Eileen:

Hello and welcome to Soul of a Leader podcast, where we ignite social conversations with leaders. In today’s episode, Doctor Alicia and Doctor Eileen sit with the founder of Pay it Backwards Foundation Tony March to discuss leading with humility.

 

Alicia:

Welcome to Soul of a Leader podcast. In today’s episode, we have Tony March. He is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, a holder of three US patent who has a diverse professional history and expertise, and business startups. Recognized by Time magazine as one of the top automotive dealers in the country; Mr. March built an automotive empire of more than 22 car dealerships at its zenith location. A survivor of abuse, homelessness, childhood poverty, and childhood hunger, on today’s episode, we have Tony March. Welcome to Soul of a Leader podcast.

 

Tony:

Thank you for having me.

 

Eileen:

Welcome, Tony. Thank you for taking the time to be with us for this conversation today. I’m going to start with a question. I was, what should I say? Fortunate enough to read all the history and background on your life and what you are doing now, and one thing really attracted me, and it was the item about the plaque in your kitchen, and as you quoted, it says, “Truly, I tell you. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Matthew 24:40.” Could you share with us what that plaque means to you and what you do every day to support that saying, that quote, from Matthew, from the bible?

 

Tony:

That’s funny, for some reason, I literally just looked at it right before I came to my computer. It’s literally in my kitchen so I see it like 50 times a day, I have to walk right by it. I put that plaque up just to remind me why I do what I do. Matter of fact, there’s a picture right above it with three little kids begging for food and it says “Remember, this is why you do what you do.” So between the pack of little three kids begging for food and the scripture, it’s what drives me. I’m just a big believer that the listeners probably need to hear a little of my 30-second executive summary. I tell this, my story is summed up in like one minute and that draw a mountain, just draw a mountain, and on the left side of the mountain at the bottom where you started to climb up the mountain. Just imagine that as the poverty line. I grew up below the poverty line.

 

Alicia:

Wow.

 

Tony:

I grew up below the base of the mountain. I don’t know who my father is, my mother may have hugged me three times, my mother never read one sentence, not even See Spot Run, one sentence of a book to me. I was sexually abused at seven, ate out of garbage cans all the way up to 12. I think I was 12 when I stopped eating out of garbage cans behind restaurants, and the Winn-Dixie, the supermarket, a lot of people don’t know on Wednesday, they refresh all their products because Thursday, Friday, Saturday is the busiest day so all the old fruit, they throw away. So every Wednesday we go behind the grocery store to go… we called it dumpster diving, go inside the dumpster and get food.

 

Tony:

I grew up very, very poor, very abusive. My mother used to beat us. I was so good. I was the best kid any mother would ever have so that… but she would beat my other brothers and it caused severe depression for me that I would literally, from five years old to literally all the way going to college, I would go to school then come straight home and go into my room because I never wanted to do anything to get a beating. But along the way, I had four amazing teachers. Miss Harris, Ms. Paula  Miller, Miss West, and Miss Keys, and those four teachers, they were like my mother, they’re my inspiration because I got no appreciation at home. My mother never looked at one of my report cards.

 

Alicia:

Wow.

 

Tony:

Not one. But those are four amazing teachers. They just inspired me to get a good education. One teacher, Miss Keys, I was very fortunate to be three, sometimes four years ahead in math, so at eight, she got tired of me answering every question. She was the first teacher that knew there was something going on there, so she put me in the back of the class and gave me math books. Eighth and ninth grade I was already in 12th-grade math. I would have just sat there on where they’re all… Back in those days, there were no honor classes, all-black school desegregated. This teacher just saw something in me, and I have to tell you a quick story that I gave her a test and she handed it back to me and had A+++, and I looked at it and then I looked at her and she had this frown on her face like there was something wrong. I said, “Miss Keys, what’s wrong?”

 

Tony:

She looked at me and she says, “Tony March, if I’m driving and I see you on the back of a garbage truck,” because back in those days, blacks cut grass, we absolutely picked up the garbage, even until today we pick up the garbage, “If I see you picking up garbage, I’m going to stop my car and pull you off and beat your behind. You are too good for that. You need to let education be your way out of this poverty shithole.” Those are her exact words. When I was a senior in high school, I took Chemistry 1, Chemistry 2, Physics 1, Physics 2, and Calculus all in high school.

 

Alicia:

Wow.

 

Tony:

So it was because of those four teachers that just inspired me. Sadly, I graduated from high school and not one single member of my family was in the audience. I graduated from college, not one single member of my family was in the audience, so I had no help, no inspiration, no role model, so I tell… It’s a long way around, but I give you a little bit of my early background. I always say that I was blessed to be hungry every day of my life until I was 18 years old. God blessed me. Oh, I didn’t tell you, when I was 16 years old, I had lived in 17 different places, including an orphanage. So I was blessed to know what it feels like to not know where you’re going to sleep tonight, I was blessed to be hungry. I was blessed to not think that there’s anyone who’s going to show me love and affection because I never received it at home.

 

Tony:

Those are the driving force behind me saying that now today, now that God has blessed me to get to the top of that mountain I talked about, 22 car dealerships in eight states, seven states, God blessed me to come out of the deepest of poverty. I tell everyone that listen, it’s in the book, I grew up less than half a percent of the wealth, now I’m in the half a percent on the top of wealth. We’re from the bottom to the very top when you talk about wealth. But when I got to the top of the mountain, God said to me, “Don’t look over the mountain and see how many Lamborghinis you can buy, the place in Aspen, go skiing, the place on the Mediterranean.” He said, “No,” he said, “Turn around, son, to look back down the mountain and spend the rest of your life seeing what you could do to pull all the people at the bottom, as many as the people at the bottom of the mountain up next to you.”

 

Tony:

That’s why the name of my book is called Paying It Backwards because it really tells my whole life story of coming from way at the bottom, ascending all the way to the top of the entrepreneur in my field now, and now I spend my entire life running my Pay It Backwards Foundation. Last year, I did 70,000 miles, five countries, visiting homeless shelters throughout the world. So Matthew 24, it is my favorite scripture because he’s telling me what to do. Every morning I wake up, I open my hands and say “Okay, Lord, who do you want me to help today?” So that scripture drives… Now, you know my life, you know why I have that scripture, and why it drives me.

 

Alicia:

Yeah. What a compelling story, because you know when you talk about the scripture, it’s the living word, and so that’s why it drives your existing on what you need to do for him, for God, and I like something that you said. You said a lot of great, but when you got to the top of the mountain, he said, “Don’t look over the mountain for the next Lamborghini,” and not to say that those things are not-

 

Tony:

Exactly.

 

Alicia:

It’s okay if you like them, and the big house, all of that, so we’re not negating that that’s bad. It’s how many more people can you bring back up that same mountain where you started at below that level as you mentioned, and that’s a hard place to be in for some people. Very hard, and so my question to you is what are the three things that people do not know about poverty? What are three things, because it talks about it in one of your bios. Three things you don’t know about the property. What are those three things?

 

Tony:

Now that I spend so much time at homeless shelters, I get to see it virtually every other day in some form or another. The biggest misconception is that people want to be there. That’s number one and foremost. That they’re lazy and they want to be there, and if they didn’t want to be there, if they want to get themself out, they can get themself out. When I was younger, can I eat? No, I’m in school. I can’t eat, my parents have to provide for. Why was I eating out of garbage cans? Do you think I wanted to be eating out of garbage cans?

 

Tony:

The other thing is a mental illness, and when you read my book, you’ll see all the depression I suffered. That’s probably my greatest accomplishment is to accomplish what I did with the severe depression that I’ve lived with all my life. A lot of people don’t have a Miss Keys that can pull them up and inspire them, okay? A lot of people don’t have a Mike, my life coach, give them the… I mean no matter how down I get, 15 minutes after I pick up the phone and call him, I’m right back up. He knows those magic words to tell me. A lot of people don’t have a life coach like II do. His name is Mike. I won’t tell you his last name, but a lot of people don’t have those four teachers, who inspire them. 

 

Eileen:

Right.

 

Tony:

It’s a misconception that they want to be there. I will tell you, there is the sad part about it. I have a twin brother. I moved 17 times when I was 16, he moved 16 times. So he lived in… Every time he went with me, “Do you have the garbage cans?” We went to the same school, desegregated school, with all the challenges that that had and still have today. Today, my brother is still down at the bottom and I’m at the top. So what is the difference? A mother, he doesn’t know who his father is, he moved 17 times, he ate out of garbage cans, why do I… Well, I bought him a house, but why do the money I send him first of the month, why am I still supporting him when we came up exactly through that same poverty-stricken life?

 

Tony:

The difference is the four teachers. I’m not here talking to you talking about 21 car dealerships. If I didn’t break the poverty cycle, there’s only one reason why I broke the poverty cycle, and that’s education.

 

Alicia:

Absolutely.

 

Tony:

A lot of the people that are in that situation, you can almost… You don’t even need to get a resume to find out what their educational situations are. There are more exceptions of a college graduate being homeless than there is the vice versa. A big lead, the lack of education, and the lack of people, role models motivating them, showing them love. That’s why I love working at the… It’s like I’m always trying to inspire someone, you don’t have to be coming here, and I go to Australia every January for three weeks for a homeless shelter there and I always say “Next year when I come here, I better not see you. I want you to take this next year so that I don’t see you here next year.” I’m trying to motivate them and explain to them all the programs that are available to them. I’m sorry, I’m getting long-winded here.

 

Eileen:

No, this is great. The one thing I heard was to show them, love, show them value, show them they’re part of humankind and that we’re all human beings and we’re connected, and it’s about the connection and, I mean tell me when you know you’re showing love and making a change in one’s life when you do that.

 

Tony:

It’s the expression on their face, it’s like-

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Tony:

It’s like magical, it’s like they light up. They light up like I did when I impressed one of my teachers with an A on an exam. Because the teacher lit up to say how proud I am of them, and just that you’ve taken the time to want to help them because what I typically do is tell them about… I give them their five minutes to tell me, I’ll hold the crutches of why they’re there, and then I just start rattling off all the services that are just available for you for free if you just want to go take them. You didn’t graduate from high school, no problem. There’s a lab in the homeless shelter with a person in there to get you your GED. All you got to do is take the time to go in there.

 

Tony:

Whatever their excuse is, and that’s typical, what happens is you get “Woe is me, woe is me,” and if you there’s power down with the woe is me, you need someone to come in front of you and say “Okay, tell me all the five reasons why you’re here,” and give them the answer for the five answers to get out of here. I try to be a Miss Keys. I try to be one of the teachers, I try to inspire them that they don’t have to sit there. I’ve been there. There are very few people in a homeless shelter that had a worse life than me. Very few. The only thing I didn’t have, lucky enough, the drugs. There were no drugs involved in my life ever, and there’s a lot in there. 40% of people in the shelters, there’s substance abuse of some kind. 40% is mental.

 

Tony:

Only 20% is because of hard times, but that’s a lot of wives, men, batter wives and fathers dropping the seeds and taking the next plane out of town, you know what I mean? There’s a lot of those reasons for people being at home in shelter.

 

Alicia:

I know you said that you were trying to be Miss Keys, your former teacher, but I think you are being what you have dealt with in your life and you’re showing the people. Oftentimes people can identify what someone who has similarities or can really truly understand, but what’s so phenomenal about it in a sense that you said most of the people, you were worst off than them when you were younger, and I think that has to bring some sense of motivation to them when you tell your story. I like the fact that your faith… See, Miss Keys had faith in you, and so you are showing the people that you have faith in them, and I think that that foundation of understanding where you’ve come from and what you’re trying to infuse in others is allowing you to have the faith.

 

Alicia:

How would you then… The question would be how do you infuse to others to have more faith, to grab hold to scripture like you’ve done, or what do you do to tell them to have because you’re going to leave most of those places, what do you leave with them to say “Use this as your foundation?” Because you had a foundation, and maybe you didn’t know when you’re younger, but that scripture force for you gave you some sense of foundation.

 

Tony:

It’s difficult. Fortunately that I did the Salvation Army. Salvation Army is started by a religious organization. Almost all the shelters I deal with is a religious-based foundation, so they have it all around them, but there’s that I deal with, the one here in Tampa which is probably one of the largest shelters in the world, but it’s not denominational but there’s a chapel right in the middle of campus, so it is… It’s funny when I said you’re loved, it’s like that’s our code word. “Love you.” Every time you pass someone, “Love you” is our code word to just show them that they’re loved. “I’m praying for you. I’m praying for you. We’ll figure away. With God’s help, we’ll figure a way to get you out of this situation.”

 

Tony:

It’s trying to tell them… A lot of people don’t know, it’s funny, I’m hearing a lot about what happened during slavery. A lot of people don’t realize, we would have never made it through slavery if it wasn’t for our belief in God, our faith. We would have never… I mean how do you keep getting beat and you have nine kids and they send you off to another plantation and think nothing of it, you’re a young woman and you got to go to the master’s house at night, I mean you got to have faith to think that one day, you’re going to be better off, and so it’s similar to the people in the homeless shelter. They’re not slaves, but they’re in that situation where they don’t see any hope. Matter of fact, the shirts we have are “Be hope.”

 

Alicia:

Oh wow.

 

Tony:

“Be hope” meaning “Be hope to someone.” So when I’m talking to someone, I’m trying to be hope for them, trying to explain to them all the programs that can get them out of this situation along with trying to help them understand. I would have never made it where I… My situation if I didn’t believe in God and wasn’t praying a lot. I didn’t have any hope, but He showed me this path. Remember, you probably didn’t catch it, I said I was blessed to be hungry, blessed to not know we’re-

 

Alicia:

We caught it.

 

Tony:

I was blessed with that because he said, “My son, I have to show you what the mountain really is, so when you get to the top of the mountain, you can understand why-“

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Tony:

“… Back down the mountain and help pull somebody up.” My faith drives me. The scripture’s in my kitchen. I see it 50 times a day.

 

Eileen:

I did catch you’re blessed, and so did Alicia, and what I like about that is that sometimes we go through life with trial and tribulations and journeys that are not very pleasant, and we don’t know when we’re going through it, where it will lead us, and when you look back, at the time, you don’t know, but when you look back and you say “I had to go through that to get here.”

 

Tony:

Absolutely.

 

Eileen:

It makes you believe stronger, and I heard it makes you believe more than ever, that’s why you’re paying it backward. Because you can relate and you can talk to the people there to make them believe there is “Be hope,” and that’s kind of what I heard, and-

 

Tony:

I could give a whole sermon on because He took me out of that and then he rewarded me with such wealth, it is my responsibility to show him that I am-

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Tony:

Get me out of poverty and putting me on the top of the mountain, and I feel it’s my responsibility. I think he’s looking at me every day and said, “My son, I gave you all of this, I’m just going to see what you do with it.” So every day, I don’t try to impress anyone.

 

Alicia:

That’s right.

 

Tony:

When you read the book, you will see that I didn’t want to write a book. I don’t want anybody to know about me. There’s only one person in this world I want to impress. I do it for… That’s the faith that’s driving me.

 

Alicia:

Yeah, I like what you said. You don’t have to, and so often people want to impress, and again, that’s okay if that’s what you like, but what I hear from you is it’s not about impressing. It’s about that journey that you know that God brought you through it. You can’t give it to anybody else and that’s what I hear you saying. What he took you through has made you the most humble and loving individual to bring somebody back up that mountain. It’s a hard road.

 

Alicia:

I have a family member that’s homeless, and so when I heard you say you had a twin, we were raised in the same household. I have both parents though, and I pray for Martha and I look back and say “What’s the difference” sometimes. Same loving parents I had, there was just no difference in treatment, and I know, you said it, I put my face to say “God, I don’t want to be left on the Westside on drugs, and all the stereotypical things that happen to us, as we would call it the hood, the ghetto, and all predominantly black neighborhood, and so I just stayed in the church. But that doesn’t mean I was perfect at doing that, I kept wanting to say I didn’t want to stay in this, and so not too recently, I said “I see the difference. I see the difference,” and you said it with your brother. So, my family member, I see the difference.

 

Tony:

Yup.  Mrs. Keys.

 

Alicia:

Yes, and then teachers, I had teachers. To your point, always from elementary school, probably not in high school as much and then college, so you have those teachers. So I guess it’s important. We have our value cards and so we use those on clients and then when we do workshops, it is important to understand the values, and so one question I would ask is what are three top values that you have now if you look back over your life, that resonate with you to be very strong and a priority for you just set the tone for the rest of the things that you do?

 

Tony:

My number one value is humility. I don’t know where I got it from but it drives my life to be humble and count my blessings. I’m just so humbled and thankful. It’s a value that it’s one of the reasons why I’ve been successful. I’ve been successful obviously because of my education, but then I was a hard worker, but I just try to tell people, you’ve got to pick a passion.

 

Tony:

It’s hard to go to work every day when you don’t like what you’re doing. You need to pick a passion. I was tearing motors apart when I was 12 years old. I knew I was going to be an engineer. I mean I was fortunate enough to go on and get three US patents, so my passion at that time was that then I went on and became a car dealer and that became my passion. But you need to pick a passion and what’ll happen is it will be so much easier for you to accomplish your goals because it’s like every day you wake up, I’ve got to get to that goal or my passion, whatever it is, and it is totally different for every single person.

 

Eileen:

Thank you for that, and thank you for your time.

 

Tony:

Please don’t pick the NBA, please? Please don’t pick the NBA. I owned a seed basketball team. More first-round draft choices on my team than any professional team. The point I’m trying to make is that’s a one in a gazillion.

 

Alicia:

Oh yes.

 

Tony:

You’re one injury away from, I mean I give this speech all the time to the young kids. Passion, you know what I mean? What’s your backup? Have that backup.

 

Eileen:

Absolutely. Always have a backup, and you never know, that hobby may become your passion and your full time.

 

Tony:

Yeah, exactly.

 

Eileen:

As we close this wonderful conversation, we always ask if you could leave us and our listeners with some words of wisdom.

 

Tony:

The words of wisdom are:  are you see what COVID just did? Now we all are just like the people at the homeless shelter in some way or not.

 

Alicia:

Whoa. Yes.

 

Tony:

Yeah.

 

Alicia:

That’s deep.

 

Tony:

Remember how you used to talk about the guy on the street corner, begging for food, money to buy food? But now you’re in that hour-long line to pick up a box of food. Never thought you were going to be there. We’re all in this together, but when this is over, never forget your fellow brothers and sisters. Always be out there trying to help a fellow brother and sister with whatever you can possibly do.

 

Eileen:

Thank you for joining us on the Soul of a Leader podcast. We are igniting a new way of leading with your soul and interviewing ordinary people with extraordinary impact. Thank you for listening to the stories of our leaders who will help and guide you on your leadership journey. For more information on our podcast, please visit our website at http://www.soulofaleader.com. Thank you for listening.