I was the next big thing in banking!

At least that what I told myself. Yet, I walked by the office of the 103-year old A. G. Gaston, every day for 6 months and never spoke!

It was one of the worst decisions of my life.

I was the young brash MBA graduate, accepted into one of the top executive commercial lending programs in the nation.

He dropped out of high school in the 10th grade after his mentor Booker T. Washington told him he was destined for greater and inspired him to chase his dream.

At 13, I was inspired by A. G. Gaston and told my principal, mother and guidance counselor, that I was destined for greatness and wouldn’t be enrolling in high school.

I informed them I immediately wanted to attend either NYU, Harvard or Columbia University School of Business to expedite my path to entrepreneurship.

They weren’t having it.

He was the entrepreneur who quietly funded the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s after founding a Saving and Loans Institutions, Insurance Company, Chain of Funeral Homes, Radio Station, Hotel, and one of the largest construction firms in the South.

Yet his first venture was selling sandwiches to Co-Workers in the steel mill. From this excess cash, he began lending co-workers money at 23% interest.

He paid $160,000 to bail Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of a Birmingham jail cell.

He was the proprietor of the hotel where General Colin Powell spent his honeymoon in 1962.

When asked about Black Wealth, Mr. Gaston replied that what black people needed was “a Martin Luther King of economics who will fire the people up like they are being fired up for civil rights.”

“It doesn’t do any good to arrive at first-class citizenship,” he said, “if you arrive broke.”

* Despite being kidnapped

* Despite Jim Crow

* Despite the bombings

* Despite separate but equal

His creed had to have been “Birth it Or Die” why else would A. G. have attempted to manufacture, bottle, and sell a soda called the Joe Louis Punch! ( Not one of his finest ventures )

He was fearless when it came to business!

He was my mentor from afar, yet I was too fearful to knock on his door and ask to do lunch with him. His favorite niece (at least that’s how she referred to herself with a smile on her face) was actually my training officer for a few weeks at my multi-national bank.

36 hours prior to my first scheduled face to face with the guy Black Enterprise Magazine called the Entrepreneur of The Century, everything went haywire as A.G. was rushed to the hospital.

I was shattered!

My next meeting with A. G. Gaston was in front of his casket at his funeral surrounded by thousands!

Our quiet moment had morphed into a stolen moment.

I’d missed my opportunity to connect with a man who was once the richest black person in America. How could I ever explain that to my future grandkids?

For years, I kept his funeral bulletin in my favorite suit pocket and dreamed he’d asked this grimy kid from the South Bronx to be his protege.

I write today and pour into others via “It’s Money In The Bank” “The Art Of The Flip” and “Let Them Eat Cake: Hater Gonna Hate, Bankers Gonna Deny, You Build Wealth!” because I choose to inspire and follow in the footsteps of A. G. Gaston, who gave so much to so many!

Today I live by a creed I scribbled that says, “Shatter Your Limits By Divorcing Your Doubts and Relentlessly Dating Your Dreams!”

I believe that is a mantra my mentor A.G. Gaston, would wholeheartedly endorse

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