We live in a society today which promotes a lot of violence and illegal businesses and it's unfortunate because it makes us into something we think we want to be but don't realize that there is more then meets the eye. This post is mainly targeted towards my male companions. Growing up in regent park, I had to live and learn from my peers who were a lot of times trouble makers and gang related. I cannot say that I haven't been a bad boy either. I have done quite a number of things in my teenage years that my parents would not be proud of and neither am I.
I have made a lot of unnecessary enemies over nonsense as a teen and developed a lot of bad habits which I haven't completely vanquished just yet. I have gotten into quite a number of fights, done quite a few different drugs (not anything crazy though, just the basics) and sold them as well. Today however I am proud to say that it has been a very long time since I have done any of that and I don't plan to go back. But today's youth I notice are doing these types of things at a much younger age and a lot of times, they end up on the news either dead or in jail.
Is it worth it? Don't get me wrong, certain things we cannot avoid and at the time it seemed cool and fun. It was an experience and even though it was bad, I probably wouldn't have learned from my mistakes and become the person I am today. TV and music encourage our youth to believe that being gangster is cool and the things that correlate to being a gangster.
What are the benefits of being a gangster? (or a bad boy w.e. you would like to call it). I guess being intimidating for a boy is a plus. Being popular amongst your peers and especially girls. Selling drugs is a huge profit margin. With regards to selling drugs I'll touch back on next time in a different post. Starting trouble at a young age isn't that bad because you can't really get in much trouble. But ask yourself.. are there more pro's then cons? or is it vice versa.
You become this bad boy on your block and you make enemies based on turf and or gangs. You get into fights and once one fight has started.. many will come for more based on revenge. You could get into a fight which you become paralyzed or even die. Or even get arrested over nonsense and get a criminal record which will haunt you for life And you can even end up in jail and let me tell you.. that is the last place you want to go. Any smart person will tell you that. Or even worse.. you beat up someone's brother, or cousin etc. They come back and kill one of your family member because of your doing. Is that worth it? Yeah you can easily say that you will go back and kill one of theirs but does it bring your family back? Do you really think you can continue living knowing that you are the main cause of a family or friend's death? Nothing is going to bring them back.
In life we make a lot of friends just by a simple introduction and a lot of times making new friends come with benefits as they can help you with a lot of things. However when you always try to act hard and stare people down, only causes them to hate you for no reason without even getting to know you and only cause situations that aren't worth your time. Take for example you are at a bar and you randomly start talking to the guy beside you about his thoughts on a hockey game. You make a few comments and laugh about it. And you end the night. While another guy stares down the guy at the bar and acts all hard like he wants to knock someone out. As the night ends and everyone leaves. Say if the first guy gets into some trouble outside with a random guy on the street. There is a much higher chance that the guy who he was being friendly to, will aid him in his fight. Versus the guy who acted all hard, chances are the guy from the bar will jump in to help kick his ass. Obviously things don't always turn out that way but you get where I'm going with this.
Being a gangster is a status which can only be lived for so long before something really bad happens that we will regret. It's real easy for these rappers to play a gangster because they are behind a camera with police and security around them all day and they are making loads of money which have nothing to do with being a real gangster at all. The point is at the end of the day, you could go much further in life by being more friendlier to people then being all hard and acting as though you run this town. We are men and we all strive for power and it feels good when we have that power. But isn't there a better way of obtaining power? If I could choose, I would rather be a business professional owning a business and have the cops work for me rather then trying to arrest me and living a life of a person who must always look over their shoulder.
And honestly, if you want to impress people with your status.. I am sure most people are more impressed with a successful person who has earned thousands or millions legitimately versus a person who got shot or runs a gang. Becoming a successful professional isn't easy, and it takes sometimes a long and hard time to accomplish that. But it is very easy for someone to get into a fight and start a gang. (Not as easy as I make it sound but you get the point). At the end of the day, I can promise you that keeping your eyes on the real prize (which is becoming successful and a genuinely good person) will take you much further in life and experience much more better things then being a gangster. It would be easier on top of that because you will make more friends then enemies.. and don't they say a key to success is networking? How can you network when everyone you come in contact with hates you?
