“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”

I love this quote from Thomas Edison.

I think it applies to genius and to dreaming BIG!

We all need to dream BIG.  But Ol’ Thomas reminds us that we can’t stop there.  We have to be willing to work for those dreams!

That 99% of perspiration is critical.  There is no doubt.

In fact, there have been new organizations like Behance and the99percet.com that offer help with this crucial 99%.  And recently… Behance founder Scott Belsky even wrote a great book on the subject called “Making Ideas Happen.”

Again… getting stuff done… is wildly important.

But…

Lately… I’ve noticed a bit of backlash against that 1%.

It’s almost like there has been a quiet trend to bash the importance of inspiration and only focus on importance of the perspiration.

I’m not sure whether it’s fear from the tough economy… or people being tired.  It may be coming from misunderstandings or failed attempts.  But there definitely seems to be an quite trend… against dreaming BIG.

Now, very few would come out and say it.  But it’s there.

They may not say… “That’s stupid to dream like that!”  Or… “Don’t set goals like that.”

But… there are subtler ways to do it.

I’ll give you an example.

A while back, we had a table set up to interact with dreamers after a big dream gathering.

One man approached me at the table.  After exchanging a few pleasantries, he said “So, how many of these people will actually act on any of these dreams on the walls?”

The man said this loud enough for our volunteers and some of the dreamers to hear him, and I’ll admit that I felt my face flush.  I was getting ready for a fight.

Now, was his comment rooted in logic?  Possibly.

There are a lot of people who come to the BIG Dream Gatherings and post dreams but do nothing with them right away.

We recognize that.

But at the same time… dreaming BIG is a wildly important step for people to take… whether they are ready to take steps towards those dreams or not.

We also realize that some people have had AMAZING connections happen and they’ve had people offer to help in incredible ways… and for whatever reason… we’ve had some dreamers not take the help… or move forward.

We know it happens.

But at the same time… we recognize that this 1% of inspiration is where it ALL starts.

In fact, the 99% wouldn’t matter if… if there wasn’t that spark to ignite the big dream!

So… that’s… in a way… a crucial reason why we hold these BIG Dream Gatherings.  We want to be a catalyst for big dreams.  We want to play a part in causing a spark that ignites something BIG in people.

We want to cultivate that freakishly important…

1 %!

Now… I’ll wrap up this post by getting back to my conversation with the man at the table.

I’ll admit that I took a 3 second break to breath in… breath out… breath in… breath out.

But then I simply said, “I’m sorry.”

The man was surprised by my reaction and said, “Why are you sorry?”

I replied, “Dude.  I’m guessing that someone… somewhere… totally bashed a big dream of yours.  I’d bet that they either made fun of you or fiercely thrashed your idea.  I’d even go as far as to say that they shut you down.  So for that… I’m sorry it happened.”

He looked at me a little shocked.  His expression acknowledged that I must have been pretty close to the mark.

So I continued, “Hey, we know that a lot of these people won’t jump into these dreams right away.  Some may sit for a while… and some may sit forever.  BUT… there are some dreams in here that got remembered… restarted… reignited…  and if only one dream had that happen… it’s enough!”

He shook his head.  Said, “Ok.  I guess.”  And walked away.

I’m hoping that he wound up putting some of his own dreams up on the wall!

How about you?

Are you ready to give your BIG dreams some thought?  Are you willing to take some time to rekindle that 1% in you?

We have another BDG coming up on November 19th in Iowa City.  What if you came and thought about a few of your big dreams?  What if this BIG Dream Gathering was a catalyst for a few of your dreams and goals?

We’d love to see you there… and we’d love to dream BIG with you!

Click here for more info on the BDG in Iowa City!

Or… what if you took 15 minutes to think of some of your own big dreams today?  What if?

Oh… and lastly… why not join in the conversation?  What do you think about the 1% / 99% debate?  More importantly… how have you cultivated both the 1 and the 99? Hit comments and let us know!

Keep dreaming BIG and hopefully… we’ll see you in Iowa City,

Mitch