A book on Loida's husband
Scheduled for release on Nov. 18 is the book Why Should White Guys Have
All the Fun? -- which tells of how Reginald F. Lewis created a billion-dollar
business empire.
The book is built around the incomplete autobiography Lewis left behind
when he died in January last year at the age of 50. The book was completed
by Blair S. Walker, a former writer for the Money section of USA Today,
who interviewed more than a hundred of Lewis's relatives and colleagues.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., publisher of the book, describes it as follows:
"Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? examines the extraordinary life
and career of a man who crashed the gates of convention to become a major
player on Wall Street and a role model for many.
"The quintessential self-made man, Lewis did not let racial barriers stand
in his way. Although he detested being known as a `black businessman,'
believing that his race shouldn't have to qualify him, he was proud of
his heritage and often used it to advantage. Determined to prove to the
world that he could succeed despite any societal conditions, he was an
ultra-industrious and highly-driven man whose desire to succeed was matched
only by his talent for seizing opportunity."
Six years before his death, Lewis engineered the largest leveraged buy-out
($985 million) of an international company ever. The buy-out of Beatrice
International Foods, a global giant with 64 companies in 31 countries,
made Lewis the wealthiest African-American businessman.
"Lewis was not only a major Wall Street dealer..., but he was a very generous
philanthropist," Walker says. "The foundation he set up has given over
12 million dollars in grant money to a wide variety of educational, health,
civic and civil rights institutions....
"For a man who accomplished so much in terms of business, I was surprised
to learn that Lewis had passionate interests outside the business arena.
His family, which extended well beyond his wife and two daughters, was
his predominant one, but the arts were another great love of his life."
And here is the Philippine connection: Lewis was married to Loida Nicolas,
a law graduate of the University of the Philippines. This is why Lewis,
for all of his achievements, is simply "Loida's husband" in the eyes of
persons like Justice Secretary Franklin Drilon, former Senator Rene Saguisag,
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and columnist Nelson Navarro.
Lewis's courtship of Loida is recounted in Chapter 6 of the book -- Masterful
Man: Winning Loida Nicolas.
The first five chapters deal with Lewis's formative years. These chapters
emphasize how he developed into a "proud, fiercely determined individual
with a razor-sharp tongue -- and an intellect to match -- who would settle
for nothing less than excellence from himself and others."
From Chapter 7 onwards, the book recounts Lewis's business activities.
After the Beatrice buy-out, Lewis complained that some of the media reports
made it look as if his success had come effortlessly. "That's not true,"
he said. "I was no overnight success. It took 25 years of hard work to
get to where I am. That's what everyone has missed."
These latter chapters are the ones managers and entrepreneurs will find
more interesting. These chapters provide an "insider's view of Lewis, the
iron-willed negotiator and brilliant business strategist in action as he
finesses one phenomenal deal after another."
The title of the book comes from an incident early in Lewis's life. Lewis
recounts in the prologue of the book:
"I remember being in the bathtub, and my grandmother and grandfather were
talking about some incident that had been unfair and was racial in nature.
They were talking about work and accomplishing things and how racism was
getting in the way of that. And they looked at me and said, 'Well, maybe
it will be different for him.'
"I couldn't have been more than about six years old.
"One of them, I can't remember whether it was my grandfather or my grandmother,
said to me, 'Well, is it going to be any different for you?'
"And as I was climbing out of the tub and they were putting a towel around
me, I looked up and said, 'Yeah, cause why should white guys have all the
fun?'"