History has shown that when societies fall apart, they fray first from the bottom, and then the top falls inward. So it is an article of common sense to me that we all need to work hard to strengthen the so-called bottom of our society. Particularly because this is the group that has always made up the true strivers of society. The bottom is where society''s builders come from every hundred years or so. We must once again become a Nation of Builders. We must continue to work to revitalize hope and a sense of opportunity for the people at the bottom--the people for whom the system is not currently working--to create a path- way forward. Expanding opportunity, providing a level playing field where the rules are published and there exists fair play for all, and ultimately providing the tools and essential services for the true empowerment of the person--these are the aims of Operation HOPE. Providing dignity for all.

Building an economy for all. These and more are the building blocks of hope. We live today in strained and trying times, from racial tensions and poverty in the United States, to immigrant tensions and poverty in Europe, to military tensions and poverty in the Middle East, to abusive tensions and poverty in Latin America, to authoritarian tensions and poverty throughout large parts of Asia and the African continent. And then you have a toxic mix of these things in many truly troubled parts of the world. But consistent among all the regions of the world is the challenge of poverty . The poverty I speak of is different than the poverty you were taught about in school or you hear about in the news. The pov- erty you were taught about is what I call "sustenance poverty," a numerical understanding of at what level the available food, shelter, and health care is simply not enough. Beyond solving for the critically important human dignity areas of hunger, shelter, and other basic life necessities, the sort of poverty I speak of here is the most devastating to the human spirit.

This poverty, which I first outlined in the HOPE Doctrine on Poverty in How the Poor Can Save Capitalism , is first and foremost one of lost confidence and devastated esteem (the first 50 percent). Bad role models and a negative, repressive environment fol- low (the next 25 percent). The final 25 percent consists of a lack of aspiration, which is a code word for hope, and no clear path to mainstream opportunity. The most dangerous person in the world is a person with no hope. A poverty of the soul and spirit perverts the good direction of a person, leading to a whole host of bad things, including depression and lost hope. This type of poverty is dangerous to the very fabric of a sustainable global society. It is the one thing that works against our own well-being in the world the most. I formed Operation HOPE to combat poverty in all its guises and forms.

The HOPE Doctrine on Wealth This book is my view of the world--its problems and its pos- sibilities--through an economic lens. As I unpack the book, I will refer to the commonly used word capital in a different way. The word capital comes from the Latin root word capita or "knowledge in the head." In other words, capital at its core has nothing to do with money. And, by the way, neither does true, sustainable wealth. If I give a homeless man a million dollars, he will be broke in six months. If I observe a rich man with no "knowledge in the head," I will find him broke within a generation or less. As an early English proverb states, "A fool and his money are soon parted.

" And so, in this book, I present a new HOPE Doctrine on Wealth, outlined below and discussed at length later in the book. True wealth has little to do with money. My own wealth, as an example, came from my embrace of the free-enterprise system, my opportunity mind-set, my critically important relationship capital, my entrepreneurial hustle, and finally my unwavering belief in myself--my spiritual capital. I unpack all of this in the book. You will find that the wealthy in the world possess confi- dence and self-esteem (the first 50 percent of true wealth). Either through their natural family or people they''ve met along the way, they all also have good role models and an enabling environment (the next 25 percent). Finally, they have high aspirations (hope), and they all gen- erally see opportunity everywhere (the last 25 percent). Together, these make up a formula for a new and achievable HOPE Doctrine on Wealth.

But how do people get there? What are the building blocks and the steps forward when almost none of these enabling factors are present in your life? What is the magic sauce that the wealthy and successful have that the struggling classes somehow missed out on? Certainly, it is not because one group is better than the other. Because they are not. I have seen brilliant men and women who are homeless, and I have seen idiots and fools with money. The missing sauce is the Memo. What Is the Memo and Who Didn''t Get It? A super majority of people here in the United States and around the world have one thing in common: They never got what I call "the Memo." They were never told how this world actually works. How do you prosper? How do you excel? At a more defen- sive and basic level, how do you protect yourself from societal injustices and a lack of fair play in the twenty-first century? These are questions I address directly in this book (it''s less of a "how-to" and more of a "how-to-think"). While I''ve placed the full version of the Memo at the beginning of the book, everything you really need to know can be summed up in just a couple of sentences: Your power comes from economic independence, which is also what protects you against social injustice, economic manipulation, and profiling on all levels.

Nobody is going to give you that power. You must gain it for yourself. Don''t waste time on anger; instead, use your inner capital to level the playing field. This super majority of people who never got the Memo make up what I call the Invisible Class. They come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. The Invisible Class includes American urban youth with too much time on their hands. Even when they have a real pas- sion for success and a desire for economic freedom, they don''t have enough education to differentiate themselves in a market economy. Worst of all, they don''t possess enough real opportu- nity in their lives to divert their attention from the dangerous and life-altering call of the streets.

It includes rural adults in small towns with a high school education, good hands, and a hearty work ethic that fifty years ago would have earned them a "family wage" with blue-collar skills. But these "assets" provide not much of any real aspira- tional value today. They are residents of the poor and disconnected suburbs in cities throughout Europe. I am talking about people in the areas right outside of Paris and London who have rioted in recent years against the changes they see happening to their way of living. I am talking about large swaths of people under the age of twenty-five in the Middle East and North Africa region-- increasingly, the majority of the populations in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Morocco. Young, educated, Internet- connected, jobless, and frustrated. The Invisible Class is the immigrants flooding into coun- tries from civil war-ravaged lands the world over. The Invisible Class includes gang members and gang orga- nizers.

They are the illegal, unethical entrepreneurs that the world knows to be drug dealers. Dumb (in terms of their busi- ness plans and chosen toxic professions), but far from stupid. Some members of the Invisible Class join ISIS because they don''t fit in anywhere else and resent what feels like the unfair- ness of the world. The Invisible Class also includes the struggling American middle class, people making an average of $50,000 a year and still having "too much month at the end of their money." The Invisible Class is people who are outside of the economic system of success, and they don''t really know why, so understandably they get frustrated by it. They are angry with it. They don''t know how to get ahead in the midst of the growing global competition for jobs and opportunity. In the United States, for example, these are people who are not truly "seen" by the economy, by politicians, by public policy makers, by big business.