Craig Ross grew up in a rough part of Cape Town and at one point in his life worked as a drug dealer and gang member. But after going through rehab and putting that old lifestyle behind him he has managed to become a very successful entrepreneur. Craig Ross is the innovations manager of a company called RLABS which was actually started in Cape Flats where he he grew up. Since his time at RLABS in 2007 he has been able to start two global tech companies. Something that really stood out to me in this article was when he says dealing drugs was his first sort of work as an entrepreneur crediting it for his knowledge of supply and demand. Through his work as a drug dealer he also learned how to be more innovative and to deal with different profiting tools. While he doesn’t promote drug dealing it is interesting that he still sees his work as an entrepreneur today as something that can be related to his past. I really respect him for wanting to see change in his community and through his new line of work he is trying to implement that.
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Citation
Douglas, Kate. “From Drug Dealer to Global Social Entrepreneur: Craig Ross Shares His Story.” How We Made It In Africa Insight into Business in Africa RSS. DHL, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.