The Big Shot Who Lost Everything to His Own Pride – Cecil C.

About This Speaker Tape

Saskatchewan, 1952. Cecil C. woke up in a hospital bed, black and blue from a beating he earned after cheating in a poker game.

He had spent years running—from the discipline of home into the Army, from responsibility into the Navy, and from the truth into a bottle. He describes himself as a "big shot" fueled by pride and "big shot-ism," a man who could glide across a dance floor like Fred Astaire but couldn't manage a checkbook or a marriage. Even sober, he was a "negative barber," cutting down everyone around him until he finally hit the cement floor.

He found a Higher Power not through a sudden epiphany, but through the attraction of two men in shiny shoes who looked like they had found a way out. Cecil recounts the wreckage of $6,200 in debt and the arrogance that led him to rip phones off walls, eventually learning that sanity is simply moving from negative to positive thinking.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Cecil C. opens with a joke about being invited back to speak.
• 4:15 Laughter: The story of the parrot and the plumber.
• 12:30 Cecil describes his early drinking and the feeling of becoming a 'great conversationalist' in the army.
• 18:45 The story of the 'cease fire' order on the merchant ship.
• 24:10 Cecil recounts the poker game and the beating that led him to the hospital.
• 31:20 Mention of the 12-step calls and the impact of seeing sober members who looked 'different'.
• 42:15 Discussion of Step 1 and the reality of financial unmanageability ($6,200 in 1952).
• 51:00 Laughter: The story of the negative barber.
• 58:30 Cecil explains his approach to Step 3 and the 'poacher' metaphor for making decisions.
• 1:05:15 Cecil discusses the Big Book and the 'restless, irritable, and discontented' state.
• 1:18:40 The 'Mr. Big Shot' phase and the loss of his job in 1962 due to ego.
• 1:32:00 Closing thoughts on the 'personality change' and the love shared within the fellowship.