Lessons On Business From Your Favorite Gangster Flicks

It is understood that organized crime is a multi-billion dollar industry, composed of secret rackets and operating outside of the law. The documentation of some of the exploits of the gangsters who run (or ran) these organizations has been a staple in Hollywood for decades. Ever so often, the movies which portray these figures give us a glimpse of their business acumen, if you can call it that. It has been agreed that some of the underworld figures, had they focused their ingenuity on legitimate undertakings, could have been the owners or C.E.O.’s of Fortune 500 companies. The following quotes may demonstrate the truth in that assertion.

On Success

“Your success took a shot at you. How are you gonna kill it, huh? What are you gonna do, become unsuccessful? You can be successful and have enemies, or you can be unsuccessful and have friends.”

– American Gangster

On Growth, Expansion, and Branding

“The time has come. We need to expand. We need to set our own mark, and enforce it.”

- Scarface

On Doing Business With Friends

“Friendship and money…oil and water.”

– Godfather III

On Recognizing Opportunities

“Every day I was learning to score; a dollar here, a dollar there…”

– Goodfellas

On Consistency, Tenacity, Mental Toughness, and Legitimacy

“It don’t take much strength to pull a trigger, but try and get up every morning, day after day and work for a living, let’s see ’em try that! Then we’ll see who’s the real tough guy, the working man is the tough guy!”

– A Bronx Tale

On Core Values

“The most important thing in business is honesty, integrity, hard work, family, never forgetting where we came from. See, you are what you are in this world, that’s either one of two things: either you’re somebody, or you’re nobody.”

– American Gangster

On Entrepreneurship, and Market Disruption and Domination

“…nobody owns me though. That’s because I own my own company and my company sells a product that’s better than the competition, at a price that’s lower than the competition.”

– American Gangster

On Leadership

“I’ve learned, every organization needs somebody standing out front, call it the uh, a ‘figurehead’, a ‘leader’, whatever. Doesn’t matter much to me who does it”.

– Mobsters (1991)