*My sister, a senior at Western Michigan University, wrote this paper about my uncle for a class she has this semester. He's a thoroughbred old school bonafied hustler. Can't knock the hustle. Read and learn about a piece of where we come from. Word.
As an African American male born in 1940, with nothing greater than a high school diploma it wouldn’t be easy to turn yourself into a multimillion dollar man, but Gregory Eaton did just that. Born in Lansing, MI to Albert and Lela Eaton, Greg felt he was destined to be an entrepreneur from the start. “I’ve always wanted to be in business. From my first paper route to my yard maintenance service; I’ve always known I would be in business and I’ve always had an eye for business. You’re just kind of born with it.”
Greg had to have been born with some business sense, because he didn’t have any formal schooling after graduating from Sexton High School in January of 1959. When Greg graduated he enrolled at Compton University in California, hoping to play football and attend classes, but when he got to California he found out that he was too late to play football. “When I couldn’t play ball I bummed around, took a few classes then came back home. College to me was to play sports, if I couldn’t play sports I didn’t want to go to college, so I came back home and started my janitorial service.” Two of Greg’s uncles owned janitorial services in Battle Creek and Albion, MI where he worked in the summers. After learning about the business he decided to open up his own in Lansing. While bringing in money from his janitorial service Greg also worked at General Motors. He would live off of his janitorial money while saving all of his GM checks. This allowed him to invest this money into other ventures.
Albert Eaton (Greg’s father) was a well known bartender at a private club in Lansing where many politicians and businessmen would hangout. Through Albert’s reputation and Greg’s reputation as an athlete in the city he was able to grow the janitorial service and meet contacts that helped him find future opportunities. Eventually Greg was approached by Gil Haley, who, at the time, was the head of the Michigan Auto Association. In high school Greg would do work for Haley running errands; now he was asking Greg if he would become a lobbyist for the MAA. At first this wasn’t something Greg was particularly interested in, but he eventually caved in and was later glad he did.“It was a good experience for me, because I met so many different types of people. Everything is political. I met 5 governors, 5 presidents, US congressmen, senators, because a lot of them started in Lansing. I knew someone in every city in MI almost, because of my association with auto dealers. Me being African American and one of the first African American lobbyists that reached out even more. My fingers just kept spreading and spreading. It just started multiplying and I just kept keeping my money invested in other things.”
The opportunities just kept coming. The owners of JC Waters Insurance Company (he use to clean their office) offered Greg the opportunity to buy a bar that wasn’t doing too well. He told them that he couldn’t afford it, but because of his relationship and reputation they sold it to him on time. He was also able to receive one of four liquor licenses available in the city due to his relationship with newly elected city councilman Joel Ferguson. Also around the same time Greg formed a relationship with a state representative that asked him if he would like to work at Karoub Associates, a consulting firm. He later became a senior partner after Karoub passed away and bought the company (along with other partners) from Karoub’s wife.
Along with the bar, consulting, lobbying, real estate and janitorial service he started a ground transportation company with a gentleman that was trying to get a limo bill passed. “I had a good relationship with Coleman Young, mayor of Detroit and Ed McNamara who was a county exec., so I explained to them the idea. I was going to have Brand new Cadillac cars, drivers trained at Ritz School of Driving, placed in well dressed suits and that speak English.” He got the contract with the county to operate out of the airport and eventually became the official car at 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, which came from contacts at GM and because of his great reputation.
One of the reasons Greg has been so successful is that he is well diversified in business. Between the restaurant, the parking business, ground transportation, janitorial service, oil investments, consulting, lobbying and real estate there is a lot of income to feed off of. “All of the businesses sometimes do well, but never do all of them do bad. And that’s the key why I’ve been successful in business, because I can substitute one for another.” When asked how he finds his opportunities he said he use to have to go out and search for them, but now opportunities come to him. He has always carried himself right and has a good reputation, so people gravitate towards him; plus people always want to be around someone successful. If people see success they want to be around it and they want to feed off of it.
When asked what keeps him awake at night he said many things. He sleeps only 4 -5 hours a night worrying about each business and what has to be done. He worries about lawsuits, merging companies, moving money in accounts, “It’s always something”. He worries about his employees, because they depend on him to feed their families. Many times he has loaned them money when they are in need or helped an employee find a home after being evicted. There is not just a business to worry about, but the people involved in the business.
Although Greg has had many successes he admits he has failed. One failure was because he didn’t have the right political contacts he needed when trying to start a company. When asked what he learned he replied, “Know the people you’re going into business with before you go in with them. Or go in by yourself.”
Greg’s biggest mentors have been his mother and father. Lela Eaton taught him that he could be anything he wanted to be. His father taught him how to be a gentlemen and how to get people to respect you. His grandfathers were also instrumental, both being self-employed exceptional men. In addition his uncles who were self-employed and taught him he could still be successful without a college degree. Greg has also been the mentor throughout his career; taking someone every summer, giving them a job and teaching them business. His biggest mentee yet is Magic Johnson, who has become one of the most successful athlete turned businessmen in history.
Greg’s advice for young entrepreneurs is to get your education. “When I was growing up there was no blacks in corporate America. Now if you hit the books, you do the right thing you can be in corporate America, you can be on Wall Street, you can be the head of a company, but you have to have the education. Without that you’re limited.” If there is one thing he could change it would be to have more education. Especially now with computers, because there are many things he still can’t do. “Education is key, especially for African Americans. We are so far behind without it. When you are so far behind we dress different, we do tattoos, we do earrings, then you are living in a small world and you cannot adjust. I’ve always been around a lot of whites, and I’ve learned from them. When I was working for my dad I listened and I learned. Now I’m sitting on a bank board with people with PhD’s, but I can read a form, I can dissect it, I can look at it, because of the experience I have in business.”
