In his journey from street kid to multimillionaire financier, Morris Callaman has come to believe there is a natural partnership between real capitalism
and tikkun olam (repair of the world).
“Tikkun olam is who I am. … I want to move society, human beings forward,” says the 44-year-old Morris.
Morris says he believes the term capitalism has been misappropriated. He believes true capitalism means that you “figure out what people want or need” and then find or create a “progressively sustainable model” that will meet those needs while generating the funds to loop back to keep meeting people’s needs.
When he was 2, his parents gave him up for adoption. He spent the next decade in 26 different living situations in the foster care system and couch surfing. He survived abuse. He attended 13 different schools from kindergarten through eighth grade, when he ran away to find his biological father. “I had success finding him, but it was not a fortunate experience,” Morris says, noting while his mother was Jewish his father was Mormon. “He told me there was no place for me there.”
Heaped on the back of 13 years of rejection, it’s perhaps not surprising that Morris says, “I don’t like to talk about family.” He spent the next year living on the streets in Arizona. Then some construction workers took him under their wings and gave him a variety of jobs on work sites.
“I realized that picking up trash for $5 an hour, whatever problems I had were clearly solved,” he says of the step up from homelessness. Soon he was wielding a shovel and then moved on to more and more skilled jobs, ultimately becoming an electrician’s apprentice.
But one long day “encrusted with sweat as only a teenage boy can be,” he says he decided he wanted to work inside. So he walked into Glendale Community College and asked to learn about computers. When he told them he hadn’t attended high school, he was told he’d need to get a GED first. So he paid $11 to take the General Educational Development test and, without studying, passed.
He modestly says he thinks the test was easier in the 1980s than it is now, but does admit that he’s “a bright fellow.” “It didn’t occur to me till much later that I can learn things that take other people a long time.”
Since the day he walked into the community college, he has made good use of his ability to learn. He earned an associate’s degree and spent five years as a computer programmer for Honeywell while he attended night school. He earned an engineering degree and an MBA from Arizona State University. At age 33 he became a principal of Ernst and Young. Feeling burnt out after his rapid rise in the business world, he took a nine-month sabbatical and went to law school, attending Temple University in Tokyo with his credits transferring to ASU to earn his Juris Doctorate.
“It was therapeutic,” he says of law school, where he read cases that were full of emotion and where he first really learned about society. “It was the first time anyone tried to explain to me the rules of the game.”
It was during law school that he began to explore his Jewish roots. Armed with his birth certificate, he used the Mormons’ extensive genealogy resources to learn about his mother’s family, including the fact that his grandmother had fled Germany during World War II. Since then he has delved into his Jewish heritage with the help of his “dear friend Ken Schnitzer.”
He now celebrates the holidays at various synagogues, often enjoys Shabbat and holiday meals with the Schnitzer family and especially appreciates Yom Kippur. The themes of “making right with one’s self and one’s neighbors” resonate strongly with Morris. But he also appreciates that the community comes together and says to God, “We all want to be forgiven. If that’s OK with you, we have a deal.”
After Morris passed the bar, Sam Sacks, on the Board of Governors of the Arizona Bar Association, told him that while many states had vibrant groups for Jewish attorneys, Arizona did not. So he helped launch the Arizona Jewish Lawyers Association, serving as president for a time. He says the current president, Ben Himmelstein, leads a now vibrant organization providing social, educational and networking opportunities.
Now he says he doesn’t identify as an attorney any more than as an engineer, computer programmer or construction worker. “I’m an entrepreneur, a financier,” he explains. “I buy companies and I finance companies. … Most of the ways to make money have no appeal to me. I’m trying to make change for the world.”
He says he relies on “my gut and backstop it with the analytical. I have a high track record.” That claim is supported by comments from business associates on Linked In.
Harold Richter, COO of ALIVE Experience, LLC, calls Morris “an entrepreneurial genius. … He is simply brilliant at building businesses and value, yet uncharacteristically fair. His ability to understand people is uncanny. … The reality is that Morris is the best of everything, with the IQ of a genius and the heart of an angel.”
Richter concludes, “His inspiration to make the world a better place through his compassion, patience, positivity and intellect are stunning. Yes, he does all that in the business world.”
Entreprenuer Brian Barnett notes, “Clearly Morris is unparalleled in the business world, as watching how he operates is an education all in its own. It’s not by coincidence that everyone and every business he works with flourishes. … He has selflessly spent hours upon hours helping me become the best version of me and has bestowed the knowledge necessary to prepare for the next chapter in my life.”
After 10 years of financing other people’s companies through his firm Callaman Ventures, Morris says he’s spent the past year buying major interests in four companies, where he now serves as CEO and/or chairman. He has more purchases in the works.
“I’m collaborative, but I’m looking to use my 44 years of experience,” he says of the leadership he takes in each company. “Most of the problems in the world are because people are not able to collaborate.”
His latest acquisition, ALIVE Experience, has planned events for the last three presidents, vice presidents and first ladies; coordinated speaking engagements for luminaries such as Jane Goodall; and organized two Olympic torch relays.
“I don’t want people to live lives of quiet desperation,” he says of the new company. “I want people to feel alive. … I’m a social liberal, I want people to experience life.”
“I am building the vehicles to create events to increase the likelihood for people to be in touch with whatever reason they want to live. … It’s a think tank disguised as a party.”
For many years he thought he would be happy when he finished pursuing the next goal – another degree, making a million dollars – until he finally realized he needed a reason for life. “I want to bring about as much change as people want,” he says. “I used to help one starfish. Now my goal is to help millions of starfish.”
While many might look on his turbulent past as something he had to overcome, Morris says, “The hardship of my life was the gift of my youth. … It was hard, but no one was swinging a machete at me.”
Not having any one adult to shape his views of the world, he says “I have a bit of everybody’s perspective.”
The varied perspectives have been further enhanced by his own experiences, which span being the homeless boy wielding the towel at the end of the car wash to being a senior executive meeting with CEOs of major corporations around the planet. “I remember what it’s like to be cold or dirty.” He says those diverse experiences help him understand the people he meets.
He says he gained additional perspective when he himself became a father. David, 16, lives with his mother in Phoenix. He is “half me and half his mother. He has the emotional sensitivity of his father and the good looks of his mother.”
Morris believes people are fundamentally good, but often they are suffering from their own challenges. “I always treat people like human beings,” he says. “I think about who people are and what they want for themselves.”
And then he acts to help them.
