Brad Duke held the luckiest piece of paper in Idaho history inside a Jackson's food store near Orchard and the interstate.
"This was some place someone had to dig around for three hours?" Duke asked an Idaho Lottery spokesman, gesturing to what he held in his hand.
Seven years before, the ticket with which Brad posed, Wednesay, won him $220.3 million. No Idahoan — and only 17 Americans — has ever won more.
But if you ask Brad, those lucky numbers didn't do the work. He did. And luck had nothing to do with it.
"Yes," Brad said. "I absolutely thought I was going to win. In fact, I wrote a check out to myself for a million dollars and in the note section I put: earn/won."
Brad told us, Wednesday, he liked number games, considered Powerball a hobby and always knew that someday, he'd win.
"I had written about it in my journal," he said. "It was my favorite campfire topic: What would you do if you won the lottery?"
And that's what we really wanted to know: Seven years later what'd you buy, Brad?
"There are definitely some different things in my life," he said with a smile.
Brad started a family foundation for children, pedals the nicest road bike on the market and paid a helicopter to fly him and a buddy to the top of a Canadian glacier so they could mountain bike to the bottom. But while he arrived at the Jackson's in a Porsche, Brad sported no bling and said he'd researched all his spending and investments.
"My first piece of advice to anybody who would win the lottery is take a breath and start thinking about who's going to help you do the right thing," he said.
And who knows: One of the throng purchasing tickets behind him, Wednesday, might find a use for that advice (afterall, the current Powerball jackpot stood at $250 million).
Brad and his ticket, meanwhile, reunited for the first time since the June, 2005 Powerball winner sent in the winning ticket — and after a detective rescued that piece of paper from the obscurity of a lottery warehouse.
It has been a while since I've read anything about Brad Duke. After winning the lottery as I remembered, his plans were to invest his winnings and become a billionaire, I wonder how closed he's getting toward that goal.
More reason to believe that those that 'believe in themselves" have the power to realize their dreams.
Negative, doom & gloom naysayers who believe in nothing but bad luck/no luck, have no respect for spiritual insight, or nothing except what they can only see with their limited physical eyesight, will seldom experience a miracle in their life.
I saw an update a few weeks back on "How The Lottery Changed My life", and apparently Brad is doing well, but revealed he is still a long distance away from achieving his goal of becoming a "Billionaire". He also indicated he still has several million more than he won in "05".
I have the same plan ............. go figure
We play the lottery because we see ourselves winning some day. This is old news, has he won any other jackpot since then? Next in line!
No, he may not have won any other jackpot since then, but he did win that one, and he is richer than we are!
I remember this story so well, I cant believe 7 years have gone by. It was right around the time I unofficialy joined lottery post.
Anyways, I am glad to see he is not among those who fritter away their winnings or end up in jail or dead. So inspiring!
Oh, Brad Duke. I remember reading about his win a few years back and gasping about in financial plans and investments. He had a very good team which is helping him realize his goal. Truly, I really do commend him. He is young and with a lot of ambitions and plans for the win at hand, looks like he got a gift that keeps on giving and winning.
However, I would argue against him doing the work to win the lottery , the numbers just aligned. But hey, whom am I to say, the man is a powerball winner and I am not!
Lol, way to go Brad Duke, glad that the win brought him fulfilment.
Yet another motivational story!
It's difficult for me to say that. To me, law of attraction doesn't apply. Things ALWAYS happen when I least expect.
In my opinion, that's what it all boils down too: believing in yourself. Honestly, that's what I believe in and for the most part it's working. I guess everyone is different.
Isn't this the guy that was working at Gold's Gym making around 30K a year training people? Then he won a boatload of money and all of a sudden was going to be some financial wiz kid. lol. The fact that he was on one of those lottery shows just recently tells me that he really isn't making the best of decisions.
And just how many Powerball & Mega Millions jackpots have you won,Mr. positive thinker?
Yeah,that's what I thought.
Positive thinking has NOTHING to do with winning, N-O-T-H-I-N-G!
You just have to be lucky enough to have the right numbers at the right time.