“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go
Life is a barren field, frozen with snow.”
The above quotation,
published in 1941 by Langston Hughes, one of the most prolific and respected African-American authors and
poets, is to my mind, one of the most poignant and sensitive expression of the
importance of our dreams in our lives. It speaks for every one of us who, at
some time in our lives, have felt the urgings of a “dream” but for one reason
or another have hesitated to move forward. It describes exquisitely, the
feelings we all have experienced after we made the decision to hold back and
allow the dream to fade into oblivion. It points to the pain and the suffering
and the regret we harbor by not achieving the fullness of the rewards because
of our actions. And whenever this happens, you can be sure that these feelings
will never leave us for as long as we live and despite any other successes we
may achieve, this will always be an area of desert in our psyche.
Throughout
the ages, in every society, and under every conceivable condition, progress has
been achieved and changes have occurred as a direct result of actions taken by
someone who chose to follow his dream, often against objections from others,
and against the prevailing conventional wisdom. When the great African-American
civil rights leader Martin Luther King,
Jr. in 1963, mesmerized the nation from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
with the declaration “I have a dream”, he
described behavior which at the time would have been inconceivable, but which,
only a few years later have become completely normal. And when President John F. Kennedy in 1962 dreamt
of putting a man on the moon within 10 years, no one believed this was possible
until Neil Armstrong stepped on the
surface of the moon in 1969. We tend to marvel at these people and place them
on pedestals when in fact their actions, to them at least, was indeed quite
natural, for “they were just following
their dreams!”
George Bernard Shaw, the great Irish
playwright, author and journalist, described this phenomenon in a most simple
but eloquent way in the following quotation which has become a global standard:
“Some men see things as they are and ask, Why?
Others dream of things that never were and ask, "Why
not?"
In a few well chosen words he was
able to define the fundamental difference between those who just live out their
lives, and those who seek out their dreams. Anywhere you turn, in whatever
setting you find yourself, you will not fail to see this principle in action
all around you and in every aspect of living. When a small group of young
American Ice Hockey players, drawn together from a few college teams,
eventually defeated the mighty Russian world-beating team in the 1980 Winter
Olympics held in Lake Placid, New York, the experts called this “the Miracle on Ice”, but to the
players, it was a case of “believing in
themselves and their dreams.” Similarly, when a young Polish woman Scientist
was honored with two Nobel awards in Physics and in Chemistry for her great,
life-changing research on Radioactivity, she received world-wide acclamation.
But to Madame Marie Sklodowska-Curie, it
was the culmination of her unwavering commitment to chasing her dreams at all
cost.
But
these are but two dramatic and outstanding examples of events that are
constantly taking place around us every minute of every day. Any one of us who is
willing to spend the time and effort to follow our dreams will always be
rewarded. It really does not matter what we actually do or how complex and
difficult the task is, or the degree of success achieved, so much as the inner
satisfaction that accompanies the knowledge that we have indeed taken up a
challenge and moved forward. This applies equally to the any one of us who
aspires to achieve beyond our present state, and has no preference for age,
experience or social standing or the amount of time we have tried and failed.
What truly matters is that special inner strength that allows us to focus on
the prize and not on the road to be travelled, with all its perceived obstacles.
The concept of pursuing your dreams has existed
as far back as man’s existence on earth. In fact, as early as the 6th
century BCE, the principle that "we are
born to pursue our dreams" was considered to be one of the basic Ethics of Taoism, the great movement
founded by the Chinese philosopher, Lao-tsu,
and which has continued and prospered throughout the ages, to become a
worldwide institution. I, personally, subscribe to this view and to the idea
that we are all born with an innate drive to follow our dreams, which left
alone, is responsible for our successful growth and development into maturity.
Unfortunately, the great majority of us, influenced by the negative pressures
and resistances in our immediate environment tend to quickly lose the
confidence for change, choosing instead the security of ‘the status quo”. As
parents and adults, we have the unfortunate tendency to teach our children to
seek out the safety and security of our conventional environment and directly
or indirectly, discourage their natural inclination for taking risks. This
inevitably leads to a loss of any initiative and an unwillingness to follow the
dream. It is a state that is completely described by the well known quotation:
“Better to have a bird in hand,
than two in the bush.”
In so doing, we succeed in
smothering the natural inclination of our children on the altar of conformity,
and end up with a society afraid of failing or of dealing with change, and
therefore reluctant to encourage or endorse the individual who wants to follow
his dream.
But I do not believe
that it is really a case of being afraid of failing, so much as a fear of not
being able to accept or deal with, our potential strength. In my mind this
paradox explains why we have such resistance to the risk taker and are often
antagonistic to their ideas and intentions. The late Steve Jobs, undoubtedly one of the greatest and most visionary men
the world has ever seen, is a classic example of this principle. At a very
early age, he rejected conformity and searched for his identity. This search caused
him to leave university early, and even carried him to
visiting several Ashrams essentially to learn about himself. It is no surprise
that he was able to search out his dreams, bring them to reality, stand up to a
barrage of criticisms and personal attacks and become the most admired and also
the most vilified visionary in modern times.
Failure has nothing
to do with being a visionary. The great inventor, Thomas Edison, is said to have had a large number of failed inventions before
he developed the first phonograph in 1897. Henry
Ford, the great American industrialist and inventor of the assembly line, was
not successful until age 43years, and Col.
Harland Saunders, founder of The
Kentucky Fried Chicken Chain was almost 50 years old. In no different way
was my friend, who we all affectionately called “Pipe man”. Having failed miserably in two previous business
ventures, at the age of almost 60 years he started an Insurance agency and
built it to one of the most successful in the area. To them, and to the
thousands and thousands of successful visionaries, it was the DREAM that
mattered at all cost, and not the effort expended or the chance of failure.
The main lesson to be
learnt in this context is that we must pay far more attention to our dreams,
not only for our own personal satisfaction, but much more important, for the benefit
of our children. To me, the teaching of children to follow their dreams ought
to be the paramount responsibility for
all parents, but unfortunately, this is seldom achieved. There is no better way
to teach your children than by example and by following your own dreams. You
cannot possibly do any better than to start early and devote your life and your
energies to resolutely and confidently following your own and your family
dreams. For in so doing, not only will your own life be enriched, but you would
have set in motion a series of events that will lead to fulfillment of the
lives of your children. Nothing you will ever do in your life will be as important
or as rewarding.
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I have a
dream that one day this nation
will
rise will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
…..Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Trust in Dreams, for in them is
hidden the gate to eternity.
……Khalil Gibran
Dreams are the touchstones of our
character.
…….Henry David Thoreau
The future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their Dreams. ….Eleanor
Who looks outside, Dreams;
Who looks inside, Awakens
…………Carl Jung
The Dream of yesterday is the hope
of today,
….And the reality of tomorrow.
…..Robert H. Goddard
Dreams are the seeds of
change.
…..Debbie Boone
Those that do most, Dream
most.
…..Stephen Leacock
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