Building your dreams

 

If you had told me years ago that I would be contributing to a blog, I would have laughed in your face unashamedly. The ugly laugh. There would be hooting and slapping of knees. I would have wiped the tears from my eyes and told you “Good one”. Well, here I find myself. A contributing editor on a blog. Where my opinion will exist in digital eternity. O goodie.

 

So when in doubt, I do what most do these days – “To the Internet”. Frantic searches for “how to” infographics; scrolling though endless websites listing anything and everything. Truly Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole kind of stuff. However, in amongst all this, I got distracted. As you do. I had wandered down a virtual alleyway and found the below piece of random inspiration:

 

Build your own dreams,

or someone else will hire

you to build theirs.

And it got me thinking… A dangerous pastime… I know.

Who’s building their own dream on their own? Nobody does it by themselves. There’s always experience from the first job, advice from mentors and parental units, funding and faith money; first offices in truly inspiring places like “the garage”. Oh no. All successful, profitable businesses comprise of just one person. Probably very stressed. I mean, who’s making them coffee?

No matter what your pursuits, business, endeavours, dreams or whatever, everyone strives for success in some form or another. Granted, everyone has their own definition of success, but for the sake of this article let’s narrow it down to the opportunity to “fight another day”. Business is difficult. Business is competitive. It’s built on old school thinking and traditions, and has to constantly adapt to new technologies, ideas and expectations. No one does it alone. Partnerships, support and opportunities exist in your own organisation or you learn to recognise it in others. And then get them on board. I hate to say it, but network, people, network.

And this might be naive, but the excitement and joy we hear on the phone when talking to subcontractors, main contractors or consultants when they’ve won a tender, sounds exactly the same – Beers all round and an afternoon off.

The trick? Hire the right people to build your dream.

And maybe learn to golf.