Someone is Always Trying to Take Your Clothes Off

Billy was the youngest, the best, and the cockiest player at his regular game in New York, and after making a big score in Vegas, he went home with an even bigger ego.

It was just another day, and Billy was winning in a wide-open $1,000-$2,000 seven-card stud game. He had won more than $50,000 in the last three months alone, and he loved to broadcast it. He excused himself to go to the men's room, and after he splashed cold water on his face, he looked in the mirror and declared: "I am invincible."

As he walked back to the table, the dealer was shuffling and everything seemed normal. He was dealt rags and folded. The next hand, he was dealt a pair of deuces in the pocket with the 2 showing. Steve raised with a jack doorcard, and Nick, showing a queen, reraised. Billy flat-called with his rolled-up deuces, as did Steve.

Billy's next card was the 5, which he liked because now it appeared that he was drawing to a straight or a flush. Steve and Nick both knew that for him to call a raise, he had to have something. Nick bet $1,000, and Billy and Steve both called.

Billy's next card was a queen, a good defensive card. Steve caught a 4 and Nick caught a jack. Nick bet $2,000 and Billy just called, still trying to suck Steve in. With one of his jacks now dead, Steve folded. Sixth street brought the 5 for Billy and the 5 for Nick. Billy was now showing 2-5-Q-5 and Nick was showing Q-10-J-5. Billy knew that Nick thought he was going for a straight or flush, so the 5 wouldn't be of any help, when it actually gave him a full house. Nick bet $2,000, Billy raised, and they put in four bets until Nick finally just called. The pot was now more than $26,000.

Billy caught a 10 on the river, another good defensive card. Nick bet $2,000 and Billy raised. Nick reraised, and with his last $2,000, Billy called. The pot was now $38,000. With a huge grin on his face, Billy said, "It's too bad it's table stakes, Nick, because if I could write a check, I'd raise you again. I have deuces full. A full house sure beats that lousy straight."

Nick looked dejected as Billy reached for the pot. Just as he was starting to scoop it in, Nick said, "Full house sure beats a straight, but queens full beats deuces full." Nick turned over his hand and, for a change, Billy was speechless.

Shellshocked, Billy stumbled to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. He thought through the hand and the way it went down, and it didn't seem right. Just about every case card had been played.

Sprinting back from the bathroom, he saw everyone making their way out. "What happened to the game?" Billy asked.

"Now that we got your money, Billy, what's the point of playing?" came the cold reply from Nick.

Billy learned the hard way that in life, the minute you achieve success, someone is going to be gunning for you. Just ask Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, who, with his Super Bowl ads and lavish parties, was emblematic of the mania that engulfed the dot-com revolution as the stock of his company soared from $6 a share to $333 a share in one year. Saylor bragged to the media about his plans for a new home in Great Falls, Virginia – which he described as part house, part embassy, and part ceremonial – running a price tag ranging between $28 million and $50 million. He even joked at his 35th birthday party that he was now old enough to run for president, and was declaring his candidacy. In his better days, Saylor was quoted as saying, "Every day I go to work, I look at the stock and say, 'You know, Mike, if you screw this up, you could lose a billion dollars.'"

In March 2000, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused MicroStrategy of misstating its revenue from 1997 to 1999 by about $66 million, and as a result, the stock fell to less than $4 a share as the company went from a market cap of more than $27 billion to less than $270 million in less than a year. And then in June 2001, NCR Corp. filed a patent lawsuit against MicroStrategy. All of a sudden, his bid for the presidency wasn't looking so good. Doesn't Saylor remind you a little of Billy? The lesson is the same: Being arrogant and loud only makes others want to bring you down more.

Name me a person who says he doesn't like recognition and I'll call that bluff. Everyone has his own methods, but it's part of human nature to want to broadcast success. Some like to show off with material possessions, while others use their notoriety to garner media attention. Either way, the more you advertise your success, the more chance there is that somebody will try to bring you down.

The only remedy is to do all you can to keep your success to yourself. At a minimum, go out of your way to show some humility and downplay your accomplishments. And if you like to brag about your poker exploits, beware of the consequences.

Greg Dinkin is the author of The Poker Principle: Winning in Business No Matter What Cards You're Dealt, which will be published by Crown in April 2002. He is also the co-founder of Venture Literary (www.ventureliterary.com), where he works with writers to find publishers for their books and producers for their screenplays.