Delivering a keynote at SBC Summit Barcelona, Molly Bloom told a story of self-sacrifices and the reimagining of one’s self through the world of gambling.

The never-ending twists and turns in Bloom’s speech left the audience with their mouths open for the full 30 minutes of the exciting tale. 

A tale that painted in details the start and eventually the collapse of one of the largest private poker games in the world. 

“It doesn’t always happen that I get up here to tell my story and the lessons and I know that their shared experience in this room. I learned more about the world, about myself, about life, from running a gambling business,” Bloom began. 

Going against her parents’ wishes for her to go to law school, Bloom landed in the city of angels, Los Angeles, where an opportunity presented itself to serve drinks at a poker game with the likes of Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, the head of one of the biggest investment banks and an unnamed politician. 

What followed was a story out of a Hollywood blockbuster, which included a $4mn-a-year income, $100mn in losses, home raids from both the FBI and the Italian mafia, as well as a jail sentence looming above her head together with an exciting night at the Oscars. 

However, it is with the concluding comments that Bloom perhaps resonated the most: “We have to reinvent ourselves from time to time. Sometimes the world falls on us and we don’t have a choice. But sometimes it’s in small, subtle ways. 

“If we believe in ourselves, if we’re willing to get uncomfortable and continue to walk through the fear, the discomfort, if we’re willing to take those calculated risks and use our rational mind, the sky’s the limit.”