Believe That You Can Achieve Your Dream

Richard M. DeVos is a co-founder Amway Corporation together with Jay Van Andel. Here are some words of inspiration from DeVos, with adaptation, on how you can achieve your dreams.

Believe that you can. "I can." is a powerful statement and gives you the oomph to go for it in direct opposition to the wet blanket of "I can't." You can do whatever you really believe you can do. DeVos' goal was to succeed in business and he believed that he could do it. Business was his thing. 

What's your thing -- the thing that makes you tick with passion? Put it another way, "What's your goal?" "What are you believing for today -- really believing for?"

DeVos' is of the view that the gap between what you think you can achieve and what is actually possible for you is very, very small. Also, he is convinced that almost anyone can do whatever he really believes he can do. You can do it! Start off with this conviction; you owe it to yourself.

Be determined and make the efforts to pursue your dream. It is a combination of "faith and effort" which would produce results in whatever sphere of endeavours. 

DeVos started Amway together with his high school buddy, Jay Van Andel. Before this, they had had many shared experiences of achieving with "I can" in their bones. For example, they actually went into the aviation business with Wolverine Air Service. You will never know what you can achieve until you try! They started with a little Piper Club airplane and employed seasoned pilots to train their customers how to fly. Yes, neither of them knew how to fly an airplane. And, faced with the lack of an available airstrip, they mounted some pontoon floats to their planes and used a river for their runway! Nobody said it was going to be plane sailing, but they had "I can" in them. That's the difference; the big difference; the real difference.

Give your dream a chance. Put your thoughts into actions. How else will you know whether it will work out unless you give it a try and fine-tune things along the way? Don't let the naysayers distract you. You are in it for your your own good with preparedness to pay the price and willingness to take a loss even if things do not turn out well. But, the experience of being true to yourself with the guts to stick out would be priceless. You will gain invaluable experience of the good, bad and ugly, and be a lot wiser down the road to eventual success in your pursuits.

"The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible." -- Richard M. DeVos

And, where did DeVos catch his "I can" attitude? He said, "My father was a great believer in the potential of individual effort. Every time he heard me say the word "can't" as a boy, he would say, "There is no such word as "can't", and if you say it one more time I'll knock your block right through that wall!" He never did that, but I never forgot the point he was making. I learned that there really are no good uses of the word "can't."

Rainbows are for real ever since God gave the promise of rainbows after the Great Flood. You can see rainbows, right? How clearly can you see your own rainbow in the eye of your imagination and heart of conviction? Believe that you can and you will see.

See yourself in this: "They can because they think they can." -- Virgil

Click here to view a collection of beautiful rainbows.

Click here to find out more on "You Can If You Think You Can" written by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.