When does receiving millions of dollars that you didn't earn lead to a horrible end?

Most of the time.

We've had the the lottery for a long time. In fact, there are known examples that go back to ancient times. It doesn't take too much imagination for someone with a pile of money to give others a chance to win it, especially when the odds are on the side of the person with the stack of cash.

In modern times, lottery fever still runs high. And even though we know that the people who win often end up feeling like losers, we can't help but want a piece of the multi-million dollar pie that dangles in front of our face a few times per year.

The simple fact is that most of us are not equipped to deal with the pressures that come with sudden riches. As Mark Cuban says in this video, 'you'll have a lot more best friends, you'll become a lot more attractive, you'll have a lot more people asking you out and coming to you with ideas on how to spend your money. Put it in the bank.'

 

There is story after story of people who won the big ticket, and lost it, sometimes in just a few years. Mismanagement, addiction, general jackassery all figure into making these people from paupers to princes and princesses and back to proletariat.

The question is, if you won, would you be able to handle it? Would I? I guess the only way to answer that would be to win!

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