The $112 Million Visualization

Cynthia Stafford, a single mother raising her late brother's five children in California, won the $112 million Mega Millions jackpot in May 2007 from a $2 ticket. She took a lump sum of about $67 million before taxes, paid bills, hired attorneys, got the children out of foster care, and later founded a film production company and became a major arts donor.

In January 2007, Cynthia Stafford was a single mother in California raising five children — the children of her younger brother, who had died in a car crash in 1999 — and struggling to pay the bills. Each night she lulled herself to sleep by imagining she was holding a lottery check. She pictured the exact amount: $112 million, followed by lots of zeroes. She even pictured what she would be wearing when it happened: a lime-green blouse with a leaf print.

Four months later, on Mother's Day, the picture came true. A $2 ticket made Stafford the sole winner of a Mega Millions drawing worth $112 million. "When I found out, I sat in silence for a minute because it confirmed how powerful our minds can be," she told Parade magazine. "Then I started screaming and crying!" She was, improbably, wearing the lime-green blouse. "That part kept surprising me," she laughed. "I thought I'd lose weight by then and wouldn't still have that top."

Stafford took the lump sum: about $67 million before taxes. The first calls on the money were the unglamorous ones — she shared the prize with her father and her older brother, set aside funds for the children's education, and paid the bills that had been squeezing the household. Then came the fun: two Bentleys, a baby-blue convertible and a bright-orange sedan, a first-class trip to Paris, and a personal trainer. But the splurges were the garnish, not the meal.

Stafford had always been generous, even when she had little to give — as a six-year-old she had handed her allowance to UNICEF, and she had taken in her brother's children when they needed a home. The jackpot let her give at a scale she had never imagined. She wrote substantial checks to UNICEF, the Natural Resources Defense Council, God's Love We Deliver, and Kids in the Spotlight, a Los Angeles group that teaches filmmaking to low-income and foster children. "I love helping kids bring out their creativity," she said.

The money also bought her a shot at the career she had always wanted: making movies. She approached David Geffen, the billionaire co-founder of DreamWorks, and asked for guidance — "I wanted the best people around me, but you don't get that unless you ask," she said. His advice was blunt: "Make good investments, because even $67 million can go quickly." She took it to heart, became involved with the nonprofit Geffen Playhouse, and in 2009 launched her own production company, Queen Nefertari Productions, optioning Don DeLillo's novel White Noise and developing a comedy to be directed by Entourage actor Kevin Connolly.

Nearly four years after the win, Stafford was planning a Beverly Hills wedding to Lanre Idewu, a personal trainer, and outfitting the kids with the latest game consoles — but the through-line of her story was not the spending. It was that she had decided what the money was for before it arrived: obligations first, a purpose second, and treats last. "If I lost everything tomorrow, I'd simply visualize it again and make it happen," she said. The visualization gets the headlines, but the plan is the point: a windfall works when it is aimed at something, and Stafford aimed hers at her family, her community, and a career she had wanted all along.

The lesson: Clear the wreckage first — Stafford's money worked because she aimed it at obligations and a purpose, not a lifestyle.

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