Dream Killers

Last night my daughter asked me if I could please wait to write today's blog because she wanted to get up early and finish her lab assignment for school on my laptop. She was at the end of a very full day which included three sets of doubles against three different opponents and then her horse chores which did not get done until dark. When she got home, she had a pile of homework and wanted to get some sleep before completing it. I told her my message for today was too important to be put off and asked her to stay up late and complete her assignments. This blog was given to me in a dream and I can't let anyone, even the ones I love the most, kill this dream that is still in its infancy.

So, who is a dream killer? It is anyone that tries to stop you from being the person you are created to be. Many times it is someone you love, like a parent or spouse. It could be a teacher or friend that does not want to see you fail. Most people are advising you based on their own reality or experiences.

A great example of this is the student who came up with an idea to start an overnight delivery service while attending Yale University. His instructor said the government was already in charge of this and his idea was only worth a C in his professors eyes. Fred Smith did not let his teacher become a dream killer. Instead, he founded FedEx, a 27 billion dollar company.

Can you imagine how different our world would be today if one of Martin Luther King's friends told him his "dream" was a bunch of nonsense? Or what if Christopher Columbus listened to pretty much anybody around him and decided his dream would die as soon as his boat fell off the edge of the world? I am sure his friends thought he was crazy and they just wanted to save him from certain death.

What about Thomas Edison? Don't you think that the time was perfect for a dream killer to come along and nix his crazy light bulb idea? I can hear his wife now, "Come on, Thomas, how many thousand times are you going to work on that silly idea? You are such a time waster! When are you going to do something useful around the house?"

Don't forget Albert Einstein. The man who gave us new ideas on space, time and gravity had a mother who was very concerned when he was slow to talk. His teachers thought he was a foolish dreamer. One of his grammar school teachers asked him to drop out! He wasn't even smart enough to get in the Swiss military.

When Beethoven introduced his ninth symphony to the world, the applause was like thunder and he had to be turned around to see the audience going crazy. He was completely deaf! How can a deaf person give us such special music? Good thing he could not hear the voices of the dream killers who probably were telling him to give up on his music career.

I leave you with the video below. William Wallace confronts the dream killers in his famous speech with his dream about freedom. I watched this many times as I prepared to battle my own goliath. Please take a moment to watch this awesome speech. If you encounter a dream killer, become deaf to their voice, just like Beethoven and live your dreams...