By Xiao Xu, Bit of News, May 17, 2015
By the time he was sentenced to life in prison in 1996, “Freeway” Rick Ross had sold over $1 billion worth of cocaine in the Los Angeles area.
Ross began selling drugs after failing to get a tennis scholarship, and soon amassed an empire with thousands of employees spanning into Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere in the United States.
Huffington Post called his success deeply contradictory:
“He was very successful at business, something that most Americans admire, but illegally distributed an addictive drug to millions of people at a huge cost in terms of public health, violence and lives destroyed.”
But building a business–albeit illegal–empire of that size doesn’t come easy. It requires an unbelievable amount of organization and leadership, something Ross isn’t bad at. In an interview with blogger Ashton Altucher, the drug king offered some surprisingly good leadership lessons on how to inspire people to want to work for you:
1. Make the people working for you even more successful than you are. The biggest motivation you can give someone is helping them become more successful. They might not always make it, but it will show everyone else that you care about everyone getting a big cut of the success.
According to an Esquire article, whenever Ross would recruit a new dealer, Ross took the time to teach him how to “cook” and become just as successful as he is.
“I wanted the same for them and for them to even surpass me.”
2. Don’t be a show off. Not many people like working for a show off. Hollywood likes to portray drug dealers as flashy gang bangers wearing tons of jewelry and talking in obnoxious slangs, but the most successful ones are very low key. This is how Rick Ross operated. It kept other dealers from becoming jealous of him and being a potential threat.
In his autobiography, Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, Ross said that this low-key lifestyle kept him safe:
“My best protection, however, was that nobody had a clue I was making money… A few of the homies who sold PCP were starting to suspect that I was doing well in the game, although no body knew for sure, because I handled business transactions as privately as I could.”
3. Re-invest into the game for long-term success. “Instead of buying cars and fancy stuff, I took my money and I went and bought more and more dope.”
By re-investing his money into his business, Ross set his empire up for compound success over the long term.
Besides saving money, the low-key lifestyle also made it almost impossible for the police to track him. For a long time, the L.A. Police Department had no idea what he looked like because he never flaunted his face.
4. Be honest with people. It sounds strange that honesty is mentioned in a business that thrives on lawlessness. But in a trafficking deal without the protection of lawyers and police, there’s only one thing that people look for: your words.
If you go back on your word, or are dishonest about what you’re selling, people won’t come back.
“If there was any funny business, I’d rather not deal with them anymore, or be very careful with them in the future.”
5. Keep it simple, stupid. Once the business started flourishing, Ross stayed out of the way and let his people do the work. He let them handle transactions, create new deals, and traffic the goods, and only stepped in during emergencies.
“Everyone knew what they had to do.” And if they didn’t, they’re no longer part of the business.
Ross later got his life sentence reduced to 20 years. After he got out, Ross used the reading skills he had learned in prison to create a non-profit foundation to help underprivileged youth. He has also written a book and is now an inspirational speaker.
By the time he was sentenced to life in prison in 1996, “Freeway” Rick Ross had sold over $1 billion worth of cocaine in the Los Angeles area.
Ross began selling drugs after failing to get a tennis scholarship, and soon amassed an empire with thousands of employees spanning into Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere in the United States.
Huffington Post called his success deeply contradictory:
“He was very successful at business, something that most Americans admire, but illegally distributed an addictive drug to millions of people at a huge cost in terms of public health, violence and lives destroyed.”
But building a business–albeit illegal–empire of that size doesn’t come easy. It requires an unbelievable amount of organization and leadership, something Ross isn’t bad at. In an interview with blogger Ashton Altucher, the drug king offered some surprisingly good leadership lessons on how to inspire people to want to work for you:
1. Make the people working for you even more successful than you are. The biggest motivation you can give someone is helping them become more successful. They might not always make it, but it will show everyone else that you care about everyone getting a big cut of the success.
According to an Esquire article, whenever Ross would recruit a new dealer, Ross took the time to teach him how to “cook” and become just as successful as he is.
“I wanted the same for them and for them to even surpass me.”
2. Don’t be a show off. Not many people like working for a show off. Hollywood likes to portray drug dealers as flashy gang bangers wearing tons of jewelry and talking in obnoxious slangs, but the most successful ones are very low key. This is how Rick Ross operated. It kept other dealers from becoming jealous of him and being a potential threat.
In his autobiography, Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, Ross said that this low-key lifestyle kept him safe:
“My best protection, however, was that nobody had a clue I was making money… A few of the homies who sold PCP were starting to suspect that I was doing well in the game, although no body knew for sure, because I handled business transactions as privately as I could.”
3. Re-invest into the game for long-term success. “Instead of buying cars and fancy stuff, I took my money and I went and bought more and more dope.”
By re-investing his money into his business, Ross set his empire up for compound success over the long term.
Besides saving money, the low-key lifestyle also made it almost impossible for the police to track him. For a long time, the L.A. Police Department had no idea what he looked like because he never flaunted his face.
4. Be honest with people. It sounds strange that honesty is mentioned in a business that thrives on lawlessness. But in a trafficking deal without the protection of lawyers and police, there’s only one thing that people look for: your words.
If you go back on your word, or are dishonest about what you’re selling, people won’t come back.
“If there was any funny business, I’d rather not deal with them anymore, or be very careful with them in the future.”
5. Keep it simple, stupid. Once the business started flourishing, Ross stayed out of the way and let his people do the work. He let them handle transactions, create new deals, and traffic the goods, and only stepped in during emergencies.
“Everyone knew what they had to do.” And if they didn’t, they’re no longer part of the business.
Ross later got his life sentence reduced to 20 years. After he got out, Ross used the reading skills he had learned in prison to create a non-profit foundation to help underprivileged youth. He has also written a book and is now an inspirational speaker.
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