#GoodBiz22 Poem: Dare to Dream
Dare to Dream
by Jammie Huynh; Written and performed live on Feb 24, 2022 at the Charleston Music Hall for the 9th annual Good Business Summit
We were all born dreamers.
Dreams of space, of kings and queens,
monsters and magic. We dreamed,
then we dreamed some more.
We dreamed of being presidents and
astronauts, of flying or turning invisible.
Even if it was just for a moment,
we were superheroes,
and nothing seemed impossible.
We dreamed like dreams were infinite,
like one day we wouldn’t struggle to get out of bed,
like one day we wouldn’t struggle to find our passion,
like one day we wouldn’t struggle to just exist.
We grew up to inherit a world
with COVID and all of its variants,
a housing crisis in our city,
the brink of war with Russia,
and something called NFTs.
Somewhere along the way
We grew afraid of failure.
What was once a pebble
easily kicked away,
became a wall that stopped us
from taking even one step forward.
At what age did we decide to stop
letting ourselves dream?
At what age did we decide we were more afraid of failure
then we were of never achieving our dreams?
Suddenly, what once came to us so easily
is now rare and terrifying.
Something so fragile you could
shatter it with just one doubt,
one critic, one bad review.
We have shed the armor of youth,
naked and vulnerable in the cold winds
of our world, we must find it in us to
light our own spark again
We must dare to dream.
Even if you are too scared to believe in it
too scared to hope for it.
Ever when others are telling you,
Don’t do it. No. What if you fail?
Be five again.
Be the child who dared to
believe they could do anything,
the one with infinite dreams.
Say it out loud.
Breathe it into our universe.
Cradle this soft, fragile
thing until it can stand on its own.
Every business started as a dream, a leap someone
was willing to take. But you never take it alone.
Hold on to those who tell you, you can do it.
And reach for the hands that will help
guide you on the right path.
I mean that’s why you’re here, right?
To Dream is to be Brave.
You are magicians pulling
an idea into a reality,
an intangible thought that threatens
to swim away at every mishap or mistake or setback,
but before me are people who clutched
and wrestled their dreams into existence.
People who dared to touch the wall
to find it was only a mirage.
To the business-owners and entrepreneurs,
You are brave.
You are brave and courageous
and more likely than not, you’ve been discouraged,
but still, here you are, your dreams no longer glass
but boulders that can withstand
the force of anything pushing against it.
Today at this moment, I would like to applaud you
The beating heart of every city,
you bring home to our streets,
something special no one else has.
You make the world feel a little less cold,
a little less strange. The stop of weary travelers,
you are what makes people want to come back.
Your efforts, your imagination, your bravery,
you breathe life into our cities,
the secret ingredient to our charm,
you give us all a little something to look forward
to when we have a little extra cash or a day off.
Your very existence is inspiring, watching people from our communities
rise up and chase their dreams, well,
I’ll be damned if that doesn’t make the rest of us runners.