This article presents the author's story, as a teacher, about building a Math Matters club and discusses why her students arrived at school before first bell to participate enthusiastically. The author's students seemed to have a negative attitude about math. In giving that stirring motivational speech, she apparently overlooked one important point: Students "and adults" tend to shy away from situations in which failure is probable. Failure can often deal a devastating blow to the fragile psyche of an adolescent. Since feelings of inadequacy are never pleasureable, the chance that these students would voluntarily choose to spend additional time on math was highly unlikely. After some careful reflection, the author determined two reasons why her students were reluctant to attend the school's math lab. It seemed to be a vicious cycle. Students who did not enjoy math did not want to spend any additional time working on it. Since they did not spend time with math, they were not as proficient as they should be. Since they were not as proficient as they should be, they did not enjoy it. This article offers practical guidelines in setting up Math Matters and in spreading the joy of learning about math. (Contains 2 figures and 8 online resources.)