Success is more luck than hard work and lucky people see, create, and act on chances more often. This applies everywhere, even while learning business lessons, especially from the life of people like Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Escobar (the name itself has a certain ring to it), was one of the wealthiest drug lords of all times. He led the Medellin Cartel, which supplied 80% of the world’s cocaine in the 1980s.
“Imagine being born into a poor family, a poor city, and a poor country, and by the time you’re 27, you’ve amassed so much wealth that you can’t even count it!”
Sounds amusing, doesn’t it? And more so when you’re asked to learn from this man, the owner of such a shady operation! Well, if you delve a little deeper into his background and find what led him to fame, you’ll see how this man from humble beginnings rose to become the Cocaine King, offered to pay off his country’s $10 billion debt, and was nicknamed ‘Robin Hood.’
From car stealing to tombstone smuggling, Pablo Escobar got in to selling drugs and by the age of 35 became one of the world’s wealthiest people. A $30 billion worth man, Pablo Escobar burnt $2 million just to keep his daughter warm while $2.1 billion were allegedly consumed by rats. He owned private planes, opulent mansions, and a private zoo with about 200 animals.
Obsession with a goal aided Escobar’s empire-building process and having a clear vision of his goals aided his success. How much you can learn from someone as well-known as this man, who is still remembered more than two decades after his death, is strange but real.
Pablo was unconcerned about the idea that the DEA and the Colombian army were hunting him down.
He was unconcerned about his competitors who were ready to act if the occasion arose.
He didn’t seem to mind that death lurked around every corner.
He’d devised a strategy and was confident that no one would be able to stop him from achieving his goal.
You may truly appreciate Escobar’s wisdom if you disregard the evident ills of morality and the illegal nature of his enterprise. Market penetration, product / market equity, asset management, growth, and profits all outperform the book’s rules.
For me, the most essential of the business lessons was that you can only get anything if you truly want it and are willing to accept the truth that the larger the risk, the greater the payoff.
