“You gotta keep your shit tight, you hear me?” barked a mean looking man with a Spanish accent at shoe tycoon Steve Madden. It was Madden’s first day in prison–after being sentenced for insider trading–and with his severe ADHD, Madden had already angered his new cellmate, Hernando, by dumping all his stuff on the floor of their cell.
Self-help giant, Napoleon Hill, wrote in Think and Grow Rich that some of the most successful leaders in history–Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King–served time behind bars. These leaders, Hill argued, used their time in prison as an opportunity for reflection, growth, and strategizing, which ultimately contributed to their later successes.
In recent years, Steve Madden the shoe magnate and Martha Stewart the lifestyle icon are two examples of business leaders who have been charged with insider trading and have had to spend time in prison away from their business tribes in order to pay their debts to society.
According to his autobiography, The Cobbler, Madden learned three main things in prison. First, he learned to stay organized and “keep his shit tight.” Second, he had never worked out with weights before, but the ability to shape his body was one of the only decisions he could control in prison. And third, he became a voracious reader, and books gave him something bigger than himself to think about. Upon being released from prison, Madden diversified his tribe, built it bigger than ever, and became a billionaire.
Martha Stewart served 5 months in prison in West Virginia. She requested kitchen duty, but was assigned the task instead of mopping the floors and cleaning the toilets of the prison officers. Stewart has steadfastly refused to acknowledge any kind of “making lemons from lemonade” aspect to her time in prison. But she planned her comeback while incarcerated, and is now more beloved by an even bigger audience than ever before.
The point isn’t that we should glamorize prison. But rather, we should ask ourselves, what are some alternative ways we too can develop high levels of self-control, humility, and resilience to aid us in our missions?
