Big Dreams

Do you have dreams bigger than your obstacles? There are a lot of people who hope their dreams will come true, but they don’t have an opportunity big enough to achieve their dreams. Owning your own business may be the best way to do this.

Those of us who have big dreams need to periodically reassess where we are to see if we are on track. As entrepreneurs, we love to create but what we need to do is be in the duplication business. You need to have a viable model that is duplicable; then, the rapid duplication of that model will create success.

There are two constants in life, change and people’s resistance to change. Most people would rather do something they despise than make a change and take a chance on doing something on their own. I was reading the other day about Henry Ford. When he first introduced the assembly line, the Model T had three thousand different parts. What he did was break down the assembly process into eighty-two steps. The factory went from making one car every twelve hours to producing one car every ninety minutes. Two years later they had gone from making a couple of thousand cars a year to half a million cars per year. Many know the story but what most people don’t realize is when they first switched over to the assembly line it took a little longer to make the cars. There were a lot of reasons for this, but mainly everyone had to get used to the car coming to them instead of them going to the car. That threw them off. The leaders and management in the factory went to Mr. Ford and tried to convince him to switch back to the old way of doing things, but he was steadfast in his belief that this was a better way. After several months, things started to change. Everyone got used to the new process, the pendulum swung, and things went the other way.

This frequently happens with existing businesses when change comes, especially those businesses that have been around for a while. It takes time for everyone to get on board with the change even if it’s better for the employees and better for the company.

Many entrepreneurs are people who have worked for a company, sometimes for years, which resisted change. They became frustrated with the way things were done and decided to open their own business. Why would somebody want to start their own business? Well, it’s the difference between just existing and really living.

Having your own business is a chance to breathe, it’s a chance to be alive, it’s the opportunity to build something great and do it your way. As long as your income is based on your education and experience, the income needed to fulfill your dreams is going to be limited by salary caps, corporate policies and the threat of layoffs. You can avoid change and shrink your dreams to fit that reality, or you can take a leap of faith and do something on your own by becoming an entrepreneur in pursuit of a limitless opportunity where your income, your hours, your team are determined by you.

People are reduced to their education and experience, and that’s all they can monetize in the workplace. Entrepreneurs are those who have decided to shift from the quest of just making money, just getting by, to do something big. They want to live their dream.

Why would you want to live your dream? There are some reasons that come to mind:

The first reason you want to do this is you are going to start learning again. Most people haven’t read a book or tried something new since they got out of school. For entrepreneurs learning is a lifelong, ongoing process. And by the way, it’s fun too!

As you grow and learn as an entrepreneur, your growth can become income growth.

It takes learning new skills to drive your income growth!

Second, the world has shifted from rewarding employees who work for raises, social security, and pensions, to rewarding leaders who build their own business. At a job, most people do enough work, so they don’t get fired, and most companies pay enough money, so they don’t quit. By having your own business, it is possible to break through the glass ceiling and achieve more.

The third reason is that your dreams are worth it. If you are like most people you have big dreams but does your current cash flow ever make your dreams get out of focus? When you start reaping the rewards of success from your business, your dreams become sharp again.

If you have that burning desire within you to do more, achieve more or do things differently, that’s the entrepreneur within you trying to get out. Give it a try shoot for the stars. You might not hit the moon, but you may be surprised just how far you can go.

Jay Thompson is a Business Consultant with the CSU Bakersfield Small Business Development Center. The CSUB SBDC provides premium, one on one, no cost consulting to small business owners in Kern, Inyo and Mono Counties. For more information visit their website at http://www.csub.edu/sbdc.