Sacrifices of Visionaries

Today I was intrigued by Chris Brogan‘s blog post, “What It Takes to Be an Overnight Success”.

The post was brief but included a one minute video revealing some of the sacrifices and incredible dedication that take place behind the scenes of one dubbed as an “overnight success.” The blog post brought to mind a recent video my husband shared with me – a video of a young man giving a motivational speech to a group of young people, explaining to them that the key to successfully pursuing your dreams is in the sacrifice, dedication and hard work you commit to them.

Highlights from this clip:

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”

“If you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to be willing to give up sleep. You’ve got to be willing to work off of three hours of sleep.”

“If you REALLY want to be successful, some days you’re gonna have to stay up three days in a row.”

Chris Brogan’s one minute view of “a day in the life of an overnight success” is the above motivational speech in action. He’s living it out, one sleepless night at a time.

Photo credit: Chris Brogan

Allison Sumpter

Hi Beth,

Thank you so much for your encouraging words.

I did find the whole discussion to be interesting as well. I was disturbed that someone would write a blog post attributing their own struggles with a pursuit of materialistic gain to someone else whose pursuit is that of a visionary - two completely different breeds. That's why I wrote the original post I did (a response to Joan's blog post).

Since then, I've decided that my assessment of the situation gives it more attention than I intended. Joan (whose last name I withhold intentionally) did not publish my comment on her blog. I suspect she received many comments on that blog post that she refused to post. This gave me the sense that her intent was not to provoke discussion and thought but to leverage the name of Chris Brogan to draw attention to her blog in promotion of her book (which did look interesting to me, but her approach to marketing it has left a bad taste in my mouth).

All this to say, I have removed the response I wrote to her blog post and left only the real point I wanted to make in my blog post: That visionary people make sacrifices to pursue their dreams - and the dreams of visionaries are never focused on material gain. It's the vision they chase. It's the vision that drives them. It's the vision they can't escape - they must pursue.

I know visionaries well. Both my father and my husband are of this breed. And having met and gotten to know Chris Brogan, I confirm he is also of the same breed. I admire and respect visionaries, and I'm glad they are among us.

Thank you so much for reading and engaging with me on this subject that provoked me to speak out. Having visionaries so close to me in my life, I felt a strong impulse to write about them and correct false attributions as observed in Joan's post.

Your observations and insight are spot on! Thanks so much, Beth, for joining in the processing on this subject. :)

Allison

Beth

Thank you, Allison, for your well thought out response...I find this a fascinating conversation, all around. I believe this touches many people today who are finding their passion, working out their life's goals, doing it takes to achieve those goals, and searching (and perhaps struggling) for ways to balance all of this with caring for and nurturing their families and loved ones. I so agree that it doesn't look the same for everyone and every family, and changes, as you say, with the seasons of life - and that's a good thing!
I am also looking forward to reading Joan's book.

Thanks again for your insights! :)

Sacrifices of Visionaries

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