The nature of being a dream chaser

Some of the most successful people in the world are dreamers. Or should I say, dreamers who succeeded. It’s not easy being a dreamer and chasing a dream. Many people are dreamers but few follow their dreams. Education has a lot to do with it. The way your parents raised you, for the most part, dictates whether or not you will pursue your dreams. Many parents will tell their children that they can become whatever they want in life, but then criticize their children when they feel their children express an interest in pursuing some dream that is unlikely to come true. The fact is that most dreamers who follow their dreams fail. They fail because they give up. They give up their dream. They are influenced by those around them to take the well-marked path of life, traveled by the masses, instead of the path that has no markers and, even worse, leads you onto other paths that also have no markers. You see, being a dreamer means that you are one of those oddities in life. You’re out there looking at everyone else doing the safe thing. Being a dreamer is fraught with so many risks, so many variables. It is, frankly, a miracle that we have dreamers who follow their dreams. So, you see, being a dream chaser is a very rare thing.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, was a dreamer. He spent years, without compensation, interviewing Andrew Carnegie (founder of Bethlehem Steel, at one time the world’s largest steel manufacturer). Mr. Carnegie agreed to share with Mr. Hill, in detail, his secrets to financial success. There were many secrets and many lessons to teach. During this very long and exhausting process of interviewing Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Hill’s family and friends urged him to stop wasting his valuable uncompensated time on Mr. Carnegie and get a job like everyone else. Mr. Hill acknowledges that he considered quitting many times. Only by sheer force of will and a fanatical desire to pursue his dream of discovering the secrets of success was Mr. Hill able to continue. Though he wavered, and often, he stuck to it. He continued to chase his dream. It wasn’t easy, but we all know how the story ends. Think and Grow Rich is still a best-selling self-help book today. To date, it has sold more than 30 million copies. Simply amazing! What if Mr. Hill had listened to his family and friends and resigned?

The bad thing about being a dream chaser

There is a cost to being a dream chaser. It takes a time commitment to pursue a dream. There may also be a financial commitment. What you lose by pursuing a dream is potential compensation for the time “lost” in pursuing your dream. You may also lose the money invested in pursuing your dream. There is also the emotional turmoil imposed on the dream chaser that exacts a price. The ups and downs of chasing a dream are enough to drive you crazy. One minute you feel like your dream is coming true only to have the rug pulled out from under you. The next minute, his dream seems to have been ruined, only for some event to occur that reignites the potential realization of his dream. Dream chasers know full well what I’m talking about here. When your investment in time and money begins to affect your family and perhaps your friends, that’s when the pursuit of your dream is challenged. That’s when everyone around you will start telling you that it’s time to stop chasing your dream; that you’re just wasting time. You will be told to get your head out of the clouds and stop chasing the brass ring. And these people are all correct. Being a dream chaser means that you are not living your life like everyone else. You are outside looking in. Most dreamers end their search when the relationship with their immediate family begins to unravel and fall apart. That’s when most dream chasers cut the bait. Losing your family is simply not worth the dream coming true. It just isn’t. The dream dies and the dreamer leaps onto the well-trodden road; intact family.

The good thing about being a dream chaser

Successful dream chasers (dream achievers) change the world. They are the reason we have TV, radio, airplanes, computers, cell phones, software applications, frozen foods, toys, no more black death. Dream Makers change the world we live in and reap untold financial rewards. Rewards that can’t be spent in five generations, let alone in one generation. Dream Makers alter the course of humanity. They prove everyone else wrong and the masses jump off the path they were on to jump onto the path trodden by the dream maker People are sheep. They are risk-averse followers of the crowd. So when a dream chaser is successful, he gains a new status. He becomes like a god.

If you have a dream that you are pursuing, congratulations. I applaud you. Chances are you’ll stop doing it at some point. Almost everyone does. But I hope not. I hope this article will inspire you to continue; loving himself to continue pursuing his dream. The world depends on dream chasers. Without them we would still be living in caves and painting on the walls.