Never Give Up On Your Dreams

I have heard this story about Barack Obama attending the 2000 Democratic Convention a number of times, but it bears repeating.

From The Economist:

EIGHT YEARS ago Barack Obama was thoroughly humiliated at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. He had recently lost a congressional primary in Chicago, and both his political and personal bank accounts were empty. The rental car company rejected his credit card. He failed to get hold of a floor pass and ended up watching the proceedings on a big screen in a car park. He returned home with his tail between his legs before the week was out—and lef the celebrations to the people who mattered, not least the Clintons, who took every chance to seize the limelight from the Gores.

This year Mr Obama is the Democratic convention. The Pepsi Centre in Denver will be chock-a-block with people cheering about “hope” and “change”. On August 28th Mr Obama will deliver his acceptance speech at a local football stadium, Invesco Field, before an audience of more than 70,000. The man who could not get a floor pass in Los Angeles has a better than even chance of winning the presidential election in November—the current Intrade market odds are running 61 to 38 in his favour—and thereby becoming America’s first non-white president.

Eight years. That's all it took from the time Barack Obama was arguably at one of the lowest points in his life to reach the pinnacle (and hopefully an even higher pinnacle on November 4th) of his life.

Clearly, he never gave up on his dreams. What could we achieve if we kept our focus clear in our sight, our dreams pure in our heart, and ignored all the nay-sayers?