------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOLLOW YOUR DREAM
Jim Melvin
Many of you may
know that I am a night owl who loves to work into
the wee hours of the morning. You know this since you have
caught me up when submitting your email. Some of your are
surprised at finding me up. Those of you on the other side of
the world may not be used to finding anyone awake since you are
many hours ahead of our time. But I also run into a great many
people who enjoy working while others sleep.
I am not awake merely because I suffer from insomnia. Oh no, it
is much bigger then that. I am up because I love doing what I
do.
I am not a big TV person. I watch the news in my feeble attempt
to stay current. I also enjoy Alley McBeal, NYPD Blue, Law and
Order and an occasional basketball or football game. But last
night I happened to watch Oprah, which doesn't even start until
12:30am. It turned out to be a show that I will not forget.
Oprah has a talk show with a central theme. The theme this
evening was "Follow Your Dream." She interviewed many everyday
people who had a dream and the courage to follow it through.
Most of these people were normal folks who had fulfilled their
dreams and some became very rich. Many of them were down on
their luck at the time they started their new business. These
were folks like the founder of amazon.com who in 5 years has
become one of the richest men in the world merely by selling
books over the Internet. DUH! That is the type of idea that
everyone should be muttering to themselves, "Why didn't I think
of something like that?"
Two women who hated attending business school, but loved to shop,
also started an Internet business called della.com. It is a
bridal registry where couples can register many items at many
different stores. The guests of the wedding only have to sign
on to the site and select and purchase a gift. It will even keep
track of gifts, which have already been purchased so the bride
and groom don't wind up receiving two toasters, three blenders,
and two coffee bean grinders.
Then there was the woman who writes poetry, or the couple who
love going to the movies, or the ex-cop who now works for a
Hollywood studio writing TV cop shows. A good one was an out of
work handyman who started "Rent-A-Husband." His company will
carry out handyman projects of any type around the home. This
entrepreneur went from an injured, out of work handyman living in
a warehouse, to the head of a 25 franchise business in 5
countries taking in $8,000,000. Not too shabby.
The basic theme behind each one of these highly successful people
is "Follow Your Dream." Each had a dream with a very clear
understanding of what they wanted to do and the courage to follow
up to make their dream a reality. By no means was it easy since
they had to make many sacrifices along the way, but their dream
was something they loved and believed in. These were not
sacrifices to them. To them it was not real work either. After
all, this was something they dreamed and they were now living
their dream.
Everyone should think about "Following Their Dream." Many of
you
may already be doing that, while others may just be getting
started. I encourage all of you to think about those dreams and
what it would take to turn them into reality. Now that it is
3:00am I had better quit dreaming and get some sleep.
