If you don't begin, you will never finish.

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."

-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It all begins with imagination.

When I was a young boy I spent a lot of time by myself. I was an only child until I was ten (there is a whole beautiful story about going from being an only child to having a sister – but that is for another time). Being an only child made me very self-sufficient. I was able to entertain myself by creating from my imagination.

From my imagination I would create "fantasy-scapes" in the living room. I would have an idea in my mind and try to create the fantasy world of my mind using strings of lights, bolts of fabrics, scores of action figures, and anything else I could find that remotely matched the pictures in my head. It was in the early days of VHS camcorders, and I would video tape these stories. If only those tapes had survived the years.

I am grateful my father didn't discourage my imagination. I am sure it drove him nuts to come home to an apartment in disarray, but as long as I tidied up I wouldn't "get in trouble." So my imagination was allowed to grow. From imagination comes innovation. My imagination wasn't suppressed.

I see in our culture a belief in suppression. Our imagination is squashed, giving way to a belief that the important things in life are to make money so that we can be comfortable at some later point in life – that illusive time we call "retirement." Well I don't want to wait. I am ready to go!

Like the acorn, within each of us is the possibility of the magnificent oak. To grow into the oak, we must dare to break through the outer shell. And we must dare to do it NOW! (The Nike slogan is right: Just Do It!). If we do, we can expect magnificence. If we don't, then we may be supporting others to grow into their magnificence. The only problem with that is, an acorn that is supporting another to grow must be diminishing, decaying to provide nutrients to support others.

There is room for all of us to grow.

It starts with imagination.

It develops into innovation.

It starts right now.

Go.