What is your name? Ryan Blair
Your job? CEO and Co-Founder of ViSalus
What social causes are most
important to you?
Long before I was an entrepreneur
and a New York Times best selling author, I was a gang member with a juvenile
criminal record. Luckily, before it was too late, a mentor came into my life, my
stepfather Robert Hunt, who was a successful real estate entrepreneur. With much patience, Bob challenged me to be a
better man and opened my eyes to the world of legal business enterprise. Based
on these real life experiences, it has become my personal calling to help
at-risk youth and kids who are like I was—one mentor away from becoming an
asset to society.
What charities do you support –
and how?
In 2008 I founded The Blair Foundation, a Los Angeles based private charitable organization that
supports causes like juvenile outreach and mentoring at-risk youth and makes
regular contributions to charities and religious organizations.
In 2011, The Blair
Foundation partnered with the Goergen Foundation and philanthropist
Percy Miller (Master P) to donate to Johnel Langerston's Urban Born project,
and launched the Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain At-Risk Teens
Program, an educational program that helps teach at-risk youth to
trade in their spray paint can for a camera and learn the art of film making or
other entrepreneurial endeavors.
My company ViSalus also has a meal
program for kids in need, and to date, we have served over 2,000,000 meals. I
plan to do a lot more giving to causes I care about in the near future.
Why do you have a passion for this,
is there a personal tie?
I wouldn’t be living the life I am
today without my stepfather Bob—his belief in me helped me to become the man I
never knew I could be. A lot of people say I got lucky, but I know that my
‘luck’ is duplicable. It’s my personal mission to prove that anyone can find a
pathway out of their circumstances given the right influences, entrepreneurship
and education.
Is there a particular way you would
want to encourage readers to be involved?
Support the Blair Foundation. The easiest way is to buy my book (Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I went
from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur), read it, and give it to
others who can benefit from it. I have pledged 100% of the proceeds of my book
to the Blair Foundation. In fact, 90%
of my assets will be donated to The Blair Foundation, and I
often lend my staff and resources to the cause.
How would you define social
responsibility?
For me, social responsibility is finding
the imbalances and injustices in your own life, then turning around and
correcting them in the world. Entrepreneurs are problem solvers; it is our job
to solve our world’s problems, not the government’s. As a CEO, it is my social
responsibility to found companies that create solutions and impact our world in
a meaningful way.
Do you have any tattoos that relate
to your social work?
The first tattoos I have are
homemade. I got them because in my neighborhood, the tougher you looked, the
less people messed with you. Later, my tattoos were more about important steps
in my life and my beliefs.
Quick list of tattoos: I have the Roman numerals
for 8-4-11 on my left forearm for the day that my book was published, I found
out my son had Autism, and I went to court to get custodianship of my mother
who had been in a coma for 5 months. I have dragons tattooed on my arms that
represent transformation, I have my last name on the back of my neck (in case I
ever get lost), one of my favorite philosophies “carpe diem” tattooed on the
inside of my left bicep, and my mother’s name, Erla, on my chest. All of my tattoos have meaning.
Photo Credit: Sally Peterson
