By Jim O'Sullivan

Believe the hype.

Believe it, because that's what you have to do to understand this man, Ernst Guerrier, who sits dapper in his pinstriped chocolate suit and talks to you about life, about opportunity, and how to run a business.

"Failure's the easiest thing in the world," he says, and maybe don't believe that part because it's coming from a man who knows very little about the subject.

"You know what's hard? To succeed. It's hard to be good at what you do. It's hard to excel because it takes hard work, determination, and discipline."

Success is a topic the man does know a thing or two about. His is the cliched story of the American Dream, the Horatio Alger tale of someone tugging hard on the bootstraps and willing himself to success.Guerrier: "When I don't succeed, when I don't get what I want, I don't look in the mirror and say, 'It's because of these things.' I look at myself and say, 'Did I do the very best that I can do?'"

If Ernst Guerrier ever had to ask himself that question, the instance is tough to find in his personnel file. He was recently named Boston's top real estate lawyer by Boston Magazine. His second-floor Granite Avenue office peers out over the Neponset River, and it's roomy enough for three other lawyers and a handful of staffers. His home in Raynham will boast a full-length basketball court.

For Ernst Guerrier, who came from Port-au-Prince to Mattapan to Suffolk to Suffolk Law and up through the city's legal ranks, success came hard, but it came. Believe it.

Sweat equity

Guerrier and his sister came to the States when he was seven, after living with their grandmother while their parents saved money. Living in Mattapan, he graduated from Boston English High School in 1987 and enrolled in Suffolk University, where he soon distinguished himself as one of the school's brightest stars, studying in the political science department.

When not studying his way to the top of his class, he served as president of the Black Student Union, vice president of the Student Council Association, and played on the soccer team. Oh, yes, he worked in the library. One or two times during those four years, he may have slept five hours a night.

"I thought he was an incredibly bright person who had overcome difficult obstacles, and who was extraordinarily eager to advance his education," Suffolk President David Sargent told The Reporter.

With that undergrad degree from Suffolk, Guerrier knew he wanted his next step to be into the legal profession.

"For someone of my background, it's almost unheard of," he says. "But I sought a way to get involved, help out my surroundings, my community, and the law just seemed to be a perfect fit for me."

Dick Trifiro, another bootstrap-puller and self-made millionaire, also was taken with young Guerrier and helped him on his next step. Guerrier sprung for the $150 application fee to Suffolk Law, while Trifiro picked up the rest of the tab.

Today, Guerrier speaks about Trifiro reverentially, and credits much of his prosperity to those who preceded him.

"I always acknowledge that my success - that I'm reaping the benefit of all the guys who went before me but who didn't get the recognition, didn't receive the accolades," he says. "My success is really the sweat equity of

so many other people's efforts."

Today, Guerrier pays back Trifiro, who passed away three years ago, not only through his own achievements, but by lending a hand to others. He's helping establish scholarships at Suffolk, so more kids like him can get a shot. Last year, when a pair of Suffolk kids didn't have the funds to travel to Senegal, Guerrier footed the bill.

The practice

The offices of Guerrier and Associates sit on Granite Avenue, on the Dorchester-Milton line, a mile or so down Gallivan Boulevard from their former home on the corner of Washington Street, where they welcomed clients for five years. Legal briefs sit on the table in the conference room, while snooty-sounding titles like Massachusetts General Laws, Annotated line the shelves of the different rooms. These are the merit badges of the legal profession, like stars for a general or championship rings for a basketball player.

And they're all Guerrier's. After law school, he took a job with a big firm, but pined for the interpersonal contact that could come with his own practice.

"The fact that I can come back and be in my original surroundings and help out is great," he says. "I was given a great deal of latitude as to what I wanted to do. I didn't want to do it when I was 40, I didn't want to do it when I was 50, I just wanted to do it then."

"I'm proud to say that I came to this on my own. I wasn't fired. It wasn't like I didn't have a job. I just wanted to do this in Dorchester, on my own terms, of my own accord."

Guerrier and his associates champion the little guy, serving a clientele of families, small business people, and homeowners. He gives his clients his cell phone and home numbers, a practice unheard of among lawyers who wear suits like Guerrier's. He talks enthusiastically about leveraging for a small client against a wealthy mortgage lender. Guerrier and Associates currently are planning offices in Brockton and Cambridge, "but with the same concentration, where people can come in and take on the big guys regardless of their make-up," the founder says. Of course.

Passing the baton

"When you look at the particulars of my life, you say, 'He's pretty comfortable‚'" Guerrier explains. "But to whom much is given, a great deal more is expected."

That's why he looks out for other up-and-coming Haitian lawyers ("I'm considered a gray-beard,: he jests), why he drives his staffers to work as hard as he does, why he's set on establishing Massa-chusetts's first minority-owned mortgage company. It's why he logs 11-hour days, six days every week, and still spends time with his family,

wife Marieflore, daughter Christa, and son Miles.

"I sense the New Boston because every day I'm excited about my task because we have new opportunities," he says, adding that African-Americans are buying property at a rate second only to Asian-Americans.

"I understand the difficulties that we face, so many of us having different backgrounds and we all have to come together underneath the umbrella," Guerrier says. "We focus so much on the differences. I don't see it that way. I don't focus on the negatives. I embrace the commonality."

And the commonality embraces him, too. Guerrier is hot property, with a photo shoot for Boston Magazine, and offers of a place at the table from the would-have-been Shannon O'Brien administration. Guerrier says he was the only African-American onstage at O'Brien's primary victory party, but wouldn't have jumped to the public sector even if she had beaten Mitt Romney in the final election.

"I wouldn't have taken a post because my work is not yet completed here, but I wanted access for the people in my community," he says, so he and others leaned on gubernatorial candidates to come to Boston and to address the needs of a community that sometimes seems to go unheard in big-money politics.

Sure enough, the last time all the candidates appeared together before the election was at Morning Star Baptist Church, in Guerrier's hometown of Mattapan.

"It's almost like a relay, and someone has passed the baton to me and my job is to take it was far as I can as quickly as I can and then pass it on to somebody else," Guerrier says. "I'm grateful I have the chance to bring something and to give something back to the community."

Believe it.