American culture prides itself into "doing it big." Big stage play productions. Big houses. Big cars with new shiny wheels. Big bank accounts. Big amounts of fame to our name. This is what we have been drawn and in my opinion reduced to. I won't lie man, this is how I see. Maybe some of you feel the same, too. In my little two cent opinion, there's nothing wrong doing it big but I do believe there's more to life than this. Many of us have dreams, goals, and all other sorts of aspirations we have for our lives. Maybe it's to be rich or be a headliner on a music show. I don't know. However, we don't see the hidden costs to "doing it big" or becoming one of the greats. It's called steps. Steps, sort of like a project building in Manhattan (peace to my "peeps" in NYC), are many, long, and arduous. Plus, the elevator didn't work. We live in a microwave generation when we expect to go from level one to level 28,0000 divided by 6.2, carry the one (sorry, got that line from the Jamie Foxx Show). We want things to happen now without putting in the work. I did my daily post for my MBA program, a Finance class. One of my fellow students talked about the Occupy Wall Street debacle of last year. He talked about his conversation with a young guy who had big dreams. He had all of these wants and expected at the age of 20something, others should pay him 80k a year. However, the dude didn't have the capital of skills, experience, and character to be an 80k employee. Hmmmm. That's many of us today. We want the finer things in life but have no idea of the costs of time, money, failures, and mistakes we have to experience to get to that level. For instance, one of my good friends from the Army is now a drill sergeant. I remember back in Germany, you knew he was in the building. But we wouldn't hold no punches about the Hades he went through. The disappointments, setbacks, bad decisions, hatred from others (to name a few). I'm pretty sure, it wasn't easy for him to become a drill sergeant. One thing I noticed about him was that he took the steps, the small steps to fulfill his dream. He researched, asked questions, and walked closely with those who stood where he wanted to be. He paid the cost to be the boss. This is what I'm saying, it's okay to think big but do your research. Write it down on how to achieve your dreams. Get with those who've already mastered what you are planning to master. Don't take short cuts. Most importantly, don't despise small beginnings. I hope this helps; I know this is helping reevaluate my lofty dreams and how to achieve them.
Til next time, dgwo.
P.S. - Shout out to SFC Michael "Big Mike" Brown.
References:
Zechariah 4:10 (even those who had to rebuild Jerusalem had to small and rigorous steps to achieve this goal - ok, I'm done).
