Believe in achieving your dreams...

I came across this story some time ago and I thought I'd share it. I have no idea who the author was. It demonstrates the importance of overcoming your fear of failure and going for your dreams...


The Dream
 
A man lay on his bed at the end of his life waiting to die.
His dream came to pay his last respects and bid farewell to the man who had never used it.
As it entered the room the man looked down in shame.
"Why did you not realise me?" the dream asked.
"Because I was afraid" the man said.
"Afraid of what" said the dream.
"I was afraid I would fail."
"But haven't you failed by not attempting to use me?" 
"Yes I did, but I always thought there would be tomorrow."
"You Fool!" said the dream, "Did it never occur to you that there was only ever today, the moment that you are in right now?"
“Do you think that now that death is here that you can put it off until tomorrow?".
"No” said the man, a tear gently rolling down his cheek.
The dream was softer now, because it knew that there were two types of pain, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret, and while discipline weighs ounces, regret weighs pounds.
Then the dream leant forward to gently wipe away the tear and said,
“You need only have taken the first step and I would have taken one to meet you, for the only thing that ever separated us was the belief in your mind that you couldn't have me".
Then they said goodbye and they both died.

Business Networking v Network Marketing/MLM - A Comparison

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Business networking and referral organisations, both online and offline, often take a "no network marketing/multi-level marketing" stance. Groups like BNI, 4Networking, Ecademy and LinkedIn are a few examples.
This has always intrigued me because both are simply business models.  The goal of each is to build a network to distribute a product.  The product could be the opportunity to network with other business people (for the purpose of growing ones own business), the other is used to distribute all manner of things such as cleaning products, utilities, health supplements and travel.
The goal in each case is to grow a business and to make profits.  Both are great models and both work. Some members of business networking groups have more success than others and some quit and claim that they don't work.  The same goes for network marketing.  
And yet, despite using an almost identical system, only one of these business models actually pays the people that are really responsible for growing the network.  I'll let you make up your own mind as to which is the fairest.
Food for thought?