A Fun Little Experiment For Anyone Who's Interested...

11 years ago

The biggest problem would be keeping it a secret. I don't need everyone knowing I have that much money.

The second biggest problem would be the number of "friends" who would come out of the woodwork just to get a share. I know who my real friends are and I know what I would do with the money.

There are many positives. I could help family and good friends get out of debt. I could buy my own home and a few luxuries. I wouldn't have to work but I could if I wanted to, for the fun of it.

Thanks
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Cheers, Laurence.
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DoWhatWorks

11 years ago

Hi Laurence,

Thanks for replying! I thought many of those things too!

Let's see if anyone else wants to play along and add their answers to the question!

I think that people who play along with this will find it interesting when I post part 2 shortly!

Thanks again for replying and playing along!

-Terry

Originally Posted by laurencewins

The biggest problem would be keeping it a secret. I don't need everyone knowing I have that much money.

The second biggest problem would be the number of "friends" who would come out of the woodwork just to get a share. I know who my real friends are and I know what I would do with the money.

There are many positives. I could help family and good friends get out of debt. I could buy my own home and a few luxuries. I wouldn't have to work but I could if I wanted to, for the fun of it.

Thanks

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kaytav

11 years ago

Originally Posted by laurencewins

The biggest problem would be keeping it a secret. I don't need everyone knowing I have that much money.

The second biggest problem would be the number of "friends" who would come out of the woodwork just to get a share. I know who my real friends are and I know what I would do with the money.

There are many positives. I could help family and good friends get out of debt. I could buy my own home and a few luxuries. I wouldn't have to work but I could if I wanted to, for the fun of it.

Keeping it a secret will be the biggest challenge. Also with friends, I don't think my friends would talk about a share, but they definitely will force me to have a big party.... :p

Thanks

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footballfreak

11 years ago

This will be a great challenge! Can't wait to read the replies/

1. If posted on facebook I would certainly get alot of fans
2. Don't see many downfalls that money couldn't take care of!

Thanks
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ImWendy 11 years ago

"If you won the $550,000,000 Lottery, What Negatives/Problems Would That Present For You, which most people don't consider?"

One of the first things that come to mind about the negativity of winning the powerball lotto (all to myself ), is that people who you haven't heard from in a long time start coming out of the woodwork to hit you up. That's pretty insulting.

Even worse, this will continue for as long as you have this fortune. Even more worse than that, if you say NO, you're automatically a stingy, selfish, D-bag and then people start hating and wishing the worst for you. They will hate you anyway because you are the winner and whatever bad thing happens to you (think Jack Whittaker), you will either be in the news, the haters will rejoice to your bad fortune, or both.

Please don't think that I wouldn't share my fortune. It's just that the constant calls for handouts would be nerve wracking after a while. Another negativity would be that you and your family may become a target for kidnappers. I know it's not a common occurrence here in the states (that I'm aware of), but that kind of dough would certainly elevate the chances of such an event to happen exponentially. Oh, and let's not forget the robbers too. This is not limited to people who try to get you with biz ops, whether real or fake.

Lastly, a negative thing that I can think of is that now that you have all this money, now what? What I mean is, you've already done ALL the things you you've dreamed of, bought ALL the things you want, helped ALL those who needed help, etc., now what? It's like there's nothing else to strive for, to work for, to learn from, and so forth and then you become one of those miserable rich people statistics. That is, IF you don't lose your fortune in the process. You know how they say that most lotto winners go through their fortune like nothing and that a good majority go broke? That's what I mean.

That's all I can think of for now. One last thing. Despite all the negatives I pointed out, I wouldn't mind being the one to prove or disprove my assumptions.
- Thanks
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conanedo

11 years ago

i will feel really scared that many thief's out there looking to me and family :p

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DoWhatWorks 11 years ago

Thanks to everyone who participated in this little experiment.

Your answers were very similar to many of the things I thought about as potential problems/negatives that could occur as a result of winning the lottery.

So, what was the point of all of this?

When I started thinking about the negatives that could occur from winning the lottery, something hit me: These were actually the same limiting beliefs that I had many years ago, prior to growing my business. The interesting thing is that I never thought I had any limiting beliefs and I always thought that the idea of limiting beliefs and self-sabotage was a bunch of nonsense.

I realized that since the lottery would result in instant, overnight fortune, as opposed to a business, where the financial success was "far off", it became much clearer to me why I didn't pursue my own financial success in my business sooner and more aggressively.

Think about it: It's much easier for us to tell ourselves, "Of course I want financial success in my own business. Why would I want to sabotage the success of my own business?" When it comes to winning the lottery and potentially getting that financial end-result overnight, however, we suddenly get instant clarity on why all of that money could be a problem!

Just as many of you wrote, some of my limiting beliefs about winning the lottery (and having a highly successful business) included:
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"I don't need everyone knowing I have that much money."

"The number of "friends" who would come out of the woodwork just to get a share"

"People would think I'm stingy/selfish if I don't share my success with them, once I get it."

"People will have negative feelings towards me if I become financially successful and loved ones might resent my financial success."

"Having lots of money would result in lots of attention and that could present problems for me and my family (safety issues, attracting scammers, etc.)"
-----------
If you also view any of the thoughts above as potential negatives to winning the lottery, it's very likely that those are the same thoughts, which you might not even be conscious of, that are keeping you from having financial success in business. These limiting thoughts remain in our subconscious, when the prospect of financial success in business is "far away" from where we are now. Since lotto winnings are instant/overnight, our brain brings these subconscious/negative thoughts into our conscious.

When there's that possibility that we'd have to "deal with" a large personal fortune right away, if we have the winning ticket, our brain wakes up our subconscious, limiting thoughts, and basically says, "Wake up, subconscious! This is something we need to consciously think about right now, because the lotto drawing is tonight!" Even though we recognize the slim chance of winning, we're still able to get in touch with our subconscious, limiting thoughts about money, because of the chance that we could suddenly have a large sum of money overnight.

So, the best way that I think many of us can benefit from this is as follows:

If you also think that limiting beliefs and self-sabotage is a bunch of nonsense, try the following the next time a big lottery jackpot is in the headlines: Sit down and think about what it would be like if you won and think about any negatives or concerns you'd have by suddenly having a large fortune like that. Maybe even spend a buck on a lottery ticket and, before the drawing, think about the positives and negatives that could occur if you suddenly have all of that money overnight. You may just come to the same conclusions that I came to: My concerns about instant wealth through the lottery were very much in line with the reasons why I held myself back from going for it 100% in my own business.

I hope this experiment has helped some of you get to know yourselves a little bit better, as it did for me! If your own limiting beliefs are buried in your subconscious, as they were for me, this little exercise can definitely help to bring those thoughts, which are holding you back, to the surface!

-Terry
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- Rags2Richs 11 years ago
  
  Well done. I had a client that won the lottery and he got into some very bad investments and got a divorce almost instantly. His exwife put her half of the winnings in a few Jumbo CD's and lived off the interest generated (after buying a small ranchita cars, etc)
  Luckily for my client he made some investments in gold bullion and oil deals that later paid off quite well, purely by luck. BTW he took a limo from Dallas to Austin to collect his money...said the IRS and some govt. agency like the Treasury were waiting and ran his prints!
  
  Thanks
  
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sethczerepak

11 years ago

Originally Posted by DoWhatWorks

OK, so every news headline today seems to be about the fact that the U.S. Powerball Lottery is now up to $550,000,000.

This got me thinking of some fairly profound things, and so I wanted to do a fun little social experiment with anyone who's up for the challenge!

To participate, simply answer the following question by posting your comments in this thread:

"If you won the $550,000,000 Lottery, What Negatives/Problems Would That Present For You, which most people don't consider?"

-Terry

Fascinating post Terry, thanks for sharing.

I have my clients do this exercise because I believe it uncovers their fears of success and what might be KEEPING them from having the money they've set out to earn.

For me, it would be the impact on my dating life. I'm sure that all the women who have been ignoring me for years would suddenly take an interest in me. A lot of them already did when I started making more than $100k a year...crazy cause I STILL don't know how some of them found that out.

I'm sure I'd have some crazies after me too, but I'd invest the money into pulling a first class disappearing act. I'd get away from everyone and take about a month to seriously think about how to spend the money before going nuts.

Anyway, I could go on, but thanks for the exercise...I encourage everyone to do this...even if just with the amount of money you're aiming to make. You'll be amazed what hidden, self-limiting obstacles come up.

Thanks
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DoWhatWorks

11 years ago

Hi Seth,

Thanks! I'm glad you like the exercise!

-Terry

Originally Posted by sethczerepak

Fascinating post Terry, thanks for sharing.

I have my clients do this exercise because I believe it uncovers their fears of success and what might be KEEPING them from having the money they've set out to earn.

For me, it would be the impact on my dating life. I'm sure that all the women who have been ignoring me for years would suddenly take an interest in me. A lot of them already did when I started making more than $100k a year...crazy cause I STILL don't know how some of them found that out.

I'm sure I'd have some crazies after me too, but I'd invest the money into pulling a first class disappearing act. I'd get away from everyone and take about a month to seriously think about how to spend the money before going nuts.

Anyway, I could go on, but thanks for the exercise...I encourage everyone to do this...even if just with the amount of money you're aiming to make. You'll be amazed what hidden, self-limiting obstacles come up.

Thanks

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DoWhatWorks

11 years ago

Hi Chris,

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you, at least in terms of what I found to be the case for myself. After I did this exercise, I found that the negative thoughts about winning the lottery were very closely in line with my own reservations about growing my business. Of course, I'm sure it's different for everyone, but I found this to be true for me. I wasn't really talking about fear of success and fear of failure. I was more talking about what keeps us from going "full force" in our businesses and growing our businesses beyond our comfort zones for greater financial success. I do agree with you though on the point that fear of failure is a completely separate thing. I think fear of failure comes into play more before even starting in ones business. My comparison was more related to growing one's existing business to reach new levels of income.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

-Terry

Originally Posted by Chris Kent

I don't see the comparison. I think these are two very different things.

I don't believe the source of most negative beliefs for business are due to fear of negative effects of having that money.

There is some fear of success and plenty of fear of failure but they are different.