We reached out to John Southee, owner of J. Benjamin Clothing Co. whose core value is to believe in and follow your own dream. Creating t’s to inspire people who are wearing it and for other people who see the person wearing it to realize that today they can still pursue that dream in their heart. We enjoy posting quotes, but we wanted to take it a step further and ask John not to only share one of his favorite quotes with us, but tell us the story behind it.

“There is no deadline to start following your own dream.”

I am sure you’ve heard more than your share of people say that they wanted to be this or that when they grew up or they had a dream to do or be (insert life goal here) only to end up never actually realizing it.  When you ask people why they never became what they dreamed of, many seem to say that their dream wasn’t realistic or there is too much work to get there.  Other excuses may include that life got in the way, my parents, family, and friends all told me I should get a real job, or it’s too late to go after a dream now.

I truly believe that there is no deadline to start following your own dream.  The road may be a bit more challenging to get there the later you start or you may have to slightly alter your dream once you’re older but the only thing that is stopping YOU from achieving it is YOURSELF!  I dreamed to have a clothing line since I was in middle school.  On my journey of life, I kept trying to do other things like “getting a real job” and doing something more realistic but every time I tried to take a detour the Universe would send me right back to where my heart had always been.

A couple of years ago I had twin boys and got married.  All I heard echoing in my mind was the popular excuse of people putting their dreams aside because now life got in the way and they needed to provide for their family.  I realized that I didn’t want to be one of those people who had fallen to that excuse.  I decided it was time to start my dream and I would show the world that even though there are new obstacles in my life that what seems like a far fetched goal can actually become a reality.

We hope that everyone gets the chance in their lifetime to give their dream a shot and realize the hard part of achieving their dream is actually what makes the whole pursuit worth while.

We agree, thank you John!