His office is in a downtown high-rise and his name is on the door, but Gerald Smith hasn’t forgotten his first job behind the fountain at a Houston pharmacy.

“Did the dishes, and all those kinds of things,” he said. “I scrubbed up, caught the bus home at night.”

Or his first lesson in business at his grandmother’s Third Ward drug store, at age 9.

“She taught me the difference between debits and credits,” Smith said.

Today he runs a company that manages $2.5 billion in assets. But from his 69^th floor office, he doesn’t like everything he sees on the horizon for minority-owned companies.

“I would say the old-boy network is alive and well in Houston, and I don’t think there is nothing wrong with the old-boy network, but it should be a diverse old-boy network,” Smith said.

He’s beating the drums of inclusion: He would like to see greater access and more opportunities for minority businesses in Houston, which he said hasn’t always come easy.

“Well I think the numbers speak for themselves,” Smith said.

The numbers at a glance are impressive: There are more than 50,000 minority-owned businesses in the area: 14 percent of the total. They take in $2 billion annually, but that is out of $100 billion spent in the local economy. They are getting 2 percent of the pie.

“The CEOs of companies have to realize this is important, that everybody has an opportunity to do business, not just because of their color, but because they are qualified,” Smith said.

Smith said business is about relationships, and if you come from a different background, or different social network — it’s sometimes harder to get in the door.

“This is not about race,” he said. “I am not playing the race card; I am just telling you the facts.”

And on the wall in his office is the company’s 10 commandments, and number three says, “Thou shall not play the race card.”

Smith isn’t just talking — he sits on the board of the Greater Houston Partnership, which means he has the ear of every major CEO in the city.

Life is good for Smith. He just would like to see other entrepreneurs get their day in the sun.