Publisher - August 2017
I have a question. One I want you to seriously ponder. If YOU don’t follow your dreams, who will?
Bam. I’m hoping that one hit you right between the eyes and ricocheted into your heart. We all have dreams, but not all of us chase them. Why not? We get one life, and if you don’t even try to make your dreams come true, what is it all for?
So many of us lead Fred Flintstone lives, going to the rock pit everyday to move one pile to another, waiting on 5:00 o’clock like it’s the anointment from angels above signaling the daily escape from the ankle monitor.
I’ve been a chaser of dreams since childhood. My parents called it determined, which wasn’t a compliment. Truth be told, it’s hard to follow your dreams. Society isn’t cut out for it. We are trained to think small, and small thinkers have small dreams, if any at all. Actually, most of us move through life with a self-administered ankle monitor choking our dreams to death.
Author Ben Sweetland said, “The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car... a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little, and as a result, they get little.”
I don’t mean to make anyone feel bad, but turn to page 27 for a great example of showing up with a teaspoon. Again, everything about our society trains us to show up for our lowly ration. Portion control is excellent when applied to fried chicken, but not so good when it comes to dreams. We are browbeaten into not sharing ideas and dreams because they might be dumb, crazy, outlandish, ludicrous, a pipe dream, or just flat out will never work.
Before I started Pink Magazine, I shared my idea with several people. Not one said it was a good idea. I was told over and over again it would never work. These comments came from idle acquaintances, loving family members and everyone in between. When I told my mother and father what I wanted to do, my dad slammed his fist down on the kitchen table, and with full red face, screamed at me not to quit my job. He told me not to come running to him when I failed. That was on a Sunday, and I quit my job on Monday. At age 37, I had no job, no savings and no paycheck, but I had a dream and a freight train full of hell yeah in my heart.
When I worked for Bob Keen, my cousin’s husband, as a recruiter for clinical pharmacists and nurse anesthetists, he told me the same thing every day. Recruiting was one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever done, filled with rejection by the minute and hostility by the hour. So what were his words? “Don’t let anyone steal your dreams.” Then he would add, “Because everyone will try to and only you can allow them to succeed.”
You’re probably let down. Those words aren’t exactly earth-shattering. However, they were to me, and I applied them to everyone. I built my business on these words. Even my father had no power over my determination of not letting anyone steal my dreams. When I walked in on that Monday and quit my job, I honestly thought I was going to vomit. But I did it, without retching, and 14 years later, I’m still doing it. So can you.
I want to leave you with this and I want you to tuck it deep within your soul: Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. You have one life! One. ONE! Now wake up and go ride that dream. Giddy-up!
P.S.: Please come support Beaufort County schoolteachers at the August 10 Pink Partini—see all the details on page 4. Also, please, please, please check out the teachers’ wish list on page 4 and generously buy some of these supplies to donate to local teachers. And, yes…beanbag chairs are in great demand!
You can drop your donations off at any CoastalStates Bank branch, here at Pink—37 New Orleans Rd., Orleans Plaza, upstairs above Expressions Furniture Store, or bring them to the Pink Partini. Teachers often have to spend a lot of their own money to supply their classrooms. Let’s show up and show out for our local schoolteachers with a steam shovel…not a teaspoon!! I’m already saying thank you because I know Women Rock!
Think Pink!