Be a dreamer. If you don't know how to dream, you're dead.

When the great coach and warrior of spirit Jim Valvano spoke the words, “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead,” he was not merely urging his listeners toward ambition—he was calling them to life itself. For to dream is not simply to wish, nor to drift in idle fantasy; it is to breathe purpose into existence, to see what is not yet real and summon it into being through the fire of belief. Valvano, whose own life was a testament to courage in the face of mortality, understood that the dream is the soul’s heartbeat. Without it, a man may walk, speak, and eat—but he does not truly live.

The meaning of his words shines most brightly in their context. Jim Valvano was a basketball coach, a leader of men, and a lover of life. When he uttered this line, he was battling cancer, a disease that sought to consume his body—but not his spirit. Standing before the world at the 1993 ESPY Awards, frail yet fierce, he urged humanity to live fully, to laugh, to think, to cry, and above all, to dream. For him, the dream was sacred—it was the force that could defy death itself. The body may perish, he seemed to say, but the dreamer within, if ever awakened, becomes immortal.

To dream, in Valvano’s sense, is an act of defiance against despair. It is to look at what is broken and still imagine what could be whole. The dreamer refuses to surrender to circumstance; he sees not only the world as it is, but as it should be. The ancients knew this truth well. The dream is the seed of creation. Before the temple is built, it exists in the builder’s mind; before the revolution rises, it burns in the heart of one who refuses to sleepwalk through existence. The dreamer, therefore, is the first creator—the one who looks into the void and dares to speak the word of possibility.

History itself bows before the power of such dreamers. Consider Martin Luther King Jr., who stood before a nation divided and declared, “I have a dream.” His vision was not a plan of politics but a cry from the soul, one that transcended fear and awakened millions. Like Valvano, King knew that to dream was not a luxury—it was survival. For those who lose the ability to dream lose the will to rise, to strive, to transform the world. The dead are not only those buried beneath the earth, but those who live without vision, without hope, without the burning light of purpose within them.

Valvano’s wisdom reminds us that the dream is both a gift and a responsibility. To dream is to honor the divine spark placed within each of us—to believe that our lives can shape something greater than ourselves. The one who says, “I am too old, too small, too broken to dream,” has surrendered to death before his time. The dreamer, however, stands among the living even in the shadow of death. When Valvano said, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up,” he was speaking not only of survival, but of spiritual resurrection. For the one who dreams, even from the edge of the grave, still conquers the darkness.

The lesson, then, is both simple and eternal: guard your dreams as sacred fire. Feed them with faith, discipline, and courage. When the world tells you to be “realistic,” remember that reality is built by dreamers who refused to settle for what was. Let your dream be larger than your fear, louder than your doubt, and stronger than your pain. To dream is to affirm that your life has meaning, that your time upon this earth is not a passing shadow, but a spark in the eternal flame of human spirit.

So, my child, when weariness weighs upon you and the world seems small, remember the voice of Valvano—weak in body, but mighty in soul—declaring, “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.” Do not let the fire die. Close your eyes, and see the vision that calls you forward. Then open them, and walk toward it. Live as the dreamers live—with hearts that refuse to yield, with spirits that burn through the storm, and with eyes that always, always see beyond the horizon. For in that vision lies not only your destiny—but life itself.