You ever want something so badly, but knew in your heart of hearts that it was never ever going to happen?  But you went for it anyway. You tried with all your might to go against everything that your intuition and your brain knew wasn't possible.  Yet when it didn't happen the way you wanted it to, you still were disappointed.  That's basically tonight's Mega-Millions jackpot.  You're not going to win, and you know this.  But YOU won't be stopped from trying.

One time I was a pretty decent baseball player in high school, even dabbled in some twilight league baseball when I was college-aged.  But that was many moons ago and even at my best, I was maybe a .350 hitter with little power. When I was in my late 30's, I stepped into a batting cage set to 90 mph (which is considered a below average fastball) just to see if I could make line-drive contact. After watching the first two pitches go by, I attempted to square up a few heaters, and maybe hit a line drive or two to prove that I still had some ability in these old bones.

After 20 pitches this was my stat line: 16 swings and misses - 2 tipped balls - 1 blown out back - zero confidence in my ability to hit a fastball.  But I went for it just to prove I couldn't do it.  I popped a few ibuprofen, iced my back and longed for the days of yesterday.

We all do things where we pretty much know the outcome, but expect a different desired result. Maybe it's applying for a position at work you're too inexperienced to get. Perhaps it's asking someone out on a date who is way out of your league.

in 2006, I played in the World Series of Poker Main Event after winning a 10,000 buy-in on Pokerstars. To this date, it's the largest WSOP tournament ever played with over 8,500 participants.  I knew I wasn't going to win - or even come close - but I gave it a shot. It was my American dream.  Turns out the man who won, Jamie Gold, was U Albany grad.  12 million dollars was his prize for beating out the best players in the world.

The odds of Gold winning that WSOP tournament was probably something like 15,000-to-1 whereas the odds of you winning tonight's Mega-Millions in around 300 million-to-1. You're not going to win, and you know this.

But every once in a while, an under-qualified job candidate gets their dream job because they out-hustled the competition.  Every once in a while, an average looking Joe, gets a Vicky Secrets supermodel.  And every once in a while, a person in Colonie, or Albany, or Valatie walks into a convenient store and purchases a $2 ticket even though they know they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, and their life changes. We try.  We go for it.  We swing as hard as we can at that fastball we know we can't hit, and we apply ice after.

That's what makes America great. Good luck tonight!

 

 

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