Many of the greatest advancements in human history were achieved by those that dared to dream big. From Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons, to the Wright Brother’s first flight, to Bell’s telephone, history’s course has been charted by people with the desire to make a change.
While positive change is always lauded, the small steps pioneers often take to create that change are seldom acknowledged. Galileo experimented much to improve the telescope to see the moons, and the Wright brothers had many failed flight attempts from which they learned and refined their flight models.
This failure to acknowledge the small steps can sometimes make the small strides toward our goals seem insurmountably large. Here are a few reminders of successful people who started with a dream and a few small steps. We’d like to remind you that whether you’re trying to hit that next sales target or to drive adoption of a new product line, a few small steps can add up to a big accomplishment.
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett, well known as “Oracle of Omaha” is arguably one of the wisest and wealthiest investors of all time. He is the Chairman, CEO and the largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, the fifth largest public company in the world. Buffet started to unfurl his dream of being a successful investor and businessman by starting small. Be it investing in shares at age 11, or running a small business at 13 as a paperboy and selling his own horse racing tip sheet, with all the experience gained from his early ventures, he went on to establish Buffett Partnership in Omaha, with huge success. His unshakable confidence in his future success, and commitment to taking steps toward it drove him to becoming one of the richest and most powerful men in the world today.
Bill Gates
The entrepreneur, philanthropist Bill Gates is as many know, a Harvard university dropout. He was a dream chaser, leading him to quit college in pursuit of something bigger. His passion for computer programming blossomed at a young age of 13 with a simple tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed users to play against the computer. Later he went on to start Microsoft, the world’s most prolific operating system. Gates’ dream was “A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on every computer”, and his relentless pursuit of that vision led him to remarkable success.
Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirubhai Ambani is another example of a business tycoon who persevered all the obstacles in life to transform his dreams into reality. Dhirubhai Ambani was once asked a question, “How did you become so successful?” His answer, “It is an indisputable fact that electrons with high energy keep on moving to higher orbits, I too was like an electron, from petrol pump in Yemen to Reliance, I kept on moving. My colleagues who shared this energy also jumped up while those who did not remain in the orbits they had started in.” His dream to be a successful business tycoon germinated in 1950s when he started working in a Yamen firm with just 1 rupee in his hand. In 1958, Ambani moved to India and ventured into spices and textile industry and in 1966 he went on to establish Reliance Industries which was listed among top Fortune 500 list of world’s biggest companies by revenues in 2012.
These three men started small to transform their vision into reality. Nothing seemed impossible to them as they had a dream and a burning desire to achieve it. So, dream big, break it down into small achievable steps, and start paving a path toward it. Remember! Anyone who ever left a mark in this world had a dream.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett
http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520#early-life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhirubhai_Ambani
