Each year, fortunes are made and lost around the world. If the amounts involved are large enough, you may even hear about these occurrences in the news. One way in which fortunes are quickly gained is through the lottery or casino. Every time someone hits it big they're featured all over the local and national news. I'm sure you've read about these events, and when you did, there was probably a part of you that felt a bit of jealous. After all, who doesn't want to win the lotto? You get to suddenly come into a large amount of money, and just think, you didn't have to even earn it, other than the price you paid for the ticket, of course.
However, gaining your fortune through the lottery or a casino is one of the most dangerous ways to acquire wealth. In fact, some have said that poverty itself is preferable to this scenario. While this may be hard to understand, one thing that you must remember is that wealth should be built from the ground up. By building your wealth from scratch, as we've taught you to do in this book, once you achieve it, you will be worthy of it.
If you're out of shape, and rarely work out, what do you think would happen if you tried to enter a triathlon? If someone told you to fly a plane, even though you had never taken a single flight lesson in your life, what do you think the results would be? In both instances, the result would be disaster. The biggest problem with winning the lottery is that you're not prepared to handle the type of money you're given. A man who makes an average salary, who has an average amount of wealth and who has not studied finance in any capacity, is not prepared to handle the millions he may win through the lottery.
A number of studies have been conducted on lottery winners, and these studies have led to what some call “The Lottery Curse.” The idea behind this is that tragedy often befalls those that win the lottery. In one case, the winner of a lottery was kidnapped and murdered by his own relatives shortly after. In another case, a man's grand daughter had a drug overdose shortly after his win, and in multiple cases, couples who won the lottery ended up divorced a few months after their win, despite the fact they had been married for years prior. While some would say that all these events are a coincidence, they are not, and while you will always hear about the winners in the news, you will rarely hear about the battles they faced afterwards.
I once talked to a guy who told me a story about an experience he had when working as a security guard in a casino. He told me that the parents of a young man had recently died in an accident, and he came into the casino to gamble with the $60,000 that he received through the insurance policy. He gambled all night, and the casino catered to his every need. By the next morning, he had gambled away most of what his parents had died to give him. Finally realizing his mistake, he broke down in tears, and had to be escorted up to a guest room where he used the remainder of his money to stay.
The lesson from this story should be obvious. This young man could have done a lot with that $60,000. He could have went to college. He could have also started a business (many multi-million dollar companies have been started with much less than $60,000). Instead, he blew it all in a single night in a casino. It is for this reason that I never gamble under any circumstances, and neither should you.
While I'm not a believer in curses, I do believe that the reason why these individuals face so much hardship in the face of so much wealth is simply because their minds have not been trained to handle such a stupendous amount of money. Just as a man who starts weight lifting for the first time will need to work his way up to bench pressing 450 pounds, wealth is something that you must work your way towards, building it from the ground up. So our advice on lottery tickets is to stop buying them if you do, and stay out of the casinos. Your long term wealth is guaranteed if you follow the principles of this book, and once you reach it, you will be ready for it.
Another form of wealth which can be hazardous to your long term financial health is wealth that comes through an inheritance. This form of wealth, while desired by many people, is almost just as bad as wealth that is gained through the lottery. In these situations, you will typically have a young person who receives a large sum of money from a member of their family, money that in most cases they did not labor for. Because they are not mentally prepared to handle this money, instead of managing it properly, they blow it all on conspicuous consumption. It has often been said that great fortunes are usually lost by the third generation, and this is the reason why.
While it is tempting to be jealous of those who receive inheritances, don't be. In most cases, these people are weak, only a shadow of the person who is giving them the money, and just as with the lotto winners, their wealth will often not last for long. While there is nothing wrong with passing down your wealth to your future forebears, it is wise for you to train and mentally prepare them for this transfer of wealth, so that they can grow it and in turn pass it down to their children. In a nutshell, we recommend building your fortune from the ground up; a fortune obtained in any other way is usually a house that is built on a foundation of sand.