The Cost of These Dreams..
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been reading a book that I am quite certain will sit with me long after I close it—’The Cost of These Dreams’ by Wright Thompson.
The peculiar thing about this book is that while telling stories, it also manages to press you. To scare you even..
It forces you to confront your own mortality… your place in the pursuit of success and the cosmos… and what success actually means when the lights dim and the noise fades. It holds a mirror up and asks a question most of us spend our lives avoiding:
What have you become while on the path towards becoming “successful”?
There’s a story in the book about a fighter—Jim Robinson.
A man who once stood in the ring with Muhammad Ali… and then, almost as quickly as he appeared, disappeared. Faded into the background of history like he was never really here.
Another story reflects on the 1962 Ole Miss Rebels football team—the only national championship team in that program’s history. A team that, despite its achievement, feels almost erased from collective memory. Not because they didn’t win… but because of what surrounded that moment—segregation, unrest, tension… truths people would rather not revisit.
And when one begins to sit with those stories long enough, a question starts to form unerringly:
How long does success actually live?
Not in the moment or in the headlines.
But after you’re gone.
Kleos..
And if it fades… if it gets rewritten… if it gets forgotten…
What exactly are we chasing and why?
There’s a line in the book that hasn’t left me:
‘The same traits that make us successful are the same ones that keep us from enjoying that success.’
And when you think about someone like Michael Jordan, it makes sense.
That relentless drive.. that passion.. the doggedness to vanquish the Cyclops that lies within the cave.. that obsession.. that refusal to be satisfied..
Those are more than just tools to an individual, they’re identities.
But the same fire that gets you there… can burn your ability to sit in it once you arrive.
So now the question shifts:
Is it worth it?
Is the success worth the scars? The bruises? The loneliness? The internal wars nobody sees?
And the harsh truth is… the book never answers that question for you.
It just places it in your hands. Giving you a sense of agency that would weigh more than a colossal stone for some individuals.. Scarier than any Alfred Hitchcock or Stephen King piece you can think of..
And if I’m speaking for myself…
The path I’ve walked—the sacrifices, the scars, the hurt, the pain, the discipline, the moments of doubt—The were all necessary. They shaped me into the man I needed to become. The man The Most High needed me to be.
So if the cost of reaching this level of success means there are moments where I struggle to fully enjoy it…
Then I accept that.
Not as a death sentence… But rather as awareness.
Because accepting that reality doesn’t mean I’m confined to it. It just means I can see it.
And once you can see it, you realize something deeper: That space doesn’t define your entire existence.
It’s just a phase. A layer. A part of the journey..
Which means there’s still room to grow and find balance.
There’s still space to experience another side of this life..
Maybe that’s what this is all really about..
Not choosing between pain or joy…
But understanding that life requires both.
That the same soul that endures suffering must also learn how to receive peace.
That the same man who sacrifices must also learn how to live.
Because life isn’t just about the grind. It’s not just about becoming.
It’s also about being..
And maybe the most important realization of all is this:
Even if you don’t fully enjoy the success… You’re not the only one who feels it.
The people around you—your family, your friends, your support system—they see it differently.
They don’t love the success because of what it brings. They love it because they witnessed the cost.
They saw the early mornings. The warrior dragging themselves back to their post. The doubt. The sacrifices. The moments you kept going when it would’ve been easier to stop..
And that brings them joy.
Not the outcome…But the journey.
So what is the cost of these dreams?
That’s not a question I can answer for you.
That’s something every man has to sit with… wrestle with… and ultimately decide for himself.
But whatever your answer is…
May the Most High guide you. May He grant you peace in your pursuit…And clarity in your becoming.
With love. Always.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
— Mark 8:36 (KJV)
