A Dialogue with Andre Agassi

Most people here know you in your first chapter as a great tennis player, what they don't know is a lot about your philanthropy and then your social impact, but let's start tonight with a little tennis because still to this day . It always surprises me when I read your open book, which is, you know, sitting in the appropriate place in my house, in the bathroom, and you start off by saying that I hated tennis and how is it possible that someone who hated something so vehemently could have so much success. Yeah, well, that's a trick question, so we'll save some time, you know, the focus of what we're here today and I'll try to give you a quick overview, but I'm imagining everything you can identify. with this to mean that maybe some of you are motivated and are here, obviously you are all here because you have surpassed your achievements, some of you may because you yourself motivated others, maybe because this was the dream or aspirations from your parents to you. you know how to do what you need and live with that, with that pressure, well, that was something that the ladder did and my father was very intense with me being the best player in the world, that's all I knew and tennis was the big reason From the disconnection of my entire childhood relationship with the relationship of my brothers, they send my father to an academy just to concentrate on tennis.

You know, that also left me a little disconnected, but fear you know he's a great motivator and I think one. Of the things that I've learned that could apply to you, there's a lot to talk about on the subject, but it's that you all have this incredible ability to better yourself, given the fact that you're even here in the first place and then you get here and I'm I'm sure you're overwhelmed by your circumstances if you look around and say, well, geez, you know I've got a, I've got a delivery, I've got to get through this, and then you're like when you get out of here.

Wow, I have to do it, you know Wharton proud and I made it, now I'm successful and you have these ideas of where you want to land when you come here, where you want to land when you leave here, but what are all the stadiums that I learned? too late in my life that has to do with what you're asking about it, i.e. you know that it doesn't really matter what you're tasked with doing, you've already proven that you know who you are and what your makeup is. Even being here to take stock and the confidence and the fact that you're really good and the stress and the perfectionism that you kind of instill in yourself is what's going to help you overcome not only the things that got you here, but also They will help you overcome the things that brought you here. helping you to be here will also help you get through when you leave here and in between, that reality is what you call life and I think one of the mistakes that people make is that they really think that they have to leave. this environment and landing in the specific place that's why I love this series that you know you've created and sponsored for so many years because this series is a moment in your life to maybe reconsider what you're going to do and I swear You this is how life works, you prepare for something and then you have a little open mind at different intersections, you bump into someone by accident and the next thing you know the whole trajectory of your life changes, we have one of our best partners.

In this he came straight from here four years ago, he actually came down this hallway and refused to leave until he had a chance to talk to us and now he's doing something he never dreamed in his life he'd be doing, so I don't do it. I will do. pitching you need to be doing what we're doing. I'm just saying give yourself the freedom in your own mind to think about life and the definition of success as you define it and that's what I didn't have with my tennis. I didn't define myself by what I did and so I was really disconnected from that, no matter how much success you have from a worldly perspective because people really define success in different ways, you're really going to be unhappy inside and not comfortable with yourself.

Even if you don't have your reasons to wake up every day and do what you want to do, because between now and whatever we define success in life, life really happens, you've experienced it to some extent. Believe me, we have to experience it for more than 20 years so that the truth never changes. Obviously, great success on the tennis court became great success off the tennis court as a philanthropist, one of the great philanthropists, and you're a little bit of an outlier and I would love to, and I've never asked you this question, why what? makes you different and why so few professional athletes have been able to embrace a second career and have the impact of a court like you've been able to have on a court what is it what's stopping others from following in your footsteps uh yeah that's it uh , let me start by saying I don't separate the athletes of the world you know I always look around me and wonder why others don't do more if they can and some people have a bigger net to cast there is no doubt about it and athletes They are at a high level in that, you know, that court because they are very successful, they are young. and you would think they have a big runway ahead of them to make a big impact, unfortunately in sports you spend a 30 year life not preparing for two thirds of your life, that's how it really works, I mean, being the best in the world. something I mean, first of all, the privilege of doing anything in which you can even know how to objectively quantify the success you have in it.

I mean, we'll all be fine, maybe if money is a criterion and your company is the biggest, but they're all subjective. ways to look at what you do, but tennis is eating what you kill and there is a number next to your name and that number is directly related to the same thing that everyone else is doing under the same platform under the same duress under the same schedules and and It's a privilege to have that opportunity to be the best in the world, but to be able to do it in this sport, you're talking about being one of the best in the world at your age, probably mid-teens at the latest. you know that means what you're doing from the age of four to 15 you're doing everything you can to be better than that fifteen year old when you get there you're doing it and your life is about one thing it's about one thing about one thing and then it just increases, it only grows, it only gets more intense and then all of a sudden it's over, it's like a way of saying: I don't know what it's like to not have a huge inventory of resources and and and money and and people who love me. and my time and my phone rings until the next day, it's over and, honestly, the only thing I can compare myself to is death because death is one of those things that you're going to have to deal with, you don't know what's going on with the other. side and you really don't know how prepared you are ahead and unfortunately in sport it is like that, the luxury I had and being so disconnected with what I was doing on the court is I found my reason for doing what I did on the court and that reason was a true bridge in my life to ownership of my life.

Just because I didn't choose my life didn't mean I couldn't take ownership of it. Taking ownership means finding your reasons. I found my reason during the bulk of my career and used it as a vehicle not only for my own aspirations to achieve on the court, but I also use it as a kind of life jacket when I went through my life. death on the tennis court, which is retirement and when I finished it occurred to me that the greatest thing I enjoyed on the tennis court was impacting someone for two hours, you know, in my wife's case, 35 minutes, now you know, some cases, some, some.

The cases are a little bit longer, but then that compromised my own personal enjoyment, you know, but, but, really, really, thank you, really, really you find yourself going, it's great that someone always remembers where they are. were when they saw this if you can leave your signature on that court with pride and that's what we all try to do every day and hopefully you're doing it every day with all your responsibilities and I walk off the court and say it was great to have that impact, but what real impact is it through the vehicle of my foundation, through the vehicle of changing generations, through the opportunity of these discouraging things that Bobbi talks about in the broader context of our world's problems, you know you have this huge opportunity to change now and I saw it as a bigger canvas to impact not just a membrane, not just a few hours, but generating impact like that, instead of choosing to be a coach instead of going into broadcasting. , you chose philanthropy and it's kind of ironic that you chose education as a person as a child, that you were right, dropping out of the 9th grade, how did you stumble upon education, why was it so important to you, yeah, I backed away. , is it another return to the first point I was at?

I hope to be able to communicate in a short period of time, which is you never know what you're going to get into, you know your trajectory and what that trajectory really is and for me, helping kids was a given, I mean we all enjoy doing a differentiate someone and I had some opportunity, so I made a difference with the children. I see 6,000 children a year. a child has abused a shelter for a shelter for abused abandoned and neglected children. I built the Boys and Girls Club in a really tough part of Las Vegas. that these hours after school and the most dangerous time in a child's life and through this process I don't know if it's tennis or if it's being a perfectionist and maybe you all feel this way at different times in your life - in a way mode I felt like this is not a really proactive thing, I mean, it's incredibly reactive.

I mean, all we're doing is looking at the problems and saying, well, how can I put a Band-Aid on it? And that wasn't getting the job done. I don't care at all so when I got to the root of the problem I said what exactly it is which for me is at least a starting point. No matter how big the mountain is, we can step back in time and be proud of whatever it is. is what we are setting out to do and we have a purpose in the sense that I need to know where the starting point is, what the starting point is, the starting point is that these children do not have the tools for a life that they themselves choose, well, what are the The tools mean I know what it means to not have an education being a ninth grade dropout always outclassed by my environment in school and books.

What if I could give these kids a real opportunity to take ownership of their life and have choices in their life and give them the tools to change the world, you know, I gave them a fish and I taught them the fish mentality that I had and then I saw this show on 60 Minutes, it was Kip, Knowledge is Power, Michael Feinberg, who built a lot of these charter schools. and he was doing the same things, he was, he cared, it's what he was doing, by the way, a Penn grad just for the record. Penn grad too, yeah, well that's the reason I'm here, this won't grow up, I'm not.

By the way, I'm here for you, but I saw this and I saw him doing the same thing that I was doing, which is taking care of these kids, but he was actually rolling up his sleeves and getting involved in their lives and giving them the tools, and that's when I said . about the Herculean task of trying to make a difference through education and you did it, I mean, you raised 150 million dollars in 15 years, you changed the lives of one hundred and seventy five hundred and seventy-five, yeah, dawn, I worked hard for the last 25. minutes and if you change the lives of several children, but you know, it sets the stage for us five years ago.

I read your book and recognized that you and I shared the same passion of frustration. I like to call it a warm call. Say it's a cold call, but I called you and said, well girl, on that, in his bedroom, yeah, that was a cold call too, it wasn't a warm call, it was cold, but it's amazing when you follow the things. make more people enlighten, often people want your autograph and you know, years and years of taking photos of you. I have carpus, you know, whatever the syndrome is in my finger, it's painful, but help me set the stage for what you thought after we sat down.

Write that down first again, this doll relates to things that will hopefully take you on various levels because I knew she would be here doing this right and I don't mean here tonight, I mean in the space of really taking. a bite of a national education issue, but I always stayed open and I always kept looking for how to improve every day, you know, I was number one in the world, I was number 140 in the world and I came back. to number one to recognize only the similarity and all that is, it doesn't matter, you're 141, you can't go back there, you're too old, you're number one, who are you looking at, the only thing you can control.

It's how you handle yourself every day and how you improve yourself, so that was my goal with education and when it was six hundred and thirty kids, I went to thirteen hundred kids because I found a way to better maximize the facilities and I did some things, but the list waiting time was still the same and I just didn't know how to expand it. I proved it through legislation. I tested it through some replicas from people who were going to build it in their community and was able to share best practices.It was just like that.

It wasn't scalable, it certainly wasn't sustainable until I met you, as you well know, the trajectory of my life changed in that moment because it gave me an incredible vehicle to go out and pursue what was there at the time and I don't. I don't think it's too much at that time, it was risky to do what we did. I mean, you spend your life as a philanthropist and now all of a sudden you're saying that entering the traditional for-profit capital space is almost inherent. conflicted, if there's something that you can, you know people go even further and say, well, if you're now taking your philanthropy and you're transitioning to monetizing it, you know, that sounds a little skeptical, you know and and and I knew it would be a journey of walking where angels dare to tread.

I mean, it comes with the fact that I'm not risk adverse in my life, as some of you probably know through your parents at this stage watching me play over the years, you know I am. I wore jean shorts on a tennis court because I didn't. I didn't understand why this was such a high level deal. I mean, there are a lot of people who should be here appreciating what the hell I'm putting myself through and you know. you take that risk and you realize okay, there's some benefit to it, calculated risk, you know, I wrote my book, you read it if you want, you know the whole deal, but the truth is I did it differently and the advantage to do it again is the impact, so when I got to the place where I really had to wrestle with that idea, it all came down to one simple question, you know, and the question was what is the alternative, yeah, what if?

I don't take this risk? What happens if I don't? Pursuing this, that really means that hundreds of thousands of seats will not be provided for those who do not educate our future, how can I say no to that? And that was what I committed to separating myself from what I thought this journey was going to be. No, I don't think I'm in that space now, people recognize how necessary it is to do something truly sustainable, but I thank Bobby, he gives me a lot of credit for not working since we met you. You get a lot of credit for literally giving me a new career, you know, and in career, when I say career, I don't mean opportunity, I mean, I mean an expression of everything that I've spent my life and my time trying to do. toast. and do it in a do it if we weren't talking about sports, I say steroids, but you know you've allowed me to do this in a way that was unthinkable and now it's like this, we can share it with you.

I know we can take people for a ride. Have you ever in your wildest dreams thought raising a private equity fund focused on changing systemic policy and education would be so difficult? Is it easier to win a Grand Slam? Was it easier to create a private fund? capital fund focused on changing the political landscape of education um, I always prefer to meet my enemy, you know, and and I always make my enemy on a tennis court, you know, I knew he was a faceless person with strengths and weaknesses that we had to spend. A lot of time understanding who our enemies were, so to speak, you know what opponent we were really facing and what strengths they had and what weaknesses they had and that's harder, you know how to convince someone when you go to a company of monsters that you know. and you talk to their CIO and explain the merits of the real investment and they think it's wonderful and they throw you on the side of the program because it's about social impact and you go on the side of the program that is giving away money and they think that what you're doing is incredible except we're accused of giving away our money.

You know we're not really responsible for investing it, we actually gave it away and well, wait a second, can you give it to me then? maybe I'll pass it on to Bobby in a few years and he can put another brown paper bag on your door with more money that you can give to someone else. I mean, it doesn't make any sense that we're not sitting in the room. Recognizing that if we put our hats together, if we figure out a way to make this a sustainable, scalable approach to one of our problems and there are many to address, was incredible.

I remember we spent a year on the road and we met four types of investment we, Joe, we met the syndicalists, we met the capitalists, we met the army communists, remember I met the royalists and the syndicalists they were those teachers unions for whom he had managed billions of dollars. for years and I remember Andre and I would go and sit in front of the California State Teachers or the New York State Teachers and say we have a great investment opportunity for you, it's going to be 2x. return equity multiple of 17% has to do with the health of society is an environment that is growing at 15% compounded per year all the big metrics compelling reasons and in all cases they would look at us and say it's on us.

We'll take it in one case, we'll take half the fund and then they would say, by the way, what the asset class is and we would say what are you sure you're in and they say we're really safe, really super safe. you swear, pinky, you swear that you could invest in the fund and they would say, pinky, swear what the investment is and we would say charter schools and then there would be a deafening silence and they would say nice to meet you and I notice you say, nice to meet you , what's the problem here in the unions they would say, well you know charter schools are the nemesis of the public school district, for every job created at a charter school, there is one job lost at a charter school, and Andre would say: Well. you know, the reality is that the intention of this fund is not to undermine unions, in fact we are incredibly Pro Union, it is just the Children's Union that we are focusing on and as long as education is focused on adults, we will be I'm going to have problems, it should be about kids, the capitalists were also amazing because, again, if you're from Wharton, your job is to maximize returns, your job is not to help and we met with several organizations that like the business. model but they didn't really like our business model they thought it was an interesting investment in infrastructure the average age of a high school was 40 years the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that deferred maintenance was eight hundred billion dollars to bring these schools to code, but Andre and I had a business model that was a benevolent model where there was a bridge to ownership.

What we do is build a great school for a great operator and we bring them together at a time when they can afford to buy the school. us accessing cheaper capital and they mean a school bond market well, we won't mention, you can't mention George Soros it's a team game, nobody names, so we won't mention George, but George said, I like your business model. take all the fund but you have to change the business plan. I don't want you to sell the schools to the operators again. I want you to turn all those schools into a public REIT and maximize shareholder value and Andre leaves but that's not what we want to do and I'm his team he said well I'll see you then we'll meet you in the sandbox , we'll compete with you and we said, I think you said, go ahead, I mean, think about it, we're trying. to empower the people who know how to educate our future and give them ownership and the capitalist is trying to say, well wait a second, you have an important need, we can really take advantage of that and kind of take advantage of it, so that's one of the things that are broken so let's not go down that path and I want to say that it is difficult to say no to four hundred million dollars but the truth is that it is not what we were and also they were speculating because to be sure and confident that within five years the public markets would be receptive to private capital we focused on education which we did not know but in our business model we have an alignment of interests in which we had built an exit strategy for the charter school operator the third was the communists and them They were amazing, we met with China Investment Corporation and at the end of our presentation, the gentleman from China looked at Andre, you never looked at me even once the entire time, it was always you, you, but anyway He looked at him and said: I love you. the idea that he was looking for I love the bottom line and no he was I mean I would just remember he was yelling at me like I was there and he looked at Andre and said I'll get it when I own it I mean I'll take the hundred percent fun and Andre for those who know Andre or those who will love Andre um Andre is curious beyond his better judgment years and beyond my better judgment, but he asked before he asked a question.

I knew we were in trouble because he I leaned toward the table every time Andre leans in and will leave with a question, but he is authentic, the best example, since many years ago, on a Sunday morning, my wife and I We received a call around 7:00 a.m. m. on a Sunday and Andre says: I need help. With math I say, well, I need help with my forehead, what do you want, he says. Jaden, his ten-year-old son had a math test on Monday and you told me, he says. I'm having a hard time explaining multiplication to you. my son, I say, well, I'm Wharton, my wife next to me was a guardian, this is easy for us, you called the right place where they left you, I mean, sure, yeah, we all have it, he says, okay, help me to understand, three times. three yes, that's how in the world it can be a positive thing, he says, I lose three matches against Peeta, these three more matches, the piece, it's not time he's lost nine times.

I hate going anymore, it can't be good, so I say. I told Andre well think about it this way if you do something bad to a bad person that's a good thing right but it could be in Drago no no I don't think he knows why it's minus 3 times minus 3 positive 9 and I said no. I know and I looked at my wife and she said I don't know and I said Andre I said you know something it's just one of those things you have to memorize it's one of those tenants in math just memorize it still unacceptable he says you can choose to live your life that way, I'm like that's cold, okay, I don't want to learn my foreign language, I put on good weight, so Audrey now leans, oh my God, Edwin in trouble, Andre goes to the CIC gentleman.

I feel very honored and very appreciated, please explain to me why a Chinese government wants to invest in a private equity real estate fund focused on education in the United States. The gentleman looks at us and says: Mr. Agassi, his country is indebted to my country to the tune of two billion dollars, he said, in fact, with all disrespect, he did it. I think there is a language problem. I did too. Yes, that's fine, no, with all disrespect, since it was due respect or who said disrespect. sorry where we live in this the key area was disrespecting lincoln he goes with all disrespect his country is indebted to my country to the tune of two trillion dollars and none of us here at this table today will be alive to see that debt paid, therefore.

We, the government of China, have to depend on the next generation of Americans to grow their economy off the debt they owe us and they are not doing it, they are failing now, that was like in Drago, that was cold, I said "we". We're not going to take the money, are we? He says, we're not going to take the money and I said, well, we're not going to take the money, we can't find it anywhere else and then you're going to play all the exhibition games at Shanghai. We need something good. like that, but we didn't take it, no, we didn't and we were lucky that after the unionist, after the capitalist, after the communist, we found the realists, and the realists were people like Citibank and Bill Ackman of the Wealth Foundation Pershing Square Staff, Wealth University. from Michigan down men's, I'm a broad spectrum of people who had the ability to really understand that this was the only way to do it sustainably, you know, the people said that, the people who said that, what are the consequences of not invest in a fund? so and if they responded it's inconceivable and they became investors and I tell Andre you know the first fun is always the hardest so we raised $210 million about three and a half years ago and turned it into half a billion. dollars with schools by August of next year, you know, 70 schools, 36 thousand school seats, the operators own their facilities and you know it has changed our lives, but the reality is that we are just beginning because the problems still persist . a million students in America on a waiting list for a large public charter school, I am so surprised that we have a hundred thousand more schools to build and to be clear on the charter school front because being an educational institution here, I want That is, it's not that we think about charters. schools are the end all be all – education is not like that at all, but the competition is there and the best in class operators are really outperforming their district peers.

He85% don't do it because they are a bit mom-and-pop stores. like mine, who are just fed up with the options or lack of options for their children in their education, but that top 15%, I mean, they have dozens, if not hundreds, of schools where they absolutely outperform, disappears giving these kids opportunities they would never have dreamed of and so instead of trying to do things in a silo, what if we could be the vehicle that allows them to expand their footprint in a way they would never have been able to do otherwise ? So I want to ask you a question.

I have never asked you this neither has your dad. I know your dad you always tell me a story that you know if you wanted to play tennis and you always answered well that I want to have a ping-pong racket attached to my you know my right hand when I was six months old and my Dad had a ping-pong ball on top of me. um, your dad was obviously trying to be proud of your tennis career, what is he thinking about this nuclear power? You know it's old school, so the fair question is: a fair answer he wants to know the economy he you know It was definitely money, he never had it, he spent all this time giving his kids what he never had and you know, I have learned a lot from him, I have learned what I want to be and what I don't want to be. in some ways I spent a lot of time giving my kids what I never had, but sometimes I forget to give them what I did, which is that kind of focus and intensity, he doesn't understand the overall pattern, he sees these openings and tears.

He gets close to his eyes and just thinks: I'm so glad I'm the best tennis coach in the history of the world for teaching you how to play the way you did, so you know that all these things can happen and they will. tried. to remind him that I have three brothers and they didn't quite do it, so why do you know it was okay? I mean, why do you take credit here, but then you know, so things don't line up, so I'm out? Surely what we need is his knowledge of the Fund, but then again, we all, as children of parents, want to please them and do you get the sense that he recognizes how revolutionary the second chapter of his life is? other people's lives or is it that it doesn't change him, he listens to me and that has never been the case.

You know it is and there's just a respect that comes with that. You know that he has always been a generous person and that is true. You know, I've watched him even when he didn't have much, he gave so much and to see what we're doing and to see what I am through him and what I can give to so many really touches a part of Him, you know, sometimes you wonder. Whether it's pride or whether it's outright jealousy because he's just wrapped up in the reality that there's so much going on in these people's lives as a result of what they gave us, yeah, so obviously the legacy.

It's very important to both of us and I always say that when I say this every time I'm here. Many years ago, my daughter came to me and said dad, what was it, the rabbit asked me to read and of course I gave the same answer, it's always dad. I went to Wharton, I have no idea what epitaph means, and she explained to me what you want your tombstone to say and I said, you know, when I graduated, Guardian, I wanted my tombstone to read, Dad, you know, it had the biggest change. in his pocket and as I got older and wiser, now Dad made the biggest change in the world.

I'm your epitaph, what I wanted to read, oh yeah, so that's a great question, I mean, for me, I think the only thing like one of the things that has really stayed the same throughout my life in tennis and now after tennis they asked me the same question about legacy in the sport, you know, and I didn't really care about the titles and you know, the numbers, but I did care that the sport was better as a result of having me. I felt like that was really important to me and I didn't want to hurt the game.

I wanted to add something to it. I wanted to leave him in a better place for a long time. be there and it's hard not to look at life as a kind of microcosm of life. I just want everyone I come in contact with to be better off as a result of the time we spent together and what you're doing is you know it's intensified to make a difference in this world and know that if you weren't here that difference wouldn't be made. It would have been a powerful feeling while you're alive, I'm not sure how.

I must really care when I'm gone, you know, I'll tell you later, I'll see you there, talk about the other side, but until then, leaving this place in a better state is pretty inspiring.