Fredrick D. Scott, FMVA® is the CEO of The Scott Family Office Intl. A single-family office structure from which Fredrick stewards his family’s assets. He is also the Chairman of the Board for the New York City–based foundation, The Scott Family Foundation Intl., a Civil Society Organization (CSO). Fredrick is a business consultant, private equity investor, motivational speaker, social activist, and philanthropist. Named one of Ebony magazine’s “Top 30 Under 30” in May 2010 at the age of 25, Fredrick was, at the time, the youngest African American hedge fund founder in history. The former Wall Street wunderkind is now ready to revolutionize the economic development landscape in the minority community.
A sought-after financial expert, Fredrick has appeared on TVOne’s “Washington Watch” with Roland Martin, New York’s Hot 97-FM, and the Warren Ballentine Show. He’s spoken at the annual conferences for the National Action Network, the National Bankers Association, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and the renowned Eagle Academy. Fredrick is the quintessential definition of “failing your way to success”. Though never indicted, due to unfortunate and perplexing circumstances, Fredrick pleads guilty to a “white collar” crime and spent nearly 5 years of his life inside the Federal Prison system in the United States. That experience changed his life and gave him an eye-opening realization of what it truly means to be “Black in America”.
Fredrick is a strong proponent for the advancement of financial literacy initiatives in disadvantaged communities and teaches financial literacy courses online, where he provides information, answers questions, and supplies resources free of charge. An advocate for better race relations in the United States and the ending of policing and incarceration tactics which disproportionately affect communities of color; Fredrick candidly discusses the implicit cognitive biases in the Justice and Correctional Systems and enumerates factual, data-driven conclusions on its effects on the sociological and economic constructs of the United States.
In 2009, he served as the Founder and CEO of ACI Capital Group, LLC, an S.E.C. registered Investment Advisory Firm that, according to regulatory filings, had 3.7 billion dollars in assets under management. Here he was responsible for all investment banking, advisory, and operational matters. A Muslim by faith, Scott has lived and traveled extensively abroad and is fluent in Italian.
Fredrick received his education from Harvard University (via edx.org), he holds the Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA) Certification, Capital Markets & Securities Analyst (CMSA) Certification, and is a Certified Banking & Credit Analyst (CBCA) all of which he received from the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI). He also received his Diploma in Islamic Finance from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
What is The Scott Family Office Intl. all about?
Thank you for asking, the name of my company is The Scott Family Office Intl., what we are is a single-family office structure, which is an entity designed to manage our families assets and investments to create maximum growth within our targeted asset classes and industry verticals in alignment with our core Investment Policy. I am also the Chairman of The Board for our family foundation, The Scott Family Foundation Intl. which is a Civil Society Organization and member of the United Nations Global Compact and whose mission is to enhance the dignity and quality of life for individuals, families, and communities globally.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I am a Wall St. veteran of almost 15years and actually used to own an Investment Banking and Advisory Firm here in N.Y. Our family office was started by myself with the goal of being able to develop and protect what I was building and be able to have a solid succession plan in place for my children, as well, a large enough asset base to be able to accomplish things I never could as a pioneer our families security. I wanted to know that even if the worse should happen, my untimely demise, that my children would still be financially stable.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
Knowledge, Experience and Execution ability. I say this because first, without knowledge, nothing else is possible. There is no substitution for the proper command of subject matter, and when you have that, it expands the depth of your mind and reach, it allows you to envision possibilities you never thought were there, it allows you to dream bigger and to accomplish big things, you must first have a big vision!
Experience is VITAL, you cannot read experience. Experience is nothing more than all the lessons you have learned from all of the mistakes you’ve made so fail big, fast, and often. Never be afraid of failure, failure is never permanent as long as you keep getting back up and moving forward.
Execution ability is important because you can be the smartest person in the world, however, if you cannot proficiently and competently execute tasks consistently, you will NEVER succeed.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
The goal really isn’t to grow the company, more so, to grow our asset base year over year and that will be accomplished by first and foremost, never deviating from our investment policy and secondly, always being strategic and cautious with our capital deployment practices. As long as those things continue to happen, the asset base will continue to grow.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
I can only name three?! LOL, I’ve got tons more I could list here, my mistakes could probably fill a book all by themselves. All jokes aside, if I could name three mistakes that I’ve made in my career:
The first one and probably the gravest one was thinking that money made the world go around and that as long as I had that I could do anything I wanted and treat people however I wanted. The arrogance of that thought process cannot be understated here. Not only the arrogance, but the grotesque inaccuracy. Money does not make the world go around, PEOPLE do, money is nothing but a by product of quality relationships! Being a good relationship manager is key to becoming and remaining successful in business and life, don’t burn bridges!
Another mistake I made was thinking I know more than I did at a time that I didn’t know nearly enough. This is arrogance too and a mistake because it caused me to walk myself into corners and place myself in situations where I would overstate and vastly underproduce and this would make me look silly and like the rookie I was. The lesson I learned is that, allowing your work product to speak for you is the best way to show who you are and what you’re about. More, always approaching situations willing to learn, asking lots of questions and listening intently will get you a lot further and you will progress so much faster. Successful people are students of knowledge and have a love for learning new things.
Lastly, I would say another key mistake I made was holding on to failing businesses too long. I did this with my first mortgage brokerage firm and in the end I threw lots of good money after bad, in a time where conserving capital was extremely important and as I result, I lost far more than just the business. The lesson I learned was to understand when to cut your losses, how to weigh the entire situation objectively, that it is ok to let go, letting go doesn’t mean you are failure, it means you’re smart enough to understand that by letting go, you can move on, start over and do better the next time. Failure isn’t final unless you fail to get up.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
The key to marketing for me has always been to understand, intimately, the Psychology behind what makes people take action, what makes them do the things they do. I try to understand demographics and demographic subsects, by doing this I can identify trends and patterns which allow me to craft my campaigns to fit those trends and patterns using popular social mediums and digital avenues that the demographic I’m targeting frequents, using keywords and graphics that resonate psychologically and are proven based on the data to encourage conversion.
What have been your biggest challenges, and how did you overcome them?
My biggest challenge to date professionally has been overcoming my white-collar conviction, having to stay quiet for 8 years while my name was dragged through the mud and my credibility was tarnished. Fortunately, time tells on everything, and everyone and truth always outlives a lie, no matter how bad and damaging the lie may be. Now that the truth and facts are beginning to come to light, things are changing dramatically. However, the key to overcoming for me was just continuing to be who I am and allow my work product, efforts, transparency, accountability, and openness speak for who and what I am overall.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
It’s funny because I actually wrote a book dealing with this specific thing, it’s called “The Online Business Blueprint – A Step By Step Guide To Starting & Growing An Online Business” (It is available on my website). Because of the advancements in technology and the internet, you can literally launch an e-commerce (online) business for less than $1,000.00 and start making money from it. Will it be perfect? NO! Will you need help once you start gaining traction? YES! but what it will do is provide you a low barrier to entry for developing a business that can potentially, depending on how you develop it, create a passive stream of income for you.
Moreover, it will allow you to test market consumption of your product or service for really cheap, so you can see (in real-time) if what you are doing is something that your target demographic is receptive to. Because the cost of hosting, website, etc… is a fixed cost. If you see what you are doing isn’t gaining traction, you can rebrand the website, change the product or service and try again and doing this will cost you next to nothing because you already have a framework in place that you are already paying for. I think this is a GREAT way to gain access to passive income without breaking the bank to do so.
What is your favorite quote?
Facts have no feelings, only people do
– Fredrick D. Scott, FMVA
There is no substitution for the proper command of subject matter and your ability to consistently execute on that daily.
– Fredrick D. Scott, FMVA
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts!
– Winston Churchill
Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.
– Barack Obama
Excuses are like a**holes, everyone has them and they all stink!
– Fredrick D. Scott, FMVA
You cannot read experience!
– Fredrick D. Scott, FMVA
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
You will likely fail your first attempt; you will not be an expert, and you will make TONS of mistakes! All of this is not only expected, but it is normal and OK. Failing a business venture does not make you a failure, it makes you someone who dared to try and that already puts you ahead of most people. Don’t get down on yourself, and DO NOT GIVE UP! Sit down, access the mistakes you’ve made honestly and objectively, internalize the lessons, apply them, get back up and try again.
If you keep moving forward and keep trying and putting your all into being the best business owner you can be, you will succeed in time! You can only become a great business owner from experience, trial and error! Great and successful business owners are made from failure, you learn a lot more from your failures than you ever will from your successes.
How can readers get in touch with you?
You can learn more about Fredrick and his endeavors by visiting: fredrickdscott.com and on Instagram: @fredrickdscott
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