at the church and say, hey, we're raising money to have grandma buried. Well, you make a donation. And what he realizes is like, well, why don't we just have burial insurance? I think he starts charging a quarter a week. And just like you do with any other insurance, like everybody's going to pay in. And then when somebody dies, those expenses are covered because a lot of people, they didn't have any this kind of insurance. They'd get to the inner life and now you have a huge, not only is it like for your surviving loved ones, like the most emotional times of their lives, but now they're left with a huge bill. And so he goes door to door. That's how he starts building his business. 25 cents at a time. So it says, it's called the burial system.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, funeral insurance, and then funeral services, and from that tiny idea springs this massive insurance company that's going to make up the majority of his net worth later in life. We're not there yet. It says AG's entree into the world of the funeral industry is usually represented as a fortuitous accident. He happened to hit on the right idea at the right time, but it is also critical to recognize that AG picked an area of business that had a proven potential for growth and in which he had a bead on untapped population of prospective customers. So what they're talking about there is at the time not only like...”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so, what's needed this time? This part threw me for a loop. I did not expect this because, you know, I was told he made his money in insurance, real estate, and banking. Yeah, but how do you start an insurance company from scratch? This is the main business of his life, what I'm going to get to right now, right? And it comes from looking around what's happening in the mines. He starts getting involved in burial? How do I say that? Burial insurance.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All right, so fundamental change in the philosophy of an young entrepreneur. He's doing this for a little bit of time, and then he eventually runs into like, he wants to keep going, right? And so he's going to run into a roadblock. He says, no new markets were opening up. He racked his brain trying to figure out what would work, what would sell until he realized that it was his methodology that was tripping him up. Rather than figuring out what he could sell, he decided to take a step back and take a look at what the community he was living in actually needed. That's where he goes back to you need to find a need and fulfill it. It was a turn in his mind away from self-interest and toward public service, and the change was one that would inform his business endeavors for the rest of his life.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay. AG is going to realize something about human nature that Ben Franklin wrote about 125 years, maybe 150 years before AG is realizing this, okay? And I'll get there in a minute. So he's loaning out money. Now, why is he having to loan out money to his, first of all, how does he have the ability to do that? He's doing that because he saves as much money as possible. He's extremely frugal. And he's also not just being satisfied with just having a job. doing all these he's building all these other income streams and all these other businesses right so but why so he that's why he has the money now why does he have to lend out the money he's going to discover exactly what ben franklin discovered with little competition for his services so first of all he's he's lending out money to his coworkers at the rate of 25 cents on the dollar 25 interest and they're they're accepting it with little competition for services ag's wealth took on a snowball effect compounding biweekly he refused to spend”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The success of that business venture gave Arthur a taste of industry, and before long he was once again the boy who had taken so many jobs that he could barely keep up with demand. He began selling peanuts and popcorn on the side, so that's in addition to these box lunches to some business with his mother, right? Once he secured a financial foundation, this is how like you just got to grab onto your first opportunity and now let it go and then you can use that to build onto the second, the third, the fourth. And this is the story of AG's career. He just built slowly over time. I mean, he lived to. He's like 102, I think. So he had nine decades of working. So he was selling bought lunches. Then he starts to buy and resell peanuts and popcorn on the side. Once he had secured a financial foundation, he began lending money out to his coworkers at a rate of 25 cents on the dollar. So right here, this is important.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Art smiled back, realizing he had found his business. Memory said, look, you just told us maintain situational awareness. Pay attention to your surroundings. What are people doing? What do they need? In other words, say, what will they pay for? So he says Art smiled right back, realizing he had found his business. Men would pay for these meals, he thought, and he was right.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For well over a year, AG had been plagued with doubt and confusion. He had, he wrote, facilitated between renewing my pledge to become somebody and thinking I should forget it. What do we talk about all over and over again? The mind is undefeated. It will play tricks on you. What are you going to do? You're going to give in? Arthur's like, or AG's like, nope, not happening. What he realized was that nothing would change unless he took the initiative to change it. You didn't get successful by thinking about whether you were going to be successful or not. You got successful by doing something to make yourself successful.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, this is one of the most inspiring parts of the book. He's exhausted. He's depressed. He's hopeless. And yet you can almost in your mind's eye, you can picture him just through clenched fist and through gritting teeth, yelling no. I am not going to languish here. I'm not going to perish here. I am not going to let this be the result of my life. I am more talented than this. I can do better than this. And this is right before he stumbles on his first business opportunity that's going to lead to another business opportunity that's going to lead to another business opportunity. We're in the darkest part of his life, and he's about to break out.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many of them spend their time doing drugs and alcohol. Essentially, they give up on life. They're hopeless. AG falls into depression, which is going to happen to almost anybody. I would say everybody. Yet he constantly works his way through it. That's the main theme, the main takeaway from the book. Okay, so first before I get there, I want to tell you a little bit about, I found this section interesting because I've”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It says the optimism of his youth and early manhood had vanished under the cloak of creeping depression that had come to infect many former soldiers returned from the war. So what does that mean there? He goes back, one of the reasons he doesn't say in France because he's like, listen, I understand we were disrespected, but now's a new time in America. We're going to come back as heroes. And what they found is that even though a lot of black soldiers fought in World War I, they came back and the racist people, especially in Alabama and the Deep South, they didn't care the default. They still treated you like animals. And so he finds, and a lot of the soldiers and his coworkers that he's going to wind up working in the mines here in a minute are former soldiers. And they suffer from PTSD.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Says the disappointments continue to accumulate. The life he was leading was nothing like the one he had dreamed of. He spent his time contemplating the apparent hopelessness of his future, the optimism, now here's the thing, you can be relentless, but that doesn't mean that you're not going to be plagued with series and times in your life where you're filled with self-doubt. The difference between people that succeed and that fail are the people that that feeling is inevitable, right? The people that fail quit. They become smaller. They run in the other direction. The people that succeed keep persisting. AG was one of the people that kept persisting. So he says, there's time spent contemplating the apparent hopelessness of his future. That's going to happen to everybody.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Abraham Lincoln Smith. He's going to wind up becoming a business partner to, and I would say really more important than that is... Father figure that AG didn't have. And in fact, AG Mary's Abraham's daughter. Get there in a minute. So, something I realized about the personality, like it jumps off the pages when you read this story. And it's one of my favorite traits for any human being. And that's AG was relentless.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so every chapter starts with a quote from AG, and I really like this one. He's going to use the word men. This applies to all people, so I'm going to change it. It says, a young person should keep his eyes open. They should study the people around them. How do they live? What makes them tick? What do they need? It goes back to that, his opinion of what a business is just fulfilling a need. So when I read that, I thought, I was like, what is he really saying in this few sentences? One, he's telling us to maintain situational awareness. And he's also telling us how a good way to spot opportunity, which is exact, now think about that. Pay attention to what is going on around you. What do they need? That idea is going to make him a millionaire. And I'm going to get there in a minute. Fast forwarding in the timeline. At this point in the story, he's around 27 years old and he meets what becomes another positive example for him.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the next sentence is probably what you're thinking. So why not stay and make the best of the best situation? And so now he's going to hear the words that resonate with him. Booker T. Washington has made a profound impact on his life already at this point. Cast down your bucket. He could hear Dr. Washington proclaim, start at home. The experience in France had only served to make Gaston more certain of the fact that doctor Washington had been right to believe that Merritt, not color, was the focal point on which his successful life was balanced. So it's interesting here. People are going to be exposed with the same situation and react differently. So if I was obviously when you read books like this, like when I'm reading a book like this, I try to put myself in the shoes. I'm like, what decision would I make?”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did so willingly. So what does that mean? He has an experience in France. And the words of Booker T. Washington altered the direction of his life. And so let me just read this section to you. It'll make sense after I read this. So he says the author is comparing and contrasting the difference for a young black man in France in 1919, 1920, compared to that in Alabama, right? And it's night and day. It says in France he was treated like a man. In France, he could walk the streets without jumping off the sidewalk. In France, it was clear the white people respected his uniform regardless of his color. They respected his allegiance to democracy and his willingness to fight for it. In France, it seemed anything was possible for a man like AG. France was a place, a black man could live. This much was certain.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, think about what's happening here. He's exposing himself to some of the most extreme experiences that a human being could have. World War I, if you've studied even a little bit, it's like one of the most grotesque wars that humans have ever engaged in. And yet when you go through these hard, trying experiences and you survive, you adapt and you overcome, you're going to, he's building confidence to realize, okay, I survived one of the worst experiences that could ever happen in my life. He's going to see bombings, lynchings, murders. A good part of the book is about the, the, they call it like the struggle for civil rights. But when you read this book, it's a war. It's a war for civil rights. And when I think of the war for civil rights that AG is going to witness and participate in,”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That he had been ordered to peel was only half full. The punch delivered mid sentence, left Gaston lying on the ground, amazed and furious at the inhumanity of such a sudden blow. It occurred to him first to complain, second to go Aw, he did neither. Instead he picked himself up off the ground and stood at attention before the officer offering a simple but firm yes sir as his response. The lesson was brutal, but as far as Gasson was concerned, it saved his life. There were to be no, what's the lesson here? There were to be no excuses in the kitchen or on the field, and I would add or in life.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now we're fast forwarding in the timeline AG's an adult. He's a young man 18, 19 years old. He's looking for opportunity. He cannot find a better job with better pay than joining the army. Okay, so he's going to fight in World War I. So this is what I want to draw your attention to right now is joining the Army for Opportunity Discipline. And I'm going to stay here in the story for a little bit because there's a lot of important things that are happening to him that are going to shape the way he runs his life layer. So now he's already in the army and he says Gaston learned in his own words to respect authority and discipline. He also gets criticized heavily for doing this later. His first real lesson in that arena took form of a direct blow to the face laid upon him by his commanding officer who had no interest in hearing Gaston's excuses for why the”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It began to disturb him. Gaston would write to see how hard his mother was forced to work to keep the family afloat. What had once simply been the way things were was thrown into sharp relief by the new world revealed by Tuggle. Arthur promised himself that with the skills he learned by the institute he would make a better life for his mother. So what's happening here? He's essentially got a fire growing in his mind and saying I can change things. I can change the course of my family. I can make my life better. Not only can I make my life better, I can succeed enough that my mother doesn't have to do what she's doing.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The realities of life opened up new possibilities to AG, just like his mother had hoped. It made him aware in a deep sense. It allowed him to believe that not only could he work in a store, he might be able to own it. So at that point the most successful person that looked like him was somebody that had graduated high school and was able to work in a store where white people shopped. So that's what I was talking about. It's like, whoa, maybe one day I can get an education to work in a store. Now he's like, whoa, no, why stop there? I want to own the store.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Says here, a new world of black potential was to be witnessed and AG wanted to measure up. A distinct black middle class began to flourish in Birmingham, Birmingham. There were black doctors and lawyers, contractors and architects living and working in the city. Remember, he was not exposed to this in Royal Alabama on a log cabin. So I was like, whoa, the world just opened up for me. Blacks had founded their own bank as well as construction companies.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he talks about, unlike any other blacks he'd ever known, the residents here lived in the two- and three-story homes with shiny floors and fine bathrooms such as his mother clean in the homes of white people. That's a direct quote from him. So he's talking about this demand for excellence and reaching your potential and working hard. Remember, he came from a log cabin in rural Alabama. And now he sees the institute is in a beautiful home, a home that he, up until this point, only thought that white people could live in. And so they're telling him, no, no, no, you're just as capable. You can do anything else you see any other person do. You can achieve as well. This is extremely, extremely powerful. I also think it speaks to the power of reading biographies over and over again and why I feel that you go throughout history, why so many people draw inspirations from the life stories of others. I just think it's in our DNA. Okay.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So once that AG was back with Rosie, his mother was insistent. She's like, listen, I do not want you to live the life that I'm living with no education. I'm going to make sure I'm going to send you away to this thing called the Tuggle Institute. And this blew my mind. So let me tell you the background on, this is the school that AG goes to, but I want to tell you how it got started. So it says in 1908 Carrie Granny Tuggle, a former slave now engaged in welfare work, had appeared before a Birmingham court and requested the custody of a young boy about to be sentenced to a term in jail. She wanted the state to let the state to release him to her, to her care instead. So it says, for whatever reasons among them perhaps, the fact that Birmingham was at a time without either a juvenile court system or enough room in its jails to deal with a number of prisoners that already had,”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, her son was with her. She would teach him to become invaluable too. Rosie tapped him on the shoulder, calling for his attention, so they're on the way from the train to the home where she's working in, right? And she says, turn around and look up here, Art. There's the store.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Rosie and Arthur, that's AG's first name. I'm going to reference him as AG would be walking. There's not an abundance of money. Now there's something that's really important that happens at this time. Rosie is working for a wealthy Jewish merchant family. And so this is where AG finds an inspiration and a blueprint. And this is going to be the first of many blueprints that he follows in his life. So it says, Rosie had made the transition from log cabin to bustling metropolis seamlessly. So I failed to mention. AG grew up. I mean, his grandparents had to build the house they lived in. So it's a log cabin. We've seen this many times before. I don't think it had electricity. I don't think it had indoor plumbing. Again, we're talking early 1900s in the Deep South with the grandson of slaves.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“His mother found success working for a wealthy family. She was cooking for a wealthy family, so she made enough money where she could go back and now collect her son and he could live with her. And so it says he was 13 years old and he had never seen a city before. And so this gives you an idea of, yeah, she has opportunity, but they don't have a lot of money. So they take the train back to the city, and now they need to go back to the house, right? And it says it cost five cents to ride the segregated streetcar.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Children since the date it first appeared. It was the only such swing in the neighborhood. Faced with the trauma of increasing isolation, not to mention a now ever present desire to make something of himself, AG realized in an instant how he might win back his friends. He would turn his swing into a business venture, charging a button for a ride. This first endeavor was a resounding success, and it came to form the backbone of what would be Gaston's trademark for business development. He had, as he liked to say, found a need and filled it.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fairly unpopular. He didn't have a lot of social skills. He says he was a square. He was shy. Probably had filled with a lot of self-doubt. And so he realizes that through achievement, he can increase not only his financial success, but his social standing. And so he doesn't have a lot of friends, gives him a lot of time to think. He was a young boy. And so his grandparents had built this really sturdy swing in their backyard. And all the other kids in the neighborhood wanted to use it because there was nothing else in the neighborhood like that. So he comes with this idea he's not going to make any money here. But he's like, okay, if you give me buttons in replacement of dollars or coins, you can take, he's essentially selling rides on the swing, but it's not for money. So he says the swing that was in AG's backyard had been eyed with envy by the neighborhood.”
2020-03-05 · Founders · #113 A.G. Gaston (Black Titan and the Making of a Black American Millionaire) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source