What does dreaming have to do with success? Dreams are the most powerful success tools you have, so if you’re not dreaming, you’re done. Proverbs 29:18 says it perfectly; “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

In Think and Grow Rich, the 1937 Napoleon Hill self-help classic, Hill said the common thread among successful people is a dream they have cherished for a period of time. 

Here are three abbreviated success stories, all triggered by dreams. 

Larry Page and Sergey Brin were college students who dreamed about organizing information on the web to create what we now call a search engine. In 1998, a business man who thought this pair was onto something, invested $100K in their venture to help them get started. They named it GOOGLE. Can you say $750 a share today? Just a couple of young guys with a dream.

Sara Blakely dreamed about a more comfortable and flattering footless body-shaping undergarment. Working from her Atlanta apartment; she designed, developed, and produced Spanx. She became a millionaire by age 30, and at 41, the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. Just a woman with a dream.

In the late1920’s, as the Great Depression approached and most people lived hand to mouth; two brothers, Roy and Walter had a dream of creating wholesome entertainment for people who really needed something to smile about. Nearly a century later, all of us have relaxed, laughed, and contributed financially to the empire they built; The Walt Disney Company. 47 years after Walt’s death, this giant is still growing, worth $86 billion and employing 166,000. Just two brothers with a dream.

Ok, so maybe you don’t see yourself accomplishing feats similar to these folks, but I’ll bet they didn’t see it either in the beginning. It’s not important to duplicate their feats, but you owe it to yourself and your family to claim your piece of the American Dream and personal financial independence. Regardless what the objectives are on YOUR radar screen, it’s virtually impossible to help others if you are debt ridden and in financial bondage.  

Success means different things to different people, so your dream might be to help your parents financially during their golden years or to assist siblings with unexpected medical costs. You might be passionate about supporting charities or missions, or providing some sort of family legacy for generations to come.

Whatever YOUR particular dream is, it will be strengthened by visualizing. You must be able to see yourself succeeding, so consider actions like these to cause your subconscious to kick in and nudge your dreams out of the closet: 

Obtain pictures or take photos of what your dream looks like, and place them where they will be seen multiple times each day.

Commit your dream to written form and post the description in high visibility areas of your environment where they can’t be overlooked, e.g., in your bathroom, on the rearview mirror in your vehicle, or on the refrigerator door.

In addition to visualizing you can accelerate this process if you:

Share your dream with your spouse, because when you both see something from the same perspective it will create synergy, making it harder to fail unless, of course, you just give up and quit.

Hang out with like-minded people. It’s much easier to accomplish your goal if your friends and acquaintance share a similar mindset and are working toward their dream similarly. 

Avoid negative people that continually throw cold water on every positive idea and thought you have. It’s almost impossible to win if you spend your time with folks like this, so make sure to “soar with the eagles” instead of “pecking around the barnyard with the turkeys.”

If you have yet to get your copy of Sell is NOT a Four Letter Word, here is a Carlton Fletcher quote from his Albany Herald book review in late December: Written by a first-time author based on his 40-plus years as a salesman, a sales manager and a sales trainer, “$ell” is a collection of two and three-page standalone segments that each use wit and humor – “Doug-isms” – to teach lessons vital to today’s salespeople.” You can order it here and I’ll ship it FREE.