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Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. Are you all finished or y'all is done? Morning, everybody. It's DJ NV. Jess O'Larious. Sholomey and the Guy. We are the breakfast club. Loral Roses here as well. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. The senior writer and editor at Forbes, Jabari Young.

Welcome, brother.

Hey, man, thank you for having me.

This is a nice place this is really dope this is our new studio you never been to the old studio I haven't been to the old studio and in spirit I was because you know I watched you on YouTube coming up as a kid so but this is pretty nice man well you are senior writer and editor at Forbes so let's let's start from the story well how did you get there you know man uh you know we got to start all the way from the story right I'm originally from North Philly okay um and so it stopped appreciate that thank you um and it started there you know as a kid understanding I wasn't going to be in the NBA right I didn't I didn't have that skill's like, okay, what's next? And I decided that journalism was it for me. And so back then, you know, you pick up the newspaper and underneath the news, the bylines, he got the numbers. And I'm like, well, who's this dude, Stephen A? And I call up the number and bam, Stephen A picks up. And that changed the trajectory because learning under him when he was back covering the Sixers in Philly, you know, you kind of understand what you can be. And so I'm looking at him on billboards and just following him. And that kind of motivated me. And then in 2013, I get an opportunity to go to San Antonio, covered San Antonio Spurs. And that obviously boosts my trajectory spent the year in

Portland covered the blazes in there and then in 2019 I get a call from CNVC and they say hey you

want to cover business and I'm like I don't want to cover no business I don't know what those the

number with the channels the numbers at the bottom and it was Stephen A who called me and said man

you don't know what the hell you're doing you need to really stop stop and think about it. I was happy in San Antonio. Covering Kauai Leonard, covering Tom Duncan and the Spurs. That was great for me. But I was missing the big picture. And he allowed me to see that to his credit. And then that turned into an opportunity in 2022. And Forbes say, hey, you want to come over here and do that? And I say, yeah, but I don't want to just do sports business I want to do something else you know I want to you know take this business thing and really expand it and what better way to do that through the essence in the lens of your community you know what's important about that story I mean number one you started in sports but the fact that you called Stephenven a yeah even they picked up and then decided

to offer you mentorship yeah i asked don't do that yeah they don't do it anymore i told closed mouths don't get fed clarence avon oh you used to say that right and so you know so funny being in san antonio i met this sister one time and this is in the middle of me dating and she came in it's the first time I ever heard of a guy, Clarence Avon.

And she says, man, I don't know.

You remind me of this dude, Clarence Avon.

I'm like who the hell is that and then the black godfather comes up and then i just started studying him and understanding what made him special and he just solved people's problems right and so that just kind of motivated me to you know take my career and take my craft and go to the next level with it.

And again, I just enjoy telling business stories about people who look like me.

What was your spiel to Stephen A?

Because I want other people that are watching this right now who might be seeking mentorship from certain individuals.

What did you say to him that you think made him be like, all right, you know, pull up to the.

Hey, man, can you teach me? I want to learn under you. Like, can you just, you know,

but at that time, Charlemagne, like, it was a different time, right? Stephen A wasn't Stephen A

then. You know, we knew him in Philly because his name was all over the place and his

and his face was on the billboards, but we didn't know of him as what y'all see now. He was just a guy in Philly. He was

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