Lottery Tickets
At our 2025 Learning Leader Growth Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, my good friend, Liam Murray, stood up to speak about lottery tickets. The title made me curious since I don’t play...
At our 2025 Learning Leader Growth Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, a longtime member and good friend, Liam Murray, stood up to speak about lottery tickets. The title made me curious since I don’t play the lottery. This is what he said…
Nearly ten years ago, my wife and I began a conversation that changed how we think about privilege and responsibility. As a pediatric emergency room physician, she sometimes sees newborns surrendered by parents facing impossible situations. These babies are often born into poverty, addiction, or trauma. We asked ourselves: if we have love, stability, and space, what might it mean to step in? One night I shared this with my mother-in-law. Her response was simple and profound: “Well… if you do adopt, that child will have won the lottery.”
In life, there are things within your sphere of control and things outside it. Most people focus too much on what they cannot change. But real impact comes when you focus on what is in front of you. Put another way, when you have privilege (money, education, health, time) you are holding winning tickets and a choice: you can waste them, or you can pass them on.
When you mentor someone overlooked, hire someone with grit instead of polish, or speak up for a person who is not in the room, you are handing out those tickets. The tragedy is not just that some people never get one. It is that some people forget they are holding them. So, I ask myself two questions: (1) What is within my control? And (2) Who is waiting on a winning ticket I might be holding? Sometimes a ticket is just encouragement or a second chance, but sometimes it is changing the direction of an entire life.
Don’t go to your grave with winning lottery tickets stuffed in your pockets!
The power of this story isn't about grand gestures, but small ones compounded over time. It reminds us that privilege isn't just what we have but what we do with it. Sometimes the most valuable investments aren't the ones that grow our wealth but those that grow someone else's opportunity.
This is so deeply touching and meaningful. As we share this idea with our teenagers we can teach them how they can make an impact too. It can be as simple as a kind gesture, silently wishing someone well. Even the lottery tickets only worth $2 still can make someone feel like a winner.
Thanks Ryan! I love this concept and it speaks of how many of us are blessed. What do we do with our influence and opportunity. Who and how we decide to lift others up is a critical part of leading and being a "good" human being. Imagine what our world would look like if people made giving out lottery tickets a leadership habit?
We can accumulate wealth and possessions which in the end doesn't count for much.
We can also accumulate lives changed. Small acts and big acts can make a difference.