Robert F. Smith first came to everyone’s attention back in 2019, when he received his honorary doctorate from famed Historically Black College, Morehouse College.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Robert F. Smith (@robertfredericksmith)

At that time, while he was receiving his doctorate, Smith announced that he’d be paying off the student loans for all who had them in his graduating class. Since then, Smith has launched an Historically Black College and University (HBCU) “alternative loans” initiative program, has had millions of dollars donated to his HBCU initiatives by some of the world’s leading companies, and became the richest Black man in America.

Yet, all of these initiatives didn’t make a dent in Robert F. Smith’s net worth. According to Forbes, as of this writing, he has a net worth of $6.7 billion, and it’s only growing from here.

“The most important thing you can do as a young person in [the Black] community is to become an expert,” Smith once said. [It’s key] “to become skilled in whatever it is that you are desirous of doing. And that takes countless hours and in some cases outreach for knowledge and information and in some cases it’s [about] building a learned capability. To me there is no substitute for that….There’s no substitute for becoming an expert and being the best at your craft. And that’s what I focused on.”

In short, Robert F. Smith is nothing short of an all-American, self-made success story. Let’s take a look at how he became a billionaire.

Wealthiest Black Man In America

Sign up for our daily Newsletter.