But a friend of mine took this to extremes last week when I met him for drinks at an upmarket drinking establishment.
You see, whenever there’s a lady around we bankers tend to show off. Sadly, I think my friend might have been trying a bit too hard to impress a female acquaintance of ours, telling her how he was "just" a managing director, etc etc.
The lady didn't seem as impressed as she might. She was, of course, more attracted to my winning turn of phrase and so spent most of her time ignoring him and talking to me about her great passion for tennis.
My friend was not to be deterred however, particularly once fortified by a few glasses of wine and a couple of tequila shots. His next gambit was to claim that he was a better player than Rafael Nadal — none other than the lady’s idol, as (bad) luck would have it. And it only got worse when the oysters came...
I was fairly unsurprised, of course, given my long years of service. I've heard it all. But it got me thinking about why my old muckers in the business still get a kick out of all the crazy showboating. Maybe it's the clients — when they are around, they are the kings, and the rest of us have to take a back seat. So when they're not, we go overboard.
I wouldn't advise it, though, and I don't think our lady friend would either. Sometimes less really is more.