There is a price for everything, even for toothpicks. Nothing is free — not even in a town called Freetown! Similarly, there is a place called Reading, yet, in that place, you pay to read. Why? Well, education is not gratis there. You can't just walk into a bookstore and walk away with any book without paying. You must pay for it because reading is not complimentary in Reading!

Morgan Freeman, the famous American actor, gets paid for movie roles. If you ask him to do anything for free, he would probably say, "Free? Sorry man, I can't do it for free. Freeman is just a name! It doesn't mean working with Freeman is free, man!"

What price are you willing to pay to succeed?

Some success stories you read today aren’t smooth. If they were, they would not have interested you and me — the readers. I remember waking up at midnight to take courses while others slept. While they slept and snored, I read and enjoyed the music. Listening to ‘snoring music’ was a price I had to pay. Sowing isn't always fun, but reaping is fantastic. So, are you sowing the right seed today?

Since it's clear that nothing good comes easily, here are the right attitudes for achieving your dreams or goals:

Set realistic goals

I’m not suggesting small thinking but setting realistic goals. If your target is helping one million homeless kids off the street, you probably need to start with fewer than that number, except if you have the means to do so. You could start with 10 or 100 first, then grow from there. The more realistic the goal, the more achievable it is.

Find out the price or prices you have to pay to achieve your goals

No goal is without a price tag. Sometimes, we fail because we refuse to consider the price tag. Every dream comes with a cost. Abraham Lincoln paid a massive price to achieve his presidential objectives: his life. He died by assassination. You likely don't have to pay such a huge price. Yours could be working more hours daily to fund your education or saving more from a low-paying job.

I will study and prepare myself, and someday my time will come.

(Abraham Lincoln)

Be patient

Rome, they say, wasn’t built in a day. And it wasn't because you weren't among the builders. You have to give yourself a chance to strive. Be patient. Everything good takes time. Nature buttresses this point. That is why we don't eat our apple fruit the same day we plant the apple tree. Would you bite an apple plucked from a tree cultivated the same day? You would probably not. You have to wait for a while. That's the principle of life. Waiting is a skill because we have to wait for everything. We wait for lecturers to fix the test dates. We wait for our wives to get pregnant. We wait for our babies to be born. We linger at the grocery store for our items to get packed. We can learn to enjoy the waiting.

Patience is not just waiting, but how you wait.

(Joyce Mayer)

We need to work on how we see waiting for what we want. We are paying a price that will stand actualised in the future. In conclusion, I ask: "How far can you go to 'go far'?" Or, how much of a price are you willing to pay to see the fruition of your dreams and aspirations?