10 Ways Marijuana Can Make You More Successful

If there’s anything our generation is known for, it’s got to be our tendency to embrace entrepreneurship and our openness to the drug culture- we are all either really foolish, or really smart (we are the most well educated generation after all).

When it comes to smart people, as most entrepreneurs are, weed can be a creative miracle drug, among other things. Steve Jobs was reported to smoke weed now and again to figure out problems- Sergey Brin, Richard Branson, and Michael Bloomberg also used to toke up back in the day. Even Elon Musk, who is a huge fan of Burning Man, has produced a lot of great ideas there- and nobody at Burning Man is sober.

Every entrepreneur can use some mental stimulation, so here are ten ways weed can make you a better entrepreneur.

Being a successful entrepreneur takes two things- brains and balls. You are either born with the brain or you aren’t, that’s pretty clear. But a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that those who had the balls to try illegal drugs like marijuana, combined with being smart, had the know how and the willingness to take risks and bend or break rules, ultimately predicting their success as entrepreneurs, or in Barack Obama’s case, a job far greater.

According to a 2010 Harvard study, marijuana has been shown to reduce anxiety and help you relax. When your stressful life as an entrepreneur gets too much for you to handle, take a hit from a vape or light up a jay at the end of the day to relax- just make sure all your work is taken care of so you are handling your shit.

Creativity is something that no entrepreneur can get enough of. A study on Psychology Today shows that marijuana can help increase abstract ideas and thinking. Need a new business plan or marketing idea? Get high with your co-founders and let the genius pour out, you just might come up with something brilliant.

Got a tough problem you can’t crack? Throw it on a dry erase board, light a jay and think about it. The beauty of getting high is that it allows your brain to go places it normally wouldn’t. Steve Jobs used to smoke weed (and drop acid) to really expand the boundaries of his mind to think of new ideas. It’s not a bad thing to turn out like he did, right?

Sometimes weed just helps to simplify things when the whole world seems to be buzzing around your head. It puts you more in tune with yourself and what you need, and you end up going with your gut feeling most of the time. If an entrepreneur can’t trust their instincts, what can they trust?

Smoking with your business partners bonds you on a unique level. According to that same study by Psychology Today, you may find yourself talking about things you normally wouldn’t when you are sober and articulating them in ways you never would because weed increases your verbal fluency.

What doesn’t weed make better? It makes a boring night fun, food tastes better, it even makes sex better, and as we all know, sex makes you smarter. With all the stress that running a business brings, every entrepreneur can use a little more fun now and then to keep things positive.

One trait that makes a successful entrepreneur is the ability to see things from all the angles. Maybe it’s the euphoria or the out of mind experience, but weed will make it easier for you to see things from a different perspective and even increase empathy. As the old Chinese proverb goes, “big problems become small when you are high” (not a real saying).

This one is a little surprising but it’s backed by science. A 2013 study by the American Journal of Medicine found that pot users were skinnier than the average person, had a healthier metabolisms, and their bodies reacted to sugars better when eating on an irregular schedule. Entrepreneurs seldom have the time to take care of themselves or have the energy to work out properly- weed isn’t a replacement for exercise, but at least you won’t get fat witting and working on a computer all day.

When it comes to tough choices of what to do, sometimes weed will put you in the mood to just say “F*ck it,” so you can stop over analyzing and just start doing. When your world is moving at a million miles an hour, sometimes it’s good to indulge in something that will help you slow down and just think.