'You gotta have a dream'

Page 6

You know, life is a steady, flow of ups and downs no matter who we are or what we do. There is no escaping this pattern, even if you had a billion bucks.

Take, for instance, some of the well-known heavy hitters in high finance like the late Colonel Saunders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame who, at the age of 60, had a "grand" fortune worth less than $100.

In those years as a struggling entrepreneur, the Colonel certainly faced many challenging situations as he juggled his few dollars between building a dream and putting something in his hungry stomach.

The dream was strong, enough, however, to keep him going, on and on, until he found a way to take the first step into his destiny. First one shop opened and then another shop opened, then another, and another until a string of them were operating throughout the eastern United States.

Today, the Colonel's famous fried chicken shops have gone international with thousands of outlets dotting almost every urban center in the world. Needless to say, that the eventual fame-struck Colonel was regarded as one of the most successful businessmen to go from rags to riches in record time.

Bear in mind though, that this man once teetered on the edge of poverty and starvation just to fulfil or to bring his dream to a reality and to become highly successful. The man began with only a dream and nothing else. Sheer, raw determination were the tools of his trade and nothing stood in his way to achieving his dreams.

Still, another highly visible and powerful individual who rose to the billion dollar stata in short order was the New York billionaire, Donald Trump. He amassed his first fortune as a financial whiz kid and a hard-nosed land developer in the Big Apple.

Through his seemingly magical ways, he turned everything he touched into gold. Nothing stopped his rapid rise to fame and fortune.

But like anyone else, Trump struck onto some hard times. Through a number of less-than-perfect outcomes his fortunes turned around temporarily. These tougher times for the youthful financial wizard soon began to take a toll on Trump's massive real estate holdings. You might say the house of cards came tumbling down as property after property started to disappear from the Trump holdings.

In less than a couple of years, the mighty Trump empire was pretty well in disarray if not lost for good.

This fate was not to be for this wily tycoon, however. Rather than turning to any acts of desperation, Trump dug in his heels and started his long, hard, arduous journey back.

He put things back on track and achieved levels of success that he had never before reached in his corporation. In other words, this was one man whose losses of gigantic sums of money could not put him down and out.

The determination ran deep in the heart of this man, and giant steps downward required equally daring steps upward.

Many other stories of individuals, including Native people, going from rags to riches can be told and can document how strength, determination and dreams contribute in pushing a person forward to heights never achieved before, even if they had seen and experienced the ultimate levels of defeat and tragedy.

The magic carpet that makes this journey possible is the power of a dream.

"You gotta have a dream."