Michael Roberts, Founder of The Roberts Company Details His Path To Success
Friday, January 25, 2008PAUL KANGAS: From humble roots in St. Louis, Michael Roberts has amassed a diverse multi-million dollar empire. It encompasses real estate, media, aviation, construction and hotel management. Along with his brother Steven (ph), the Roberts Hotel Group recently won the Ernst & Young "Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award." "Black Enterprise" business report's Shawn Gables (ph) looks at how Roberts built his company from the ground up.
SHAWN GABLES: It's one thing to dream of success, it's another to achieve it.
MICHAEL V. ROBERTS SR., THE ROBERTS COMPANIES: I'm a cold blooded capitalist
GABLES: And get it on your terms.
ROBERTS: I'm going to tell you what, well, an entrepreneur is interested in developing a degree of wealth for their family. A capitalist builds for generations.
GABLES: Hardly the mindset expected in underprivileged urban youth.
ROBERTS: We were raised in a wonderful household. We weren't rich. We weren't poor, we just never had any money.
GABLES: But with supportive, hardworking parents, Mike and his brother Steve learned a valuable lesson, early on.
ROBERTS: There's no do it yourself kit to success in business.
GABLES: And paid their own way through Pepperdine and Washington law schools, later becoming entrepreneurs.
ROBERTS: Even during that time when we living, when my friends moved to the suburbs from law school, I moved two blocks from the projects. I lived there for 10 years. All four of children were born there. Their idea of a swimming pool was a fire hydrant, no kidding this is true and our objectives, my objective was to first get what I would recall street respect and be able to work within the inner cities.
GABLES: Where hidden fortunes, like abandoned buildings and acres of land were in abundance. So with a blood tight partnership and a small loan from mom and dad, he began developing where few have been willing, right in the hood. Strategically when you look at the inner city, you look at the urban area you see dollar signs.
ROBERTS: Absolutely, there's gold in them there streets, not in them there hills, but in them there streets. And guess what it's a wonderful secret and African-Americans, those of us who get it, we get it. And those who don't figure it out yet who happen not to be African-American, I don't want them to know.
GABLES: Lack of competition ultimately helped Roberts purchase, at discount, the three city blocks he owns in downtown St. Louis, including the Orpheum theatre and soon to be built, green friendly, Roberts Tower. All of which aren't hard to spot. His brand or in this case, his name, is everywhere.
ROBERTS: Everything is Roberts. Orpheum is Roberts. I had a guy say to me well Mike, what is that, some sort of ego problem? And I said what is yours, an envy problem? You didn't say that to Mr. Rockefeller or Mr. Mellon. You didn't say that to Mr. Walt Disney. You didn't say that to Mr. Hilton or Mr. Marriott. You don't need to say that to me, because what may seem like ego to you today, 40 years from now will be a legacy and African Americans need a legacy.
GABLES: And for those who might be uncomfortable with Roberts confidence, he claims he can back it up.
ROBERTS: I have 72 companies, over 800 employees, 11 hotels, shopping centers, four TV stations and a radio station.
GABLES: You're very diversified in your assets. What's the value?
ROBERTS: That's a moving target what is the value. I don't really know exactly but we believe that it's a range between $750 million and $1 billion. It's just hard to value it.
GABLES: If I had a billion dollars, I'd think I'd know.
ROBERTS: I don't think so.
GABLES: Wealth, Roberts' boast was earned without ever having to uproot from home.
ROBERTS: It was a time when I was first raising money for my wireless phone company where I'd go to New York and tell them I needed $100 million and the bankers would laugh so hard, I'd have to get up from my chair to get them from falling on the floor and put them back in their chair. They didn't understand that; they didn't get it; that's all changed. Now they fly to St. Louis to meet us.
KANGAS: Roberts attributes his success to not just thinking outside the box. He eliminates the boundaries and the concept of a box all together. He also believes that failure is not an option.
