Small beginnings
You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you cannot count the number of apples in a seed. – Robert Schuller
Coca-cola is the world’s largest marketer of soft drinks with a presence in more than 185 counties. It controls about 45 percent of the world’s soft drink market. Coca-cola is renowned to be the best-known brand name and most universally recognized word in the world. It might however interest you to know that this giant soft drink producer started in a small way in 1886 when Dr. Pemberton, a poor old patent medicine man, sought a substitute to counter the growing influence and evil of alcohol. Success, as you know, is finding a need and filling it. It is locating a problem and solving it, or discovering a hurt and healing it.
Pemberton first produced his soft drink brand on a three-legged kettle. Hmm! Those were indeed days of small beginnings. As a Candler later saw what many eyes couldn’t see, he purchased the formula for a mere $500, and the rest is history. Millions of liters of ‘coke’ are today produced all over the world in large factories, providing livelihood to hundreds of thousands of employees, marketers, contractors, suppliers, traders and lots more, and satisfaction to its millions of consumers.
One thing we must learn is never to despise the days of small beginnings; just as children and living things grow, so do dreams and ideas. Out of small seeds come the giant trees of the forest. Every forest is the product of seeds. What you hold in your hand may look small, but it could have the potential of becoming great.
Most great achievers were mocked and ridiculed at the beginning. What many do not know however is that there could be no great harvest without planting seeds. The future is not something that arrives by accident. If you are too big to do small things, you will be too small to do big things. A dream is but the projection of the morrow and reminds us of the hope that lies ahead. It is seeing a future that is better than today.
What you see determines what you become. Tomorrow belongs to dreamers, not wishers, thinkers, go-getters, complainers and grumblers. Tomorrow is for players, not spectators; believers not doubters; actors, not cowards. Those who see the future are always willing to take appropriate steps to make it happen. You cannot do the incredible if you are reluctant to dream the impossible.
Battles are usually won and lost in the mind. Never be ashamed of your smallness and don’t be afraid to start small. To be small is not a sickness, reproach, or disgrace: all great edifices have started small. There is a man in every boy and a woman in every girl. Smallness is only a stage. Nobody was ever born great, but everyone has the potential of greatness within. For greatness is what you become, based on what you do. You may be born in a manger, but you don’t have to stay there. Those who want to start life from the top may have to wait a long time. Don’t forget that the only job you start from the top is the job of digging a hole.
Expand your horizon. Develop the winner’s mentality. Imbibe attitudes that count. Where you are coming from cannot determine where you could go. You must live without ceilings. You can achieve greatness. On the pathway to destiny, what matters is your dream, vision, generated passion, your willingness to go the extra mile and dare to be different, to persevere and keep on keeping on until you reach your dreamland with faith and conviction.
According to Zadox Robinwits: “A man’s dreams are an index of his greatness” What you see is what you become. Some of us carry pictures of great edifices in our mind’s eyes, of the things we want to achieve or become. Tragically however many have remained where they are because they are not willing to start small. We don’t give birth to grown-ups, we give birth to babies. That’s the process set by the Creator. Adam messed up everything because he started big. He became great without passing through the process. You don’t reach the top by looking at the top. When you see a man at the top, find out what he did at the bottom. Things don’t just happen. We make them happen.
Remember that everyone has a piece of good news inside of him. There’s a potential hero in everyone and a heroine in every woman. The chances are that you could be the next celebrity if only you were willing to dream dreams and take the right step. Permit me to remind you that the greatest stories have not yet been written. The best songs have not yet been sung. The best books have not yet been written. The best companies have not yet come on stage. The best products are yet to be displayed.
Every day new stars are born, celebrities are unveiled, Mr. Nobody becomes Mr. Somebody, and greatness is discovered in unexpected places. Look at the mirror; you may be looking at the next legend. Think big, and your deeds will grow. Don’t join the company of small thinkers who limit their dreams to the obstacles and challenges they see around. Small thinkers don’t dream great dreams.
Many people have little hope for a better tomorrow because they hardly see beyond their problems. Of course the world we live in is embroiled with all manners of crises, which is precisely why it needs dreamers. The most celebrated persons in history were simply dreamers who wanted something better, something more or superior. They were willing to engage their time, energy, resources, and indeed their very lives to bring into manifestation the picture they carried in their minds.
Success is not an accident. Life is a fight against many forces. Anything that comes easily is most often not worth much. Don’t tell me that Asa Candler didn’t risk something or face challenges on his way to turning his dream into reality. As Muhammad Ali said, “He who is not courageous enough to take the risk will accomplish nothing.”
It is your birthright to dream great dreams, to imagine noble, lofty, heroic, stately, magnificent, wonderful and significant things. There’s enough room at the top for you. Don’t allow someone else to take your place. You could become a superstar, an icon and role model in your own right. You could stand out. You could excel. You could do well. There’s space for every imaginable dream under the sun. The sky is too wide for two stars to collide. If others could make it, you too can.
Permit me to end this discourse with the words of Jim Rohn: “Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.” Remember that smallness is only a stage. Let others resign themselves to a life of mediocrity and insignificance, but not you. You are next in line for a miracle. Your own story will one day be written in style, if you don’t give up on yourself.
Welcome to your dream world. Keep on dreaming, keep on believing, keep on hoping, keep on taking steps, keep on keeping on, keep on winning, and keep on making things happen.
Habu Dawaki
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