My grand-parents having been pioneers in Mozambique, since childhood I developed a great admiration for pioneering.

There is, in fact, something special about being a pioneer: a pioneer is someone with a great ability to dream a better new world for his children. In fact, pioneers arrive somewhere in the wilderness, look around, draw a few lines on a map and a century later it’s a bustling city. Some people wouldn’t have believed it.

To live their dream, pioneers are ready to run risks, face dangers, make sacrifices and work hard. The possibility of making one’s dream come true is priceless.

It’s also interesting that pioneers are often the underclass people, laborers and peasants, but also the dispossessed and the adventurer. The lawyer, the banker, and the factory capitalist come later.

All this makes me think that the ability to have dreams is, perhaps, the greatest gift one can have. In fact so often one sees that it’s the dream that commands life, not the other way around.

When I was a kid I used to think that I had missed out on something great but now-a-days I know that being a pioneer is a state of mind. This world, whose cities have been drawn long time ago, is full of challenges, if you just want to take them.

How many pioneers in the various facets of human life have you come across so far? Countless, I’m sure. They are scientists, writers, artists, political leaders, businessmen, etc. And now we have news frontiers: outer space, the Internet, nano-technology, who-knows-what-else.

If you have a dream and it’s a great one for you, be a pioneer. Make the necessary sacrifices, draw charts, plough the land, build edifices, materialize your dream. By the time a new generation populates it, you will have with yourself a great sense of gratitude and personal realization. There is nothing else greater on earth.