For awhile, I lived next door to a guy who sold corporate jets. You know, like Lear jets. The kind that Arab sheiks and Donald Trump fly around in.

I was always intrigued to hear the stories of the sales this guy made.

What was especially fascinating was how very ordinary the process was.

Selling a jet is just like selling a vacuum cleaner.

Seriously.

A sale, regardless of the thing you’re selling, is about identifying a problem and offering a solution; it’s about communication and relationship building; it’s about about over-delivering on a promise;  and it’s about following-up, caring and long-term service.

Doesn’t matter whether it’s a jet… or a vacuum cleaner.

Until, of course, you come to the commission.

Which brings me to my point this week: It takes about the same amount of effort and skill to sell a jet as it does to sell a vacuum cleaner; the same amount of effort and skill to find and nurture the client; the same amount of effort and skill to make and close the sale.

So why not sell the jet and reap the huge rewards?

The same thing can be said about dreams.

It takes the same amount of effort to dream a small dream as to dream a big dream.

So why not go for the big one?

Fear, usually. And a sense of unworthiness.

We think our fears are meant to keep us safe. But in reality they keep us small.

I love what Marianne Williamson has to say about this:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.”

For some reason, so many of us undervalue who we are and what we’re capable of.  We don’t know or appreciate our worth beyond measure. We cannot comprehend our capacity to impact the world.

And impact – and serve – we must.

The truth is: We are singularities. Each of us is imbued with gifts and talents that are ours alone to share.

We have been sent. We are called to live large; to live out loud; to play full out; to make our presence known.  We are called to lead and love and lift each other up along the way. We are called to share; to make our mark; and leave the world a better place.

Chris Guillebeau was gracious in allowing me to use this quote at the start of Journeys:

“The world has enough sleepwalkers and cynics; the rest of us need your help. I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the path of my own conventional journey. What I refused to do was settle, and I hope you won’t settle either.”

Mediocrity is poison; don’t settle.

Look around. The Universe is vast and overflowing. Abundance is our birthright.

There is no prize for playing small.

Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

So dream big.

The world is waiting. For you.