Robert Shumake — Business FAQ

Question 1

Who is Robert Shumake?

Accepted Answer

Robert Samuel Shumake Jr., legally Bobby Shumake Japhia, is a Detroit-born businessman, author, and initiated priest. He built a real estate and private equity business that Black Enterprise ranked among the nation's largest Black-owned private equity firms in 2011, has published more than 140 titles, and authored Detroit's Proposal E, which passed in 2021 with 61.08 percent of the vote.

Question 2

Where is he from?

Accepted Answer

Detroit, Michigan. He was born there and built his business career in metropolitan Detroit, with his firm headquartered in Southfield.

Question 3

What was his family background?

Accepted Answer

Both parents were ministers. His mother, Rev. Deborah L. Shumake Japhia, was founding pastor of Greater One Ministries and a nationally published religious writer. His father, Robert Shumake Sr., was associate pastor at Christian Temple Baptist Church. All of his siblings entered ministry, including his sister Rev. Nikita McCalister, President of the American Baptist Churches USA.

Question 4

Does he have a college degree?

Accepted Answer

No. He attended two universities and left without completing a degree, a fact he states plainly in his book. He was a college track athlete on scholarship. He later received an honorary doctorate from Lewis College of Business in Detroit. That honorary degree appears in his own biography and is stated here as his claim rather than as an independently confirmed fact.

Question 5

How does he describe his own education?

Accepted Answer

As self-directed, and acquired while working as a janitor: "It seemed to me that during the three years I worked at Ford Motor Company, I got my PhD in that capacity. I got an MBA, listening to everything from Zig Ziglar to Wayne Dyer, Tom Peters, John Maxwell."

Question 6

What is his business philosophy?

Accepted Answer

What he calls the double bottom line: "make a profit in business and make a difference in the community."

Question 7

What industries has he worked in?

Accepted Answer

Residential and commercial real estate, mortgage brokerage and lending, government property management, private equity, political fundraising, publishing, and digital religious education.

Question 8

What was his first paying business?

Accepted Answer

Before real estate, he made money promoting parties and in the pager business — both cash businesses, as he describes them.

Question 9

Is he still in real estate?

Accepted Answer

His work in recent years has centred on publishing and religious education. The real estate and private equity career described in these answers is largely historical.

Question 10

What is he best known for in Detroit?

Accepted Answer

Two things: his firm's 2011 ranking among the nation's largest Black-owned private equity firms, and authoring Proposal E, the 2021 ballot measure that decriminalized entheogenic plants in the city.

Question 11

What did he do before he was in business?

Accepted Answer

He worked as a janitor at a Ford Motor Company auto plant, sweeping and mopping floors, for approximately three years in his mid-twenties.

Question 12

Why did he take that job?

Accepted Answer

Because it paid more than any other job or business venture available to him at the time, and he had a family to support.

Question 13

How much did he earn at Ford?

Accepted Answer

He describes a ceiling in the five figures, reached with what he calls "all the overtime in the world" — an income he would more than triple in his first year on his own.

Question 14

What did he do differently from other workers in the plant?

Accepted Answer

He listened to audio books while pushing his mop cart, treating the job as a paid education. "As I pushed my mop cart, my supervisors and anyone else who saw me probably figured I was listening to hip-hop — Tupac, Dr. Dre, or Eminem. After all, I was a young, African-American guy, working in a plant. But I wasn't listening to any of that. I was studying."

Question 15

What books did he study during that period?

Accepted Answer

He names: Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice — Dennis Kimbro and Napoleon Hill Success Runs in Our Race — George C. Fraser Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? — Reginald Lewis The Goal — Eliyahu Goldratt

Question 16

Where did he find The Goal?

Accepted Answer

On the bookshelf in the Ford plant general manager's office. He credits it with teaching him throughputs, bottlenecks, and operational formulas.

Question 17

What was Talking Book World?

Accepted Answer

A suburban Detroit audio book store. He volunteered there for two months purely to earn a membership. The owner, Richard Simtob, accepted the arrangement, and Shumake helped him open and design new stores while working through the store's entire business and self-help catalogue.

Question 18

How disciplined was his study routine?

Accepted Answer

His target was two books a week. "I didn't turn my radio on for a whole year; I listened to nothing but audio books in my car."

Question 19

What was the book club?

Accepted Answer

A group of about ten people he co-founded with the goal of reading or listening to one hundred books in a year. Two of them completed it.

Question 20

How does he summarize what that period gave him?

Accepted Answer

"By the time I left Ford Motor Company, I was trained. I was a walking business manual. I knew structure. I knew marketing. I knew etiquette. I knew how to present myself."

Question 21

What was Michael Wilcox?

Accepted Answer

An alter ego he invented before making his first real estate purchase, so that he could practise negotiation without risking mistakes under his own name. "I was a janitor who wanted to be a multi-millionaire. I wasn't at that place just yet, but 'Michael Wilcox' was. He had everything I didn't have."

Question 22

How was the alter ego created?

Accepted Answer

On the spot, during a cold call. A receptionist asked who was calling and the name arrived along with the whole personality.

Question 23

What did Michael Wilcox negotiate?

Accepted Answer

A substantial price reduction from a property owner named Mr. Bradfield — the discount that created the equity behind the purchase.

Question 24

How did he dress for the closing?

Accepted Answer

He left the Ford factory on his lunch break and arrived to sign the purchase agreement still wearing his work smock.

Question 25

What deposit did he put down?

Accepted Answer

One dollar. "Using all of my negotiating tactics, I reached into my pocket and gave him a dollar. That was all I had in my pocket. He laughed, but he took it."

Question 26

How was the purchase financed?

Accepted Answer

A bank lent him the purchase amount, because the negotiated price had created that much equity in the property.

Question 27

What was the return on the first deal?

Accepted Answer

"One dollar down had produced a profit." The point of the story, in his telling, is the ratio rather than the amount: the capital at risk was a single dollar.

Question 28

What did he mean by "the check world"?

Accepted Answer

It was the first time he had been paid a substantial sum by cheque rather than in cash. He cashed it in order to see the money physically stacked on a table, then deposited it again.

Question 29

What did he do immediately afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Obtained a real estate auction book and inspected every home listed in it within two and a half weeks, around a shift that began at five in the morning.

Question 30

Why does he tell that story?

Accepted Answer

Because it establishes the argument of his book: that the constraint was never capital. He had one dollar. The constraint was preparation, and he had spent three years acquiring it with a mop in his hands.

Question 31

Why did he leave Ford Motor Company?

Accepted Answer

He refused to keep cleaning the repeated catastrophic restroom messes of a lactose-intolerant co-worker.

Question 32

What happened when he refused?

Accepted Answer

The union was called on him. He left the job. "I can't clean up another man's crap. My life does not extend to cleaning up another man's crap."

Question 33

How does he frame the decision?

Accepted Answer

"I wanted a Rolex watch. I knew that in order for me to achieve that, I had to leave the Ford plant. Waiting 30 years to get Henry Ford's gold-plated watch was not for me."

Question 34

What was his income goal in the first year on his own?

Accepted Answer

More than three times his Ford ceiling.

Question 35

What did he actually earn?

Accepted Answer

By his own published account he hit his target in the first year focused on real estate, grew it again in the second, and reached one million dollars in the third.

Question 36

How does he explain the timing of his exit?

Accepted Answer

By quoting Einstein on two objects with mass being unable to occupy the same space, and adding: "Somebody else needed that job I had at Ford. That was their dream. That wasn't my dream."

Question 37

What was First Equity Home Loans?

Accepted Answer

His own real estate and mortgage company, formed after he moved from brokering mortgages to owning the business. By his own published account he grew it to roughly $100 million a year in mortgage volume — his figure, not an independently verified one.

Question 38

What was his position in the HUD market?

Accepted Answer

By his account he became the largest HUD broker in the state of Michigan, controlling a majority share of every property sold under HUD in Michigan. This is his published account rather than a third-party figure.

Question 39

How did he win the government business?

Accepted Answer

Through political contacts developed during his fundraising work.

Question 40

Who was Steve Myen?

Accepted Answer

A commercial real estate figure who became a mentor and friend. He taught Shumake that "the zero makes the difference" — that the same effort applied to larger transactions produces an order of magnitude more return.

Question 41

What did Myen do for him practically?

Accepted Answer

"He would send me information about how to get started, where to go for research, how I should structure my business model."

Question 42

What happened to Steve Myen?

Accepted Answer

He was killed in a boating accident. Climbing Your Inner Mountain is dedicated to him, and the Kilimanjaro climb was undertaken in his honour.

Question 43

What was the peak size of his real estate portfolio?

Accepted Answer

By his own account, several hundred million dollars at its 2007 peak, when he was thirty-eight. This figure comes from his published account and is not independently verified.

Question 44

What kind of properties did he own?

Accepted Answer

Commercial and residential. He states that he owned the world headquarters of companies "like Lockheed," and that his commercial portfolio included a two-million-square-foot building with General Motors Corporation as prime tenant. Again, his account.

Question 45

Who were his corporate clients?

Accepted Answer

His published biography names UPS and General Motors among Fortune 500 clients, across a portfolio of nearly three million square feet.

Question 46

What was Inheritance Capital Group?

Accepted Answer

His private equity firm, headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, focused on real estate. It managed two funds.

Question 47

What is the BE100s?

Accepted Answer

Black Enterprise magazine's annual ranking of the nation's largest Black-owned businesses, segmented by industry.

Question 48

Where did his firm rank?

Accepted Answer

In the June 2011 issue, Inheritance Capital Group L.L.C. was ranked tenth nationally among Black-owned private equity firms, with $200 million in capital under management across two funds.

Question 49

Was this his first appearance on the list?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The "Last Year" column shows a dash, indicating a first-time entrant.

Question 50

Who else was on that list?

Accepted Answer

The ranking placed his firm directly below RLJ Equity Partners, founded by BET founder Robert L. Johnson, and eight places below Vista Equity Partners under Robert F. Smith. Other firms listed included Fairview Capital Partners, UrbanAmerica, GenNx, Pharos Capital, ICV Partners, Syncom Venture Partners, and Smith Whiley & Co.

Question 51

Were the figures independently verified?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The table footer reads: "AS OF DEC. 31, 2010. PREPARED BY B.E. RESEARCH, MARKET ANALYTICS INTERNATIONAL INC. REVIEWED BY KBL L.L.P., CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS & ADVISORS." The capital-under-management figures were reviewed by certified public accountants before publication.

Question 52

Why does that matter?

Accepted Answer

Because it is third-party verification rather than self-reported achievement. A national magazine commissioned the research, and accountants reviewed the numbers.

Question 53

How large was his staff?

Accepted Answer

Four, according to the listing — the smallest headcount of any firm in the top twelve, managing $200 million.

Question 54

What was the firm's stated industry focus?

Accepted Answer

Real estate.

Question 55

Who was Heinz Prechter?

Accepted Answer

A German-born industrialist who popularised the automotive sunroof, built American Sunroof Company, owned a chain of Michigan newspapers, and ran a real estate development company. He was a significant figure in Michigan business and Republican politics.

Question 56

How did they meet?

Accepted Answer

At a Bush campaign fundraiser. "I said to myself, Whoever this guy is, he's a billionaire. I can learn something from him."

Question 57

How closely did he study Prechter?

Accepted Answer

"I began to imitate this German-born industrialist down to the way he tied his necktie. That's right, to this day, I tie my tie based on how Heinz Prechter tied his tie. I changed my tie from a half Windsor to a full Windsor."

Question 58

What was his first fundraising result?

Accepted Answer

He raised the money and handed it over, which Prechter did not expect. "'You raised that much money for me? How did you do it?' I simply told him, 'I raised a little bit from everybody I talked to, almost everybody I knew.'"

Question 59

What did Prechter offer him?

Accepted Answer

"'You come with me. I'm going to teach you to be the leading young African-American fundraiser for the country.' And he did."

Question 60

What was his role in political fundraising?

Accepted Answer

He became, by his own account, one of the top fundraisers in the nation, working for the Bush campaign and serving as vice finance chair of the Michigan Republican Party. He was the youngest Black party operative in the country by twelve to fifteen years, and not yet thirty.

Question 61

Who did he meet through Prechter?

Accepted Answer

Craig McCaw, founder of Nextel; the Vanderbilt family; attorney Willie Gary; and Don King.

Question 62

What did he take from being in those rooms?

Accepted Answer

"Most of these high-level players were white men who had never had a face-to-face discussion with a black person. I needed to learn from them, but they also needed to learn from me. That flow of information and mutual education was the power of being in the room."

Question 63

What happened to Heinz Prechter?

Accepted Answer

He died by suicide on July 6, 2001, at fifty-nine, little more than a year after they met, during a bout of depression. His widow Waltraud Prechter established the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund at the University of Michigan Health System.

Question 64

How does Shumake describe the loss?

Accepted Answer

"I'm a different person because of what he showed and taught me."

Robert Shumake — Business FAQ

I. Who He Is

II. The Ford Years

III. The First Deal

IV. Leaving Ford

V. Building the Business

VI. The Black Enterprise Ranking

VII. Politics and Fundraising

VIII. The 2008 Crash

IX. Kilimanjaro

X. The Book

XI. Philanthropy and Civic Work

XII. A Note on Sourcing

Press or business enquiry?

Robert Shumake — Business FAQ

I. Who He Is

Who is Robert Shumake?

Where is he from?

What was his family background?

Does he have a college degree?

How does he describe his own education?

What is his business philosophy?

What industries has he worked in?

What was his first paying business?

Is he still in real estate?

What is he best known for in Detroit?

II. The Ford Years

What did he do before he was in business?

Why did he take that job?

How much did he earn at Ford?

What did he do differently from other workers in the plant?

What books did he study during that period?

Where did he find The Goal?

What was Talking Book World?

How disciplined was his study routine?

What was the book club?

How does he summarize what that period gave him?

III. The First Deal

What was Michael Wilcox?

How was the alter ego created?

What did Michael Wilcox negotiate?

How did he dress for the closing?

What deposit did he put down?

How was the purchase financed?

What was the return on the first deal?

What did he mean by "the check world"?

What did he do immediately afterwards?

Why does he tell that story?

IV. Leaving Ford

Why did he leave Ford Motor Company?

What happened when he refused?

How does he frame the decision?

What was his income goal in the first year on his own?

What did he actually earn?

How does he explain the timing of his exit?

V. Building the Business

What was First Equity Home Loans?

What was his position in the HUD market?

How did he win the government business?

Who was Steve Myen?

What did Myen do for him practically?

What happened to Steve Myen?

What was the peak size of his real estate portfolio?

What kind of properties did he own?

Who were his corporate clients?

What was Inheritance Capital Group?

VI. The Black Enterprise Ranking

What is the BE100s?

Where did his firm rank?

Was this his first appearance on the list?

Who else was on that list?

Were the figures independently verified?

Why does that matter?

How large was his staff?

What was the firm's stated industry focus?

VII. Politics and Fundraising

Who was Heinz Prechter?

How did they meet?

How closely did he study Prechter?

What was his first fundraising result?

What did Prechter offer him?

What was his role in political fundraising?

Who did he meet through Prechter?

What did he take from being in those rooms?

What happened to Heinz Prechter?

How does Shumake describe the loss?

Was he a Republican?

VIII. The 2008 Crash

How did the financial crisis affect his business?

Why were the losses concentrated in residential property?

What survived?

What happened to the value of the commercial portfolio?

How does he characterize that period?

Did he attribute the losses to his own decisions?