Living the Dream. Do What You Love, Love What You Do.
If you ever listen to talk radio when callers call in they all seem compelled to politely ask the host, “How are you doing?” Most hosts ignore or have developed a quick response to keep the conversation moving. Rush responds with “Ditto”and Hannity has “You’re a great American”. Personally, I like a Houston talk show host Joe Pags who answers “Living the Dream”. Leadership author, John Maxwell, defines the dream as an inspiring picture of the future that energizes your mind, will, and emotions, empowering you to do everything you can to achieve it. How great is it to be living the dream? To be pursuing a vision with all your will and all your emotions and living out the pursuit of your dream every day. Do you have a dream? Do you wake up every day looking forward to moving the rock a little further ahead?
God has blessed me with a couple big dreams. While working at Kanakuk Kamps during college I saw the great need for fathers to be involved in the lives of their kids and lead their families. After working in the public market for many years and making a bad career move for the wrong motives, I hit the “reset” button. With the help of a good friend, I retreated to Aspen Colorado and outlined five characteristics to capture another dream. The dream to architect and build a great regional custom manufacturing company. Those five characteristics include.
- Meaningful Relationships – Employees, customers and suppliers are the ones that I share my dream and hopefully help them achieve theirs.
- Entrepreneurial – To be “in the game” and lead a company to evaluate business opportunity and pursue those that provide profitable returns.
- Control – To have the responsibility for all decisions and
- Adventure to Live – To love what I do and do what I love. Designing, engineering and building great products for our customers
- Challenge to conquer – The satisfaction that comes from seeing your dream become reality.
With the publication of Good to Great Families I have been able to bring the passion of family leadership and business together. Have you considered your dream? Are you taking the steps to move you in the direction of your dreams? Going to school, learning a trade, doing your research, taking the risk, believing in yourself, trusting in God. What would it look like if we had a world of people who understood their God-given talents, applying their talents to a dream, and were waking up every day to realize their dreams? I am not there yet and certainly have my share of set backs, but I find a day of living the dream by working and struggling toward seeing the dream come together is far better than living someone else’s dream for me. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer. Do what you love and love what you do.
