Lotto Tickets and Seminar Gurus

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I watched a fascinating documentary several years ago.

About the marketing strategy of a state lottery.

Whenever we buy something, we get TWO kinds of value.

Direct value, and emotional value.

All cars, for example, will serve the purpose of getting you from point A to point B.

And all newer cars will have fairly similar safety features.

So most of the decision is the KIND of car.

Most of which satisfies emotional reasons.

On the other hand, when you're at the grocery store choosing what to get for dinner, it's mostly DIRECT value.

When you're taking a date out to dinner, the atmosphere is important, and so it's more of an emotional decision.

We tend to get into trouble when we buy things we THINK are for direct reasons, but in reality are for emotional reasons.

Which was the subject of the documentary.

The direct value of a lottery ticket is a 1/20,000,000 chance of winning money.

Based on pure mathematics, it's a horrible bet.

The actual chance of winning is one in 20 million.

But the amount you win is FAR LESS than 20 million.

So when they came up with the marketing angle, they didn't talk about odds and expectation values.

They sold the emotional value.

And the emotional value is a two or three day FANTASY that people have.

The two or three days between the day they buy the ticket, and when they have the drawing.

You get to FANTASIZE about having a better life.

And that three days fantasy costs only $5 or $10.

That is a GOOD DEAL.

Buying a one out of twenty million chance of winning is a horrible deal.

This is why people keep buying lottery tickets.

For the SAME REASON people keep watching movies and reading books.

The EMOTIONAL VALUE is a fantastic return on your investment.

You spend $20 and for two hours you can FEEL LIKE you are in a super hero adventure.

You spend $20 and for three days you can FANTASIZE about a better life.

Since the RETURN you get for the money you spend is POSITIVE, it's natural and rational (not irrational) to keep buying it.

Just like it's NOT IRRATIONAL to spend $10 watch a movie every weekend, it's NOT IRRATIONAL to spend $5 to play the lottery every week.

We can say the SAME THING about self help seminars.

They are a FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE.

You get to hang out with cool people.

You get to interact with a famous guru.

You can to IMAGINE a much better life.

The trouble comes when you DON'T RECOGNIZE that is in an experience.

And you expect to change your life.

Unfortunately, a lot of people go through this.

They go to a seminar, and don't recognize it as an experience.

They expect their life to change, and it doesn't.

This causes a lot of stress.

Luckily, there is a MUCH CHEAPER way to actually CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Learn How:

http://mindpersuasion.com/self-help-fail/