If we build it, they will come
Inspiring dreams can become your reality; whatever your dreams are, keep them coming; whatever you want to build, you can do it, because you can do anything.
OK, so the line in the 1989 movie ’Field of Dreams’ starring Kevin Costner, was actually “If you build it, he will come” to be pedantic; referring to the one man’s quest to achieve his true dream before growing too old by creating a magnificent baseball field from a ramshackle cornfield in the corner of his struggling Iowa farm, with crowds flocking to the rescue and a warm glow emanating across the skies as dreams are achieved and the curtain comes down…
Notwithstanding the fact I have a pretty poor grasp of both arable farming and baseball legends, coupled to absolutely no tenure or ownership of appropriate cornfields ripe for sporting conversion in this corner of North Yorkshire; the central theme of Field of Dreams is still an incredibly powerful proposition to me (and I suspect, you).
You don’t need a field to build a dream.
Building stuff is exciting, its inspiring both for these involved in the project, but then even more so for those that benefit from it, whatever it is, and then most importantly of all, creating and building anything can be incredibly infectious; any idea or project that starts as one person’s dream can and often does, become a life-enhancing reality and movement for a large number of individuals who benefit from that dream. Dreaming is an important business; without dreamers, we would not have most of the things we take for granted every single day.
About twenty years ago I was sat with Roger, a national newspaper sales manager in Manchester fantasising about escaping my then employer and setting up a small business on my own, building something from nothing, with nothing, in the hope that revenue would grow and a new, small organically sound organisation would eventually flourish away from the mothership as I constructed a business around what was important to me.
And that’s when Roger said ‘ If we build it, they will come’
We didn’t build it, more’s the pity.
We did build something else with some other people a few years later, but that’s another story altogether; the truth is, whilst I loved the film (once Roger had pointed me to it, years after its initial release) I didn’t actually get to really help build something I was to be proud of for quite a few years later.
But that’s not the point of this piece.
Roger’s words have stuck with me for decades; whenever I am struggling, whenever things feel too tough or when events take a turn for the worse, I think of Roger, I think of the field of dreams.
And I know that we can build it, and they will come.
A year ago, I wrote a piece about being in the right place at the right time and how important it was that the pet food sector was on the up and I was for once in the right spot. whoopee.
My initial intention this week was to update that piece and spout loads of facts and figures about what the thirteen million dogs in the UK are eating this week and how fortunate I was to still be in the right place; but then I thought of Mr Kostner in his cornfield and realised it’s not about the final destination or even the actual building blocks of any business.
It’s just about your dreams, whatever they may be.
Simple as that.
In the film Field of Dreams (Spoiler Alert), the end shot, with the cars arriving, the camera panning away to the sky and the dream being realised, one could easily dismissed events as overdone sentimental claptrap; and indeed that was the response to the film of many critics at the time, despite three Oscar nominations.
But that misses the point; whatever the outcome, and the film does have a rather ambiguous ending; it was the dream that kept us going, it was the inspiration that led us to believe, individually and collectively, that we can do anything.
Don’t ever stop dreaming.
Postscript
This is Substack and not LinkedIn, I’m writing for you because I want to hear about your dreams and what you are building right now.
Six years ago I had no idea what I wanted to do to fill my days, except that it could not be what I had been doing for a long time. I needed a change and quite by chance the field of dreams opened up for me in a way I could never have thought possible.
The unconventional flock is committed to improving our collective mental health by supporting each other along the journey and achieving anything we aspire to, whatever stage we are at.
I did a podcast this week in the UK about Naturaw and my journey, how our little raw dog food business has grown and become the realisation of a dream for myself, Jess and Tom, and also talking about the importance of our mental health; the link above is for those who may be interested, you could also find it on LinkedIn here too.
Anyhow, keep dreaming and thanks for stopping by!