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Jeff Smith: Lessons in business ... from prison
Jeff Smith: Lliçons de negocis... des de la presó.
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Jeff Smith va passar un any a la presó. Però el que va descobrir és que dins no era com esperava: va veure en els companys presos un enginy ilimitat i bon ull per als negocis. I ens pregunta: Per què no aprofitem aquest potencial emprenedor per ajudar els expresidiaris a contribuir a la societat quan son de volta al exterior? (De l'acte TED Talent Search, TED@NewYork.)
Jeff Smith - Recovering politician
Once an up-and-coming star in the Missouri State Senate, Jeff Smith went to prison for covering up an election law violation. Since his release, he's created a new space for himself as a professor, writer, political commentator and advocate for those he was locked up with. Full bio
Once an up-and-coming star in the Missouri State Senate, Jeff Smith went to prison for covering up an election law violation. Since his release, he's created a new space for himself as a professor, writer, political commentator and advocate for those he was locked up with. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
B.J. was one of many fellow inmates
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El B. J. era un company meu a la presó
00:19
who had big plans for the future.
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que tenia grans plans de futur.
00:21
He had a vision. When he got out,
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Tenia un projecte. Quan en sortís
00:23
he was going to leave the dope game for good and fly straight,
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deixaria el món de la droga i aniria pel bon camí
00:26
and he was actually working on merging his two passions into one vision.
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i planejava combinar
les seues dues passions en un projecte.
les seues dues passions en un projecte.
00:31
He'd spent 10,000 dollars
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S'havia gastat 7.700 €
00:33
to buy a website that exclusively featured women
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en un lloc web que mostrava dones
00:36
having sex on top of or inside of luxury sports cars. (Laughter)
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tenint sexe en cotxes esportius de luxe. [rialles]
00:42
It was my first week in federal prison,
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Era la meua primera setmana a la presó
00:45
and I was learning quickly that it wasn't what you see on TV.
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i ben aviat vaig aprendre que no era com a la tele.
00:49
In fact, it was teeming with smart, ambitious men
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De fet, estava ple d'homes llestos i ambiciosos
00:52
whose business instincts were in many cases
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amb cap per als negocis sovint
00:55
as sharp as those of the CEOs
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tan hàbils com els dels CEO
00:58
who had wined and dined me six months earlier
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amb qui jo dinava sis mesos abans,
00:59
when I was a rising star in the Missouri Senate.
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quan tenia un futur prometedor al Senat de Missouri.
01:04
Now, 95 percent of the guys that I was locked up with
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El 95% dels meus companys de la presó
01:07
had been drug dealers on the outside,
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havien estat traficants de drogues,
01:10
but when they talked about what they did,
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però quan en parlaven,
01:13
they talked about it in a different jargon,
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utilitzaven un argot diferent,
01:16
but the business concepts that they talked about
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però els conceptes de què parlaven
01:17
weren't unlike those that you'd learn in a first year MBA class at Wharton:
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eren els mateixos que els d'una clase
a la universitat de Wharton:
a la universitat de Wharton:
01:21
promotional incentives, you never charge a first-time user,
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incentius i promocions, no cobrar
el primer cop a un nou client
el primer cop a un nou client
01:26
focus-grouping new product launches,
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centrar el llançament de productes en grups focals o
01:29
territorial expansion.
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expansió territorial.
01:31
But they didn't spend a lot of time reliving the glory days.
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Però no perdien temps revivint glòries passades.
01:35
For the most part, everyone was just trying to survive.
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Principalment, només intentaven sobreviure.
01:38
It's a lot harder than you might think.
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És molt mes difícil del que penseu.
01:40
Contrary to what most people think,
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Al contrari del que molts pensen,
01:43
people don't pay, taxpayers don't pay, for your life
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ni el poble ni els contribuents no et mantenen
01:46
when you're in prison. You've got to pay for your own life.
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a la presó. T'has de mantenir tu.
01:48
You've got to pay for your soap, your deodorant,
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T'has de pagar el sabó, el deodorant,
01:50
toothbrush, toothpaste, all of it.
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el raspall i la pasta de dents... Tot.
01:53
And it's hard for a couple of reasons.
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I és dur per dos motius.
01:54
First, everything's marked up 30 to 50 percent
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Primer, tot és un 30-50% més car
01:56
from what you'd pay on the street,
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que al carrer,
01:58
and second, you don't make a lot of money.
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i, segon, no tens gaires diners.
02:00
I unloaded trucks. That was my full-time job,
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Jo descarregava camions. Era la meva feina
a jornada completa,
a jornada completa,
02:03
unloading trucks at a food warehouse,
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descarregar camions d'un magatzem d'aliments
02:05
for $5.25, not an hour, but per month.
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per 4 €, no a l'hora, sinó al mes.
02:09
So how do you survive?
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I com sobrevius?
02:11
Well, you learn to hustle, all kinds of hustles.
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Aprens a fer tripijocs de tot tipus.
02:15
There's legal hustles.
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Hi ha tripijocs legals.
02:17
You pay everything in stamps. Those are the currency.
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Ho pagues tot en segells. Eixos són la moneda.
02:19
You charge another inmate to clean his cell.
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Cobres als presos per netejar-los la cel·la.
02:21
There's sort of illegal hustles, like you run a barbershop out of your cell.
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Hi ha tripijocs poc legals, com muntar
una barberia a la teua cel·la.
una barberia a la teua cel·la.
02:26
There's pretty illegal hustles: You run a tattoo parlor out of your own cell.
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Hi ha tripijocs bastant il·legals,
com fer tatuatges a la teua cel·la.
com fer tatuatges a la teua cel·la.
02:30
And there's very illegal hustles, which you smuggle in,
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I hi ha tripijocs molt il·legals, com el contraban
02:34
you get smuggled in, drugs, pornography,
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de drogues, pornografia o
02:38
cell phones, and just as in the outer world,
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mòbils. I igual que a l'exterior,
02:41
there's a risk-reward tradeoff, so the riskier the enterprise,
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hi ha una relació entre risc i recompensa.
Com més risc corris,
Com més risc corris,
02:45
the more profitable it can potentially be.
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més profit en podràs treure.
02:47
You want a cigarette in prison? Three to five dollars.
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Vols un cigarret? Entre 2 i 4 €.
02:51
You want an old-fashioned cell phone that you flip open
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Vols un mòbil antic dels que s'obren
02:55
and is about as big as your head? Three hundred bucks.
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i són grans com el teu cap? 230 €.
02:58
You want a dirty magazine?
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Vols una revista eròtica?
03:01
Well, it can be as much as 1,000 dollars.
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Pot arribar a 770 €.
03:04
So as you can probably tell, one of the defining aspects
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Com podeu endevinar, a la presó
03:07
of prison life is ingenuity.
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l'enginy és vital.
03:11
Whether it was concocting delicious meals
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Tant si és per fer menjars deliciosos
03:13
from stolen scraps from the warehouse,
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d'unes deixalles furtades del magatzem,
03:17
sculpting people's hair with toenail clippers,
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per esculpir cabells amb tallaungles o
03:21
or constructing weights from boulders in laundry bags
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per fer peses amb pedres en boses de roba bruta
03:26
tied on to tree limbs, prisoners learn how to make do with less,
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lligades a branques d'arbre. Els presos
aprenen a fer més amb menys.
aprenen a fer més amb menys.
03:31
and many of them want to take this ingenuity
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I molts d'ells volen aprofitar aquest enginy
03:34
that they've learned to the outside
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quan surten a l'exterior
03:36
and start restaurants, barber shops,
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i obrir restaurants, barberies o
03:38
personal training businesses.
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fer-se entrenadors personals.
03:40
But there's no training, nothing to prepare them for that,
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Però no hi ha formació ni cap mena de preparació o
03:44
no rehabilitation at all in prison,
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de rehabilitació a la presó,
03:46
no one to help them write a business plan,
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ningú que els ajudi a fer un pla de negoci
03:48
figure out a way to translate the business concepts
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per traduir les idees de negoci
03:52
they intuitively grasp into legal enterprises,
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que es plantegen en empreses legals,
03:55
no access to the Internet, even.
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ni tan sols accés a Internet.
03:57
And then, when they come out, most states
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I quan ixen, la major part dels estats
04:00
don't even have a law prohibiting employers
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no tenen una llei que prohibeixi a les empreses
04:02
from discriminating against people with a background.
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discriminar la gent amb un passat.
04:06
So none of us should be surprised
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Així que no us sorprengueu
04:08
that two out of three ex-offenders re-offend
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que 2 de cada 3 delinqüents reincideixin
04:11
within five years.
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els 5 primers anys.
04:14
Look, I lied to the Feds. I lost a year of my life from it.
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Jo vaig mentir als Federals. Vaig perdre
un any de la meua vida per això.
un any de la meua vida per això.
04:19
But when I came out, I vowed that I was going to do
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Però quan vaig eixir, vaig jurar que faria
04:23
whatever I could to make sure
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el que poguera perquè
04:24
that guys like the ones I was locked up with
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els nois com els que vaig conèixer a la presó
04:27
didn't have to waste any more of their life than they already had.
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no hagin de malgastar les seues vides
més del que ja ho han fet.
més del que ja ho han fet.
04:31
So I hope that you'll think about helping in some way.
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I espere que penseu en ajudar d'alguna manera.
04:35
The best thing we can do is figure out ways
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Lo millor que podem fer és trobar com
04:37
to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit
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nodrir l'esperit emprenedor
04:40
and the tremendous untapped potential in our prisons,
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i l'enorme potencial desaprofitat a les presons
04:43
because if we don't, they're not going to learn any new skills
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perquè, si no ho fem, no aprendran noves habilitats
04:46
that's going to help them, and they'll be right back.
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que els siguin útils i tornaran a delinquir
04:49
All they'll learn on the inside is new hustles.
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i a la presó només aprendran nous tripijocs.
04:52
Thank you. (Applause)
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Gràcies. [aplaudiments]
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jeff Smith - Recovering politicianOnce an up-and-coming star in the Missouri State Senate, Jeff Smith went to prison for covering up an election law violation. Since his release, he's created a new space for himself as a professor, writer, political commentator and advocate for those he was locked up with.
Why you should listen
In 2004, Jeff Smith ran for the U.S. Congressional seat vacated by Dick Gephardt, and came this close to defeating Republican Russ Carnahan. His inspiring, but ultimately unsuccessful, campaign was documented in the award-winning documentary, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?.
A year later, Smith ran for the Missouri State Senate and won in a hotly contested election. He quickly became a rising star in the legislative body, focusing on education reform and tax credits among other things. However, in 2009, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into whether Smith had lied about a violation in his 2004 campaign. He ultimately plead guilty and spent a year in jail. It’s a story he has told on This American Life.
Since being released from prison, Smith accepted a position as an assistant professor at The New School's Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy in New York City. His research focuses on political campaigns, the role of race in urban politics and the legislative process. At the same time, he writes for The Recovering Politician, City & State NY and Politico's The Arena, and is working on an memoir.
Jeff Smith | Speaker | TED.com