Something about this whole outlook really bothers me. The premise that he was lied to is irritating, his parents and teachers provided positive reinforcement to try and help him develop into a confident person. He wasnt 'lied' to, they didnt try to deceive him or trick him onto being something he wasnt, they wanted to help him become whatever he wanted. He was 'trained' from a young age to respond to trivial rewards (kind words, praise) which should have transitioned into a desire to earn non-trivial praise from others besides his immediate family. He failed. He chose instead the most trivial of all praise, game recognition. It was his decision to play games instead of becoming an adult. Many people choose this route as it fulfils an inner desire and its fun but it is the individuals fault, he chose to do this, when his grades were slipping in school etc. Claiming that people lied to him is a childish way to look at it, he has to accept he is the reason he didnt achieve his 'potential' whatever it might have been. There is no guarantee in life that you will be handed success just because you showed some initial potential. If you look at the people who succeed (not Bill Gates, just successful people) they normally made it by working their ass off or they got lucky. The Author didn't do either, instead he whines about his lack of success while doing nothing to achieve it. There are 7 billion people on the planet, most of them will live and die without acquiring the 'Success' the Author desires, the vast majority had much harsher childhoods without Disney movies. If you are reading this you are on the better side of the bell curve. Millions of people would trade places with him and be completely happy with their new life of comfort that he take for granted, maybe he should stop complaining and do something about it. Note: I'm hungover and crankier than normal.
> There is no guarantee in life that you will be handed success just because you showed some initial potential. That's what he wanted to be told hen he was young. Saying "Well done, you're very clever" is less helpful than saying "Well done, you worked hard for that. Keep working hard!" is better. When someone gets 85% but isn't working you can then say "Well done, but you can do better. You can work harder. You can be not just good, but great!".
Yes, as I've heard it stated before: there isn't enough emphasis being placed on the effort and the hard work that lead to success. There's plenty of praise being piled onto the child/person, and that's the problem. We say "Oh you're so smart because you got A's in your classes" instead of "Oh you worked so hard to get A's in your classes." One of those (the first) makes it sounds like your success is inevitable because you're smart, and smart people get things like A's in their classes. The other emphasizes a process of work, of gradual change through effort. Now, this isn't to say that no one should be told that they aren't smart. Many people are smart, and saying so should never be a bad thing. However, a more healthy mix of smart and hard work needs to be praised.