Money and respect. Sammy Gravano decided he wanted to be a Gangster after he saw two gangsters with his father in his factory, they wanted money of course. Then Sammy´s father asked "Mr Zuvito" a favour, Zuvito had mob connectios. Then the 2 guys appeared just to be forgiven, and Sammy saw everything and since then wanted to be a Gangster.He wanted to protect his family.

Most of the gangsters came from a very poor life, like John Gotti, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, and many italian-american from the end of the 19th century until the 30s and 40s.