Brian Epstein didn’t know the movie business and should have been smart enough to play Reluctant Buyer (see Chapter 5) and use Good Guy/Bad Guy (see Chapter 14). He should have said, “I don’t think they’d be interested in taking the time to make a movie, but if you’ll give me your very best offer, I’ll take it to them and see what I can do for you with them.” Instead, his ego wouldn’t let him play dumb (see Chapter 27), so he assertively stated that they would have to get 7.5 percent of the profits or they wouldn’t do it. This slight tactical error cost the group millions when director Richard Lester, to every one’s surprise, created A Hard Day’s Night, a brilliantly humorous portrait of a day in the group’s life, became a worldwide success.