My name is Linwood (Lin) Hart and I'm the author, "Reginald F. Lewis Before TLC Beatrice: The Young Man Before The Billion-Dollar Empire." (2018 REVISED, RE-EDITED EDITION) During his lifetime Reginald F. Lewis achieved great wealth and success on Wall Street, but this book is not about his wealth. It is about a period in Reginald's life, long before the wealth. It describes the difficulties and challenges he faced as a teenager and young man. Stories contained in this book, will provide an early glimpse into the making of the man, well before the making of the money. Readers will begin to understand how Reginalds carefully scripted planning and the force of his determination helped transform him from an ordinary young man to an extraordinary businessman/lawyer. In the 70's thru the early 90's, Reginald F. Lewis was arguably the richest Black man on the planet. Regrettably, he passed away in 1993. In writing this book, I chose to focus on a specific 10-year period of Reginald his life. It was a period during which we were particularly close and it is a period little has been written about. I'm a Maryland native, having lived as a teenager in the same West Baltimore neighborhood that Reginald F. Lewis's family moved to in 1952. Young Reginald and I met and became friends in 1956. We later became roommates and football teammates at Virginia State, remaining friends until Reginald's death in 1993. I retired in 1995 from AT&T Network Systems. In my last position, I served as the Network Systems Engineering Director for International Services. I left to start my own company, Lin Hart & Associates specializing in professional speaker services and leadership coaching. I am a graduate of Virginia State University. I currently reside with my wife, Frances, in Chesterfield, Missouri. We are the parents of two children, Lin Hart, Jr. and the late Gail Hart Stanfield. Twitter: https://twitter.com/lhacafe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReginaldFLewisBeforeTlcBeatrice/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/linsr/