Don’t stop dreaming

We can spend too much time talking about vision and too little talking about dreams. Dreams drive achievement.

Narayana Murthy is an Indian electrical engineer who grew up in a typical middle-class family. What made him different was that he dreamed of building a world-class company.

In April 2009, Forbes rated Infosys among the 5 best performing companies in the software and services sector in the world. In 2009, Infosys was considered one of the BusinessWeek's 50 Most Innovative Companies. Murthy is in the global “Top 10 Most Admired CEOs” list and is worth billions.

Imagine the number of people who must have told him that he was dreaming if he thought a world-class company could be based in India. He kept on dreaming and inspired an entire generation of Indian entrepreneurs.

Don’t Lose Touch With What is Right

Nice guys can finish first. You don’t have to stop being a nice guy to succeed.

You will not succeed if you do not show initiative. Many smart people simply are not interested in following through on their ideas. The result? They languish, get bitter and drink too much.

You better have a passionate belief in your ideas, if you want others to take them seriously. Just ask Art Fry - the inventor of the Post-it Note who had to fight 3M bureaucracy to get the idea through.

To succeed, you will have to be bold. And, stubborn. And persistent. Win them over with charm.

So, believe in your ideas and go for it.