The Dream Chaser. Gaskins Tony A.

are you going to show others how to get on it?

      To be honest with you, I still struggle today with the path that was set for me. It's always there. It's in my mind. It's all around me. I'm not on that path in my professional life, but what I realize is that our birth path is made up of many roads, and we all struggle with different aspects. One person may reach their goals professionally but suffer socially. Another person may reach their goals financially but suffer spiritually. Some suffer emotionally, financially, or physically. You have to recognize your weaknesses and pick your vices wisely. Question every path you're going down and make sure the destination is desirable.

      Think of your path as a road to success. Each lane on the road has to lead to success. It will do you no good to make a million dollars and then die early from liver problems because of your drinking habits. It will do you no good to make a million dollars and then have a short miserable life filled with toxic relationships. Think about your paths. You don't have to be just what your mother or father were. You don't just have to be what your grandparents were. You can be more. Even if they are all great people, you can still be more. You can be better. You can grow and further the possibilities for generations to come.

      Take some time to really think about what it is you want to become. Think about who you have already become. Confront the issues in your life. Look at the things you picked up without even realizing that you were taught how to settle or how to hurt yourself. Be willing to start fresh and new. Be willing to go alone and make a new path that your children can follow. Don't be mad at your situation. Don't blame your parents for what they didn't teach you because they could only teach what they knew. Be thankful for what your parents could give you, and learn from their lessons, as well as their mistakes. It's time to make adjustments and get on the path you'd like to be on.

      Anything is possible if we want it to be. We can start way behind the rest of the pack and still finish first. There is a lot of power in the human will. There will be distractions, setups, and setbacks, but you have to keep going despite everything else. There are those who will doubt you and count you out, but if you have a real desire to succeed, then failure is not an option.

      We've heard so many stories of people who overcame obstacles that seemed unbearable and still made it. You can be one of those stories.

      CHAPTER 2

      WE'RE BORN SUCCESSFUL

      No one is born a failure. You have seeds of success within you no matter where you're born, who your parents are, what race you are, or what religion you are. We accept limitations and we stunt our growth by believing the lies that were told to us about who we are and what we can become. No matter the level you were born at you can always go higher. You don't have to accept the limits the world tries to place on you. Any gift can make you a living. There is a business for everything imaginable and if there isn't, you can create it. Just because it hasn't been done or there hasn't been real success at it doesn't mean that you can't be successful. We see what others have done and we believe we can't go any further than they did. We tell ourselves what's realistic and what's not and we call it being a realist. I've found that everyone has something special about them, but it can be so unique that no one is ready to embrace it. Your gift can be so rare that it scares you and confuses others.

      I look at my gifts, and I don't know where they come from. I write 100-page books usually, but I'm hoping this one finishes longer than that. I go away to a beach house and I write my books in two to three days. When I tell someone that, they are blown away, even some authors. I could write my book a thousand times over, and it wouldn't get any better because I write from my heart, not from my mind. What's on my heart won't change today or tomorrow because it's my true thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. So I sit down and I pour my heart out on the paper. I only took one computer class in school, but that class taught me how to type. I type as fast as I think, so my fingers can keep up with my thoughts and I don't have to suffer through writer's block. I'm not a prolific writer, but I can convey my thoughts and get a point across without it taking me weeks or months to do so. I came to realize that it's a small gift that has benefited me greatly. I don't know anyone else in my family who can do it, so I stand alone with my gift. We all have something like that. There is something in you that only you can do really well. There may be other people who can do it, but in your immediate circle you may be the only person who can do it that well. It could literally be anything. No gift is too small to embrace. No gift is too small to build a business around. Anything you are gifted at can be monetized and used in a positive way.

      Think back to when you were young. What did you do that came so natural that you didn't have to think about it? What did you do that others talked about or gravitated toward? What did you enjoy? I remember meeting a guy in high school who talked nonstop. That's a gift. If I talked as much as he did, my head would hurt, my jaws would hurt, and I would become physically exhausted. But this guy talked nonstop, and the topics just seemed to fly off the top of his head. He was a freestyle talker. He also liked to write as much as he liked to talk. He also started to rap. Today he has a podcast, and I believe one day his love for talking will make him a living if he harnesses the gift and pursues a career in it. Some people are neat freaks. Well, that can be a cleaning service, an organizing service, a closet-cleaning service, or anything along that line. There are neat freaks that would be organizing and loving every minute of it and earning a living from it, but instead they're on someone's job slaving away and hating it. Don't sleep on your dreams. Don't curse your gifts. There are natural gifts inside of you that could change your life. Maybe you can't see them, but someone else can. Your gift may be tied to your passion, or it may be tied to your purpose. Whichever it's tied to, it can bring you peace and joy. You have to realize your gifts if you want to take control of your life. Your gifts shouldn't have to be your hobby. Your gift can be your job. It may have to be your hobby for a little while to build a business around it, but it can become your full-time job. I love what I do, and it doesn't feel like work. It's not fair either. I hate to see someone miserable while I'm happy. I hate to see someone asking a boss for time off while I'm creating my own schedule. It upsets me. It bothers me. I'm thinking to myself, there are people whose ancestors were slaves, and they started life with every disadvantage. Why are they living the dream and you're living the nightmare? There are people using their gifts and making millions of dollars. If anyone can do it, then I believe everyone can do it. I'm just that optimistic. You'll have what you believe you can have. There are no excuses.

      When I was in the fourth grade, we had to write an essay in class. I wrote the essay from my heart. It was based on my life experiences, all nine years of them. I got an A on the essay, and my teacher asked me if she could read the essay to the class. I was shocked that she wanted to read my paper to the entire class. It confused me because there were kids in the class who were way smarter than me. Their parents were smarter and more successful than my parents, so those smarts were passed down to them. They read faster. They worked faster. They got better grades. I was confused, but I let her read the paper to the class. All I remember from the essay was one line, in which I said: “I got a weapon so bad that I could not sit down.” It should have said “whippin'” instead of weapon but the teacher thought I spelled it that way on purpose. She said, “I've never seen whippin' spelled like that, but that's a clever way to spell it.” She thought I did that on purpose, and I took the credit for it. Sometimes your mistakes will look like you did it on purpose when you're operating in your gift. She read the paper, and after that day she wanted to talk to my parents. She told my parents that I was gifted, and she wanted to put me in the gifted class. I felt very special, and I accepted the offer. I went to the gifted class. My parents were surprised and elated. They didn't do anything special with me growing up when it came to academics. My elementary school started to get too hard for them to help me. I would ask for help, but they would teach me their way and that way wasn't the teacher's way; so when I realized that, I stopped asking them for help. They were trying, and they were happy that their son was a gifted student.

      I didn't just write essays. I wrote poems later. That gift intrigued my teachers, and I kept hearing the same thing from English teachers all my life. The young girls I wrote poems for told me how much they loved them. My mother started praising my writing and telling me I could write Hallmark cards. I was really embracing this writing thing, and the more I did it the easier it became. I've always had bad grammar though. I never knew the grammar rules. I just