Of all the quotes I’ve come across, Les Brown’s “Richest Man in the Graveyard” resonates strongly with my imagination and emotional pride. We are all creative creatures, with our unique talents. Somehow, we lose ourselves in the day-to-day expectations of a society that exists to keep the wheels of commerce and industry turning, to set limits around our lives that keep us safe and fed, ensuring that we stay focused on the aspirations for progress and reward. Like mice following the bait. Our dreams and aspirations are put aside and before we know it, time is running out. We are on our deathbed wondering what happened. What prevented us from living the dream?
We can all make plausible excuses. We didn’t get a chance. This is not how our lives worked. Too many people trusted us. Each excuse adds to the weight of unfulfilled dreams on our shoulders. One common reason is that people just didn’t know where to start. If only they did, then things might have turned out differently. How do you take advantage of that creative idea and turn it into gold?
The first step is to get it out of your head. Write it. Use the ten digits you were born with at the end of your hands and translate that inner voice into your plan for a different life, possibly the life you imagined but never dared to dream of. Let that spark flow.
When I established my business, I realized my passion for helping dream makers turn their ideas into real life by helping them focus on what they want to achieve and turn their ideas into action. We’ve helped clients take vague notions and make them real, many of whom have won awards for what they have accomplished.
My personal dream is to create as many entrepreneurs as possible who can contribute to enlightened change in the world, one community at a time. So I designed an app to capture some of those creative ideas so they can be turned into a plan for accessing grants. As I put it together, I realized that it could be used beyond grants, as a powerful tool to generate ideas and put them on paper in a tangible business case. Imagine being able to act on at least one good idea before it disappears down the corridors of forgotten memory.