Boris raised the famous golden trophy over his head, and the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
They had never seen anything like this before.
Boris had become the youngest man ever to win the most prestigious tournament in tennis, Wimbledon.
For 17-year-old Boris, the acclaim was nice. The $169,000 prize winnings — equivalent to $446,000 in today’s money — didn’t hurt either.
Throughout the rest of his tennis career, Boris Becker won 48 more tournaments, including 2 more Wimbledon titles.
When he retired from tennis, in 1999, his entire career winnings totaled over $25 million. Combined with various endorsements and sinecures, his total earnings came to over $50 million.
But it’s not hard to squander a fortune. And over the years, Becker has worked hard to squander his.
Luxury apartments around the world… expensive divorces… a child begotten in the broom closet of a Nobu in London… by the mid 2010s, Becker’s resources were strained. And his debts were mounting.
Finally, it became too much. In 2017, Boris Becker filed for bankruptcy.
The tennis world, and the world at large, shrugged. It’s hardly a new story — a talented star makes millions in his youth, then squanders it all in middle age. Besides, bankruptcy is not the end of the world. People routinely recover from it.
But then just this past week, things got a lot worse for Becker.
It turns out he has been under criminal investigation for failing to report some of his assets during the bankruptcy hearings.
So now, not only will those assets be seized, but there’s a very real possibility that on Apr 29, Becker will be sentenced to jail time for his bankruptcy jiggery-pokery.
He might have to spend the next 7 years in prison… pushing the library cart around, fighting off advances in the shower, and trying to get used to the gruel — no Nobu behind bars!
Yesterday, I told you about the first canonical story type, rags-to-riches, which can be represented by /.
Today is about the second canonical story type, riches-to-rags, \. There are plenty of illustrations of this format. But I had been reading about Becker only a few days ago, and so he popped into mind.
And here’s an extra tip if you are massaging a story, whether riches-to-rags or any other type:
It matters big time where you start your story. Not just for sucking the reader in and getting his attention. But for the total effect.
For example, I could have started today by talking about the struggles Becker experienced only weeks before his first Wimbledon. Or I could have talked about the sacrifices he made as a kid.
Those might be valid places to start — if I were after a different effect.
But if the point of my story is to get you depressed and scared about losing everything you’ve got — after all, if it can happen to somebody as talented and blessed as Becker, why not you — then the best place to start is the highest, most pure moment of his career and life.
“Yeah about that,” I hear you saying, “this riches-to-rags structure is kind of depressing. It’s also kind of preachy. Who wants to read this kind of thing? I feel like you’ll just turn people off.”
Fair concern. But the fact is, some of the most influential and powerful stories in human history basically follow this basic riches-to-rags structure.
Adam and Eve had it really good in the Garden of Eden and then—
King Lear had three fair daughters who loved him and then—
And an Ikea lamp had a happy home and—
Well, maybe you don’t know the most famous Ikea commercial ever.
It was directed by Spike Jonze. And people still talk about it today, 20 years after it came out.
You can find it below. And if you watch it, you will find a second crucial thing you need to do to make your riches-to-rags story work well.
In fact, it’s something I screwed up with my story of Boris Becker above.
It’s too late for me and my story in this email. But it’s not too late for you. Watch below and learn. Oh, and sign up for my email newsletter — I will write more about story types tomorrow.