Eat, Sleep, And Drink Your Dream

I'm on the move and I'm typing fast. I'm fighting off being exhausted from a travel day to Disney World to share what is just the beginning of a very special experience:

Disney's Dreamers Academy, with Steve Harvey And Essence Magazine

100 students, girls and boys alike, from all around the nation converged on Orlando, Florida for a weekend stay in the land where dreams do come true. The marquee event for the weekend is the power of dreams. Celebs and successful business persons from all over will mentor and share their experiences from yesterday through Sunday to help these students learn how to hold fast to and realize their dreams.

During the official welcome:

Yolanda Adams spoke of listening and learning from from those who have
grabbed hold to their dreams.

Mikki Taylor encouraged the kids to cherish take full advantage of the weekend and not allow anyone to shake them from what they believe they are capable of.

Funnyman extraordinaire, Steve Harvey, was greeted with a standing ovation. But he quickly humbled himself before all of us stating, "Dreams do come true. Dreams blossom from blessings." And without missing a beat or making any excuses he added faith and belief in God into the equation fully sharing his awe over the select nature of opportunity. He insisted it doesn't come from you and your individual desires, but instead God's desires for you. He told the rapt audience "I am a recipient of God's blessings," and "Dreams without faith is crazy!"

And best believe he had the crowd in tears, laughing hysterically throughout his time on the mic.

But wasn't only readily identifiable personalities who held the kids' attention. Dexter Hanksley, a Walt Disney Imagineer, gave a very profound talk later on that evening.

He had a dream as a young college student studying architecture and entered into a contest to design a theme park event for Disney. Not only did he and his college buddies win the competition that year, but Disney brought him on and he's had his hands literally on every theme park innovation you can think of.

Eat, Sleep & Dream

• Confidence: Believe in yourself and your dream.
• Creativity - forget thinking outside the box; why does there have to be a box at all.
• Use your full range of curiosity to accomplish your goals.
• When it comes to the haters, love them because if you don't have haters then you aren't doing something right.
• Constancy - follow through - you dream it, then you do it. Bring the dream to fruition.

Dexter wrapped up in a few words what everyone had been saying for most of my first day at the Disney's Dreamers Academy 2011: Eat, sleep and drink your dream.


E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.