Follow Your Heart

Long ago, there was a man named Monty Roberts who was very rich. He owned a horse ranch in San Isidro. He had let his manager Sam to use his horse ranch to put on fund-raising events to raise money for youth at risk programs.

Once he threw a big housewarming party. Many people came, his old friends, business partners etc. There he was forced to tell his life's journey.

After taking a little pause, he said; "I want to tell you why I let Sam to use my horse ranch. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, racetrack to racetrack, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy's high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up."

"That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in details and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables, and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch."

He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it into his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, 'See me after class.'

The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, 'Why did I receive an F?'

The teacher said, this is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you'll have to pay large stud fees. There's no way you could ever do it.' Then the teacher added, if you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.'

The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, 'Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.' Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all.

He stated, "You can keep the F and I'll keep my dream."

Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, "I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.' He added, "The best part of the story is that two summers ago that same school teacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week." When the teacher was leaving, he said, "Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids dreams. Fortunately, you had enough gumption not to give up on yours."

Flash: Self belief is most important for us. Everyone has their goals in life, if your long-term goal is to head up your division, you might need to gain experience of managing a budget or presenting to the board. Put together an Action Plan to gain the skills for the achievement of your dreams. This will give you a sense of purpose, and it will also help you to put things in perspective and to keep you on track for career success!

Moral: Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what. No Dream is too big or too small when one works hard to live it. One should always try making dreams come true no matter what.

"Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you're worth the Trip"