The Story
Nothing is more dreadful than someone who stops believing in themselves! This is probably not the introduction you expected but it holds such weight to how this project began, that I couldn’t think of any other way to start.
Project Dream was not inspired by a very successful entrepreneur who, at the end of a series of challenges, accomplished his dream of running his own company. It was in fact, driven by the story of a lady who worked her whole life to accomplish a dream that never became a reality.
As a girl growing up, all she ever wanted was to be an entrepreneur in her small community. She wanted a store, and nothing brought more joy than to see someone satisfied after they tasted one of her treats. It would have been a dream come true, if this was what she saw every day. She just kept dreaming, until one day, she stopped.
Life has an ugly way of slowly crushing dreams. The first challenge was her location, then it was her seemingly lack of education, lack of support, lack of finance and finally children came into the picture. After years of repeated shortcomings and many discouragements, the dream faded.
I remember thinking, while hearing her story, that maybe if someone along life’s journey reminded her that she was not defined by her shortcomings, she probably would have been a very different person today. That day, I felt defeated, because no matter how much I tried showing her a brighter side, she just could not see it. She had given up about ten years before my attempts, and nothing I said seemed to affect in the least, what she had come to accept.
I could never forget how I felt trying to empathise with her story. That feeling haunted me until one day, I thought that no one else should ever get to this point. Someone needed to do something about it, someone needed to remind the many people who are facing countless struggles that there is hope, as long as they are still living. Someone needed to do it, someone needed to start it, that someone is me… welcome Project Dream!
