Rich DeVos
Rich DeVos is the owner of the Orlando Magic. In 1997, Fortune magazine
estimated that Rich DeVos was worth $2.4 billion, making him the second-richest
Michigander and the 57
th-richest American. Now at the age of
70, with a record of achievement and a reservoir of riches nearly unmatched
in the 20th century (his net worth is estimated at $4.3 billion), DeVos
is living with a renewed purpose and heightened gratitude. He survived
a surgery that almost killed him. He regards the additional years not so
much as a second chance, but rather a divinely orchestrated overtime a
grace period of sorts.
Rich DeVos, long involved in church life, is dedicating his latter days
to encouraging his favorite evangelical causes and to restoring the spirit
of compassion in the free enterprise system. His most recent book, published
in 1993 just after his heart bypass and titled Compassionate Capitalism,
is a treatise built upon 16 inspirational credos he has forged throughout
his career.
In DeVos' spare time, he
takes care of business as the owner with his four children (sons Dick,
Dan and Doug DeVos, along with daughter Cheri VanderWeide) of the Orlando
Magic franchise in the National Basketball Association. And he still serves
on the Policy Committee for Amway Corp., the company he founded in a humble
basement in 1959 with his longtime friend and partner Jay VanAndel. Amway
has grown into one of the world's largest and most lucrative privately
held companies. It manufactures and sells household products direct to
consumers, marketed by distributors who are widely known and sometimes
scoffed at for their intensity and persistence. The company was founded
with a blending of VanAndel's Dutch determination and attention to detail,
and DeVos' enthusiasm and creative energy. Together, they withstood a series
of daunting challenges, including a fire in the early years that wiped
out a major plant, public relations woes when critics sought (unsuccessfully)
to paint the business as an unlawful "pyramid scheme," and a protracted
battle with tax authorities in Canada.
DeVos grew up in undeniably
modest circumstances in Grand Rapids known in the 1930s and 1940s as the
home of skilled craftsmen and designers, many of them from Europe, who
provided the town with a reputation as the furniture capital of the world.
His father, Simon C. DeVos, lost his job during the Depression and the
family was forced to move into a makeshift apartment in the attic of Rich's
grandparent's house, renting their own modest home to gainfully employed
tenants in order to meet the $25 monthly mortgage payment.
DeVos learned quickly how to work through
rough times. He lived through the depression and made it a goal to be a
successful businessman. DeVos is a great American success story. He is
one of the most successful people in all of Orlando.