信条和金钱的纠结会导致严重后果。希林是个口无遮拦的保守人士，公开鼓吹“有限政府。”但实际上他却曾经向马萨诸塞州乞求补贴，失败之后转而接受了罗德岛州的巨额贷款担保，通过州政府发行的债券筹款。当无法偿付利息时，他又向政府讨要电影税收抵免或者延迟付款。希林不仅背叛了自己的公开价值观，也将自己的公司置于脆弱的境地。当你依靠公众情绪而生存时，也要小心有人幸灾乐祸。既然希林荒谬地坚称，他并没有寻求纳税人的施舍，那么当援手变成拳头时，他也不该感到吃惊。

    成功转型很难。在某个领域达到顶峰的人要在另一个完全不相干的领域达到同样地位是极端困难的。没错，希林尝试雇佣经验丰富的游戏高管来帮助他，但最终他以前只是一个球员，却要掌管一家游戏公司。他经常重拾当球员时的习惯，希望一切都由自己一手掌握（自己投资，家庭成员担任董事）。这些不一定就会导致失败，但也决不是成功的模板。

    很不幸，希林、他的雇员和罗德岛州的纳税人要以如此苦涩的方式才能学到这些教训。

    Dogma mixed with dollars can be toxic. Schilling has been an outspoken conservative, loudly endorsing "limited government." But he basically begged Massachusetts for subsidies and, when that failed, took a massive loan guarantee from Rhode Island that was financed via state-issued bonds. When he couldn't pay the interest, he begged for film tax credits or a payment deferral. Not only was Schilling betraying his own public values, but he was also putting his company in a vulnerable position. Schadenfreude matters when you rely on public sentiment to survive. When Schilling absurdly insisted that he wasn't looking for taxpayer handouts, he shouldn't have been surprised when those hands turned into fists.

    Successful pivots are rare. It is extraordinarily difficult for someone at the top of one field to reach the top of another, totally unrelated field. Schilling did try to hire experienced gaming execs to help fill in the blanks, but ultimately he was an ex-ballplayer in charge of a digital content corporation. And he often fell back on ballplayer habits, like wanting total control (his money, his family members on the board, etc.). Not necessarily a recipe for failure, but certainly not the base ingredients for success.

    It's too bad that Schilling, his workers, and the taxpayers of Rhode Island had to learn that the hard way.