Rapper Jay Z has revealed that he learned how to be a successful businessman on the streets, selling drugs. Jay runs a series of successful business ventures, his own record label and of course, his own music career. He says that at the time, he was just trying to improve his situation and he wanted to buy new clothes. He realized later on in life that his drug-dealing ways were impacting his own community negatively:
”I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer. To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up.’ Not until later [did I have regrets], when I realised the effects on the community. I started looking at the community on the whole, but in the beginning, no. I was thinking about surviving. I was thinking about improving my situation. I was thinking about buying clothes.”
Jay says he got lucky because often dealers get caught and it isn’t something that lasts for a long time. He believes you need to have an “exit strategy” when your a dealer like he was – he says he wanted to build up enough finance to buy a real business and improve his life:
”If you want to start some sort of barbershop or carwash – those were the businesses back then. Things you can get in easily to get out of [that] life. You have to have an exit strategy, because your window [for dealing drugs] is very small. You’re going to get locked up or you’re going to die.”
