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# What's your dream project? (No, your real one).
- URL: https://www.howardgray.net/whats-your-dream-project-no-your-real-one/
- Published: 2024-11-26T14:56:16.000Z
- Updated: 2024-11-26T14:56:16.000Z
- Author: Howard Gray
- Tags: Portfolio Career, Future Of Work, Creative Business

Simple question. Often difficult to answer. But well worth it.

I was at dinner recently when someone posed this. As we all sat there searching for words (or mumbling "good question..."), the questioner – who runs a design agency – went first:

> "Design an airport."

So, we asked them why.

What followed was fascinating. Their explanation revealed all kinds of stuff - from airline operations, to global cuisine, to politics, to their own family background.

Here's what I've learned from asking this question since:

1. Answer it plainly first. Let it sit.
2. Acknowledge you are probably lying to yourself. Repeat step 1.
3. Remove all constraints: Time. Money. Fear. Status. What does it look and feel like now? Turn up the volume.
4. Try a few follow ups:
  - What am I really chasing?
  - What small steps could move me closer?
  - How am I complicit in the creating the conditions I say I don’t want? (h/t Jerry Colonna for this one)

Do this alone, or if at all possible, with a friend over coffee.

So, what's your dream project?

Feel free to [share yours with me](https://www.howardgray.net/contact/), because, well, y’never know…

P.S. Mine? A bizarre love triangle of Harvard Business School, HQ Trivia, and Red Bull Music Academy. That's all I'm saying for now – currently chasing it.