Guy Reams (00:01.422)
This is day 90, Cinderella syndrome. I think there's actually a clinical, psychological definition around people that are relying on others for fulfillment, kind of like Cinderella was. Or maybe a woman who has unrealistic expectations that a man will
solve all of our problems or vice versa. But that's not what I'm referring to here. In Cinderella syndrome, I'm referring to something completely different. It's what a lot of us go through when we chase the next shiny object. You see, we've all been conditioned to believe that something magical is going to happen in our lives and we will suddenly be discovered.
Our ego wants us to believe that we are somehow special. somebody will notice that one day, and then we will rise to fame. We see the famous singers or actresses or actors become famous. And we look upon them with envy, and we think that they were just discovered. Reality is that most of time they weren't just discovered.
Reality is that most of the time they put a lot of effort into their work before they had an opportunity which they took advantage of. Cinderella syndrome is when you come up with an idea. So you have an idea which you think will make yourself successful. You're thinking, I'm going to be incredibly successful. This is an amazing idea. So you have this real incredible sense of optimism about it. You think this is the next thing.
So you pour a lot of energy and effort into it thinking, wow, this is going to get me there. And then something happens. You run smack into the fact that this is going to take a little bit of work. So you start getting a little discouraged. You start thinking, wow, this is harder than I thought. And then what happens is you start to feel just really discouraged, maybe even depressed, or what you would call depression.
Guy Reams (02:24.226)
That shiny object you chased didn't come to fulfillment. The prince's butler did not show up at your door with your glass slipper. In fact, he never came. So reality is there is no fairy godmother and there is no prince to save you. Reality is that when your new idea, which by the way, it probably was a good idea, when you run into the first difficulties,
doesn't make it a bad idea. It just makes it hard work. The problem that we run into, and I'm an expert in this, I'm an absolute expert in this, because I've been on this freaking cycle for a long time, until I finally understood. When I get discouraged, during that time of discouragement, I see another shiny object. And then I go chase that. And now I'm back in the cycle again. I'm so excited about the new idea.
And then I find out it's just going to take hard work. And then I get back into my discouragement. The problem is most people do not suffer through that period of discouragement when you found out it was hard. If you suffer through the hard part, you will find out that there was reason for you to be optimistic on the other side. And when you find that out, once you get across that valley, that chasm, if you will,
Then you'll find out that this really will be successful. And now you understand what to do and how to do it. And then you will achieve success.
Guy Reams (04:04.288)
I don't know how many people I've met, but a lot that are on the first part of the cycle I told you about. Great idea, find out that it's hard, get discouraged, chase new idea. It's a constant thing. We all think that something's gonna come and save us. Some new idea will be the thing. I gotta tell you that ideas generally are crap.
Any idea you come up with will probably be successful if you are willing to go through the hard part, which is the discouragement time when you find out how hard it is and you find out how much work you have to do. If you can make it through that, most any idea will get you successful. You see, I've oftentimes looked at other people that are really successful. For example, there's a gentleman down the street in my neighborhood that owns a couple of fast food franchises.
And he is well off. I would consider him wealthy. Or at least he has income producing assets that produce enough money for him where he doesn't really have to work all that much. So I would consider that wealthy. He has lots of time to spend with his family. I've oftentimes looked at that with envy, thinking, God, that's so easy. I could just run a couple of fast food franchises. Meanwhile, I'm chasing all this really complicated stuff. But in reality is,
His job was probably just as hard as my job. He just chose to stick with it. And I jumped ship and went to something new every once in a while. The point is, you gotta get out of the Cinderella syndrome. You gotta realize that no matter what idea you pick, you've gotta stick with it long enough to figure it out. By the way, once you achieve great success, then you can go on to whatever else you wanna go on to. But don't give up.
If you come up with a great idea, stick with that idea when it gets tough, because you need to fulfill the idea before you give up.