We meet more than 80,000 people over the course of our lives. Many of these interactions are fleeting; a stranger that becomes an acquaintance and then, later, a distant memory. Some of these people become lifelong friends. But only one or two become the type of person that can alter the trajectory of a career—that can change the course of our lives. These are the “ones” who changed everything else for the founders, innovators and leaders shaping the world today.
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The One Who Changed Everything For Philanthropeneur Christina Lewis
Christina Lewis likes to describe herself as a philanthropreneur — a perfect blend of a for-profit entrepreneur and a mission-oriented philanthropist. It’s a mindset she inherited from her father, the late Reginald F. Lewis. Reginald was a lawyer and entrepreneur and, by the late 1980s, the first Black man to own a billion-dollar business. He died an untimely death in 1993, when Christina was just 12 years old. While most people can say that a parent is “the one who changed everything” for them, Christina’s story is a little different. As a young adult, she sometimes struggled with the burden of carrying such a big family legacy; in this season of her life, which finds her as the founder of a wealth-management company for women and people of color, she sees all the ways in which her father and his teachings guide her every day decisions.