A big dream

“He who robs you of your dreams robs you of your life” – Virginia Woolf

Mark Twain said: “Stay away from people who try to trivialize your ambitions.” Small people always do that, but the truly great make you feel that you too can become great. If you’re trying to go big, it’s important to connect regularly.”

The most important thing after dreaming big is actually the people you tell. Joseph in the Bible had a big dream, but he shared it with shallow people and quickly cost him his life. The Bible says in Genesis 37:5, “And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told his brothers, and they hated him even more.” Telling your dreams to the wrong people can cost you the life of the dream and sometimes your own life. Without God’s intervention, Joseph almost lost his life.

The moment you tell your dream to narrow-minded people, they would discourage you, belittle it, steal the idea or become your competitor. Your dream is not meant to be shared with everyone, especially narrow-minded people who would make you see multiple reasons why the dream can’t work, but blind to the reasons why it would work.

Many dreams were stifled and many latent potentials were constantly buried just because some people planned their lives with people who lacked the vision of the bigger picture. Stay around people who would stretch and inspire your thinking, not those who would reduce your big dreams to their small thinking.

Elon Musk had set up shop in a space exploration research lab, but started a company that rivals even NASA in terms of projections. Richard Branson would have been a travel agent, but decided to found the Virgin Group. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would have been a general manager in a bookstore, but instead opened the biggest online retail space ever.

Bill Gates had a dream where every home would have a personal computer, and today some homes even have more than one. Steve Job’s big dream was to put the entire computer in a telephone, and today our telephone can do not only what a personal computer can do, but much more.

In 1896, Edison, the great inventor of the light bulb, was working on an idea to design a car when he heard that a young man working at his company had designed an experimental car. Edison met the young man at his company’s party in New York and interviewed him about the car. He was impressed.

He had the same idea as the young man, but he considered electricity as a source of energy, while the young man used gasoline engines to power the car. He slammed his fist down and shouted, “Young man, that’s the problem!” You got it! I think you’re onto something! I encourage you to continue your endeavor!”

With these words of encouragement from the most respected inventor in the United States (USA) at the time, Ford continued his work, invented a car and became rich.

On December 9, 1914, Edison’s laboratory and factory were burned. He was 67 years old and the damage was too great for insurance coverage. Before the ashes were cold, Ford handed Edison a check for $750,000, with a note saying that Edison could have more if he needed it.

In 1916, Ford moved his home to the building next door to Edison’s house, and when Edison couldn’t walk and was confined to a wheelchair by his doctors, Ford also bought a wheelchair at his house so he could race wheelchairs with his friend and mentor.

Edison made Ford believe in himself and got a friend for life. Never be jealous of other people’s success and dreams. When you support the dreams of others, you gain a permanent fan for life.

If you ever want to realize big dreams, then you need to stay away from the categories of people:
Crab-Minded People Crab-Minded People

The crab mentality, also known as crabs in a bucket mentality, is a mindset best described by the phrase, “If I can’t have it, neither can you.” The crab mentality is a metaphor for how people react when they see someone else around them achieving a kind of self-improvement that they themselves cannot achieve.

The metaphor derives from a pattern of behavior that occurs in crabs when they are trapped in a bucket. While any individual crab could easily escape, their efforts would be undermined and sabotaged by others.

The analogy in human behavior is claimed to be that members of a group would try to diminish the self-confidence of any member who succeeds beyond the others out of envy, resentment, spite, conspiracy or competitive feelings to stop their progress.

Mediocre minds
People in this category are content to be average. In his book, The Enemy Called Average, John Mason revealed the biggest enemy of dreams, vision and personal development. He believed that your greatest enemy is someone who helps you settle for less than what God has designed you for.

You need to bring your spirit to a level where you are not comfortable being surrounded by average minded people. Maureen Dowd said, “The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you imagined.”

Insecure minds
Small-minded people would become insecure with your big dreams. Insecure people would compete with you instead of complementing you. Chronically insecure people are toxic to your dreams. An insecure person would always ruin other people’s happiness just because they can’t find their own.

You need people with healthy self-esteem to invest in your dreams. A healthy self-esteem is every person’s greatest asset. It’s how we make sure we see everyone as collaborators and not competitors.

Said Michelangelo: “The greatest tragedy of life is not that we set a high goal and miss it, but that we set a low goal and achieve it.” Don’t allow small-minded people to drag your big dreams down to fit into their own reality.

Small-minded people would reduce you to their small thinking. Raise your goal high and the right people would come to you.

Envious minds
Every time you succeed, there are some people who die a little. Envy is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius. Aristotle said, “Envy is pain at the happiness of others.” When people are full of envy, they denigrate everything, whether it is good or bad.

Napoleon Bonaparte said: “Envy is a declaration of inferiority.” Don’t bring envious people into your “master-mind” circle; you’ll bankrupt your dream.
Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Dream big, but also take small steps towards the fulfillment of your dreams; you are not too young to dream. Dare to dream big. Take a leap of faith and unleash your potential. Don’t lower your dream just to make it fit your reality, but improve your conviction to live up to your destiny. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Don’t ever give up on your dreams and when someone tells you, “It cannot be done,” it doesn’t mean you cannot do it; it simply means you cannot do it with them. Don’t ever let somebody tell you, “You cannot do something.” You have a dream you have to protect and the right to live your dream is in your hands.

Albert Einstein said: “I am thankful for all of those who said NO (it cannot be done) to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself.”

From: https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/if-you-want-to-kill-a-big-dream-tell-it-to-small-minded-people/