TED Blog

TED Blog
December 5 2012Jeff Smith has hit some of the most brilliant business ideas he heard while spending 366 days in prison between 2009 and 2010. “[Prison] was full of intelligent and ambitious men, whose business instincts were often sharp as those CEOs who had been invited to dinner with me, six months before, when he was a rising star in the Senate Missouri, “Smith said in his speech today, shot during the New York stop @ TED TED Talent Search. “Ninety-five percent of the boys who was locked up with drug traffickers had been abroad … We talked about it in a different jargon – but talking business concepts were no different from what you learn in a first-class age MBA from Wharton. “In this speech, shares of Smith who made only $ 5.25 per month in jail, who works in a warehouse. And yet, he had to move from largely informal economy marked goods. As Smith-actions in prison, a cigarette costs $ 3, a flip phone costs $ 300 and a dirty magazine can take more than $ 1,000. “We learn quickly,” says Smith prison experience. “One of the unique aspects of prison life is naive if he was inventing delicious with pieces stolen from the store, people’s hair with clippers or sculpture is the weight of the building stones in laundry bags tied to the branches of” Tragedy tree., says Smith, is that none of this creativity and business sense is used. In this speech, Smith raises the idea: what if we train inmates in business basics such as how to write a business plan? It could change the statistics surprising that 2 out of 3 prisoners released recurrence within five years? “He lied to the feds. Perso a year of my life,” says Smith. “When I left, I promised that I would do anything for the kids as safe as I was stuck with not having to spend more of their lives than they already had. The best we can do is find a way to feed. Spirit business and a huge untapped potential in our prisons “Talk powerful Smith raises: what was the lie that says and how he ended up in jail? After the jump, a look at how Smith arrived, as well as a look at the reviews written and politician who has done after his release. (More …)