My 6 year old is a Princess (with a capital P) — complete with a pink room, wardrobe of pink dresses and a penchant for wearing tiaras… When she was little, we tried hard to avoid raising a princess (she had lots of trucks, trains and blocks) but I’ve come to the conclusion that kids are who they are and have given in to the cult of the princess.
But, Princesses (in her mind anyway) are heroines and possess certain traits (nice, honest friendly, helpful) – sort of like a pink Girl Scout 
This morning we were talking about fairy godmothers — in Cinderella specifically… Suzanne wanted to know if everyone had a fairy godmother.
I thought about it a moment and then decided that my answer was “yes”. If you want something badly enough, somehow things work themselves out that you either get that thing or get something better. Some people would call this the Law of Attraction.
But, the key here is the wanting and letting the world know what you want. The part of the Cinderella story that is often overlooked is that Cinderella worked very, very hard to get to that ball before the fairy godmother even came into the picture. She completed an impossible amount of chores in record time, she made her own gown from scraps she found around the house… only after working hard (and facing some serious setbacks) did the fairy godmother come and help her out (and then she had to be proactive at the end when the messenger came around with the glass slipper).
Life (and if you think about it most “Cinderella” stories) are like that. Think of the unknown college sports team that makes the playoffs. That didn’t happen by chance. The players and coach on that team worked their tushes off (and then had some good luck) to defy expectations and make the playoffs. Think about the internet marketing guru who bursts upon the scene with a six figure telesummit launch. My bet is that person put a lot of work, focus and commitment into their business – -and *then* got a lucky break. If the work hadn’t happened – the luck wouldn’t have meant anything.
The danger in the Cinderella story – is that people ignore the action and the hard work part and want to skip straight to the Cinderella part. Show me any overnight success and at least 90% of the time, I can show you years of hard work leading up to that lucky break. Vision is good — but vision without follow up is just a wish… (and follow up without vision is just busy work…)
So… why haven’t you had success launching your business or new product? Are you waiting for your fairy godmother to come? Instead of wishing and waiting, roll up your sleeves and let’s start making some magic happen.
great post meredith! the hard work and setbacks is often the part of the entrepreneur’s journey that we hear the least about. the more we talk about it, the easier it’ll be for us to be able to see the challenges we face as we build our business as part of the process rather than a “mistake” or worse think that we’re failures at business and need to give it up. thanks for shedding light on this!