BIG CHEQUE

Lately, I have been thinking about what I’d do if I won a lottery. I have seen mjangos who have won lotteries before. I said ‘seen’. That means I know nobody who has ever won a lottery. The people I know also know nobody who has ever won a lottery. But maybe there might be someone who my people’s people know that has ever won a lottery. 
You should not be ashamed to say you have ever tried to enter into a particular draw with hopes that you’d walk out of it richer than you went in. Because everyone wants money. Sometimes life pushes us to the wall and sucks our pockets dry in ways we really can’t tell. We are sometimes tempted or rather convicted to cast our net on some part of the sea of life to see whether we will have a lucky catch. And one part of the sea is a lottery draw. 
Mjangos get into draws saying, “You never know, this could be my lucky day.” Of which is true. It could be your lucky day. Though a reality that I learnt stands side by side with lotteries is losing is a guarantee. The lottery companies make profits from the money that is lost to them. And if losing is a guarantee for participants then profit is a guarantee for the lottery companies. It doesn’t go without saying anyway that at one time, Sunday can come twice in a week for you if you enter into a draw. Another fact that accompanies that is you may win yes, but after enduring a series of losses. Losses maybe because you enter into a draw foolishly or you enter into a draw from a company that is actually a scam.
It’s a good thing to win. You will win a big cheque and we will want you to buy a mbuzi and drinks for us to celebrate with you. We will come to your victory party full of wisdom on some particular business idea and we will say we are the vision bearers and you are the investor. We will come wishing we were Pastors and we’d read to you the scriptures where God says some things to do with offerings and tithing. We will bring one or two cases about our relative who ran mad and needs to be taken to a mental hospital but it’s just too expensive. Or the one who drunk his house and shamba and left his wife and five kids in tatters after he became a serious alcohol addict. Now he needs to be taken to a rehab before he either drinks himself to death or dies of being hunted by the people he owes huge amounts of money that he used buy cheap brew or even dies of lack of alcohol because he is already experiencing the full-blown stage of poverty. But if only you could spare some thousands close to half a milli which is like nothing to you now that you’re a millionaire – for our wrecked relatives, God will bless you. ‘God will bless you,’ that’s what people say to make you feel like The Most High is watching you when you ignore their requests. And just like that, your millions turn into thousands and thousands into coins in no time. 
That tells me the fulfilment in our financial lives is not to get rich as some us think. The true fulfilment is having a way to channel finances back to us on a regular basis. The desire to get rich quick comes as a result of the pressure we feel from the countless needs we think we have. Of course money solves nearly everything. But without the right mindset, getting rich quick can end up becoming a curse instead of the blessing we expect it to be. It will sort some of the needs you have been burdened with for Heaven knows how long. Aha, the word there is ‘will.’ So here is what it can do. It can point your life in the right direction but only if you’re prudent. This prudence that is necessary for handling a sudden huge amount of money is not acquired in the same way or after you acquired the jackpot. It should have always been inside you. 
Some say you need to have recklessly spent money to zeros before you can learn what it means to have money. From once bitten to twice shy. I don’t dispute that. But that’s for those who cannot learn things in any other way other than the hard way. If you do not want to learn the hard way, better start nurturing the discipline of handling money. The way to trigger discipline is to reach out to your personality. Deal with who you are and who you want to be first and the discipline will be holographic and later simulated to tangibility. That way, you will be able to direct your intentions for the big cheque towards more than sorting your current needs. Realise that needs will always arise. How will you sort your future needs when they arise after you spend the current jackpot on your current needs only? Certainly not another jackpot. You cannot be that lucky in life. 
So mjango if you’re about to win a lottery or a jackpot over the approaching FIFA World Cup season, now you have all it takes to deserve it. Not because you are good at predicting the outcomes of things, but because you’re mjangos who now know that true financial fulfilment is not in winning a cash price with numerous zeros.
I wrote this just incase I have readers who walk with luck tucked in their pants. In case any of you reading this wins anything worth celebrating (mark my words) dare not forget that the prayers and insight for your success started here. I will help you celebrate and spend that money. Sorry I meant I will help you develop wise ways of spending that money.  
Oh before I go, speaking of the World Cup, I was amused when a lovely friend of mine said that she hopes Manchester United or Barcelona will win the World Cup. But mostly Manchester United. She loves The Red Devils. If you don’t get what’s odd there, just line up along with her for some prayers and deliverances if need be. Anyway, that was a revelation from above that men, we have a lot to do. 
May the jackpots and lottery winnings begin aye. 
Some of you still haven’t noted anything about Manchester United winning the World Cup. Sigh.