All of us have big dreams, but in reality, why only so few of us actually pursue our own dream? In other words, what really differentiate who is a dreamer and who is a doer?
I brought this subject into light after I read an article that provides me some insights.
1. Dream is really just a ….. dream.
Most of us have this naive mentality that we need superhero power to achieve something big and we are too small to try anything big. We confined ourselves into a small cage just like everyone around us. We are taught to be “practical”. Didn’t you have ever thought of travel into Mars, startup a tech based company that rival Apple(probably you could named it Banana)? Yea we are taught so much to be practical and when those out-of-the-ordinary dream strikes us, we dismiss it immediately and continue with what we are doing, and eventually, your dream will enter the grave with you.
2. Creativity is god’s gift.
So maybe Newton sat under a tree while looking at the sky one day, an apple knock on his head and “KaBoOm”, suddenly he becomes creative and talking about gravity weeks later. But we all know all of us are creative sometimes, usually during relaxed state. “Lack of creativity” becomes our greatest excuse of all time. “No I can’t invent a better operating system than Microsoft or a more simplified music player that would eat Ipod alive”. The truth is, we could if we want to and start training ourselves.
3. Risk
The same old thing that haunts us for decades. By nature we just don’t like risk. Risk takers do not like it either, they just conquer the fear of taking risk. During our 20s, a period when we have absolute freedom and energy to achieve something in our pathetic short lifespan, we prefer to secure job instead of going for our dream. Then by 30s, we fell in love with someone, married and suddenly have mortgage to pay and children to feed, and hey I can’t take risk now because my family depends on me. Probably by then, we would live that way just like everyone else.
4. I need huge capital to do something big. I don’t have the money now, maybe later.
Yea right. When we talk about staring a company, amazingly people will start thinking about huge profits, large scale office towers and 1000 employees working for you. In fact most startups started with little or no money. Risk? not really that big. Furthermore if you failed, just get out and grab a job and start again.
5. Attitudes
All of us have weaknesses. But only a small number of us would actually do something about it. Reading is usually confined to textbooks or world of warcraft strategy guides. Not to forget our favorite line of all time “I don’t have the time”.
6. Goals
We love to set goals but the problem is, most of our goals are not practical and long term. Many of us failed to realize that short term goals will lead to long term goal. “I want to save 1million before age 30″ is a classic example. Surprisingly, by age of 30, our bank account can hardly pay the bills for the month. Maybe short term goal such as saving RM 100 every month into investment account are more logical and attainable? Start small and think big.
Doers think ahead than dreamers, they develop the correct mindsets and attitudes while conquering the fear of unknown.
