"We both dream bigger."

It was my senior year of high school, and even though we played pee-wee football together as kids, I had only recently become friends with Benji Coomer. When he explained that he always looked forward to our hangouts because "we both dream bigger," I knew we were destined for great adventures and even greater friendship.

There are consequences to dreaming bigger, though, and we have experienced them all.

Consequence Number 1 - "Normal" days are few and far between. 

Benji and I didn't act like typical teenagers and twenty-somethings. Instead, we were fueled by each other's creativity and wild energy, constantly getting into some new sort of adventure and causing both of our moms to hold their breath and pray. 

Dreaming big is what turned every potentially mundane hangout into a core memory, complete with life lessons and "no way that really happened" moments.  We both shared our big plans for the future as we traveled around the country, living in the car with friends and attempting to work for each of our meals.  We ate free food and met amazing people from LA to NYC and everywhere in between. We somehow stayed in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when we were just 20, with unlimited room service, and less than a year later, we appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live in Times Square.

Our big dreams made us fearless, and the normal days were hard to come by.

Consequence Number 2 - Big dreams lead to big risks. 

In the fall of 2005, I was finally settled back in North Texas with an unbelievable set of life experiences that included launching an award-winning nonprofit, appearing in a few national commercials, managing production lines for Frito Lay, and dancing off-Broadway in a disco-version of a Shakespeare play, when I reached out to Benji and asked if he'd consider working with me at First Choice Power, a Texas-based electricity company trying to navigate growth and service at the start of deregulation.  If you want to imagine how a big dreamer lives, just re-read that last sentence. 

For Benji to come work with and for me meant we would both be taking huge risks related to our careers and our friendship. Would our personal friendship cloud our ability to get the job done or to deal with debate and conflict?  Would the stress of work drive a wedge between us and cloud each hangout outside the office?

After months of prep, it finally happened.  Benji became the first team member to join the indirect sales effort I was leading, and we were put to the test.  We built systems for working together, found ways to perform tasks faster and more efficiently, established clear lines of understanding, and laughed throughout every day as we got to "play business" together. 

The channel we led grew like wildfire, requiring the addition of dozens of new hires to the sales team and the multiple support teams around us.  Our success also allowed me to eventually oversee all of the commercial sales department and serve on the executive leadership team. Our “dream bigger” mentality drove the creation of the First Choice Power Portal, an online platform that led the entire industry into a new era of automation and personalization. 

The groundwork that Benji and I laid played a huge role in the premium valuation that the company received when it was eventually sold in 2011.

I can remember when Benji and I relocated to the corporate headquarters to be closer to the support teams and promptly moved into a supply closet.  It was in that stuffy room that we shared so many dreams of what was possible. In one brilliant moment, Benji said that someday there should be a new kind of company where energy brokers would broker other energy brokers.  And guess what - years later, Benji joined forces with some incredible partners to launch Broker Online Exchange (aka BOX), and that is exactly what he does now - with great success, I might add. 

Consequence Number 3 - There are no small matters. 

When you both dream bigger, even the small things turn into a big deal.  Benji and I have always had a "go all out" approach to seemingly little life moments. 

When Kenneth, our friend from high school with special needs, said he wanted to go see some football, we bought three tickets to watch Notre Dame play in South Bend and took him on his first flight ever.  That led to half a dozen college football trips with Kenneth, each jam-packed with core memories.

Years later, we discovered the fraud and deceit used by Kenneth's neighbor to open credit cards in Kenneth's name. The neighbor would max out the cards and then sell the goods at a pawn shop, keeping the cash - a pattern that occurred multiple times.  Kenneth's credit was shot, and the bills were stacking up against him.  We went into action, launching a full-blown investigation, clearing Kenneth's credit where we could, negotiating reduced settlements with the vendors and paying many of them off, and presenting our case to the local county authorities to be used against the neighbor.  We could have easily "hoped" for a good outcome and given Kenneth some advice, but dreaming bigger leads to bigger actions, too.

Even at work, every small moment was a chance for adventure. When our indirect sales team agreed it would be nice to have some professional photos, we turned the idea into a spectacle by heading to the local Walmart for Glamour Shots. The results were priceless

Consequence Number 4 - Dreaming bigger leads to bigger purpose.

Regardless of all the bumpy roads and mistakes that either of us ever made, Benji and I always knew that dreaming bigger was also leading us closer to God and stronger in faith.  When you are striving for some greater good, taking big risks, and finding deeper purpose in every small moment, all roads lead to the pursuit of truth.

Benji was my pee-wee football teammate, the best man in my wedding, my co-pilot at first Choice Power, and now he is my constant reminder and inspiration that even a 47-year-old man can dream bigger.

It’s been almost 30 years exactly since Benji told me that we both dream bigger.  And if you know him or know me, it should come as no surprise that we are both still on that path. 

Only hours after this post is shared, I'll be speaking to a group in NYC with a message of perseverance, rigor, hope, and belief that amazing things can (and do) happen when you trust God and take the governor off of your dreams. Perhaps we all need this message to start off the week and remember that God has a plan for us today, so let's all dream bigger.