Farrah Gray

1984–

Entrepreneur

Farrah Gray achieved "entrepreneurial icon" status by age 21, according to Ebony magazine. But then, he started young. At age six Farrah Gray determined that he needed to help his single mother support him and his four older siblings. He collected rocks from around his neighborhood in Chicago's housing projects, painted them, and sold them door-to-door as bookends, doorstops, and paperweights. He had soon earned enough to take his mother and grandmother to dinner. Donning a bathrobe as his suit coat, his brother's clip-on tie, and stuffing his red lunchbox/briefcase with business cards announcing himself as the "21st Century CEO," Gray set out to make his fortune. Within eight years he had made his first million. As NewUSA put it: "If there ever was a living, breathing version of the American Dream, it would be Farrah Gray."

Became a Young Businessman

Born in 1984, Gray spent his earliest years living in a housing project on Chicago's south side. His mother raised him and his four siblings mostly as a single parent, but his grandmother also played a large role in young Gray's life. About his father, Gray wrote in his memoir Reallionaire: "I always lived apart from him but always felt a part of him." For Gray's mother and siblings, money was tight. The situation was exacerbated by Gray's mother's stress-related health problems. His mother struggled to make a go of her own consulting business. Doing so involved a great deal of traveling, so Gray's older brother André often took him under his wing. In the late 1980s, André was running his own company called Export Now, and he occasionally brought his younger brother along on international business trips. "While I sat in André's meetings, I was getting an education in Business 101," Gray told Judie Framan of Minority Business Entrepreneur. "I absorbed everything. The experience introduced me to different cultures and more ideas. André was patient with me and answered all of my questions, providing insight that served as a foundation for my learning to this day."

Possessed of a rare drive, Gray put his new business knowledge to work. He sought business mentors, and at age eight he and 14 friends started the Urban Neighborhood Economic Enterprise Club (UNEEC, pronounced "unique") as an investment club under the mentorship of businessman Roi Tauer. The group eagerly sought the advice of business people, from entrepreneurs to lawyers to accountants. Gray wrote in Reallionaire that he'd approach prospective investors and mentors, explaining that UNEEC was "a group of young people ages seven to 12 who are working toward creating our own businesses and making a positive impact on the world." Within months the group had raised $15,000 in seed money that it then invested in various local business ventures. The ventures included such things as a lemonade stand, an Internet comic book, and the sale of body lotion. Some of the ventures failed, but enough succeeded that within the first year UNEEC had grown to a value of $100,000. The success of UNEEC did not last, however. Gray noted in Reallionaire that "while the kids in the club had managed to keep their focus on the team concept, parents started to make thing difficult for us." He pointed to "greed" as the factor that led to UNEEC "unraveling." The members cashed out the business and each received $1500.

Fresh off his first real business venture, Gray concentrated on his schooling, but by the time he was nine, he and his sister had the unique opportunity to move to London for six months with Gray's brother André. Not long after that move in 1995, Gray's mother suffered a heart attack and the family rallied together again. Soon Gray moved with his mother to Scottsdale, Arizona. Shortly after, his brother André and his sister moved to nearby Las Vegas, Nevada. There Gray took advantage of new business opportunities. When he was almost ten, Gray was in the lobby of a hotel and noticed the hubbub of an interview show being recorded in one of the conference rooms. He identified the person in charge and introduced himself, mentioning that he had started an investment club in Chicago. Impressed, the woman booked an interview with him on Backstage Live, a Las Vegas-based television and radio program. Gray proved himself to be such an articulate and engaging personality that he was soon co-hosting the program two times each month. Reaching about 12 million listeners, Gray quickly made a name for himself as a speaker and was soon asked to speak at various schools, investment clubs, and other venues. Whitney Joinery reported in Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management about seeing one of Gray's speeches and remarked about his ability to stir the crowd with "a preacher's inflection." She wrote that he whipped up an NAACP audience, saying "I say to you, young brothers and sisters, if we don't have a goal, we must make it our goal to get a goal!" By age 12 he commanded several thousand dollars per speech.

At a Glance …

Born in 1984; grew up in Chicago, IL. Education: GED, 2002(?).

Career: Entrepreneur, 1990–; Urban Neighborhood Economic Enterprise Club, Chicago, co-founder, 1990–(?); Backstage Live, Las Vegas, co-host, 1995; Farr-Out Foods, 1997–2000; New Early Entrepreneur Wonders, LLC (NE2W), New York, founder, mid-1998–; Farrah Gray Foundation, New York and Las Vegas, founder, 1999–; InnerCity Magazine, owner, 2000–; Las Vegas, entertainment show owner, 2001–.

Selected memberships: United Way of Southern Nevada, board of directors, 1999–2002; National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inc. Region 15, board of directors.

Selected awards: Alabama A&M Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Award; Davidson College, Love of Learning Lifetime Educational Achievement Award, 2005; Indiana Black Expo, Hoosier Lottery Entrepreneur Award, 2005; National Urban League, Whitney M. Young Jr. Entrepreneurship Award, 2006; Allen University, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, 2006.

Addresses: Office—Farrah Gray Foundation, 67 Wall Street, Suite 2212, New York, NY 10005. Office—Farrah Gray Foundation, PO Box 90276, Las Vegas, NV 89193-8276. Web—www.drfarrahgray.com.

Built Multiple Businesses

As Gray made money, he continued to invest. Between the age of 12 and 16 Gray was involved in such businesses as KIDZTEL pre-paid phone cards, the One Stop Mail Boxes & More franchise, and The Teen-scope: Youth AM/FM interactive teen talk show. He also surmised that his grandmother's syrup recipe might make a profit. He sought food industry mentors, read books about bringing products to market, and started Farr-Out Foods at age 13 to sell food products targeted to youths. His strawberry-vanilla syrup became a top seller. Sales reached $1.5 million within a year, and Gray sold the company the following year to make himself the youngest African-American millionaire. While he was still fielding speaking engagements and running Farr-Out Foods in 1998, Gray opened a venture capital fund called New Early Entrepreneur Wonders, LLC (NE2W), and became the youngest person to open an office on Wall Street. NE2W concentrated on developing the businesses of young entrepreneurs. (While underage, Gray's adult family members served as the legal signatories for his business dealings.)

The business community took notice of the wunderkind. He became the youngest advisor on the board of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and acted as a consultant for an entrepreneurial institute for the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Sought after for his business advice and inspiration, Gray did not rest on his laurels. Instead he ventured into a new industry: publishing. He purchased InnerCity magazine at age 16 and became the second African-American to finance a show on the Las Vegas strip the following year.

At age 19, he signed a deal to write his story. With the help of Fran Harris, Gray wrote Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out, published in 2004. The book is a mix of inspiration and how-to. "My story, though unique, is not unlike others who began with nothing more than a dream fueled by sheer determination. I believe my story will remind you of the kid in all of us who knows no limits and believes anything—and everything—is possible," Gray noted on his Web site. The publication reached bestseller status on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble Web sites and was ranked the top-selling nonfiction book by Essence in August 2005. The next year he also contributed to the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Gave Back to Community

The level of wealth Gray achieved did not reflect a single-minded quest for money; he made a point of giving back to his community. At age 15 he had set up the Farrah Gray Foundation, which he funded with a percentage of the royalties from his speaking engagement fees, and later his book royalties. Through it he offered grants to entrepreneurs under the age of 25. He also offered free 12-week business programs to middle school, high school, and college-aged students. Gray told Ebony the programs are "totally and completely free because I created my foundation to give back. I believe the more God blesses you with, the more you should share."

Gray didn't limit his charitable efforts to his own foundation, however. At age 15 he became the youngest member ever elected to the Board of Directors of United Way. He served three years on the board of the United Way of Southern Nevada. In 2005 he took on the role of spokesperson for the National Coalition for the Homeless. He worked on a campaign to end homelessness in the United States that encompassed such factors as civil rights, housing, and health, as well as income. Michael Stoops, Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless remarked in a press release about his hopefulness that Gray's "firsthand" knowledge of poverty would make him an inspiring spokesperson, and that "he will be able to apply the vision and determination that has made him successful in business to make a difference in the struggle to end homelessness around the country."

That same year, Gray's sister Greek was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). When her health deteriorated to the point of needing a bone marrow transplant, the crying need for more African-American donors came to Gray's attention when no match for her was available in the existing registry. Noting that tissue type is inherited and matches are more frequent among people sharing the same race or ethnicity, and that the bone marrow registry had a very small percentage of African-American donors, Gray stepped up as a spokesperson for the National Marrow Donor Program in 2006. "This campaign is designed to find bone marrow matches for transplants—not only for my sister, but for others like her, who need a marrow or cord blood donor so that they can have a second chance at life," Gray announced in the NMDP press release. "The ONLY way to ensure that is by talking to people about the need, and then getting them to join the Registry." He remained a vigorous advocate for the donor program, even after losing his sister in August 2006.

Honored in 2006 as the youngest African American ever to be awarded an honorary doctorate from a black college or university, Gray certainly commanded a wealth of business acumen in his early 20s. That same year the National Urban League named Gray one of the most influential black men in America, and honored him with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Entrepreneurship Award. These accolades coupled with his youth hinted that Gray had yet to achieve his full potential. Asked by Broward Times reporter Whitney Joiner about his goal for his future, Gray responded, "I see an empire, basically."

Selected works

Books

With Fran Harris, Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out, HCI Books, 2004.
(Contributor) You've Got to Read This Book: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, Collins, 2006.

Sources

Periodicals

Broward Times (Coral Springs, FL), August 19-25, 2005, p. 7.

Chicago Citizen, December 7, 2005, p. 6.

Communications Today, November 25, 2002, p. 1.

Ebony, May 2006, p. 24.

Essence, November 2005, p. 122.

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 2002, p. 38.

Hyde Park Citizen, December 28, 2005, p. 3.

Minority Business Entrepreneur, April 30, 2001, p. 28.

Mississippi Link, May 12-May 18, 2005, p. A2.

Tri-State Defender, April 16-20, 2005, p. 6A.

Westside Gazette, August 25-31, 2005, p. 4.

On-line

"Bound for Glory: Farrah Gray Isn't Old Enough to Drive But He's Already Racing to the Top," Las Vegas Weekly, www.lasvegasweekly.com/features/bound_for_glory.html (October 5, 2006).

"Entrepreneurial Icon Sponsors Prepaid Mastercard," NewsUSA, http://about.newsusa.com/article-site.asp?ArticleId=3729 (October 5, 2006).

Farrah Gray Foundation, www.farrahgrayfoundation.com (October 5, 2006).

"Farrah Gray Signs on as Spokesperson for the National Coalition for Homelessness," National Coalition for Homelessness, www.nationalhomeless.org/getinvolved/farrahgray.html (October 5, 2006).

"The 'Reallionaire,'" ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Business/story?id=1977222&page=1 (October 5, 2006).