I (40m) have had many jobs and many bosses, I won’t get in to specifics so I don’t accidentally out myself. The best boss I ever had was one of my first, my hookup for weed. I was 19 and in need of money because my daughter was soon to be born. My current job was minimum wage and at the time I didn’t have any prospects. I saw a billboard in the city I live in saying “If you think it’s dry now, wait until next month- DEA” I realized immediately that if supply was low, prices would go up and I knew a guy from high school who could get me quantity, at the time quantity was 1 oz. I called him, agreed on a price and purchased the oz. I sold it in quarters that night and called him back for another. He said, “If you sell it that fast why don’t you get a quarter pound? It’s less per gram and you’ll make more money.” I told him that I couldn’t afford it so he told me he would front me (loan me) the weed but I needed to be able to pay him within 4 days. I agreed and we were off to the races. I paid him within 3 days and got another one. This continued for a couple months as I slowly got more each time. Unfortunately I got robbed for a pound shortly after. It was my fault for trusting the wrong people. I was worried about what I was going to do because even though I had quickly worked my way up to that weight I was still being fronted for about half of it. I had just picked up and I had spent everything I had, still owing around 2k. I begrudgingly called my dealer and told him I had been robbed. Without skipping a beat he said, “I’ll cover the 2k if you want to stop.” I couldn’t believe how understanding he was. This is not what I expected when getting into the illegal drug trade. I have seen a lot of movies but i had never seen one where the dealer takes a 2k hit with a smile on his face. I told him that I wanted to pay him back and I could do that but I would need more weed. He told me no problem, whatever I needed and fronted me another pound. I got rid of it as quickly as I could. Within a few weeks I had paid him and made back my money. His kindness lit a fire under me and grew my business immeasurably. I realized that selling weed is a small business and just like any other small business you need to treat your customers and peers with respect and trust and you will get the same in return. It’s surprising how often I have had jobs, as I’ve gotten older, where my superiors didn’t understand how to manage people as well as my 20 year old drug dealer.