Quote: That don’t make me Madonna

Have you got what it takes?

There’s a scene in the movie Working Girl, where Tess McGill’s friend Cyn (played by Joan Cusack) says:

‘I like to sing and dance in my underwear. That don’t make me Madonna – never will.’

She means that there’s no point in wasting your time on impossible dreams. And she’s right.

But she’s also completely wrong.

Because Tess’s ambition isn’t an impossible dream. It’s just very, very hard to achieve.

If she’d listened to Cyn, she’d have stayed a secretary and never tried to build her career to a higher level. But Tess knows she has the ability to get a better life.

And it’s not much of a spoiler to tell you that she does achieve it – through a combination of hard work, optimism, persistence, daring and talent.

The thing is…

Without that talent, all the other stuff would have been wasted. And Tess would still be a secretary, no matter how hard she kept trying.

We can’t let other people persuade us to give up our hopes and ambitions. If they’re possible, we can put in the hard work, optimism, persistence and daring. And we can do it.

But if it’s never going to happen because we don’t have the ability, we need to be realistic. Have you got a chance of success, or are you simply building castles in the air?

So are you going to shrug and say, ‘That don’t make me Madonna,’ – or are you going to go for it?