Protect and Nurture Your Dreams
Before they slip away
I am finally at the point in my life where things are coming together. My writing career is taking off. I’m finally paying down debt.
A lot of it is luck, but I attribute a lot of my success to working hard over the years, and not giving up.
I see a lot of young people who get devastated because no one believes in their dreams. People tell them, “You will never make it.” And that can be tough.
But there will always be naysayers and people who try to discourage you. When you encounter one of these people, don’t give up. The only person who needs to believe in your dreams is you.
It reminds me of a video of a performance I saw. A young man introduced himself to a crowd, explaining his idea for a musical. People laughed, thinking it was a joke. But when the performance was done, people gave him a standing ovation.
The man was Lin-Manuel Miranda. The musical he was working on was Hamilton, which was an unprecedented success.
Not everyone is going to win a Tony and Grammy award. In fact, you probably won’t be the best in the world at what you do. Fortunately, creativity and innovation aren’t about being the “best.” They’re about helping others, learning and growing, and being true to yourself: something anyone can accomplish.
When I started writing, I thought I’d write a bestselling novel. When that didn’t happen, I switched to essays, and put my skills to work. I’m quite happy to say that writing is now my part-time job. In the future, it might be more than that. All because I never gave up my dream to become a writer.
It’s easy to give up when things look difficult, but that won’t get you anywhere.
You know what you can do. It may take a lot of hard work. Some doors may slam shut in front of you. But you have my permission to keep going.
