How I Made My Dreams Come True

How I Made My Dreams Come True

Public schools are supposed to remove barriers so people can succeed. For some, the system does remove barriers and provide a solid base for achievement. For others, the system replaces one set of barriers with another. For example, creativity is killed by pressuring students to accept the status quo, by establishing a fear to be different and a fear of failure. Independent thinking is replaced by dependency. In some cases, pressure to excel in academics kills ethics, loyalty and motivation, skills needed for success in the real world. People who have a vision, that motivates them, can overcome all barriers with integrity intact.

My story begins in Summit, NJ, at the age of sixteen, where I am sitting in a classroom starring out the window. Out of the first window I could see myself exploring the jungles of South America searching for gold, I could see myself drifting down the Amazon River on a raft, I could see monkeys swinging through the trees, I could see myself as Tarzan swinging on a vine. Through the next window, I could see the bow of my sailboat plowing through the towering waves, heading toward the South Pacific. I could see myself on a white sand beach chasing girls.

Then BANG! The teacher’s yardstick hitting my desk brought me back to the real world where subjects did not relate to my interest and dreamers are related to dummies. In a loud voice the teacher said, “You are a failure! If you don’t pay attention you will continue to be a failure!”

When the bell rang, instead of going to the next class I walked out of school never to return. I was tired of being called a failure. Right or wrong, I took charge of my future. When I left school, I carried the single most important element for success… A DREAM. During the next twenty years, every one of my teenage dreams came true.

You may be asking, “How does one make their dreams come true?” There are three elements:

First―We must have a dream that motivates us. No one has ever achieved anything without a dream attached to a burning desire.

Second―We must learn how-to-learn. In school, we learn how to memorize or be taught. Learning how to learn frees our dependency on others for knowledge.

Third―We must learn from failure and learn how to bounce back from failure. No one ever succeed without failure. In the classroom, failure is a no-no.

In my early teens, I read the book Kon-Tiki. This is a story about six Norwegians sailing a raft across the Pacific Ocean. Their adventure inspired my dream of duplicating their raft voyage. As a teenager, with normal parents, a dream like this was considered ridicules. Not only did friends and family not support my dream, they told me to get serious. But the Kon-Tiki dream turned me on. I wanted to know more about the ocean world and how it could be challenged. I went to the public library looking for more books and found plenty.

During the next few years, I joined the seas scouts, read boating magazines and nautical books, and went to boat shows. To help understand seamanship techniques, I made model charts, buoys, and boats. With models, comprehension was easy. Unknowingly, I was learning the art of learning how-to-learn… Self-education… A technique that would follow me the rest of my life, a technique that would bring me success and make my wildest dreams come true.

At the age of nineteen, during the Korean War, I was in the Marine Corps and in Japan. On my first day of duty an officer told me, “You are a machinist and will be in charge of the machine shop.” As he gave me the shop keys, he pointed to a trailer. In the Marine Corps, everything is on wheels. When I opened the doors, I had my first look ever at a machine shop. In the shop was one short instruction manual titled “How to Run a Lathe.” When a job came in, I followed the manual’s instructions. I was surprised at my ability to complete assigned tasks. The Marine Corps experience launched my machinist career. It also made me realize that learning how-to-learn is a powerful tool. For example, every manmade object around us is the result of someone’s dream and failures. Consider the light bulb. Thomas Edison believed something could burn white-hot and not burn up. A wild unrealistic dream? Everyone knows everything burns up in a short time. A thousand failures later, Thomas Edison burned a steel wire white hot that never burned up. Continuous white heat creates light.

Opportunity is attracted to people with a dream. They are the first to be hired, first to be offered opportunity, and first to be promoted. Bigger the dream the faster doors open. People without a dream are last to be hired, last to be promoted, and first to be laid-off in a force reduction. For non-dreamers, doors remain closed. “WHY?” People with a dream act differently than non-dreamers. Dreamers develop an attitude that radiates energy; they have a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. Radiant energy is an attitude that bosses like and to which they offer opportunity. This is how the impossible becomes possible.

When I was discharged from the Marine Corps, I decided people were right, my wild teenage dream was ridicules. Real people do not drift across oceans on rafts. I am now an adult, I should think and act like one. The raft dream was dead. For the next five years my life went nowhere, my ambition, hope, dreams were gone. Something else was also gone… Opportunity that came fast during my earlier years also dried up.

One day I dusted off the Kon-Tiki book. My dream jumped off the pages and came to life. I said to myself, “I must find a way!” Two years later, I was in Hawaii and learned how the Polynesian people populated the Pacific Islands in dugout canoes 2,000 years ago. My dream was changed from a raft to a dugout canoe. At this time, opportunity came back and fast.

I helped crew a 36-foot sailboat from Hawaii to California. This provided my ocean sailing experience. Next, I was hired by the Panama Canal Company, Panama. Soon, my supervisor asked me to attend hard-hat diver school at company expense. With this skill, money was no longer a problem.

A short time later, I was living on a beach in Tahiti building a 40-foot Polynesian double-hull boat named Liki Tiki. The hulls were built by Choco Indians in the Darien Providence of Panama and shipped to Tahiti. I built the boat according to popular theory and information supplied by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Three days at sea convinced me the double-hull theory was wrong. The two hulls worked against each other and would soon breakup.

Back in Panama, I took the problem to the Indians in the Darien Jungle. They said, “Outriggers is what works.” I then succeed in sailing a 36-foot dugout canoe with outriggers, named Liki Tiki Too, from Panama, 5,000 miles, to Hawaii.

Opportunity never stopped. For the Navy Undersea Center Hawaii I help develop a two-man Plexiglas submarine. Moving back to the Panama Canal Zone, I learned five computer languages and became supervisor of the computer department. I became Captain of the Canal Zone’s training schooner, Chief Aptakisic on which we took a group of teenagers to New York. My wife and I spent five years sailing the South Pacific Ocean in our own 50-foot sail boat, Hunky-Dory, which I designed and self-built. Opportunity came my way because I was motivated and did not let a wild teenage dream die.

　　　扬起梦想的风帆

　　公立学校普遍被认为可以为学生走向成功而扫清障碍。对一些人来说，公立学校的确取消了对他们的限制，并为他们未来的成就打下了坚实基础；而对另一些人来说，这种教育模式只是以一种限制代替另一种限制而已。比如说，在这种教育模式的灌输和压力下，学生们变得安于现状、不敢与众不同、害怕失败，这样，学生的创造力自然也就被扼杀。而且，依赖性取代了独立思考的精神。为了取到优异的学习成绩，学生们甚至舍弃了很多东西，如道德、忠诚、激励，以及其他在现实世界中成就事业所必需的技能。只有那些富有远见的人能不断地鼓励自己，能在克服障碍的同时不改变自己完整的人格。

　　我的故事要从新泽西州申美特这个地方说起。那时我正在课堂上听讲，16岁的我显得心不在焉。透过第一个窗户，我仿佛看见自己在南美丛林中探险寻金；我还看见自己乘着木筏在亚马逊河上漂流。只见顽猴在树丛之间荡来荡去，我跟人猿泰山一样悬荡在藤蔓上。透过另一个窗户，我仿佛看见自己正乘风破浪向南太平洋进发，还看到自己在白沙滩上和女孩子们追逐嬉戏。

　　突然“啪”一声，老师的教鞭打在我桌上，我被拉回到了现实世界中来――在这个世界里，我对所学的科目没有半点兴趣，爱做梦的我被当成白痴。老师劈头就吼：“你真是个笨蛋！如果上课你再开小差的话，你就永远也没有出息！”

　　铃声响了，我没有去上下一节课，而是头也不回地步出了校门。我已经厌倦了给人说我没出息。不管对错，我要主宰自己的前途。离开学校的时候，我一无所有，只有一个梦想――而梦想正是成功最需要的元素。在接下来的20年里，我年少时的每个梦想都得到逐一实现。

　　你可能会问：“要怎样才能实现梦想呢？”答案是，要具备以下三大要素。

　　首先，我们必须要有一个激励自己的梦想。没有梦想加热情，人们就会一事无成。

　　其次，我们必须学会如何学习。在学校里，我们学的是如何死记硬背，如何更好地接受老师的教诲。学会了怎样学习，我们就可以不倚赖别人也能学到知识。

　　最后，我们必须善于从错误中学习，学会从失败中振作起来。没有失败的磨砺也就没有成功人士。可惜在课堂里，失败犯错却是个禁忌。

　　我十几岁的时候看过一本叫《木筏之旅》的书，讲的是六个挪威人乘坐木筏横渡太平洋的故事。他们的探险经历让我突发奇想，有一天我也要像他们那样来一次木筏航行。作为普通家庭出身的少年，我的这个梦想人人都觉得荒谬。亲朋好友都不支持我，他们还叫我不要开这样的玩笑。但这个木筏梦想却在我心里燃烧，我想更深入地了解海洋世界的奥秘，学习怎样挑战它。于是我开始往公共图书馆里跑，并找了很多相关的书籍来看。

　　后来的几年，我参加了海洋探险训练营，阅读航船杂志和航海专著，还观摩了多次的船艇展览。为了学习船舶驾驶技巧，我做了航海图、浮标和船艇的模型。有了模型做参考，理解起来就容易多了。其实当时我是不自觉地学习如何学习，也就是自学的技巧。这个本领使我终生受用，成就了后日的辉煌，也让我那遥不可及的梦想成为了现实。

　　十九岁那年正值朝鲜战争，我加入了海军陆战队，并被派遣到了日本。第一天报到的时候，一个军官跟我说：“你现在是我们的机械师，负责机修部。”他边指着一辆拖车，边递给我一串钥匙。在海军陆战队里，所有的东西都连接到了车轨上。我打开拖车的门，第一次看到了海军陆战队的机修车间。里面有本操作手册，标题是《如何操作车床》。以后每次接到任务的时候，我就按着手册的指引去做，连我也有点不敢相信自己可以胜任派遣的任务。海军陆战队的经历开始了我的机械工程师生涯，也让我懂得学会怎么学就是一种有力的工具。其实，我们身边所有的人造发明都凝聚了一些人的梦想和挫败。看看电灯泡的例子，爱迪生就相信总有某些物质可以达到白炽而不会烧起来。有点痴人说梦吧？人人都知道任何东西都会在短时间内烧完。不过爱迪生在千次失败尝试后，的的确确找到了一种可以升温至白炽却不会烧起来的钢丝，持续的白炽就带来了灯光。

　　机遇只会眷顾那些有梦想的人。他们总是最先被录用、最先被赐予机遇、也是最先被提升的。梦想越是宏大，机会之门就会开得越快。没有梦想的人，招聘升迁的好事总轮不到他，人员精简的时候却会被最先给刷下来。对没有梦想的人，机会之门始终是紧闭的。为什么？这是因为有梦想和没有梦想的人的处事方式完全不同。有梦想的人为人处世散发出一股热力，他们对自己的生命有种使命感，积极追求人生的意义。这种四射的热忱正是上司欣赏的特质，机遇也就因此而降临。这也就是有梦想的人化腐朽为神奇的秘密。

　　从陆战队退役下来以后，我发觉别人的看法是对的――我年少时的梦想实在太荒唐了。现实生活中的人是不会乘坐皮筏漂流横渡大海的，我都长成个成人了，想法和做法要像个成人才行。于是我的皮筏漂流梦就这样灰飞烟灭了。在接着的五年时间里，我没有一丝的长进，什么抱负、愿望、理想统统都给抛诸脑后了。有些东西也就随之消失了……年轻时常降临的机遇也慢慢枯竭了。

　　有天在我替那本《木筏之旅》掸尘的时候，我的梦想立即从书本里跳出来复活了。我对自己说：“我得找条出路！”两年后，我跑到了夏威夷。在那里我学到了2000年前波利尼西亚人是怎样靠独木舟来到这个太平洋小岛定居的。我的梦想已经从木筏转为独木舟航行了，这时候幸运之神再次光临。

　　我在一艘36英尺长帆船上谋到了一份船员的工作，这艘船常年游弋在夏威夷和加州之间，这就培养了我的航海经验。接着巴拿马运河公司聘请了我，没多久，部门主管就派我到专门的深海潜水学校接受培训，费用由公司负责。学会了这个本领，钱也就再也不是问题了。

　　过了不久，我来到了塔希提岛的一个海滩上，在这里我造了一艘长40英尺的双层船身波利尼西亚船，命名为Liki Tiki。它的船身是在巴拿马的达里恩省由巧克族印第安人做的，然后运到塔希提岛来。我根据我的航海知识和在檀香山的主教博物馆里找到的资料，建造了这艘船。在海上试航三天后，我就确信双层船身理论是错误的。因为这样的话，两层船壳互相抗衡，熬不了多久船身就会断裂。

　　回到巴拿马，我到达里恩丛林里向当地的印第安人请教。他们告诉我：“加上舷外支架就可以了。”于是我重新造了一只长36英尺的独木舟，装上了舷外支架，我把它也命名为Liki Tiki，乘着它我成功地航行了5000英里，从巴拿马到了夏威夷。

　　机会一直在闪现，我为夏威夷海军海底中心研发了一种承载双人的树脂玻璃潜艇。在搬回巴拿马运河区后，我学会了五种电脑程序语言，当上了电脑部的主管。我还是运河区一艘训练用帆船Chief Aptakisic号的船长，带过一批青少年去纽约。我自己另外又设计了一艘50英尺的帆船――Hunky-Dory号，我和妻子乘这艘帆船在南太平洋上航行了五年。得到机遇的眷顾是因为我积极主动，而且不让年少轻狂的梦想之火熄灭。