Farrah Gray began his entrepreneurial, personal and civic development at six years old selling homemade body lotion and his own hand-painted rocks as book-ends door-to-door. At age seven, he was carrying business cards reading “21st Century CEO.” At eight, Gray became co-founder of Urban Neighborhood Enterprise Economic Club (U.N.E.E.C.) on Chicago’s South side.
U.N.E.E.C. was the forerunner of New Early Entrepreneur Wonders (NE2W), the flagship organization he opened on Wall Street. NE2W enlisted, educated and engaged “at-risk” youth by creating and developing legal ways for them to acquire additional income. Gray is the youngest person to have an office on Wall Street.
Between the ages of 12 and 16 years old, Farrah Gray founded and operated business ventures that included KIDZTEL pre-paid phone cards, the One Stop Mail Boxes & for More franchise and The Teenscope “Youth AM/FM”interactive teen talk show, Gray was also Executive Producer of a comedy show on the Las Vegas Strip and owner of Farr-Out Foods, “Way-Out Food with a Twist,” aimed at young people with the company’s first Strawberry-Vanilla syrup product. Farr-Out Foods generated orders exceeding $1.5 million. He has been a numismatist, which is a coin collector, since he was 12 years old. As a pre-teen, Gray reached 12 million listeners and viewers every Saturday night as co-host of “Backstage Live,” a syndicated television and radio simulcast in Las Vegas. Gray’s inspirational spirit and grounded personality sparked speaking requests from organizations around the country. Farrah Gray’s sense of social responsibility motivated him to create the non-profit organization, The Farrah Gray Foundation. Among other programs and initiatives, his foundation focuses on inner city community-based entrepreneurship education and provides scholarship & grant assistance for students from at-risk backgrounds to attend HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Farrah Gray donates his honorarium from speaking engagements (which can be upwards of $15,000) and the proceeds of his book to his foundation in what he refers to as his “self-imposed” youth tax. The Farrah Gray Foundation partnered with the Kauffman Foundation, launching entrepreneurship programs in inner-city schools across the country.
Farrah Gray’s work did not remain under the radar-screen for long. He soon then became the youngest member of the Board of Advisors for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. He was also given a three-year term on the Board of Directors of United Way of Southern Nevada at the age of 15. Farrah Gray’s continued his philanthropic work signing on as the spokesman for the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Marrow Donor Program. As a private consultant he was gone in to work with the likes of JP Morgan Chase and the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Development Agency.
Farrah Gray’s latest books “Get Real, Get Rich” and “The Truth Shall Make You Rich” a no-holds-barred rejection of the fallacies we’ve all heard–and believed–about success and how to achieve it. Farrah Gray’s first book “Reallionaire” was nominated by NBC & Publishers Weekly Quill Awards in the category of “Health/Self-Improvement.” His book appeared on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s Best-sellers lists two weeks before its international release. “Reallionaire” made it to #1 on the Essence Magazine Best-seller list.
“Reallionaire” was endorsed by Former President Bill Clinton, Pierre Sutton, Stedman Graham, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Gray’s book and his journey to succeed against the odds have become required reading and part of classroom study from elementary school to entrepreneurship departments on college and university campuses such as Harvard University and Princeton. Gray’s books, “Reallionaire,” “Get Real Get Rich” and “The Truth Shall Make You Rich,”have been translated into Russian, German, Polish, French, Korean, Indonesian, and Vietnamese languages with book sales in Africa, Australia and Europe and in Central and South American countries.
Gray is also a contributing author to “Chicken Soup for the African-American Soul”. Farrah Gray’s honors include Keys to the Cities of Dallas, Shreveport, and Cincinnati. He has also received Proclamations from the Governors of Illinois and Nevada, the Mayors of Louisville, Kentucky, Chicago, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Wilmington, Delaware, and Clark County Nevada Commissioners. Farrah Gray’s Awards include The National Urban League Whitney M. Young Jr. Entrepreneurship Award, The Indiana Black Expo (IBE) Hoosier Lottery Entrepreneur Award, The Alabama A&M Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Award, The Davidson College Love of Learning Lifetime Educational Achievement Award, Central State Award of Appreciation for contributions made in the area of entrepreneurship, Trumpet Award,, and the American Red Cross Award of Appreciation.”
Farrah Gray Talks About His Relationship With His Father Khallid Muhammad
ACCOLADES
“Farrah Gray named as one of Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) 12 Famous Entrepreneurs”
MSN.com placed Farrah Gray on its Young Tycoons List along with Mark Zuckerberg
Farrah Gray named to the Inaugural List of Chicago’s The Urban Business Roundtable’s “Top 40 Game-Changers” as entrepreneurial prodigy
Farrah Gray received the 24th Annual 100 Black Men of America, Inc. Conference Award
Farrah Gray CNN: Up from the Past: African-American First – American Trailblazer
Farrah Gray Trumpet Award Recipient
Farrah Gray Makes Upscale Magazine’s List of “20 Modern History Makers, with President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien
Farrah Gray featured as Black Voices Making Black History Past, Present, and Future –Business
Farrah Gray Recognized as a “Living Legend” Who’s Who in Black Las Vegas
Farrah Gray Named by the Las Vegas Review Journal’s Las Vegas Black Image Magazine Lists of the Top 20 ‘Bald, Black and Beautiful Men’
Farrah Gray recognized as The Network Journal “40 Under-Forty” Achievement Award recipient
Farrah Gray as one of the most influential Black men in America “Men of Influence” by The National Urban League.
