There’s a song from the musical Man of la Mancha called The Impossible Dream. It’s a powerful song starting off with the words:
“To dream the impossible dream. To fight the unbeatable foe. To bear with unbearable sorrow and to run where the brave dare not go.”
Intense, huh? The song basically talks about following your dreams that seem like they would never be achievable, to do what’s right and to be willing to go through difficulties in order to reach your ultimate goal which is referred to as the unreachable star. I see the Freedom mission in this.
If you think about it, we’re in a business where we compete with other, not just large, but humungous, financial institutions. How do we stand out? How do we contend? How do we survive and grow when others have more resources?
By doing what’s right that’s how. Right for our members, for our employees and for our community. By being a trusted partner and by putting people before profit. Seventy years in business may seem like a drop in the bucket to some, but it’s not the number of years, it’s what you do with them.
From my perspective, we’ve used that time, especially in the most recent years, to dream the impossible dream and keep reaching for that unreachable star. The journey can be challenging. It requires resiliency, flexibility, patience, commitment, and a belief that we make a difference.
I’ve seen the difference we make, and I believe our continued success is because others have seen it too. But we’re not done yet. In fact, we’ve only just begun. There are still foes to fight and stars to reach and the dream gets more possible every day.