Stop Dreaming Small
I’m beyond tired of people thinking in increments and steps and procedures and small bites. In the world we live in today opportunity abounds and intelligent hard working folks have every advantage and opportunity if they’re willing to take the risks to get there.
Small dreams should really be called nightmares, they’re utterly useless and accomplish little to nothing, which in reality is like treading water, which in today’s marketplace means moving backwards. What’s a day worth to you? What’s a day worth to a trading desk at a billion dollar mutual fund? What’s a day worth to the President? With software moving as fast as it is, and technology offering the opportunity for average consumers to create well above average works, and methods of distribution whittled down to NOTHING it boggles my mind that people still complain about the petty things.
Things like, risk, opportunity cost, inventory, patents, competition etc.
These aren’t the 1900’s, we aren’t working textile mills, coal mines or farms.
On the other hand I’m not saying to be sloppy or worse, negligent, but I am saying to be aggressive, see opportunity and seize it, and most of all trust yourself.
Small dreams wrap you in a warm blanket of death, they have you stuck in a mortgage on a home that isn’t going to afford you the retirement you really want nor will it most likely be in a place that you want to spend the rest of your life, much less retire, so stop reading lame magazines like Money for advice and listen to yourself. Do I really want to be here? Do I really want this obligation for 30 years? Sure I can sell it but NOTHING is a sure bet, hmm what to do? Stop turning to your Parents for advice with finance and saving - they’re older than you and play by a totally different set of rules.
When we retire we’ll most likely have 20+ jobs under our belts. Your parents probably have worked an average of 5 places EVER.
They think pensions, we think equity,
They think diversification at all costs, we think niche targeted ideas.
They think regionally, we think internationally.
They see I-R-A, while we see T-A-X.
The world is flying past our generation and in some ways that’s a good thing - we don’t have an identity, nor a rallying cry.
IF we were to have one I think it would most likely be something like this:
“don’t put us in a box, don’t define us, don’t try to market broadly to our ‘demo’, don’t try to get us to do the same job twice, and most of all don’t expect us to suffer for 30+ years for you to retire fat and happy.”
Are we selfish? No. Are we self involved? Who wouldn’t be? Our social demands have increased 5 fold on the internet alone, much less in personal, much less over the phone or via text. We’re beyond accessible and each live in our own made for TV movie. We will all win, when we dream big.
When we dream for the impossible. I’m not getting all Mickey freakin Mouse on you when I say that. I’m speaking from the heart, and I’m speaking as a person that’s profited the people I work for (on average) nothing short of $1MM a year but as high as $4.5M M on investments that ranged from $20,000 to $65,000. Those are the GROSS NET - pre tax numbers. Also, remember those aren’t lump sums folks, they were paid to me in 26 installments spread over a year. Don’t you wish you could get those type of returns on savings in the bank? Why do they get them? Risk. Dreams. And most of all follow through.
Fact is the best business to be in isn’t business, its in dreaming big and making amazing things come to life through hard work, focusing groups of like minded people, and most of all knowing what you’re passionate about. Do all doctors love needles? No. They most likely like healing and caring for others, what you do doesn’t define you as much as what you like doing. Don’t forget that.
Don’t dream small, don’t wait till tomorrow to take steps towards creating a new reality for yourself, and don’t compare yourself to your parents or any other generation. I love and respect my elders and the immense sacrifices made for me and us and our amazing country and world, but if we sit around and idly wait we’ll be stuck in much worse positions than our forefathers could have ever imagined. Wasting away their sacrifice on the frivolity on the present is like taxing yourself more and more each day for the rest of our lives. Dream big, redefine what it means to work and create and please help me redefine what our generation is about and the legacy we’ll leave behind.