Today I read a news of a story that took place few weeks ago that made me think about how our society is going to total destruction. But the fact gave me a hint to get something good out of it.

Here’s what happened: in France, a 19-year-old Parisian “bought” a latest-generation Playstation by paying it the equivalent of about $9 instead of nearly $400. How did he do it?

In his sick genius it was sufficient to put the console in a plastic bag and weigh it on the fruit and vegetable department scale, then moved on to the automatic pay machine and paid for it as if it was apples!
Thanks to the fake label, he got out carelessly and, once back home, he immediately sold it on the internet for only 100 euros the same day. Not happy with the robbery (because of this it is) the next day he tried to redo the play in the same supermarket, whose employees this time noticed and immediately blocked.

The result was a salty fine and 5 months in prison (fortunately for him with the conditional).

Leaving aside all the unorthodox thoughts that made me squeeze my guts out of anger about how today’s society destroys the new generations and all the sociological reflexes, I still wanted to find some food for thought.

But what did this boy think he was doing? Constantly stealing consoles or expensive items by paying them for fruit to sell on the internet forever? Do you say he could be stupid enough to really think that? Yes, of course, you buy something and sell it 10 times as much. You have to make some money with that profit margin.

Excluding all penal and moral implications, however, there is no sustainability in this way of “working”. You do not have a correct supply of goods to sell, you do not know when you can resell it, you risk a battle on prices with downward strokes and if someone asks you for more pieces you cannot sell them. Only the first things that come to mind, because there would be many others.

A man who knows how to do business does not act that way. A person who knows something about it, realizes first of all a business that is sustainable and scalable over time. You must be able to schedule the growth of your business or you are dead before you start.

As Sir Richard Branson says: start small, but think big.

Remember it.