How La-Van Hawkins rose from the projects to a private jet and a multimillion-dollar empire

Ebony, April, 2003 by Kevin Chappell

HE LIVES by a simple philosophy: "In life, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate."

And for much of his 40-year existence, fast-food mogul La-Van Hawkins has been game for the give-and-take. In fact, in matching what he calls "preparation with opportunity," he has effortlessly maneuvered back and forth from the streets where he grew up to the luxurious suites where his money grew up, parlaying one off the other until he gets all there is to get.

There was a time when Hawkins was less calculating, more cavalier toward life. It nearly proved fatal when, as a 14-year-old gang-banger, he stared down the barrel of a .38 Special. He can still hear the click, the silence, the gun failing to go off. He escaped without injury. He had cheated death for a reason. Life had cut him the ultimate break, and now he would have the rest of his life to figure out why.

Since that day, Hawkins has been on an extremely personal mission to succeed, never forgetting where he came from, but never being content with where he is.

His life story is an inspirational one of how a former gang-banger in the Chicago projects with a high-school education and an Ivy League determination rose from cleaning toilets at a burger joint when he was 11 to become the modern-day king of the fast-food industry.

Through his company, Hawkins Food Group, he has achieved extraordinary financial success, and has been afforded a grand lifestyle filled with magnificent homes, a private jet, personal chefs and luxury cars.

His company, which owns more than 100 Pizza Hut stores throughout Michigan, will rake in more than $300 million this year, with profits of about $70 million. But that could prove to be pocket change if Hawkins is successful in his next move--negotiating one of the biggest deals in the history of the restaurant industry--the takeover of a $2 billion restaurant chain.

A tender offer has been submitted. The details are being hammered out. If the megadeal goes through as Hawkins expects, by this summer he could be heading the largest African-American company in the world, sitting atop an empire of eateries that employ more than 30,000 workers and would join the exclusive club of Blacks who created billion-dollar companies.

"It's put us in a very unique situation to continue to stay focused and go to the next level," says Hawkins, dressed in an impeccable pinstriped suit at his company's headquarters in downtown Detroit. "Certainly, I've been getting prepared for this opportunity all my life--and now it's about to happen." Hawkins would not identify the restaurant chain, only saying that it is a national brand with big-name recognition.

Where he finds himself today is a long way from where he came of age. He grew up in Cabrini Green, the toughest public housing complex not only in Chicago, but perhaps the country. Like most other boys in the caged-in compound littered with broken spirits and liquor bottles, he joined a gang at a young age. Hawkins not only joined, but rose quickly within the ranks. "I was the 21st person to join," he says. "We had over 5,000 members by the time it was all said and done."

Somewhat big for his age, Hawkins was known around the inner-city concrete jungle as the gang's enforcer. "Back then, I was extremely physical and didn't take no [mess]. I did it all. Stole cars. Got in fights with bats and bottles and brass knuckles ... I did it all, and the gang became my family."

But Hawkins always knew that he was different than many of the other guys he grew up with. While others used their situation as an excuse not to achieve, Hawkins used the cards he was dealt as a driving force to achieve. He dreamed about getting out, making money, becoming somebody. "I've always had this desire to be successful," he says. "I think that because I grew up poor that I have always wanted to have things. I've always had this `got to make it, got to make it happen, got to execute right now, got to be focused' attitude."

That drive, he says, came from his father, who "was not," according to his childhood memories, "very good at supporting his family," Hawkins says. "I learned to deal with that. What it did for me was to inspire me to become a person who was determined to be successful, a person who takes responsibilities seriously. But even though I looked at my father as a failure, I did take the things that he did well and apply those to my everyday life, while focusing on doing well in the areas that he didn't do well in."

He says his father was a major player who had "street smarts and a street knowledge" that was impeccable. "He was a very sharp dresser," Hawkins says. "He was very articulate. He was certainly a lady's man. Make no mistake. My father was a man. He didn't take any [mess] from anybody. People feared him. He was a master when it came to the streets. I inherited my street smarts from him."

It's that street mentality, Hawkins says, which almost killed him as a child, that has saved him many times over as an adult in the world of big business. "The one thing that has helped me is that I have an MBA and Ph.D. in streetology," he says. "It certainly has allowed me to take it to the next level. I will not be denied. It will not let me quit. It gives me the ability to use common sense, which allows me to stay focused. And when you stay focused on things, you can make things happen. It is very difficult for people to tell me something that is not absolutely correct because I have had the opportunity to experience some different things in life, and I have had the opportunity to be out on the streets. So I have a really good idea of what being hustled is all about. I think I apply all of those skills every day. There's no way you can come from the streets and go into corporate America and not succeed, because the same skills apply."