Do you believe in Awards?

So few years back When I was in my initial phase of being a makeup artist I got a call from "Indian lifestyle awards" saying that there would be a gala event organized were the best people in different industries would be felicitated and given certificate by an established celebrity.

They offered me to participate and send in my nomination for the same, and I did.

A week later I got a mail saying that I had won in the makeup artist category and I couldn't believe it, as I was quite new to the fraternity and I was sure there are more skilled artist out there, but, who doesn't like to win? so I was elated and overjoyed knowing that I had won among all the nominations,
but my happiness was short lived as in the last paragraph they mentioned that I had to pay a hefty amount to cover the costs associated with the online and/or physical surveys, market research study and the gala event ceremony.

I was puzzled, I quickly put a post on few groups to know if it was just me or are there more people approached, to my surprise the couple of them I spoke to confirmed that they were also asked for money to buy usage rights which were not making any sense to me.

I skipped and refused to pay.

A month later through some Facebook post I got to know that the awards did happen and the celebrity guest did come and someone did get the award for the best makeup artist, and all my life I thought "You get awards when you excel in something", but my belief system was shattered to know that if you pay for it, you can win it.

and it continues to happen every year ...