A frontier epitaph with a timeless message about shortcuts, integrity, and legacy.
Boot Hill cemeteries dot the ghost towns of the American West — places where sheriffs, outlaws, drifters (and often those who died violently), and gamblers all wound up under the same patch of desert sky or amongst the Midwest plains or around the mountains of the far west. Among the weathered markers, one epitaph has endured in legend:
“He played five aces. Now he plays the harp.”
At first glance, it’s darkly funny. A gambler cheats death — or tries to — only to meet it instead. But the more you read it, the deeper the lesson becomes.
In poker, most of us know, a hand of five aces is impossible. It’s the boldest cheat imaginable and quite stupid to think one could get away with something so obvious. Whoever this gambler was, he wasn’t just bending the rules — he was breaking them beyond belief. We don’t know his name, but we know the outcome. His final “hand” was an epitaph — carved by someone with both wit and warning.
That bit of Western gallows humor is classic frontier philosophy: if you can’t moralize, you might as well memorialize with irony. “He played five aces. Now he plays the harp.” Translation: cheat if you want, but you’ll eventually face the ultimate dealer — life itself.
Fast-forward 150 years. The saloon is now a boardroom, where you can make a marketing presentation, report sales figures via Zoom, or create a social-media feed that garners attention with an outlandish post. We still face the same temptation: a shortcut, a manipulation, a “five-ace” play that promises instant reward. But the rules — ethical, professional, human — remain the same. Shortcuts often shorten careers. Deception erodes trust. The easy win rarely leads to the right legacy.
Leaders and Human Relations professionals who perform background checks verify academic degrees and certifications. An employer, when discovering a falsified degree, often leads to immediate termination, and as a result, the “cheater” is usually ineligible for future employment.
Research shows that cheating has negative impacts on an individual. Psychologists have found that unethical behavior can cause a temporary rush of confidence known as
The Cheater’s high.” But then this high is followed by feelings of guilt, shame, and a shrunken self-image.
Then the cheater often faces the constant anxiety of being caught. It is a tremendous weight that will negatively affect one’s work performance and overall well-being.
Then a word about business culture. Several business research studies show that organizations that focus entirely on profits, the bottom line at all costs, can trigger dishonesty and thus make it challenging for the honest team members to succeed.
The gambler’s legacy isn’t his winnings. It’s his epitaph. What will ours be?
Each of us gets dealt some cards we can’t control. But how we play them — with honesty, respect, and restraint — determines whether we’re remembered for what we gained, or for how we played.
So the next time you’re tempted to “add an extra ace,” think of that old Boot Hill marker. It’s a cheeky reminder that the world always calls the bluff eventually.
Play fair. Play smart. Play for keeps. Because no one ever built a lasting legacy on a crooked hand.
