by 
About two years ago I had a dream I still think about almost every day. This is that dream — and the online business it started.
Section 1: The Dream
I was out on a boat, on the water. A vast lake with different sections, on a completely ordinary day. I wasn't going anywhere in particular. I was just floating along.
And then I looked down.
There were fish. More fish than you could count. Just swimming along beneath me. The water was so clear — even in the deeper parts of that lake — that I could look straight down and watch every one of them go by. The dream moved me to a different part of the lake, and it was the same thing, only more. I sat there in awe, watching them pass mouth to tail fin, gill to gill, packed together so tight it looked like the water itself was made of fish.
Here is the detail I only noticed while I was writing this down: in the dream, I was not fishing. I had no rod. No reel. No bait. No intention of catching anything. I was just watching them go by.
Section 2: What God Was Really Saying
Normally when I have a dream like that, I wake up and the spiritual meaning is right there waiting for me. This time? Nothing. No word, no verse, no download. I actually sat with it and realized the significance wasn't spiritual in the usual sense — it was business.
God was showing me the sea. Look how many fish there are. Look how much opportunity is out there. You need the money — so go and get it. Get out on the water.
I've come back to that dream more than once, and I've come to believe the “no fishing gear” part wasn't an accident. In the dream I could see the abundance, but I hadn't yet picked up the tools to bring any of it in. That's a mirror. More on that later.
Section 3: The Boat Metaphor Breakdown
Once I understood the dream as a business message, the whole thing translated cleanly. Here's how I read every piece of it:
The Dream, Translated
| 🛥️ The Boat | Your website / your online business. Same thing. This is the vessel that gets you out on the water in the first place. |
| 🎣 The Fishing Reel | AI and your online business tools — your computer, your phone, Canva, and everything core to your strategy. The reel is what actually brings the fish into the boat. |
| 🪱 The Bait | Your content. And this is the fun part, because good bait is usually something you love and the fish love too. Build authentic, interesting, useful content and people come. If you build it, they will come — sorry, that one's just too easy. |
| 🧭 The Mentor | Someone who's already out on the water and can show you where the fish are — Wealthy Affiliate, me, or someone else. When you're unsure or just want a boost, a mentor saves you months. |
When your content does its job, you're not chasing people. You're building a community — a group of people who share a topic and an industry in common. They gather. And that's when the fishing gets good.
Section 4: How Many Fish Are Really Out There?
When I say the sea is full, I'm not being poetic. Let me put actual numbers on the water, because the scale is bigger than most people starting out realize.
Global e-commerce sales are on track to hit roughly $6.88 trillion in 2026, according to eMarketer data compiled by Shopify — and that's climbing toward nearly $7.9 trillion by 2028. In the United States alone, online retail crossed about $1.47 trillion in 2025. And the people? Somewhere around 2.8 to 3 billion human beings shop online right now, a number still growing every single year.
Sit with that. Trillions of dollars. Billions of people. Every day they're out there searching, watching videos, laughing at memes, and shopping. That is the school of fish I saw in my dream, and it is not shrinking — e-commerce is outpacing regular retail growth year after year, now making up better than one in five retail dollars spent on the entire planet.
Historical context worth knowing: this sea barely existed a generation ago. In the late 1990s, online sales were a rounding error. The whole ocean we're fishing today was filled in real time, in front of us, over about 25 years. And here's where it's heading — the next wave is AI-powered shopping and mobile-first buying, with mobile commerce alone projected near $2.7 trillion. The reel in my dream (AI and the tools) isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's becoming the difference between watching fish and catching them.
Section 5: What I Caught — and What I Did Wrong
Let me tell you where I actually am, because I believe in showing the real scoreboard.
I got out on the boat. In May of last year I started this website, and about 19 months in, it just began pulling normal search-engine traffic — which, if you've ever tried to rank in the business niche, you know is genuinely hard to do. Most sites never get there. I'm there. One day this past July, I pulled in 19 sales in a single day — something that had never happened for me before in 14+ years of doing this. A few fish, honestly, have just about jumped into the boat on their own. 🐟😄
But I promised you the truth, so here's what I did wrong: I spread myself too thin. Right now I've got eight websites, and I love every one of them — I started three of them just in the last few months. Each one is a great idea. But you really should only run about one website project at a time until you're truly rolling. Imagine if I'd poured everything into a single site. I'd have far more progress, and far more sales, than I do spread across eight boats trying to man them all at once.
So that's the honest report. I'm catching fish. I'm just not catching anywhere near as many as this water can give me — and I know exactly why.
Section 6: The Next Gear of the Dream
I told you what was obviously missing from the dream: I could see all the fish, but I had no gear and I wasn't catching them. For a while I read that as “just get started.” Now I read it as the next gear.
Because today I do have the boat. I do have the reel. I do have the bait, and I have mentors in Wealthy Affiliate and in AI, and I'm always learning. I have every item the dream said I'd need. So the question the dream is really asking me now is simple and a little convicting:
How are you going to fish if you have all the gear but you never put it on the boat?
It's time to stop admiring the water and do what I already know how to do. Focus. Get the reel in the water. Get these fish in this here boat. That's the next gear — and I'm shifting into it.
Section 7: AI Insight — A Vision Is a Catalyst, Not the Whole Deal
🤖 AI Insight: I asked an AI to weigh in on a question that sits under this whole post — how much does a dream or vision actually matter when you're starting a business? The answer lined up with what my own dream taught me, so I'm sharing it here.
The research is clear that vision matters — but not the way motivational posters sell it. A vision does two real jobs: it gives you direction (a specific destination beats a vague “do your best” every time), and it gives you fuel (a reason to keep going). Decades of goal-setting research back that up.
Here's the twist most people never hear: simply fantasizing about success — just picturing yourself already winning — has been shown to actually lower your odds of getting there. Your brain treats the daydream like a partial victory and quietly lets the motivation drain out. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen studied this for over 20 years, and her fix is the part I want you to take home. It's called WOOP — Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. You picture what you want, then you look straight at what's standing in the way, then you make a plan to beat it. That combination outperforms pure positive thinking every time.
Read that back against my dream. God didn't just give me a vision of fish. The dream itself pointed out the obstacle — I had no reel, no bait, no gear. The vision was the catalyst. The practical steps were the deal.
That's exactly what I did. I took the dream and turned it into a boat (this website), a reel (AI and my tools), and bait (my content). The vision got me out on the water — but it was the steps that started putting fish in the boat. And now I'm going back for more, because I want to experience even greater, sustained success. That word matters: sustained. Anybody can have a good day. Building something that lasts is a different game, and it's mostly played between your ears.
This is why I teach Online Business Psychology. Building a business online will take you through real ups and downs — slow seasons, algorithm changes, days where the boat feels empty. The people who make it aren't the ones with the flashiest vision. They're the ones with the right frame of mind to keep casting when the water looks quiet. If you want to build that mindset alongside the mechanics, start here: the Online Business Boot Camp. That's where I walk you through both the how and the head-game.
And here's the anchor — the single most useful thing I can hand you: when times are slow and you feel low, go back to the dream. Remember why you started. For me, it's all those fish. That clear water. That sea packed gill to gill with opportunity. I genuinely believe many of those fish are meant for me. When a slow week tries to talk me off the boat, I go back to what I saw, and I pick the reel back up. Your dream is your starting place and your anchor. Don't let go of it.
Section 8: So… Are You Ready to Fish?
Now let me turn the boat toward you.
Do you see all the fish out there on the world wide web? The billions of people searching, watching, laughing, and shopping every single day? There is a share of that sea with your name on it. The only real question is whether you're going to get a boat, grab a reel, and get out on the water.
Here's how I can help you do exactly that:
- Want a proven, step-by-step community? Wealthy Affiliate is where experts teach you how to make money online, one step at a time. Grab the free 7-day trial, and I'll meet you on the other side if you have questions or need help.
- Prefer my direct mentorship? I'll help you build your brand, choose your niche, and walk you through everything you need to know — free for a limited time. Just shoot me an email.
- Want the mindset that keeps you fishing when it's slow? Start with the Online Business Boot Camp.
The dream got me back out on the water and reminded me to use my gifts as a content creator. It succeeded. But a dream is only the catalyst — the fishing is on us. There are so many fish in the sea, friend. Let's go get them.
📧 Reach me: 757BizClick@gmail.com | 📱 757-681-8900 | 🌐 757BizClick.com
Affiliate disclosure: Some links above are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools and communities I actually use and believe in.
Leave a Reply