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Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
DON’T sell your dreams. Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t stop moving.
Things that matter most must never be sacrificed for those that are of least importance.
While others doubt, believe. While others fear, take action. While others make noise, work your dreams.
In 1995, South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup. The team was pitted against the best. Chances that they could win the tournament were considered a dream. But those who know the power of dreams would never dare laugh. Leaders are dream architects. They make impossible things look achievable. The role of any leader is to inspire big and bold dreams.
Leaders mobilise towards the pursuit of dreams. Great leaders inspire greatness in others. They make the future vivid and tangible. This is why everything rises and falls on leadership.
Nelson Mandela was then president and he took interest in supporting his charges. Before the World Cup opener, he affirmed and encouraged the team.
He gave a special message of encouragement to Francois Pienaar, then captain of the South African rugby team.
Mandela had overcome the polarity that characterised his day and tried to rally the nation together. He had a dream of national healing and reconciliation.
The rugby dream was actually a dream within a dream. Mandela’s message inspired the South African team to win the World Cup after defeating the famed All Blacks of New Zealand. His message was picked up from a poem titled “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley. It reads: ‘‘Out of the night that covers me,Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be,
For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
Take personal responsibility and keep dreaming.
Consider what really counts for the future. The future is never changed by those who face life with a sneer or blind negativity. It is changed by dreamers. Believe in and be enthralled by the beauty of your dreams.
Don’t park around problems.
Don’t despair because your dreams are taking long to materialise. Don’t waste time in trying to make your dreams a reality. Instead, add reality to your dreams through committed action. Challenge your reality frontiers.
See what is not yet there and ask why not? You are not a victim. You are the captain of your soul. You are a creator. Stop engaging in a blame game. Start dreaming and acting.
Your dreams are the gateway to the future. The future is too exciting to leave to chance. Don’t kill the future or abort it because obstacles loom large.
Keep moving — at whatever pace and in spite of the obstacles. Stop dreaming up fearful monsters devouring your future and squeezing life out of you. Dream differently.
Dream positively. Dream possibilities that you clothe with reality. Feed your dreams and not your fears. Choose what and who you pay attention to. Don’t pay attention to those who don’t see the future.
Don’t listen to every mindless critic. They don’t know your dream and revelation. Beware of ignorant vision-less specialists. Don’t listen to commentators, who are not in the ring with you. Don’t be bitter with those who fight you. They don’t see what you see. Don’t let anything and anyone stop you from dreaming. Don’t give up on your dreams of greatness. Don’t throw in the towel. Don’t despair because of failure. Keep working, fighting, moving and doing all that you can to keep the dream alive.
There is magic in persistence. The temptation to give up will come and many yield to its gory impulses.
Stay in the game long enough to show your realised dreams. Keep fighting, moving, believing and working. The pace may be slow, the tide might be high and the challenge nigh. You may have to sigh, but don’t sign out just yet. Keep the dream alive.
The rewards come after the pain. They sit beyond the rough patch where others see no road. Don’t give up. Don’t stop dreaming, even if every nerve cell in you is screaming and telling you: “Give up! Give up! Give in!”
Results are the sweet spot that you hit when vision, mission, strategy and execution are aligned. Vision lives on long after the dream copycats have stopped imitating you and are too tired to take more notes.
Keep taking action on your dreams.
Stay as long as is necessary for you to achieve your greatness. Break down your dream into a crystalline agenda. From the agenda, you get your daily marching orders. Keep working on the game plan. Play to win. Take action and keep taking action. This breathes life into your dreams and motivation into your soul.
Anticipate greatness and keep the dream alive. Prepare for the future and be ready for it when it comes. Your dreams are the future in seed form. What you call a dream today will be a memory soon. Dream, do, diarise and realise! Dream in colour and not just in grey-scale. Dream big and bold, and prepare to live boldly and not timidly.
No dream can ever make you feel inferior without you permitting it to intimidate you. See what is not there, and pursue it. This is your source of leverage. As you see, so you possess.
Faith is not mere fantasy. Seeing the future is to imagine and work to create things that lack reality. You prepare for the future by adding reality to your dreams of greatness.
Don’t be content with remaining where you are. Be grateful for your dreams. Make your dreams a template for daily action. Keep having great dreams.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and a virtual, hybrid and in-person workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected]
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