Ahh, the 4th of July. A time where we celebrate our country’s freedom and independence with fireworks, parades, backyard parties, barbecue, and red, white and blue... everywhere.

But this year, I encourage you to celebrate this national holiday a bit differently. How, you might ask? I want you to start by making the dreams that you’ve been keeping in the back of your mind a real life existence.

In America, when you have a dream, you have the freedom to make it happen. If you want to start a business, you can start a business. If you want to travel the world, you can plan out your trip. Even if you wanted to build a rocketship that went to Mars or a device that let you speak in your pet’s language, you could very well do that, too. No one is holding us back from making things happen but ourselves.

And today, in honor of our country’s independence, I want you to celebrate everything that freedom also means for you as a dreamer and an innovator. Take action and turn your wildest dreams and fascinations into a reality.

Here’s four ideas to take to heart this Fourth of July:

1. Be Realistic

So, you want to change the world, huh? We believe in you! However, it’s important to remember that none of the inventions or ideas that had an overwhelming impact on the world occurred within a day. Heck, even the little ideas that made minor impacts on the world took months or even years to come up with. Therefore, set a realistic timeline and expectation for your dream. Give yourself time to fail, start over and fail again before you finally expect to succeed. It’s often the setbacks of our projects that make the end result so wonderful, so don’t rush it!

2. Be Persistent

Don’t let people discourage your dream or tell you that you can’t do something great, simply because it is a wild idea that has never been done before. Just look at this great quote attributed to legendary inventor Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” There is always going to be someone that doubts your abilities or your ideas, but those people aren’t worth paying attention to. Instead, be persistent in trying to succeed and putting your best efforts into your dream.

3. Be Bold

While it’s important to be realistic about what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s just as important to be bold and think and out-of-the-box. Don’t just take the easy road to create something that there is an obvious need for. Come up with an angle for your idea that’s so revolutionary, people won’t even know it’s something that they need until they try to think of life without it. (Seriously, did you ever know you needed an iPhone before it existed?!)

4. Be Passionate

You will rarely read a story of an inventor or an entrepreneur that built something great without an overwhelming amount of passion. It is passion that drives people to keep pushing towards their dream when they hit a roadblock. It’s passion that builds great companies and ideas, rather than good ones. If you don’t have a passion for what you are trying to accomplish, it will be that much harder to see the success of your idea through till the end.

So what are you waiting for?! Go on and make your dreams happen because you owe it to yourself. Make them happen because you’re free.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July, from all of us here at HI!

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Header image credit: Steve Maciejewski