friends will think you’ve lost twenty pounds overnight! Or better, why bother
with corsets when there’s the XL-960 Fat Shredder pill! Never mind the shitshow
in the pantry headlined by a Costco-sized crate of Oreos. None of it is a match
for XL-960 Fat Shredder! Hell, that stuff is endorsed by Dr. Shnoz!
And while we’re on the subject, have you noticed that every year some diet
guru is peddling some hot new “secret ingredient” that will magically reverse
decades of nutritional neglect and make you a supermodel in just weeks? And
then, once it’s discovered it doesn’t
work and the fad dies, next year another
super-ingredient appears. Coffee Bean! Garcinia Cambogia! Giraffe Urine!
The same game is played with success and financial independence. Just order
my awesome new “Internet secrets” program for just three easy payments of
$39.95, you’ll be on your way to millions. But wait, there’s more. Act now and
you’ll get a free website too! Once you fire up this templated plug-and-play
website, the cash will roll in! But wait, there’s more! Order today and you’ll get
one free month of secret access to our secret toll-free
hotline with our secret
coaching superstars. Oh, don’t worry, these “coaches” aren’t minimum-wage
stiffs hired off the street. Nope, they’re actual millionaires who have so much
time on their hands that they’re willing to sit in a call center eight hours a day
fielding calls from the fools who believe it!
Oh, and my favorite shortcut scheme? It’s pharmaceutical companies who
aren’t in the business of curing disease; they’re in the business of obscuring
symptoms. Heck, I’ve suffered through enough drug commercials that I’m
thinking prescription drugs are the transformational
secret from a sedentary
existence into an action-packed life. Moderate to severe depression? Ask your
doctor about
Axapraxacoris
and in no time you’ll be mountain biking in Italy
and zip-lining in Costa Rica! Side effects? Anal leakage, diarrhea,
liver failure,
heart palpitations, stroke, and sometimes death. Clearly the product works; guys
who shit their pants and die horseback riding solve their depression.
Going back to my Word with Friends story, the implications of the shortcut
scam are clear: My competitors weren’t interested in improving game skills,
vocabulary, or visual perceptions (the macro-process). Instead, the shortcut scam
goaded them to install a cheat program so victory could be claimed without
effort (the event), while simultaneously misrepresenting that they’re brilliant.
Not surprising. As bees are to honey, so is the world’s thirst for the shortcut.
Look everywhere, Buzz Lightyear, the promise of shortcuts, shortcuts, shortcuts.
That guru, the drug company, that financial planner, that plastic surgeon, the
personal trainer—everyone claims to have the secret shortcut that will make you
millions,
snuff out that turkey neck, abolish that pregnancy weight, and make
you an instant Casanova in bed. Just hand over your cash and the secret is yours.
We live in a microwave culture that demands fast results—not next week, not
tomorrow, not after breakfast, but NOW. We want what we want, and we want it
quick and easy.
The truth is, many folks reading this book are looking for a shortcut. And
after they discover there is no shortcut perched on a silver platter, and instead
hard work and late nights are required, they’ll tweet to their seventeen followers
that this book is crap. Boo hoo, MJ didn’t give me the easy button!
EVENT IDEALISM: THE ROAD TO DISAPPOINTMENT
The shortcut scam’s genesis comes from a
culture that encourages and
promotes
event idealism
while dismissing the
process-principle
. Event idealism is
when your behavior is geared toward fabulous outcomes with a predisposition
toward short-term gratification and quick results. It denies process, overlooking
the necessity of daily rituals and habits and, instead, expects fantastic results
effortlessly. Conversely,
the process-principle is an intelligent awareness that
extraordinary results require an extraordinary effort
consisting of daily habits,
routines, and sacrifices
.
TLDR; To put it another way, the shortcut doesn’t exist.
Everything in life can be analyzed by the event/process model. Its partnership
is inseparable as cause and effect. Process slowly heats the cause while events boil
the effects. For example, if you bake a soufflé, the recipe and the timed mixing of
the ingredients are the process; the sight and smell of the finished product are the
event. When Michael Phelps wins nine gold medals in the 2008 Olympics and
consequently makes millions in endorsements afterwards, his triumphs are the
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