How to fulfil your dream this weekend
One weekend? Yes. Or it will never start. One of the most important conditions for achieving your goals is to take action. Now.
I came across a query from my writing community about whether it is possible to make enough money and retire from a single article.
Initially, it seemed a little wishful and frivolous, but after some consideration, it gave me a different perspective.
I am reminded of Anthony Bourdain, and how his one article in the New Yorker “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” led to a book deal and publication of his best seller “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” in 2000.
Although the article was not enough for him to retire, it changed his life forever.
Anthony Bourdain had always been a talented writer. He had written a few pieces for magazines but was mostly a professional chef. The pivotal moment came when his mother, Gladys Bourdain, a copy editor at The New York Times, encouraged him to send the article to the New Yorker. To his surprise, the magazine accepted it, and the rest is history.
What’s your dream?
If you haven’t heard about Simon Squibb or seen his Instagram videos, in which he asks people, “What’s Your Dream?”, check them out.
Squibb had an incredibly hard life as a teenager. At 15, he became homeless after a bad relationship with his father, whom he described as abusive. He lived on the streets without support and did whatever odd jobs he could to get by.
Squibb moved to Hong Kong in his early 20s, where he founded Fluid, a creative agency that became one of Asia’s most successful.
In 2016, he sold Fluid to PWC, and the rest is history.
Squibb now spends his time and money helping people start and grow their businesses, offering resources, mentorship, and advice. He usually begins by asking, “What is your dream?”
The big dream isn’t so big after all
We all know someone in our lives who has big dreams. A business venture, a revolutionary product, or a life-changing service. Sometimes, it is to make the world a better place. Sometimes, it is just to be in a better place.
Ideas are plenty. But ideas are not valuable.
Squibb noticed that many people are afraid to share their ideas. Most fear that others will steal them, so they hide and protect them.
“The execution is what’s valuable,” - Simon Squibb
Ideas and big dreams are important, but they are never as important as taking action to make them a reality. And taking action is usually harder than we imagine.
Why is it so hard?
There are several reasons. The obstacles that prevent us from making our dreams come true are common human weaknesses that we all struggle with every day.
Procrastination, laziness, or simply refusing to leave our comfort zones often prevent us from doing what we need to improve our situation. We may have the grandest ideas or the most incredible dreams, but until we do something about them, they will only live and die in the secret places of our minds.
So why do we allow these to stop us from going forward?
Fear
Many people fear failure or being judged (social rejection), so they simply do not want to do anything that might lead to failure. Sometimes, they are also afraid of the unknown and prefer the pain and discomfort of their familiar situation.
Perfectionism is also a kind of fear. We are afraid that our ideas or goals are not good enough. We wait, often giving ourselves excuses like “I need more preparation” or “I need more training or education”. Sometimes, it’s “I need more money”.
We give ourselves excuses for not starting and convince ourselves that we will do it once we are ready. We do not know what readiness looks like. We wait. We do other things, distract ourselves endlessly. We do everything except take steps towards where we want to go.
While it used to be a useful survival mechanism, fear, when taken out of context, becomes a crippling emotion that can destroy us slowly and prevent us from going forward. If we want to achieve our dreams, we must first overcome our fears.
A blueprint for success
This is a simple blueprint. If you are serious, it should be an exercise for this weekend. Constrain yourself to just 48 hours to figure out where you want to be and how to get there.
Do not give yourselves too much time or any excuse. Do it, and do it now. Don’t watch YouTube videos or read books about how to do this. Put your phone aside. Lock it up. Figure out your plan as you go. The important thing is always to begin.
By the end of Sunday, you should have a step-by-step plan to achieve your ultimate dream. It won’t be perfect. It doesn’t have to be, but it’s a start.
First, what is it?
This is when you answer, honestly, what’s your dream? What do you want to achieve? Become rich enough so you don’t have to work? Build a successful business? Open a restaurant? Write a book? What is it?
As you do this exercise, be as precise as possible. What if you had a magic wand and you just had to wave it to make it all come true? What will it look like? Write it all down.
You want to be rich enough so you don’t have to work anymore? Great. How rich is that? Write a number. Quantify it. Is it a million dollars in the bank? Or ten? Maybe it’s a portfolio of assets generating income? How much income would that be? $10,000 a month? $50,000? Write it all down.
And what will your life be like when that happens? Travel around the world? Gardening? Charity work? Night-time vigilante? Write it all down.
Maybe you want to build a business. What kind of business will that be? What will you sell? A product or a service? Maybe both. What benefits will your business deliver? Who will be your customers? Why will they be your customers? Where will you conduct this business? Online or on-site? Write it all down.
What if you just want to open a café? Or a restaurant? Maybe your dream is a little more down to earth. Do you want to be independent and work for yourself? Maybe you want to pursue your passion for photography? Or writing? Or make beautiful aprons and scarves? Maybe you just want to buy your first home? Same thing. Write it all down.
There is something powerful when you write your dreams and goals down. I wrote an article about manifestation sometime ago called “Secrets of the Secret: How I use the Law of Attraction without realising it.” There is no magic about this. Writing your goals and reviewing them regularly trains your mind to focus on what’s important. It will change your behaviour, flag opportunities, and attract people who can help you achieve your objectives.
So, write it all down.
Second, how do I do it?
Once you have a clear picture of what you want, the next exercise is to ask yourself, “How?” How can I do this? How can I get from here to there?
We don’t need to reach the destination in one leap. These are small steps, but they are the first steps. My personal journey as a writer begins with, "Let’s write one article." Then, the second article. Then, the third.
Let’s just make the first dollar. Then the first $10. Then $100. Then $1000. These are small steps. Ideas about how to do this will come gradually as I apply my mind and heart to the task.
If you want to retire, and you are clear about the conditions that will let you do it, then what is the first thing you can do? Do you need to buy an investment property? Do you have equity to leverage? Can you take on a side gig? Find a second income stream?
I also wrote an article, “A letter to my son: How to build passive income,” and although you may not follow the same steps, it can generate ideas about making your first move.
If you are starting a business, can you find a coach or a mentor? Sometimes, your boss might even be willing to assist. I have an ex-army mate who is a very successful entrepreneur in Singapore. When he discovered that his capable employee want to start his own business, he invested in it and became a partner.
Then, he outsourced the contract to that employee and ensure their success. This won’t happen unless his employee share his dreams with him. The last I heard, he had built up 17 different businesses with mostly ex-employees who became his business partners.
Do you want to become a photographer? Do you have a social media account? Are you posting your work regularly and building an audience? A community of followers? Are you asking them for feedback? Are you delivering value?
Do you want to open a café? Are you already working in one? Do you enjoy it? Meeting people? Making friends? Nurturing future customers? Do they like you? Maybe your employer wants to retire, and you can make a deal to buy it? Maybe she wants to open another café, and you can be a business partner? Maybe when your family and friends learn about it, they will want to invest in your café?
Once you have a clear goal, you will find many ways to get there. And if you focus on your goals, you will be ready when opportunities appear. In the meantime, do whatever you can to bring you closer. Take action, and do it now.
There’s never been a better time
We live in an amazing period in history. If ever there was equality and equal access to the factors of production and opportunity for wealth, this must be it.
With technologies that are so cheap and easily accessible to everyone, an individual today can access a global audience. Think about this: When I was a copywriter in 1998, putting up a 30-second commercial could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars; and that’s just for 5 million people in Singapore.
Today, you can have your own TV channel (YouTube) and reach an audience worldwide. As of now, the most viewed video in history is “Baby Shark Dance” by Pinkfong Kids’ Song and Stories, which has had 14 billion views since its release.
That’s 14,000,000,000 views.
Or between $21 million and $42 million in ad revenue so far. You can retire many times over.
There are also Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and TikTok to help you build your audience and market. You can publish your own book on Amazon without a traditional publisher and potentially reach over 230 million subscribers.
You have access to global manufacturers in China and worldwide to make your products if that’s your path. You don’t need factories, machines, or employees. Alibaba and countless platforms can make your products quickly and cheaply.
You can sell your products on eBay, Shopify, Etsy, or your own website to anyone in world. You have technology tools that can help you do any conceivable task. Design, Sound, Videos, Writing, VOs, anything. You can even hire talents on an ad hoc basis to help you via Upwork, Fivrr, Guru and countless other platforms.
And if you need money, there are crowdfunding platforms specific to businesses as well. Kickstarter, Indiegogo and SeedInvest, among others, can provide the funding you need to make your big idea come true.
There has never been a better time in history to make your dreams come true.
Conclusion
For Anthony Bourdain, it wasn’t the article that changed his life. It was the fact that he wrote it and submitted it to the New Yorker. It was because he took action to realise his dream. He was already talented, but he didn’t hide it. Or thought about it. He didn’t wait until he had time or was ready to become a writer.
The same goes for the countless successful people who decided what they wanted and went for it. Completely and wholeheartedly. Some found help and mentors along the way. Some worked through countless failures, and some got lucky. They all made no excuses, and they all took action. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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