Stephen King Solomon
We're not cutting any babies in half. Not today!
Stephen King threw $400,000 in the trash.
But then, a miracle happened:
King hated the first draft of his book, "Carrie."
"I had four problems with what I'd written," he said.
1. "The story didn't move me emotionally."
2. "I didn't much like the lead character."
3 “(I didn’t) feel at home with either the surroundings or my all-girl cast of supporting characters.”
4. “Most important of all was the realization that the story wouldn’t pay off unless it was pretty long. I couldn’t see wasting two weeks, maybe even a month, creating a novella I didn’t like and wouldn’t be able to sell. So I threw it away.”
So he took “Carrie” and threw the pages in the garbage.
The next night, King came home from work.
His wife, Tabby, had fished the crumpled pages out of the trash and smoothed them out.
She told King to keep writing.
“You’ve got something here,” Tabby said.
“I really think you do.”
In 1973, King sold the rights to “Carrie.”
It came with a $2,500 advance (about $16,000 today).
Then, the life-changer:
New American Library purchased the rights to Carrie for $400,000.
(That’s just $2.5 million today.)
All from a few pages Stephen King wanted to throw away.
I’m going to make 3 guesses about you.
Guess 1. My guess is you’re your own harshest critic.
Guess 2: My guess is you’re aware you’re your own harshest critic.
Guess 3: My guess is you’re not aware that you’re a horribly inaccurate critic.
I’d even argue that you are far and away the worst judge of yourself. You have no objectivity. You have no perspective. You have no clarity, no detachment, no ability to step outside your own head and see you how other people see you. You’re too close.
But this isn’t just true for self-criticism — it’s true for just about any attempt at being objective about your own situations.
It’s so common, in fact, that it has a name: Solomon’s paradox.
Solomon’s paradox was named after King Solomon — a biblical monarch who was legendary for his wisdom but struggled to apply that wisdom to his own life.
The idea was introduced in a 2014 paper by psychologists Igor Grossman and Ethan Gross.
The paper showed 2 things:
People display wiser reasoning about another person’s problems than their own.
When we try to distance ourselves from our own problems, we’re able to make better decisions.
In your own life, you’re shortsighted.
So you have to step away.
We’re going to make this actionable today.
Self-Criticism (The Stephen King Method)
Take your favorite person. Could be a sibling, friend, significant other … whatever.
Imagine that person writing down a list of their faults.
Imagine reading that list.
What do you think you’d say?
“Yeah, this is spot on. You are terrible at XYZ, ABC, and QRS.”
Or
“You realize no one actually thinks these things about you … Right?”
Self-Advice (The King Solomon Method)
Ask yourself a simple question:
"What advice would I give to someone I love in this situation?”
There you go.
That’s your answer.
Listen to it.