I have a fairly heavy southern accent and have dealt with the issue from time to time, but you don't really see the discrimination against it as much as long as

I have a fairly heavy southern accent and have dealt with the issue from time to time, but you don't really see the discrimination against it as much as long as you are in the south. Outside of the south it is a different ball game. I have a friend who is also an investor that has done really well for himself. His name is Jeff and we were in a venture together and I always wondered how this guy ever became a billionaire, think Barny Fiffe as an investor. Anyways, our venture ends up getting sued by a large company and we have to go to court and all of the sudden this guy becomes Matlock I mean he is absolutely shredding the other legal team, all the while maintaining his charade of please explain that to a dumb southern boy who does not understand all of this. Anyways, the case is over and I say to him, I think after all these years I just met the real Jeff and he says you have always know the real Jeff as I don't try to deceive people, people deceive themselves by projecting onto me their stereotypes, I just never tried to adapt myself to their model of who I should be, therefore they underestimate me to their own disadvantage. That was the day I learned that being underestimated is actually an advantage and that most people conflate arrogance with confidence. In reflection Jeff was confident he just was not arrogant, arrogance was the weakness he exploited. As a side note Bill Clinton is another example of using his southerness as a trap for the arrogant to fall into. He was a master at using it to lule his political opponents into underestimating him.