The lottery and your changed life
by Andrew Smith on 08/11/05 at 10:02 pm
1 comment
There is something almost mystical that draws the human population to lotteries all over the world. The huge payouts are testimony to the many millions of people that are pouring their money into the dream of changing their lives. Despite documentaries and books giving countless stories of how unhappy most lottery winners end up, we all seem to be able to convince ourselves that “it would be different if it happened to me”.
The real prize that is assocatiated with cashing a cheque for a few million is the hope of “never having to work again”. I always wonder what people would really want to do if they weren’t working in their current jobs. Most admit that they would probably do some type of work, but they would be more free to choose their work without worrying about income.
So here’s my point – there are a few billion people in the world who would like to be doing some other type of work, but feel like the lottery is their only way of getting there. I challenge them to seriously assess how much they want to achieve this “other life”. If R2.50 a week on a lottery ticket is all they are willing to sacrifice to change their situation, they probably don’t really want to change.
If you’re not happy where you are, but would like to increase your odds of making a change to more than 1 in a few milllion, why not start by buying a book like “The Beermat Entrepreneur”, from Amazon / from Kalahari.
Andrew Smith is the pedantic systems guy behind Live Alchemy, a SA e-commerce company. Andrew writes for Ideate in an attempt to make the world a more efficient place. View more articles by Andrew Smith.
Shane
Nov 10th, 2005
Excellent point Andrew! I suppose for many of the players, it feels like they are doing at least something to ‘change’ their situation. Doing something mediocre can be the thing that distracts you from doing something great!