I just returned from a week with the family out West, and I got to do something I’d been dreaming about since I was a kid: I took a tour of…
(drum roll, please)…
the Hoover Dam!
Woo-hoo! Yes, I gave myself over to my inner nerd and dragged my son Dan to the deluxe tour of the generators and the secret tunnels inside the dam itself.
Now, I won’t bore you with the details, but please give this next little fact some thought as you contemplate how bad things are in this economy: Between 1931 and 1935, our grandparents completed the most daring engineering feat since the Great Pyramids, and the outcome of their work created modern America and saved the world.
Big claims, I know. But true. So true.
The Boulder Canyon Dam, later named the Hoover Dam in honor of the president that took the fall for The Great Depression, gave the West control of the Colorado River for the first time. Its cycle of disastrous floods followed by withering droughts ended in 1935. Lake Meade, the largest man-made lake in the country, supplies a steady stream of water to the entire region stretching from the California coast to the Arizona-New Mexico border. Formerly barren deserts now yield much of the produce we take for granted at the local supermarket. When the cheap and clean electricity started flowing on September 11th, 1935 (look it up), it powered the growth of the sleepy little towns of the region. Today, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Diego are the country’s 2nd, 6th, and 8th largest cities, respectively. During World War Two, energy from the Hoover Dam powered the Long Beach shipyards where the U.S. Pacific fleet was rebuilt following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Someone had a dream way back when, and about a fifth of our fellow countrymen are living in it today.
What is YOUR big dream? You ARE still dreaming, aren’t you? Our future lies within our dreams. Our kids and grandkids will live inside the dreams we dream for them today.
Tough times, a lousy economy, and tight credit don’t seem to be very good excuses. They certainly weren’t for our grandparents.
What’s YOUR next big move? What are you dreaming about?
Here’s one of mine: I want to take BUILT TO LEAD into the heart of the U.S. Government–straight to the seat of power. I want to transform hearts right there; get them back on the “founder’s journey” and have them lead from principle and purpose. I want to “change Washington” from the inside out. That’s my dream.
Between then and now, I’ve got lots of productive action to take. Time to close this entry and get back to work.
Before I do, though, may I ask you to share your big dream here as a comment? Anyone have a big dream?
Even a not-so-big one?
BUILT TO LEAD 
My dream is to be the ultimate connector. There are so many talented people and great companies that are in need of each other but they just don’t know how to find each other. I want to be the mechanism that people and companies turn to to help create these relationships and create opportunities. I want 1+1 to =3.