Family Members: Kevin

I think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams because early on he decided to go for them.  By this I mean when the opportunity to fulfill them happened to come along he put everything he had into making it happen for himself.  This allowed him to achieve many of his dreams when others tried to tell him it was impossible.  It is inspiring that he could accomplish so many of these childhood dreams when so many of us would have walked away from them when roadblocks were put in front of him.

I do feel that dreaming is important because dreamers can make some of the best entrepreneurs.  Dreamers have a different way of looking at something and when everyone tells them that something can’t be done they can still believe that it could be done differently.  I say this with a dose of skepticism because if we do nothing but sit around and dream about how things can be different then the dreams will never have a chance to be acted upon.  If we never take any action to implement our dreams then they can never come to fruition.  I abhor the idea of just sitting around and “manifesting” things to be better or different.

One of my childhood dreams would be to go to space.  I think at some point we all dream of being an astronaut but the path to get there back then was far more complicated.  When I was a kid I could have never imagined that someone could pay to go to outer space.  This was never even a thought on the radar of anybody.  I do believe that this could be a possibility for me during my lifetime.  However, this will very likely be dependent on me being able to afford the trip.

One of the biggest takeaways from the material this week is that all humans are entrepreneurs whether they see themselves in that way or not.  The idea that we all have to be entrepreneurs of some kind to continue to move forward in the careers we choose was eye-opening for me.  As we are currently going through the processes of starting up our own business again it will be far easier to see myself in this light than I previously could have.

The concept of being adaptable rang very true to me.  Throughout my career working in retail, this was the name of the game.  Something would always go wrong if you weren’t planning for it.  It is easy to think that something might not ever happen but it just as easily could.  I’ve found over the years that the more people are involved with a project the more likely it is that something can go wrong.  It also means there is more help to guide things back on course as long as everyone is equally prepared.

The idea of taking intelligent risks is something that will be hard to overcome.  Much like the material mentions we are hardwired to overestimate risk as a safety mechanism.  by seeing that the sky is always falling we would never have to worry about getting wet when it rains because we would never be out in the first place.  There is not telling what opportunities we might have missed out on when it wasn’t raining though.  I like the way the material tells us that if we aren’t going to become homeless, die, or be permanently unemployed then it might not be that bad of a risk.  I think that putting risky things into perspective can help us take risks that could have potentially larger rewards.