Savages

34

“Don’t fuck with people at all”

Is a central tenet of Ben’s personal as well as business philosophy.

Ben is a self-described Baddhist, i.e., a “bad Buddhist,” because he sometimes eats meat, gets angry, rarely meditates, and definitely does consciousness-altering substances. But the basics of Buddhism, Ben is down with—

Do no harm

Which Ben articulates as

Don’t fuck with people.

And he doesn’t think the Dalai Lama would argue with that.

In addition to the interest-accruing deposits in the karma bank, it’s been a very successful business strategy, the very foundation of the very successful Ben and Chonny’s brand.

A brand it is.

You go into B&C’s as either a customer or a sales partner, you know exactly what you’re getting:

As a customer—

Top-o’-the-line, not-to-be-bettered, safe, healthy, organic, prime hydro at a fair price

As a sales partner—

a superb product that sells itself

profit participation

excellent working conditions

day care

health care

Yes, health care, written through Ben’s corporation that e-markets Third World crafts made by Third World women.

You see, Ben does adhere to the Buddhist belief in making a “right living,” which mixes in quite nicely with his childhood socialist indoctrination and his somewhat Reaganite entrepreneurial sense.

Not for Ben the rigid, top-down vertical integration of the Baja Cartel. B&C (and the ampersand is everything, in Ben’s opinion) has a loosely organized, horizontal, flow-out (“Money doesn’t shoot upward to then trickle down, it flows out”) pseudostructure that allows for maximum freedom and creativity.

Ben’s logic on this is that it’s impossible to organize marijuana dealers anyway (for reasons that are probably obvious), so why try to herd (cool) cats when they do better on their own, anyway. So—

You wanna sell dope? Cool. You don’t? Cool. You wanna sell a lot? Cool. You wanna sell a little? Cool. Maternity leave? Cool. Paternity leave? Cool. You set your own targets, make your own budgets, set your own salary, it’s all cool. You just order however much you want from the Mother Ship and then do your own thing.

This simple philosophy, plus the care he takes in growing his primo product, has made Ben a very rich young man.

The King of Hydro.

The King of Cool.