Let me tell you how I developed my dream.  As a farm boy from Iowa, I seldom if ever did serious planning as a youth.  When considering my future, I knew that I didn't want to be a farmer as had been my father.  After some consideration in my senior year in high school, I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian.  This decision necessitated that I attend the largest university in the state, as it was the only college in the state offering such a degree. 
     In a conversation with my advisor at the university, I found out that I should have taken a pre-med track of courses in high school to be a veterinarian.  And so the first quarter at the university, I enrolled in a group of remedial math and science courses to help get  me get on track with my new dream.  I was not prepared for the level of focus and dedication needed for this group of courses, and to be kind it was a nightmare.  Without a plan and unable to understand what changes I needed to make in my study habits, I did poorly.  In shock, I took the next quarter off and tried to regroup.  After seeking advice from my parents, friends in college, and valued high school teachers, I decided to attend a smaller local college and take general education courses with the hope of finding something I liked that did not require such a high science and math background.  I also wanted to be more successful in my college courses.  This second experience was more successful, but I continued to drift, as I was first interested in one thing and then another.  I was being directed by my momentary feelings and I still had no formal plan.  I just chose my courses semester by semester by what I thought would be interesting. 

It was only after two years in college, two years in the armed services, and one year working that I finally developed a formal plan for my dream for the future.  I was fortunate to find an employer who had a strong history of successful planning in his personal life and with his successful restaurant business. This employer, Paul Shank sat down with me and asked the right questions.  These questions were the basis for my first serious planning for my life.  Paul kept asking, “What do your want to do with your life?  What do you want to be doing five years from now?”  He said, “You have to put it into writing.”  After I put thought to these questions and began writing about what I wanted to do, I felt much more confident in knowing that I had finally chosen as a career area, and that excited me. I later developed a plan that I had confidence in.  Paul helped me narrow down the choices and guided me in the development of my first steps in setting my dream into action.  I wanted to own my own restaurant. 

Paul was pretty tough with me as he was task oriented.  He had gone from being a line cook in a lumber camp to owning the highest rated restaurant in Denver, Colorado in less than fifteen years.  He warned, "Jim, if you don't want to be making salads or cooking breakfasts ten years from now, you had better make a plan for your life.  Because no one that I know is going to do that for you.  I have seen a lot of talented people working for me over the years, and the only ones that make a success out of their lives are the ones that dream and put a plan to  it.  Time slips away and  you will have missed the prime years of your life to attain the education and acquire the experiences that make your dream the best that it can be." "You can't do anything worthwhile without a plan", he admonished.  This conversation shocked and scared me as I was already 23 years old and had no long term plan for my life.  It caused me to seriously look at what I wanted out of my life (my dream) and to plan for it. 

   These were those questions Paul asked me.

         Where do you want to be in 10 years, doing what? 
         Do you have a plan for getting there? 
         Do you know how to develop such a plan? 
         If not, would you like some help? 

When Paul found out that I was serious about my career plans, he spent a number of
afternoons helping me develop my career plan.  After I had defined my dream and
developed some goals, he asked professionals in the industry and professors at Denver University (School of Hotel and Restaurant Management) to talk with me about my career decision and answer my many questions.  Paul made me write endless pages of information about my dream, my plans, concerns, and responses that I had obtained from those helpful professionals.  At the time I felt that this work was redundant and unnecessary.  That was evidence that I knew little about planning. 

It was only later that I found the value of "writing" all of that process instead of just talking about it.  It was through the analysis of that writing that I came to better understand myself and the many parts of the industry.  The writing and analysis also helped me separate what things best fit for me and my career plans and what things were interesting, but did nothing to help my career development.  After this initial planning introduction I designed my college program, later developed management skills in industry, which led to the creation and operation of my own restaurant.  I accomplished this in the next six years, (my first plan was to do it in ten years). 

Many other accomplishments that have been a part of my professional life have become a reality because of my continued development of my professional career planning.  Each summer I take time to review what has happened during the past year and what changes I want to make for the future.