No one wants to be “hopelessly unrealistic,” in the sense of being seen as delusional, and wasting time and energy running in circles while achieving nothing.
Nonetheless, there’s a good argument to be made that the more serious risk for the majority of people is actually dreaming too small, and daring too little, rather than the reverse.
In business, as in life, the dreams and ambitions that motivate us the most will tend to be some of the grandest and most seemingly “unrealistic,” rather than the ones that seem like they are easily within reach.
Here are just a few reasons to dream big, and to dare – in business as well as in life.
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Once you start taking the initial steps, the way ahead will often reveal itself to you
There are all sorts of big dreams that, taken at face value, will seem impossible to properly comprehend, or to scale down appropriately.
People very often get caught up at this point in trying to figure out the perfect plan for going from A-Z, and in trying to visualise all the steps they’ll need to take along the way.
A “secret” that many successful entrepreneurs have spoken about, is that often the best thing you can do is actually just to focus on the initial steps, without necessarily having much of an idea of what comes next at all.
A comprehensive building project can be immense, but crane hire can be quite manageable by comparison.
When you start taking action, the next steps ahead will often reveal itself as you go along rather than remaining obscured indefinitely.
It’s a process of iterative growth and learning.
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Many people throughout history have achieved seemingly extraordinary things – and they all had their naysayers
It’s easy to look at a dream job, or a dream life for that matter, and to think “this is almost impossible, the odds are completely stacked against me…”
This may (or may not) be true in a purely statistical sense, but it hides the simple fact that throughout history, many people have achieved extraordinary things, often against all the apparent odds. And those people all had their naysayers along the way.
If anyone has achieved what you want to, or could achieve what you want to, then why not make an earnest attempt at it yourself? Who knows? Maybe years down the line, you will be the next success story.
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Dreaming big and being outgoing will likely open a lot of doors in and of itself
Even assuming that dreaming big and being daring and outgoing doesn’t get you to achieve a particularly grandiose goal of yours, it nonetheless remains true that living your life this way will tend to open a lot of doors, in and of itself.
When you are always trying things, and are aiming high, you will accumulate plenty of experience, will develop a nuanced perspective on things, and will encounter people and situations that can open up new opportunities to you, often in areas and directions you would never have expected beforehand.
Being passive and dreaming small, however, is only likely to narrow your potential options, opportunities, and avenues.
