Beverage billionaire offers lessons from time driving a cab

Name one thing that Danny Glover, Larry David and Vladimir Putin have in common.

At some point in their lives, they were all cabdrivers.

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It’s not an easy way of making a buck — or a ruble.

There’s the risks of accidents, robbery, beatings and even murder. You could be stiffed on your fares or get whacked with all kinds of fines, but you’ve still got to make a living.

Robert DeNiro actually obtained a driver’s license and worked 12-hour shifts as a cabdriver for a month to prepare for the role of homicidal hack Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 urban epic “Taxi Driver.”

Billionaire philanthropist Manoj Bhargava’s resume includes a stint as a New York City cab driver. (Photo by Saumya Khandelwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Beverage billionaire gets streetwise 

Larry David, the deliciously twisted mind behind “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” saw that hyperviolent flick and it touched a nerve.

“I sat through ‘Taxi Driver’ and went, ‘That’s me, I’m Travis. …’ I didn’t feel like a murderous psychopath, but I did feel, at times, psychopathic,” he said. “It wasn’t uncommon for me to get in a big fight on the street, a screaming fight about something stupid.” Fans of Larry David’s can see how his time behind the wheel of a cab inspired his time behind the camera.

Glover worked as a San Francisco cabbie before becoming famous and used his celebrity status and cab-driving experience to raise awareness about drivers who often ignored African-Americans needing rides. 

Kiss frontman Paul Stanley was also a cabdriver in New York and he recalled driving people to Madison Square Garden to see Elvis Presley. 

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“I remember sitting in that front seat thinking, ‘One of these days, people are going to be coming here to see me,'” he said. “So, to go from that cab to the stage was a pretty good walk.”

The billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Manoj Bhargava had a pretty good walk of his own, as he went from sitting behind the wheel of a New York City cab to becoming a self-made entrepreneur and billionaire philanthropist.

Bhargava, who founded 5-hour Energy drinks, shared his experiences during his podcast, The Business of Everything With Manoj.

“It’s a really tough job,” he said. “You get all kinds of crazy people.”

Bhargava, majority owner of TheStreet’s parent, The Arena Group  (AREN) , said he took the job when he was in his early 20s after dropping out of Princeton.

Seeing the taxi-corporate connection

“One of the really bad things that happens when you drive a taxi, at least in New York, is you get a little more street, you get, ‘OK, nobody’s messing with me’ kind of attitude,” he said. 

New York cab drivers have plenty of tales about navigating traffic in the Big Apple, dealing with long hours, difficult customers, and facing financial pressures.

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The 1996 book “Taxi Driver Wisdom” collected the observations of several New York cab drivers, including such gems as “the Vietnam War is finished, but Sixth Avenue construction is never finished,” as well as “there is no chivalry; for that you have to go upstate.”

Bhargava had his own chivalrous stage, but it didn’t last very long.

“For the first couple of months I’m all liberal and very nice to everybody,” he said. “But after a while, people get a little tougher, and you’re like, ‘okay I work hard for this money.'”

Nevertheless. Bhargava said that he sees a connection between his taxi career and working in the business world.

“It’s the hazards of any work, any job that you do,” he said. “You get sort of assimilated. … You work for a large company and you think this is how things are done. … You get this attitude, ‘no, you don’t get to not pay me.'” 

The point, Bhargava indicated, is that there should be an unspoken pact between employee and employer. The employee should work hard and the employer should fairly compensate them.

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