John Malott says his legacy is his four daughters and the knowledge he passes to them, not money. He and partner Josh Denny do impact investing, backing ventures with clear social benefit. Malott argues entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos solve bigger problems than politicians do.
What is— how would you want to be remembered, or like the ultimate like impact that you're trying to make, like at the— I guess at the end of life? Yeah, we went from 11 to serious.
Yeah, from the street club to the day you die.
I wanted to ask it though, so—
well, you know, I, I have a— I have legacy, uh, tattooed on my arm, and, and it's a big deal for me because I have, I have 4 daughters. And, um, for me it all comes back to that a good man leaves an inheritance for for his children's children. But I caught on that it was more than just money, that it was about, you know, what are my kids going to do down the road? Like, I can leave them money and they can have money. And, you know, a lot of times you give kids a whole bunch of money, they just become spoiled-ass kids. But it's the information, it's that paying it forward. You know what I mean? Like, now my partner and I, Josh Denny, we're impact investors. We invest in things that impact people. Like, don't bring me something that's just about money. You better say, okay, here's what it's going to do for somebody. Here's how it's going to change the world. Here's how it's going to make a difference. Besides our private jet company, that was more for flights on a private jet.
That's fair.
But yeah, for me, it's about impact, man. What I want when I'm gone, and I think about that now at 50, I think about, and it's weird and it's almost selfish now. Yeah, that I'm thinking about what people are going to say about me when I'm gone. And I'll probably— who knows where I end up, you know. I always say you only live twice, here and then wherever the hell you end up. I don't know if I'm gonna know what they're saying, I'm gonna hear it or whatever, but you know, I'd like to have, you know, a bronze statue somewhere with my head and you rub my nose for good luck. Yeah, so it's just, I want, I want, I want to leave the world a better place, man. But entrepreneurship is the way, man. I think we're crazy. I hear people talk about socialism, all stuff. I'm big on the human spirit, man. Let us, let us go. Let us run wild with as few regulations as possible. Um, you know, let good people do good things.
For sure.
Because in the end, I'm going to say this because it's political season, and I, I don't really talk about this a lot. I'm not going to go political, but I am going to say it, it won't matter who gets elected. Yeah, the entrepreneurs are going to figure out how to maneuver around it. It will not be the politicians that solve our problems. They never do. It'll be the entrepreneurs. You know, if there's an energy problem, Elon Musk shows up. You don't like what you're paying for goods and services? Well, Jeff Bezos has a solution for you. You know what I'm saying? So that's us, man. You know, it's— we should be celebrating the entrepreneurs instead of— we got half of our population trying to take them out.
Yeah.
And without them, it's an interesting world. In fact, I would tell you this, there's a book called Atlas Shrugged. I've heard of it. It was written in the '50s by Ayn Rand. It's about, it's a 1,000-page story.
Nice.
But I think it's more relevant today than then. And I got the recommendation, there was a thing about a billionaire's reading list. And there was one book that kept coming up and it was Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. Oh nice. Yeah, you can read that book. You gotta check that out. Yeah. Oh yeah, it basically pulls— what happens if the politicians and what we call the looters and the moochers get their way and you stop the entrepreneur from doing what they do? And it lays out the whole scenario and it's pretty interesting, man.
Oh, I'm getting that. Yeah, you gotta purchase that before we leave.
I'm telling you, you'll be recommended everywhere you go because you want everybody to read it.
