Dennis Ritchie – Dream Forger

Every weekday students pay large amounts of money for me to help them achieve their dreams. I open the door to a hallway lined with beautifully framed posters promising that your dreams can be fulfilled. I step into a classroom and for five hours I face the hopeful and daunting eyes of students who demand that I do exactly that.

The specific dream I teach is pro audio, something I’ve done my entire career. I have international awards on my walls and years of experience in the field but changing from doing to teaching has been a challenge. Mapping that mysterious path to success is hard enough for one person. To expand that to include people with widely varying talents, backgrounds, tastes, and abilities is a creative test.

Music is a business of dreams. They are often all you have to cling to. But they are ephemeral and shifting targets and hard to maintain. They are even harder to instill and teach. And they have to be worth the effort if they are going to be hammered into reality. They might even need to change along the way. What we need to be able to do this is a new skill. I call it the skill of dreams.

The Skill of Dreams

In order to succeed, there are several essential skills you need. These are not talents or gifts or blessings; they are skills.

This is important because skills can be developed while other things are out of your control. You can’t determine, for example, who your parents are, where you were born or whether you have the genetic makeup to look good on camera. But skills can be learned and honed.

One essential skill is determining your dreams. If you’re going to have to work hard, learn difficult things, develop good habits, keep yourself healthy, and keep relationships strong, it will take dedicated effort over a long period of time.

Some days will be harder than others. You will want to give up or slack off a little or procrastinate or eat a gallon of ice cream. Insert your favorite distraction here.

You will have a lot of help with the distractions. There’s a lot of money to be made just tempting you to do something selfish or unhealthy, millions, in fact. So, don’t expect your TV or favorite restaurant to encourage you toward good works.

You need a powerful inspiration that never goes away, something beautiful and important to work toward, something worth all the pain, effort, and discipline required to get there. You need a dream.

Building The Right Dream

But it needs to be the right kind of dream – a dream with purpose and meaning. A beautiful, shiny object is not enough. A thing that can be possessed, owned, is not enough because dreams are powerful. You can get it sooner than you imagine and then where are you? You’re a person with a thing.

It needs to be a dream you can grow into and a dream that can grow with you. More than a place to arrive or a goal to achieve, your dream needs to be something you can become.

As you’ve gathered, this is no ordinary dream. And you can’t expect such a dream to just happen along. No one is going to provide you with such a ready-made dream. You will not find this lofty a dream on late-night infomercials. There will be no thousand-dollar internet course. You can’t buy this dream at Walmart or even Rodeo Drive.

But they will certainly try. The dream danglers are everywhere, trying to motivate you to do what they secretly want. Every ad is a carrot hanging before you or a verbal stick to smack you toward their goal for your life.

The Dream Thieves

These substitute dreams will be crafted by experts, enhanced with science and technology, bedazzled with sex and money, and presented with mesmerizing media to the point that you will imagine it is your duty to pursue this dream.

Don’t be fooled. You can easily spend your life chasing someone else’s prepackaged dream and not realize it until it is far too late. Life, as all experts agree, is short.

So, where do you find this elusive dream that can change everything? Out of all these dreams, where is your one, true dream that will change your life and set your course right?

This would be that place you would expect me to say you have to follow your heart, that your magical dream has been inside you all along, that you are special, precious, and unique, that the world needs your gift, that you are irreplaceable, one of a kind, a magic unicorn.

Nope, sorry. While some of these things are technically true, I said this was about skills. But you are the least qualified person on the planet to actually see your unique skill set. It’s like looking at your ear. You can’t do it without some help.

This is because you are blind to the things that come easy for you. Since they are easy, you think they have no value. To you, it’s nothing. Birds fly. Fish swim. Dogs bark. They don’t go to school for it. It’s just the way they are. It’s how they’re made.

So, to find your unique blueprint you’ll need to consult your maker. Don’t worry, you don’t need to go on a pilgrimage or join a monastery. The answer is both simple and satisfyingly long-lasting. You can start today and continue the process your entire life.

The Author of Dreams

Remember the scripture where Jesus confirmed the most important two commandments are to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself? (Luke 10:27) Let’s look at that.

God made you with a purpose. Yes, you’re unique and special, but your most important gift is the ability to do these two things: Love God and your neighbor.

You have a special ability among all creatures to have a real relationship with the God of the universe (and beyond.) You can talk to God and He can communicate with you. You can love Him to the point that you can dedicate your heart, mind, body, and soul to that relationship. That’s not a casual relationship. It’s a foundation for life.

The Purpose of Dreams

I’m getting back to your dream, but first, let’s look at the second part of that commandment: love your neighbor. Love is a powerful word for someone you don’t know well and might not even like much. This word also requires commitment.

So, why are we supposed to love one another? Because God made us that way. It is built into our blueprint to communicate with each other and work together more than any other creature. That’s why we have rich languages. That’s why we are born into families, not hatched.

Without this essential caring for each other, none of us would survive childhood. And those among us who don’t get the love that their very nature requires are damaged beyond the repair of any but the God who created them in the first place.

This loving each other stuff is a great big deal! It’s impossible to overstate its importance.

Discovering Your Dream

Now, back to your dream. In light of this clear, twofold commandment, your path is surprisingly easy. You can start it right now. How do you love God and love your neighbor?

Just ask!

Yep, get up every day and pray to connect with the God you are to love and ask Him what to do. Then, ask other people how you can help.

The brilliance of this approach might not be instantly apparent so let’s explore it.

Since you are blind to your abilities, ask the two who are not. Ask the God who created you to reveal your purpose and path. Then ask others what you can do.

They will tell you! No kidding.

Have you ever had someone else tell you what you are particularly good at doing? Sometimes, if you’re lucky, they will stop you and look you right in the eyes to get your attention and just tell you straight out. Pay attention!

Your first instinct is to dismiss them because they are talking about something that’s easy for you, that thing you don’t value. But they have this perspective: it’s hard for them. They have trouble doing it.

Understand, it’s something that needs to get done and you are particularly good at it. And they will tell you. Because we have language and can communicate as God made us.

Starting to get the picture?

A Dream That Grows

Now, you probably have other ideas. You have big dreams. You crave something satisfying and significant. This thing you do won’t look like much right now. But it looks like something to other people – these people you’re supposed to love.

But it can grow. Really grow, bigger than you can currently imagine over a lifetime.

But you’re not stuck.

It might seem too small a thing to base your life around, and it is. But it’s a place to start. You can use your ability to help someone else, to love them, and now it matters. It has a bigger purpose than just something you do.

But you also have other gifts that you haven’t discovered yet. Because no one else has told you yet. These are things God put in you that are undeveloped and raw. Look out for them.

Dreams That Come True

Over time, you can hone any of these things into a way to help someone. That means you will continually have new dreams and opportunities along the way. You’re not stuck in a dream or a career. You’re just getting started on a great adventure.

Just ask God to show you, pay attention to what needs arise, and do the things you can do.

Along the way, these will turn into big dreams and great plans that are unique to you. No course or convoluted methods needed and no product to buy. It will be a way connected to God, a way of loving His people, and a way crafted exactly to your skills. It will change over time along with your abilities and others’ needs.

As you grow, your dream will grow. As time flies, your life will have purpose and meaning. You will not look back in disappointment that your dreams didn’t come true. You will see a life filled with purpose and have great memories of people you have grown to love and help along the way.

And that’s what God had in mind for you all along.