Elon Musk and Angela De Souza ;) reveal their secrets to business success...

I have been a bit on the fence about Elon Musk over the years, he's not everyone's cup of tea, but these past few weeks I have become a fan! Today, I read this article on BBC* and it inspired me so much that I simply have to share my thoughts with you.

Our Women's Business Club theme for 2021 is Dare to Dream. It's been a very exciting theme to work with and it's already stirred up so much inside of me and others. It's easy to share with others what they should do but it's another story to realise that we too need to up our game! I thought I had big dreams, I thought I was living the dream, I thought I was leading the way but I realise that over the years my dreams have become more reasonable, less passionate, and much safer. What happened? Well, I got a bit tired, had a few hard knocks, got discouraged and started seeking to survive rather than thrive. It happens to the best of us at times but today I intend to get back to daring to dream as I used to. Except BIGGER!

Here is where I have gone wrong...

1.My Dreams Aren't Big Enough

I used to unashamedly have crazy big dreams. For example my 40th birthday, I tried to raise ￡40K to support an African village... and I failed but I still managed to raise some money and make a small difference. But that didn't stop me from having more crazy big dreams. I don't know at what point things changed between turning 40 and 47 but Elon's interview highlighted how I stopped dreaming big. I mean, even my biggest dreams are not very big at all by comparison to going to Mars so I really need to sort myself out. One current big dream is to donate ￡1m to charity - I love to give so why not give extravagantly!

In fact, like Bill Gates, he would probably regard ending his life with billions in the bank as a mark of failure because he hadn't put that money to good use.

Interestingly, as I type this I realise my biggest dreams have been about giving to charity, and that's all good and well but I need other dreams that are crazy big in order to achieve the finances to be generous with, so watch this space...

2. My Dreams Are Too Safe

I've never been one who plays it safe. Sure, I calculate risk and decide if it's worth it, but I've never played it safe, until now. I think risk can be quite exhausting and I probably just got a bit tired of the drama. But my Sabbatical has sorted that out and I am ready to get back in the game!

"...The giant rocket exploded when it crash-landed six minutes after lift-off. Mr. Musk hailed the test as an awesome success."

Playing it safe to avoid the critics is another thing I never used to do but have started to waiver in this area. You aren't dreaming big enough if you aren't being criticised, in my humble opinion. So bring it on, tell me why I am nuts to believe that I can build a global brand to support businesswomen through Women's Business Club, why I can't be paid the same as Sir Richard Branson for public speaking, and why I can't get my own Gulfstream to save time on travel?

3. My Dreams Don't Make Enough of a Difference

I'm passionate about making a difference in the lives of those around me, a real difference where lives are changed. In my context, that means that I help people unleash their hidden potential and thrive in business and life. Every time I hear a success story as a result of what I do, I feel like it's all been worth it. In fact, my Mastermind is where I see the most dramatic results and it's my favourite part of what I do in business!

That Mars base is a clue to what Musk believes is the key to success.

"You want things in the future to be better," he told me. "You want these new exciting things that make life better."

But that's not enough for me anymore, I want to make more of a difference on a larger scale and get bigger, better results for people through what I do... watch this space as I figure this out and formulate a plan!

4. My Dreams Don't Excite Me Enough

Yup, I said it. I've grown dull and bored. Not with what I do as I am still passionate about every minute of my day and all that fills it, but I don't have a dream big enough to thrill me. Every year since 2013 I invited the Queen to our Women's Business Conference, every year her lovely staff declined. It didn't bother me, it was a dream to have the Queen at our event and to have her say a few words. Then I stopped inviting her... and that was one of the indicators that I stopped believing that what we do is that important and stopped doing crazy things like inviting the Queen to our events. Inviting her always excited me and the possibility of it actually happening thrilled me. I need to get back to having dreams like that, ones that are crazy and thrilling.

So that's a bit about where I'm at and what I plan to do to get back on track with Elon-sized dreams.

The idea was to get people excited about space again, and persuade the US government to increase NASA's budget.

Dreams are born from within, you can't just make them up or they will have no meaning and won't last. I am going to dig deep within and get back to what's important to me and why. Then allow myself to start dreaming again about what could be.