Skip to main content

"Money Only Makes You More of Who You Are"

On Christmas Day of 2002, 55-year-old Jack Whittaker was lucky enough to pick the winning numbers of the Powerball, earning him a whopping $314.9 million, the largest ever lottery win at the time. Jack was already doing pretty well for himself as the president of a construction company, so this windfall had pretty much set Jack for life.Shortly after his win, Jack seemed to have his life on track. He donated a good chunk of money to philanthropic efforts.

But this lifestyle wasn't to last. Things quickly took a turn for the worse.

Foolish with his money, Jack carried around enormous sums of cash in briefcases just because. Because of his reputation of carrying around this cash, he was robbed multiple times. Jack also lost a ton of money literally gambling it away. And if that isn't bad, it gets worse.

Jack's granddaughter, only 17 years old, was found dead (presumably murdered), wrapped in a tarp and dumped behind a van, reportedly with many drugs in her system. Several years later, Jack's daughter was found inexplicably dead, too. Having taken a lump sum, Jack found himself without a family and literally penniless after casinos and the government took the remainder of his money for avoiding his debts to them.

In 2007, Jack admitted in an interview with ABC: "I wish I'd torn that ticket up."
If you think I'm against having money, I'm not. Sure, you can easily Google lottery horror stories just like Jack's online, but I don't think it necessarily has to do with the money. I can't remember exactly who said it (I think it was Shark Tank's Daymond John), but the quote in the title of this post is so true: "Money only makes you more of who you are."

I think people look at money as the solution to their problems, and I can only very partially agree with that. Sure, money can do things like put food on the table. The problem persists and thrives, however, if the core of your being isn't right. It's not as if money makes you into a different person.

Opposite of the Jacks of the world, there are plenty of examples of people who have done a lot of great things as their wealth has grown. Bill Gates is a good example of this with his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Another profound example of this is Mark Cuban. The guy is a billionaire, yet he continues to hustle because that is at the core of his being. He could easily close up shop today and live comfortably for the rest of his life.

Ask yourself: what are you in it for? Is it for the money? If so, what if somebody dropped a billion dollars on your front door step today? Would it affect what you aspire to today?

Align your goals to tangible aspirations, not money.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About LYEATT

This is my third attempt at starting a blog like this. Each other time I started, I was so concerned about views. How many people read what I wrote? Did anybody express appreciation over it? Did anybody have any other thoughts to share about it? The truth is, I heard nothing. Seemingly nobody cared! Although… I should say that really didn’t give either much to gain traction. Each maybe had three or four posts before my self-consciousness got the better of me and shut them down. So why now? Why try again?
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Competency #4: A Dash of "Not-Care-itude"

As an avid listener of The Tim Ferriss Show  podcast, I listened to a recently uploaded episode complementary to his new book Tools of Titans (review incoming) that covered a number of tough questions he encouraged everybody to ask themselves. One of the questions he shared was, "How would you run your business if you were only allowed to work that business two hours a week?"
Post a Comment
Read more

What My Wife Does Right

When I got married back in 2012, I didn't have a whole lot of involvement in the planning with the wedding. My wife, Maggie, took care of everything. It was one of those situations where I literally did nothing but show my happy little self up the day of the ceremony.  It's not that I refused help or was asked to stay out of it. My wife had it under control. More accurately, I wasn't needed. Photography: Free. Flowers: Also free. Church reservation: Yup, free. Super nice five-tier wedding cake: Well... you probably get the point by now. After all was said and done, I think she effectively got half the stuff for the wedding for free. The most amazing part: she never even asked for these free things . These people willingly volunteered their time and resources. Of course, you don't just wake up one morning with a group of people willing to do amazing things for you at the drop of a hat. This took my wife her entire life to build toward, and it's ...
Post a Comment
Read more

More than Just Lipstick on a Pig

A model passionately talking about her favorite make up in front of a white background. A group of friends laughing while taking a drink out of an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola. A sleek car gliding across a barren highway. If you’re like me, these are probably the sorts of images you think about when you hear the term “marketing”. It’s not an incorrect thought, by any means. These advertisements are a means of getting a product out into the market, so I’d be wrong if I tried telling you this isn’t marketing. But is this really all there is to marketing?
Post a Comment
Read more

No Man's Sky

If you haven’t heard about No Man’s Sky, take a break from here and go watch any of the plethora of YouTube videos about it. Reviews of the game have not been kind, and frankly, I can’t blame them. From a gameplay perspective, it truly is a pretty repetitive game. At the time of this writing, I still haven’t finished the game, but I honestly can’t say I’ve found any of the story to be all that exciting either. Inventory management is a pain in the neck, and trying to manage recipes is just downright frustrating. Yet I love this game.
Post a Comment
Read more