Lately, I have been hearing friends saying that they want to win the lottery, especially today that the jackpot is beyond 400 million pesos. Aside from that, majority of lottery stations inside the malls and along the streets have bulk of lines - with every person trying their luck.
I think there's nothing wrong about wanting to win or actually winning the jackpot. Instead, something's wrong with the people who actually won lottery in history. I was surprised when I learned that majority of lottery winners declare bankruptcy within the next five years! If you search it over the net, you can find similar stories. Until one day, I realized that that the reason why they become bankrupt is because of lack of financial literacy.
Becoming a one-day-multi-millionaire is good, but I believe that becoming a 10-year-multi-millionaire is better. The first one becomes a millionaire by luck. The latter becomes a millionaire through financial literacy and action. If the first one becomes bankrupt, he has to try is luck over and over again. If the latter becomes bankrupt, he only has to repeat what he has done for the last ten years (except for the mistakes).
Personally, I haven't met a lottery winner yet. But I have already met a lot of multi-millionaires who worked on their passive income for years! They have become my mentors and advisors. They taught me almost everything I know today - but of course, I still and will always be hungry for knowledge. I could just imagine how a lottery winner would mentor me. Will he keep on saying, "Try your luck over and over again" or "Take care of your number and one day it will pay off" or "You just have to pray hard". I don't know. But the bottom line of what my mentors taught me is the attitude in winning the game of life, not the game of luck.
I hear a lot of people who say that lottery winners are lucky. Yes, they are. I believe. They have no control on the number combinations that will come out. I also hear people who say that successful businessmen are lucky. That statement is crap. I believe. Luck ends where action begins. I have met and talked to a lot of successful businessmen and heard their stories – from how they started up to where they are standing right now. They put a lot of action to succeed. That's the reason why I don't appreciate it when someone tells me, “Good luck” whenever I do my business. I’d rather hear, “Shoot it in the pot.”
Many people think that having a lot of money will solve their problems about money. What I have learned from my mentors and from my experience as well is that, being financially literate and learning how money works will solve the problem about money. If you know how money works, you can make it work for you.
I have nothing against lottery and winning it. In fact, it’s a good start-up if the winner has been dreaming of investing in huge businesses. It would be his advantage among the people who are starting out in business from nothing. I just don’t understand the people who want and aim for easy money, thinking that hundreds of millions of pesos will make them happy. Instead of taking time for financial education, people often depend on luck alone.
One funny thing is that, people want to win the lottery but are not willing to pay the price of betting. How could someone win without actually playing the game? The same goes with people who want to be successful in business. They’re often hindered by fear – not willing to give up something good for something definitely better. Investing is not risky. Being uneducated is risky.
No wonder why the richest man in America is an American, Chinese in China, and Chinese again in the Philippines. I think it’s about time for Filipinos to realize that it’s about time to wake up and invest on financial education if we want to be wealthy and successful instead of playing with twist of fate alone.
P.S. I still have a lot to share but it will all be out of the topic.
