If a millionaire lost all their money and positions, could they get it back and become a millionaire all over again? The answer most people would agree on is, yes!
If you were to ask for their reasoning, they would justify their answer with something along the lines of; well, the millionaire has gained a certain level of skills, knowledge, connections, and experience. They could easily re-apply and build their wealth very quickly.
They would be right to a certain degree.
But! What if the millionaire lost more than their job? What if they were removed from their surroundings, lost their home, their connections, surrounded by criminals, and disgraced from society. In fact, even charged with a crime. Could they then be able to bounce back and gain everything they had, and maybe more?
Well, the first part of the answer can be found in the movie Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. And the second part, in this article.
Spoiler alert!
If you haven’t watched this movie, I highly recommend you do, because there are a lot of valuable lessons disguised as comedy. And yes, I will be telling you what happens in the movie. You’ve been warned.
Table of contents
Trading Places – The Movie
Trading Places is a comedy genius. It follows the central narrative around two wealthy brothers, Randolph & Mortimer Duke, from Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers. The brothers are hilariously cruel, competitive, and cheap.
The movie explores the idea; could anyone be successful if they were placed in an environment where they have access to resources, support, and connections.
It doesn’t matter who it is, where they’ve come from, or what they’ve done. If they were placed in the right environment, could they do a well enough job compared to someone who comes from a privileged background and born into the wealthy world?
The brothers make a bet against each other. Randolph bets that he can take anyone and put him in a position that would allow him to rise to success.
As Randolph says:
Given the right surroundings and encouragement, I’ll bet that, that man could run our company as well as your young Winthorpe.
That man he is referring to is, of course, Eddie Murphy’s character Billy Ray Valentine, a poor street hustler.
His brother Mortimer replies:
I suppose you think Winthorpe (played by Dan Aykroyd), say if he were to lose his job, would resort to holding up people on streets?
The brothers know the answer to this question and acknowledge it. Losing a job would not be enough, because you could always get another one. A man would need to lose a lot more. His house, car, finances, memberships, friends, be disgraced, and arrested by the police and thrown in jail.
Then the brothers agree, yes, that Winthorpe would resort to crime. As they say, “he’d take to crime like a fish to water.” 1
With the wager in place, the lives of Valentine and Winthorpe are swapped. Valentine who is an unemployed broke street hustler becomes the new Managing Director of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers. And Winthorpe who is the CEO of the brokerage company loses his job, his home, access to his bank accounts and credit cards, his fiancée leaves him, and he is charged with crime.
What happens next is even more shocking.
You Become Who You Surround Yourself With
When Winthorpe is framed, he loses everything. Including his friends, who are embarrassed when he shows up asking for help. His fiancée abandons him because she is under the illusion that he is a lying, filthy, disgusting, creep, and she never wants to see him again.
But something far worse happens! Winthorpe becomes incompetent. Without his supportive environment and group of friends, he can’t do anything right. He attempts to frame Valentine by planting drugs in his office, but ends up getting caught in the act and looks even more incriminating. To get out of the situation, he ends up holding the company Christmas party at gunpoint.
In his new environment, the only person who is willing to help him is a prostitute named Ophelia. She is helping him because she has a financial interest. Winthorpe promises her a five-figure cash reward once he regains his position and status in society.
Not only has Winthorpe lost all his physical positions, but his mental capability too. He loses his experience, knowledge, and skills. He is left with nothing at the bottom of the barrel. And the only way out for him is to take his own life, but, he is saved by Valentine.
Let’s find out why.
You Rise To The Level of Your Environment
By this point, Valentine has had a taste of the wealthy life. After accepting that what he has been given is really his, he returns to a bar from his previous environment and invites all his friends back to his apartment.
He quickly finds himself out of place. He is clearly annoyed when his guests are not treating his new possessions with respect. Dancing on his Persian rug, putting out their Kools (menthol cigarettes) on his floor, and the final straw is when he sees his guests are not using coasters. He has become disconnected from the people he used to hang out with. It gets to the point where he stops the music and kindly asks everyone to exit the building… I’m kidding, he throws everyone out.
You see, by placing Valentine in an environment where he is offered unlimited support, wealth, resources, and education – he has upskilled. He grows smarter and makes better life decisions.
In fact, his intelligence grows so much that when he learns of the Duke brother’s wager – which was to literally ruin one man’s life to a prove a point (for a $1 bet) – Valentine decides to do something about it. Also, the Duke brothers plan to return Valentine to street life, with no intention of bringing Winthorpe back, because he is too far gone.
Long story short. Valentine teams up with Winthorpe and they outsmart the Duke brothers by making a wager on whether they could get rich and make the brothers poor at the same time. Winthorpe pays Valentine his winnings of $1. The movie ends with things working out very well for Winthorpe and Valentine.
The moral of the story is that when you place someone in a wealthy environment, they will become wealthy. Even if they have come from an underprivileged background.
What Dukes didn’t count on is that by placing Valentine in the right environment, his character developed intelligence and skills to the point that he no longer needed the Dukes. It is the tale of a student surpassing the master.
Moving To The Wrong Environment
My wife’s friend from work decided to relocate to Sydney from Auckland, New Zealand, to grow in the fashion industry.
Honestly, the courage she had to make the decision to relocate is admirable. While in Sydney she worked in fashion retail, but her passion was designing clothes and becoming a well-recognised designer herself. She wanted to make a name for herself. She wanted to grow into an amazing clothing designer, well recognised, with high status.
Keep this in mind, because it is important: where you live and work heavily impacts your success.
While her courage and bravery are admirable, unfortunately she moved to a city that is not for fashion designers. Yes, there are wealthy people in Sydney who wear designer brands, but it’s not the place to go if you want to become a fashion designer.
In fact, if you do a quick search on any A.I. and ask where it would be most suitable for a fashion designer, it will list France in particular Paris, Italy (Milan), UK (London), and USA (New York). And if you were to ask about Sydney, it would tell you point blank that Sydney is not the place to go.
Because you don’t have access to the right resources, other fashion designers, and infrastructure. You are missing out on so much. It is like moving to Fiji in the pursuit of becoming a Hollywood actor. It doesn’t make any sense.
Unfortunately, my wife’s friend ended up returning to Auckland, because it didn’t work out. Had she relocated to New York, could things have been different? I bet it would have.
To become a famous fashion designer, you must relocate to an environment where it is possible. By moving to the right environment, you are increasing your chances of success. Like New York or France, the fashion capital of the world.
Not Taking Action
I went to the University of Auckland. I completed my Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Film, Television, and Media Studies, and Drama Studies. Why? Because I wanted to be a Hollywood actor. I wanted to be rich and famous.
Did I need a degree to be an actor? Probably not. Did I do the right thing by upskilling and educating myself? Absolutely yes. As I have written before, the truth behind achieving your goals is education.
But did I relocate to California and start auditioning for roles? Nope! I had this inclination in the back of my mind that I needed to relocate to California. But did I go there? No. And did I become a famous Hollywood actor? No, I never even started, because I didn’t put myself in the right environment.
Instead, I stayed in New Zealand because I thought you could be successful in the place you are. In hindsight, it makes no sense. But that’s the decision I made. And I am okay with it because I started an exciting career in the public sector – that’s another story.
Had I relocated to Hollywood, would I have been a big-time Hollywood actor like Chris Hemsworth? Probably not. But! I can guarantee you that I would have had more success than completely giving up.
Don’t Give Up! Change Your Environment
During Covid, while we were all working from home. I was in my backyard taking a well-deserved break from staring at the screen all day. While outside, I noticed a little garden worm, right smack-bang in the middle of the concrete pavement. It looked as if a bird was carrying it but had dropped it mid-flight.
Truth is, I don’t know how it got there. But it was there, in the middle of the concrete pavement, under the hot scorching sun. It was mid-morning and the sun was climbing towards the highest point in the sky.
From this little worm’s point of view, the concrete pavement would have looked and felt like an endless barren. A dry empty wilderness with no water, resources, and nutrients. If it was a western movie, the soundtrack of loneliness would have played, as doom was inevitable.
It was getting hotter with every passing moment. I don’t know how long this little guy was out there, but it was almost out of life. Yet still, it was fighting very hard for its life and to make its way back to the safety of the grassy lawn.
Except there was one major problem. Everywhere this brave little worm turned, it went nowhere. It would slide itself one way, nothing there. It would turn and slide the other way, nothing there. Slide left, nothing there. Slide right, same outcome, nothing.
No matter how hard it tried and for how long, the result was the same. Nothing. The little worm could have spent the rest of its life trying to slide its way back to the safety of the grassy haven, and it would have failed. It was completely out of its environment. It had nowhere to go and everything surrounding it was against it.
I felt sorry for the little guy. So, I took a leaf, put it next to this misfortunate little worm, and it slowly struggled onto the leaf. I picked up the leaf and put it on the grass, less than half a meter from the pavement.
The little worm slid into the soil and I never saw it again. But I knew the little guy was okay, because now it had access to resources, nutrients, and most importantly it was placed in the right environment.
My point is that the little worm would have died in the wrong environment. But in the right environment, it would survive, in fact, it would thrive.
So, I ask you. Are you in the right environment?
Footnotes
- Trading Places 1983 Movie ↩︎
