The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs: Drug Dealers and Hustlas

If colleges and non-profit programs want to capture and equip the next generation of entrepreneurs, they can start with their local teenage drug dealers.

Yep. Drug dealers. I'm not alone on this one and there appears to have been some research on the linkage between drug-dealing as a juvenile and self-employment as an adult.

I am fortunate to have had a post-hoc peek into the underworld of localized drug dealing through some acquaintances who are ex-dealers. Most of them are now self-employed legitimately (I think). Listening to them talk about their experience is simply inspiring. Talk about resourcefulness:

By the time they graduate high school, these teenage drug dealer know more about margins, sales, customer relationship management, building a brand, strategic alliances, viral marketing, inventory management, supply chain management, product-market fit, negotiations and government regulation than most second-year MBAs. They have more experience in strategic decision-making and maintaining competitive advantage in a fiercely hostile commodities market than 2/3 of academia and know precisely what contributes to the local economy.

My conjecture is that if we tell them to keep doing what they are doing and simply replace the drug(s) they are hustling with some other hard good of their interest, we would see a HUGE spike in high growth startups and innovative revivals in mature/dying sectors like manufacturing and retail. Detroit anyone?

My point is that we as a society should not take a position of moral opposition to their current activities but rather praise their resourcefulness and make an attempt to show them the possibility of "legal" enterprises. Based on my discussions with people who have dealt drugs as teenagers, most grew bored with society's traditional models of classroom learning and mind-numbing lever-pulling jobs at minimum wage. Overall, they have vocalized disgust for anything that appealed to authority or followed general consensus.

Conversely, the University of Illinois at Chicago after conducting research on local dealer behavior and impact to the economy found that archetypical drug dealers in depressed metropolitan areas were not motivated to destroy the community but rather (highly) motivated by the same things as "the rest of us" and were simply presented with different opportunities.

My intuition is that drug dealers, regardless of demography, get a high from hustling. This something that I've experienced first hand - a little of which you can read here. There's something about making things happen, making connections, finding a need and delivering on it - and doing so faster, at better quality with the least amount of resource expenditure as possible. Hustling is a form of creating, it is the feeling of being the exception to the Theory of Impossibility, the sense of personal fulfillment when you break the First Law of Thermodynamics: creating matter - economic value - by taking ideas, relationships conversation and resources and rearranging them in a way that only you can. All this to create the existence of dollars in your pocket and happy customers.

There is simply nothing like it. It doesn't matter what you are hustling, simply being in the midst of the process (e.g. "the game", "the grind") is addictive.

This is a good thing. It is at the core of all entrepreneurial individuals that have a chance of doing something impactful and this country has no idea how to channel this type of energy, intelligence and potential. The best that they've come up with so far is ADD/ADHD medicine and sending drug dealers to jail. I have some theories about possible solutions but nothing solidly based in fact.

Except that you could send them to the Foundry.

As I surveyed the landscape for resources/programs that would help me sharpen my talent potential, nothing seemed very interesting. It all occurred to me as another version of a class project: hypothetical and detached. I discovered that there were other students who were going through the exact same experience. This, in part, led to 20 undergrads co-inventing the Foundry with some super cool (and super smart) "adults" about a year ago.

Hustler's like the "realness" of the grind: fear, risk, uncertainty, ambiguity. Everything looked to me like another appeal to authority: some judge or mentor who as no idea who I am or what I've done is in a position to say what is good and what is not.

This is not the way to teach entrepreneurs and it is not the way to allow hustlers and drug dealer to see the possibility of applying their skills, expertise and talents where this country really needs it: job creation.

I think this is why Foundry attracts a certain kind of individual and why graduates weigh in heavily on the cohort formation process: hustlers like being around other hustlers. Iron sharpens iron. We select for people, not for companies because hustlers can hustle anything, whether it's weed and ecstasy or water bottles and recycling bins.

Again, we don't have a resource problem. In fact, I don't think we even have a resourcefulness problem. We have a training problem. Yes it's scary to think about the prospect of training drug dealers to be contributing business leaders. Yes, drug dealers can be dangerous (a function of being in dangerous work) and can smell a feeb from a mile away. The don't appeal to authority (they actually subvert it) or listen to the general consensus about how things should happen. They have a different relationship to fear than most people and definitely not interested in the hokey pokey of Cubiclelandia that modern society has been offering for decades.

Judging by the current state of the union, it seems that even the President agress that we could use less of the lever-pulling types and more of the lever-creating types.

If you are, or know, a 20/30/40-something drug dealer/hustler that might be interest in a new career opportunity hustling something other than drugs and be part of a group where your skills, perspectives and overall approach to life are praised and sought after, Foundry is actively recruiting for people to fill our summer cohort: F3. Feel free to contact me directly or you can submit an application here.

Just leave your drugs and weapons at home - and please don't take my lunch money.