Swallow Your Pride
I had an adjunct professor for my film class and he always had the best stories. A few of us would often hang out after class and listen to his stories about being a director for many years. When this prof was in college, he had a friend who was a big-time executive. Once or twice per year they would get together for dinner and to reminisce.
His executive friend would always book a really nice restaurant and always paid for everything even though my professor tried to protest. After a particularly good year, the professor insisted that he pay for dinner this time. His friend agreed and when the bill came, it was $12,000. The professor swallowed his pride and went to pay the bill reluctantly.
He was a successful director, but work was not always consistent. Just as he was about to pay, his friend laughed and took the booklet away from him and told him he had already taken care of it. My professor said he would have needed to save an entire year’s worth of pay to afford one day of his friend’s life. Absolutely ridiculous.
Story credit: Reddit / DigiQuip