There is this dangerous little word people love to throw around: realistic. It sounds safe. Responsible. Grounded. But here is the truth most people avoid saying out loud: no one who ever built anything extraordinary was realistic. They were, in one way or another, delusional.
Think about it. Who wakes up and says, “I am going to build a company that changes how billions of people live,” and truly believes it? A normal, grounded person? Of course not. That kind of conviction requires a stretch far beyond what most people allow themselves to imagine.
Steve Jobs was called delusional for believing he could put a computer in every home when computers were the size of refrigerators. Elon Musk was called delusional when he talked about sending rockets to Mars. Oprah was considered delusional when she chased a media career in a world that never expected someone like her to succeed.
The truth is, those very labels were proof they were on to something bigger than what was acceptable.
Because realistic people settle. They look at the stable job, the fixed paycheck, the neat little box of what is considered possible. They stay within society’s lines, and while they may feel comfortable, they rarely break ceilings.
The delusional ones are different. They are the people who believe their tiny garage project can topple entire industries. They are the artists who pour years into work convinced the world simply has not caught up yet. They are the dreamers who stare at impossibility and answer with, “Why not me?”
Delusion, in this sense, is not about denying reality. It is about refusing to let reality place limits on your vision. It is like looking at a locked door and deciding the key exists somewhere, even if no one has ever seen it before.
And here is where it cuts deep. Every person who ever achieved something remarkable faced the same background noise: You are crazy. You are wasting your time. You need to be practical. Those words act like weights pulling you down when all you want is lift. Without a little delusion, without that irrational conviction that your wings will carry you, you never leave the ground.
I know the word “delusional” sounds insulting. Society uses it to make people doubt themselves. But pause for a moment. Is it not more insulting to let others tell you your limits when they have never even tested their own? Is it not worse to live small just because others are too afraid to play big?
The irony is that the world we live in exists because of the people who refused to follow reason. Every bridge, every business, every invention, every social movement started with someone bold enough to believe in something that looked impossible. They were not luckier. They were not necessarily smarter. They were simply willing to wear the label that scares most people.
So if your dream feels unrealistic, impossible, or too crazy to admit out loud, that is a good sign. That means you are stretching beyond the tiny walls of realism. That means your vision is alive. That means you are exactly delusional enough to stand a chance at greatness.
Here is the choice: you can ground yourself with the cautious or you can rise with the unreasonable. But remember this. The safe road does not lead to extraordinary places.
Be delusional. Chase the goal that makes others shake their heads. Trust the plan that even you sometimes find intimidating. Because in the end, the world does not belong to the realistic. It belongs to those who are bold, stubborn, and just delusional enough to believe the impossible is theirs.
So what about you? Will you keep playing it safe, or will you allow yourself to be delusional enough to succeed?
