Picking People Like Lottery Tickets
A homeless man sitting on a bench got up from his perch to slowly step over to a lottery ticket lying on the sidewalk. It had fallen from the grasp of a passerby and found a resting place on the warm concrete. Full of hope, he grasped that lottery ticket in his hand and sat back down on his previously claimed bench. He was thinking about what the future could look like if he won the lottery right then and there. He was imagining what he would do with the money that would be awarded to him. The money that he had so long lived without.
The man took out a dime he had stowed in his dirty pants pocket and began to scratch off the ink covering, the ink acted as a wall between him and his chance at happiness. With each dollar sign he scratched off, his hope slowly faded, but still, he kept scratching. The powdered ink fell from the ticket as each dollar sign revealed a disappointing result. He didn’t win anything. The card was a dud. But though that one didn’t deliver what he had hoped for, he looked forward to the next one, enthralled by the thought of his next chance of winning the pot of gold.
We all experience similar feelings to the homeless man throughout our lives. The hope that one small thing could turn into something life-changing. We take chances every day of our lives that we hope will end up delivering happiness or whatever it is that we seek. With each person we meet, we are taking a chance to better ourselves and our futures. We don’t just socialize for pleasure. Although people's company can be priceless, so can their connections in our network of friends. The possible opportunities that they have the potential to offer us in the future are endless. That is truly why we socialize the way we do. At least, this is what I can conclude from my own observations.
But how do we judge the benefit over the potential loss when making new relationships with people? Can we trust our own intuition to choose and connect with the best possible people for our future? Or do we choose them randomly, like lottery tickets? Or selectively based solely on appearance, with the hope that when we scratch off their surface and get to know them, they will reveal themselves as of value to us?
