Jeff came out of prison with a whole mountain of new ideas for startups... maybe a little strange (and sometimes even very), but still.
For example, B.J. spent $10,000 on a website where you can order the most expensive and luxurious woman for sex on or in a luxury car.
In his first week in federal prison, Jeff realized that everything here is not arranged the way it is shown on TV. He found himself in a team of ambitious men whose instincts in business in most cases were as sharp as those of some CEOs of large companies. 95% of the people from prison were drug dealers or something similar, they had their own ideas about doing business and they told them in different jargon. And, believe me, this is not taught in the first year of an MBA. You are unlikely to hear this at all in standard business schools.
Each of them was just trying to survive. In the USA, the fact that you are in prison does not mean at all that you stop paying for services or goods. You have to pay for the soap you use in prison, for a toothbrush, toothpaste — for everything! And this is difficult for two reasons. Firstly, you pay 30-50% more for goods in prison than when you are free. And secondly, making money in prison is not an easy task. Jeff was unloading trucks and that was his main job. For this he was paid $ 5.25, but not for an hour, but for a month.
How to survive in such conditions? In prison, prisoners manage to create something out of nothing. They make wigs, scales. They can easily teach courses after they are released.
But in prison they won't teach you how to make a business plan, there are no courses for rehabilitation, no one will tell them how to make a legal business out of what they like. They can't even find a normal job.
And the only really valuable lesson that can be learned from all this is don't waste your time. When you lose a whole year and see how people manage to somehow survive in such conditions, you realize that all the obstacles that previously seemed impossible to you do not really prevent you from doing what you like and want. And that you can benefit from almost any business. It's just that we begin to see the subtle paths of survival only when we are really pressed hard.
