Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas' Legendary Casinos by Tom Breitling, Cal Fussman Page A

with Expedia, I began overseeing staff and implementing the global hotel strategy as the two companies came together. I wanted to make sure that the transition was smooth for all the people who’d worked so hard for Tim and me at Travelscape. No way was I taking my money and running off to retire in the Land of Grey Goose. It was an important time for me. No matter how hard I’d worked and contributed to build Travelscape, I knew damn well that it had been Tim’s inspiration. I needed to find out if I truly belonged at a conference table with the likes of men who ran billion-dollar businesses. So I opened myself up to learning as much as I could. And you know what? It was great. I was traveling to Europe frequently and setting up Expedia offices in London, Munich, and Paris.After years of working sixteen hours a day, I opened myself up to a social life. Let me tell you, going out with Miss Israel at that time would’ve opened anybody’s mind. Miss Israel of 1999, Rana Raslan, is Palestinian. I was a long way from Barnsville.
    My eyes were wide to the new world in front of me. Because of that I didn’t see the deep funk that Tim was sliding into. Tim didn’t know what to do when he got up in the morning. Yeah, he was doing some consulting for Expedia, but his role was more detached. Most days, he had nowhere to go and nobody to see. He might have stayed in bed all day if the housekeeper didn’t arrive at eight thirty every morning. Being in bed when she arrived made him feel like a loser. So he showered, dressed, and got behind the wheel of his Mercedes without any idea where he was going. Sometimes he went out for breakfast. Sometimes he went to a bookstore. Many afternoons he sat alone through a matinee. For a little while he forced himself to go out at night and act like a playboy. But that wasn’t him, and he knew it.
    He tried to make sense of his funk by looking at the lives of Bill Clinton and Steve Wynn. He wondered what Clinton would do at a relatively young age now that the presidency was behind him. And now that Wynn had just sold more than two decades of his creativity and relentless work on The Golden Nugget, the Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio to Kirk Kerkorian and MGM, what new ground would Steve break?
    Everything Tim had done, everything he was, pointed back to his business. Now he felt like he’d given up his baby. He missed everything about it. It was more than driving hard for bigger numbers and celebrating over T-bones and cigars at Morton’s steak house. Tim missed playing practical jokes on Naaygs. He missed the laughter that rocked the office. Even when he’d gotten into a fistfight with a pediatrician over parking spaces at our ever-expanding office, he might have regretted it later, but he damn well knew he was alive. Pressure, tension, stress—that’s what made Tim’s heart tick.
    Though he had millions in the bank, Tim felt hollow. His days were no longer filled with Frank Sinatra. Now, he heard Peggy Lee singing “Is That All There Is?” Who could possibly comprehend what he was going through? The kid who had to hope for his dad to make a winning bet the night before a vacation to Disneyland could now provide for his extended family beyond his mother’s wildest imagination. There were about fifty million men in America who were wishing for Tim’s dilemma. If he so desired, Tim would never have to work another day for the rest of his life. What right did he have to complain?
    He didn’t tell me or anybody else, but he started seeing a shrink and taking Prozac.
    One thing you learn about having a dream come true is that you’re going to wake up the following morning. When you do, it’s wise to have another dream or goal in place.
    I had a goal. I had to see how well I could do on my own. So the transformation after the sale was much easier for me precisely because the questions I needed to answer set a