Running a legal cannabis business can be an insanely stressful and mind-boggling experience. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind for this is the 1^st rule, or ‘Noble Truth’, of Buddhism, i.e.- “all of life is suffering.”

As a part of a brand-new industry, that is in the process of evolving into legality, expect to be squeezed through the wringer.

It’s not our intention to push religion on anyone, but once you’re ready to accept this simple, essential fact, you’ll be more well prepared on your path to success.

Being a good boss in the cannabis or any industry is more about managing yourself than it is about managing your employees. If you manage and calibrate your own behavior properly, and lead by example, your employees will follow suit.

If you get upset and lose your cool, you will most likely be engaging in self-sabotaging behavior. Employees will feel uncomfortable, morale will suffer, and productivity will go down. Eventually, you’ll lose the best members on your team.

When you’re a leader, everything you do is being observed, and your example –  good or bad, sets the tone for your crew, whether or not you’re even aware that you’re doing it.

You could just be having a bad day at your place of business; walking around feeling a little depressed, burnt out, frustrated, tired, overworked, etc.

You may not notice right away, but your mood will be infectious. Pretty soon people up and down the org chart will start getting irritated and sniping at each other. An epidemic, this toxic negativity spreads like an airborne virus from employee to employee. The next thing you know your whole organization is dysfunctional and sick, mired in unnecessary conflicts and time-consuming dramas.

When Tommy Chong was on the road on comedy tours, fans would come up to Tommy and ask him to sign their bongs for them.

‘Chong’ Bongs’, were such a frequent occurrence that Tommy’s wife Shelby, who had always been the ‘brains’ behind Tommy’s business-opps,   convinced him that they should turn the bong phenomenon into a business.

Tommy will be the first to admit that he is a lousy businessman and that he owes all his success to his wife.

Shelby has been Tommy’s business partner and guide ever since the early days of his career when he was running strip clubs in Toronto. Shelby would go on to help Cheech & Chong get their road act together and then later was instrumental in keeping the Chong’s assets and portfolio afloat while Tommy was in prison.

“Behind every successful guy…” Tommy said, “in my case, at least… is a very beautiful woman… that still drives me nuts… in every way possible…”

Tommy and Shelby put their son Paris, in charge of Chong’s Bongs, and he set to work launching and successfully growing and scaling the business to the extent that they had expanded into a large factory with half a dozen full-time glass blowers. After investing millions into infrastructure, they were finally about to see an ROI.

Then in 2003, the Chong’s found themselves in the crosshairs of the Federal Government, swept up in the convergence of everything that’s wrong in American politics and with both major political parties. Enforcing a law that made it a felony to ship marijuana paraphernalia in the mail, which was written by none of other than Democrat, former US Senator, and current US President, Joseph Biden; the Republican, Bush Jr Administration, decided to make an example of Chong’s Bongs and arrested Tommy in a sting operation that was painfully and ironically dubbed, Operation Pipe Dreams. As a result of this miscarriage of taxpayer resources, Tommy spent nine months in federal prison.

While Tommy was frustrated at getting arrested because his son was just turning the corner with Chong’s Bongs only to see it all go Up in Smoke when Cocaine Cowboy George Bush marshaled the law dogs and declared war on their victimless enterprise, Tommy still couldn’t find himself being very angry.

“(Being arrested) is in my DNA”, Tommy said, “I knew at some point in my life I’d be doing time in jail, there were signs all along the way.”

Tommy had grown up in a home that took in and rented rooms to down-on-their-luck strays in Canada that in some cases had served time before in prison.

These tenants prepared Tommy for what to expect.

One recidivist criminal that had frequently stayed at Tommy’s house as a child was a French tap dancer that robbed a bank less than a year after being released because he wanted to get sent back in order to participate and tap dance in the prison Christmas show.

Tommy came to grow comfortable with the idea of prison and in a way, he said, he was kind of looking forward to it.

Aside from that Tommy had learned at a young age that women found ‘dangerous’ men attractive, and he also learned at a young age that he was really interested in what women found attractive.

“I laugh when people say they don’t want socialism,” Tommy said, “we’re the most socialist country in the world because we have more people incarcerated than anywhere else, and that’s why kids are coming to the border now because they want to be incarcerated. When you’re incarcerated you get your three meals a day, you get your recreation time, you get someone that locks you in the cage at night so you’re safe and don’t have to worry.”

Tommy made the best of his experience in jail and in fact… had a great time!

He became good friends with Jordan Belford, the Wolf of Wall Street who was his cellmate, and in general got along famously with inmates and guards alike.

“Everyone knew what I was coming for,” Tommy said, “and I got treated very well… very nice, sweet people, they were very nice to me and I was nice to them, that’s the key.”

Tommy had such a great experience in jail, that he even has designs on starting a business to help sheltered celebrities that are facing jail time, like the parents busted in the college admissions scandal, by offering them coaching to prepare for their hard prison time with a fun, open, welcoming, and positive attitude.

“People that are gurus like Depak Chockra, all of the great spiritualists, people that know the Dalai Lama,” Tommy reflected, “they all have one thing in common, they all giggle. It’s their cosmic laugh.”

That’s what you learn as an evolved entity, Tommy observed. The gurus laugh because they know the secret of the universe, and it’s funny because they can’t possibly tell you the secret, you can only find it out for yourself, or if you’re at the point in which you’re finally ready to accept the answer from a Guru, at that point, it would be pointless for the Guru to say anymore because you would have already figured it out for yourself.

             At 83 years of age, Tommy can look back on a life of staying positive even in the face of the most taxing moments from beginning his fight against prostate cancer in 2012 to spending three months in a dentist’s chair to get all of his teeth replaced.

He doesn’t allow himself to get phased by day-to-day annoyances like scam-robo-calls. Tommy simply looks to turn the tables on them to keep himself amused, and for instance will pick up the phone and say, “please hold” before seeing how long he can keep them on the line before they start losing their patience with him.