Dare to Dream

We dare to dream, big dreams, and dreams that inspire many. Yet, we often fail to reach those dreams. However, just reaching for those dreams can make a difference in the world. Even falling short of our lofty dreams means that we are reaching for high ideals.

So many times, realizing our dreams is beyond our capabilities. We reach out to others, sharing the dream and hoping that they will help us move towards those dreams. Yet, flaws in our own character, flaws in our business model, flaws in our business plans, and mistakes by others can prevent us from reaching those dreams.

Yet, we dream on. And we work to change. We change our business model. We change our business plans and pivot quickly to a new possibility. We work to transform our flaws into assets by using them in new ways, for new purposes, and use them for good for all. Dreams combined with transformation can be powerful.

Our dreams change over time. We learn more of what is possible. We change who we are and change our values. Sometimes, we walk away from a dream - letting others take charge of the dream and how to make it happen.

Dreams change and they change us. When we walk in the hope of our dreams, we look for the good, we help other reach their dreams, and we offer hope to those who have lost hope.

Because of these changes, dreams are best built on a deep recognition of reality. We let go of our fantasies, take deep stock of who we are, identify our own limits and flaws, and accept help from others. We are humble before our dreams.

Often, reality humbles us. Our dreams are big, but we might not be able to do them. When we see no path for our dreams to become reality, we look deep within to see what we can change and how to find a new dream. We often give up a dream in order to find a dream that better fits us and a deeper reality.

Fears can kill a dream. When we dream big, that can scare a lot of people. They will try to dissuade us from expressing that dream. Everyone who walks into the unknown has fears. As we ground ourselves deeply in our capabilities and in our support, we can face all the fears that will come. We nurture our dreams by protecting them from shame, finding the right support, pulling together the right resources, and encouraging the right people to pick up the dream and move it forward.

Dreams are hard work. We work through the obstacles, endure the setbacks, move through the failures knowing that others are dismissing our dreams. We reconnect with reality. We examine our situation with full acceptance of all of it. We salvage our dreams from the wreckage and rebuild anew. Knowing that we are right, we persevere and start to see the dream reappear in new forms and in a new light.

Dream on.

No Regrets

Not doing can lead to regrets. Rarely do regrets come over what we have done. We may have guilt over past actions and need to take actions to clean up a situation. But not following our own values and squandering opportunities builds regrets far more.

We are in a volatile situation and "hunkering down" hoping that things will get "back to normal" hardly ever works. We have to move forward or watch what we have done erode away.

But we don't know what will happen or what the results of any decision will be. Many people simply guess or trust their intuition and make a decision. Another method is to ask which decision outcome would I regret least? Going with the fewest regrets is most likely to result in results that are in tune with our values.

We act knowing that if we have made a mistake, it can be corrected. We will have more regrets when we don't manage the situation and catch that we have made a mistake.

A resilient organization can survive many a mistake and recover quickly. Often, we need to focus on quick recovery over making the perfect decision. Act, learn from the situation, and quickly recover if wrong.

Actions, however, need to be done in accordance with our values. The "Silicon Valley style" of "make mistakes quickly" works only when people make mistakes while still seeking ethical actions and following values. Far too often, that mantra has covered over unethical actions and a style of "let's see what we can get away with."

Let us act, act well, learn, and recover from the inevitable mistakes.

Risky World

Intel recently released a new version of a driver for their GPU chip. Unfortunately, the previous version was missing a single line of code which made it run 100 times slower than it should. Software bugs abound and driver bugs are especially hard to track down.