Everything we enjoy today was born out of someone's aspiration. We have the comforts, safety, and convenience of a modern home because hundreds of generations aspired for a better home. We enjoy an abundance and variety of food, magical infrastructure, air travel, computers and internet, music and art, and so much more because some people aspired for a better life.
Aspiration is the root of all progress, even if not all aspirations or manifestations are good for individuals or society.
Of course, just aspiration is not sufficient. It takes an enormous amount of grit, vision, capability. cooperation, and leadership to turn those aspirations into reality.
I love Stripe founder, John Collison's quote: "As you become an adult, you realize that things around you weren't just always there; people made them happen. But only recently have I started to internalize how much tenacity *everything* requires. That hotel, that park, that railway. The world is a museum of passion projects."