Cobra Bounty Backfires
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Sam Parr shares a story about an unintended consequence of India's cobra control program.
"In India, there was a stereotype of a guy playing a horn with the cobra coming up and dancing. There was a cobra problem, and the government said 'Hey everyone, we're going to give you $50 for every dead cobra you bring to us,' thinking 'Great, we're going to have no more cobras.'
But in reality, the schemers were like 'Let's breed cobras and kill them' and bring them in for free money. This led to an overpopulation problem of cobras.
[Sam notes he's not sure if this is a true story, but it's one of the urban legends used to illustrate unintended consequences of incentives]"
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.