“In a snowstorm, when you’re trying to get from one place to another place, you never look up at the storm. You watch your feet. If you look up at the storm you will fall.’
It was May 2008, and the stock market in the U.S. was in free fall. Crashing home prices were starting to tank the economy. There was talk of a banking crisis. Investors everywhere were scared. Mellody Hobson was the president of Ariel Investments, the largest minority-owned investment firm in the U.S., managing the pensions and retirement funds for thousands of people. Ariel was founded by John Rogers Jr., with about $11 billion of assets under management (AUM) and with pressure from institutional investors, Rogers Jr. and Hubson were feeling the heat as clients kept firing Ariel every day by moving their money.
When the phone clicked off and the news settled in, Rogers, 50, who had been managing Ariel since founding it at the age of 24, burst into tears. Mellody, who had worked with Rogers for 17 years and had never seen such a reaction from him, cried as well. After a long beat, the wounded Rogers placed the blame on himself, even telling Mellody he felt it was his fault because he picked the stocks. 1