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Business life lesson - Don’t let anyone steal your dream

CA

Dave Prouhet at Business Advice Daily tagged me for My Business Life Lessons. This is going to be a ten part series. When I started this, I didn’t realize it will take this long for me to finish this meme. But developments in the off-line world caused a delay. I should be able to complete this series pretty soon, Dave. So, here is my sixth lesson.

Do not let anyone steal your dream. Don’t ever let anyone tell you ‘you can’t do it’. Want your dream badly; taste it, feel it and it will be yours.

This holds true for any aspect of your life - personal and professional. Dreams are very powerful. You look at history and see the first thing great leaders have done. They dreamt. Also, what was the first thing that dictators and anarchists did? They killed peoples ability to dream. O yes, dreams are powerful indeed. Here are some examples of my dreams. Care to share yours?

A 12 year old’s dream

I grew up in Bombay (now Mumbai, but I prefer the old name because it has more brand recognition) – a city teaming with people where competition is intense and entrepreneurship a way of life. Anyone living in a major metropolis like New York or Toronto can attest to a city life as a rat-race. At to that a bustling population and you know what I am talking about when I say competition. When I was in grade eight I happened to visit Nariman Point. As Bay Street is for Toronto, as Times Square is for New York, Nariman Point is to Bombay.

I was very enamored with that place. I stood there - right in the heart of (then) India’s financial engine. This was the place where decisions that impacted India’s economy was being made. I instinctively decided I would work here one day. That was a goal of a 12 year old kid (yes, we start school at the age of three. Didn’t I tell you it was very competitive out there?) I company I worked with in my first job, about eight years later, was headquartered in Nariman Point.

Dream of a well balanced life

Here is another one that I would like to share. Canada fascinates me. The flora and the fauna are amazing. The people here are very sweet and politeness here is a way of life. Having traveled around a bit, I realized life need not be a rat race exclusively. You can lead a better quality life striking the right balance between work and family. I decided to give life in Canada a try.

When I visited Canada, I knew I wanted to live here. If you have ever been to Cabot trail, for example, you know what I talking about. It had taken me over ten years of planning and saving to move to Canada, but I did eventually achieve my dream. (By the way, you need to test exhaustively before you make a final decision.)

Here’s a little flow chart of the “critical path” of how I see dreams turning to reality.

Turning dreams to reality

You can only control things that are in your control; i.e. in your micro environment. You cannot control the macro environment; i.e. there are things outside your control. Hence the feedback loop from the “monitoring” section. You may have to modify your dream. For example; if it was not possible for me to move to Canada due to say, changes to the immigration policy, I may have had to choose a different destination. And that’s out of my control.

Bottomline

Dream BIG. And don’t ever let anyone tell you, you cannot achieve it. Your dreams are yours to achieve. But you have the dream to begin with.

[Update]: Here is an inspiring story about Phil Johnson - When did you know you were committed.

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6 Comments »

  • Bootstrapper said:

    Plan Your Trip Now For Your Business! by Shawn Edwards of Destiny Online. Are you in a business that requires a lot of travelling? Shawn suggests keeping in mind three basic things for business travel. Business life lesson - Don’t let anyone steal your dream by CA of Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog. Feeling a little doubtful about your entrepreneurial dreams? CA relates a couple of personal stories that may inspire you to keep your dream. Working Through Distractions

    # 30 November 1999 at 12:00 am
  • Startup Spark said:

    [...]Think Like A Kid, Make Millions: Success Stories of Ordinary People Who Became Millionaires posted at Grad Money Matters. Karen Lynch presents Work and Joy, Joy and Work posted at LivethePower. CA presents Business life lesson - Don’t let anyone steal your dream posted at Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog, saying, “Do not let anyone steal your dream. Don’t ever let anyone tell you ‘you can’t do it’. Want your dream badly; taste it, feel it and it will be yours.[...]

    # 4 June 2007 at 11:00 am
  • Greg Balanko-Dickson said:

    Great article, keep up the great work. I agree in regards to breaking down a BHAG. last September I set a BHAG of impacting 1,000,000 business owners. My first step in the process was to test working from a remote location and seeing if I could keep my business going… we spent 7 weeks in Hawaii and everything went really well.

    Just wish I had remembered to get someone to cut my lawn while we were away.

    I learned that overall I am pretty pleased with my lifestyle here in Edmonton, except that I cannot easily swim in the ocean each morning.

    So I am in the process of creating BHAG 2.

    # 4 June 2007 at 10:17 pm
  • CA said:

    Thanks Greg. Impacting a million business owners is a BHAG. All the best. Keep us posted when you reach it, as I am sure you will.

    That must be a lot of grass you would have mowed down. :) And that must have been quite a work out.

    I have heard of the Edmonton chill - except that when I visited it once, it was a pleasant minus 10 in January.

    Again, all the best as you dream up your BHAGs. Keep us posted.

    # 4 June 2007 at 11:51 pm
  • Silflay Hraka said:

    How To Write Chick Lit In Ten Easy Steps. Once again, reading between the lines here but I don’t think this piece is flattering to chick lit. bobbarama went to Denny’s. He tell us about it. Steaking out my favorite booth. CA presents Business life lesson - Don’t let anyone steal your dream Andrew Ian Dodge relates the 9/11 terrorist attacks and O.J. Simpson’s book in Projections. Think O.J. is responsible for 9/11? I do. Leon Gettler presents Psychotic organizations: 5 warning signs

    # 27 June 2007 at 9:49 pm
  • Darrell A. Williams - Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services said:

    I totally agree about breaking down BHAG into SMGs. My BHAG is to have a full client list before the end of October. The SMGs need to be goals that you CAN control. Don’t set goals whose outcomes are outside of your control. Set goals that you can achieve. For instance, don’t make the SMG of having 10 new clients before next month - make the goal to send out 50 letters, pass out 75 business cards, etc.

    # 25 July 2007 at 12:43 am