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I dedicated the past years to understanding how people achieve their dreams. When we think about the dreams we have and the dance we want to leave in the universe, it is striking to see how big the overlap is between the dreams we have and projects that never happen. So, I'm here to talk to you today about five ways how not to follow your dreams.
One, believe in overnight success. You know the story, right? That tech guy built a mobile app and sold it very fast for a lot of money. The story may seem real, but I bet it's incomplete. If you go investigate further, the guy has done 30 apps before, and he has done a master's on the topic, a PhD. He's been working on the topic for about 20 years. This is really interesting. I myself have a story in Brazil that people think is an overnight success. I come from a humble family, and two weeks before the deadline to apply for MIT, I started the application process, and voilà, I got in. People may think it is an overnight success, but that only worked because for the 17 years prior to that, I took life and education seriously. Your overnight success story is always a result of everything you've done in your life through that moment.
Two, believe someone else has the answers for you. Constantly, people want to help out, right? All sorts of people: your family, your friends, your business partners. They all have opinions on which path you should take. Let me tell you, go through this pipe, but whenever you go inside, there are other ways you have to pick as well, and you need to make those decisions yourself. No one else has the perfect answers for your life, and you need to keep making those decisions. The pipes are infinite, and you're going to bump your heads, and it's part of the process.
Three, and that's very subtle but very important: decide to settle when growth is guaranteed. Your life is going great. You have put together a great team, you have growing revenue, and everything is set. Time to settle. When I launched my first book, I worked really, really hard to distribute it everywhere in Brazil. With that, over three million people downloaded it, and over 50,000 people bought physical copies. When I wrote a sequel, some impact was guaranteed. Even if I did little, sales would be okay. But okay is never okay. When you're growing toward a peak, you need to work harder than ever and find yourself another peak. Maybe if I did little, a couple hundred thousand people would read it, and that's great already. But if I work harder than ever, I can bring this number up to millions. That's why I decided with my new book to go to every single state of Brazil, and I can already see a higher peak. There's no time to settle down.
Fourth tip, and that's really important: believe the fault is someone else's. I constantly see people saying, "Yes, I had this great idea, but no investor had the vision to invest." "Oh, I created this great product, but the market is so bad. The sales didn't go well." Or, "I can't find good talent. My team is so far below expectations." If you have dreams, it's your responsibility to make them happen. Yes, it may be hard to find talent. Yes, the market may be bad. But if no one invested in your idea, and no one bought your product, for sure there's something there that is your fault. Definitely, you need to pursue your dreams and make them happen. No one achieved their goals alone, but if you didn't make them happen, it's your fault and no one else's. Be responsible for your dreams.
And one last tip, which is really important as well: believe that the only things that matter are the dreams themselves. Once I saw an ad with a group of friends going up a mountain. It was a very high mountain and a lot of work. You could see that they were sweating, and it was tough, and they were going up, and they finally made it to the peak, and of course they decided to celebrate. So yes, we made it. We're at the top. Two seconds later, one looks at the others and says, "Okay, let's go down." Life is never about the goals themselves. Life is about the journey. Yes, you should enjoy the goals, but people think that once you have dreams and reach one of them, that is a magical place where happiness will be all around. But achieving a dream is a momentary sensation, and your life is not. The only way to really achieve all your dreams is to fully enjoy every step of your journey. That's the best way. And your journey is simple. It's made of steps. Some steps will go right, and sometimes you will trip. If it goes right, celebrate, because some people wait a long time to celebrate. And if you tripped, turn that into something to learn. If every step becomes something to learn or something to celebrate, you will for sure enjoy the journey.
So, five tips. Believe in overnight success. Believe someone else has the answers for you. Believe that when growth is guaranteed, you should settle down. Believe the fault is someone else's. And believe that only the goals themselves matter. Believe me, if you do that, you'll destroy your dreams. Thank you.