What inspires you?
What are your dreams?
What is it you want?
Where do you see yourself in the next 90 days or longer?
These are questions you may ask yourself from time to time.
But following your dreams isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.
Watch a movie about someone following his/her dreams, and the conventional narrative formula leads you to believe that, after one or two hiccups and a couple of hours, you’ll eventually get exactly what you wanted.
Such trials may intermittently haunt the minds of the most resilient individuals, or perhaps even persistently loom overhead.
Of course, none of this means that the pursuit isn’t worthwhile–in fact, the experience of pursuing your dreams is often more rewarding and more enlightening than the achievement of your dreams themselves.
I was brought up believing in the line, “Build it and they will come.” from the 1989 film, Field of Dreams.
The real world operates somewhat differently; for some people, this dream path may pan out, but for most of us, the road to our dreams is long, challenging, and unexpected.
“Build it, add value and then market it“, might be a more accurate line to believe in and from which to start building your business.
But as micro business owners ourselves, we intimately understand the multitude of reasons that drive individuals to embark on this entrepreneurial journey.
Some seek the autonomy to seize control of their livelihoods, while others envision expanded earning capacities.
Many yearn for the elusive harmony between work and personal life, embracing the promise of flexibility.
However, we cannot overlook the fact that alongside these aspirations, these dreams, the path of small business ownership is lined with formidable challenges.
The late nights spent hunched over the kitchen table, navigating the labyrinth of paperwork, bear witness to the dedication required.
The ever-present spectre of cash flow issues and the weight of escalating costs cast shadows of concern.
Anxiety intertwines with thoughts of economic downturns, leaving us small business owners perpetually pondering the potential impact on our ventures.
Through a carefully curated selection of books, video clips, articles and podcasts, Closer to the Dream seeks to provide a regular weekly source of inspiration to support you through the various challenges of running your micro business and get us all ‘closer to the dream’ we had when we first created our business.
