Odds of Success
Dear Rexodendron,
My co-workers have started a Lottery Club. People contribute five dollars a week, and they pool their money and buy a bunch of Powerball tickets.
I am against gambling. If others like it, fine, but it’s not for me.
Yet I feel pressured to join, to be a part of the group. What should I do?
Signed,
Worrying About Gambling’s Effect Regularly
Dear WAGER,
Team building!
That is a skill of particular interest to me. And one that I feel I possess (false modesty eschewed) in no small measure.
A cohesive team is an essential element to a great operation!
The Zaboni Brothers Traveling Circus is more than just a touring cavalcade of elite talent.
It is a family — of artists and outcasts and iconoclasts. People who see the world a little different than most others.
In such an environment, cohesion takes work.
How to maintain a strong connection?
Pickleball!
Our Wednesday Pickleball League is the highlight of the week.
We never have shows that day, and our travel is usually concluded. Our 16-team league gives everyone a chance to laugh and mingle. Allowing us to perform for an audience of just ourselves.
My advice? Join the Lottery Club. Do not think of it as gambling. Give your money without hoping to win. Which of course, based on the odds, you will not anyway.
But the chance to connect? That is even more rare.
Take this opportunity to bond over something other than work. Who knows what friendships may take flight.
I hope you heed my advice.
Your five dollars a week is an investment that could pay off most handsomely.
Counterpoint commentary by …
Shandoleesa, Mistress of the Trapeze
Serendipity and supernatural kismet are not tools of my trade.
The element of luck is never my consideration.
Spinning and flying at forty feet in the air, there is no place for the vagaries of fate.
Precision and practice are my focus.
I cede nothing to the whims of chance.
Bouncing ping-pong balls play no part in my future plans.
My weight? Measured to the ounce.
My pendulum? Precise to a single degree.
Double backflip somersaults require more than lucky numbers or magic rabbit’s feet.
If you wish to bet? Bet on yourself.
Work yourself ragged. Push until you cannot push any farther.
Sacrifice is the parent of success.
Discipline and effort are strong shields against fortune’s quirks.
The day I miss my mark and hurtle towards death’s fall?
I will at least know I did everything humanly possible to attain and achieve my full potential.
