Caesar gambled, and what could have resulted in disaster became his greatest triumph yet. He was later whacked, but that was for something else.
When John Gotti was still a capo, his brother Gene and his close friend Angelo Ruggiero were members of his crew. The authorities recorded tapes of Angelo making drug deals, and the tapes also implicated Gene. Besides the legal ramifications, Gene and Angelo now had a problem with the Gambino family, since drug dealing was forbidden. The tapes were given to Gene and Angelo as evidence in their upcoming trial. Gambino boss Paul Castellano demanded that Gotti get the tapes and hand them over to him so he could review them and pass judgment.
Gotti was faced with an unreasonable ultimatum: deny his boss’s request and die for his disobedience, or hand over the tapes, which would lead to the murders of his brother and close friend.
What would you do?
Gotti ripped out a page from Caesar’s playbook and “tossed the dice high.”
He quickly planned and executed the hit of the century. In one night, Gotti decapitated the Gambino family, killing the boss and underboss in a hail of gunfire.
None of us like to take big gambles with our livelihoods. But, if given an unreasonable ultimatum in work or in life, sometimes your only real alternative is to “toss the dice high” and see where they land.
Knowing we’re creatures who grow complacent with our lot, fate may entangle us in a mess, and present us with an unreasonable ultimatum, forcing us to move on in order to lead us in a new direction.
If you’re a good person, the loss of your job usually means that a better one awaits. If you’re a person with little faith in destiny, this may seem outrageous to you. I assure you, everyone has a destiny. Don’t let cowardice interfere with yours.
Like Caesar and Gotti, toss the dice high.
LESSON 38
How to Bury the Hatchet—but Not in Someone’s Head
SOME of the greatest partners in organized crime began as enemies.
Salvatore Lucania, later known as “Lucky” Luciano, was only a teen when he started a protection racket in Manhattan. Luciano and his gang threatened and beat up kids unless they paid him a weekly tribute.
One day, a little Jewish boy named Meyer was dragging his way through the snow along downtown Hester Street when he was surrounded by Luciano and his menacing gang. Meyer was threatened with violence if he didn’t agree to Luciano’s terms. Meyer told Luciano and his gang to go fuck themselves.
This defiance should have resulted in Meyer leaving Hester Street on a stretcher. Instead, Luciano was sharp enough to realize that an alliance with the brazen little Jew might prove advantageous for himself. Luciano offered Meyer his hand. Meyer shook, and the greatest partnership in organized crime was forged. The two young men, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, went on to dominate the rackets for decades.
Lesser men would’ve exchanged blows and cursed each other for the rest of their lives.
Louisiana Mob boss Carlos Marcello was pulled over for speeding, and the hot-shot cop waved a gun in his face. At the time, Marcello had tight control over many of Louisiana’s politicians and could have had the cop transferred to Alaska. He also could have sued the city of New Orleans for harassment.
But only petty men are concerned with petty satisfactions. Marcello, a large man in a small body, drove over to the police officer’s post the next day and gave the cop a gold pistol-shaped cigarette lighter. “Since ya like to wave ya gun so much.”
The gung-ho cop was compromised, and Marcello went about his business of empire building. Marcello had a knack for turning enemies into friends.
In business, as in life, it’s important to know that even sworn enemies can resolve differences and prosper together.
[Hymie] Weiss, notably smarter, might see through his own hotheadedness to the business sense of forgiving and forgetting.
—Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone
A true enemy must be defeated. But there are few, if any, true enemies. It’s usually a question of stubborn pride and an unwillingness to compromise.
The American Civil War claimed over six hundred thousand lives, dividing the country, states, even immediate families.
After the Union won, the Confederates were granted an “unconditional pardon.”
Because of the pardon, archenemies from the North and South were able to collaborate and create a new country that, less than fifty years later, was attractive enough to lure European immigrants en masse.
Two such immigrants who arrived in New York at this time were Salvatore Lucania and Meyer Lansky. A compromise of their own would prove as monumental in the underworld as the national compromise was for our overworld.
Forgive your enemies. It’s the smart thing to do.
LESSON 39
Take That Stone from My Shoe: Firing and Hiring
THE title of this chapter is an old Sicilian saying which roughly translates as, “Get rid of that pain in my ass.” When a Mafia boss says it, it’s curtains for somebody. But the boss doesn’t kill everyone who screws up. Sometimes, a mobster is “put on the shelf.” When a don shelves someone, it’s like a papal excommunication; no one can have anything to do with the guy. He’s lost his authority, and can’t make a buck.
Gambino mobster Carmine Lombardozzi was a wild man the family was having difficulty controlling. On one occasion, Lombardozzi slugged a cop in the face. On another, he attacked an FBI agent who was snooping around at his father’s funeral.
Lombardozzi’s anger may have been justified in each case, but the family doesn’t allow its members to attack law enforcement officers, which only brings heat. His don put him on the shelf, or “broke him,” meaning he was fired.
A Man of Honour can be expelled for reasons relating to the family he belongs to or the Mafia organization as a whole. It is considered a very grave mistake for a Man of Honour to continue to deal and even talk to a member expelled for not being worthy.
—Tim Shawcross and Martin Young, Mafia Wars
A wiseguy who is shelved can be taken off the shelf if he convinces his don he’s worthy of a second shot. And in the end, Lombardozzi wasn’t beyond redemption. He lay low for a while to let the family’s anger abate, and then approached his don with a sincere apology and a promise to fall in line.
Once reinstated, Lombardozzi worked his ass off for the family, expanding the Gambinos’ sphere of influence into the stock market and becoming known as “The King of Wall Street.”
The wildest colts make the best horses.
—Plutarch, Life of Themistocles
Once taken off the shelf, Lombardozzi proved much more valuable than before, while all his don had wanted was a little more discipline.
Sometimes you’ve got to shelve or fire someone. Strictly business, right? But consider taking that former employee back if it benefits the business. The second time around, you may end up with twice the worker. The Mob does it, why shouldn’t you?
In the eleventh century, King Henry IV of Germany had a few Lombardozzi-style issues with discipline. As a result, he was excommunicated, or shelved, by Pope Gregory VII.
Unhappy with this ostracism, Henry sought an audience with his boss, the pope.
In the dead of winter, Henry crossed the Alps with his queen and young son, carrying them over mountains and gliding them across frozen lakes.
At last, Henry reached the fortress of Canossa, where the pope sat comfortably within its walls, warming his slippered feet before a fire while chewing on a lamb chop.
Wearing nothing but a shirt, Henry stood barefoot in the snow, freezing his ass off for three long days until the pope came to the door.
Moved by Henry’s sincere apology, the pope lifted the excommunication (gave Henry his job back or took him off the shelf), ripped a fart, and slammed the door.
If you mess up and know it, it’s okay to ask for your job back. Lombardozzi did it and so did a king. Just don’t go as far as Henry, you’ll end up in the nuthouse; in the Mafia, a
trunk.
By the same token, if you’re in a position to play pope or don, consider an apology. We all make mistakes.
LESSON 40
The Toughest Guys Have the Thinnest Skin: Never Embarrass Someone in Public
COMING up in the Mob, I was filled with ambition, but not with experience. When I screwed up, I was fortunate to be around old-timers who knew enough to lecture me in private, and never embarrass me in front of other people. I was able to learn my lessons without being shamed in the process.
Even with my Italian machismo, Mafia hubris, and Napoleon complex, I was always open to advice or criticism—as long as it was done with tact. If someone had exposed my mistakes in front of others, I would have been angry and ashamed, and more important I would have dismissed their sound advice, unable to think beyond my emotions.
Mobsters have emotions like everyone else; in fact, some are downright touchy. I’ve been up close and personal with killers, and they have the thinnest skin of all. They just hide their sensitivity behind a tough-guy persona. That’s why a stone-cold killer’s reaction to even a minor insult can be deadly. Knowing this, their bosses might correct them in private, but never embarrass them in public.
Employees aren’t volatile hit men, but they can still blow their stacks, suffer embarrassment, or harbor an eternal grudge.
If someone screws up, correct them in private.
LESSON 41
The Mafia Isn’t Turning Yellow, but Going Green: Keeping Up with the World
I went to prison in 1994 and came home in 2003. While I was away, billions of people began using mobile phones, iPods, and the Internet. At first, I didn’t understand the latest technology. After all, I’d been in a cave.
Although I didn’t return to The Life, I still bumped into mobsters now and then. I once ran into a wiseguy in Starbucks sitting with a latte and a laptop. I surmised that, like me, he’d also left the Mob. Not so. He asked me if I wanted to place a bet on any sports games. I said no and sipped my coffee as he rattled off some figures into his Bluetooth headset, punched a few keys on his computer, and removed his flash drive.
“You’re really up-to-date,” I said.
“Offshore gamblin’,” he replied. “I got forty people workin’ for me in Central America, an’ I never been there. This drive”—he held up the flash drive—“has a million dollars in action on it. An’ I can hide it anywhere.” He tucked it into his sock.
Time and again, I’m astonished by humankind’s latest technological advances. What hasn’t surprised me is the Mafia keeping up with the times.
In his book My FBI, former top fed Louis Freeh tells us, “Japanese crime syndicates have used Russian hackers to blast their way into police databases so they can monitor efforts to rein them in. In Italy, the Mafia hacked their way into one bank’s computer network and diverted more than $100 million in European Union aid to Mob accounts.”
It’s no surprise that the Sicilian Mafia was infiltrating profitable areas like wind and solar energy.
—Palermo magistrate Francesco Messineo, speaking at a news conference
During a raid on Colombo don “Allie Boy” Persico’s house, federal agents confiscated computer discs on which loan shark records were stored.
The Bonanno family hired an ultramodern hoodlum, “Tommy Computer,” who regularly swept their social clubs for bugs.
Other hip mobsters joined the tech revolution, realized the profit potential, and went legit. They currently reside in oceanfront estates without the worry of losing their homes to the IRS.
New ideas appear every day, and new millionaires along with them. Smart mobsters stay on the cutting edge, and I don’t mean by sharpening switchblades.
Keep up with the times.
LESSON 42
Flashiness Can End in the Flash of a Gun: Modesty
AL Capone and John Gotti both seized control of their respective crime families, wound up in front of cameras, loved the attention, and started to get flashy. Other mobsters laughed behind their backs; some tried to kill them, but Capone and Gotti both managed to die of natural causes. Other flashy mobsters haven’t been so lucky.
Colombo capo William Cutolo was nicknamed “Wild Bill.” America had a legendary gunfighter, Wild Bill Hickok. “Wild Bill” Cutolo believed he was also a legend and began to imitate the gunfighter by wearing cowboy boots, gaudy belt buckles, and ten-gallon hats. Sporting such attire in the middle of Bensonhurst is about as absurd as Clint Eastwood wearing a white Prada sweat suit, gold necklace, and diamond pinky ring in a spaghetti western.
Wild Bill exposed himself to the insults and ridicule of other mobsters, but he was a tough guy, a big earner, and the bosses liked him, so his antics were tolerated.
Other mobsters didn’t seem to like Legs [Diamond] much. Jealousy might have had something to do with it. He was the snappiest dressed mobster of the era. . . . He traveled around town by limousine, with an entourage of bodyguards that made him seem like a dignitary. And he almost always had a pretty dame on his arm.
—T. J. English, Paddy Whacked
I met Wild Bill in a detention center while he was awaiting trial for murder and racketeering. Bill managed to stand out from other cons, with coiffed hair, manicured nails, and shiny shoes, the only ones I ever saw in prison. I still don’t know where he got them.
Before Bill went on trial, another wiseguy told him, in a nice way, that if he happened to win, to count his blessings, accept that he didn’t have many friends on the street because of his airs, and pack it in.
Bill was acquitted at trial. But he disregarded the other wiseguy’s advice, and returned to the action on the streets of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, while Bill was away, his earning power had been reduced, as had the boss’s patience for his arrogance and flamboyance.
On May 26, 1999, Bill slid into his Benz and was never seen again—until the FBI discovered his remains. Bill’s killers may rattle off a dozen reasons why he died, and the FBI may have even more ideas. But the root of Bill’s demise lies in the fact that nobody likes a flashy guy. First chance your enemies get, you’re gone in a flash.
The traditional mafioso . . . avoided any display of his own power that might provoke the envy of his rivals.
—Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business
If you’re middle management, loud, arrogant, and full of pomp, your boss will put up with you as long as you’re turning out the numbers. As soon as you’re in a slump, you’re gone.
Tone it down.
In the ancient world, Rome was warring with Carthage. The great Roman general Scipio Africanus took the fight to the enemy and defeated Carthage on its home turf.
Following his smashing victory, Scipio returned to Rome, where he was given a victory parade.
As Scipio rode along the parade route, Romans reached out to touch him, threw garlands, and blew kisses.
Scipio knew ahead of time that such attention would inflate his ego. To keep himself grounded, he appointed a slave to stand beside him in his chariot and whisper in his ear, “Remember, you’re only a man.”
Under the same circumstances, Wild Bill would’ve hired Bon Jovi to stand beside him in his chariot and sing, “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride . . .”
LESSON 43
Why a Mobster Makes His Son Pull the Trigger: Confidence Building
IN 1991, at the height of the Colombo War, Anthony Liberatore drove his son Chris to a Brooklyn bagel shop. Anthony waited in the car while Chris went into the shop and shot an eighteen-year-old worker twice in the face. The two imbeciles killed an innocent kid believing he was a member of the enemy faction.
As crazy as this sounds, a number of mobsters have brought their teenage sons along on a hit, sort of like Take Your Kid to Work Day. The idea is to break the son into The Life and build his confidence.
Nicer mobsters have a less violent approach to confidence building.
When I was young, a wiseguy took me to my first sit-down. Although I had no authority to speak at th
e table, he asked my opinion afterward. Here I was, a cub among lions, and he wanted to know what I thought.
For me, the confidence boost proved invaluable. What did he gain? The Mob’s earning pyramid ensured that he’d benefit from my confidence.
Take your employees along to a big meeting. Ask their opinion afterward. Let them take the lead on a project. Trust them with more than they believe themselves capable of doing. It’s how confidence is built. You and your company will be the immediate beneficiaries.
It’s chiefly to my confidence in men and my ability to inspire their confidence in me that I owe my success in life.
—John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
A supervisor or manager should assess employees’ potential, then push them outside their comfort zone. Trust them with more than they’re currently responsible for.
Most employees will meet the challenge. In this manner, you strengthen employee confidence and benefit from their increased potential, like the wiseguy who brought me along to a sit. In time, I made the guy millions.
Just about everyone has heard of Alexander the Great, conqueror of the ancient world. Fewer people know about his father, King Philip II of Macedon.
When King Philip began to expand his empire, his greatest obstacle was Athens. To stem Philip’s aggression, the Athenians led an army against him at the Battle of Chaeronea in August of 338 BCE.
Before the battle, Philip appointed his eighteen-year-old son, Alexander, to command the Macedonian cavalry. Not much was at stake, only life and death and the history of the world.
Would you gamble on a teen? My own father wouldn’t lend me the keys to his car.
Philip’s calculated risk paid off in spades. Young Alexander’s cavalry played a major role in the Macedonian victory over Athens, and Philip’s decision to entrust his son with more responsibility than the teen was used to proved instrumental in building Alexander’s confidence.
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