Excerpts

INTRODUCTION Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do. ------------------------------ --SATCHEL PAIGE You Were Born for This After this year, I want everyone to look at your life and say, "Ahhh, but of course." I want them to hear the faint sound of a proverbial "click" as your experience, gifts, passions, and platform all converge into one beautiful endeavor. When this happens--when you are finally doing what you were born to do--it won't feel like work. Don't get me wrong--there will be sweat on your brow; you'll be overwhelmed at times; and there will be moments when you feel like giving up. But it will be welcomed hardship. There are two kinds of work. The first kind contributes to someone else's vision and gain. Most people are doing this kind of work, which is why country music songs about five o'clock whistles and happy hour are so popular. This kind of work comes with intolerable bosses, slow-moving time clocks, and closely scrutinized paychecks to make sure the bookkeeper got it right. The second kind of work contributes to your own life's purpose. Sure it's difficult, but the reason behind it makes it easier to get out of bed in the morning. You don't tell anyone this, but you'd do it for free. It's the occupational equivalent of a "runner's high" where you've broken through the side cramps and short-windedness, and now you're beaming as the landscape moves rapidly past you. Some people are content to do the first kind of work and help fulfill the dreams of their employers. But my guess is you're not one of them. You were born with a dream of your own. And this year, you're doing something about it. By reading this book, you are moving toward a new kind of work. This year, we are going to discover a viable, profitable, and sustainable "idea model" that brings your dream to life. This is your dream year. 1 DARING TO DREAM A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. ------------------------------ --JOHN A. SHEDD Frustration Shapes a Dream As you enter this next year, I'm counting on one thing from you--that you're frustrated. If you were to say, "No, I'm doing great. Everything's fine. I just want to try out this new idea," I'd be worried. If you weren't discontented, heartsick, or angry about something in the world, you would have no reason to go after your dream. Without frustration, you'd never even recognize your dream, let alone have the courage to pursue it. Going after a dream is hard. And frustration is the fuel that propels you through the challenges when your idealism runs out. There are going to be times when you'll need that frustration. You'll need a "worse time" to help you get through the difficult times ahead. Frustration is the grit that motivates you to pursue your vision. It makes you unwilling to go back to the way things were before you decided to act. When people get frustrated, most of them respond by complaining. And you can't blame them. Bad bosses, no money, workplace injustices, terrible customer service, the lack of an affordable option--we've all been there. But we can also respond to frustration by dreaming. We can take the same agonizing circumstances and use them to create a fresh, new vision for the future. To do this, you and I must learn to see frustration as a gift. After all, frustration shapes a dream. There is something missing, something lacking, or something unjust happening in the world, and the only one who seems to notice it is you. But that's how it's supposed to work. You notice a problem that no one else is addressing, and it eats at you until you're finally willing to do something about it. Who knew frustration could be a good thing? In 2010, Ben Nockels of Oklahoma City experienced a frustration that he could not shake. He learned that there are 408,000 children in the foster care system in the United States. He also learned that out of this population of abandoned kids, more than 107,000 are adoptable. In other words, their parents' rights have been terminated or relinquished. In Ben's words, these kids "are never going home." They have no sense of place, no sense of belonging, and are not part of any family. For the kids who are not placed in foster homes, there is only one outcome--they'll remain in the system and languish until they age out at eighteen. And history shows that those who age out of the system don't fare well in society. They'll face incarceration, addiction, joblessness, and even premature death. Overwhelmed by this frustration, Ben joined my Dream Year coaching program to figure out a solution. He started with his home state of Oklahoma. As of January 1, 2012, there were 8,308 children who were in the custody of the state. Ben met with the leaders of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and learned that 1,500 additional families were needed to place kids in homes. Ben believed the best place to find those families was the faith community. So Ben launched the 111 Project, which mobilizes congregations to place foster kids in the homes of loving families. The "111" stands for one church, one family, and one purpose. Ben figured out that there are 6,100 churches in the state of Oklahoma. So if every church committed "one family for one purpose," they would leave no Oklahoma child without a home. This was Ben's dream. So far, hundreds of families have joined Ben's effort. Make History When you're frustrated, you can choose to complain about it, run from it, or ignore it. But if you decide to do something about it, you'll make history. This is the gift your dream brings to the world. What great dream is frustration birthing in you? When Fred Astaire and Michael Jackson were both alive, they shared an unlikely friendship. Although their dance styles were completely different and their musical tastes worlds apart, they shared a strong connection out of the public eye. When a reporter asked Fred Astaire about their unusual relationship, he surprised everyone by admitting that they both danced out of anger. Now, we have reason to believe that Michael Jackson did. His dance style was aggressive, and he often decried the loss of his childhood. But who would have guessed that the graceful and elegant Fred Astaire was motivated by anger? It was a deep-seated, well-hidden motivation, but what a gift it turned out to be. The scariest moment is always just before you start. ------------------------------ --STEPHEN KING Our unfortunate circumstances can become the impetus for something great. But first we have to learn how to turn our frustration into a vision of something good. Those tragic experiences don't have to be wasted on you. You don't have to become reactive and withdrawn or let bitterness render you useless. You can birth a fresh new dream for the future that redeems your life and benefits other people as well. As you'll discover, that's what those experiences were meant for all along. When Howard Schultz acquired Starbucks and launched what would eventually become the number-one coffee brand in the world, he allowed one of his greatest frustrations to shape the company's unique culture. When Howard was a small child, he came home from school one day to find his father, an uneducated blue-collar worker, lying on the couch with a broken hip and ankle from slipping on a patch of ice at work. Without any health insurance or workman's compensation, he fell into poverty and depression. Remembering his father's struggle, Howard vowed that he would never let it happen to his own employees. He acknowledged that his father's experience shaped his company's employment policies and benefits. To this day, Starbucks offers its "partners" generous health benefits and stock in the company. No wonder Starbucks has been able to preserve such a strong, people-centric culture. Howard's frustration fueled his passion. Whenever we complain about our circumstances, it's usually because we think someone else should do something about it--someone more talented, more gifted, more influential, and more authoritative. But eventually, when no one else steps up to the challenge, we realize the vision belongs to us. It's frightening. It's intimidating. But once we've suffered through enough frustration--it's inevitable--we simply must do something about it. The Antidote to a Bad Job On a recent business trip across the country, I visited several friends who work at various companies. On all of these stops, each friend pulled me aside to express frustration with their jobs. The complaints included bad work conditions, abusive bosses, pay reductions, unnecessary rules, limited freedom, and negative coworkers. It's not that I'm unsympathetic, but I don't believe there's a bad job that a great dream can't fix. Most of us have jobs because someone constructed a financial model that utilizes our skills for their own gain and pays us just enough money to make employing us worthwhile to them. Someone else gets to be the boss. Someone else gets to determine our pay raises and work hours. Someone else gets to create the work culture and call the shots. I'm here to tell you that nothing is stopping you from constructing your own system to sustain your livelihood. You can create a model that offers value to other people in exchange for money. You don't have to depend on other people's dreams. You can bring your own dream to life. The work isn't easy. You'll be stretched beyond what you think you can handle. But there is nothing more satisfying than getting paid to pursue your own dream. Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. ------------------------------ --ALAN KEIGHTLEY We have entered the entrepreneurial age. It's not so much a new era as it is a return to a society of independent "makers." But instead of producing wooden tables, horseshoes, and handmade hats, this new generation of makers is developing Web sites, offering consulting services, writing books, launching brands, and offering accounting services from a home office or coworking space. In their book The Start-up of You , Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha argue that we can no longer expect to find a job, but rather we must make our own jobs. Thomas Fisher, the dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, wrote that our generation of entrepreneurs, either because of intention or layoffs, will grow to 40 or 45 percent of the workforce by 2020 and become the majority by 2030. Studies show that 66 percent of Americans hate their jobs. They despise their bosses, bemoan their working conditions, and feel like they're not making a difference in the world. On top of this, they're frustrated by a dream that's never been realized. In a recent survey, UPS found that 48 percent of Americans dream of starting a small business. And it's not just because people are becoming more entrepreneurial. It's because there aren't enough jobs to go around. According to Gallup polls, 3 billion people in the world say they want to work, but there are only 1.2 billion full-time, formal jobs. In other words, there are 1.8 billion more people than jobs in the world. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 12.7 million people remain unemployed, while only 3.5 million job openings exist. Many college graduates are no longer bothering to apply for jobs but opting to start their own businesses, preferring to keep their occupational fate in their own hands. In 2009, Arizona State University students Mehdi Farsi, Reza Farsi, and Eric Ferguson forsook conventional jobs and started the State Bicycle Co., which makes fixed-gear bikes called "fixies." In just four years, they opened three stores and employed twenty-five people. Even our homes will begin to reflect the needs of a "maker" society. In 2012, Clemson University students Eric Laine and Suzanne Steelman won the international Dow Solar Design to Zero competition by designing a house for the entrepreneurial age that features commercial space on the ground floor and living space upstairs. You can do this. You probably won't launch a successful idea on the first attempt. You might fall on your face a few times. You may have to adjust the model, change the formula, and tweak the concept until it finally works. But if you learn from your mistakes, get better at what you do, and refuse to quit, you will accomplish your dream. You're a Good Horse At the 2009 Kentucky Derby, eighteen Thoroughbreds ripped out of the starting gate and pounded into the straightaway. The pack mostly stayed together until the first turn, when the field started thinning out. Spectators kept their eyes on the favorites as the announcer recited their names over the loudspeaker. But suddenly, at the third turn, an overlooked horse at fifty-to-one odds burst into the lead from the inside. Mine That Bird had a long-standing losing streak. He wasn't a contender to win, not by a long shot. So when he emerged at the front of the pack, the announcer stumbled over his notes to find his name. As Mine That Bird blasted across the finish line far ahead of the other horses, the announcer could hardly contain his surprise: "A spectacular finish! A spectacular finish!" He declared the victory to be "an impossible result." When the jockey, Calvin Borel, was asked how Mine That Bird could have possibly won, he said, "I rode him like a good horse." Imagine that. He instilled faith in his horse to win. He believed in him. Dream Year is founded on the basis that most of us get ridden like bad horses all of our lives. Perhaps we had parents who put us down; friends who made fun of us; bosses who insulted us; or colleagues who underestimated what we could do. Even worse, we fell for it. I remember when a boss told me "You're not good enough" after I volunteered to lead a project at work. Another boss mockingly referred to my journal as my "happy book" because I was constantly writing down ideas--some of which you are reading now. I remember all of those incidents as if they were yesterday, and some of them crippled my courage. They caused me to doubt myself. We need jockeys who believe in us, who treat us "like a good horse." If Mine That Bird could come from behind to win the Kentucky Derby, you can benefit from the faith of other people as well. Have you heard of those studies that show how children perform in school at the level of their teachers' belief in them? It's true. You are the product of the voices in your life. And it's up to you to decide who to listen to. You're a good horse. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. If you've got naysayers in your life, ditch the stall they put you in and find another jockey. Go achieve an impossible result. Your Only Gatekeeper Is Courage All of us have dreams we want to bring to life. But, like glorified beggars, we hold them out like empty cups, waiting for someone else to fund them, approve them, or give us an opportunity. There was a day when gatekeepers determined whether your project got launched. You got discovered. You got funded. You got green-lit. You got picked up. You got approved. This has always been the conventional pathway. But not anymore. The best way to get your project launched is for you to launch your project. Today, your only gatekeeper is courage. We are no longer living in the Industrial Age when you needed large amounts of capital to fund your ideas. You don't need a publishing company to print your book. You don't need a Hollywood studio to make your movie. And you don't need a venture capitalist to fund your start-up. All of the tools, funding, approval, and distribution are already at your disposal. You are about to embark on a journey to discover how to monetize your dream. You probably have no idea how you'll fund it yet. But this is the challenge of every dream chaser. We'll explore some financial models, try a few experiments, and find the path to making your dream sustainable. Several years ago, my friend Larry sent me a screenplay for a sitcom he had written. We talked about next steps, wondering how he could get it into the hands of someone in the industry. The chances of someone in Hollywood reading his script were slim. So what of his dream? Did he have no shot? I happened to know the general manager of a television studio that is located in my friend's very own town. I called him and learned that the studio--with cameras, lighting, and dressing rooms--sits vacant for much of the week. The general manager said he'd be glad to give my friend a tour of the studio and schedule some test shoots. My friend only needed to recruit some actors and build a set. That same week, I read an article in Fast Company that described how homemade sitcoms are sweeping the industry. The president of FX Networks, John Landgraf, insists on producing comedies such as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Wilfred with small budgets. I also learned that actor Edward Burns has been making movies, such as Newlyweds, on consumer-grade cameras with small crews, short time lines, and budgets of just $9,000. Apparently, low-budget films and television shows that perform well are what the industry is looking for. My friend didn't have to offer up his dreams to the whims of gatekeepers. He only had to muster the courage to bring his own dream to life. The resources were all around him. And that's exactly what he did. Larry enlisted some friends to build a set, create costumes, and volunteer their talents in acting and videography. He's preparing to shoot the first episode of a sitcom called "Cousin Bigfoot" about a Sasquatch that comes to live with an ordinary suburban family, claiming to be their distant cousin. There's no telling whether Larry's sitcom will catch on and get picked up by a studio. But he decided to give himself permission rather than wait for someone else. People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. ------------------------------ --GEORGE BERNARD SHAW In 2010, Kate Schmidgall from Washington, D.C., joined Dream Year to start her own magazine called Bittersweet . Her dream was to create an artistic, documentary-style magazine that profiled organizations doing inspiring and much-needed work in response to the critical social issues of our day. Convention says that Kate should have held out her dream to other magazine publishers or investors, asking them to fund her publication. With the rising costs of paper, printing, and distribution, there's no chance they would have said yes. But Kate was determined to find a way to publish it herself. She used profits from her design business to print the first few issues, and then got creative to find more funding until the advertising and subscription dollars kicked in. With a passion for helping developing-world entrepreneurs overcome their difficult circumstances and start businesses, Kate started buying their products at fair-trade prices and selling them in her magazine for a profit. Her solution was to create a publication that was half magazine, half catalog. The sales of the products not only benefited the makers, but also helped fund the magazine. It requires no courage to come up with an idea and wait for someone else to green-light it. You're asking the gatekeepers to have courage. You're asking investors to accept the risk. You're asking someone else to have faith in your dream. But what about you? Do you believe in your idea enough to bypass the conventional gatekeepers and bring it to life on your own? It might mean finding sponsors, crowd-funding your idea, applying for grants, bartering services, freelancing, asking friends for help, or even working a part-time job. But there is a way. There is always a way. You only need the courage to go after it. You, as it turns out, are the only gatekeeper for your dream. Becoming Comfortable with Risk You are about to enter a season of risk. You're going to invest resources, time, and hard work to bring a dream to life. It's going to feel like you're risking everything. Make no mistake about it--your dream is not safe. But what is safety? Your so-called safety rests in the hands of a volatile stock market, a moody boss, a fickle economy, the latest real estate appraisal, and stable health. You have no control over any of it. The safety you imagine for yourself is merely a matter of perception. This isn't to say you should quit your job right now. Pursuing a dream isn't about being irresponsible. It's about designing a system--just as your boss did--to give value to other people for a price that sustains your livelihood and grows the business. The other day, a friend told me he lost his job. "All this time," he said, "I thought I was playing it safe by working for my company. But if there's no security there either, I might as well pursue my dream." Risk doesn't feel very good. It's agonizing, actually. But you can acclimatize. You can adjust to it. Adventurers who climb Mount Everest have to arrive at least one week early to get used to the altitude. But their bodies adjust. You can adjust to the climate of risk as well. In an interview with ESPN, Malcolm Gladwell talked about how people in high-stress jobs learn to function with the pressure. He told the story of Gavin de Becker, who runs one of the top personal security agencies in Los Angeles. He provides bodyguards for celebrities, dignitaries, and moguls. De Becker described the process he uses to train his employees. He said that if "the quality of our coordination and instinctive reactions breaks down when our heart rate gets above 145," he exposes them to stressful situations over and over again until they can face them at 130, 110, or 90. "So he fires bullets at people," Gladwell said, "and does these utterly terrifying exercises involving angry pit bulls." The first few times you go through these exercises, you basically lose control of your bowels. But by the fifth time, your essential bodily functions begin to return. And by the tenth time, you can function like a normal human being. Throughout the course of this year, you will be challenged, pressed, pushed, and agonized. But that's the way it's supposed to be. When you launch a dream, the size of it should overwhelm you. You should have wind in your hair, stomach acid in your teeth, and pee in your underwear. But you will get used to it. You will calm down. You will stop freaking out. You will make it through the hardship. And everything will be okay. You can learn to pursue your audacious dream with all of its risks, fears, and stresses and still function as a normal human being. The Two Fears We are motivated by two conflicting fears in life--the fear of failure and the fear of insignificance. What we endeavor to do in life is determined by which fear is the strongest. Throughout my life, I have gone back and forth between the two fears, as I've forgotten what it's like on the other side. I've been terrified at the prospect of losing my life savings. And I've been frightened at toiling my whole life away on other people's dreams. But I've made my choice. I have decided which one I will fear the most. I want to do something significant with my life. I choose the fear of insignificance. You must choose which fear will be the strongest for you. If you don't choose one of them, one will be chosen for you. And it will be the fear of failure, each and every time. I talk to many people who aren't doing what they love but hold on to their job because it pays the bills. They don't pursue a dream because it feels irresponsible or even irrational. After all, a job allows them to provide for their families, buy things they enjoy, and put away savings for the future. But if you press on with these excuses, the underlying motivation is fear. By acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid. ------------------------------ --THEODORE ROOSEVELT We only need to cite a worst-case scenario or a close brush with disaster, and we're done dreaming. We can't fathom the prospect of being jobless, not paying our bills, or having a financial emergency. It doesn't matter that worst-case scenarios rarely happen. And even when they do, they're not as bad as we think. We can survive them. In fact, what most of us call a worst-case scenario is often just a reduction in our standard of living. We can't imagine being without cable TV or a second car. As we grow older, dreams don't disappear. We trade them in for standards of living. Look, if it becomes as bad as you'd feared you can always get another job. You can recover your life savings. You can get your dignity back. But you can never recover what you never tried at all. Choose the Fear of Insignificance On February 18, 2012, The New York Times printed the obituary of a man who was unknown to most people. He never wrote a book. He never started a company. He didn't even have his own Web site. But at seventy-four years old, John Fairfax died at his home in Henderson, Nevada, having seized every opportunity that life afforded him. Here are a few of the highlights:    * At nine years old, he settled a fight in the Italian Boy Scouts with a pistol.    * At thirteen years old, he became a trapper in the Amazon jungle.    * He studied literature and philosophy at a university in Buenos Aires.    * At twenty, distraught by a broken heart, he let a jaguar attack him in the jungle but ended up killing it anyway.    * He joined the crew of a pirate ship in Panama, mastered the skill of navigating the high seas, and became the captain of his own boat.    * He managed a mink farm and worked as a professional gambler.    * He crossed both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans by rowboat, was attacked by a shark, and killed another one by outsmarting it. Reading through this list, you might think John Fairfax was a superhero, a legend, or a cartoon character. But he was simply a man who refused to let his life be tamed by the cubicle. He didn't base his decisions on a paycheck, the fears that haunted him, or the expectations of people around him. He saw the world as an adventure, something to be exhausted, and he lived it to the fullest. He was the original "most interesting man in the world." Your dream may not be to kill a shark with your bare hands, but there is something great rising up in you. People may have tried to squash it. You may have failed at previous attempts. Or maybe your dreams have simply given way to comfortable standards of living. This book is about getting them back. You were born to live a significant life. Call to Action Your dream lies at a crossroads of your fears and frustrations. While others may see these emotions as annoyances, for the dreamer, they are the indicators of vision. They not only show you what's important to you; they provide the fuel to sustain your passion through the difficult seasons of dream chasing. The first step in daring to dream is figuring out what frustrates you. Remember that what you complain about is what you're gifted at. What bothers you the most is usually the area of your greatest passion. So complain. List your gripes. Identify the injustices and absences that frustrate you the most. And then be prepared to do something about them. You could wait for someone else to do it. But they won't. Your burden is your mandate. This is the very reason you were born. The second step is to determine what frightens you most about pursuing your dream. There are only two options--the fear of failure or the fear of insignificance. Make the choice to face your fear of failure and make this your dream year. QUESTIONS:    * Your dream is not safe. Don't apologize for being reluctant to pursue it. But what frustrations are burning inside of you that could help dampen these fears?    * You'll come to see that frustrations are a gift because they birth our dreams. What possible solutions could come out of your frustrations?    * If you don't choose a fear, one will be chosen for you. Are you more afraid of pursuing your dream than not pursuing your dream? If so, how can you cultivate a healthy fear of insignificance? 2 DEFINING THE DREAM The two most important days in life are the day you are born and the day you discover the reason why. ------------------------------ --MARK TWAIN Your Great Gift There is no such thing as a "dream job." Jobs aren't designed to bring your dreams to life. They're designed to bring other people's dreams to life--those of the founder, the owner, the CEO, or the boss. The point of Dream Year is to bring your dream to life. The trouble is you've been trained for a job your whole life. You've been conditioned to believe that your personal value is based on what you can do for someone else. No one ever asks you what you can bring to the world but whether you can fill a position. Think about the job interview. It's about trying to convince someone that your square peg of talents fits into their round hole of a position. It's you against all of the other square pegs vying for the same slot. You can only hope you're the closest fit. One of the remarkable outcomes of pursuing your dream is discovering what you were born to do--your great gift. It's not to be a cog in someone else's machine but to align what you do with who you are . When you figure this out, you'll find more satisfaction and make a bigger contribution to the world than any job could provide. You are a unique individual with distinct passions, experiences, and skills. Of course no perfect job exists for what you can do. You've only just come along in the world. You have to create this role for yourself. Have you been waiting for permission to do this? Permission to do what you love. Permission to work on your own ideas. Permission to determine your own income. Permission to pursue your own dream. Excerpted from Dream Year: Making the Leap from a Job You Hate to a Life You Love by Ben Arment All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.