A legacy of inspiring entrepreneurs

MANILA, Philippines – Apart from memorials and monu-ments built in honor of the late US businessman Reginald Lewis – such as the Reginald Lewis Museum in Baltimore, the Reginald Lewis International Law Center at Harvard University, the Reginald Lewis High School of Business and Law in Maryland, and The Lewis College in Sorsogon City – there is no greater measure of the value of his life than the success of another person because of him.

By his own declaration, R. Donahue Peebles, the most successful African-American entrepreneur in real estate and author of the best-selling book, The Peebles Principles: Tales and Tactics from an Entrepreneur’s Life of Winning Deals, Succeeding in Business, and Creating a Fortune from Scratch, would not be who he is today if not for someone who he never even met, and only heard about long after the man passed away in 1993.

“Before I read the book Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun, Reginald Lewis’ biography (written by Blair Walker), I didn’t know what was possible, but after reading it, I learned what could be done and what it takes to get here,” Peebles said in his speech when he accepted the Reginald Lewis Award for successful African-American entrepreneurs under the age of 50. The awards ceremony was held at the Lewis family estate in East Hampton, New York this summer. 

Peebles, now 49, owns large real estate developments in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Miami, a total of $4-billion worth of luxury hotels, high-rise residential buildings and top-of-the-line commercial properties.

Peebles acknowledged that Reginald was the inspiration who got him started, but it was Reginald’s wife Loida Nicolas-Lewis who took him on his journey to success. “While Reginald Lewis lived a great life, it was Loida Lewis who made sure the book about his life got written. It was Loida who went around and promoted the book. It was she who continued the Reginald Lewis Foundation, took over the billion-dollar TLC Beatrice, and it was she who carried on his memory, his legacy.

“And so, it is because of Loida Lewis that I wrote my book ‘The Peebles Principles,’ and that I am now running a multi-million-dollar company. The partnership of Reginald and Loida taught me what marriage is all about. They also taught me the power of entrepreneurship. My father was an auto mechanic, my mother a secretary and my grandfather a doorman at Mariott…now, after 25 years, I own a Mariott. And so I am honored and humbled to accept the Reginald F. Lewis Award for Entrepreneurship because I am where I am because of what I learned from Reginald and Loida.”