I've always found that quote interesting, and true. You could almost replace power with 'Lots of money' and that test will be very similar. If you use 'Fame' that test would seem to get much harder.
Many people can handle adversity, most people in fact. We face adversity and some sort of failure in our lives quite often. We struggle, we learn, we overcome. Sometime those steps can get strung out over time, but most people will get through adversity. What about success? What about unexpected, significant success?
If you have ever read stories about the people who win the lottery, you can see this test play out in real time. Sure, the people who play the lottery maybe a subset of people who might not be the most stable or reasonable people, but most are regular folks. How do they do when they win an extraordinary amount of money?
The data is a bit sketchy, but it seems that those who win a few hundred thousand will file bankruptcy at twice the rate of normal people. If you win millions, it seems to get a little better as you hopefully will have a financial advisor help you with that new found wealth.
I would ever want to be famous. That seems incredibly challenging. Wealth I can handle, or at least I think I can, but fame? No thank you.
A great mental exercise would be to image two scenarios, One where you lose everything, and have to start over with nothing, at whatever age you're at, and one where you somehow are given 50 million dollars. In each of those instances, the whole world knows what happened. What would do in each one of those instances?
I'm old, and recently retired, so losing everything and having to start over would be one hell of challenge. I think I would get through it, at least I hope I would. I know how to work, even if my body isn't quite so sure these days, and I don't really need fancy things or a lot of money. I've been pretty damn poor, and it wasn't fun, but it wasn't something I couldn't get through. I'll bet I would have a bunch of help from a lot of people. I have some great friends, and I have always tried to do the right thing with everyone I meet, so I don't think I would have many people rooting against me.
What about getting a 50 million dollar check? Even with the taxes taken out, 25 million is a lot of money. Remember, everyone knows you have this money. Your friends, your family, people you know from high school, people you used to work with a few decades ago, everyone.
How would handle that?
Ugh....
I'm sure my good friends would be fine with me having that kind of cash. They might hope I would pick up the check for drinks and dinner, and I would so that wouldn't be a big thing. It's those you kind-of know you that you would have to watch out for. Once you paid for a new car for someone who needed one, you might be inundated by requests for loans, houses, vacations, hell, all kinds of things. How would respond to those? You have 25 million, they're just asking for $30,000 to pay off their credit cards, why shouldn't you help?
Again, ugh....
It's not surprising that most big lottery winners move to a new town/state once they've won. Get out of town, change your number, stop answering any correspondence. It's just too much.
How would you handle each situation?
I'm curious.
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