sigh...

[byzantium]

Ok, so I'm checking one of my hotmail accounts, and after you log out you get the MSN homepage which occasionally has interesting stuff. So I'm poking around, and one of the sidebars on a business related story has a link saying "teen millionaire makes money despite hard times". So I think great, another lucky young person who worked hard at the right idea and made millions by starting their own business, right? WRONG! The link was to a video of an 18 year old English university student who had WON 7 million pounds by PLAYING THE LOTTERY! ARGH!

And then we wonder why youth have such an unrealistic idea of what it takes to get rich. They think it's simply playing the lottery-buy your ticket, hit the numbers, and out comes CASH! Sorry, but that's not the way it really works unless you're the one person in 50 zillion to be the sole picker of all 7 numbers in the lotto.

The media is really the one at fault here-by publicizing lotto winners, they get people thinking that life is a lottery, and right behind the reporters are the scam artists promising instant wealth via selling booga booga juice. And if that doesn't work, your local friendly Native American tribe (in the US) will be happy to relieve you of your hard earned cash at their casino. Or you can play the lottery, and get the government to pay you millions-like welfare, only with more money. Or you can sweat it out in the bunkers with the other unrealistic saps, and make REAL money.

It's far easier to play lotto than work hard at your own business with no guarantees for years. But people would rather play the scams than descend into the scary underworld of business. Lose, and you're screwed. But if you win, the lotto winner eats your dust. Most lotto winners lose everything anyway. That girl in England will probably blow her 7 million pounds and then end up working as a waitress.

[1entrepreneur]

I suppose that if you won the lottery, your opinion would be different?

[byzantium]

I don't play the lottery. My opinion of lotteries closely resembles George Orwell's. It's a means of keeping the oppressed from storming the mahogany suites of the elite and hanging them from the streetlights. Same thing with instant wealth scams and casinos. Starting your own business is looked down upon (unless it means hooking up with the MLM scammers) because that's how you REALLY get money and the power that goes along with it. Even Robert Kiyosaki owed most of his success to being friendly with the top players in Amway, who pushed his book in return for him steering the masses to their scam. Every other guru does the same thing-sells millions of books telling you that wealth is effortless (real book title: Effortless Prosperity) and then steering you to their scam. There is no risk, the guru intones soothingly, only loads of money. If the only real casualty of the current mess is the idea that there is no risk, it will all be worth it. Most people are locked out of the system, and will remain so, simply because they can't handle what it takes. It's the circuses part of bread and circuses. Bread is what fast food hamburgers are served in.

[Aletheides]

Hey, casinos need customers too.

Just let the pigs get slaughtered, greed is a powerful motivator and nobody can change nature's way.

Needless to say, I don't play the lottery or gamble either - friendly poker games not counting .

P.S. I've never heard of anyone looking down upon starting a business..