Where Would We Be Without Dreamers?

"She's a daydreamer", the teacher admonishes the little girl's parents. "If she can't pay attention in class, she'll never succeed." This is where the seed of imagination is usually stifled. As children, we're told that our exciting daydreams are useless and simply flights of fancy. This is where we get our first brush with the naysayers. There will always be naysayers who tell the visionaries that their dream is impossible or impractical. In fact, the naysayers will usually far outnumber the visionaries and their supporters. However, it is crucial that the visionary keep the dream alive. If the naysayers won throughout history, humankind wouldn’t have accomplished very much.

Just to give you a few examples, the naysayers said the earth couldn’t be round and had to be stationary. After all, anyone can see the earth is a flat plane and doesn’t move. They said a vehicle that was heavier than air couldn’t fly…and then the Wright brothers came along. It was impossible to take the pain out of surgery, they said…until anesthesia was invented. “No human being can run a mile in under 4 minutes.” Experts from around the world had done the calculations and found that the human body simply can’t move that fast…then in 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes and 59 seconds (Current record: 3 minutes and 43 seconds).

The naysayers said the sound barrier couldn’t be broken, living organisms couldn’t be cloned, mankind couldn’t reach the moon, the atom couldn’t be split, and computers couldn’t be made small enough to fit on a desktop, let alone a laptop. They also said television would never be as popular as radio, the telephone would never take the place of the telegraph, the car would never replace the horse drawn carriage and that airplanes wouldn’t replace boats as the choice for international travel.

Just imagine if the visionaries had listened to the naysayers. Where would we be today? Human beings have accomplished so much because of our ability to be creative and to question. If we do not explore beyond the boundaries of what is accepted to be true, we will never discover anything more than we already know and we won’t become more than we already are.

It is very important for those who have a vision to keep that vision alive no matter how many people may say it’s impossible, ridiculous or only a dream. Imagination is the fertile soil of creation and discovery and without it, new frontiers will never be broached. Don’t succumb to the naysayers and give up on something that could prove to be a fantastic gift to the entire world. See your vision, not as a mere idea you had one day, but as an important message to be delivered for the benefit of all. Keep the vision alive!

Blessings,

Jason Hundley