Chad Silverstein argues that effective leaders dream big and then do the work through consistent, compounding actions. He calls this the "Opus path" at Built to Lead, a structure that pairs vision with small productive steps, and urges you to measure backwards and embrace the ongoing climb.
Chapters
I have a very close friend who, after learning about Dream and Dew, he bought a little plaque that said dream and Dew, and he put it on his desk. And I remember walking by his office and seeing it. And I think somehow I had it end up in my house, but I don't remember how. But I love that mantra, dream and do. I love it for so many reasons. One, because I like to think that I'm a doer, that I can get things done, and I like to dream. And I think today people kind of take that glass ceiling and they don't remove it from their head. So they limit themselves on their aim and what they want to pursue. And they don't think something's realistic, and they don't think it's possible. They don't want to be just a dreamer, a daydreamer, but you can't just. You can't just be a daydreamer. You have to be a doer, and you can't just be a doer. You got to be able to dream. And I love the Opus path at Built to Lead because it allows you to kind of throw that rock out there of where you're going to aim. But you don't have to spend that much time thinking about it. Once you have it, you're really going to spend all of your time in your playbook of productive actions where you're just kind of taking baby steps and you're taking action and you're knocking out one little productive action after another. And they compound over time, getting you closer and closer and closer to where you're going. And ironically, the contradiction and the dichotomy of just leadership in general is that the closer you get to that aim, the more you're going to get further away because you're going to keep throwing the rock out there. You know, there's nothing exciting after you accomplish a big goal, after you celebrate it like, okay, you did it. Now what? And typically, most people are just starting over. It's really embracing the climb. It's being able to, like, be in that grind and work your tail off and feel so good about finally getting to where you want to go. But you know as well as I know that once you get there, you're going to just set the doubt further. And that's why it's important that you measure backwards and not get caught in that cat trap. So you want to make sure that you're always seeing where you came from and get that energy versus seeing where you're going compared to where you are and letting that kind of, you know, make you feel a little down, because you're not going to be somewhere where you've just made up a vision. So remember that dreamers are doers. You can't have one without the other. And the best leaders, they dream the biggest. And they usually are doing more than everyone else around them. And you don't even know how they're doing it and how they're getting it all done. But it's usually because they're so passionate about the dream that that is like fuel for their energy to just work and get closer and closer to whatever it is they're aiming at. That's the power of having purpose, having a vision, and popping it out. Dream and do.
