Living Your Dreams

“Why don’t we book the Indoor Stadium for the National Achievers Congress?”

That was the question that Richard Tan, my business partner, best friend, and a walking inspiration asked me in 1992.
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My immediate reply to him was, “Are you crazy? Nobody has ever used the Stadium for training purposes.

“Besides, it’s too expensive. It will kill our business. We may even become bankrupt!”

At that point in time, I must have put on my best persuasion cap. I must have have tried to exhaust all reasons to stop him from committing commercial suicide.

Richard just stopped me midstream and asked me a simple question, “Why not? Why can’t we dream and turn the dream into a reality?”

That stopped me on my track. Success Resources, the business that Richard and I founded was built on a dream.

We believed that education was one of the greatest equalisers in life. It was a fast track to help people expand their potential, enhance their performance, and achieve their pursuits.

We also decided that if we are going to be in the education business, we might as well stretch it to the highest limit.

We told ourselves, “We will bring world-class gurus to train Asians. That is the only way to raise standards and improve quality of life.

“What’s more, we will not only make the trainings available, we will also make it accessible and affordable”.

It was a big dream and looked easy until we hit the first roadblock. Our first long-distance call was to Mr Tom Hopkins and to pitch to him our noble and altruistic mission.

He loved the idea and was willing to travel all the way to Asia. Our mission was almost accomplished until he quoted to us his professional fees.

When we heard it, we felt like a meg truck had smashed into our hearts. Our dreams almost died on the spot.

Mr Hopkins was asking for more money for his three-day programme than the total revenue that we could collect for a seminar. And to make matters worst, his fees did not cover his traveling, accommodation and out-of-pocket expenses.

Still, we did not give up on our dreams. We explored all the possibilities but every one of them could not work until Richard came out with the almost-impossible idea.

The rest as I would like to tell you is history but history is not that easily crafted. Richard and I faced many more, what many people would call insurmountable challenges.

Along the way, we had more than our fair share of discouragements, even by those who were close to us but to be fair to them, they did it out of good intentions. We also went through many gnawing fears and painful failures.

The National Achievers Congress became the first and only personal development seminar to be held in the Indoor Stadium. We not only continued to fill the Stadium until we found bigger premises, we went on to to achieve similar accomplishments in many other countries.

From that eventful start, we went on to up the stakes and expand our dreams. We took on even more and even bigger challenges, but the more we focused on our dreams, the less formidable the challenges became.

Today, the National Achievers Congress has become the longest established and arguably, the most successful series of personal development seminars in the world. We had many of the biggest names and the most respected experts share cutting-edged knowledge and expertise online and through bricks and mortar to participants in more than 60 countries.

The dream continues.

Through this and many other experiences, I have learned the power of living my dreams. I have also asked for divine help to fulfill my dreams and to inspire more dreamers.

Everything great starts with a dream. Dreams are like a compass that help navigate your way to success.

When there is a dream, there is life. Without it, you will drift through the passage of time.

The greatness of your dreams will determine the greatness of your life. The quality of your dreams will shape the quality of your achievements.

As you join the ranks of dreamers, you join a group of people that can create new realities. The limit of your dream is only defined by the limit of your passion and imagination.

Dreamers see a new world before the rest of the world. They see the world not for what it is but for what it can become – and they go ahead to redesign the world.

Dreamers not only dream but they also battle all odds to turn the dream into a reality. They create and re-create the world again and again.

The best time to dream and fulfil your dream is right here, right now. There is no better time in history to do whatever you want to do, enjoy whatever you want to enjoy, and achieve whatever you want to achieve than right here, right now.

I believe our Creator has designed you to dream. He has wired you to succeed. He has destined you to turn your dreams into achievements.

Please don’t take your destiny lightly.

When you explore the expanse of your mind, you will have the opportunity to create an exciting new world.

You can create a world that has never existed before, a world that you have been longing for, one that will pave the way for a brighter future. You also have everything it takes to turn the new world in your mind into a reality.

I want to challenge you to dream the ‘impossible’ dreams. It will drive you to stretch yourself to make achieving the dreams possible.

When you plan to go farther than you thought you could, you will bring out the best from yourself. You will live life to the full.

Tragically, there are many dreamers but not many are doers. There is only a rare few who are achievers – they not only dream but they also do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true.

The key difference between those who merely dream and those who make dreams come true is just one word – Execution.

Execution is the ability to act on your dream. Execution is improving on your action to achieve your dream.

As a dreamer, you must also be a doer. It is not enough to aspire, you must act. It is also not enough to execute, you must excel in your execution.

Good motives must lead to motion. Movements must be improved to lead to achievements.

You must take the first step, and then another better step, and another even better step…until your dream come to pass.

It is the size of your dream, the tenacity of your faith in it, and the ability to take ever-improving action that will help you to go farther and faster to achieve your dream.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.