What it’s really like to win the lottery | Matt Pitcher

0:00This episode is brought to you by Deal. What if your HR platform was actually built for how teams work today? Most platforms are clunky and compliance feels like a minefield. Deal changes the game. It's one global platform where you can hire, pay, and manage anyone, anywhere. Need to hire someone in Berlin? Pay contractors in Sao Paulo? Equip a new hire in Singapore? Deal handles it. Pay in more than 100 currencies, manage devices globally, and 2 ,000 local experts in 130 countries have your back. Whether you're five people or 50 ,000, deal scales with you. And here's the kicker. You'll actually enjoy using it.

0:39Visit deel.com slash TED to book a demo. Support for this episode comes from the University of Illinois Geese College of Business Online MBA, known as the IMBA, which provides unmatched flexibility that allows you to put your degree within reach. Christine Park, a second-year IMBA student, is experiencing the benefits firsthand. My name is Christine Park. I'm a current student at University of Illinois Geese College of Business IMBA program. My current role is Channel Business Development Manager, working at a company focusing on sustainability. And I'm also a proud mom of two beautiful boys. Motherhood is like an intense leadership laboratory.

1:29I learned in a hard way how to be resilient and how to handle this crisis management under pressure. But when I took a career break to raise my two young children, that short pause seemed to become a liability and I was just left with a resume that is not so attractive anymore. Later I ended up getting a job and my re-entry into a corporate role proved my professional capabilities but to sustain the growth and keep reinventing myself I needed to formalize my business knowledge with a world-class education. The Geese MBA's flexibility and affordability and its reputation were unmatched, which allows me to balance a full-time professional role, family, and graduate school.

2:17This program is structured to real life, so I am able to apply the learning immediately to my work today. One of the first classes I took last semester was the business decision in leadership and teams. I was able to define what the leadership is and how can I be more effectively collaborating with other people as a team. My family is also a big part of this journey. I wanted to be seen by my child that mom is always trying hard and mom is always learning. And recently I noticed that every time I'm taking classes during the evening, I see them reading books and I see them doing some work on their own.

3:03So I felt like, oh, maybe I'm really modeling the value of lifelong learning. Upon graduating from Giz's IMBA, I want to try out some global role to better understand the business as a whole. Giz is helping me to get there by providing community. I want people to understand that a career break does not mean a broken career. Your value does not expire. I went from a rejected resume to leading a region in earning an MBA from a top university. So reinvention is always possible. Graduate education should fit your life, and the Geese College of Business online MBA does just that, offering flexible learning and new specializations like healthcare innovation, design, and entrepreneurship to meet your career goals.

3:52Learn more at geeseonline.illinois.edu.

4:08This episode is brought to you by Ground News. In a world where the same story gets spun a hundred different ways, how do you know what's actually happening? That's the challenge Ground News solves. Ground News isn't a news publisher. It's an app and website that shows you how every story is being covered across the political spectrum and around the world. Take the recent Supreme Court hearing on social media age verification. Many sources covered it, but the headlines tell vastly different stories. On Ground News, you can swipe through each headline and see content about the source, such as its political bias, how reliable the reporting is, and who owns them.

4:53Ground News empowers you to figure out what's really going on. That's the kind of critical thinking TED champions, exploring multiple perspectives before drawing your own conclusions. Right now, TED listeners get 40 % off the Vantage subscription for unlimited access. Just go to groundnews.com slash TED. That's groundnews.com slash TED, code TED, for 40 % off. You can only get this limited time offer by using our link. See the full picture. Visit groundnews.com slash TED today. As of me writing this, the Powerball number is somewhere near$1.6 billion. And no, none of us are ever going to see that money.

5:42But for whatever reason, a lot of us have fun trying. My dad would sometimes buy a lottery ticket when the number got crazy. but it was infrequent and more of a fantasy, like what if? A thought experiment more than an actual expected outcome. But today, we're going to hear from someone who legitimately knows the answer to the ridiculous question, what would you do if you won the lottery? And would it actually make you happier?

6:11I'm Madhupa Akinola. This is TED Business, a podcast from TED. Matt Pitcher is a financial advisor who for the past decade has had some very specific clientele, people who have unexpectedly won millions of dollars playing the lotto. He's seen how a windfall of money can have a profound effect on a person's life, for the better and also for the worse. Then after the talk, I'll ask you to reflect on what it would mean for you to win the lottery in a way that has nothing to do with money. But first, a quick break.

6:54This episode is brought to you by Deal. What if your HR platform was actually built for how teams work today? Most platforms are clunky and compliance feels like a minefield. Deal changes the game. It's one global platform where you can hire, pay, and manage anyone, anywhere. Need to hire someone in Berlin? Pay contractors in Sao Paulo? Equip a new hire in Singapore? Deal handles it. Pay in more than 100 currencies, manage devices globally, and 2 ,000 local experts in 130 countries have your back. Whether you're five people or 50 ,000, Deal scales with you. And here's the kicker. You'll actually enjoy using it.

7:32Visit deel.com slash TED to book a demo. Support for this episode comes from the University of Illinois Geese College of Business Online MBA, known as the IMBA, which provides unmatched flexibility that allows you to put your degree within reach. Christine Park, a second year IMBA student, is experiencing the benefits firsthand. My name is Christine Park. I'm a current student at University of Illinois Geese College of Business IMBA program. My current role is channel business development manager, working at a company focusing on sustainability. And I'm also a proud mom of two beautiful boys. Motherhood is like an intense leadership laboratory.

8:21I learned in a hard way how to be resilient and how to handle this crisis management under pressure. But when I took a career break to raise my two young children, that short pause seemed to become a liability. And I was just left with a resume that is not so attractive anymore. Later, I ended up getting a job and my re-entry into a corporate role proved my professional capabilities. But to sustain the growth and keep reinventing myself, I needed to formalize my business knowledge with a world-class education. But these MBAs' flexibility and affordability and its reputation were unmatched, which allows me to balance a full-time professional role, family, and graduate school.

9:11This program is structured to real life. So I am able to apply the learning immediately to my work today. One of the first classes I took last semester was the business decision in leadership and teams. I was able to define what the leadership is and how can I be more effectively collaborating with other people as a team. My family is also a big part of this journey. I wanted to be seen by my child that mom is always trying hard and mom is always learning. And recently I noticed that every time I'm taking classes during the evening, I see them reading books and I see them doing some work on their own.

9:56So I felt like, oh, maybe I'm really modeling the value of lifelong learning. Upon graduating from Giz's IMBA, I want to try out some global role to better understand the business as a whole. Giz is helping me to get there by providing community. I want people to understand that a career break does not mean a broken career. Your value does not expire. I went from a rejected resume to leading a region in earning an MBA from a top university. So reinvention is always possible. Graduate education should fit your life. And the Geese College of Business Online MBA does just that. Offering flexible learning and new specializations like healthcare innovation, design, and entrepreneurship to meet your career goals.

10:45Learn more at geasonline.illinois.edu.

11:04And now, Matt Pitcher takes the TED stage. in november 1994 the then uk prime minister john major bought the very first ticket to launch the national lottery a company called camelot won the contract to run that service and they did so for 30 years in fact until just last year in that time camelot brought millionaire riches to over 7 ,000 people. You will have seen some of these people, I'm sure, on TV smiling and popping champagne. You may have read about a similar number of them in the tabloids, making mistakes and going bankrupt. Behind the scenes, what you probably don't know is that Camelot made every effort to support their winners for their entire lifetime.

12:00They understood the real impact that a lottery win can have on an individual. To their great credit, they stuck with their winners and supported them, whatever happened to them. Every winner was given a named support person from Camelot, someone who would celebrate with them, who would be there to offer a shoulder to cry on when things went wrong. The person who actually physically brought the bottle of champagne and the cheque to the home. And in what must have been somewhat of a comedown for them, a fortnight after the win would organize a meeting with an external money advisor. I had the extraordinary privilege for over a decade to be one of those money advisors.

12:54I saw people transported to millionaire riches in an instant, and I think that everyone here today can learn something from the winners that I met. It may seem like quite a cruel way to view it, but the lottery is in many ways like a laboratory experiment in how we as humans react to the acquisition of sudden wealth. If you sell a business for a million pounds or you inherit a million pounds, you know to an extent what to expect. You will have seen the money coming probably years in advance and you will have had time to plan for and adapt to how that money is going to impact on your life. By definition, a lottery winner knows nothing until the moment their numbers are drawn.

13:53They're catapulted from whatever their situation is into being millionaires in an instant. Two-thirds of adults in the UK play the lottery at least once a year. That's over 36 million of us. nothing else really unites us in those kind of numbers possibly sport maybe politics still i don't know so we must be doing it because we want to win right because we think that that money is going to change our lives for the better well let me take you back several years it's a boiling hot summer's day and I'm sat in an office with broken air conditioning. I have very unwisely chosen to wear a dark suit and I can feel sweat starting to run down my tight shirt collar.

14:54Sat opposite me is the most miserable man I have ever met. This man has just won the lottery. Two weeks ago, he was a happy and contented man. He and his wife were due to retire quite soon, and their pensions were ready to cover their outgoings. They had a good relationship with their adult children who lived nearby, and a great network of friends. They lived in a local community that they felt a part of and felt valued by. They'd worked hard for an entire lifetime to build a simple but happy life. Into that context, the injection of a lottery win was causing more harm than it was good. The win, as it sometimes happens, had become known locally.

15:57Friendships had started a sour through jealousy. The family members were popping out of the woodwork and claiming an entitlement to a share in the win, and in some cases demanding of them some of the money. Two weeks after that initial euphoric feeling of winning and having your numbers come up, this man was realizing that it was going to be life-changing, just not in the way he'd anticipated. In fact, by the time I got to have the meeting with him, he and his wife were already planning a move to a different part of the country. You see, all of us have two budgets to spend when we start in life.

16:46The time that we have left and the money that we're going to accumulate along the way. Most of us, if you're like me, you start life with lots in the time budget and not very much in the money budget. and we will start spending time acquiring, amongst other things, some of that money. At some point, we probably reach a point in life where we feel a little bit more financially comfortable, but that often coincides with a sense that maybe the time budget is starting to shrink. That, of course, can trigger that classic mid - or later-life crisis. You see, for our first winner, he had the balance right, and then the finger of fate pressed down on the money side of the scales and unbalanced everything for him.

17:38Our second winner, by complete contrast, was absolutely over the moon when I met him for the first time. He did not want to hear about the potential pitfalls of a win. He didn't want to hear about my, in my opinion, very clever planning strategies. Or the ways in which the wing could support him for the rest of his lifetime. He was beautifully clear-eyed about what he wanted. And that was an expensive car. He threw me at first when I met him because he confessed very early on that he didn't have a driving license.

18:18Nor had he, it turned out, any plan to get one. Now, lottery winners will, on average, buy five cars with their win, but typically that's to share amongst family members. This winner was planning on spending the majority of his entire win on a single car for himself. Much as we would have done with our donkeys and our cattle hundreds of years ago, He was even planning to build a new house so that he could live in a room above his new car. He'd even factored in a window in his floor so he could sit up in bed and stare at the car. It was a case of the purest consumerism. Owning an object simply to get that warm glow of the ownership, not to do anything with it.

19:15On the face of it, there is nothing wrong with him spending his win on something that's going to make him happy. It is, after all, his win. But all the research tells us that the endorphin rush we get from the acquisition of an object is fleeting. It is not something that hangs around for us. So our last winner for today is the one that has stuck with me the most vividly over the years. They were a young couple who worked full-time, both of them, to support their young family when the win came along. They didn't want to spend it on an exotic car, but actually planned to spend half of the win on their home, and they gave up their jobs and lived on the other half.

20:1018 months later well they had blown through the entire fortune they had to return to their jobs and their old lives pre-wim but actually this one isn't a cautionary tale in this case what I haven't told you is they had a young son who was severely disabled and needed round the clock care The home improvements weren't for the installation of an indoor swimming pool or gold-plated taps, but rather adaptations to the ground floor of their house so their son could live more comfortably. They saw their lottery win for what it truly was, a one in 45 million chance to live life as a family. yes 18 months later the money was gone but so was their son they traded in that fortune for a lifetime of memories in my 25 years as a financial planner this remains the best investment i've ever seen anyone make

21:27hopefully as we've seen winning the lottery is not a ticket to some kind of utopia it's more of a test of our existing values so if we're to learn anything from these winners we need to examine how we're living our own lives how are you spending your time and your money budgets? Are you acquiring life's real luxuries, quality time with other people, health, sleep, and guilt-free relaxation? Now, the good news is, whether you feel like it or not, the fact that you have the time and resources to be here today listening to these wonderful TEDx speakers means that you've already won the global lottery.

22:22All of us here have in fact won the lottery of life already. And so it just remains for me to wish you all the very best in how you spend and invest those winnings. Thank you.

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24:00We live in a culture obsessed with dieting, weight loss, and exercise. and that can make eating disorder behaviors easy to miss. But the reality is, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that take a major toll on your health and your life. But recovery is possible. Eating disorders are more common than you might think. Chances are you know someone who is struggling with one. Or maybe you're struggling yourself. If you're concerned about an eating disorder in yourself or a loved one, I want to introduce you to Equip. Equip is a fully virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment program that helps patients achieve lasting recovery at home.

24:37Every Equip patient is matched with a multidisciplinary care team that includes a therapist, dietician, medical provider, and mentors. And you get a personalized treatment plan that's tailored to your unique goals and challenges. Equip treats patients of all ages and all eating disorder diagnoses. It's covered by insurance and there's no wait list. If you think that you or a loved one could be struggling with an eating disorder, don't wait to get help. Visit Equip.Health to learn more. That's Equip.Health.

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25:57That was Matt Pitcher speaking at TEDx Winchester. My first thought listening to this talk is, thank God for financial planners. You need them when you're up, and you need them when you're down. Matt shows that there's a lot of care and attention that goes into taking stock of your needs and minimizing the downsides of your wants, and that's something worth investing in. I love it when Matt says, winning the lotto is more of a test of our existing values. Fantasizing about winning doesn't have to be an exercise in gluttony or greed. It could be a door opening to ask, what do I care about? What's important to me?

26:36So I want to reframe the question in a way that has nothing to do with money. What would it mean to hit the jackpot at work? Is it working with an amazing person who helps you understand your meaning and purpose? Is it about having days filled with laughter? Is it being in an environment where your skills are aligned with what's being asked of you? Is it being able to mentor and guide people in an area you're passionate about? Matt tells us that what we can learn from these lotto winners is how we want to spend our time. And importantly, with whom do we want to spend it? That's it for today. TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective.

27:15This episode was produced by Hannah King-Climan, edited by Alejandra Salazar, and fact-checked by Julia Dickerson. Special thanks to Maria Lodias, Farah DeGrange, Daniela Ballarezzo, Tansika Sangmanivang, and Roxanne Heilash. I'm Madupa Akinola. Thanks for listening.

27:53manage anyone, anywhere. Need to hire someone in Berlin? Pay contractors in Sao Paulo? Equip a new hire in Singapore? Deal handles it. Pay in more than 100 currencies, manage devices globally, and 2 ,000 local experts in 130 countries have your back. Whether you're five people or 50 ,000, Deal scales with you. And here's the kicker, you'll actually enjoy using it. Visit deel.com slash TED to book a demo. Support for this episode comes from the University of Illinois Geese College of Business online MBA program, known as the iMBA. Rodrigo Batonzo, who plans to graduate in summer 2026, completed his master's at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and already knew the world-class education the school delivers.

28:45The iMBA is now giving him the tools to take the next step in his professional journey. I'm Rodrigo Betanzo. My current role is an associate consultant and innovator at an engineering consultant company based out of Dubai. So after being an engineering designer for 10 plus years, I decided that I really wanted to go on to the business side. And then that was fueled by the digital revolution of our field. and AI, I saw how you can really transform the civil engineering and the architecture industry by leaning on all of the potential that you have in that technology. And so that's why the MBA from GEES was like the next obvious step for me.

29:31I chose GEES because I knew I was going to get a good quality of education. Also the flexibility of the program, for sure. I do travel a lot and I've been able to manage the workload. I feel very empowered that I can organize my time around the MBA without having to travel to a specific location. I can be super connected with the program everywhere I go. For me, entering at mid-career has been, I would say, right on time. I see how my mindset has been formed as a leader, as a leader of a business, but also as a leader of people as a leader of a team. One of my favorite classes was entrepreneurship with Professor Tom Parkinson, himself being a venture capitalist for many, many decades.

30:15The knowledge that he was able to give to all of us was invaluable. One of the things that they teach us is that we think that creativity is about a moment of inspiration, and it's not like that. It's about equipping you with tools so that if you're in a team setting and if you're the leader, you can foster that creativity. Half of what I'm doing right now at my current role, it has to do with driving innovation in civil engineering. What I think this program has been helpful is to help me understand how to use AI as a tool, as a technology, but not the end in itself. After the MBA, I really hope to really do something different to what I'm doing right now.

30:56I've always been an adventurous person. I left my country when I was 30. I sold almost everything I had, and then I just left. So I'm prepared for what the future might bring for me. And who knows what that adventure will be. With a business-on-purpose approach, the Geese College of Business online MBA program guides you from curiosity to impact. With new focuses on healthcare innovation, entrepreneurship, and AI, you'll gain the tools and experience to make a difference in your industry and beyond. Learn more at geeseonline.illinois.edu. Hey, it's Adam Grant from Ted's podcast, Work Life, and this episode is brought to you by ServiceNow.

31:42AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. That's why it's no surprise that more than 85 % of the Fortune 500 companies use the ServiceNow AI platform. While other platforms duct tape tools together, ServiceNow seamlessly unifies people, data, workflows, and AI, connecting every corner of your business. And with AI agents working together autonomously, anyone in any department can focus on the work that matters most. Learn how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people at servicenow.com.