Crack dealers are entrepreneurs. I might have some concern about being a VC for one of their startups, however.
They enter their business training already well-trained in hiding profits, exterminating rivals, and corrupting officials. Will it be "working for you" to have them rise to the top of businesses such as banking? Or will that just leave us with the current status quo?
And how many of our most successful hacker/entrepreneurs are former computer criminals?
I'm not just talking about breaking into the high school's web server -- I'm talking serious scam artistry. I know several Romanian hackers for whom this was a rite of passage while growing up. They all have respectable jobs at huge software firms now, often in charge of security or financial apps.
Most crack dealers work in large organizations with only one or a few entrepreneurs at the top. Does working at Microsoft or Google make one an entrepreneur?
As the article said:
Felipe Dias is one of the convicts Catherine plans to redirect into a legitimate enterprise.
He was once a lieutenant of the Mexican Mafia gang and made tens of thousands of dollars a month importing drugs and selling firearms and stolen cars.
Can you elaborate? Unfortunately for some reason there aren't that many firsthand accounts of what is required to become a lieutenant in a drug cartel. If you can find time to write about your experiences, it would be a substantial contribution to the public discourse.
They enter their business training already well-trained in hiding profits, exterminating rivals, and corrupting officials. Will it be "working for you" to have them rise to the top of businesses such as banking? Or will that just leave us with the current status quo?