Lottery: The Retirement Plan For Those Who Don't Understand Mathematics

When my friends first heard I was leaving my good job to start my own business, they generally thought I was crazy. Even my friends from business school scolded me and said things like 'Don't you know most new business fail?'

Owning Your Own Business - Insane!
Of course I knew the odds were against me. There are all kinds of statistics on the probability of a new small business making it. I've been teaching business for years and every textbook has a different number. Some say 90% will fail within the first year, other sources report 95%, still others say 99%.
The number is just trivia. I tell my students the odds are against you.
To make a business succeed you need the right combination of

• Something that is missing in the market place
• Something you can provide better than anyone else
• Something that enough people are willing and able to buy
• Something that you can sell for more than you paid for it

You also need

• Enough money to survive until the business makes a profit
• Tough skin to ignore the skeptics
• Acceptance of the emotional and financial roller-coaster of owning your own business
• Perseverance (Stick-to-it-iveness is more important than being a genius)

Most of my students are afraid of such an undertaking, but most of them will cheerfully buy a lottery ticket and believe this will be the answer to their problems.
In my class, when we are discussing financial planning, I write on the black board in the largest letters I can,

LOTTERY

Then I tell them the Lottery is the retirement plan for people who didn't learn math. If you play the PowerBall game, your chance of winning the jackpot is 1 in 175,223,510. You have a better chance of getting hit by lightning.
If you take the worst case numbers of success in business, then your chance of success (or hitting the jackpot) is 1 in 100. Statistically, your business is more likely to succeed by a factor of 175,000 as compared to the PowerBall game.
So why would anyone buy a lottery ticket?

• The risk is minimum – investment $2.00
• If you play, you will probably lose. If you don't play, you absolutely won't win.
• So if you lose, it's really no big deal, or a surprise.

If you lose in business, and you have everything you have on the line, you risk all your money, your house, your credit score, your reputation.
Wealthy Affiliate is a low cost, minimized risk way to dive into internet marketing. I believe any of us can beat the odds and make this success if we follow the advice of the experts, and never give up. Most people will give up too soon.
This place makes much more sense than buying a lottery ticket.
Kali