Big goals in life often take a great amount of time to achieve. Take, for instance, one of America's most desired professions: attorney. Check the statistics on how many parents hope that their children will choose this path or one equally prestigious, and you'll know that things haven't changed all that much in the realm of career goals.
Lawyers go to school for at least 7 years, but you will have to put in many more years of hard work to actually become a partner in a successful firm.
The problem is, not many at the age of 18 can confidently say that they will desire the same goal in their late twenties or early thirties.
When what used to be your passion turns into a mesre job that you have to stick with in order to justify all of those years and pay back your astronomical student loans, what was once a dream can feel like a nightmare.
That's what happened to Ama Karikari-Yawson. Born African American in Queens, New York, she was raised with a deep commitment to thinking big. Ama did everything right. She earned top grades while in school, received a scholarship for a prestigious boarding prep school in Pennsylvania and went on to Harvard to study.
Fast forward to age 35. Ama was now a top earning corporate lawyer. She had clearly made it. But she wasn't fully happy with her 9 to 5 job as an attorney. For one, a huge part of her salary went into her student loans. For another, and more importantly, she longed for meaning in her life. She had discovered her true passion, which was to make an impact in the lives of children. She wanted to write stories for them, to protect them from abuse and the results of an increasingly egotistical culture.
But give up six figures for writing children's stories? It seemed a daring choice at best. However, Ama's dream grew, and with it came the inspiration for a book called Sunne's Gift. In it, she provides an uplifting surprise solution to the bullying problem.
Encouraged by the result, and by the first reactions she received, Ama decided to follow her own book's advice: "Take care of yourself, for the sun dwells within you." Throwing caution to the wind, Ama gave up the security of her job to sell her book on the streets of New York.
So where might you find Ama these days? If not on the streets of New York handing out her Amazon bestselling book, she may be at a conference giving a motivational message about how to quit your job in 60 days and start living your dream.
Having found her true dream, she now wishes to inspire others to find their real meaning in life and go for it.