What Would You Do If You Won The Lottery

In the clip above, we see a guy pretending to be homeless, but instead of asking for money with his sign, he's trying to give people a dollar.  He obviously is doing this in a pretty upscale area, and the reactions might surprise you.  If I won the lottery, this is one of the many weird things I would actually do.  When I was homeless and panhandling, I actually did do this a couple of times.  Basically people would drive up and start talking to me as they waited for the stop light.  Both times, the guys said something about not having any money to give me, but wished me good luck.  Then they talked about the personal stuff that was dragging them down.  So I reached into my pocket, got a dollar, and said, "Here, I'll give you a dollar.  Good luck man."  The were surprised, but both took the dollar, laughed, and drove off.  I always wanted to stand at a panhandling spot all day long and just hand out dollar bills to the people who drove by.  I learned there's a point where panhandling can turn into performance art.  Plus, it's just fun to freak people out a little sometimes. 

So... if you won a big lottery prize, let's say a multi-million dollar prize, what would you do?  I actually developed a workshop about 25 years ago when my sister had a big decision to make about college.  Over the years I've honed that workshop, and recently I actually presented the idea to my pastor at church to see if I could give the workshop, for free, to anyone at church who was interested.  He said the idea had merit, but since it wasn't a faith based workshop, decided it wasn't the right fit for church.  I've been debating about giving the workshop in this area.  My workshop is much more detailed, but the underlying idea is: What would you do if you won the lottery?

Let's start with the basics.  Most people would pay off their outstanding bills.  Then they might pay off their house, or buy a nice house if they didn't own one.  Then they'd either pay off their car or buy a new one (or two).  Some people would give gifts to family members, and maybe good friends.  Others might put some money away for retirement or for the kids' college fund.  Let's say you've done all that, and still had several million dollars left over.  THEN what would you do?  Seriously, think about it for a minute.  What WOULD you do?  Travel?  If so, to where?  Would you get the whole family together for a big reunion?  Or would you keep your crazy family apart and visit them individually?  Would you collect something?  Cars?  Art?  Nick Cannon's old shoes?  If you don't know who Nick Cannon is, Google "Nick Cannon, shoes" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Would you buy a vacation house?  Would you drink yourself into oblivion (and debt) like so many lottery winners and inheritance recipients do?  Once you had all the stuff you think you want, how would you spend your time?  Would you wander around and give $100 bills to the homeless?  Would you support one cause or another?  Would you feel obligated to give something back to the world?  I'm serious... think about this for a few minutes.  If you won a big lottery prize, paid off debts, bought a bunch of stuff, traveled a bunch, and donated to some worthy charity, what would you do to pass the time after that?

I bet something popped in your head.  It may have even surprised you.  Think about that for another minute.  Here's the kicker question.  Whatever you would do in that situation... why aren't you doing it right now?  Sure, maybe you can't do it to the same degree as you could being a multi-millionaire, but you can probably spend some portion of your time doing the things that a "millionaire you" would do.  Would you volunteer somewhere?  Would you find a job you really loved?  Would you start your own business, or maybe a non-profit organization?  Would you go back to school?

If you actually won the lottery, after all the initial spending, you would find a way, hopefully a productive way, to spend your time.  So what's keeping you from doing that right now?