Then I came across new evidence that people with bigger dreams go on to achieve greater things. When economists tracked thousands of people from birth until age 55, the aspirations they formed as adolescents foreshadowed how their adult lives would unfold. Young people with grander dreams went further in school and climbed higher at work. Even after accounting for a host of other factors—their cognitive skills, character skills, family income, and parents’ education, occupations, and aspirations—their own dreams made a unique contribution to how they progressed and who they became.
