Have you ever had a dream that you wished to fulfill? Have you ever wondered what it takes to make it so?

It had been a long standing dream of mine to change the face of education to support the inner gifts of each student. About six years into developing an alternative private school with a mentor, I noticed the extent to which our students were thriving. Our approach was holistic in nature, which is to say that we did not simply fill young minds with knowledge, but we challenged them to develop themselves intellectually, emotionally, socially, creatively, physically and actively. Their learning was applied to real world projects that affected the lives of fellow citizens. This caused our students to sit at the driver’s seat of their own education. It helped them to fulfill a sense of personal purpose in life.

I began to realize that this form of education should be available to all of our young citizens—not only those with parents who could afford a private school tuition. Next thing I knew, I was creating a public charter school with a business partner, seeking to make this real-world approach to education accessible to diverse populations.

The truth of the matter is, I had no idea what my new ambition would require. In our first year, I worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week with a total of 19 days off. Taking this new role of leadership gave me no option but to see my ambition through to fruition. After all, children, teachers and families were counting on me to fulfill what I had promised. At times, exhausted and ailing, I let many people down. This hurt me to the core, but I did not give up. I took a few months to recover, then came back in a new role more committed to the school’s success than ever before. I had a dream to fulfill.

Ten years after starting the project, our school was named the Charter School of the Year in California.

The fulfillment of a dream requires risk. It requires you to step outside yourself for the benefit of those who are counting on you to give your best. Sometimes you fail, and that kind of wound might seem to cut deeper than a knife to the heart. If you stay the course however, enduring to make up for your lackings and failures, learning all the while, eventual success is inevitable. The rewards trump the heartache. Your persistence serves as the heart of your fulfillment. It carries you through impossibility to actualization. As Thomas Edison once said, “most of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success.”

Do you have a dream that your heart wishes to infuse with the life-giving blood that you carry? Remember this: your heart powers your left foot. It powers your right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Over and over, one step at a time, your heart carries you down the road of your existence toward whatever it is that your are intent on fulfilling. Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe in your dreams? Are you willing to fail before you succeed? Are you willing to persist?

If so, I believe in you. If so, I’m not the only one. We want to see you succeed—all of us who have chosen to walk the path of fulfillment.

Go Shining my friend! Follow your dream until you find that it has followed you to fulfillment!