“What would you like to be when you grow up?”

My grade 3 teacher asked me this, and I responded, “A cartoonist.”

She replied, “It will be hard to make money doing that.”

To which I replied, “Well, the creator of The Simpsons was a cartoonist, and he has lots of money.”

There was no rebuttal from my teacher.

You see, from a young age I’ve had delusions of grandeur. Many entrepreneurs are wired the same way. It’s a side benefit of our mental predisposition. But here’s what I’ve learned since grade 3: the dream isn’t the hard part, protecting it is.

When I was 13, Robert Emsie (Canadian 100m gold medal sprinter) spoke to our class about ‘Dream Killers’: people in your life, sometimes even with good intentions, who always put a damper on your dreams.

Dream killers often defend themselves by stating they’re realists, or that they’re protecting you from future disappointment, when really they’re just limiting your future potential.

Having spent the last decade building companies, I’ve met an unfortunate reality: I’ve faced just as many, if not more, dream killers in adulthood than I did as a child. Often bitter from years of corporate captivity, these people are the first to find glee in the failure of their entrepreneurial friends, or to come up with 101 reasons why an idea won’t work.

For example, I was recently at a dinner party where one of the guests said they would love to start a company, but “all the good ideas have already been done.” It was one of the most depressing statements I’ve heard in a while, especially given we’re living through arguably the most exciting time in human history across multiple industries: space, longevity, and AI.

But here’s the uncomfortable part: the biggest dream killer for most of us doesn’t sit across the dinner table. It resides within. We tell ourselves stupid phrases like “in another lifetime” or “if only I had X — then I could afford to do Y.”

My own aspirations of building a cartoon empire have changed, but my propensity to dream has not. These days, the dream is building a global financial services business (Breakwater)… the 8-year-old cartoonist inside me just shook his head and muttered “sellout” 😂 😂

When I look back at the ledger of life, I’d rather stand on the side of ‘dreamer’ than ‘dream killer’. Most of us would.

So maybe I’m delusional. Maybe I’m missing the plot. But every company, every breakthrough, and every cartoon empire started as somebody’s delusion of grandeur. The teacher, the dinner guest, the voice in your own head — none of them get a vote unless you give them one. Guard your delusions.

The world has more than enough realists, and not nearly enough cartoonists.

75 validated business ideas, pulled straight from this newsletter.

Download the full Idea Vault for FREE HERE

Credit: ideabrowser.com

GMBVault — a backup and evidence vault for Google Business Profiles

every second counts.