Paul Hutchinson, Executive Producer of “Sound of Freedom”

Watch “Sound of Freedom” on Prime Video

Introduction

Thank you, Richard, for inviting me here. I actually knew Richard back when we first started – I had about two or three million under management, and he was just starting out too. Now we have billions.

Some of you have seen the movie. If you have, my character is Pablo, the multi-billion-dollar fund manager who’s asked not only to help fund the rescue but to play a part and be physically there. It wasn’t the funding that changed my life – it was seeing trafficked children for the first time. I’d been involved in charity work for a long time already, and I believe that work is the number one reason for my success.

They told me I have 20 minutes today, though the program says 12 – so I’ll talk fast either way. I’m going to spend about five minutes on building wealth, five minutes on charity work, and then close with personal transformation and creating global change.

Building Wealth Through Abundance, Not Scarcity

Here we are at a family office conference – our goal is to figure out how to be more successful in our businesses, and that’s okay. We’ve had a few different helicopters, a few different planes, even a basketball court in the basement. There’s nothing wrong with creating a life of luxury. But if you lose sight of making a difference in the lives of others, it will be unfulfilling in every way.

Just to touch on the wealth side for a second: how many of you have invested in real estate? A lot of you – about half. So here’s my question: of all the real estate in the world, what’s the most valuable piece you could develop right now? There are some prime spots in Hong Kong, but the most valuable piece of real estate you will ever own is the six inches between your ears. Am I right?

When it comes to passing on wealth to the next generation, the number one thing I’m teaching my kids isn’t how to invest in properties – it’s how to develop the right relationship with money, wealth, and success. What does that relationship look like? If you’re a charitable person who doesn’t want to hurt others, you might believe we live in a zero-sum world – that for you to make a million dollars, someone else has to lose a million. If you believe that, you might subconsciously sabotage your own success.

What I need you to understand is that we live in a world of abundance. You can create value – value that’s genuinely valuable to the world. You want to make a million dollars? Create a million dollars’ worth of value in the lives of others. You want to make a billion? Create a billion dollars’ worth of value in the lives of others. It will come back to you. That’s the universal law of exchange.

The problem is that most schools of economic thought define economics as the division of scarce resources – which is a fallacy. There are enough resources in this world that every one of us could have all the food we could ever eat, all the houses we could ever live in, and all the clothes we could ever wear. Yet many people believe we live in a world of scarcity.

Changing your mindset is crucial. Go back a thousand years and ask an astrologer to define astrology, and they’d say something like, “I study how the sun and the planets and the stars revolve around the earth.” Their own definition precluded them from ever understanding that the earth isn’t the center of the universe. In the same way, the current definition of economics – the division of scarce resources – precludes us from understanding that we actually live in a world of abundance.

Every company I built was based on a true win-win-win philosophy. With Bridge, we had over 50,000 apartment units when I retired. One of our core philosophies was to put ourselves in the shoes of our tenants, not just our investors. These were B and B-minus properties, many in areas with a lot of new immigrants, and many of our tenants were Latino.

There were tennis courts overrun with four-foot weeds, because nobody played tennis there – they played soccer. So we tore the courts out and put in soccer fields. We brought in English-as-a-second-language classes and a bookmobile. We took a piece of real estate where all the managers had opulent offices, moved them into smaller offices, and turned the rest into a space with computers and tutors for kids after school. That’s creating wealth while doing good.

Now, you might sit back and think, “I don’t want to be a slumlord.” You don’t have to be – because every dollar you earn by creating value without integrity taints your soul. But if you think creatively, you realize we don’t have to live in a dog-eat-dog world. We don’t have to exploit our tenants to make a return.

I wasn’t installing gold towel rods in a B-class neighborhood, but we made sure the roofs were good, the pool was clean, and yes, they had Taco Tuesday – whatever created value in their lives. In doing so, we became the number one investment fund in the country right after the 2008 crash, and we kept growing because we built it with integrity. Our investors preserved their money in solid real estate assets, and they were making an impact at the same time.

As you build wealth, remember to hold onto that mindset of abundance and creation. I love telling this story: there are ten men on an island, ten families, and every day the men go fishing and catch just enough to feed their families. Then two of them come up with the idea of a net. A well-functioning economy says, “One of you should get better at building huts, another at building boats, someone else at educating the children” – and that raises the standard of living for the whole island. That’s how creativity works, and it’s how we need to operate in business as we build wealth. Ask yourself: how can I create a net? How can I create more value for my tenants, my employees, everyone else, than what I’m taking for myself? If you do that, you deserve to be managing billions, because your mindset and your heart are in the right place.

A quick, fun side note before I move on: who here has heard of Henry Cavill? Before I met my wife, he was at her workplace every day – they went on a few dates, nothing serious, and then she met me. I stole Superman’s girl.

Back to business – I’d love to spend one-on-one time with any of you. If you’re building a fund, I can help. When we started, it took a full year to raise $2 million. By the time I retired, we were raising $10 million a day. I’ll spend an hour with you and show you how.

If you have family, I’d love to talk about next-generation wealth and how to build that together.

I focus on working with the tip of the umbrella – you. You’re the biggest influencers in the world. You represent wealthy families, you are wealthy families, and many of you are huge influencers in your own right. If I can help you transform how you think about the world, yourself, and money – working through generational trauma or whatever it is – that ripples out and creates massive change elsewhere.

Give Until It Hurts

Let me talk quickly about charity work. When I was 20 to 23 years old, just getting started, I had a mentor who taught me a lot. He told me the six inches between my ears were crucial. “Paul,” he said, “your car should be a university on wheels. For the rest of your life, I don’t want you to even know if your radio works. You should be listening to programs on business, finance, leadership, relationships.” That changed my life.

The other thing he told me changed everything: “Paul, some of the wealthiest families in the world live by a principle of not just giving a little, but creating transformational change. The average person gives about 2% of their income a year. Think about last year – what did you earn, and what did you give away to make an impact?” You’d think the people in this room, millionaires as a whole, would give a bigger share. Here’s what’s sad: the average millionaire gives away a smaller percentage per year than someone earning under $100,000. That makes me sick.

My mentor told me, “Paul, if you make a decision today” – I was earning $2,000 a month at the time – “you’re going to give until it hurts. Not 2%, not 5%, not even 10%. Decide to give 15 to 20% of your money to make a difference through charity. Call it karma, call it the universe, call it God – I call it God. There’s a higher power very interested in us doing good, and your success will be infinitely greater because of it.”

How does someone become a partner – let alone a founder – of a multi-billion-dollar investment fund, without being anything more than a University of Utah dropout? The statistical probability of me being where I am is zero. The only way I can explain it is the decision I made in my early 20s to be generous to that degree.

And it wasn’t just about money. He said, “Paul, you need to donate 20% of your time.” I remember complaining, “Wait – I’m earning $2,000 a month, and you want me to give away 20% of that? I’ll have to live on $1,600, and work more hours to make up for it.” He said, “In addition to that, you give your time too.” I thought, what about work-life balance?

But I promise you, test it. The windows of heaven will open, and you won’t have room enough to receive it, if you make the decision to make a difference. Find something you care about – I’ll mention our charity, but I’m not here to promote it. I want you to dig in with your family and ask, “What’s important to us?”

Maybe Uncle John died of cancer – get behind that. Maybe Aunt Mary had an issue – whatever it is, get behind something you’re passionate about. Don’t just write a check; decide to get involved in a way that creates a global movement. This group can do that. I recently spoke to a high school group, and even those kids can do it – and you’re already there. You have the resources, even if it’s not your own checkbook – your network alone can help create a global movement.

So find something you’re passionate about, and decide, together as a family, that you’re not just going to write a check – you’re going to make a powerful impact in the world.

I remember a conversation with my mentor where I said, “I want to be successful” – and you can write this down – “so that I can be charitable.” I had it backwards. I should have wanted to be charitable so that I could be successful. Wherever you are on this journey, especially if you’re just getting your business started: choosing to be charitable creates success. I’ve seen it over and over.

There’s a story I love from early on. A well-known TV and radio personality – Glenn Beck – wanted to launch an anti-child-trafficking campaign from Bangkok, Thailand. He had about 50 million followers across social media, radio, and TV, and I knew that if his audience could see what I had seen, it would make a powerful impact. But it was going to cost $100,000 to get Glenn and his team to Thailand. At the time, the charity I was working with wasn’t Child Liberation yet – it was an earlier one funded by a lot of grandmothers donating a dollar a month. That money was sacred, and we didn’t want to touch it for this.

So my business partner Don and I funded the $100,000 ourselves. We flew to Thailand, filmed in the orphanages, and ran an operation while we were there – that’s a whole other story. On the flight home, the moment our wheels touched down and I got signal on my phone, two voicemails came in. One was from a family member of the owner of the biggest hotel chain in the world: “Paul, I’ve been looking at your numbers – I want to put another $10 million into your senior housing fund.” The other was from the owner of one of the largest gas station chains in the country, with an even bigger number. What I earned from those two voicemails – received while I was literally in the air – exceeded what I’d just spent in Thailand. That happens every time. Get passionate about something, make a difference, and the rewards come on the other side.

The Rescue Behind “Sound of Freedom”

I want to touch briefly on the movie and the global impact it’s had. Some of you have seen “Sound of Freedom.” Yes, it’s a dark subject, but we made a deliberate choice not to dwell too deeply on the darkest parts. You’ll feel it. Here’s the background.

About ten years ago, I wasn’t just Paul Hutchinson – I was Paul F. Hutchinson, running a multi-billion-dollar investment fund, living in a house with ten bathrooms, hosting parties. That was the energy I was in, but I was also giving a lot to charity.

Then I got a call from our attorney general. “Paul, I know you’ve done a lot with child-related charities. I need to talk to you about something dark. It’s the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world, and good people don’t even know it’s happening.” He said he was trying to figure out how to describe it – not drugs, something else. “It’s human trafficking. It’s now the second most profitable criminal trade, past illegal arms, and it’s about to pass drugs too. Specifically, I want to talk to you about child trafficking.” I was hesitant even to hear it, but he went on: a Homeland Security agent in Cartagena, Colombia, had identified more than 20 children being sold for sex to wealthy Americans.

That’s sick. Genuinely sick. He said the agent needed about $50,000 to pull those kids out, because the government wouldn’t fund it without proof that Americans were involved. At the time, I’d been on the Make-A-Wish board for seven years – a beautiful organization. I thought about how $10,000 through Make-A-Wish could send a girl fighting cancer to Disney for a week with her family, which matters. But $50,000 here could pull 20 children out of hell and get them back to their families. There wasn’t a comparison.

So I helped make it happen. He introduced me to the right people, and two weeks later the agent called again. “Paul, it’s not 20 children – it’s more than 50, and there are over 100 more in the surrounding area. We believe we can rescue all of them on the same day, at the same time, but I need your help in a big way.”

My first instinct was, “How much do you need? I’ll write the check.” He said, “I need you. Can you be in Colombia in two days?” The head trafficker in the area, he explained, had a property he wanted to turn into a child sex resort – he needed a few million dollars to build it out, and believed he could make tens of millions a year selling children to wealthy clients. “How do I help?” I asked.

“I need someone who can convincingly pretend they’re willing to fund it,” he said. He knew my background well enough to know I had the skill set to be safe in a dangerous situation, but as he put it, “I can’t teach my Navy SEALs how to negotiate a deal like this.” He continued: “If you go down and tell him, ‘I’ll fund your project, on one condition – call every trafficker you’re connected to and bring all of their inventory together at once, because I’m throwing a party next week and bringing my friends,’ we believe he’ll make those calls. And then we can rescue everyone at once.”

Two days later, I was at a conference much like this one – a second- and third-generation billionaire event in Atlanta – when the call came in. I didn’t have time to go home and pack, so I asked what to wear. “Come down as a wealthy playboy,” he said. I looked down – I had $2,000 cufflinks on, a $50,000 watch, and a suit that cost more than my first car. I had the outfit.

Two days later, I was face to face with some of the most evil people on the planet.

Halfway through negotiating the deal, one of them leaned forward. “Pablo, I have a gift for you.” He handed me his phone – a photo of an eleven-year-old girl. “This is Princess. She’s still a virgin,” he said, and went on to describe what I could do with her. I realized that if we could get these children out before they were ever abused in the first place, that would be a miracle.

In the movie, my character isn’t convinced to go by the Homeland Security agent – it’s a photo the driver hands him that pushes him over the edge. In real life, I was already in. That moment was my first real turning point.

A week or so later, our team had met with the Colombian federal agents and the US Embassy, and everything was set. The traffickers brought 54 children that day, across three separate cities running simultaneously, with the children kept isolated in a separate part of the property while we negotiated.

I was sitting at a table when one of the traffickers stood up. “Pablo, I have to show you the gifts I brought you.” He went into the house where the children were being held, and we could hear a few of them crying, terrified. Ten minutes later he came back out with four children – three girls and a boy. The boy was eleven and had been given drugs because he was too frightened otherwise.

Every cell in my body wanted to hug those kids and tell them they were going to be fine, that they’d see their parents again. I couldn’t. Then they brought in the girl from the photo – standing just above my eye level. All I could see in her was fear.

In that moment, I made a commitment to myself, to God, and to that child: I was going to dedicate my life to eradicating this evil from the face of the earth.

We ran the operation across three cities that day, rescuing 127 victims and reuniting them with their families. The most beautiful moment of my life was watching the agents make the arrests as child protective services arrived – and watching those kids start singing and laughing. That sound of freedom was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, especially set against the crying I’d heard half an hour earlier.

I turned to the agent and told him I’d spent my whole life making rich people richer – I even had a Lamborghini on my vision board, a couple more goals away from buying it. “I’m not going to buy that car,” I told him. “I want to write you the check instead. What can I do?”

He said, “Paul, I can’t teach my Navy SEALs how to wear a $50,000 watch and negotiate a multi-million-dollar deal. I’ve never found a business owner with the kind of training you have. If you’re willing to keep being the bait, I’ll change your whole life.” That was ten years ago.

Since then, I’ve led or played a key role in over 70 undercover rescue missions across 15 countries. Through the Child Liberation Foundation and other foundations we’ve helped fund and start, more than 6,000 victims are now back with their families.

What Wealth Is For

I share all of this because I hope you go home and ask yourselves, “How can I have a powerful impact in the lives of others?” When I was a kid, I had a poster of Ferraris and Lamborghinis with the quote, “He who has the most toys wins.” Now mine says, “He who has a powerful, positive impact on the most lives wins.” That’s what it’s all about.

Figure out how to create a global movement. I realized, in the moment I made that promise to the little girl, that we couldn’t take millions of people and show them what I’d seen – but we could help millions of people feel what I’d felt. That’s why we made the movie. It became the number one independent film in the world. I was the primary investor in “Sound of Freedom,” alongside a few other families who joined in. We spent $14 million making it and did $270 million in box office. The money isn’t what matters – every one of those dollars represents a human being we were able to help.

Go home today, or after this conference, and sit down with your family. Decide what you’re passionate about, how you’re going to give back, and your “why.” What is the purpose of the wealth you’ve inherited or created – is it just so your second- and third-generation grandkids can have Ferraris? Or is it to leave something your great-great-grandchildren can point to and say, “My great-grandfather made a massive impact in the world,” not just a lot of money?

That’s my hope for today. Ask yourself how you can make a difference.

Thank you for coming and spending this time with me today.