The Corleone business model seems to have been different from that of Fanucci in that he and his buddies started out not by extorting money and threatening local merchants (a racket that was already dominated by more powerful gangsters who would have instantly killed them all), but by stealing things like dresses, usually from non-Italians outside their neighborhood, and selling them within the neighborhood, where they ended up in the hands of poor people who otherwise could never have afforded them. Prohibition came along at just the right moment for them to branch out from stolen goods to rumrunning and bootlegging, which provided products and services that people willingly paid for even though they were illegal, and then to gambling and prostitution, which were also enterprises in which nobody was holding a gun to the customers' heads to force them to buy. As a result, Corleone was able to become very successful without really having to use violence against anyone except other gangsters, and the common people either had no beef with him or were not reluctant to trade favors with him. When violence and ruthlessness were called for, however, Corleone never hesitated, so he was really only "good" when compared to other gangsters of his day.