Dream Big
Published by Frank Lane July 3rd, 2009 in Innovation, Leadership, Organizational Performance, Personal PerformanceThe following advice comes from Fawzia Gulsha, a friend in Dubai, who is both a royal princess and a very successful real estate agent in Dubai.
“The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.”
I have given this same speech in different words so many times “after” an accomplishment.
Bill Egan, a client when he was International President of Johnson & Johnson once complained to me, “People think vision is ‘let’s go into the hair care business.’ Where is the real vision.”
We think that real vision is the ability to imagine and see in detail a scenario that has not happened yet, but theoretically could. I believe a part missing in Bill’s comment is “bigness.” I think in part vision is in the BIGNESS. If one said, let’s own the hair care business, a minimum of 70%, it would be different. In other words, is it possible that the size of a goal can actually lead one to Visionary Thinking?
For instance, the goal, “let’s invade and take over Cleveland,” would lead to visionary thinking, wouldn’t it.
Frank, I am a big believer in having big dreams and setting big goals. Shoot for the moon and you might hit it. If you miss, you’ll probably hit the tallest mountain. I agree “Bigness” is important.
There’s a critical step before setting “big goals” and that is to have a heartfelt purpose, or reason, for pursuing the endeavor. For me anyway. Or, to put it another way, I need to have a very good answer to the question “why?”
I can’t remember where I read it but I agree with the view that living ones purpose requires a single mindedness - a resolve to do whatever it takes. It separates the weak from the strong, the procrastinators from the truly committed. It inflames a deep passion. And I think helping companies — the people who work in them and the families who rely on them — is the reason why branding appeals to me so much. I enjoy the creative process AND I feel I can help people improve their lives. I’ll share a personal story to illustrate;
About a month ago I volunteered to help our four year old child’s school, Mulberry School, with their marketing efforts. The school is a private, parent cooperative that offers classes from preschool to 3rd grade. Mulberry School has had their ups-and-downs over the years and they are presently stuck around the break-even level. The stated marketing goal is to get the word out to increase enrollment. Of course, the school has a very long list of descriptive attributes: they are a parent cooperative, they offer small class sizes, they “nurture the innate love of learning” (not sure what that means, exactly), their teachers are state certified, children get to bring their own lunch to school etc. I am slightly embarrassed to say that the reason my wife and I selected the preschool school was for convenience — a good preschool located only 5 minutes away.
But since joining the school board a month ago, I began searching for a deeper “why?” Why was the school started in the first place over thirty years ago? Is there a more compelling reason than “convenience” ? And when a child gets to first grade, why would anyone in their right mind pay $500 a month to send their child to Mulberry School instead of to a free public school? In the process, I discovered something that wasn’t clear to me; their purpose is to discover and develop the strengths of the child.
You see, most schools focus not on strengths but on correcting weaknesses. They teach the exact same curriculum to all the children. With 20-30 children in a classroom being the norm, the teacher rarely has any time to focus individual attention on any one child. If the teacher can find a few minutes, it is to attend to a child’s weakness so that they at least “pass” and can proceed to the next grade. The problem with this approach is that children don’t make their biggest contributions in life in their areas of weakness. Children overcome weakness. But they rarely excel in them. In the end all you have is a child who went from really bad at something to mediocre. Mediocrity is not enough to sustain a lifetime of meaningful work.*
At Mulberry School, everything they do is designed to discover and develop strengths in a nurturing environment. The small class size of 8-10 children enables the certified teachers to spend quality time with each child. Yes, the curriculum meets state standards. But they go beyond the standards by exposing each child to a variety of creative activities within the sciences, art, drama, language and music. The child learns to try new things and to explore without fear. In the process, the child discovers for themselves what makes them feel super-charged. And during their time at Mulberry, they become confident. Confident in their abilities and in themselves.
With such a powerful purpose, it would be a shame for Mulberry to stop their efforts to discover and develop the strengths of children at grade 3. Perhaps they should consider expanding to grade 5. Or grade 8. How about a strengths building high school. Mmm.
Now back to Cleveland. If you can give my a strong enough reason to the question “why invade Cleveland?” I might just join you.
Ernst
* paraphrased from Jenifer Fox “A Child’s Strengths”
I agree with your thinking wholeheartedly. The example I always think about is Andy Rooney, when in a movie, he would jump up and say, “Let’s Do A Show!” Seems like it was always Judy Garland who enthusiastically supported him. But it was never a small undertaking. I will write more in the future about the different motivations in small vs. big.
As you begin to take action toward the fulfillment of your goals and dreams, you must realize that not every action will be perfect. Not every action will produce the desired result. Not every action will work. Making mistakes, getting it almost right, and experimenting to see what happens are all part of the process of eventually getting it right. Frank, In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons stand against it.Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything & thus motivation comes from within.
Now this surprises you right ?? The above comment you have made on me is on the internet.. and my staff saw this and informed me. But its great to know as i always enjoyed the discussions with you. I am not a intellectual as you are but yet i enjoyed your topics thou many a times we did have tough discussions for days with many agreements and disagreements.
Warm Regards
Fawzia Gulsha
http://fawziagulshafoundation.giving.officelive.com