你在童年時代曾懷有過什么偉大的夢想嗎？是否為此而做出過嘗試與努力？其實，無論夢想是大是小，只要跟隨自己的心，堅定地走下去，終會有所收獲……
Keep Your Dream 守護你的夢想
I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch. He has let me use his house to put on fund-raising events. The last time I was there he introduced me by saying: “I want to tell you a story. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.
“That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would sit on a 200-acre dream ranch.
“He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, ‘See me after class.’
“The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, ‘Why did I receive an F?’ The teacher said, ‘This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources . Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you’ll have to pay large stud fees . There’s no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher added, ‘If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.’
“The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, ‘Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.’ Finally, after a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all. He stated, ‘You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.’ ”
Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, “I tell you this story because you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.” He added, “The best part of the story is that two years ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on my ranch for a week. When the teacher was leaving, he said, ‘Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption not to give up on yours.’ ”
“Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what,” Monty at last concluded.
 我有一個朋友叫蒙蒂•羅伯茨，他擁有一座養馬場。他讓我用他的房子作為舉辦籌集基金活動的地點。上次我在他那兒時，他跟我說：“我想給你講一個故事。這要追溯到一個年輕人身上發生的故事，他是一位巡回馴馬師的兒子，他的馴馬師父親從馬廄到賽馬場，從農莊到牧場，負責訓練那里的馬匹。結果，這個男孩的中學生涯就不斷地被中斷。當他成為一名高年級學生的時候，老師要求他寫一篇文章，內容有關他長大后想成為什么人以及想做些什么。
“那天夜里，他寫了長達七頁的文章，描述了自己將來有一天能擁有一座養馬場的目標。他極其詳細地介紹了自己的這個夢想，甚至還畫出了一幅200英畝牧場的示意圖，在上面標出所有建筑、馬廄和跑道的具體位置。然后他又畫了一幅面積達4,000平方英尺的房屋平面圖，這棟房子會坐落在200英畝的夢想牧場上。