Hero (6 page)

ANASTASIA SOARE

I needed to do something. I needed to prove and to find out who I was as a person, what I was worth. I’m not saying it wasn’t scary, because it was scary. But I thought, “This is why I came to this country. This is the land of opportunity. I have to do this, otherwise why did I come here? To have a worse life than I had in Romania? No.”

Living under very difficult circumstances in Romania instilled in Anastasia a particular strength of character, and a determination that would carry her through every obstacle to fulfill her dream of having her own business. That business grew into an empire with over 1,000 outlets in the United States, more than 600 outlets internationally, and salons in multiple countries throughout the world.

No life circumstances are 100 percent negative. Every negative circumstance also contains its opposite, and so there is something good buried within every seemingly bad situation. Life is not about the negative circumstances that happen to you, it’s about what you do with the golden opportunities hidden within!

You’re never called to follow a dream unless there are multiple ways for you to fulfill it. It’s downright impossible for you to have a dream if you can’t at the very least make the essence of that dream come true. Your dreams are calling you to the best life you can have; they are calling you to find the hero within you.

MASTIN KIPP

I grew up in a relatively picturesque environment. My parents were awesome, and that did a lot to shelter me from the pain in the world. When I started to step outside myself and see the pain in others and realize that I could do something about it, it made it crystal clear that there was really nothing else I could do with my life. And so my dream has really been to combine pop culture with inspiration and wisdom, so that we can reach the greatest number of people possible.

If you hear the call and you don’t respond to it because you’re too scared or you don’t believe you can achieve it, sometimes circumstances will push you to follow your dream, as happened with me.

I was working as a television producer at a network, and I used to dream of starting my own television production company. I would never have done it because I had a family to support, my job paid well, and we needed the money to eat and keep a roof over our heads. I clung to the security of my job with all my might, despite many people urging me to start my own company.

Then, I got fired. I was in shock. How would we eat? How could we pay for our daughters’ education? How could we pay the mortgage on our house?

One option I had was to get a job at a different television network. But I couldn’t bear the thought of going back to what I had been doing. I realized that since I had been fired I had nothing to lose, and so I started working on ideas for television shows on a plastic table and chairs in the back room of our very humble house. I developed an idea and created a pitch for a television show, even though I had no idea how to create a pitch. But I believed in the idea, and so, with heart pounding and legs trembling, I presented the idea to executives at one of the networks. The show was commissioned on the spot, and when it aired it was a huge success and became a long-running series.

Through being fired I was given the perfect circumstances to finally answer my calling and live my dream, and I remain grateful to this day for that television network firing me. Without them, I would have refused the call to follow my dream, and I would have missed living the most exciting and fulfilling journey of my life.

LAIRD HAMILTON

The risk that you take in not pursuing your dream is terminal. It’s the end. It’s a life without fulfillment, it’s a life without accomplishment, it’s a life without contentment, and it’s a life without joy. It’s misery.

When you refuse the call from life to follow your dreams, you run the risk of living an unfulfilled and unhappy life. No matter what you do, and no matter what material things you acquire along the way, if you don’t do the things that make your heart sing you will feel an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction and regret when you get to the end of your life. Don’t let this be the story of your life. No matter how young or how old you are right now, you have a greater story to live! It may seem like a big risk to follow your dream, but isn’t the greatest risk of all to miss your life?

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

To never give your dreams a chance is the biggest failure.

G. M. RAO

When you don’t follow your dream or passion, then what you work for will seem like a cage, albeit a golden one. Body without soul! It will result in being frustrated, listless, and completely devoid of a purpose for existence.

Responding to your calling and deciding to follow your dreams is actually the easy way. Refusing the call is the hard way, because you risk being miserable and dooming yourself to a life without joy, a life without passion, and a life without meaning or purpose.

Perhaps you started out loving your current job, but in time your work has become a grind to you. This might mean your current job is not your ultimate calling, and you need to dig deep and ask yourself whether somewhere along the way you put your dreams aside.

LAYNE BEACHLEY

If you’re doing anything in life that’s not making your heart sing, that’s not fueling your passion to get up on a daily basis, then you’re not fulfilling your role as a human being on this planet.

MICHAEL ACTON SMITH

Life is short; it’s not a dress rehearsal. It’s about grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and experiencing as many things and meeting as many people as possible. It’s definitely not about sitting on the sofa and watching TV and moaning about what might have been.

LIZ MURRAY

We buried my mother the day after Christmas. I was sixteen years old. We had no money for a real funeral, so she was in a pine box with the lid nailed on. They wrote the words "head" and "feet" on this box. It was the most awful thing. We had a troubled life, but we had a very loving relationship, and my mother used to sit at the foot of my bed and share her dreams with me. About being sober, about getting a house, about having a better life. And at the end of all of her talks was that she was going to get around to doing it, but not right now. She would do it later; she would do it later. And I realized at some point that I was living my life telling myself I would do things later.