The students had all informed the class of their plans. All but one, that is. He said he was not ready to say anything about it. The next time we met though, when his turn came, he leaned forward slightly, and said, “I can assume that client confidentiality would apply here, and that you’d not try to use my idea?” I assured him that I would not. Inwardly, I felt like bursting out laughing.

It had nothing to do with his idea. It was a good idea. But it wasn’t MY dream! It was his. Where the heck would I fit in the time to steal someone else’s dream? I’m having enough trouble carving my own down to size!

I’ve consolidated and eliminated and compacted and given sites away wholesale. I’ve put sites up for sale that I never thought I’d sell, and felt relieved to see them go. I’ve never looked back – I’ve never even looked to see what the new owners did with them. Instead I looked for the next thing to trim down.

We now have three business lines, all of which are interrelated. It works out very nicely. But I do have to juggle my time. There just isn’t enough to go around otherwise.

I meet people now who are just like I was when I started up – dabbling with this, tinkering with that, spreading myself out to see what all I could do. And I did a lot! I learned a lot! A good deal of it now stands me in good stead to enhance the services we offer. But I can recognize someone in that same stage. It usually means they have not settled on something definitive, that they aren’t quite certain what their business identity is, and that they are not quite ready to be totally serious about something that could succeed in a big way. They are still trying things on for size, unwilling to commit to just one concept. Uninspired as yet with the grand plan, not yet believing quite that they can achieve the huge and astounding.

You can spin a lot of plates as long as each one is not too demanding. Once you grasp on to a few big ones though, you have to let some of the little ones go. The big ones take more attention, and more muscle, and more experience to keep going. They also demand absolute dedication.

I’ve got three big ones going. I’m letting the rest go, because if I try to keep some of those little ones going, I’ll drop a big one. I don’t have time to pick up someone else’s plate and try to keep it going too… There isn’t any time for that!

So don’t worry about talking to me about your dream. I’m happy to brainstorm with you to help you succeed, but I don’t want your dream. And don’t invite me to join your MLM team. I don’t have time for that either, and if you think that I do, then you have not yet grabbed hold of something absorbing and fulfilling. I’m not about to go chasing the illusion of easy wealth, and risk dropping the real thing.

If you feel like you are about to drop something, then I suggest you make SURE something drops. Because if you CHOOSE what drops, you’ll keep the important stuff going. The stuff that can take you somewhere amazing.