Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?

Quotables

“In fact, my grandfather asked me what her tip was. I didn’t answer and he said something like, ‘You’re right, son, keep it to yourself. Whatever it was, it doesn’t matter—you did a helluva job. If she tipped you at all, it’s an accomplishment because word is she never tips and her status with the club is a little shaky. Always remember, your skill is what’s important. Get that and build on it and sooner or later you’ll have a big payday—count on it.’” (p. 22)

“‘Reg was always focusing on the future. The next accomplishment. The next objective. It was as if he was always preparing himself for something,’” Fugett adds.” (p. 24)

“To Lewis’s way of thinking, Hart’s attitude was a harmful, self-defeating fallacy. Lewis’s grandparents had programmed and schooled him extensively in that regard: ‘No skill or vocation is the white man’s exclusive province.’ And here in his dormitory room, without a white person in sight, Hart was already placing limits on his potential, based on his color. ‘Look dammit, if you want to do something, you can do it,’ Lewis passionately informed Hart.” (p. 36)

“He loved to win, but could cope with his plans going awry—as long as he’d expended maximum effort. He maintained this attitude throughout his life. In later years, when one of Lewis’s two daughters would bring home an average grade from school, Lewis would simply ask, ‘Did you do your best?’ If the answer was yes, the issue was closed as far as he was concerned. Up to a point, the former quarterback really did believe that winning or losing was secondary to how one played the game.” (p. 53)

“His apparent nonchalance stemmed from something he picked up in the Fugett household, which was a custom of making the difficult appear easy. Repetition, endless practice and solitary preparation weren’t for public consumption. Never let ’em see you sweat, just let ’em see you excel with seeming ease.” (p. 59)

“Lewis moved easily between both black and white worlds, because he didn’t view himself as constrained by artificial barriers founded on something as trite as pigmentation. If others chose to perceive him a certain way because of his skin, that was their problem.” (p. 61)

“Robert Suggs practiced law with Lewis for half a year in 1976. ‘Most people give you a timetable to do something that has slippage in it. If you came back to Lewis in six months, there would be no slippage in his timetable,’ says Suggs. ‘He was very focused and if he had 12 things to do to get to the next point, he’d do them in sequence. A lot of people bullshit and are vague and their story changes every time they tell it. He wasn’t bullshitting.’” (p. 79)

“When he was the subject of glowing news stories after acquiring Beatrice International in 1987, Reginald Lewis would complain about how some of the media made it look as if he’d achieved his success quickly and effortlessly. ‘That’s not true. I was no overnight success. It took 25 years of hard work to get to where I am. That’s what everyone has missed,’ he would tell people.” (p. 110)

“The hardest fact to come to grips with was that many of your strengths can indeed be weaknesses at different stages in the deal process. For example, in Almet, I was the finder of the deal, chief financial analyst, fundraiser, quasi-legal officer, and chief strategist. In short, I was going about it assbackwards. For five years, I had gone about it all wrong, using an approach that could get me close, but not get the job done. A hard pill to swallow.” (p. 119)

“‘Reg was a powerful person even before he became rich,’ Tom Lamia remembers. ‘He could be bullying at times, he could be charming at times, and he could be bullying and charming in the same conversation. Reg could intimidate people rather easily. There were many people who wouldn’t have dared to breathe a word of criticism around him. He had a dark side, a brooding side.’” (p. 158)

“Ultimately though, Lewis was toughest on himself. Whatever his successes, he would invariably ask himself, ‘Why didn’t I accomplish more?’ At home in his study, Lewis would indulge in a lifelong habit of rating his performance as well as those of his executives. Like a hard-to-please schoolmarm, Lewis would dole out A pluses, A’s, B minuses, C pluses, and so on.” (p. 158)

“On one occasion during the McCall days, a well-known black trial attorney came to Lewis’s office at 99 Wall Street. The two of them sat in Lewis’s office, shooting the breeze about being African-American males who used the legal system as a stepladder to success. Their conversation turned to the possibility of a joint business venture, then the subject of compensation came up. ‘Well, you know Reg, once you’re making a million a year everything else is just gravy,’ the swaggering trial lawyer boasted, quite taken with himself. ‘Well, no, I wouldn’t say that,’ Lewis interjected. The pompous attorney was insistent. ‘Yeah, I know man, but once you got a million a year, come on!’ Lewis, whose timing could be impeccable, paused a beat. He looked his compatriot in the eye and without a hint of a smile, uttered two ego-deflating words: ‘Trust me.’” (p. 173)

“People have spent a lot of time trying to locate the wellspring of Lewis’s unstinting drive and determination to succeed. Basically, every time he faced a snub he knew was based on race, it added another log to the flames of his fierce ambition. Every unanswered phone call, every naysayer, every pundit questioning whether Lewis was really just a front for a white man motivated him even more. Although Lewis was far too complex to ascribe his powerful drive just to one factor, his reaction to racism was unquestionably a major component in his incredible journey to the boardroom of Beatrice.” (p. 215)

“It was terribly important to Lewis that his children not grow up to be sheltered and pampered and oblivious to the fact that few people enjoyed the life of privilege and wealth they were accustomed to. There were occasions in Paris when Lewis had Christina or Leslie personally deliver checks to an orphanage he made contributions to. As with his other goals, Lewis was successful; his daughters appear to be unpretentious and socially enlightened.” (p. 280)

“For Leslie’s eighteenth birthday, Reginald Lewis arranged for a black-tie dinner at the family’s Paris apartment that was attended by 60 of Leslie’s classmates. Her graduation present from dad was a snazzy Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible. When Time magazine asked why Leslie didn’t receive a more expensive vehicle like a Porsche or Mercedes, Lewis replied, ‘So she’ll have something to look forward to!’” (p. 282)

“Perhaps sensing the inevitable, Lewis—who believed in God, but was not a devout Catholic—had begun telling his wife, ‘Death does not frighten me—I’m not afraid of death. I surrender myself to Christ.’” (p. 303)

“Leslie Lewis took a different tack: My father never stopped moving forward, no matter what fate threw in his way. Whether racial stereo-types that would hamper him in his business, racial bias and prejudice, no matter what the world threw him, he didn’t let it stop him. . . . As we traveled to the church this morning, we had a police escort. In their urgency, they stopped traffic at intersections and they played sirens, and I thought, ‘Wow! They’re really making a lot of noise.’ Then I thought, ‘My God, yes! Let them make noise. Let there be a commotion. Let there be a loud noise because we are sending off a great man today.’” (p. 309)