Arrogance cooked Martha's goose

One of the world's richest women let pride, arrogance and a lie bring her down. The word is hubris.

Stewart and her stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, apparently thought they could get away with their little crime. As her lawyer Robert Morvillo pointed out during the trial, Stewart couldn't have been motivated by money alone to do something that a jury has now said was illegal. The $45,600 she saved by dumping her ImClone stock was a pittance compared to her total fortune of more than $1 billion.

But Stewart had built an empire by doing things just so, and was accustomed to having things her way. She must have thought she could have it in this instance too.