When people give these kinds of speeches, they usually tell you all kinds of wise and heartfelt things.

They have wisdom to impart. They have lessons to share. 

They tell you; follow your dreams, change the world, make your mark…

Dream, and don’t stop dreaming until all of your dreams come true.

I think that’s crap. 

I think a lot of people dream, and when they are busy dreaming... The really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people, are busy doing.

The dreamers- they stare at the sky and they make plans and they hope and they talk about it endlessly. 

And they start a lot of sentences with “I wanna be” or “I wish”.

The buttoned-up ones meet for cocktails and they brag about their dreams.

And the hippie ones have vision boards and they meditate about their dreams. 

Maybe you write in journals about your dreams or discuss it endlessly with your best friend or your girlfriend or your mother. 

And it feels really good! You’re talking about it, and you’re planning it… kind of….

You are blue-skying your life. And that is what everyone says you should be doing, right?

I mean, that’s what Oprah and Bill Gates did to get successful, right?

No. Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams- fleeting, ephemeral, pretty.

But dreams do not come true just because you dream them.

It’s hard work that makes things happen. 

It’s hard work that creates change.

-Rhonda Rhimes-