Mellody Hobson

“We've got one shot at this life, and to not be productive with what we've been given, to me, is a travesty. I think the biggest waste is when a human life is wasted. It's unforgivable.”

“My mother always wanted me to be in the best environment that I could be in. She wanted me to go to the best schools. Every now and again she'd save up enough for us to get a nice apartment in downtown Chicago, but we were never able to sustain it.”

“I'm an interested party in obviously the name and reputation of Lucas - because I'm a Lucas, even though I don't go by Lucas.”

“I don't want to be a victim. I want to be a victor.”

“Even though I will never be evicted again, I am haunted by those times and still work relentlessly.”

“We talk about long-term patient investing, and that idea that slow and steady does win the race, that time can be your best friend when it comes to investing. That's why we have a turtle as a logo at Ariel.”

“I grew up in Chicago with a single mother. I'm the youngest of six kids, and my older siblings are much older than me. When your siblings are that much older, you never get to ride in the front seat of the car, you never get the chicken breast.”

“When I think of my career and why I leaned in, it comes down to basic survival.”

“When you're type A you always think you can fix anything. Sometimes there's nothing you can do.”

“I was desperate to understand money. Not to make it, to understand it. I wanted to know how it worked, and I wanted to know so that I would have enough and would be able to make good financial decisions. That led me to Ariel.”

“We cannot afford to be color-blind, we have to be color-brave.”

“I always felt very insecure financially as a child. I was desperate to understand money as a child. I was desperate to be secure. Because I always felt like the rug could be pulled from under me.”

“When you grow up in America today, most schools don't teach you about money and investing. You could literally take a class in woodshop or auto in high school and not take a class on money.”

“I've used some of my differences as a way to stand out and to hopefully count and matter - and hopefully create an opportunity for others.”

“On my worst day I always tell myself I'm not in a field picking cotton.”

“In the spirit of debunking racial stereotypes, the one that black people don't like to swim, I'm going to tell you how much I love to swim. I love to swim so much that as an adult, I swim with a coach.”

“Norman Rockwell - even though we think of him as a great American artist, in a lot of museums he has not garnered that kind of attention. And it's this kind of accessibility that we're trying to bring - not looking down on any art.”

“Sometimes I feel like I could have been a Depression-era person, just because of my need to make sure that I'm conservative in how I think about money.”

“I found my own orthodontist, my own high school. I set up interviews and did college trips. Despite her incredible concern and caring, my mom didn't have the capacity for that. It was outside her experience, and she knew I was on top of it.”

“I'd like to see great textbooks, great opportunities for kids to really understand stock market investing, because at the end of the day, they are going to be all they have in terms of creating a life for themselves, a retirement account, and things like that.”