I wrote a few days ago about dreams and how it is okay if they are not billion-dollar dreams. It is worth following up with this thought: Even the smallest acts can be significant and purposeful so we would do well to focus on those. It is easy to get caught up in this concept of bigger is better, but just realize that you can never get to big if you don’t start small.
If your dream is to build a billion-dollar company, I wish you great success.
If your dream is to make an income writing children’s book part time, I wish you great success.
Ultimately, one dream is not better than the other. Beyond that, I think it is important for us to remember that the “smaller” of these two dreams can be as valuable and impactful as the bigger dream. In society today, it can be easy to confuse monetary gains with value and this is where I want to push back. A large company with high profitability is certainly providing a service, and hopefully that service is creating lasting value for people. But even a single person can create lasting value, even if it is only in the life of one other single person.
Say you are the one with the dream to write children’s books in your spare time. You might end up writing and publishing twenty children’s books over the course of ten years and selling one-hundred thousand copies. You might profit twenty thousand dollars a year for those ten years. But you may also never know that one of the kids who picked up your book read it over and over. It became his favorite book. It kept him company when the violent fights erupted between his parents some nights. It pushed him to realize that possibilities existed beyond the unstable life he experienced. It was the book he pulled out of his drawer one night as a teenager when he thought about ending things, and it was what pulled him back from the brink. That book helped him think differently about his life and hold on to the hope that things could be different for him. That belief helped him grow up to become a successful businessman who went on to make millions and create a charity that helped thousands of young people improve their lives.
This scenario is just an example of how one person or one book or one act can create tremendous value. Don’t underestimate your power to make a difference. Don’t buy into the idea that you have to create something that is huge to be successful or valuable or impactful.
If your goal is to add value to the world in some way, you will win even if you help one person. That person might go on to help thousands of other people. Each contribution to creating a better world is valuable and is never wasted.
