“Never follow your dreams follow your efforts.”

The full quote is actually: “Never follow your dreams. Follow your effort. It’s not about what you can dream of. That’s easy. It’s about whether or not it’s important enough to you to do the work to be ready to be successful in that business.”

This quote comes from the not-so-shy not-so-reserved billionaire Mark Cuban during an online Q&A he did for the Freakonomics blog. The full Q&A is here.

Well the quote is so simple and poignant that it made me write about it. LOL This is like an epiphany for me; I’ve seen the light. Of course you shouldn’t follow your dreams. Nobody does when you think about it. Most people follow their efforts. Sure ability matters, who you know, as well as other factors like genetic endowments, and the resources you have at your disposal play a role in your capacity for success in this life; But most success stories don’t come down to a genetic lottery or dumb luck. The dream is the beginning. The dream is the easy part as Mark said. Sayings like “you can achieve if you believe,” is true but what have you done, what do you do? I just gotta say that’s awesome.

I’ve always been a dreamer; sometimes a deep thinker. Like too deep. Like so deep I can’t get out of my own head. I forget sometimes where I am in the present, I fantasize and pine for an idyllic future that I have not prepared for myself. That’s probably why I write blog posts like “When does the dream end?” and when I’m in my dream state I write “Utopians make the world go round” part 1 and get inspired by Utopians make the world go round
part 2. I get inspired because I wish I was one of the people I read and write about. But they followed their efforts after they had visions, they acted. Well I stopped doing New Year’s resolutions because I never kept to them after a few months, but I know I have to change my life, I have to do something that makes a difference in the world.

It all clicks now-Yea It all clicks LOL.

When does the dream end?

I wrote a song called Lucid Dream finished it late last year but never really shared it with anyone. It’s because I’ve become very conflicted with this song. It’s called Lucid Dream. It’s about shaping this life to fit your imagination and desired plans, purpose……….

I don’t know if I feel that way nowadays. So much is out of control, so much is given to misfortune or good fortune, sometimes it feels like you just prepare for the best and plan for the worst- that’s it………………………………………..

I hate these type of thoughts! Maybe I hate reality LOL! Is that what it all comes down to? “Hope for the best pray for the worst?” It’s real. But what are most of us doing to increase our chances at success or economic repair? I believe our capability as humans is far reaching and I know of history’s luminaries and the not so illustrious who have succeeded after years of failure. But sometimes, sometimes….sometimes……………………………………………………..you just need time to recharge.
Here’s the song for those who stumble upon this page.

Lyrics

I live ina lucid dream feel the breeze as I venture/
through a blurry scene/
autonomy in this dimension/
I see it all clear with eyes closed/
I forego the drudgery the monotony the panicking hypocrisy/
No more violence just a silencing/
As I stroll through the peace/
The quiet ambiance my transport till I find my release/
I can touch the cosmos celestial bodies without angel wings/
TO think they can say my visions are the stuff that’re made of make believe/
mabye that’s why they sleep on me and do not see me seriously/
Lend ears to the blind, hearts to the frauds and try to live vicariously/
Me I’m in the twilight while they all wonder wearily with my head in the clouds throught turbulent skies as the music carries me/
Away from the trance at the hands of the sand man, I dream but I don’t sleep/
I view a plane to sustain my glance, control my destiny/
I do it all before silent night/
I fit the world to my insights/
The saddest part about most of y’all /
most of yall will never try….

2nd Verse

I see 4 walls one ceiling one floor there’s no clocks but one door nobody knows where I’ve gone/

Time waves every second/

Calender pages leave men breathless/

But in my mind the world stretches/

I can raise my reach to heaven/

I await the noble thief, body-snatcher that brings me peace/

The accomplice to my escape, my only hope a lucid dream/

Gives me patience when there’s no ventillation for me to breath/

See there’s no suffocation where I go, room for inhalation where I’ll be/

In a stratosphere where hatred and fear will no long surround me/

And I no longer have to swim with zombies and feel like I am drowning!/

There’s more light than heat, there’s more signal than noise/

If you can hear the shrill calling then I welcome you to join/

My brother told me no man is an island but I avoid the adage/

and I challenge the orthodoxy of the norm/

The unknown doesn’t scare me I’m still alive through the storm/

My eyes dry by the fire that burns/

I climb high altitudes to find my way home/

I bitch about the Economy because I don’t know what else to do.

NEWS FLASH!

I’m a dreamer stuck in a Dystopian reality

Graphic Design is now Web Design

Web Design is now Web Development

So you are now unqualified for a webdesign job if you don’t know html 1-5, XML, CSS 1-3, Java, Javascript, JQuery, PHP, Java, C#, Actionscript 1-3(4 coming), MySQL and Ruby on Rails, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop? And even more impressively someone with this skill set is only deserving of $25 MAXIMUM SALARY!!! LOL What the Fuck?!

Another reason I’m whining is because I can’t fit all of this into Twitter but that’s neither her nor there.

What is one to do?

I want to get pissed at employers but if they don’t have resources to hire 3 different experts or professionals, they have  little choice but to do this- take the job requirements of 3 positions and squeeze them into one. And of course, this penny-pinching mentality has extended beyond hiring practices.  For instance, look at the healthcare field. I know nurses who tell me when a staff member leaves they are not being replaced as they used to do in the past. The  hospital administration is leaving the position vacant and asking the nurses and other workers on the floor to take care of more patients. I’ve heard this from my peers who are teachers; school admins are taking the same measures to cut down on spending. O yea, this is why I never bitched and moaned about the economy last year like I did in prior years.  I don’t have any frickin solutions! Who does except for the vocal few(Ron Paul, Max Keiser, et al) who are marginalized by less rational voices and opinions(all the people who voted for Newt Gingrich and Romney in the primaries WOW). I believe if Ron Paul ran as a democrat he’d have a much more successful presidential campaign.