Have you ever played the “if I ever win the lottery” game? You know what I’m talking about. You hear the commercials for the multi-millions (it usually has to be mega millions to get my attention) and start spending in your head.
Sometimes I do that with my goals. I’ll spend some time thinking about what I’d do to move my business ahead if I had an “X” amount of extra cash. It helps me to think about creative ways to do those things without the extra cash.
A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to hear a woman named Carolyn Hardy speak. She’s a dynamic woman with a business track-record you can hardly believe. If you don’t know of her, do yourself a favor and ask Mr. Google to introduce you.
She was telling the audience about her business background and there was one question she asked herself that left me speechless (not an easy task, by the way).
As she was transitioning from one career into business ownership, she told the crowd, she sat at her kitchen table and asked herself, “What would I do if I had $25,000,000?”
I gotta tell you, I thought I was a dreamer. But outside of the lottery fantasies, I had never, ever asked myself that question. After hearing Carolyn, I wondered why I hadn’t. Why, I suddenly asked myself, did I limit my dream cash to an extra $250? Or $2,500? Or even $25,000? As the old saying goes, time is money. So is effort. So, it seems, are dreams. So if dreams can literally turn into cash, why were mine so….small?
I can tell you they aren’t any more. No, any time I find myself thinking, “if I just had an extra ‘X’ amount of cash,” I make sure I add an extra 0. Or two or three or six. Why? Simple. The more 0’s, the bigger the dream. The bigger the dream, the more creative I get to be and the more people I need to include. Adding 0’s is about making a bigger impact not having zero impact.
So, how many 0’s are in your dreams? What have you got to lose by adding a few more? Actually, what have you got to gain by adding a few more?
Carolyn Hardy turned that question into purchasing a business for $9 million and then selling it, just five years later, for $30 million. There are a few zeros between those numbers.
Who would have thought there could be so much power in zero?
Dream big, friends. It’s okay to take small steps. But you must dream big.