The Dream Is Free. The Hustle Is Sold Separately.

As the man in front of me ordered his hamburger, I read the words on the back of his T-shirt.  “The Dream is Free.  The Hustle is Sold Separately.”

When I was a kid I had a dream of finding one product, placing an ad in a single magazine, selling more than $1,000,000 of my product, then retiring on my profit at age twenty.  The dream was free.  As it turns out, the hustle was missing.

In my teens I had the dream of being a better writer than Shakespeare.  Again, the dream was absolutely free. I also dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, winning the chess championship of the world, and of being elected president of the United States.  All were free. Then there was my dream of growing up, falling in love, getting married, and living happily ever after.

Dreams are hopeful, comforting, and the outline for a new reality.  All of us enjoy, or should enjoy, dreaming every day of our lives.  But we must realize that most of our dreams are born, and will live and languish, as fantasies.  A friend of mine once noted, “Dreams are extremely fragile outside the womb of the mind.”

One of my daughters dreamed of becoming an Olympic diver.  After her third lesson she announced, “I’m not going back.  The water is cold.”  As an adult she worked diligently for years to become a yoga teacher.

The restaurant chain Wendy’s televised a commercial years ago with the tag line, “Where’s the beef?”  Similarly, with respect to our dreams, we might ask ourselves, “Where’s the hustle?”

Which of your dreams have come true?  Which of your present dreams would you like to come true?  I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that many of your dreams can and will become real.  The bad news is that you will almost certainly have to personally add some hustle.

Those of my dreams which have come true each required effort over a period of many years.

In my late twenties I began to invest in commercial real estate.  Success – the beginning of real success – was ten years away.   Twenty years ago I established the poetry journal Rattle.  Again, real success began after more than a decade of determination.  My wife and I founded The Frieda C. Fox Foundation in 1999.  Due to the efforts of our outstanding executive director, and dozens of family and non-family members, the foundation has become one of the leaders in youth philanthropy.  And our Junior Board, ages eight to seventeen, works persistently to help others, which is now not only our dream, but their dream as well.

I may be stating the obvious in telling you that it takes effort to get from here to there.  But it does.

And as for my dream of “living happily ever after,” which is part of my own fairytale that began, “Once upon a time,” I’m still working on it.  Few farmers plant seeds, walk away, and return to harvest an abundant crop.  Few relationships flourish without care, concern, and consistent attention.

The dreams are free.  And hustle is the not-so-secret sauce of making your dreams come true.

Alan