DARE TO DREAM

Sometime in the 1920s, David Sarnoff presented a proposal to his company in a lengthy memo driving for investment in radio. His superiors ignored him and their reply was “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” Now that is the big question, who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular? The answer is everybody would, because a message sent to nobody in particular is a message for everybody. That question is the reason radio and television has a huge commercial value today. But David’s superiors didn’t know that and David never gave up on his dream even if it looked impossible back then. Today he is known as being instrumental to the development of radio and television broadcasting.

So Dare to Dream, set your goals no matter how high it seems and always keep your eyes on the goal because when you take your eyes off the goal those scary things you see are called obstacles. Some voices can tell you your dreams are too big, those voices may be friends, family, colleagues at work or even within you, but there is no such thing as a dream 'too big'. It’s a dream and the bigger it is the better it gets. Of course there will be obstacles or it might even look impossible right now but as long as you believe in your dream. That's what matters most.

You don't need anyone to believe in your dreams. You only need you to believe in your dreams. If they don't believe in you, keep going, don't stop, and keep working towards it. As far back as the 18th century, someone said “everything that can be invented has been invented.” Now imagine all the things that have been invented since then. So if you are telling yourself right now that nothing more can be invented, you will be surprised at how many problems humanity still has. And those problems need to be solved. Everything that was invented came as a result of the need to solve a particular problem.

I’m not trying to get you to invent anything. No! I just want you to dare to dream and work towards that dream.

It always looks impossible until it is done. And who gets it done? It’s the guy that never gave up on his dreams. It’s the guy that didn’t allow the negativity around him make him stop believing. It’s the guy that fell several times but still rose up several times because at the end of the day, what matters most is how many times you get up not how many times you fall. You will fail and you will be discouraged but make failure and discouragement your stepping stones towards success. Never let your failure define you.

There are some people out there always looking to shoot down your great ideas. You will meet them, they are everywhere. So be prepared, your great ideas will often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.

You may not be the strongest person in the room, you may be labeled as ‘weak’, ‘foolish’, but when everything goes dark, when you feel you are at your lowest and you feel powerless to keep going. Remember courage is not always a roar, sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying "I will try again tomorrow". You keep pushing, you keep dreaming and you keep going and don’t ever give up on your dream.

I leave you with the words of Victor Hugo "There is nothing like a dream to create the future."

START!

“I will start next week’’ “I need more time” “I have not done enough research” “I need to get some things in place first””I can’t do it” any of this ring a bell? Call it procrastination, excuse, fear. Whatever you choose to call it we have all experienced it at one time or the other or maybe you still experience it. But the truth is even if you get all these conditions in place you probably won’t start because there will always be another excuse. Something is always wrong somewhere in the world, nobody is perfect and no condition is perfect, we all have our flaws and the world can’t be perfect. You are just scared of failure, scared of what people will say or you think you are not good enough. But the time is always right to do the right thing, the biggest and hardest step in life is the first step, the moment you take that step you are on your way. Martin Luther King Jr once said ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.’

Most of the successful people you see today have one common regret, they always wish they started earlier. Whatever it is you want to start doing, at some point you will wish you had started earlier and in the words of Dorothy Thompson ‘only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.’ So whatever it is that you have been dreaming of, whatever it is that you have always wanted to do but you are too scared to take the first step or you keep procrastinating and making up excuses telling yourself why you can’t do it yet. I want you to know you are not alive yet. You have to stop been afraid and start living. Just START!

You know how long it took me to start writing this piece, I kept pushing and postponing until I told myself I had to start from somewhere and it didn’t have to be perfect. And that was it, there is nothing wrong with starting small as long as you keep growing. So you start small, grow soon and keep growing. It’s okay to be normal, it’s okay to start small. The President was once a citizen, the vice chancellor of a university was once a student in fact he was once a jambite, the professional was once a learner. So there is nothing wrong with starting. The problem is if you start and don’t grow then you become stagnant, but are you actually stagnant or you are moving backwards.

Let’s picture this, you are No 5 on the chart today, next week same position, and in two weeks time you are not improving so you believe you are in the same position then you say you are stagnant. No! you are not stagnant, in reality you are moving backwards. There are only two options, its either you are moving forward or you are moving backward. Because if you remain in the same position, at some point people will overtake you. Others are working tirelessly to get to the top so why should you stop. Start and don’t ever look back. Don’t you ever stop, just keep moving.

I leave you with the words of Franklin Roosevelt ‘It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.’