Don’t Quit Your Daydream

---

My son came home from school one day and said that the life skills class he was taking wants him to work on his “plan B” for his future. You know, in case his dreams for the future don’t work out there needs to be something to fall back on. I was shocked, I couldn’t understand why the school was telling kids they should have a B-plan. My son has never wanted a B-plan for his future, in fact he didn’t even know what a B-plan was until he heard it at school.

Think about what it was like when you were a little kid pretending to be a rock star or an astronaut. Adults never said to you that your dreams were too big. They just let you imagine and pretend these big dreams when you were little. But what happened once you turned 18? Those big dreams were diluted by people telling you that it was too risky to think so big. They said, go to college, work on that B-plan, have a safe and secure life.

I would argue that a vast majority of high school and college aged kids are not thinking big enough. They do not have dreams that are scaring the shit out of them. They are not looking at wildly grandiose ambitions as a road for their future. So I have to ask, why? There are probably lots of reasons why but I think that the central reason for this is that most kids are growing up with adult influences who themselves did not fulfill their youthful dreams. People who do not follow their own dreams rarely encourage others to follow theirs.

Why have a Plan B anyway?

I get the whole premise of having a backup plan or a plan B especially for young people who are still trying to figure out what they want to do. We adults know that life is hard and we don’t want our youth to have to go through hard times if it can be helped. B plans come from a place of compassion and good intentions but the results are generally less than desirable or just ordinary. But that doesn’t mean it is right. What a Plan B or something to fall back on looks like to me is a safety net. There is nothing that will crush more dreams for young people than the introduction of a safety net. Safety nets ruin more dreams than failure. The reason is this: safety nets and B plans become far more attractive as the big dreams become harder. It’s human nature to go to the path of least resistance but… only if that path is visible.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, and Steve Jobs all said they never had a B Plan. They went straight at their dreams head on completely ignoring any possibility that there is something easier for them to do in this world. NFL great Bo Eason says, “There is no B plan for your A-game.” He wrote a book titled just that. In my opinion, Eason’s book should be required reading for all high school aged kids.  

Don’t give up on your daydream

You know the saying, “Don’t give up on your day-job.” Well, if there is one piece of advice that I could give any young person from my years of experience as a 40 something adult it would be, – do not give up on the dreams that dominate your mind every day. No matter how crazy or unattainable they may seem. My only regret is that when I was young I listened to too many adults that told me not to dream too big. Again, this adult advice to me was not meant to hold me back or intentionally make me average. They just wanted what was easiest for me.

Why do you want it easy anyway?

If there is one thing I have learned about being successful is that it’s not going to be just given to you. But that’s one of the greatest parts of it. It’s going to be hard and require work but the results are going to be better than what others are experiencing. You don’t want it easy. Anything worth having or anything life changing is worth fighting for. You must put aside the idea that there is “sit on your as money” in the world. You will have to put in the hours that will ultimately change the course of your life. Once you realize this and begin to feel it, you will begin to visualize how this will all be possible. This is the best part. Believe me, you won’t even feel the work once it becomes purposeful. I do this every day. It’s not easy but it’s not work once the insatiable drive to achieve sets in.

Stop saying, “Follow your passion”

Top tier achievers do not follow their passion. Following your passion is a meaningless platitude meant to motivated people who are not self-driven enough to motivate themselves. People who are super successful never follow their passion. While they might be passionate about their work, they are never following it. They are leading it, reinventing it, consumed with it, and addicted to it! You have to change your vernacular here because if you’re just going to follow something, then you are no more special than the average person putting in a 40 at a job they hate. Don’t follow a passion, rather, follow your instincts that are telling you to work. Follow what will make you work. Follow that thing that keeps you up at night and gets you out of bed at 3:00 am. If you want to be the best at what you do, it’s has to be far more than just simply a passion.

Why save it for sleep when you could be living your dream?

We all have dreams but all too often those dreams become harder than we realized. Life is a hard game with no referees keeping it fair. So many people give up on their dreams way too early in life. They stop trying when it seems impossible at a time when they have the most youth, time, and energy. Young people forget to start something ostentatious and grandiose while they are still single and with no family to support yet. Don’t just have your dreams while you sleep, find a way to live it. People like you are doing it every day.  

 Don’t wait, it’s going to be harder when you are older

Don’t be like me and wait until you’re in your 40s and have kids to finally free your mind. Do everything you can to build an empire while you are still young and can handle the failures and mistakes you will invariably make. Do this while you are still fearless and while your mind has still not been tainted by the idea that average is easier. I say this thinking that you are still fearless but social influence has a way of getting to you very early. I hope you are still fearless and self-driven because once you are in the rut of the employment system, it is very hard to convince yourself to get out.         

Do not give up on your daydreams. The world needs what you can contribute to it. People that haven’t even been born yet are depending on you to create something amazing for their future. Maybe even something that saves their life. Your dreams are not pretend, imaginary, or just pie in the sky. They are very real things because dreams are a chemical reaction in your brain between energy and matter. These are the same forces that created the universe and the earth we live on. They are very real. Success and dreams coming true is nothing more than just science. If you want a new Ferrari, it exists in this world for you. All you have to do is manifest it through the same energy and matter that created that car. It can all be yours if you do the work and never give up on the dream that everyone else is telling you is too risky!