I'll Never forget the Day I hit the Lottery | Eastern North Carolina Now

This post is an updated version of the speech I gave my kids when they were young, I have updated it for my grand kids in case I am not around to dispense my version of the facts of life.

    Hitting the lottery was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. I should know because, I have hit it several times in my time here on earth.

    Whatever your outlook on the odds of any gambling endeavor, most people would say that the lottery and Keno have the worse odds. I have posted about that dreadful game before. Here is the post on the game of Keno. My most significant hit in the lottery had nothing to do with the odds. It is human nature to try and explain and quantify events and determine the probabilities of an event occurring, but that assumes that the process is random and not fixed.

    Some people believe that everything in life is fixed. The world is against them and there is very little they can do about it. Those are the same people who believe that the game is rigged when someone secures a high paying job or builds a company from scratch. Most of the explanations for them would boil down to the phrase uttered by our President, "You did not build that". Those are generally the people who will always point to someone better off than themselves and offer an explanation/excuse as to why their life is not based on their own efforts.

    On the other hand, it seems that sometimes the odds of the draw works in favor of certain people. They were born into a rich family, or they have a natural athletic talent, or maybe they are exceptionally bright in one subject or another, or maybe they just fit into that catch all category of "lucky" that propels them to great accomplishments. You may know some people like that where the path is always clear, the obstacles are always low and the future is always bright. I'll bet if you talked to them they could tell you a story or two about the bumps in their road.

    One thing about the law (there is no such thing in science or life) of probability is that it is all based on the premise of random occurrence. That is that all things occur with a lack of pattern or predictability in events. It may be possible to predict the probable outcome of events, but it is impossible to predict the outcome to a 100% degree of certainty. The Randomness of events presupposes that there are no external or internal influences to affect the outcome. So, it boils down to your belief system.

    Ask any gambler what his system is and you will get a long explanation of how he beats the odds. If you really press him on how his system is working he will revert into what I call the "Fisherman Mode". That is he will tell you his biggest hit or winning game but not the days he came home without a stringer full of money or fish. Probably the best example of beating the odds was in the movie Back to the Future version ??. Biff had this book that told him how to bet on sports and became a millionaire. Maybe you have heard of someone like that.



    But in the absence of a book from the future, we are left with what Dr. Brown says about the future. "The future is not written yet!"

   

    I was intrigued by a quote from Dr. Ben Carson, who certainly was not born in the best of circumstances and did not have a bright future if you use the laws of probability & odds to predict his life.

    "If you were born today you have a life expectancy of somewhere between 75 and 80 years, so let's say that you spent the first 25 years preparing yourself. That will give you roughly 50 to 55 years to enjoy and reap the benefits; Conversely if you do not prepare yourself in the first 25 years you have 50 to 55 years to face the consequences. " Dr. Ben Carson

    It reminds me of the old saying about the tramp laying in the gutter and he sees a Cadillac limousine drive by. He looks up and says to himself. "There but for me go I".

   I have heard people say, "I know I could be great, rich, famous, on easy street, or successful. I just need someone to give me a break". Friends, your mamma gave you that when you were born, the rest in on you!

    So what has any of this to do with hitting the lottery. I hit the lottery on the day I was born. I was born healthy, in the USA, to loving parents, and with a good future ahead. I do know one thing thought, it had nothing to do with odds or gambling.

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