Smart Emmanuel: The World Belongs to Dreamers

Dreaming is one of God’s biggest gifts to mankind. Children are free dreamers. They can imagine themselves as superheroes saving the day. My four-year-old son believes all things are possible. In his mind, he is convinced I can buy him anything he wants. He believes whatever he cannot do by himself, the adults in his life can help him do them. However, life, with all its constant drama and disappointments, wakes us up from being dreamers to accepting reality. And reality is brutal.The mistake we make is assuming that life is urging us to think small and stick to the status quo when our dreams appear unattainable, or when we fail to achieve them. Thus, we end up playing it safe. However, failure is not a sign that our dreams are impossible. Instead, it provides feedback from the future on our methods, timing, and processes. People who frequently use words like “impossible” usually find themselves humiliated by the achievements of those who dare to dream in the face of failure.

We sometimes forget how boundless we are as humans. As long as there is an opportunity to go again, we haven’t failed just yet. See, our ancestors imagined and built boats that float on water. We can imagine how many failed attempts they had before the first boat was properly launched. People from the past have achieved things that seemed impossible, and they experienced failure upon failure before figuring it out. It was dream that made humans create the pyramids in Egypt. The kind of persistence they showed in the face of failure should tell us what’s possible when we believe in the beauty of our dreams. In the face of death, some humans tamed the most dangerous animals and toured the most dangerous forests in search of cures for terminal diseases.

Failure isn’t life telling us to stop dreaming. Hardship isn’t a message from heaven to warn us to reduce the magnitude of our dream. Challenges are not angels telling us to lower our expectations. The inventions we see in our world are not a product of just luck; life rewards us with some luck the more we stay persistent even in the face of failure, uncertainty and chaos. This is why the great dreamer, Henry Ford stated that, “The harder he works, the luckier he gets.” The message failure is delivering to us is to achieve the greatness humans before us achieved. We must follow the path of moving from being just dreamers to doers.

Doers have a strong and unshakable passion to pursue their dreams. They let go of their ego, and partner with people that have the skills, finance and experience to make the dream a reality. They improve themselves to become the kind of people that can achieve their dreams. They don’t stop after one failure, instead, they evaluate their actions and plans and make corrections. Many of us would have stopped believing in Telsa or SpaceX after their first failure or fifth failure. However, Elon Musk teaches young dreamers that, “If it’s important enough, you will do it even if the odds are against you.”

Don’t stop dreaming. The craziest of dreams have been achieved by humans you’re smarter than. They just had to evaluate their thinking, methods, partnerships and timing. Dreams come true. All sizes of dreams come true. The world with all its blessings belongs to dreamers.

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Feature Image by Ketut Subiyanto for Pexels

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