As entrepreneurs, creators and marketers, we live in a world where the dominant narrative we’re confronted with often contains some version of, “You will fail.”

Maybe it’s softened up to the more nuanced “You will most likely fail,” maybe it’s well-meaning questions about what our back up plan is, you know, a real job for when our self-directed creative endeavors fail, or maybe it’s some stat about most new businesses failing within the first 5 years or whatever the going number is these days.

Needless to say, this isn’t the ideal environment in which to produce our best work, the work that has the potential to change the people who engage with it.

In the face of this adversity, many creators choose to bow out and abandon the pursuit of their craft as a career.

For those of us who tough it out and against all the (supposed) odds find a way to build a business, sell our art, or otherwise make a living off our work, it feels like we’ve won, proving the naysayers wrong along the way.

But despite our seeming victory, those narratives often still have a negative impact on the work we do on a daily basis.

When facing long odds, it’s natural to water down our dream a little bit, maybe even a lot. If it feels audacious and unachievable to start a business or make a living as a creator at all, we don’t dare think about our real, honest, dream scenario.

Maybe you dreamed of illustrating gig posters for the biggest bands in the world and wound up as a graphic designer who mostly works with big chain retailers.

Maybe you dreamed of making documentaries and ended up filming weddings.

Maybe you dreamed of writing the breakthrough book that taught people around the world how to easily live healthier lives and prevent disease, but ended up with a local medical practice in your hometown.

Compromises can be useful when looking to gain a foothold in our chosen field, they may even be an essential way to get our reps in as we push onward to something better.

We can be entirely happy in our chosen compromise as well.

We can be happy designing web ads for chain retailers, we can feel lucky that we get to work in the film industry and help couples celebrate their special days, we can be fulfilled in the fact that we can see the impact we’re having on our patients on a one to one level.

But we can also wish for more.

Too often we settle for lesser dreams because it feels like what we can get away with.

According to the narrative, we shouldn’t have even made it this far. Do we really want to risk dreaming bigger, asking for more?

I think we should.

Every so often, I think it’s worth spending an hour mapping out the current state of your business or work and then asking, “What would this look like if it were perfect?”

Don’t be reasonable, don’t compromise, don’t scale back your true ambitions.

Make a map of what perfect looks like and then start moving towards it.

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