Jeff Smith: Lessons in business ... from prison

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: David J. Kreps Finnemann Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

B.J. was one of many fellow inmates

B.J. var en af de mange medfanger

who had big plans for the future.

der havde store planer for fremtiden.

He had a vision. When he got out,

Han havde en vision. Når han kom ud,

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

ville han forlade stofferne for bestandig og han ville leve stoffri,

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

og han arbejdede faktisk med at sammenlægge sine to visioner til et.

He'd spent 10,000 dollars

Han havde brugt 10.000 dollars

to buy a website that exclusively featured women

til at købe en hjemmeside der udelukkende viste kvinder

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

der havde sex oven på eller inden i en luksus sportsvogn. (Latter)

It was my first week in federal prison,

Det var min første uge i statsfængslet,

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

og jeg lærte hurtigt at det ikke var det man så på TV.

In fact, it was teeming with smart, ambitious men

Faktisk, myldrede det med smarte, ambitiøse mænd

whose business instincts were in many cases

hvis sans for forretning i mange tilfælde

as sharp as those of the CEOs

var lige så skarpe som dem hos de administrerende direktører

who had wined and dined me six months earlier

der havde haft mig med ude og spise og drikke seks måneder tidligere,

when I was a rising star in the Missouri Senate.

da jeg var en stigende stjerne i senatet i Missouri.

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

Nu havde 95 procent af fyrene jeg var låst inde med

had been drug dealers on the outside,

været narkohandlere uden for murene,

but when they talked about what they did,

men da de talte om hvad de gjorde,

they talked about it in a different jargon,

talte de om det i en anden jargon,

but the business concepts that they talked about

men virksomhedskoncepterne som de talte om

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

var ikke ulig dem man lærte om i det første års undervisning af en MBA ved Wharton:

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

slagsfremmende incitamenter, man afkræver aldrig betaling fra en førstegangs kunde,

focus-grouping new product launches,

fokusgrupper til lanceringen af nye produkter,

territorial expansion.

territorial udvidelse.

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

Men de brugte ikke meget tid på at genopleve hæder dagene.

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

For det meste, prøvede alle bare at overleve.

It's a lot harder than you might think.

Det er meget sværere end man skulle tro.

Contrary to what most people think,

I modsætning til hvad de fleste folk tror,

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

betaler folk ikke, skatteborgere betaler ikke for ens liv

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

når man er i fængsel. Man skal betale for sit eget liv.

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

Man skal betale for sæbe, ens deodorant,

toothbrush, toothpaste, all of it.

tandbørste, tandpasta, det hele.

And it's hard for a couple of reasons.

Og det er svært af flere årsager.

First, everything's marked up 30 to 50 percent

For det første, er prisen sat 30 til 50 procent op

from what you'd pay on the street,

i forhold til det man betaler udenfor,

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

og for det andet, tjener man ikke mange penge.

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

Jeg lossede lastbiler. Det var mit fuldtids job,

unloading trucks at a food warehouse,

at losse lastbiler ved et lager,

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

for 5,25 dollars, ikke i timen, men om måneden.

So how do you survive?

Så hvordan overlever man?

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

Jamen, man lærer at svindle, alle mulige slags svindel.

There's legal hustles.

Der er lovlig svindel.

You pay everything in stamps. Those are the currency.

Man betaler alt i frimærker. Det er den gangbare møntenhed.

You charge another inmate to clean his cell.

Man afkræver en anden indsat for at rengøre hans celle.

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

Der er ulovlig svindel, som at man har en frisørsalon i ens celle.

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

Der er rigelig med ulovlig svindel: Man har en tatoveringsforretning i ens celle.

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

Og der er meget ulovlig svindel, hvor man smugler,

you get smuggled in, drugs, pornography,

man får smuglet ind, narko, porno,

cell phones, and just as in the outer world,

mobiltelefoner, og ligesom i verden udenfor,

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

er der en risiko-præmie afvejning, så jo mere risikabel et foretagende er,

the more profitable it can potentially be.

jo mere profitabel er det potentielt.

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

Vil man have en cigaret i fængslet? Tre til fem dollars.

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

Vil man have en gammeldags mobiltelefon man kan klappe op

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

og er på størrelse med ens hoved? Tre hundrede dask.

You want a dirty magazine?

Vil man have frække blade?

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

Jamen, det kan være så meget som 1.000 dollars.

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

Så I kan nok se, at en af de afgørende sider

of prison life is ingenuity.

ved livet i fængslet er opfindsomhed.

Whether it was concocting delicious meals

Om det var at udpønse lækre måltider

from stolen scraps from the warehouse,

fra stjålne madrester fra varehuset,

sculpting people's hair with toenail clippers,

at forme folks hår med neglesakse,

or constructing weights from boulders in laundry bags

eller konstruere vægte fra sten i vasketøjsposer

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

bundet til tre lemmer, fanger lærer hvordan man klarer sig med mindre,

and many of them want to take this ingenuity

og mange af dem vil tage denne opfindsomhed

that they've learned to the outside

som de har lært til verden udenfor

and start restaurants, barber shops,

og starte restauranter, frisører,

personal training businesses.

personlig træning virksomheder.

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

Men der er ingen træning, intet der forbereder dem på det,

no rehabilitation at all in prison,

ingen rehabilitation overhovedet i fængslet,

no one to help them write a business plan,

intet til at hjælpe dem med at skrive en forretningsplan,

figure out a way to translate the business concepts

finde på en måde til at oversætte forretningskoncepterne

they intuitively grasp into legal enterprises,

de intuitivt forstår til legale foretagender,

no access to the Internet, even.

selv ingen adgang til internettet.

And then, when they come out, most states

Og så, når de kommer ud, har de fleste stater

don't even have a law prohibiting employers

ikke engang en lov der forbyder arbejdsgivere

from discriminating against people with a background.

fra at diskriminere mod folk der har en baggrund.

So none of us should be surprised

Så ingen af os bør være overraskede

that two out of three ex-offenders re-offend

over at to ud af tre tidligere lovovertrædere begår en forseelse igen

within five years.

inden for fem år.

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

Hør engang, jeg løj for banksystemet. Jeg tabte et år af mit liv på grund af det.

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

Men da jeg kom ud, sværgede jeg at jeg ville gøre

whatever I could to make sure

hvad jeg kunne for at sørge for

that guys like the ones I was locked up with

at fyre som dem jeg var låst inde med

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

ikke skulle spilde mere af deres liv end de allerede havde gjort.

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

Så jeg håber at I vil tænke på at hjælpe dem på en eller anden måde.

The best thing we can do is figure out ways

Det bedste vi kan gøre er at finde på måder

to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit

til at pleje den foretagsomme ånd

and the tremendous untapped potential in our prisons,

og det enorme uudnyttede potentiale i vores fængsler,

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

fordi hvis vi ikke gør det, kommer de ikke til at lære nogen nye færdigheder

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

der kommer til at hjælpe dem, og så kommer de lige tilbage.

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

Det eneste de lærer indenfor er nye svindelnumre.

Thank you. (Applause)

Tak. (Bifald)