---
title: "Robert Nikic x Tai Lopez: Pablo Escobar's $2,000 Rubber Band Problem"
description: "Tai Lopez tells Robert Nikic about Pablo Escobar's $2,000-a-month rubber band bill and the lesson: use your money wisely."
canonical: "https://robertnikic.com/media/pablo-escobars-2000-rubber-band-problem"
author: "Robert Nikic"
type: "VideoObject"
published: "2026-10-16T22:26:20.625Z"
---

# Robert Nikic x Tai Lopez: Pablo Escobar's $2,000 Rubber Band Problem

Tai Lopez tells Robert Nikic about Pablo Escobar's $2,000-a-month rubber band bill and the lesson: use your money wisely.

- Published: 2026-10-16
- Watch: https://robertnikic.com/media/pablo-escobars-2000-rubber-band-problem

## Transcript

People couldn't understand, how come Pablo Escobar didn't go to prison sooner? Money. At one point, he was very sharp. I'm not going to say smart, I'll say sharp. He would give money to the poorest people in Colombia. He would build soccer stadiums, football stadiums. He would build hospitals. And as long as he did that with his money, the politicians didn't want to arrest him, because the people might kill the politicians, you know? And it wasn't until Pablo Escobar, what did he do? He started to get too cocky. He stopped giving out his money. And he was like, he became like, if you've seen Lord of the Rings, he became like the dragon Smaug or whatever, where he just sat on his money. At one point, Pablo Escobar was making so much money, he had to buy $2,000 worth of rubber bands a month. You know how many rubber bands you can get with $10? To wrap a stack. And he was buying, he was burning money for fuel when it got cold. But when you follow that whole thing, he didn't allocate his money correctly. So use your money wisely.