Categories Billions Print Media

The Billionaire Mindset: What You Can Learn from TV Series Billions – Sept 11, 2019

Trust. Succession. Billions.

by Remy Blumenfeld | Forbes | September 11, 2019

As a coach who has worked with individual Billionaires and on two occasions with billionaire families, I’ve been hooked on two excellent TV series. Billions stars Paul Giamatti who plays New York district attorney, Chuck Rhoades, and Damian Lewis, a hedge fund billionaire, Bobby Axelrod. Succession, from HBO, created by Jesse Armstrong, centers around the Roys, a media dynasty. whose patriarch is played by Brian Cox. In my experience both are excruciatingly, forensically, true to life. But how do they help us to understand how Billionaires experience the world?

From the Inside Out

Both Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and Logan Roy (Brian Cox) epitomize the ruthless, at times maniacal drive to beat their competition, which I’ve seen before in self-made billionaires. And while we all imagine that Billionaires lives must surely be shinier and happier than ours, in reality, Billionaires are ordinary, complex, flawed human beings whose lives and longings I have not found to be sated by the number of houses, yachts or helicopters they own. In my experience, serious money only makes people’s lives more complicated, heavier and less joyous.

Both series do a great job of showing how huge wealth can set people apart from the rest of humanity, and how living in lonely compounds on top of the world, like the Axelrod’s’ and the Roy’s’, does not stop billionaires from plummeting the depth of human despair.

Trust

The TV series about the Gettys, starring Donald Sutherland, was appropriately titled Trust, as Billionaires are affected by a profound lack of this, equivalent to that experienced by people who have been systematically abused.

Continue reading The Billionaire Mindset: What You Can Learn from TV Series Billions – Sept 11, 2019

Categories Billions Emmy Nomination Print Media

Emmys 2018: 10 Biggest Snubs – July 12, 2018

From Billions to an ‘Atlanta’ MVP – The Most WTF Snubs in this Year’s Emmys Nominations

by Brian Tallerico | Rolling Stone | July 12, 2018

The annual Emmy square dance is here – per usual, it’s a routine of three steps forward, two steps back.

This year even allowed more room than usual for the unexpected as several major players from last year – Veep, Master of None, Better Call Saul, House of Cards – took this awards season off.

And to be sure, the Television Academy has undeniably improved in their taste as a voting body over the years. Still, they still had us scratching our heads a few times. Where the hell is Will and Grace? And Bojack Horseman? And Brendan Fraser in Trust? And … and…

So with all 122 (!!) categories announced, let’s pick out the most notable snubs of the year. From Billions to Alison Brie, these were the M.I.A. nominees that shoulda been contenders.

Billions
Showtime had a rough morning. Sure, Shameless star William H. Macy got in again, but regular nominees like Homeland‘s Claire Danes and Ray Donovan‘s Liev Schreiber will have to save their sound bites. (See also: our Twin Peaks entry) But the real crime was completely ignoring the chance to finally invite Billions to the party. With shows like Better Call Saulmissing from the ballot, why not turn to a show that’s only gotten better each year, turning in its best season to date earlier in 2018? Even just a single nod or two for great performers like Damian Lewis and Asia Kate Dillon could have opened a few doors for more nominations in the future. Get this one right, next year, Emmys. It’s starting to get embarrassing.

Continue reading Emmys 2018: 10 Biggest Snubs – July 12, 2018