In
a way, these nay-sayers had a point. My friend is a guru in academic
circles. She makes good money. She gets on well with the people
she works with. And to spend energy on writing a book instead of
doing research could jeopordize her current success.
Those
are good reasons to put the dream aside.
Or
are they?
Einstein
was a nobody who worked in a patent office. At 25, looking at his
past, nobody would have predicted his future. His own parents wondered
whether he was mentally challenged. His teachers predicted failure
for him. He was expelled from school and failed his university entrance
exam. He was rebellious against authority. And he so disliked his
first violin teacher that he hit him with a chair. Then he took
up with an older woman and got her pregnant out of wedlock (something
you just didn't do in those days). He wouldn't listen to his parent's
advice....
And
the list goes on and on and on.
But
what comes out is that Albert was STUBBORN. He believed he was right
when everyone else told him he was wrong. And in learning, instead
of looking to the past, he dreamed about the future.
Who
was wrong? Albert? Or the nay-sayers?
Going
back to the story about my friend, when she told me that she wanted
to write a best-selling novel loosely based on her own life, and
all her friends had pooh-poohed her. But she was going to do it
anyways, and prove them wrong.
I said,
"Great. If you really want to do it, then stick with it. But
send me a few chapters as you know that I love encouraging new writers."
When
I read her first three chapters, I saw that they were rough - but
could be polished. The emotion, the story was there. The editing
could come later. So I encouraged my friend. She joined a creative
writing class at the university where she teaches. And her professor
recently told her work was comparable to the award-winning Angela's
Ashes.
Is
my friend going to be a best selling author? I have no doubt about
it. Her book is going to make millions of people laugh and cry.
But
if she hadn't been stubborn, then she would have given up and not
continued.
She
had a dream. She refused to listen to nay-sayers. And she dug her
heels in and did it anyway.
Do
you have a dream? Don't listen to the nay-sayers. It's your dream,
not theirs. Your life, not theirs. Your vision, not theirs.
Be
stubborn. Perhaps you will change the world!
