Runner Runner: Lessons in Ambition, Fear & Greed
There was an obscure Hollywood movie called “Runner Runner” that came out in 2013 that starred Justin Timberlake as a naive Princeton mathematical genius named Richie and Ben Affleck as an online gambling tycoon hiding away from the USA with his massive fortune. Having lost his tuition money gambling, he confronts Ivan Block (played by Affleck) and gets recruited to his massive gambling operations in Costa Rica.
And the adventure begins as the FBI and local politicians and criminals get involved. It was good fun as you can see from this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFPqyNvNzvU. But there were so many great quotes from the movie especially by Ben Affleck who does such a great job as the bad guy, intensely clever, witty and charming. Think of his character in “Boiler Room” and his motivational speeches times 10. So very good.
One of his lines: “This is your job. You want a clear conscience, go start a charity.”
If you want your own island and your boss says you gotta go out there and take a beating, you go out there, take it and come back to work and say, "do you need me to do it again?".
Or this:“That's the problem with your generation. You guys sat around with your vintage T-shirts and your participation medal, and you never did anything.”
Or even this one: “You know at the casino when they give you chips at the casino and say ‘Good luck sir’? What they don’t tell you is that ‘sir’ means dummy and ‘good luck’ means ‘F–k you!”
So many great bangers here. Loved Affleck in the movie. But the one quote that really stuck with me.
“That little voice in the back of your head right now, it's not your conscience, it's fear.”
It really hits. I think back on all the lost opportunities in my last decades. Personal, professional, money and relationships.
Fear and self limiting beliefs held me back. It holds all of us back. Whenever good things happened in my life, I overcame the fear or more often the case, acted in spite of the fear. So all I can say is: next time, you want to start a new job or business, move to a new place, or want to ask that girl out. Ignore your fear and JUST DO IT. Better to have the regret of trying and failing than the regret of not trying, and never knowing. Always wondering what could have been.