The Reginald Lewis Empire on The Rock Newman Show

this evening on the rock Newman show born and reared in Baltimore Maryland Reginald Lewis was America's first black billion dollar businessman on the 30th anniversary of his purchase of TLC Beatrice international his wife Laura Lewis talks about his feats and the new documentary about his life earring right here on WH UT that's coming up on the rock Newman show [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the rock Newman show from the campus of historic Howard University located in the nation's capital I'm rock Newman and it is my desire to inspire you with personal stories of extraordinary achievement reginal F Lewis was a businessman who changed the color of Wall Street he was also a family man of philanthropists and civil rights activists his wife Laura Lewis is here to tell us more thank you so much for joining us welcome thank you the honor is mine you know what I want to do is put my glasses on here I want to start this way I start each of my shows by saying that I hope to inspire my audience with stories of extraordinary success and reginal and Lewis so quintessentially was the example of that and at his funeral in 1993 he passed at the untimely death of age of 50 years old there was a letter from his friend mayor Dinkins and it said Reginald Lewis accomplished more in a half-century than most of us could ever deem imaginable and his brilliant career was matched always by a big a warm and generous heart Dinkins added it is said that service to others is the rent we pay on earth Reginald Lewis departed us paid in full he added Reginald Lewis held held close to his dream it was a dream fuelled by imagination inspiration and dedication so when we talk about trying to do broadcasts from this studio that inspire to be able to have him as our subject matter and for you the caretaker of his legacy to join us it's Laura it truly is an honor know well I'm very happy that you called me be here today so there are so many places we can start but I think I want to do this I think I want to introduce our audience to you and to do it in a way to not just talk about what you've been doing now what you've been doing since you know from 30 years or so ago but to really go back into your past that you were born in the Philippines your parent your parents were both entrepreneurs and very early on you sort of took on sort of the spirit mimicked what they were doing tell us a little about your childhood in the Philippines well I was born in the town maybe 5,000 inhabitants but my father and mother were not from there they met there ah and they decided that's where they're going to raise their children I had two older brothers and he was very hard on them I was the first girl and so he was very easy on me and gave me the confidence that I can do anything I want and I guess because I am the more daring the more ambitious the more fearless his dream was to become a lawyer but my father was poor he lived with his rich uncle mm-hm and so he wasn't able to finish law school okay so of his children I became the lawyer so let me stop you for a moment because you said he gave you the confidence that you could do anything you wanted to do how did he do that well because he's a businessman very successful by the time we were growing up we had the biggest we had a movie house in the town you your your family my family my movie and family put up a movie house named after me Lloyd a theater so that when I'm ready to run for public office I already have name recognition we had a bowling alley we had a pharmacy because my mother was a pharmacist we had gasoline station we had tracking business oh well and we had fish one so my father was the eternal I mean the classic entropy or starting one after another and so growing up it you know I grew up with two enterpreneur your parents yeah we would go and walk on the beach and there's people with no fisherman fish shrimps how much is that oh that's too much to this so I hear I hear the negotiation the technique from my father and so I went to law law school I well I was high school valedictorian I was top 10% in my graduating class laude in law and in college and law school I was in the top 10% member of the Law Review and so he was so happy I passed the bar and now a lawyer yeah round-the-world trip Loida I'm pick your sister up in New York he was she was studying at the Lamia University okay and come back and we'll start your career uh-huh that was the background start you start your career in in it well as a lawyer but basically politics in yes yes maybe congressman woman or mayor governor and maybe all the way up to Senator uh-huh uh-huh so so your father's dream for you was that of a politician you were going to dream for himself he wanted to be a lawyer he couldn't as a businessman you don't go into politics okay so his dream he transferred to me and how was that done every Friday coming from the city where he works we had a furniture store yeah known in Manila Nick furniture Nicholas furniture okay so every Friday he would come always with what's the latest in Manila which is maybe a basket of grapes or of oranges or you know anything like that we'll have a big dinner and then on the patio we're overlooking the town he will start his sort of like brainwashing now you call it brainwashing but then it was natural for us all right what's the five secret of success uh-huh all right hard work and he will they give an example of how hard he worked yeah common sense and he will give an example what common sense means resourcefulness and he would give an example how resource where you can be thrift okay beat riff t now we call it financial literacy yeah and fifth faith in God okay whatever you do ask God self so that's like embedded in my mind and so hard work hard work in school yes okay he expected us to do our best so those are the kinds of values that was embedded in me and that's why when I met mr. Lewis it's the same values you know before you go there before you go there so so so did you do those sort of around the world trip well yes I became my mother and I came to the United States we went to Hawaii we went to San Francisco Los Angeles Las Vegas Washington DC I think we went even to Chicago and then New York because this was my sister was studying for her master's degree Columbia University and she was graduating in May we arrived in I think September October okay and so what will I do yeah you know but six months yeah so I went to work I told the there was a civil rights organization on Village Voice civil rights I like that and I said I'm just a law student not a lawyer because if she says you're a lawyer I need administrative assistant you're overqualified yeah yeah yeah and my boss was a Harvard Law School graduate and handsome young man as I said I'll introduce you to my sister uh-huh he was fast yeah he was going out and they were going out on the date that weekend and by Friday my boss asked me do you want a double date you know a blind date yeah I'll fix you up and you know why not you know I'm always ready for adventure yeah okay sure called the bridge Lewis your boss Reginald Lewis my boss and he were classmates class of 68 at Harvard Law School okay okay reg blind date no no no no please I am too busy because lawyers then and now work 12 15 16 hours even 24 hours a day sure so he didn't want to go Oh reg that's too bad you know she comes from the Philippines wait I've never dated an oriental before I'm coming he probably ain't no and she fine no I think it's the sense of you know something new yeah yeah you know not afraid to try something new yeah oriental from the Philippines why not okay and that's how we met on a blind date okay all right so since you sit since you went there tell me about that day what I remember was that you know I come from very conservative Philippines you know high school with the nuns yeah colleagues with the nuns and so when he came in I explained my tension I'm Loida how are you I heard so much about you and it's later on he said that really impressed him I mean for me it was no ordinary that impressed him that I would be very friendly shaking his hand looking into his eyes and you know just saying I've heard so much about you okay but Mike's impression as we were going out he held me on my hand and in my here he held me to help me out the door yeah and for me it was like fresh uh-huh I mean you know because it really pins you know you're not touched not bad but the best thing is that for that first date anything I say he had something to say anything he said I had something to say history literature current available but I remember distinctly when I was talking about in a race that is african-american black then and so he said he immediately he immediately like changed the subject he didn't say I'm not black he said I'm international okay so in his mind you know you don't treat me as a black man you know you know I am a man human yeah but more important I'm international that's 1968 20 years later he was international he bought Beatrice international foods sixty-four companies in 31 countries and so for your for your de listeners visualizing what is it you want but not empty visualizing he worked hard mm-hmm so okay so I'm not gonna let you get away with just tell me about that first date so tell us a little bit about after that first date what how did things unfold all right he called me one week later okay the god on the date but just the two of us all right and so we had a nice dinner and he said would you like to see my paintings I mean it's classic now that I'm thinking about it it's classic would you like to see my paintings in his bedroom in his room in his apartment yeah and for me yes why not okay and then all right we see the paintings and then of course started to become intimate okay and it was like no no no but the gentleman that he is you know he didn't do it uh-huh and so he brought me home okay and I said how god I don't like what's happening so I wrote him a note okay intimacy I'll only do it with the man who will be my husband I never want to see you again oh I but I remember you with fond memories wrote it Oh mail it to him Oh Oh Lord heaven that's the end so you stepped off yes you saw yes okay one week later he called me again I said oh my god he didn't received my letter yeah up with him again yes you know he was a nice man yeah went out we had a nice time I remember talked again talked about anything you know we I mean I think at that book at that moment I knew that we sync because when you said you know when you said something whatever you had to say he had a response you had a response to what he had to say so there was a connection yes yeah yeah we were in sync many things okay okay all right and then so he was bringing me home and he said and they told him you know I wrote you a letter yes you did you received a letter yes I did but they told you I don't want to see you again and then he said Loida I'll never do anything you don't want me to do mmm this is so good I mean he knew that he's right yeah everything will be with my consent right so with that said I continued to see him but having been raised in a Catholic you know very conservative I was having conscience problem yeah you know because they say never have any intimacy with any man yeah before you're married but I had a very very close friend who was with me in college and who was here already who was studying getting her PhD at Fordham University okay so I said Josie I'll have to talk to you and then I told her I'm having problem with this I said Oh Lloyd ah come on you're in United States okay if you want to really know a man you have got to be intimate and it's sort of like giving me absolution so so that's how we became boyfriend girlfriend okay okay but by December yeah I started to have second thoughts because I'm falling in love with me uh-huh and I will just break his heart because I'm going back to the Philippines right right because you're heading back in Sicily so I said I don't think we should continue seeing each other ah you know I don't want to break your heart and I don't want my heart to be broken and he said again how do you know how do you know I mean it's like just breaking my barriers yeah that's true how do you know okay and so we continued to see each other we continued to to have the relationship until May because my sister is graduating and somebody asked who proposed okay how did he propose yeah he did not propose okay we were in the subway bringing me back to the hotel okay where we were staying with my sister and so I asked him darling do you want a big wedding or a small and he said no small wedding where do you think we should have it at my youth chapel that's a nice Catholic priest there yeah and then suddenly he understood what was happening so he said I have a headache I knew I got here my kissed him on the cheek yeah but after that we have announced our friends we're getting married I had second thoughts I was having more than second thoughts I was thinking about if I get married then I will leave the Philippines my family my friends what I'm accustomed to all my ambition because my father's ambition became mine sure and so I said I can go through with it oh I'll have to go oh boy no yes and so my sister and I got ready because our trip to the Philippines is all paid for by my father we can go to any three cities on the way home okay so we went so we planned to go to Stanford where our classmates are taking PhDs and then Korea and Taiwan and Hong Kong and back to the Philippines so that's two weeks of travel yeah but we left said goodbye to him on the phone no no no no you know my mother is very entrepreneurial okay he she went back to the Philippines but she knew that there is a car that my boss had Dre Glover and so he said why don't you bring a car back to the Philippines and we'll sell it you know since we have stayed longer in the Philippines we can bring a car and so what did I do Chiqui I wanted to see him again yes I said reg no darling call him darling can I see you why I have to ask to ask something and then what did they do I came to him to borrow $600 to buy the car in his diary he said how cheeky good nerve yeah or hard to come of course he descended he's very business yeah Chris I mean love is love business is business you're not gonna pay me you he didn't say that he said no I don't lend money to anybody right and so we left but you know just on the plane having known him for six months and understanding you know a modest family how he was able to raise to raise himself up going to Harvard Law School first of all when he was ten years old he had he started the business of delivering newspapers papers for America yes okay he started with two I mean two years he had the hundred yes yeah he sold it to his best friend so even at that young age right you know so constant being able to get a scholarship to go to Virginia State yes losing his scholarship yeah working full time so that he could pay tuition yeah and being able to enter Harvard Law School during that summer program when he being a senior should not have been allowed he hounded that professor every day I was gonna ask you because it's a seminal piece of the reginal Lewis story that he is the only person in a hundred and forty eight years of that law school that was accepted into law school without applying without applying has he did he share with you how he did that yes yes he did all right 1965 the height of the civil rights movement and so Harvard Law School and the Rockefeller Foundation talk to each other how do we get the black community the african-american community be in parity because you know the distance in economic equality is so far yeah there are african-american lawyers but they are in domestic law or real state no real money yeah money is in merger and acquisition yeah corporate law sure okay so how do you become corporate lawyers you have to be exposed but there are not too many african-americans who are lawyers or who are in corporate law so they ask historically black college just in universities to send them their top five students four or five students only sophomore and junior he was a senior already right but he was able to convince that professor to allow him to be the fifth and so he came he so he went to he was there from Virginia's Virginia State five students of Virginia State came and he was the fifth okay there were around 80 students okay from all these sorry black colleges but during that eight weeks in his mind he said I am going to study as hard as I can participate as much as I can okay and sure enough after eight weeks professor Sanders who was heading the class said read you know you did brilliantly if you want to enter the class of 1968 in Harvard Law School you have a seat and that's how he came in Wow yes and on that first day you know he was in knew that he might not have enough money okay financial aid yeah and there fill up your application and that's how he started Harvard Law School yeah yeah Wow Wow so so so now let's let's go back so you you now are headed back to the Philippines and you know you've got something in your head that tells you you can't do this against this guy who has already demonstrated his incredible commitment to get what he wants yes but I was the one who left yeah I know but that's the force of nature at that point that you were dealing with yes so I was you know we were determined you know we're going home but just on the plane you know I I went to the best universities in the Philippines University of the Philippines we have presidents of the United of the Philippines who are graduates of law school Senate presidents in fact I have a classmate who became vice president I have a colleague who became Senate President but that's beside the point I I had met the best of the best in my country yeah and having met him I know I we'll never meet I knew then on the plane I will never met someone like him again and I was so sad mmm so sad so we landed in San in in San Francisco went to Stanford University and they all all my friends were saying what's the matter with her she's not talking because I was just so so sad so blue and we were out on the field but you know what the song is true I cannot see colors I couldn't see green everything was gray and so that night you know my sister went to a friend I spent another friend because you know we didn't we didn't have money for hotels and my good friend Jerry Hill Loida if you're that sad why don't you just call him never thought of that darling I'm coming back so he said no no no you're on your way just go back tell them we're getting married and then come back here okay got him yeah yes I was so happy and so colors have returned in my life yeah but I didn't follow what he said because we already planned it so we went to Seoul Korea we went to Taiwan we went to Hong Kong and then we came home but during all that time I knew that my parents had no idea yeah you know we were going to get married yeah and so I wrote them a letter I wrote a letter to all my friends please won't you know talk to my mother and father because they knew him if they were they were my friends in New York who went back to the Philippines please tell him tell them that I'm getting married I didn't want them to be shocked yes in the meantime mr. Lewis was so angry with me because the plan was two weeks in the Philippines and then come back here and then he learned I'm going to all these places and he said afterwards he said Noida I was so close to cutting off our you know our but I received a letter from you every day I wrote him every day during that time so you know as we prepared for the show today you know we we're just you know this documentary that you've engineered is airing here on WH UT we're also very happy about that and so as I prepared I looked at all of his billionaire talents what I am hearing here is truly a love story and pretty much everybody loves a love story and I really appreciate you sharing all that with us go come on let's let's complete that sir and so he was so mad in fact you know he would complain to one of his law associates yeah you know that Here I am you know because when I reach home I was going back and my parents said no why are you going back he should come here and marry you here so he meets all of us he meets your family he knows a little bit more of who you are okay and I said that makes sense I called him up yeah and said and he agreed okay but he could not bring any of your members of his family you know they they don't have that kind of money yeah but his father then volunteered to give him money so that it could be video today so at least that he could have had you informed your parents at that point well when they came home yeah they have all been informed yeah and so my but my question is had you informed your parents they're in the Philippines that it was a black guy that you were oh my mother knew him okay yeah okay she knew ray Glover she knew him uh-huh and Greg Glover is very playful but mr. Lewis was straight I've been meaning to say you know he does he is good uh-huh and the job tomorrow he turned my mom oh yes so my mother knew him already okay and so my telling my father and mother that I'm getting too married was no surprise to her okay okay and my father I showed him his picture yeah and he's my father looked at me and he knew so on this thought there is in love yeah so no objection Wow you know I heard in in preparing for this I heard at one point that you said I'm jumping ahead a little bit you know once you guys really got together you didn't have any issues going within sort of black society you felt comfortable and embrace and in and in white society you felt the same way there was no issue but that you felt a sense of was it rejection or being ostracized within the Filipino community yes unfortunately we had 350 years of Spanish rule the colonial mentality yeah and therefore that's you know racism meaning to say among ourselves it's you are fair you like better yeah if you're dark-skinned you're like not not not the beauty kind yeah so in my but my father being poor at the beginning was very a glare Italian and so with my mother you know so we grew up with the with the I I can say for myself you are everybody this equal we are equal in the eyes of God and so being with the african-american community white community was very natural to me okay but I am a little less open to the open in terms of bringing mr. Lewis to the Filipino community because I know that there is racism mm-hmm and so in that score you know I was comfortable I'm there yeah okay but I don't want my husband to be there uh-huh you felt he would feel I didn't want him to suffer any kind of discrimination from my own people yeah you know they might say something wrong mm-hmm so I avoided that kind of social in fact when the children are going up I removed myself yeah before yes I was going to say not quite because in 1972 the Philippines declared martial law yeah I put up an anti Marshall I'm you know I put up a newspaper as sort of like counter yeah to what's happening in the Philippines was Marcos Marcos and so although I remove myself from the social I was in the Philippine American society because I was publishing this monthly newspaper that was critical of Marcos so a little bit of a troublemaker no I stand for what they believe is just and what is right yes I understand one one man one man's liberators another man's terrorist that's it yes that's so okay so you get did you get married there or here we did get married my father gave me a wonderful wedding the Vice President was one of my sponsors and you know it's like Philippines Philippine society 400 were there so it was a you know he gave me a big wedding yes and then we immediately flew back yeah and so you came back here and you took the New York Bar yes in 1974 the Supreme Court of the United States said citizenship United said in being an American citizen should not be a requirement to take the bar it's there has no correlation you know it's whether you know the law or not not whether you're a citizen or not citizen so I took the bar in 74 and by that time my daughter was born my eldest daughter Leslie mm-hmm and so I want hundred percent concentration to review since there are many subjects that I didn't take in the Philippines States you know transportation we had corporations we had constitutional law but you know there's so I had to study hard so I exiled my daughter to Baltimore with my mother-in-law I don't want to call her mother-in-law mother in love with mom yeah and so so that I could study because I want to pass it the first time if I fail I'll exile my daughter again oh no yeah and I passed the bar for the first time and you were the first without studying in the United States and you were the first Filipina philippi yeah a sheer an Asian because that was 74 yeah and they to get them so no other citizen from amia from Asia right took the bar okay so you the first Asian woman first Philippine a woman because there were two of us Filipinos took the bar and passed one was man it's very in the nickel congratulations okay so now now you've passed the bar Reggie is doing his thing he's now a lawyer he's there he's there on Wall Street and he's the first african-american law firm on Wall Street he is that doing corporate law yes he establishes that he is doing legal work where for for big corporations he's starting to see the whole acquisitions an acquisitions thing and then somewhere along the way it pops into his head why should white guys have all the fun absolutely he said that when he was six years old really with his grandma and grandpa because you know you talk about of course you know white community having best homes having the best jobs yeah you said I should like guys have all the fun okay and that's what he said I want the title so that's what when he started to write the book yeah so but merger and acquisition was not something he just thought of after he became he after he was doing law he was at Harvard Law School and his paper was merger and acquisition and the first sentence is in order to create wealth yeah you do merger and acquisition and he got an a-plus on that term paper uh-huh so what does it mean because it's a lawyer you have 24 hours to build your client yeah I mean it's not it's not forty hours a day so the what you can get is limited sure but if you're going to law school in which if you go into business the sky is the limit yeah yeah yeah and so he made a so he so so so he he came out and started and then he bought a company for Tibet no no while he was practicing yeah he would make a bid to buy one company and in fact it's a company in Baltimore Park sausages you remember that oh sure okay so they made an agreement three million dollars hmm okay but when he came with the check in his briefcase the owner had sold it to somebody else first failure yeah okay so he continued practicing law and then the second company he wanted to buy was a group of television station in North East okay again he was gathering financing because at that time you can borrow all the money that's called you know leveraged buyout sure sure and before he could get the financing together it was all someone else the third one is a furniture company in California okay for eight million dollars so he was able to get again financing day of closing he had the money in the bank to give to this owner the owner was white yes and he didn't want to work for a black man at least that's what I thought because he broke the deal yeah how did he do that he accused my husband that my husband told him to keep two books one for IRS and one for themselves oh boy which is a total lie yeah so my husband started to bleep bleep bleep you yeah bleep bleep bleep bleep I mean you can see if that happens yeah down the drain yeah so he failed three times mm-hmm and the key here is you learn when you fail it's not a failure if you learn from it yeah so instead of saying oh he's a racist no instead of pointing his finger there he pointed it himself I am doing something wrong three times I fail I'm doing something wrong okay and he studied all those who have been very successful in doing leveraged buyout yeah you know Henry Kravis Jimmy goldsmith Ron Perelman they were all doing you know leveraged buyout meaning borrowing a lot of money buying companies yeah and so when McCole patent came he hired an investment banker bursters he hired I mean you know he hired somebody else not him sure that's his first we'll deal he worked on it for three years yeah it had the highest numb highest net income in the 113 years of history of McCall pattern uh-huh so did an event on the paper on newspaper New York Times yeah it is picture yeah ninety-two one return to investor yeah and that's when Mike Milken called him Michael because we we're gonna get there but I'll tell you what before we do let's we have a clip from the documentary let's take a look from modest beginnings in Baltimore Maryland to an international billion-dollar Empire my grandfather said know your job and I can promise you two things you won't have to take any crap and you'll never be in a bread line since the beginning Reginald Lewis was destined for success I signed him up for camp and he said who's gonna take care of my business and I say I will and the first thing he said when he walked through the door where's my money a man with an unconventional approach to conventional institutions I was told that he is the only person to get into Harvard Law School without formally applying Zana I'm mad about Reginald Lewis who's that take-charge kind of a guy the sheriff reached for me Reggie grabs the sheriff's officer wait a minute who are you I'm the High Sheriff who are you and where's I'm Reginald Lewis I represent Reb insurance yes he was a Wall Street highly-trained corporate lawyer but he was a strong freedom fighter for civil rights he was Jesse Jackson's first big funder handing Jesse Jackson $100,000 check unsolicited reg Lewis in many ways in business was the Jackie Robinson of baseball I have to admit when I first met reg I wasn't told that he was black there weren't that many black entrepreneurs in New York City at the time Reginald OS is a pioneer he bought 64 companies in 31 countries he's the first American to do an overseas buyout the fact that we were able to close a gargantuan deal given its international character was just it was it was absolutely off the charts there is no doubt that reginal Lewis's success paved the way for me and many others and I think that really is the test and demonstration of real leadership keep going to build a better society in America to be a compassionate America that you keep going no matter what thank you very much ladies pioneers Reginald f Lewis and the making of a billion-dollar Empire will air right here on wh UT February 22nd at 9:30 p.m. and February 24th at 12:30 p.m. trust me you don't want to miss it so tell us about why you felt it was important to get this documentary done well you know the International deal when it happened it really broke like what yeah billion dollar war she by a black man yeah and in it sent shivers up and down you know your spine and for especially for african-american men it was like wow he did it I could do it too and so it has inspired many others you know Det Bob Johnson their attentional a dick Parsons and and so many others and so that was in 1987 thirty years later now anyone who's 40 years old and under do not know anything about him yeah he died 50 25 years ago yeah and so I said it's time it's time to reintroduce him again to young people okay so here's what I'd like to do might be a little tough but I'd like to try to understand something you met again I use the term and I think it's appropriate that this irresistible force of nature this guy who could accomplish anything in including sweeping you off your feet so at the absolute peak of his professional career you all get the very bad news of him having a debilitating terminal disease do you remember the first discussion they were were you at the doctor's office with him did he come home to tell you no we were we live in Paris for five years and so when he started to notice that he couldn't see on his you know when he's entering the car he would bump his head and so you know something was wrong yeah and so when the doctor said it could be brain cancer and so by around by his birthday that's more or less when he knew that there was something wrong okay and so we immediately flew back to Paris I mean from Paris to New York and in order to be very sure they have to do an autopsy I mean not autopsy but he called it now biopsy a biopsy and then it was sure it's brain cancer and it's inoperable so so you got that you guys got that news together no he got it from his no he didn't want to bring me today to the doctor so he just told me it's inoperable but he said he would like to try whatever means yeah and so I said maybe in the Philippines at that time there were faith healers yeah and so I said would you like to try that anything you know so I was able to get in touch with one of the was faith healer in the Philippines brought him over with his assistant you know and came to the house but it was fake it was fake and so he said do I pay him what he asked he said at least he gave me hope give him what he asked yeah and so then there's another but he was told you can extend your life with chemotherapy and and rejection yeah but he said will it cure me no it won't it will just extend your life then they don't want it and so he was told of alternative possibility of a cure in Canada so we flew to Canada and he was given I think it's called massive doses of vitamin C yeah but in the course of that treatment he said I feel that the shade is coming down from my eyes you know you know I am a woman of faith yes and so I never in my heart you know I prayed hard and God listens to prayers yeah and so on that Sunday when he fell into a coma mm-hmm you know I was I was just you know it was like what what's happening here and only when I heard from the doctor that it is irreversible that because he will not come out of the coma that you know I just broke down I broke down and cried because we weren't we were supposed to grow old together and you know it was going to happen yeah so in order you know an order for you to survive that you guys are literally in the the peak of your lives what was it that most helped you to survive that kind of personal heartbreak in tragedy really you know in in you know in that darkest of night I really had to go back into myself and ask God self I'm so glad I am raised Catholic Christian that I believe he is a loving God although for a few months I couldn't say they will be done yeah I couldn't say it and and and I was able to you know that's one the other one is my family came together mom mrs. Fugate by that time my mother had died two years before so mom came and stayed with me Beverly who was his his fundation head you know came at Tony and you know right and then my sister came you know family surrounded me yeah and I think that's what sustained me during those very very hard times but I couldn't you know it's too difficult anyone who's who is confronted with something like this will know the pain and the profound sorrow and totally you know totally discombobulated from everything that I cannot even call speak on the phone yeah so what sustained me family yes and ultimately my faith that God will not abandon me yeah and so forth the entirety of a year you were primarily in mourning well yes but in six months you know eventually I got out of I started to think because I couldn't think straight yeah in six months I was able to understand where is this going what's happening here and the first is his his children I will be with the mother and father company he gave his life for his company it has to succeed and they always say failure is not an option and then his book because he was writing a book his story must be told and we found Blair to finish that story and so all of those were happening in that first year and by the end of one year I always think my brother-in-law gene for holding on even in his grief to take over the company and you're talking about genes gene fusions brother yes play professional football others a brother you've never said how broad shoes like what are you talking about that's right yes that's right so yes he's a professional football Dallas Cowboys Washington Redskins and by one year the company was in the red and you know and when I was interviewing CEOs all of them were white not that I have anything against it but mr. Lewis was african-american and they were asking a lot of money and so when they asked them can you make it successful I've tried my best try your best listen what if you fail yeah so rather than again mrs. Fugate said when he left his her husband and brought the five year old Reginald uu is back to the grandparents um and the father grandpa was saying bleep what's this another mouth to feed because there were ten children yeah and mom said don't worry dad we pay our way and that's where mr. Lewis that time five years old pay your way and so I said I'll pay my way I took over the company mm-hmm not that it was not daunting it was daunting I mean you know what do I know about running it two billion dollar sales company yeah but being of entrepreneurial family okay I may not able to read the entire financial pages but I can see the bottom is it in the red okay is in the black and then I know how to deal with people yeah I mean I speak spoke Spanish I spoke French I spoke English of course and so I was able to deal with all the managers of the companies in Europe because he sold already half so from that one billion debt yeah he reduce it to 350 million when he died I was still there still a 350 million debt leveraged by at that and by the second year of my taking over we sold the supermarket business in France from pre-and enterprise and had zero debt uh-huh and so much money yeah leftover from that sale yeah so my CFO Peter Offerman said Lloyd that you have two choices you can distribute that to your shareholders and they'll pay 40 percent income tax or we liquidate the company and you pay 20 percent capital gains tax and so it was very clear liquidate the company sell everything uh-huh so you sell everything and sort of set in a very real way a financial future that's extraordinarily solid yes I I listened to what he wanted he was really going to buy and sell me to say merger and acquisition you buy a company you clean it up you make it profitable you sell it or you go public yeah and when he died five years he was in the process of selling it yeah but it took me seven years to do what he wanted to do so in my mind it was never building an empire okay it was creating wealth for the family yeah and so once that happens then you've now made that sale and you've got you know generational now you have generational serious generational wealth what did you feel then was your next most important responsibility well you know mr. Lewis is very smart the monies that I was inherited became marital trust I can attach it only the interest okay but having run the company for several several years I have earned my own money and this is the thing I became so confident that I could run a company I hated his first rule his first rule is don't start a company buy a company I violated it by starting a company in China and in the Philippines all right start up 90 percent failed yeah ten percent yeah succeed yeah so if you're going to bed why would you bet and put your money in the 10% chance but I violated it and I said it's all total failure uh-huh so what did it teach me I don't have anymore like the stomach yeah and the focus yeah to run a business so no more no more business that appetite that appetite wasn't there but but obviously you know you threw yourself into preserving and promoting his legacy why did you feel you needed to do that well first of all because I thought his life is extraordinary and that you know he would he would inspire many other people and sure enough when the book came out it's been 25 years since then I would meet men and women black and white Filipinos who would come to me I read the book I changed my life I read the book I went here I read the book I bought a company yeah and so the book was very important yeah and the last thing is why not yeah I love him yeah his life was cut short yeah and I'm still alive why not why not talk about him ya know so yeah that's it and you've done that extraordinarily well now you you've done that why you've mean while you have remained extraordinary relevant in many other phases of like one of them being that you know some objective Minds would say right now there's a madman strong man running running your country in the Philippines yes and again in preparation for meeting you here today for having this interview you know I've come across several reports of how he has been rather attempted to be he's arrest you the president of that country who our president happens to seem to admire can you tell us a little bit about what's going on in that phase of your world of your life you know because sort of known in the Filipino community and he's a strong man yeah and so false news alternative fact fake yeah he accused me on television that I am plotting against him to overthrow him he started coup d'etat I don't even know a single general a single soldier yeah but why is that in my mind it's because he wants to declare point his finger on me so that it you know that I want to destabilize the government so he can declare martial law a revolutionary government and become a dictator so that's the only thing I can think of because you know I for one thing you need you need a lot of you need the army yeah I have no contact with this army mm-hmm and you don't have political aspirations at this point no politics is I think the worst thing to be because it's a no you know you anything you do is always going to be criticized so politic is not there but I am involved in politics you know I campaigned very hard for Hillary Clinton and unfortunately we have this you know madman in the White House but I'm I continue to be very concerned with the Philippines because that's where I grew up she you know I'm I'm Filipino I'm American but I'm also Filipino so I'm I am my heart bleeds that this president has ordered the killing of so many people just on the suspicion of drug being a drug dealer or a drug addict and you don't kill them you know drug addict you rehabilitate yeah you know drug dealer how can you be sure and so many people have died even children five-year-old then your own what do they know about this collateral damage yeah so we have 45 seconds left unbelievably this hour is coming to a very very much very very good question this is our has come to a very quick close where now I think we have about 30 seconds how you like to be remembered know myself huh you mean you mean would you like to be remembered ah well here was a woman coming from the Philippines falling in love with someone who was better than her in all respects and who loved her and who wants other people to understand and to know how this man was able to go up against the odds and Richie's dream yeah in the United States it's possible thank you so much you're an absolute inspiration thank you very much folks that wraps us for this evening for more information on this program or any other program produced by WH UT go to WH UT org goodbye and God bless [Music] [Music] [Music] this program was produced by WH you see Howard University television and made possible by contributions and viewers like you thank you [Music]

Channel: RockNewmanShow

Views: 13,484

Rating: 4.9265094 out of 5

Keywords: Reginald F. Lewis, Loida Lewis, Rock Newman, Beatrice Foods, Black Billionaire, African American Billionaire, Loida Nicholas Lewis

Id: R4TmgPVq7Go

Length: 58min 14sec (3494 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 24 2018