Dreams, manifest.

Look around you. Unless you’re fortunate to be reading this in the middle of a beautiful forest or desert then everything in your room or immediate vicinity was made by a company. The screen you’re reading this on. The plug that charged it. The seat you’re sat on. The building you’re sat in. The pavement that leads to that building. The clothes you’re wearing and the food you ate not too long ago. Everything was made by a company.

Those companies were started by people. Ambitious people with a dream who managed to — over months, years, decades or longer — create something that found its way into your life and the experiences you have. Those things you see were once someone’s dream, made a reality.

These dreams represent a tiny percentage of those that get to this point. Others might not make it this far. Many fail along the way and the vast majority don’t even get started because the people holding those dreams don’t know where to begin and haven’t historically had society’s permission, encouragement, or guidance to start.

Small businesses are the backbone of the economy. They represent the majority of jobs and companies and a huge portion of income across most countries. These very businesses were built from small dreams into the employers that today support homes, families, and livelihoods around the world every single day.

So what of unrealised dreams? An unrealised dream is a beautiful product you don’t have the opportunity to experience; an unrealised dream is a way to make life easier but a way you have to live without; an unrealised dream is the catalyst for jobs that have never had the opportunity support families looking for work. An unrealised dream isn’t just a shame, it’s a tragedy and an opportunity cost that the world and humanity should no longer have to naively endure.

Everything that humanity has ever achieved was because one person — or indeed a group of people — leaped into the unknown. People who had faith and belief in themselves to make something happen. It’s the reason we have modern medicine. It’s the reason we can check in with loved ones and share our past memories with them, whenever we need to, instantly. It’s the reason we have the privilege to be able to help others up the ladder where we can (and we must).

So, what if more people leaped?

What if we’re missing out on the greatest inventions, the greatest experiences, the greatest shows, the greatest opportunities because people are kept from leaping?

Unacceptable.

Today, we have the technology, the self-awareness, the capability, and indeed the responsibility to unlock the opportunity for anyone with a dream to take that leap.

Not into the unknown, no; but with a hand to guide them, using knowledge built up over generations of self-exploration and the ever-deepening understanding of psychology, industry, and impact. A guide to help them avoid the failing their predecessors have had to endure due to the sheer ignorance their locked dreams have suffered. A guide to help them succeed and build the thing they wish to see in the world to light, so that others may experience that light too.

A better future is possible. A better future is coming. At a time when the American dream is ever in question, I say, long live the human dream and all the good it brings.

/end.