Dream Big
To celebrate the University of Houston's Homecoming, students in the C. T. Bauer College of Business had the opportunity to prepare an essay on the topic of "Dream Big. Win Big." Below is the essay from the winner of the competition.
I strongly believe that the greatest thing anyone can do in their lifetime is try. The fear of failure is so powerful that it can hold people hostage, and I truly accredit my bravery and faith for everything that I’ve accomplished so far. Someone once told me that “The sky is not the limit, it’s just the view”, and ever since that moment, I haven’t allowed anything that I was audacious enough to imagine, intimidate me.
When I was child, I wanted to do everything I enjoyed for as long as I could, but as I got older, I somehow got distracted and began to steer off course. I grew up in a household where mediocrity was despised, and I found myself falling in love with creativity. I started my first business as a hairstylist and one thing I’ve learned as an artist is that all creation starts from within. The ability to dream big is no superpower, anyone can do it, but the ability to overpower self-doubt when faced with discomfort is truly admirable. When we enter uncharted territory, it’s only natural to be faced with unfamiliar feelings and emotions, but everything was unfamiliar once upon a time. Truthfully, even in times on negativity there is also something to be gained. Everything is a learning experience if you’re willing to be taught, and many times, people can get discouraged when things don’t work out. Even when sports teams lose, there’s always another match to prepare for.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf once stated: “If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough,” and for every life altering discovery, there existed a pioneer. For the abolishment of slavery, it was The Abolition Movement, and for airplane flight, it was the Wright brothers. Now, let’s imagine that either of these individuals had never been brave enough to even attempt any of their achievements, where would we be today?
"Failure is just an opportunity to grow, and hopefully all your dreams and desires are worth failing for."
Sometimes, it can become addicting to only do what feels good but imagine things from the flip side. Over 181 million people play the lottery a year and the odds of winning the power ball are 1 in 302 million. Despite the incredibly low odds of success, 181 million people still decide that the lottery is worth a shot. Imagine if everyone looked at everything in life that way. Yes, there is a possibility that you might not be successful in your business endeavor this time, and no you might not get the job that you so desperately wanted, heck there’s a possibility that I may not win this essay contest, but how will you ever know if you don’t try? Failure is just an opportunity to grow, and hopefully all your dreams and desires are worth failing for. To truly honor ourselves, we must search deep within and find the things that we feel are worth failing for. Even with thing are out of reach, we should keep on reaching and the dreams that seem the farthest are the ones we should reach for most.
The bottom line is that we should constantly remind ourselves that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Even in the age of information we still can’t be prepared for everything, but fear should never stop you from achieving your goals. Even when things seem too hot to handle, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, it’s just an invitation to do it scared.
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