“The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember,
the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love
to do, be the best at doing it.”
Debbi Fields was born in 1956 as the fifth and youngest daughter into
her large family. As a young child, she developed an interest in
baking cookies that kept her occupied. She quickly noticed the
recognition she received from family and friends and adored the
satisfaction she received.
When Mrs. Fields was just 13, she got her first job – a foul line
baseball catcher for the Oakland Athletics – which paid $5 per week.
She used every penny of her income to enhance the ingredients in her
cookies by purchasing real butter, vanilla and chocolate chips.
Barely 19 years old, Debbi Fields found herself married to a man who
brought home plenty of money to support the two. After some time of
playing the housewife role, her childhood dream of opening up her own
cookie store crept back in.
Her peers said she was crazy for considering going into business with
no prior business skills. They also thought she was nuts for
attempting to start a business just selling cookies!
Debbi Fields continued to dream and eventually turned that dream into
the most successful chain of cookie and baked goods stores.
She has said in a recent interview, “Everybody said I couldn’t do it,
I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have money, I didn’t have formal
education, I just had a recipe, and a dream.”
Debbi Fields stuck to her dream and today her cookies make everyone smile!
To succeed, you need to have dreams and aspirations. Be honest with
yourself as to what you want out of life and what you want to give of
your life. Allow your mind to dream and think big.
Verbalize your dreams.
If you’ve ever had a dream of starting your own pet business or
growing your current pet sitting business, chances are someone in your
life has shot down the idea. That’s only if you’ve actually shared
your passion or dream with another person.
Many of us keep our true dreams inside for fear of how our friends and
family would react.
Sadly, people have their own agendas that do not always coincide with
ours. They’ll feel it necessary to shoot down our dreams, desires and
aspirations because they are fearful to pursue theirs.
If they see us living our dream, waking up happy and enthusiastic each
day, doing what we truly want to be doing, they feel threatened. To
them, it highlights their inadequacies or lack of motivation. This is
where jealousy and negativity seem to thrive.
Mrs. Fields had the dream and desire to start her own cookie business
from a very young age. What would have happened if she listened to
the nay Sayers who told her to be real and focus on something
legitimate?
Mrs. Fields kept her dream alive and lived each day with her sights
squarely focused on her dream of one day opening up her own cookie
shop. Today Mrs. Fields has over 650 locations in the US alone, and
over 65 international locations in 11 different countries.
That’s a lot of cookie and plenty of dough!
Embrace your dream and say it loud!
The more you say your dreams and goals out loud, the more real they
become. They are not just thoughts in your head. They become
tangible plans. Things you can work towards. You also inherit a bit
of accountability by verbalizing your goals to others, which will go a
long way.
So, what’s next for you? What do you secretly lay in bed at night
dreaming about?
What one thing are you dead set on achieving during this one lifetime we have?
