[picapp align=”none” wrap=”false” link=”term=lottery+ball&iid=8075135″ src=”5/5/5/a/Britain_Has_Balls_5a0b.jpg?adImageId=12291073&imageId=8075135″ width=”380″ height=”563″ /]
Over at Get Rich Slowly, Robert Brokamp wrote a post about what Warren Buffet calls the lottery of birth. Imagine that your genetic code, your parents, your home and your heritage, the neighborhood where you grow up and everything about your family and your environment were written on a lottery ball. What if you had the choice, at birth, of putting your lottery ball back into the bin and picking someone else’s ball :
If you could put your ball back, and they took out, at random, a hundred other balls, and you had to pick one of those, would you put your ball back in? Now, of those hundred balls … roughly five of them will be American. … Half of them are going to be below-average intelligence, half will be above. Do you want to put your ball back? Most of you, I think, will not. … What you’re saying is, “I’m in the luckiest 1% of the world right now.”
Bottom line: if you would rather not put your lottery ball back in the basket, you’ve got a good life, compared to most people. You have something to be grateful for.
So, when things start looking down, when you’re struggling, remind yourself: I’m keeping my lottery ball.
Walter
April 11, 2010
We have what it takes to achieve anything we want in life. Instead of focusing on our unfortunate lot, it is better to do something to elevate us from our miseries. Life is what we make out of it. 🙂
Ami
April 11, 2010
@Walter: well said.
Alex
April 12, 2010
We must be grateful. Although things might not go our way, there is always something to be grateful. Life is too wonderful with too many opportunities. Exchanging a ball for another is giving up.
Ami
April 12, 2010
@Alex: absolutely. I found the suggestion to remember that 1/2 the people in the basket would have below average intelligence eye opening. I guess the same would be true for our wealth, our education, our family history and every other part of our lives. Warren Buffet’s ‘lottery of birth’ idea reminds us that we have much to be grateful for. thanks for your comment.
AshaB
April 21, 2010
True!
Ami
April 21, 2010
@AshaB: thanks for commenting!
Amy
April 21, 2010
Great post! I’m definitely thankful for my lotto ball!
Ami
April 21, 2010
@Amy: me too. thanks for the comment.