A Dream With A Plan.

Today's Marketing Cookie is true. I could literally write out the fortune again for you, not add another word, and you would have important words of wisdom to live by. Of course, I wouldn't do that because my personal goal is to write something meaningful every day.

Everyone has a dream at some point in their life, but unfortunately, very few will ever realize their dreams. The reason their dream will never come true is that it takes courage to make goals, establish a plan, and give yourself a deadline.

My father collected presidential political campaign memorabilia. During both Reagan elections, my father took me to New Hampshire during the presidential primary to meet the candidates and collect their campaign pins, posters, and bumper stickers. He loved it. Every Sunday, he would read the political cartoons in the newspaper and explain the jokes to me.

When the cartoon was really good, he would clip them out of the paper and save them in a shoebox. I absolutely loved the caricatures of the candidates and somewhere along the way, I developed a dream of creating political cartoons. What if I could draw something that my dad would appreciate? Wouldn't it be really cool if I could draw caricatures well enough that he would clip my drawings from the newspaper? To me, this was a big dream!

From that point on, I remember drawing caricatures all the time, of just about everyone I knew. In seventh grade, I drew caricatures of every single student in the private school I attended, which were used in the annual yearbook. It was very exciting to see my drawings in print.

When I was in ninth grade, George Bush Sr. was running for president against Michael Dukakis. I had learned in my current events class that less than half of Americans actually exercised their right to vote. So, I drew a cartoon of both candidates standing upon the word "VOTE". When I had finished the picture, I rode my bicycle into town, went into the little office for the Blackstone Valley Tribune, and asked to speak with the editor.

I could hear the receptionist telling him, "There's a kid out here looking to speak with you."

"What does he want?" a deep voice responded.

"How would I know?" she answered.

I could hear the squeak of his chair as he rose to his feet and came out of his office to the front counter. I told him that I wanted to be a cartoonist and showed him the picture I had drawn. He took it from me, told me that he wasn't sure if he could use it, but that he would try to fit it in. One week later, I opened my fresh copy of the Tribune and there it was! My cartoon was featured on the editorial page! Not only did my father clip it out of the newspaper, but he also framed my cartoon on the wall of his library. My dream had come true!

The next week, the editor called and asked if I would accept an assignment for a new editorial he was writing. We agreed that he would pay me $10 for every cartoon I drew. My mother told me that getting paid to do something means that you are "professional," no matter how much you are paid. WOW! Suddenly, my dream had become my very first job. I continued to draw cartoons for the Tribune almost every week for another three years until I went to college.

I urge you to transform your dreams into goals—it is the only way they can ever become a reality.