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Jeff Smith: Lessons in business ... from prison
Jeff Smith: Lecciones empresariales... desde la cárcel
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Jeff Smith pasó un año en prisión. Pero dentro descubrió un ingenio ilimitado y una sabiduría empresarial. Se pregunta: ¿por qué no aprovechar este potencial empresarial para ayudar a ex-convictos a contribuir a la sociedad una vez que estén nuevamente fuera? (Desde el evento TED Talent Search en 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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B.J. fue uno de los tantos compañeros de prisión
00:19
who had big plans for the future.
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que tenía grandes planes para el futuro.
00:21
He had a vision. When he got out,
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Tenía una visión. Cuando saliera
00:23
he was going to leave the dope game for good and fly straight,
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dejaría la droga para siempre y se encaminaría,
00:26
and he was actually working on merging his two passions into one vision.
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y estaba trabajando para amalgamar sus dos pasiones en una visión.
00:31
He'd spent 10,000 dollars
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Gastó 10 000 dólares
00:33
to buy a website that exclusively featured women
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para comprar un sitio web de mujeres que solo
00:36
having sex on top of or inside of luxury sports cars. (Laughter)
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tienen sexo en autos deportivos de lujo. (Risas)
00:42
It was my first week in federal prison,
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Era mi primera semana en la prisión federal
00:45
and I was learning quickly that it wasn't what you see on TV.
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y aprendí rápidamente que no era lo que se ve en la TV.
00:49
In fact, it was teeming with smart, ambitious men
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De hecho, estaba lleno de hombres ambiciosos e inteligentes
00:52
whose business instincts were in many cases
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cuyos instintos empresariales eran en muchos casos
00:55
as sharp as those of the CEOs
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tan agudos como los de esos directivos
00:58
who had wined and dined me six months earlier
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que cenaron conmigo 6 meses antes
00:59
when I was a rising star in the Missouri Senate.
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cuando era una "estrella en ascenso" en el Senado de Missouri.
01:04
Now, 95 percent of the guys that I was locked up with
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El 95 % de los tipos con los que estaba encerrado
01:07
had been drug dealers on the outside,
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habían sido traficantes de drogas.
01:10
but when they talked about what they did,
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Cuando hablaban de lo que hacían,
01:13
they talked about it in a different jargon,
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hablaban en una jerga diferente,
01:16
but the business concepts that they talked about
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pero los conceptos de negocio de los que hablaban
01:17
weren't unlike those that you'd learn in a first year MBA class at Wharton:
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no eran diferentes de los que uno aprende en el primer año del MBA de Wharton:
01:21
promotional incentives, you never charge a first-time user,
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incentivos promocionales, nunca cobrar a un usuario la primera vez,
01:26
focus-grouping new product launches,
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grupos focales para el lanzamiento de nuevos productos
01:29
territorial expansion.
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expansión territorial.
01:31
But they didn't spend a lot of time reliving the glory days.
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No pasaban mucho tiempo reviviendo sus días de gloria.
01:35
For the most part, everyone was just trying to survive.
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En su mayor parte, todos trataban de sobrevivir.
01:38
It's a lot harder than you might think.
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Es mucho más difícil de lo que podría pensarse.
01:40
Contrary to what most people think,
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Contrariamente a lo que mucha gente piensa,
01:43
people don't pay, taxpayers don't pay, for your life
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la gente no paga, los contribuyentes no pagan tu estadía
01:46
when you're in prison. You've got to pay for your own life.
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en la prisión. Uno tiene que pagarse su propia estadía.
01:48
You've got to pay for your soap, your deodorant,
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Uno tiene que pagar su propia sopa, desodorante,
01:50
toothbrush, toothpaste, all of it.
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cepillo y pasta dental, todo.
01:53
And it's hard for a couple of reasons.
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Y es difícil por un par de razones.
01:54
First, everything's marked up 30 to 50 percent
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Primero, todo cuesta de 30% a 50% más
01:56
from what you'd pay on the street,
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que lo que se paga en la calle,
01:58
and second, you don't make a lot of money.
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y, segundo, no se gana mucho dinero.
02:00
I unloaded trucks. That was my full-time job,
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Yo descargaba camiones. Ese era mi empleo a tiempo completo,
02:03
unloading trucks at a food warehouse,
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descargar camiones en un almacén de alimentos,
02:05
for $5.25, not an hour, but per month.
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por USD 5,25 no por hora, por mes.
02:09
So how do you survive?
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¿Cómo se sobrevive?
02:11
Well, you learn to hustle, all kinds of hustles.
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Bueno, se aprenden recursos, de todo tipo.
02:15
There's legal hustles.
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Algunos son legales.
02:17
You pay everything in stamps. Those are the currency.
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Todo se paga con estampillas. Esa es la moneda.
02:19
You charge another inmate to clean his cell.
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Le cobras a otro preso por limpiar su celda.
02:21
There's sort of illegal hustles, like you run a barbershop out of your cell.
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Hay recursos ilegales como tener una barbería de tu celda.
02:26
There's pretty illegal hustles: You run a tattoo parlor out of your own cell.
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Otros son bastante ilegales: hacer tatuajes en tu propia celda.
02:30
And there's very illegal hustles, which you smuggle in,
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Y hay otros muy ilegales como contrabandear
02:34
you get smuggled in, drugs, pornography,
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pasar de contrabando drogas, pornografía,
02:38
cell phones, and just as in the outer world,
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celulares y, como en el mundo exterior,
02:41
there's a risk-reward tradeoff, so the riskier the enterprise,
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hay un balance entre riesgo y recompensa, cuanto más arriesgada la empresa
02:45
the more profitable it can potentially be.
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más lucrativa puede ser en potencia.
02:47
You want a cigarette in prison? Three to five dollars.
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¿Quieres un cigarrillo en la prisión? De 3 a 5 dólares.
02:51
You want an old-fashioned cell phone that you flip open
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¿Quieres un teléfono pasado de moda de esos que son
02:55
and is about as big as your head? Three hundred bucks.
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tan grandes como tu cabeza? 300 dólares.
02:58
You want a dirty magazine?
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¿Quieres pornografía?
03:01
Well, it can be as much as 1,000 dollars.
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Bueno, puede costar unos 1000 dólares.
03:04
So as you can probably tell, one of the defining aspects
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Se nota entonces que uno de los aspectos que define
03:07
of prison life is ingenuity.
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la vida en prisión es el ingenio.
03:11
Whether it was concocting delicious meals
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Ya sea inventando comidas deliciosas
03:13
from stolen scraps from the warehouse,
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con restos robados de la bodega,
03:17
sculpting people's hair with toenail clippers,
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o esculpiendo cabellos con cortaúñas
03:21
or constructing weights from boulders in laundry bags
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o construyendo pesas con piedras en bolsas de lavandería
03:26
tied on to tree limbs, prisoners learn how to make do with less,
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atadas a las ramas de un árbol, los prisioneros aprenden a conformarse con menos
03:31
and many of them want to take this ingenuity
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y muchos quieren llevar ese ingenio
03:34
that they've learned to the outside
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aprendido al mundo exterior
03:36
and start restaurants, barber shops,
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y lanzar restaurantes, peluquerías,
03:38
personal training businesses.
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gimnasios.
03:40
But there's no training, nothing to prepare them for that,
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Pero no hay capacitaciones, nada que los prepare para eso,
03:44
no rehabilitation at all in prison,
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no hay rehabilitación en la prisión,
03:46
no one to help them write a business plan,
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nadie que les ayude a armar un plan de negocios,
03:48
figure out a way to translate the business concepts
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a descubrir la manera de traducir los conceptos empresariales
03:52
they intuitively grasp into legal enterprises,
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que tienen de manera intuitiva en empresas legales
03:55
no access to the Internet, even.
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no hay acceso a Internet, nada.
03:57
And then, when they come out, most states
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Y luego, cuando salen, la mayoría de los estados
04:00
don't even have a law prohibiting employers
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ni siquiera tienen leyes que impidan la discriminación
04:02
from discriminating against people with a background.
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de los empleadores contra las personas con antecedentes.
04:06
So none of us should be surprised
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Así que nadie debería sorprenderse
04:08
that two out of three ex-offenders re-offend
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de que 2 de cada 3 ex-convictos reincidan
04:11
within five years.
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en los siguientes 5 años.
04:14
Look, I lied to the Feds. I lost a year of my life from it.
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Miren, he mentido a los federales. Perdí un año de mi vida allí.
04:19
But when I came out, I vowed that I was going to do
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Pero cuando salí, prometí que haría
04:23
whatever I could to make sure
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lo que pudiese para asegurar
04:24
that guys like the ones I was locked up with
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que los tipos como los que conocí en prisión
04:27
didn't have to waste any more of their life than they already had.
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no tengan que perder más tiempo de sus vidas del que ya perdieron.
04:31
So I hope that you'll think about helping in some way.
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Por eso espero que piensen en ayudar de alguna manera.
04:35
The best thing we can do is figure out ways
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Lo mejor que podemos hacer es imaginar maneras
04:37
to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit
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de nutrir el espíritu empresarial
04:40
and the tremendous untapped potential in our prisons,
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y el tremendo potencial inexplorado de las prisiones,
04:43
because if we don't, they're not going to learn any new skills
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porque, de no hacerlo, no van a aprender nuevas habilidades
04:46
that's going to help them, and they'll be right back.
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que les sean de ayuda y volverán a la cárcel.
04:49
All they'll learn on the inside is new hustles.
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Y dentro solo aprenderán a delinquir.
04:52
Thank you. (Applause)
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Gracias. (Aplausos)
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