At various points in our lives, we find ourselves considering the future. It could be simple as, where will I be tonight or next week? What will the world be like fifty years from now?
The questions we are asking could be small (almost inconsequential), or they could be far-reaching and life-changing.
As entrepreneurs, we are part visionary and part realist; we have to see where we want to get to, but also understand and work out in a real way how to achieve it. It does us no good to see ourselves living the life we strive for if we have no way of charting a path to get to that point.
One of the greatest strengths we have as humans are our ability to dare to be better or more significant than what we are or were intended to be.
Lord Tennyson wrote in Ulysses:
- We are not now that strength which in old days
- Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
- One equal temper of heroic hearts,
- Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
- To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
It is our strength of will that allows us to keep moving forward and our hope that there is always a better future just around the corner. If you look at the state of the world as presented in the news media at present, you see many terrible and dismaying tendencies, but despite all these events, we still hold out hope for a brighter future.
As entrepreneurs we embody Tennyson’s words because we are always striving to do better, seeking new futures and new avenues, finding new ways to bring us closer to our dreams, and we never yield to failure. We never give up.
There are times when you might feel your strength, your will leaving you, but your heroic hearts, your hopes always bring the power back to you. Balance vision with reality and navigate a path to the future that you desire.
The future is not the undiscovered country, but rather a country not yet born until you decide. There is power in decision. Don’t think about what decision to make or whether it is the right one, make one, anyone… and you are one step closer to your goal because of the simple fact you are acting on it.
