Why Pirates and Criminal Gangs Were Once Very Successful.... And What We Can Learn From Them

Well this isn't a Clickbait...

In the earlier days, Criminal Gangs were quite predominant. There was a time when Piracy was a matter of concern among traders and businessmen, with Pirates being one of the most successful criminal organizations out there. They have been quite popular in media nowadays and various movies and series have been made on them like Pirates of the Caribbean or Peaky Blinders.

However, despite their misdeeds and their overall wrong intent, as organisations, they would internally function in very unexpected ways, and showcase traits that we can indeed learn from. 

Trust and Cooperation 

via Netflix.

As you may have seen in those movies/series, trust and co-operation were indeed important in the lives of pirates and gang members.

In his wonderful book Barking Up The Wrong Tree, Eric Barker says, 

"In many ways criminals are more aware of the value of trust and cooperation than you and I. Because within the world they live, trust cannot be taken for granted."

We, as normal people, don't go to school or work everyday wondering whether someone will stab us today. Mr. Barker says,

"The stakes of trustworthiness are much higher for criminals, and they can’t call the cops when someone steals their heroin."

However some of us may disagree and believe that there is indeed shortage of trust, which is again balanced by other options those guys have, like: When someone doesn't work properly, they can simply kill him. 

But that doesn't work in the long run. It is true that in that world, everyone would respect you, merely out of fear. But no one would want to work for you. No one would like to work for someone who's punishment for late work submission would be two bullets in the head!

Rules 

The smart criminals and pirates knew that violence didn't really work and they needed better alternatives. And that's why they had certain rules.

Better rules ensure trust, which brings stability and further makes all the working easy. Mr. Barker says, 

"When you know and trust someone, it makes a transaction smoother and faster. That means more transactions happen, producing a better market and more value for everyone involved."

And this is applicable to real life as well. 

All these doesn't change the fact that they are criminals. What they do is extremely bad. But even they knew that they required rules, trust and cooperation to succeed. Pirates were once very successful because of their rules. They were internally very democratic. As a result, their system was more fair than the systems of Royal Navy ships or merchantile boats of those days, where workers were exploited to increase profits. 

"The Pirate ships were very democratic places. All the rules had to be strictly followed. The Captains could be removed for any reason, which turned them from tyrants into someone closer to servants. The only time when a Captain was in total authority was in a midst of a battle."

Merchantile ships of those times, however, were very oppressive. They would use their powers unfairly. Hence, as seen in historical record, pirates had no trouble getting people to join their ranks, while the Royal Navy resorted to compelling men to sign up.

Clever Marketing

via Disney.

Marketing was an important component in the lives of Pirates. Most of us think of pirates as disgusting, lawless maniacs or blood thirsty savages. And that is what we call as marketing.

Pirates were quite clever and cultivated an image of barbarity, potraying themselves as savage to common folks. This made their work easier and people would easily surrender as they would get terrified. And getting people to surrender was much much easier than involving in countless battles. 

It would further improve their image and make their work more easy. Plus there would be less collateral damage as well. 

Diversity

Pirates and successful criminal gangs allowed people from all racial backgrounds.And it wasn't because they had good morale or something. In his book, Mr. Barker says,

"Racism simply wasn't good business whereas treating everyone right was. It gave them an advantage in recruiting and retaining talent."

During the 1700s, 25 percent crew members in the pirate ships were black. Every crew member had voting rights and were paid equally. On the other hand, United States abolished slavery after more than 150 years. 

Conclusion

It is true that they had wrong intent. They did really bad things. But we can learn a lot from the way they functioned and the way they treated each other.

In our modern world also, trust, cooperation and order are an integral part of the successful organisations and businesses. And good rules are what makes them successful in the first place. Plus we can all see the magic of marketing. 

All the successful organisations have got diversified people working together. So, treating others around you well can bring far greater success than selfishness.