She won the lottery and will probably die the next day

What a crock of shit.

 

Crandell holds no ill-will toward Mackenzie and hopes the money "truly blesses her family." The one thing Crandell did gain from the incident was a lesson she hopes her daughters learned.

"It could have been us, but things happen. Sometimes it's better to be patient than right. I knew we were teaching our daughter the right thing," Crandell said.

What did you teach her? That when you don't stand up for yourself you get fucked big time?

 

Be nice to old ladies. That isn't a bad lesson.

 

Why is it a given that it would have been her? I mean, really? Was she going to buy a Quick Pick ticket? Unless she was AND the transaction would have occurred at the exact same moment that the winner's ended up occurring, the likelihood of the same numbers being chosen would have been infinitesimal.

 

Imagine if the old lady didn't cut, and the mom got different numbers. The next jackpot would have approached a $1 billion, right? Can you imagine winning enough to get into Forbes?

 

There is none . . . because as usual you missed the point.

All lottery success is "unearned", whether at age 22 or 82.

My point was that ANY success too soon will USUALLY not be appreciated as much as success over time. The unearned nature of lottery success just compounds this idea.

Dan Marino often said that he didn't truly appreciate getting to the Super Bowl until much later . . . after he realized how hard it was to get there. At 24 he had no idea.

 

This.

A co-worker has a friend who shared in a huge Florida lottery jackpot who told him dealing with hangers on and those who want money is like a full time job.

 

I'd give the handful of people I care about a nice slice and then no one would ever see me again.

 

I'd give my family and a couple close friends some money, then buy some t-shirts with the words "NO!" and "LEAVE ME ALONE!" on it.

Here's some nightmare stories of lottery winners:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/03/terribly-sad-true-stories-lotto-winners/50555/

 

That's a tempting thought. And not unusual.

But on the surface, does it really seem like a happy future: Get out of dodge and stay out of sight so not to be bothered?

Tough call either way.

In any event, I would try to come up with some diplomatic way of saying the following at the outset:

"I am a very lucky man. And I hope to share my luck with a great many people. I honestly have no idea to whom or to how many I will share my winnings with, but the only guarantee I can offer is this: The only way to guarantee you will NOT receive any money . . . is to ask for some."

Wouldn't work, of course. But at least anyone who asked and was refused would have only themselves to blame. They couldn't blame me, because I spelled it out in the rules beforehand.

 

Not a tough call at all.

 

I thought you would be dividing that up into 50 grand shares and just handing it out.