Dream Founders Manifesto
Dream Founders Manifesto
by Silvio Gulizia
A Truth You Can’t Ignore Anymore
Without any respect for our dreams, life happens. We live in times so chaotic, in which things happen so quickly, that we struggle to find time to take care of our dreams. We live our lives as sequences of events. Sometimes, not even linked together. We have lost sight of the trail that connects the dots.
We rarely look back. And more rarely look forward.
Most of us don’t have a plan for their lives. Even worse, their living is full of meaningless pastimes that have the only aim to fill in the breaks between different activities. Day in and day out.
These are people who die with regrets. I couldn’t explain this concept better than with this quote attributed to writer Mark Twain: «Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do». We need to act on our living to avoid ending our existence among regrets. «So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover».
This Manifesto dœsn’t offer a solution, but represents an outstretched hand to people who feel the same anguish about their lives. We received a limited amount of time to spend on this earth. We are free to use it, but only in pursuing what we are meant to do we can give a genuine meaning to our being. It’s never too late. As Confucius once said, «We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.»
If you feel the dreams in your heart fighting to be lived, read on. As entrepreneur Danny Iny wrote, «Failure is a failure only if it happens in the last chapter. Otherwise, it’s a plot twist».
Live to Achieve Your Dreams
First thing first, and maybe the hardest to accomplish, if you want to found your dreams you have to say goodbye to ideas such as fame and reward. As a matter of fact, It’s likely that only you will fully understand the value of your projects. It happened to a lot of artists, who died before their creations received public grasp. Those creatives, people such as Hermann Melville, Vincent Van Gogh or Johann Sebastian Bach, are our inspirers.
Melville’s Moby Dick today is recognized as one of the world’s literary masterpieces, but the book and all the other writings of the author were so underappreciated during his life that at 35 he had to accept a job as customs inspector to pay his living.
During his lifetime, Van Gogh sold one painting, but today his paintings are among the most expensive artworks ever sold.
When he was alive, Bach was acclaimed for his talent as an organist, but no one even considered him as a composer. Nevertheless, he kept working on his compositions, and a few of these creations were published during his life. Nowadays, he is universally recognized as one of the greatest composers ever born.
Even if almost nobody appreciated them, those artists went on living the existence they were meant to live. Compared with them, we have on our side a remarkable tool to reach the success during our lifetime: the Internet. This network allows us to spread our voice all over the world. The chances to get a grasp during our lifespan are now hugely higher than once were. Anyway, we will continue to ignore success because the unique thing we care about is to live our dreams. The reward is the traveling. And along this journey, again, the Internet helps us by providing lots of tools and resources to realize what we glimpsed. Even if we don’t have the necessary skills, because out there is full of people and institutions that share their knowledge through their websites. All this things are often inexpensive, or even free. So, stop worrying about failure and start feeding your dreams now. I know it’s not a path easy to walk on. It’s an undertaking. But, you are the only one who can achieve it.
There are a few steps you need to take if you want to start this kind of a journey:
- Look back and connect the dots. Go looking for significant events in the past, jot down each memory that comes up to your mind and then find how those occurrences are connected among them.
- Look down the road for the next dots. Once you know on which path you have been walking till now, try to add a few steps and imagine where you could arrive if you only had the chance to pursue your ambitions. This is the hard part.
- Define what your dreams are. Once you join the game,yourecognize that there are a lot of fantasies you would like to become real experiences. Don’t limit your imagination and get all your ambitions out of your heart.
- Prioritize your dreams from the most difficult to achieve to the easiest. The more a project is hard to realize, the first you have to work on it. Because the time and the energy you have to invest in your project are decreasing. Keep in mind you need to fail fast to understand if you really love a dream and are fully committed to it, so not to waste your investments.
- Create margins to live your dreams. You have to make room for them to be present in all the days you have left.
Act Like a Startup
If you are committed to living your dreams, you need to behave like a startup. Trust your vision of the future, define your mission and invest in yourself to move from point A to point B.
There’s a warning I need to share with you before to continue. Most of the startups fail. Be prepared. Again, remember to fail fast in a dream, so you have more time to adjust it or experiment with another one until you find what best fits your life.
If you feed your dreams regularly, people you love and who love you will experience a better world. As a matter of fact, you will be more satisfied with your days and happier in the long run.
People who want to live their lives genuinely wake up every morning to act on it, before anything else. Even if the mission is still not clear. Even if what they do would get them to fail. Because they know the way to success is full of failures. As Thomas Edison said about the dozens of trials and errors that brought him to invent the light bulb: «I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.»
If you want to feed your dreams, you have to become a Disciplina devotee. She’s a deity with a few personalities. She is education and training, self-control and determination, knowledge in a field of study and an orderly way of life. She is perceived as a fun enemy, but you won’t get fun along the journey if you are not constantly open to learning, if you are not fully committed, and if you don’t have plans to reach your goals. You need to grow your dreams every single day. Even when you are tired, doubtful or discouraged. Disciplina will help you get, day in and day out, that “happiness advantage” described by Professor Shawn Anchor with these words: «If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently. […] Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you’re positive, has two functions. Not only dœs it make you happier, it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.»
When you do live your dreams, even if it’s difficult, even if you are fatigued, even if you are not in the right mood to keep pushing, you are happy. You are happy because you are doing what you like. «Every single relationship, business and educational outcome improves when the brain is positive first. If you cultivate happiness while in the midst of your struggles, work, at school, while unemployed or single, you increase your chances of attaining all the goals you are pursuing…including happiness.»
Dreams founders are disciplined in starting up, making a step ahead every single day and never quit. Forsaking every excuse and justification.
Forget fame and rewards. Do live dreams for yourself. It will make your life meaningful. At least for you.
If you start living this way, you will soon find other people who support you. You are not alone. Dreams founders help one each other. Because every dream deserves to be lived.
Join us today!