Step 4: Be Aggressive
Take big, (i.E. aggressive) risks, but don’t be stupid – ’cause big rewards make calculated risks worth your while.
Here’s where it gets a little tricky, in order to achieve great rewards you have to be willing to be aggressive in chasing your dream:
“You need to throw caution to the wind. Forget safe. Ignore achievable. Disregard measurable and go with the really BIG dream of yours. It should be unrealistically big. I’m talking immeasurably huge. You heard me right: an out-of-your-mind crazy you-can’t-be-serious-for-even-thinking-that-you-could-pull-this-off kind of idea.” (“Big idea: Be unrealistic!” ASMP Strictly Business blog )
But once you’re committed to to pulling this idea off, you also need to do everything possible to mitigate the physical danger. That’s part of putting feet to your dream. Understand the risks, weigh the rewards and see how you can keep the physical problems as manageable as possible. Stay aggressive!
Plan, prepare and finally execute your dream.
I, for one, wouldn’t have just gone to Afghanistan on my own without any planning. My preparations ranged from the simple (buying cold weather clothing, figuring out how my gear will be able to function in subzero temperatures and keeping everything powered in Kabul where the electricity is somewhere between 170-240 V for about 19 hours or so) to complex precautions (from getting special insurance, securing the correct paperwork to having a team of people on the ground, who would increase my chances of staying safe and sound.)
BTW A huge shout out to the guys at Pactec, without whom “On Wings of Hope” would never have happened. Those guys are awesome.
After all, if you don’t agressivly act on your dream, if you don’t put feet to it, it’s just a pipe dream. However, if you do act without a plan and without adequate preparation, your dream can quickly devolve into a nightmare.
You’re wrong if you think big dreams happen in the absence of being willing to take aggressive, calculated, well planned and thoroughly weighed risks.
Do you think I’m being too aggressive? Chime in on the comments below or call me out on twitter @moviesbydepuhl.
This post is the 5th in a series of blog post based on my speaking at the “Dream Bigger Conference” in February of 2014, giving a talk titled: “You’re wrong!” If you missed the first four post, just follow the link to read the introduction to the “Dream Bigger” series!
If you doubt that being aggressive in pursuing your dream – you gotta read the next post in this series (It’s gonna be posted on Monday, March 17th at 10:15am) – I’ll talk about some of the rewards “On Wings of Hope” has been generating in a post called “Dream Big: Win big.”
[…] a crowed field of competitors. Last year I spoke at a conference and spoke about why we need to dream big and take aggressive risks. To get back to Mr. Buffet, you shouldn’t take blind risks, but rather make sure that you […]
Stacy, thanks! You gotta take it more than seriously. You gotta do something that sets you apart from everyone else (next Monday I’ll talk about how to market big!) What you need to do is different for everyone. Find a passion, push yourself, mitigate risk and go for it! I’d love to hear stories of how you have done that (or are planning to do that) in your business …
I fully agree. It isn’t about taking chances like replying to that “you won and African lottery” email. It is about going full steam in your desired direction and having the confidence in yourself that it is going to work. It will work. You can’t want something and kinda, sorta just dabble in it. No one will take you seriously. If you want it to be more than a hobby, act like it is more than a hobby.
So I say, yes! Well said!