

Biggie’s Crack Commandments Applied to Entrepreneurship - xutopia
http://maximumfinder.com/2010/10/26/biggies-crack-commandments-applied-to-entrepreneurship/

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maxklein
"Never sell no crack where you rest at": I think you misunderstand this one.
What he means is that you should do the risky stuff somewhere else, where you
can step away from.

Your home is where your family is, where you are vulnerable as you sleep, you
don't want to do something like having crack-heads around there or cops
busting down the door.

In technology terms, if you have something bringing in steady money, don't go
do crazy experiments on it. If you have a project that needs to be delivered
on a certain date, don't go using a brand new untested language on it.

In essence, do the risky stuff at a spot where you can walk away with little
consequence.

~~~
taylorlb
Or to put it in the simplest terms, don't shit where you eat.

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nanijoe
"A strong word called consignment, strictly for live men, not for freshmen, if
you aint got the clientele say hell no, cause they gon want they money rain
sleet hail snow" -

In other words, don't take outside money unless you are ready to deliver, cos
the ANgels/VCs will want their money back.

~~~
coffee
Yea that's a really good point. Make sure you have some traction (clientele)
before takin' da chedda...

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brianbreslin
I like the idea of this post, any excuse to listen to biggie is a good one.
However, I think the author misinterpreted a bunch of lyrics.

Never hold weight on you. He means never keep anything incriminating on you.
e.g. don't carry drugs on your person. in entrepreneurship, i'm at a loss for
what the equivalent would be.

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ssharp
Maybe it should be taken literally. Ask Sean Parker.

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sethg
“There are two industries which call their customers ‘users’...”

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weego
That's Jay-Z and Biggie covered, the real question on everyone's lips is what
Tupac had to say about it all.

</cheeky comment I hope people don't take seriously>

~~~
hugh3
I'd like to hear from Vanilla Ice.

 _Stop, collaborate and listen_

Collaboration and listening are two of the most important aspects of
entrepreneurship.

 _Ice is back with a brand new invention_

Innovation is the key to launching a successful company

 _Something that's got a hold of me tightly, flails like a harpoon daily and
nightly_

... on second thoughts, forget Vanilla Ice. Let's hear from Morris Minor & The
Majors.

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macournoyer
Similarly, I'm reading 50th Law of Power (<http://www.amazon.com/50th-
Law-50-Cent/dp/006177460X>) How to be fearless, drawing some parallels w/ 50
cent life. Excellent book!

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DannoHung
Never get high on your own supply could easily be taken to mean, "Don't
believe your own hype." Which is probably important for both the pusher and
the entrepreneur.

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bryanh
Believe it or not, I did something similar to this a while back:
[http://bryanhelmig.com/notorious-b-i-g-crack-commandments-
in...](http://bryanhelmig.com/notorious-b-i-g-crack-commandments-in-business/)
In fact, I think this sort of abstraction is a useful way to internalize all
that "business advice" you read everywhere. I tried to twist them to make them
work with otherwise best practice business advice, because honestly, how could
one possibly straight out disagree with Biggie?

Either way, it is very cool to see someone come up with the same concept
independently!

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btilly
Who else was reminded of the classic Drug Dealers versus Software Developers?
See <http://home.xnet.com/~raven/Sysadmin/DrugSoftware.html>.

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ladon86
I think rule #10 is actually warning against scaling too quickly - don't go to
the top of the supply chain, or overspend on inventory when you're still small
and don't yet have the customer base.

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delano
This is an awesome track so it's great to see more discussion about it. For
reference, here's the previous discussion from last year:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=752878>

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taylorlb
For further exploration of the parallels between the drug game and the rest of
the game: check out the wonderful section of Freakonomics that's devoted to
breaking down how successful crack dealing gangs conduct business.

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davidu
This has been done many times before, even on HN.

And while on the surface it sounds good, there are lots of things that don't
actually apply to startups.

Still, a great song from a great artist.

~~~
coffee
I would like to hear some examples of why this only sounds good on the
surface, but in reality don't actually apply to startups...

~~~
rdl
Generally, because startups are positive-sum, and your customers and
competitors are not out to kill you (and in fact, in a lot of cases, other
firms in the same field, even if they compete, will cooperate on standards,
support each other incidentally by growing the market, and can coexist
nicely). As well, while the government sometimes gets in the way of startups,
and some things like IP law can be roadblocks, startups aren't generally doing
something explicitly illegal, and your risk of being shot by the feds on a
daily basis is a lot lower.

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eli
"Rule #8: Never keep no weight on you"

That doesn't mean don't get to close too your product. Biggie is saying you
should not take large _personal_ risks on behalf of your business.

~~~
zackattack
I agree, this author knows nothing about rap. This lyrics is about dispatching
the risk to your underlings.

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maukdaddy
Ain't nobody gonna hold me down.

~~~
mahmud
That's an unhealthy attitude in business, thinking like a victim.

