American Consequences - October 2021

MattMcCall’s got something to prove...

A mile-a-minute talker oozing charisma and a magnetic personality, Matt is a passionate self-made entrepreneur, whose big-gains track record and penchant for teaching and helping investors just landed him with Stansberry Research. I recently sat down with Matt to find out what’s behind his insatiable drive... POVERTY BREEDS AMBITION Matt grew up poor in a very small town outside Philadelphia, next to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His whole family worked for Bethlehem Steel – Matt’s father, grandfather, and uncles. And for much of the 20th century, Bethlehem Steel was one of the world’s largest steel- producing and shipbuilding companies, a Dow 30 stock, a powerful symbol of American industrial-manufacturing leadership. Until it wasn’t... When Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt, it devastatingly rocked many families in Pennsylvania, and Matt’s was no exception. He remembers that after the company’s layoffs, they had to leave their nice house for a much smaller one “on the wrong side of the tracks in the city.” When Matt was 12 years old, his father left. And being the oldest of five kids, Matt had to

grow up quick... He worked any odd job he could find – at one point, making tartar sauce every day after school at the fish shop across the street from his house. The first glimmer of Matt’s entrepreneurial drive appeared when he was 15 and started his own lawn-care business. He created and posted flyers on everyone’s doors and car windshields in his neighborhood. “And when it snowed, it was the best,” he tells me. “Other kids might have been building snowmen or having snowball fights, but I was knocking on doors... ‘Five bucks, I’ll shovel your driveway.’” Matt says he’s always been motivated by money and wanting to prove himself. “Other kids had nice, expensive shoes, like Nikes and Adidas, but my mom couldn’t afford them. So I wore these cheap sneakers. They were called MacGregors, and I got made fun of for wearing them. I hated it. I knew I was better than them, even in my Dollar Store shoes. “I’ve always been told I’m not good enough, so I always have to prove them wrong. Probably why I’ve been hustling even since grade school... selling football cards, cutting lawns, you know, up to something,” he says with a smile. This Philly blue-collar chip on his shoulder still drives him today...

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October 2021

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