The scenario is this, you're on your death bed and the question is presented to you, "What were your biggest regrets?".  So what do you say? That's the question that was answered recently in, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying. As I read through each of them I reflected on those areas in my own life.  Just look at the first one... 1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made Wow, a powerful one for sure.  The commentary on it really gets to the heart of the issue.  I just wrote about our dreams here and how important it is to go after them. Some other interesting things to me were two of the other items..

What is the most resilient parasite? An idea.  An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.." a quote from this summers hit movie Inception. Inception is all about the concept of planting ideas in other peoples minds and is a great lesson for entrepreneurs. The concept was for the main character, Cobb, to plant an idea in someone else's subconscious thus changing the reality for that person.  The idea wasn't true but none the less would manifest itself as if it was. The idea is different than reality. A single idea has rocked Apple's world this summer.  With the advent of "antennagate" the idea that a "perfect" company could have made such a huge mistake was much to big of an idea not to take root.  It's blossomed into a full blown debate for years to come. The reality is that "antenaegate" will more than likely have very little negative affect on Apples market share or stock price.

...1,350 feet. It was the distance between the ground and the top of the Twin Towers of New York. In 1974, Philippe Petit had a dream of spanning the towers with a wire so that he could walk between the two of them.  The movie "Man on Wire" documents and recalls the incredible journey of one man to reach his dream. I had the opportunity to see this movie the other day and suggest that every aspiring entrepreneur watch this film.The dream, the planing, the challenges, the naysayers, everything so perfectly parallels what you will face when you reach for your dreams. It was such a great reminder to not only envision the dream first but to never let it fade even in the face of resistance. What about your dream? What resistance, problems or obstacles are you facing?  What's between you and your dream?

No one will do it for you. No one can do it like you. No one will do it but you. That's the attitude you have to approach entrepreneurship with. The desire and the direction is only going to come from within. To many of us get caught up in the idea that we need other things to happen or other people to help us in order to get started. No One Will Do It For You Don't wait on others to get things going for you, if you do it won't get done. The decisions and most importantly the action needs to be lead by you. Sounds obvious but sometimes our dreams, our ideas get held up waiting on others to get things done. We need to be relentless in pursuing our dreams and not let others hold us back.

The problem with expectations is that they are never a forgone conclusion. Expectations sometimes fall short and other times are exceeded.  The thing is they rarely are met. Oh sure if you have an end goal in mind like this 13 year old who is going to attempt climbing Everest then the expectation would be hard to exceed. Even if he doesn't reach the summit he's already exceeded my expectations of what a young man his age is capable of. The great thing with expectations is that they are never a forgone conclusion. Many people expect to fail.  They may not come out and say it but the lack of action, the lack of commitment and the lack of passion all add up to result in an expectation of failure. Unfortunately those expectations never even become a reality because they defeat so many before they even try. I say unfortunately because it's a shame to not even try something based on a fear of expectations.