Jeff Smith: Lessons in business ... from prison

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Fran Ontanaya Reviewer: Òscar Aznar Alemany

B.J. was one of many fellow inmates

El B. J. era un company meu a la presó

who had big plans for the future.

que tenia grans plans de futur.

He had a vision. When he got out,

Tenia un projecte. Quan en sortís

he was going to leave the dope game for good and fly straight,

deixaria el món de la droga i aniria pel bon camí

and he was actually working on merging his two passions into one vision.

i planejava combinar les seues dues passions en un projecte.

He'd spent 10,000 dollars

S'havia gastat 7.700 €

to buy a website that exclusively featured women

en un lloc web que mostrava dones

having sex on top of or inside of luxury sports cars. (Laughter)

tenint sexe en cotxes esportius de luxe. [rialles]

It was my first week in federal prison,

Era la meua primera setmana a la presó

and I was learning quickly that it wasn't what you see on TV.

i ben aviat vaig aprendre que no era com a la tele.

In fact, it was teeming with smart, ambitious men

De fet, estava ple d'homes llestos i ambiciosos

whose business instincts were in many cases

amb cap per als negocis sovint

as sharp as those of the CEOs

tan hàbils com els dels CEO

who had wined and dined me six months earlier

amb qui jo dinava sis mesos abans,

when I was a rising star in the Missouri Senate.

quan tenia un futur prometedor al Senat de Missouri.

Now, 95 percent of the guys that I was locked up with

El 95% dels meus companys de la presó

had been drug dealers on the outside,

havien estat traficants de drogues,

but when they talked about what they did,

però quan en parlaven,

they talked about it in a different jargon,

utilitzaven un argot diferent,

but the business concepts that they talked about

però els conceptes de què parlaven

weren't unlike those that you'd learn in a first year MBA class at Wharton:

eren els mateixos que els d'una clase a la universitat de Wharton:

promotional incentives, you never charge a first-time user,

incentius i promocions, no cobrar el primer cop a un nou client

focus-grouping new product launches,

centrar el llançament de productes en grups focals o

territorial expansion.

expansió territorial.

But they didn't spend a lot of time reliving the glory days.

Però no perdien temps revivint glòries passades.

For the most part, everyone was just trying to survive.

Principalment, només intentaven sobreviure.

It's a lot harder than you might think.

És molt mes difícil del que penseu.

Contrary to what most people think,

Al contrari del que molts pensen,

people don't pay, taxpayers don't pay, for your life

ni el poble ni els contribuents no et mantenen

when you're in prison. You've got to pay for your own life.

a la presó. T'has de mantenir tu.

You've got to pay for your soap, your deodorant,

T'has de pagar el sabó, el deodorant,

toothbrush, toothpaste, all of it.

el raspall i la pasta de dents... Tot.

And it's hard for a couple of reasons.

I és dur per dos motius.

First, everything's marked up 30 to 50 percent

Primer, tot és un 30-50% més car

from what you'd pay on the street,

que al carrer,

and second, you don't make a lot of money.

i, segon, no tens gaires diners.

I unloaded trucks. That was my full-time job,

Jo descarregava camions. Era la meva feina a jornada completa,

unloading trucks at a food warehouse,

descarregar camions d'un magatzem d'aliments

for $5.25, not an hour, but per month.

per 4 €, no a l'hora, sinó al mes.

So how do you survive?

I com sobrevius?

Well, you learn to hustle, all kinds of hustles.

Aprens a fer tripijocs de tot tipus.

There's legal hustles.

Hi ha tripijocs legals.

You pay everything in stamps. Those are the currency.

Ho pagues tot en segells. Eixos són la moneda.

You charge another inmate to clean his cell.

Cobres als presos per netejar-los la cel·la.

There's sort of illegal hustles, like you run a barbershop out of your cell.

Hi ha tripijocs poc legals, com muntar una barberia a la teua cel·la.

There's pretty illegal hustles: You run a tattoo parlor out of your own cell.

Hi ha tripijocs bastant il·legals, com fer tatuatges a la teua cel·la.

And there's very illegal hustles, which you smuggle in,

I hi ha tripijocs molt il·legals, com el contraban

you get smuggled in, drugs, pornography,

de drogues, pornografia o

cell phones, and just as in the outer world,

mòbils. I igual que a l'exterior,

there's a risk-reward tradeoff, so the riskier the enterprise,

hi ha una relació entre risc i recompensa. Com més risc corris,

the more profitable it can potentially be.

més profit en podràs treure.

You want a cigarette in prison? Three to five dollars.

Vols un cigarret? Entre 2 i 4 €.

You want an old-fashioned cell phone that you flip open

Vols un mòbil antic dels que s'obren

and is about as big as your head? Three hundred bucks.

i són grans com el teu cap? 230 €.

You want a dirty magazine?

Vols una revista eròtica?

Well, it can be as much as 1,000 dollars.

Pot arribar a 770 €.

So as you can probably tell, one of the defining aspects

Com podeu endevinar, a la presó

of prison life is ingenuity.

l'enginy és vital.

Whether it was concocting delicious meals

Tant si és per fer menjars deliciosos

from stolen scraps from the warehouse,

d'unes deixalles furtades del magatzem,

sculpting people's hair with toenail clippers,

per esculpir cabells amb tallaungles o

or constructing weights from boulders in laundry bags

per fer peses amb pedres en boses de roba bruta

tied on to tree limbs, prisoners learn how to make do with less,

lligades a branques d'arbre. Els presos aprenen a fer més amb menys.

and many of them want to take this ingenuity

I molts d'ells volen aprofitar aquest enginy

that they've learned to the outside

quan surten a l'exterior

and start restaurants, barber shops,

i obrir restaurants, barberies o

personal training businesses.

fer-se entrenadors personals.

But there's no training, nothing to prepare them for that,

Però no hi ha formació ni cap mena de preparació o

no rehabilitation at all in prison,

de rehabilitació a la presó,

no one to help them write a business plan,

ningú que els ajudi a fer un pla de negoci

figure out a way to translate the business concepts

per traduir les idees de negoci

they intuitively grasp into legal enterprises,

que es plantegen en empreses legals,

no access to the Internet, even.

ni tan sols accés a Internet.

And then, when they come out, most states

I quan ixen, la major part dels estats

don't even have a law prohibiting employers

no tenen una llei que prohibeixi a les empreses

from discriminating against people with a background.

discriminar la gent amb un passat.

So none of us should be surprised

Així que no us sorprengueu

that two out of three ex-offenders re-offend

que 2 de cada 3 delinqüents reincideixin

within five years.

els 5 primers anys.

Look, I lied to the Feds. I lost a year of my life from it.

Jo vaig mentir als Federals. Vaig perdre un any de la meua vida per això.

But when I came out, I vowed that I was going to do

Però quan vaig eixir, vaig jurar que faria

whatever I could to make sure

el que poguera perquè

that guys like the ones I was locked up with

els nois com els que vaig conèixer a la presó

didn't have to waste any more of their life than they already had.

no hagin de malgastar les seues vides més del que ja ho han fet.

So I hope that you'll think about helping in some way.

I espere que penseu en ajudar d'alguna manera.

The best thing we can do is figure out ways

Lo millor que podem fer és trobar com

to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit

nodrir l'esperit emprenedor

and the tremendous untapped potential in our prisons,

i l'enorme potencial desaprofitat a les presons

because if we don't, they're not going to learn any new skills

perquè, si no ho fem, no aprendran noves habilitats

that's going to help them, and they'll be right back.

que els siguin útils i tornaran a delinquir

All they'll learn on the inside is new hustles.

i a la presó només aprendran nous tripijocs.

Thank you. (Applause)

Gràcies. [aplaudiments]