Roger Federer has b r o k e n m a n y records in tennis and in 2017, he broke one more record by winning the eighth Wimbl edon Tennis Championship.
I was so impressed with his latest feat at the time. I st i l l remember how I enjoyed that game.
What I liked even more than his clinical shots in the f inal game was the af ter match inter v i ew. The master of ceremonies (MC) asked Federer what was the secret behind his incredible achievement. Federer said : “ It i s a l l down to dreams. W hen you dream and when you believe in your dreams, you make it happen.
I have always dreamt to win this and here we are now.” I was immediately bought into his principle of dreaming. I looked back and saw that even in my own life, the moments that I dreamt and believed in my dreams, I triumphed – unlike the times when I did not dream or did not believe in my dreams.
All great achievers start wi t h d reaming – they dream big and they believe in their dreams. Be in in sports, politics, business, academia even in religion. In literally all fields, it is those that believe in their dreams that excel.
Case in point is Kamuzu Banda , o u r f o u n d i ng president. He often talked about the three dreams he had when he was detained for about a year at Gweru Pr i son in Zimbabwe in 1959. He dreamt “to give my people their freedom, to build our own university and to break the stupid federation of Rhodes ia and Nyasaland”. Since he believed in his dreams, it didn’t take Kamuzu long before he achieved al l his Gweru dreams. Bingu too had hi s big dreams which he achieved. We can say the same about a Tcheya Muluzi, Amayi and certainly the current big politicians. Of course, the mother of all dreams is that of Obama seeking to become the first black President of the United States of Amer i c a. He believed he could do it, and you will remember his mantra “Yes we can!”
I have referred to the Zimbabwean entrepreneur Nigel Chanakira several times on this column. He told me that he used to tell his mother that he would own a bank when he grew up. Indeed, at the age of 28 years, he formed Kingdom Bank in Zimbabwe. He achieved his dream, the dream he believed in.
In rel igion, we have Joseph Ratzinger. Aged five, he was one of the young children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal from Munich w i t h f l ower s . Later that day, he said that when he grew up, he would become a Cardinal too. He became not just a Cardinal, but even became Pope Benedict the XVI. In fact, another Pope long before him talked highly about the power of dreams. Pope John XXIII is quoted as having said: “Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Th ink not about your f rust rations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”
In my first year at the Polytechnic, I had a friend Gift Kawamba. Gift had a d ream to become a leader. He used to cal l himself ‘the self-declared cha i rman o f f i r s t year students’. We all accepted that declaration. He kept believing in that dream and indeed in the third year, he became president of the Polytechnic Students Union.
When you bel ieve in your dream, do not be shy to say it a hundred times, reinforcing your dream the way Kawamba did it. Set out your dream, believe your dream and live your dream.
If you can, even dream in colour – you will remember Bingu’s inaugural speech when he cal l ed on al l Ma lawians to dream in colour. At least dream big, even if in black and white but dream big and believe your dreams. This way, you will excel in life!
