NPR.

At the age of 13, Cosmarte made his first drug deal.

He bought an ounce of marijuana, he bagged it up and he sold it to his school friends,

making nearly $300 that week.

I was just supplying the man.

I was supplying the man.

I don't know, it just came naturally to me.

And I feel like that's how entrepreneurship got to me too in the same sort of way.

Cos grew up on the lower east side in New York City in the 1980s and 90s.

And as a kid, he wanted to be rich like his cousins and the older guys he saw on the street.

Some of them had chains and their friends had the fancy cars and beautiful women and giving

out single dollar bills to kids.

I would run up to them and ask them for dollars.

And the fastest way to get rich that cost new was by dealing drugs.

He was so good at it that he soon became a prolific drug dealer with an extensive cocaine

delivery network.

But now he's firmly on the legal side of business.

He found in his own fitness company with plans to expand.

And in the world of criminal justice and advocacy, you do hear stories like Cosmarte's

from time to time.

A drug dealer turned successful legal business owner like a restaurateur or a self-employed

plumber.

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