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Archive for the 'Big Dreams' Category

Big Dreamer: Rosie Okumura

Rosie Okumura Interview

My friend Rosie who is beautiful, smart, funny, and a very talented musician said she wanted to drop out of college and move to Seattle to pursue her music career. Talk about pursuing your big dreams fully.

When she first told me her plans to drop out and move to Seattle I was excited for her to take on such an immense challenge and pursue her dream so early.

She asked me to take some photos of her for promotional and marketing material. So, on my first photoshoot ever I took pictures of her and learned how to use my camera and work with a model all in one go. Then, when she came back from Seattle to visit, I took more pictures for her. Here they are:

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November 28, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams and Inspiration.

Now you can support someone’s Big Dream and still be a part of it

Group

Sometimes it’s hard to support someone’s dream without feeling left behind. Other times it can feel like their dream is not at all what you had hoped it would be.

There are ways to feel like you’re part of the dream and have a positive influence, though.

From this experience, and as a big dreamer myself, I learned a few vital ways to help someone achieve their big dream whether or not you can give them the leg up they need.

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October 29, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams, Success and Self Improvement.

Find Your Big Dream Right Now

Find Your Dream

Since I posted the first chapter of Big Dreams I’ve gotten a lot of people telling me they don’t know what their big dream is.

So, since I have struggled with this myself from time to time I found the easiest way to pin it down is to ask myself some specific and concrete questions. I’ve written 15 questions that will help you find your dream, but you will probably only need 1 or 2 before it hits you.

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October 22, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams and Success.

Big Dreams: Chapter 1

Thank you everyone for sending in your Big Dreams. I would like to extend the invitation to everyone else who hasn’t yet had the chance to share you dream with the world. Please do, we’re all dying to hear from you.

Enjoy these inspirational dreams and continue to live your own.

Dream fortune cookie

Dream Outlive Your Dog

Dream Make Her Smile

Dream Guinness Record

Dream don't jump

Dream Money

I wanted to become a writer and a teacher of creative writing, but I was told I wasn’t cut out for college because of poor math grades. Then I opted to pursue an associate degree in commercial art instead. I was told (by an art teacher I adored) that the industry was cut throat and that I wasn’t talented enough. Finally, in desperation, I went to my guidance counselor. I was 18 and out of options as to what I would be when I “grew up.” He suggested I go to beauty school.

I have a lot of regrets about the time I wasted in my teens and early 20s. But I have a career I love now (as a writer) and I’m finally content. It only took me 20 years to figure out how to get there.

The bottom line is…listen to the best of the advice you receive, but don’t take it too seriously. Follow your own path.

- KaylyRed

My 12th grad art teacher told me that art school was too expensive and that I should try community college. Funny how she encouraged another student to pursue art though. Community college was a waste of time. After 3 years I enrolled in a 12 month graphics program only to not find any steady work which is how I ended up where I am today. It was time to start paying on those student loans.

I gave up my dreams and focused on relationships. Watching others around me achieve their goals made me feel left out. I still feel that way. I as encouraged over the years to try but I was afraid and somewhat content. I’m older now(30ish) but, I’m going to take that step this time. I don’t want to wake up as a 60 year old and start playing the “what if” game. Thanks again.

- Ivan

It’s not too late! Submit your own big dream for the next chapter and become an inspiration to yourself and others.

Now go own the world.

-Ravi Vora

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October 16, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams and Inspiration.

The Most Important Factor of Success

Puzzle Pieces

No matter what your dream is, you have to be unique to succeed.

You have to fill a niche.

Niche marketing is the process of finding and serving profitable market segments and designing custom-made products or services for them. ( Wikipedia )

In this case, you are the product. All you have to do to sell yourself is to be yourself.

This doesn’t mean you have to be making money or have any sales at all. Instead, I’m talking about being successful and living your dream because you are you.

Being one-of-a-kind is imperative to being the first, last, and the most remembered.

If there was only one person whose blood could cure AIDs, wouldn’t they be pretty popular? What if there was only one person that had light skin and everyone else had dark skin? Now, what if someone created a simple and effective search engine when everyone else was trying to add tons and tons of features to their search engines? I’ll give you a hint: Google.

Being unique doesn’t always mean being the best at everything, or even the stereotypical best in your field.

Every best-selling author isn’t the best writer in the world. A lot of actors aren’t beautiful until after they get famous and some never have to be beautiful. Talent works in many ways.

Anna Kournikova

Sometimes talent isn’t the be-all end-all factor, either.

There are people who are more famous than the #1 ranked athlete in their field. The best example of this? Anna Kournikova. Why do you know that name and face so well when you probably can’t name the top 10 female tennis players? Even though she hasn’t won a single open, and has only been to the finals 4 times in her career, she is still one of the most well known female tennis players of all time.

Why is that? Because she is pretty good and tennis and pretty good looking. Now, how does that work to your advantage?

Simply put, you will be more likely to succeed if you are better than 3/4 of the people at two things than if you are better than everyone at one thing.

Not only is being the best at one very difficult, but it also limits you. You may have to work your entire life to be the best golfer to ever have lived. Maybe you will be the next Beethoven, that is awesome. But if you want to be amazing at piano, sing, and have ridiculous lyrics, then you might have to sacrifice a bit in each area to be successful. By no means should you give up trying to be the best. Instead, you should try to succumb to your favorite and best talents and allow them to intertwine. In this way you will become unique and successful because no one else is so dedicated to what you do.

As long as you’re following your dream and truly living for it, you will be successful.

Now go own the world.

-Ravi Vora

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October 8, 2007 | tags: Motivation, Big Dreams and Success.

I guess it wasn’t meant to be

Sad puppy

“I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

If I could remove one saying from all human languages, this would be the one.

These words mean giving up. They mean pushing your responsibility to
someone else. Not taking responsibility for your own life.

Reaching your dream doesn’t happen without setbacks. It takes patience.
Sometimes your dreams are far away, but the only way you can move towards
them is one step at a time.

Here are some ideas for cultivating patience and getting that saying out
of your vocabulary:

  1. Start by making sure the dream really is important to you. If the
    dream doesn’t matter, then maybe it really isn’t meant to be. Leave it
    aside and think about your next dream.
  2. Think about the outcomes: What is your life going to be like if you
    don’t reach this goal? What about if you do? If the outcome of making
    this dream into reality outweighs the one of not doing anything, this
    dream is a good candidate for keeping.
  3. Enjoy the ride as long as it goes smoothly.
  4. From time to time, remind yourself about why you’re doing all this
    work.     For example this morning when I woke up at five AM to write this
    blog post I had to push myself a bit to remember that this is helping me
    reach my goal of becoming a professional writer.
  5. At times of setbacks, look back at the failure to see what you could
    do differently in the future.     Recover from the failure and keep going.
    One of my wife’s biggest dreams has been to be a psychologist. Getting
    accepted to study psychology is not easy (at least here in Finland the
    entrance exams for psychology are among the hardest ones) but she was
    determined to get in. After each failed attempt she cried for a while,
    took a break for a few days and then started thinking about the next
    year’s exams. Now she is one of the top students in he class.
  6. Find friends who support your dream and want to see you succeed. When
    others start saying things like “what if it’s not meant to be?” you need
    someone who says the opposite: “Don’t listen to that. Think about how
    much effort you have already put into this. If you give up now, it will
    all go to waste.”

If you apply to a school and get a few points too little, study more and
try again next year. If you still don’t get admitted, study still more.
And while studying keep your mind open to see if there could be some other
way of getting admitted than through entrance exams.

If you start a business and your first customer decides not to pay you,
learn new ways to make sure the next one pays and move on.

When someone says that maybe your dream wasn’t meant to be after all,
don’t give in.

It’s your dream. It’s important to you.

Be patient. Work hard. And one day when your dream becomes reality they
will have to take their words back.

This is a guest post by Jarkko Laine who’s blog is about being Insanely Interested in Everything. Jarkko is a professional software developer, a father, a husband, and is on his way to becoming a professional writer.
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September 29, 2007 | tags: Motivation and Big Dreams.

Stop Worrying About Your Future Once and for All

Boy in Corner

Why aren’t you pursuing your dream?

Most people are afraid to pursue their dreams because they don’t know what the future will have in store for them. They don’t know what’s coming. Bad things could happen. How unfortunate that people with skill, talent, and natural ability get lost because of fear.

It takes drive. It takes determination. It takes will. You have to want it so bad that whatever happens in the future is worth the sacrifices.

It’s time to stop fearing the future and start living for it.

Every day won’t be perfect. Sometimes you will fail. Sometimes no one will want to listen to you. Sometimes everyone will turn the other way.

Sometimes you will succeed, though. Sometimes you will win. Sometimes everyone will rejoice and want more of you.

It is the strength to get through the tough times that makes the good times so wonderful.

It is the nature of the future to be dangerous.

That’s what makes life worth living. Not knowing how your actions or the actions of others will effect your life is why you keep trying every day. The danger of good things happening, the unknown, even the supposed certainties.

We all know we’re going to die. That’s a certainty. But we’ve all wondered “What if I didn’t die? What if there was a way?”

The danger of the future is what makes it wondrous, exciting, mysterious, enigmatic, fantastic, and worth seeing.

So what are you waiting for? Go get it. Reach for your dream. Your life can only get better from here.

Now go own the world.

-Ravi Vora

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September 23, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams, Motivation, Inspiration, Happiness, Success and Self Improvement.

What is your Big Dream?

Dreaming In a Field

I want to hear from you. What do you want to be? What do you want to do?

This isn’t what “could” you do, or what “could” you be. This is your dream. Anything is possible.

I want to hear what it is that you wish you could do with your life. No matter what your dream is. Then, I want to share it with the world.

Here’s how to submit them:

Option #1: Make your big dream stand out by writing it down or using a visual with it, scan it in to your computer, and then e-mail me at ravi@ravivora.com.

Option #2 (my personal favorite): Write your big dream down somewhere and take a picture of it. Please be as creative and bold as you can with this. Then e-mail me at ravi@ravivora.com.

Option #3: If you don’t have access to a digital camera or scanner you can just write your Big Dream in the comments below or e-mail them to me at ravi@ravivora.com.

Above all, make your submissions meaningful.

I will be sharing some of the Big Dreams anonymously with everyone in a future post. I am really looking forward to the submissions.

Now go own the world.

-Ravi Vora

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September 18, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams and Inspiration.

Top 15 Lies People Tell You About Pursuing Your Dreams

Ugly Woman Lying

Everyone thinks they’re the expert on your life and loves to give you advice. Most of it is complete garbage.

Here are 15 of the most popular nay-saying tips and why you can tell them to shove it.

1. Your dream is unrealistic. What’s unrealistic is trying to live your life working at a job you don’t love doing something you hate for the rest of your life while regretting trying to live your dream.

2. You’re screwed if it doesn’t work out. No, you’re not. In fact, the worst possible scenario is that you go back to what you would be doing if you hadn’t pursued your dream. That’s the worst possible scenario.

3. You weren’t cut out for that. Who’s to say that? If you don’t fit the stereotype for your dream then you’re the one to break the mold. You will stand out.

4. You can follow your dream someday. Someday will never come. Follow your dream today.

5. Only a few people “make it.” That’s because they lack the drive, determination, and will that you have. You’re one of the few.

6. You should just be safe and get a job. In fact, a job is even more dangerous than pursuing your dream. Not only do you feel terrible doing something you don’t want to do, but with two simple words your livelihood can change. “You’re fired.” When you’re pursuing your dream, you’re the only one that can stop you.

7. That’s impossible. Yes it’s impossible. For them. Not for you though, because you can dream and make it real.

8. You would have to go through so much work to do that. Yeah, but you’re willing to do it. You know what you want and you know what you have to do to get there. To you it’s not work, it’s what you want to do with your life.

9. You don’t need a backup plan. Yes, you do. Even if it’s just for supplemental income, use your talent or perfect your dream by doing something that may not be the exact same, but is related. It’s always better to be good at two things than one.

10. It’s a one in a million chance. No, actually, it’s probably less. But it doesn’t matter to you, because you know you’re going to do it. That’s what really matters.

11. Bad things will happen. Failures are just steps towards success. Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that. If you can’t handle failure, then success is going to be very difficult to achieve.

12. You won’t be able to live off that. If you can do it and find an avenue that will pay you for it, then yes you can live off of your dream. Even people who can fit into a box found an market for their talent that people would pay them to perform.

13. You’re going to be the next “BLANK.” No, you’re not. You’re going to be the next YOU. Don’t follow the mold, be different. Be yourself.

14. That’s a lot of pressure. Of course there is; it’s your life. That doesn’t matter to you though because you’re willing to take it on and make it your own.

15. You have to do this, this, and this, to do that. Wrong. Follow what you believe and find your own way to achieve your dream. Studying those who have succeeded in the same field helps, but copying won’t get you anywhere.

If you can disregard these bits of “advice” people give you, you’re well on your way to succeeding.

Don’t let their jealousy and worry get you down.

Now go own the world.

-Ravi Vora

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September 8, 2007 | tags: Big Dreams, Inspiration, Happiness and Success.