My Uncle Al Won the Powerball!

Scott Gittrich is the founder and CEO of Toppers Pizza. These are his thoughts on life, leadership and pizza.

SPONSOREDUpdated 4:16PM • 01/25/16

When I was little, maybe 10, my Uncle Al pulled me aside and said something like “if you want to be rich, then you shouldn’t have a family.” Yikes. I don’t remember the context of why he said that to me; I must’ve been talking to him about parlaying all my paper routes into an empire.

Appreciate what matters

Even though I didn’t recognize at the time why he was saying it, he definitely made me think. I thought about it then, and I’ve thought about it in the last few years as I have come around on some financial success. I’ll go so far as to say that I’ve proceeded in business with a very heightened awareness for the things I love in life, and a strong commitment not to “sell” those things for money.

The truth is that I have been very blessed, and I have plenty of money at this point in my life to have the things I want and need.

I’ve been there for a little while. I’m doing my job now for the thrill and accomplishment, pure and simple. I love the people I work with and I love the work we do together. This is getting fun.

I saw one of the people that won 500 million dollars on TV yesterday morning. Everyone thinks they want to be him. I just looked at the guy and wondered how eff’d up his life just got. Seriously, what if that guy was happy as a lark yesterday? You think he’s going to be happy as a million larks tomorrow? I have my doubts.

Don’t get me wrong. If you don’t have enough money to live a decent life, then you need money or you need help. That’s why I and Toppers Pizza* strongly support the good work of Feeding America. But, if you have what you need, then be careful what you hope for.

Sometimes people say “so are you?” I always say “Yes, in the things that matter.” You might think that’s easy for me to say. I’ve got mine.

Uncle Al helped me learn to live

Listen brother and sister, you probably have yours too. I won the Powerball a long time ago. I won it when I was born into a great family with great values. I won it when I met my wife and when we had each of our 5 kids.

I won it last summer when I went wilderness camping alone with my daughter. I won it when Uncle Al helped me learn how to live.

Fellow traveler,

Scott

*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.