Before Earvin "Magic" Johnson launched his many entrepreneurial efforts, he met the man he wanted to emulate.

J. Bruce Llewellyn was an entrepreneur who had gone from running a Harlem liquor store in the 1950s to the running Philadelphia's Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Founded with Julius "Dr. J" Erving and Bill Cosby, the company was one of the most profitable African American–owned enterprises, with revenues of half-a-billion.

His standing with Coca-Cola was just the tip of the iceberg, though.

LLewellyn also owned a grocery chain and television stations. He served as head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation under Jimmy Carter, all the while pursuing philanthropic efforts, such as setting up a scholarship fund at City College and founding One Hundred Black Men Inc., both in New York.

According to The Root, Johnson told Llewellyn: "I want to make a lot of money like you."

Llewellyn replied: "No, Magic. If money is all you want, there will never be enough of it, and you will never be happy. You have got to be about more than that. You have the opportunity to be a leader who can do great things and change people's lives for the better. You can be a businessman who is also a catalyst for change."

Llewellyn, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist, died yesterday at the age of 82.

Achievement ran in Llewellyn's family. His sister was a New York State judge and Colin Powell is his first cousin. Llewellyn was a graduate of City College of New York, who held graduate degrees in business from Columbia University and New York University, along with a law degree from New York Law School. He was also a first lieutenant in the Army who served during World War II.

LLewellyn flirted twice with becoming one of the first people of African heritage to own a major sports franchise. He passed on the first opportunity, because he didn't think it was a good investment at the asking price. The second time around, he was interested in purchasing a team with his son-in-law, author Tom Clancy, but fell ill.

Like Percy Sutton, Llewellyn was an ambitious entrepreneur, but he also sought to change things via his philanthropic endeavors.

He had a doctoral fellowship for students in the economic, business, science, technology, engineering and math fields. African American students chosen to receive the fellowship earned $20,000 over two years to help with their study. The potential for this fellowship to produce future African American leaders is enormous.

Llewellyn also felt that entrepreneurship could help blacks out of their social situation:

"Business is the emancipator of a group of people. The trick is to get your hands on the levers, on the money, to get the guy off your back. That's the real world, and that's the plight of the black community -- they don't have the leverage," he told Nation's Business Magazine in 1990.

To a great man, rest in peace.