Believe in Something: Carry the Entrepreneurial Fire
The 4th of July not only marks Independence Day and one of my favorite holidays for me, it also marks the birthday of one of my best little friends. His name is Josh and he is my next door neighbor’s 7 year-old darling son. I have known him since the day he was born and I think of him as a little brother. At one point when he was younger, he even believed I was.
He is getting older and scary smart, but despite all his growing up, there are those shining moments when he reminds me how much a kid he still is. I asked him why everyone was doing fireworks today and he replied, with absolute certainty, that they were for his birthday.
His dad was standing next to me and whispered, ‘it’s more fun just to let him believe that’. I laughed and Josh ran off to join the neighbor kids once again at play. I thought it was great little example of remembering to keep the wonder and belief in things.
All businesses start as someone’s dream. At one point it was just a nugget in someone’s head that they grew into a thriving venture. If they hadn’t believed it, it wouldn’t have happened. Now, fireworks will go on long after Josh realizes that are not, in fact, in honor of his birthday, but by then he will have new things to believe in.
The point is, sometimes we all need to just let ourselves believe in something and watch that belief manifest itself into a powerful force of change and motivation. Too often we get jaded or down and forget why we are doing what we do. Sometimes classes would wear me down until I remembered that someday I would need this knowledge to start my very own record label, my dream. I believe that someday I will do that, among other things and I don’t want that to die.
Leave it to kids to remind us of our own great dreams, take a minute to sit down and think on your dreams. Maybe crack open that notebook full of ideas or think back to what you wanted to do when you set out on your own adventure.
Keep your entrepreneurial spirit burning bright and share it with others, maybe one day you will have a nationwide day of fireworks dedicated to you someday too.
‘Carry the fire’ – Cormac McCarthy, the Road