Dreams Are Not Wrong
The day someone attacked mine taught me an unexpected lesson about encouragement.
I will never forget the day when someone in my life, who I will not name, accused me in front of a bunch of people of scamming her friend.
At the time, I was building an independent business with a direct selling company, a legitimate direct selling company based out of Seattle, Washington. The product line consisted of high-end genomic-based nutraceuticals. For the mid-2000s, the quality and efficacy were beyond just about anything else on the market.
What bothered me most about that incident was this person’s reaction to learning that I had met with their friend and that their friend was interested in buying the product because the product helped.
Side note: I still take those products today.
I’m long gone from that business model because it changed, but at the time I believed in what I was doing. I had a dream. For several years, that dream worked.
What I didn’t understand then was that the attack wasn’t really about me.
In the moment, I reacted. I felt ashamed and I felt wrong for believing that being an independent business owner could create opportunities for my life.
Years later, I can see the situation differently.
Their words had everything to do with their situation in life, their fears, the things they felt threatened by, and the possibilities they could no longer see because of choices they had made.
I grew up in a home that approached life differently.
My parents encouraged my brother and me in our interests and pursuits. They encouraged lots of people. My mother was a Girl Scout troop leader. My father was a Boy Scout leader. Both were educators. Both modeled the essence of servant leadership.
They believed in possibility.
That doesn’t mean they ignored reality. Every generation faces challenges. My generation did. My parents’ generation did. Today’s Gen Z and Gen Alpha are facing challenges their parents and grandparents never faced: economic challenges, climate challenges, technological challenges, relationship challenges.
If my parents were alive today, they would absolutely have concerns about the way certain things are going. Nothing new there. They expressed concerns throughout their lifetime.
But they would also rise above the fray.
They would find the light.
They would find a way to be encouraging and supportive.
One of the most important lessons they taught me was that you don’t have to share someone’s dream to support it.
You can simply say:
“That’s your dream, and I believe in you.”
I don’t put down other people’s dreams.
It’s not my place.
We’re each living our own lives. We make decisions and choices. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t. Oftentimes, it’s the things that don’t work out that teach us the most.
Not everybody who enters your life will stay for the whole run.
That’s a difficult reality to accept.
I’ve watched people shut down parts of themselves in order to survive less-than-ideal situations. I’ve watched people abandon dreams because someone they cared about made those dreams feel foolish, unrealistic, or wrong.
The person who attacked me that day gave me an unexpected gift.
They showed me that not everyone will celebrate your vision.
And that’s okay.
Because your dream does not require unanimous approval.
I don’t know who’s reading this today, but if no one has told you lately that they believe in your dream, whatever that dream may be, let me be that person.
A real person behind these words.
Your dream matters.
And so does your life.
Long ago I adopted my parents’ philosophy of encouraging others to be the best version of themselves and to dream big. Even if it doesn’t appeal to me, someone else’s dream or life is never wrong because my dream and my life are not wrong.
You never know how far a little encouragement might travel.