A long lost girlfriend made an interesting comment to me once when she said, “If you won the lottery you wouldn’t take the money would you.”
What was interesting about the comment was the fact it was not a question but rather a statement.
I can’t recall my precise answer, but it was something to the effect that I didn’t think I would.
However, in an earlier post, Quit Being So Damn Selfish, I also made reference to the fact that it is easy to hypothesize what we might do, but the reality is, until we find ourselves in the situation we are referring to, we really don’t know.
Looking back, truth be told, if I won millions of dollars and the lottery commission came to my house with that big-ass cheque , I am fairly certain I would have ripped that baby out of their hands before they could get through, “Con….”
I base that thought on the fact that I have taken any and all other free money that has been shipped my way over the years, so I doubt that tidy little sum would have been treated any different.
My outlook today however is completely different.
I don’t want to win the lottery. So I don’t put myself in a position to win it. How do I do that? I don’t buy lottery tickets. In fact I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in at least 15 years.
Why would I do that? Simple! I don’t want to WIN millions of dollars. I want to EARN millions of dollars.
Winning vs. Earning…
Please don’t misunderstand what I am trying to say.
I do want to have more money in my life (and I will have it), but winning it and earning it are two completely different paths.
Here is my problem with winning such a large sum of money. Lets say I won a million dollars today…like right now. How have I changed? What have I learned? What skills did I develop to acquire this measure of wealth? How did my character evolve?
The answers. I haven’t. Nothing. None. It didn’t. I’m still the same guy (or bozo as some of my friends are apt to declare) I was before I got that money, except my net worth has multiplied by about 1000.
The arguments in favour of winning a million dollars…
I have heard the response to this before. People counter by saying that if you won you could then develop those skills.
The problem with that is it defies our history in personal growth. History dictates that those who get something they didn’t earn, don’t treat it properly or with the respect it deserves and will, given enough time, eventually loose it or destroy it.
Look at weight loss for example. We can either learn the discipline required to eat foods which nourish the body and develop the discipline to do the exercises which keep the body fit and strong, or we can pay a whack of cash to have our fat suits removed liposuction style.
Who is better off in the end? The person who worked to achieve the health and vitality they desired or the person who bought it?
A real life example…
Back in university, I had a summer job working at a plant which produced various parts for cars. One of the guys I worked with was a big dude. Sadly, he had the body composition of that green slime we used to play with as kids, minus the greenish hue. This was obviously something that bothered him because he eventually made the decision to have lipo done.
He had great intentions following the procedure. He ate better, and I think he was doing some exercise. But in the end, he possessed zero of the discipline, mindset or character that was required to attain and then subsequently maintain the body the he had just been given.
Within a year he was right back where he was before looking more like Mike Myers creation, Fat Bastard.
Moving from lottery mentality to mastery mentality…
In this book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule. He suggests (supported by actual examples) that it takes roughly 10,000 hours to truly master the art of something, whether it be writing, web development, public speaking, sex (9889 more hours and I should be getting my diploma in that one), you name it.
Sure some will argue the validity of that number, but the fact remains that it takes a lot of hours to become great at something.
Start putting in the time…
There is no such thing as an overnight success. People work their asses off in obscurity for years and then BOOM! They achieve some level of success and everyone thinks they got lucky, that they were fortunate.
I have a good buddy who just recently became the owner of his own McDonald’s franchise, before the age of 40. Now some might look and say he was lucky, that he obviously had a few breaks along the way.
What they don’t know is that he managed up to 3 stores for 13 years. He worked nearly every weekend but a few, during that time. He worked crazy hours and had little in the way of holidays. But he saved his ass off to get to the point where he could be in a position to control his own financial destiny one day.
He has easily put in his 10,000 hours. And over that time, he has mastered the skills required to run a successful franchise so that he can now begin to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
Stop wishing and start working for what you want…
What have you been putting off? Quitting your job to start your own business? Running a marathon? Doing stand up? Traveling the world?
It has long been my desire to earn my living writing and speaking about those things that I am most passionate about. Included in that is my desire to write a book. Yes I know, me and about 5 billion of my fellow peeps on this polluted planet have the same goal.
What will ultimately separate me from the rest of the pack? The fact that I have made the decision to stop waiting around with the hopes a publisher will come to me and say, “Hey average guy with no remarkable story to tell, could you write a book for us that won’t sell?”
Instead, I have decided to put myself out there. I am going to create something extraordinary that I want to commit to. The launching and subsequent marketing of this blog is that beginning.
And the good news is I am not starting from scratch (and neither are you if you think about the time you have invested in that thing you love to do.)
I have long been an avid journal writer over the past 15 years. And if I was to do the math and carry the one, I figure I have put in about 1500 to 2000 hours so far. So I am a fifth of the way towards mastering my skill.
When all is said and done, I am not hoping to win the lottery, I plan on creating my own and my odds of winning are like a million times better.
To ideas worth quitting,
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