The Art of the Hustle 2 (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-One

It was late one evening and Deon was over playing poker with Trevor. He was not nearly as skilled of a poker player as Trevor, but he was getting better.

Perhaps more importantly than learning to play poker was the priceless one-on-one time Deon got to spend with one of the most influential minds in the modern world. These night talks were like an advanced course in business and in life.

Between the 6:00 a.m. workouts, the long walks, and the poker nights, Deon was accelerating in ways that may take another person a lifetime to change. Trevor recognized the power influence can have on a person and while it was helping Deon become more polished, their time together was helping Trevor recover as well.

"Your bet," Trevor said.

"Raise," Deon said, pushing a fist full of chips into the centre of the green felt-lined table.

"Handsome bet," Trevor said. "Feeling confident? Or are you just acting confident to convince me that your garbage hand has more value than it does?"

Deon didn't say a word. Trevor continued to pick away at him.

"Huh? Which one is it? You holding a pair of kings? Aces? No, it can't be Aces. It's definitely a pair though. Maybe not kings or Aces, but I'm pretty sure you're holding a pair."

Deon started to feel uncomfortable, shifting in his seat.

"Snowmen?" Trevor continued to prod. "You got a pair of snowmen? I'll tell you what I have. I have a pair of tens. Can you beat that?"

Deon looked nervous. No matter the situation, Trevor was a master of studying a person's body language. Every nervous twitch, shift in posture, or pupil dilation, Trevor was getting a better read on the person. It was one of the reasons why he was so successful. He often referred to his ability to read body language as his superpower.

"Yeah, I think I got you beat. I'm all in," Trevor said.

"How the hell do you do that?" Deon said empathically, throwing his cards in the centre. "I fold."

"What did you have?" Trevor asked.

"Pair of eights, just like you said. Your tens are good."

"I don't have tens. I have nothing," Trevor said showing him 6/3 unsuited.

"You bluffed me?" Deon scoffed in disbelief.

"Yes, but I did it to teach you a valuable lesson," he said, reaching toward the centre of the table with both arms and scooping the large pot toward him.

"Teach me how you read people so well," Deon said.

"I'm afraid I cannot teach you that," Trevor said.

"Why not?"

"Because it's not a skill that one can learn through teaching. It's a way of life."

"Come on, you're so full of it."

"I'm being serious. I've definitely gotten better at it over the years, but this is something I've always been able to do, even as a young kid. In fact, it's how I landed my first job."

"You had a job reading body language?"

"No, my first job was working at a snowboard shop in Banff, Alberta. I was a young kid with no experience and I was sick of applying for jobs and being turned down because I didn't have any experience. Nobody would give me a shot to prove myself. So I walked into the shop one day, confident, and impressed the manager with my talent."

"Really, what did you do?"

"It's no big deal, I just pointed out little details that were obvious to me, but invisible to others. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure when I first discovered this ability. I've just always been able to do it."

"Okay then, tell me how you do it," Deon insisted.

"You know why Michael Jordan was so great at basketball?"

"Because he was tall and athletic?" Deon said, venturing a guess.

"Nearly everyone in the NBA is tall and athletic. Guess again."

"Because his talent."

"Yes, but can you be more specific?"

"Um..." Deon paused to think. "Knowledge of the game?"

"Nope."

"His speed?"

"Nope."

"I don't know, I give up."

"What made Michael Jordan so much better at basketball than everyone else was his unrelenting competitiveness. With that came drive, determination, focus, work ethic, and may other things that his competitors were not willing to do. Simply put, they didn't want to win as badly as he wanted to win. Other players may have been more physically gifted than him, faster, and even worked harder, but Michael Jordan was obsessed with winning and would outwork his competition."

"So what does this have to do with what we were talking about?" Deon asked with a confused look on his face.

"My point is, do you think Michael Jordan was taught to be the way he is, or was born that way?"

"Are you comparing yourself to Michael Jordan?" Deon asked.

"In a way, yes. Am I not allowed to do that?"

"Do whatever you want."

"I'm not saying I'm the Michael Jordan of reading people. All I'm saying is sometimes people are born in particular ways and they nurture their talents.

"For me, I was a quiet kid who was curious. I didn't decide to be that way per se, I just was that way. But when you combine those two things, something amazing and unexpected happens. You have an insatiable curiosity about the world and you're not distracted by some of the perils of youth such as becoming popular, succumbing to peer pressure, getting girls, and so on. You pay attention to things. You become a student of how people behave. Why is one kid popular and another not? What makes this person so charismatic? Why do all the girls seem to like this guy? I would study patterns of behaviour, language, posture, clothes. The way people changed when they were in a crowd, or when they were drunk, when a celebrity or a really hot girl was around. Later in life I saw how people changed once I had money. Money doesn't necessarily change a person, it changes the people around you. They act differently. But why? These are some of the questions I would ask myself. And if you're not obsessed with those details, paying attention to the minutest change in a person's behaviour, having an insatiable curiosity with discovering authenticity and the truth, then I cannot teach you what I do."

"Damn, I didn't know you would get so deep on me."

"When am I ever not deep?"

"Good point."

"The good news is there are ways to gain perspective and accelerate your learning. Read books. Travel. Watch others. Gain life experience. This is my goal with you. I want to shift your way of thinking, help you create good habits, and open up your mind to possibility. Don't let your circumstances dictate your life."

"You're teaching me how to fish."

"Exactly."