“There are two hundred million idiots, manipulated by a million intelligent men”

– Pablo Escobar

Life lessons from the world’s greatest drug dealer

Last winter I read The Accountant’s Story, a fascinating look at Pablo Escobar’s massive cocaine empire. While most people probably know about Escobar in a mythical sense, he’s the subject of a million rap songs, his actual life was far more complex and interesting than you had probably realized.

Despite being a criminal who was invested in a product that sells itself (drugs), Escobar worked harder than most people ever will. Here are just a few of the important life lessons that I learned from reading about one of the world’s greatest drug dealers:

From humble beginnings

Pablo Escobar grew up poor. His father was a farmer and his mother taught school. In Columbia neither of these are lucrative professions. The family lived in a bad area and were almost killed during riots when Pablo was a child. Eventually he, and his brother Roberto, were sent to live with their grandmother in Medellin.

Despite being from poverty Pablo never played the victim card. In fact, he decided to become a millionaire by the age of 22. Something he accomplished by becoming an appliance smuggler (there were huge tariffs on washing machines and other devices) and reforming Columbia’s entire contraband network.

Even if Escobar had never sold drugs he still would have managed to do quite well for himself.

Every business takes serious work

Whether you’re selling drugs or affiliate marketing, you’re going to need to put in an effort. There are certain products that are always going to be hot. People will do anything to get them. Diet crazes, some new video game, drugs, the list is endless. Yet most people would still strike out.

For every Pablo Escobar there’s a million losers selling meth out of their trailer park.

It’s the same with copywriting or sales. Some people can make a horrible product look good. Others can be handed a golden item and still screw it up. If you’re going to phone it in don’t expect to bask in the rewards.

If something as straightforward as “sell illegal drugs to fiends who will do anything to get them” takes work, a legal venture is going to be even more difficult.

Bigger rewards mean bigger risks

The higher you climb the more people try to snipe you. I’ve been following the Danger and Play Twitter war over Gamer Gate. While it’s brought a lot of exposure to the brand, thousands of deranged weirdos have started showing up to cause trouble.

As Escobar grew his cocaine industry he faced all new enemies. To deal with them he used a method called “plata o plomo.”

This translates to “silver or lead.”

He’d try to bribe his enemies and get them to leave him alone. If that didn’t work, he’d murder them.

In any war, even a cultural one, you can’t let the bad guys get away. Your enemy will always regroup and try to destroy you later. Look at every man who has tried to reason with the SJW and Gawker crowd. They’d try and compromise only to get annihilated.

If you have to fight go the distance and make sure you actually win. Compromise or side stepping an issue only delays the problem temporarily.

One man’s filth is another man’s god

My biggest beef with The Accountant’s Story was its portrayal of Pablo Escobar. The book was coauthored by his brother, Roberto, and tries to paint Escobar as some kind of misunderstood man. Pablo Escobar might have been a great warrior and businessman, but he was no saint. Thousands of innocent people were killed in various drug wars that Escobar instigated.

Still, the man was beloved by many of Columbia’s poorest people. He built new schools and soccer stadiums for them, earning himself a Robin Hood like reputation.

Mass murderer Charles Manson just got married. Joran van der Sloot knocked up his prison guard. And Che Guevara is treated like a hero.

Even if half the world hates you, you’ll still find supporters. You could anger a huge segment of the population and someone would still have your back. Being infamous is still better than being a nobody.

When 70% of the population hates you and the other 30% are your allies, you’re in a better position than most people. The guys who act like “Mr. Friendly” and try to get everyone on their side are the ones who get steamrolled.

End notes

I enjoyed this book a lot and got some quality lessons out of it.

In addition to learning some neat parallels between the drug trade and the information industry, I also discovered some really cool facts:

• Every year rats and mice would eat over one billion dollars of Escobar’s money.
• The drug operation required $2,500 worth of rubber bands to be purchased every month.
• Escobar’s Return on investment for cocaine was 20,000%.

If you’re looking for a good wintertime read, check this book out.

Click Her For More Information

“Dwarf Fortress unfolds as a series of staggeringly elaborate challenges and devastating setbacks that lead, no matter how well one plays, to eventual ruin. The goal, in the game’s main mode, is to build as much and as imaginatively as possible before some calamity — stampeding elephants, famine, vampire dwarves — wipes you out for good.”

– The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress, The New York Times

How Dwarf Fortress sparked my interest in mathematics

I’ve spent the last three years trying to master a video game called Dwarf Fortress. There are months where I play that game like a part-time job.

The game is complex and requires you to study hundreds of different inputs and conditions. There’s nothing else like it. Just to establish a base you need to know about 30 different processes.

Anyway, I’ve spent a ton of time playing this stupid game. It’s frustrating and requires extreme dedication before you can make any progress.

This isn’t something fast-paced or polished. You’re basically just looking at numbers and symbols on a screen and then deciphering their meaning. Learning thousands of symbols and what they represent isn’t instant gratification. It’s a long and slow process that requires serious time investment.

The other day I went on a nature hike. While out in the woods I saw some birds I didn’t recognize. When I got back home I consulted my Birds of the World and quickly identified them.

After doing so I had an epiphany. If I could spend countless hours mastering a frustrating game or documenting birds, I could learn to do anything.

I didn’t know anything about business and still managed to become self-employed. If I could do that, I had no excuse for not being smart enough for other fields.

Enter mathematics

I don’t know how to do math beyond a ninth grade level. Public school in Iowa isn’t exactly Phillips Academy Andover.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. can’t read and I can’t do math. It’s something that has always secretly bothered me.

For years I did nothing about this. I’d play the victim card. “Math just isn’t my thing.” And, surprise of all surprises, it didn’t help. I’d defer the blame and my math skills would continue to decline.

It got to the point where adding up large numbers was a struggle for me.

I got sick of this and decided to do something.

Within a few months my basic math skills were on-point. And after about a week of studying Calculus I’ve already learned about limits and derivatives. It isn’t that impressive, but it’s a start.

Memorizing math symbols isn’t too dissimilar from keeping track of Dwarf Fortress icons. The same basic principles apply to both. Everything is absolute. And when you get something wrong you start over. It’s actually kind of fun.

Final word

Sometimes I’ll meet people who will know everything about a certain subject. They can talk your ear off about football, video games, Chess, or philosophy. Yet they’ll claim that some other skill is too complex for them.

There are talented athletes who are intimidated by personal finance and accountants who are scared of hitting the gym.

If you can become a master of one field, there’s no reason that you can’t become competent in other areas of life.

Even if you’re good at something as trivial as a video game or poker you still possess the intelligence to expand into new territories.

“For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.”

– Roger Bacon

Some fun with math (and how to spot tall tales)

A famous basketball player has sex with 10,000 women before he dies.

An Internet guru makes $50,000 a month off $0.99 books.

You think making an extra $3,000 a month is impossible.

These are all common things that I’ve seen or heard. Some things that sound impossible are actually really easy. And others, well they’re just B.S.

Using my five dollar copy of Short-Cut Math (click here to check it out) I’m going to put an end to some common myths.

Is swooping 10,000 girls before you die impossible?

Wilt Chamberlain and a couple other guys, there’s a child actor I think, have bragged about bedding “over 10,000 women.” Assuming that you own a pocket calculator and have been on at least one date, you should be able to realize that this is unlikely. Now consider other factors, like having to play professional sports or act in movies, and you realize that this is downright impossible.

There are days where I’m too busy to eat dinner and take a shower. And I’m not spending eight hours dribbling up and down a court or shooting a major motion picture.

But let’s do the math. You hit puberty late at 18 and are killed by a falling piano at 65. That gives you 47 years of debauchery.

You’d have to hook up with 212 girls a year (I told you math was fun), or 18 a month. And that’s every month for almost 50 years.

Doing a workout routine like Strong Lifts or Starting Strength requires you to hit the gym three times a week, or 12 times a month.

You’d be lifting weights less often than Wilt Chamberlain was swooping girls, while also finding the time for his athletic career and movie roles. Like I said, some claims are just made up.

How many $0.99 eBooks do you have to sell to make $15,000?

A $0.99 eBook earns a 33% royalty on Amazon. You sell 100 copies, they give you $33. If you sold, not made but sold, $15,000 worth of eBooks you’d earn $4,950.

To even make $15,000 for yourself you’d need to sell roughly 60,000 copies. Most titles only sell 250 books in their lifetime.

Moving 60,000 books in a year is impressive. Pushing that many in a month, which some claim to do, is improbable. You’re selling 2,000 copies a day, seven days a week.

I know an author whose books have been reviewed in the New York Times and, to the best of my knowledge, they aren’t selling 2,000 every single day. Selling 60,000 eBooks a month on best dog grooming techniques, or whatever, would allow you to move over one million copies in less than a year and a half.

Is making $100,000 next year a feasible goal?

In Iowa you can buy a massive house, with a private airport, for about $200,000. However, the median household income is about $49,427. To quote the rapper Pusha T, “half a mil in twenties like a billion where I’m from.”

$49,000 is about the same as earning $1,000 a week. Breaking it down further, $200 a day. So to make $100,000 you’d need to pull roughly $400 a day.

If you hustled and worked every day, you’d have to pull $274 every 24 hours. It won’t be the easiest goal out there, but it definitely is doable.

What do millionaires earn hourly?

To earn a million dollars per year, before taxes, you’d have to earn $83,333.34 a month. If you only worker 160 hours a month, which is highly unlikely, you’d make  $520.84 an hour.

There you go. If you want to make a million bucks next year, all you have to do is earn an hourly sum equivalent to what some people pay for a month of rent.

Math is fun

The next time you hear something that sounds fishy, use some basic math. Simple division and multiplication can really save you from getting duped.