Lesson #1: Do Not Look at Things in Only Black and White

What is one of Johnson’s greatest successes? “Being an African American who succeeds at the highest level,” he says, “since nobody expects minorities to be there.”

Nobody might have expected Johnson’s rise to the top, but that did not stop him from trying to get there. Indeed, while others continue to paint his career in terms of black and white, Johnson has refused to let others identify him as anything other than an entrepreneur – and a good one at that.

Johnson’s firm RLJ Development is the largest black-owned hotel company in the U.S. RLJ Asset Management has become one of the country’s largest black-owned private equity operations. He is also one of the few minorities to own an NBA expansion team, the Charlotte Bobcats, which he bought in 2003 for $300 million. “Fortunately I was able to pay the price,” says Johnson. “I mean, the NBA did not write me an affirmative action check and say, ‘Bob, if you show up with half the money that the team is worth, we'll give it to you.’ This was because fortunately I had the money to do it.”

But in his early years, while Johnson was busy breaking down racial barriers, he refused to let himself become the token black businessman. He refused to devote himself to promoting his race if it came at the cost of his business and making a profit. “When an African-American attains a level of success, he or she becomes the primary go-to person for any other business deal,” he said. “The broader community does not look for anybody else. They say, I've got my Bob Johnson, I've got my Oprah. And that's it. And it just stops.”

Now that he has retired from BET, Johnson is no longer as bothered by such sentiment. Instead, he has tried to do something about it. “What I try to do as I'm going up the trail,” he says, “I try to bring with me other African-Americans who can then use my experience and gain credibility from what I've done to be their own successful person.”

Johnson might have been all about the money when he was younger, but retirement has given him a new goal: using his status to actually help other African Americans succeed as he has.

With his new asset management firm, Johnson has brought on board everyone from hip-hop celebrity Ludacris to General Electric to the Carlyle Group as investors. Minorities pay into pension funds that contribute to much of the wealth in the U.S., “so why shouldn’t minorities be actively considered the managers of that wealth?” Johnson asks.

Johnson has enjoyed his run at the top of the corporate world, but says little has changed in terms of the way he is perceived from when he first began. “Today, if I were to put on jeans and walk into a jewelry store, and I could probably buy the jewelry store ten times over,” he says, “but the jeweler's going to look at me as a black guy in jeans who probably can't afford it, and maybe who just maybe might steal something.”

With years of wisdom on him now, that kind of attitude no longer makes him mad. It just gives him more impetus to make a change.



Lesson #1: Do Not Look at Things in Only Black and White

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