What if I win the lottery?
I have recently been thinking a lot about the lottery. I keep wishing if somehow I could get hold of 1 crore (10 million) rupees, how my life would change for the better, how I will quit my job, pay off my mortgage, start something on my own and live happily ever after.
But there aren't many ways of landing with such kind of a fortune. I don't have any dying millionaire relative who may leave a fortune to me. So the only thing that comes to mind is winning the lottery. I am sure there are many others who daydream the same way.
I know it's a dream and there's no chance, there is no reasonable chance I will win the lottery. I don't even buy lottery tickets, you see.
But suppose I win it. Wouldn't it be awesome? Like fucking crazy? Wouldn't all my dreams come true overnight? Wow!!!
Even the thought brings a smile to my face. Imagine how happy I will be if it really happens someday.
I will be the happiest man on this planet.
But is that really true? Will I truly be happy? Like really happy?
What is happiness?
Philosophers have pondered and debated for centuries what true happiness is and how to be truly happy.
I do not know the answer, but I know one thing - when you are truly happy, you feel it in your heart. You don't feel the urge to define it when you are truly happy. Like I was in my childhood, in the tea garden near the Himalayas.
One way of defining or explaining happiness is that accomplishing something you desire makes you happy. This is the most accepted and logical definition which most people will connect to.
You go for the long-awaited vacation, you are happy. You get a promotion, you are happy. You buy a new car or new house, you are happy.
Does winning the lottery make one happy?
So winning the lottery should ideally make you very happy because now is the time you can buy or do everything you wanted, ever.
Turns out, it may not be as easy. In fact, a lot of research points to the contrary. It is seen among lottery winners that once the initial exuberance subsides, lottery winners may become even less happy than they were before they won the lottery.
The Unfortunate Story of the Biggest Jackpot Winner
Here is an unfortunate story of the biggest jackpot winner of his time. Jack Whitaker, won the largest single-ticket Powerball jackpot of $314.9 million in 2002. Before this, he was already an accomplished man. Winning the lottery, however, made him famous overnight.
He started getting letters from lots of people asking him to buy them stuff. He could have ignored those letters but he decided not to. He started buying people stuff. He employed people to read and respond to the letters. This, however, brought him more fame and more letters.
Soon his social life was ruined as he couldn't go anywhere without people bugging him for money and things. He soon started getting into troubles. He got arrested for drunk driving. He was even robbed and almost $545k were stolen from his car outside a strip club. His family fell apart, his granddaughter died of drug overdose with the money he had given her.
At the end of it all, he wished he had never won the lottery.
Why does winning the lottery make one unhappy?
This may be an extreme example, but if you do even a little research on the internet about winning the lottery and being happy, you will see what I am saying here.
So why does this happen? Why are we not happy even when we have everything money can buy? It's perhaps because we don't need to struggle for what we need, we don't need to work hard and save money to buy that car.
Perhaps the age-old human endeavor of working hard, of the satisfaction of accomplishment is missing when things become so easy. Perhaps most people can't handle so much money. They don't know what to do with it.
Parting thoughts and a question for you
The lottery was in my mind for the last several days. Suddenly I came across the story of this person a couple of days back and I have not thought about the lottery much after that.
I pondered a little more about the reason for unhappiness after winning the lottery and my humble thought is that winning the lottery may be good if the winning amount is within some reasonable limits. I definitely don't know what such a limit may be. Perhaps someone will someday do some research on this and figure out.
My question to you is, do you think you will be truly happy if you won the lottery. If yes why and if no, why not?
Would wait for your answers. I love to read them.
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