Early on in the story, in a small piece of Foreshadowing, Jordan makes analogies to his business being run as if he and his colleagues were Captain Ahab out hunting for "Moby-Dicks" i.e. suckers who will fall for their schemes. Jordan seemingly fails to realise that Captain Ahab is characterized as a man way in over his head who simply doesn't know when to quit, a flaw that proves to be his downfall. Sure enough, when Jordan is later under intense scrutiny from the FBI, he manages to work out a deal that will get him off the hook if he quits his business and confesses to smaller crimes. It turns out Jordan also doesn't know when to quit as he ultimately fails to honour said deal, being arrested by the FBI sometime after.
While a lot of argument exists as for at which point exactly Jordan's life stops getting better and things start going downhill, many people would agree that the first cracks appear in the scene where we see his first fight with Naomi (which we subsequently learn is something he has on a daily basis, essentially cluing us in on the fact that his life isn't just one big streak of cool victories). Said scene opens with him getting a glass of cold water poured on him, violently waking him up. Physically and dramatically, he's getting his wakeup call - and so do we, the viewers, narratively!
If crooks as stupid as Jordan and his gang can almost get away with it, how many white-collar criminals out there have gotten away scot-free or with a slap on the wrist because they have the good sense to get out while they're still ahead?
