“So you thought risk-taking was out of style? Meet the entrepreneurs of Dubai, the fellows who put their petro-dollars behind such sure-fire winners as:

1) A dry dock so big that no ship afloat can fill it,

2) A $1.4 billion (Dh5.14 billion) aluminium smelter with a power plant that has five of the largest gas-fired turbines in the world,

3) A 66-berth seaport where freighters will steam into a 1¼ mile-long rectangular basin carved out of the desert at a cost of $1.6 billion.”

I burst out laughing when I read those words. The irony is that the late Ray Vicker of ‘The Wall Street Journal’ was also laughing when he wrote them in 1980 — but for an altogether different reason.

“Dubai has an edifice complex,” Vicker continued, “There doesn’t seem any other explanation for the building boom taking place here.”

He was even more dismissive of the emirate’s new port: “Jebel Ali seaport may also pay off some day, but sceptics aren’t holding their breath.”

Vicker wasn’t alone; back then, even local businessmen were sceptical about the port. The site was filled with huge shallow-water coral formations and was located 40km south-west of Dubai.

For many people, it was a waste of money; it didn’t make sense to dig up the desert to make a man-made port when the existing Port Rashid had excess capacity. When completed, the new port in Jebel Ali would provide Dubai with a capacity larger than the combined ports of San Francisco Bay.

People laughed... all around the world. At that time, Dubai only had about 210,000 residents, virtually no tourists and no global reach.

But who’s laughing now?

Today, the population is edging close to three million and history has revealed that projects once regarded as laughable in their ambition were in fact too limited and too small. Jebel Ali has gone through numerous expansions making it the ninth largest in the world.

This made me wonder, are your ambitions making others laugh? If not, you need to question what type of impact they will make.

There is a class of leaders who shape the future — some refer to them as heroes. They are the people who achieve something truly exceptional, or who dedicate their lives to something bigger, or other, than themselves.

When we think of such leaders, it’s easy — even comforting — to assume that their paths to success were paved with gold. In all likelihood, however, their paths were clogged with uncertainty, naysayers and struggles. We look back on Jebel Ali and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and see success — yet we take that success for granted. We benefit from the way they shaped the future but errantly assume that the way they are today is how they’ve always been.

Shapers don’t begin as shapers, just as heroes don’t begin as heroes. Their initial goal is rarely ever to become a shaper. They typically start out leading ordinary lives in an ordinary world and are drawn by a “call to adventure”.

When you accept the call to enter that world, you’ll face difficulties and trials. You may even have to face those trials alone. Your road will be filled with battles, temptations, successes and failures, and at the most intense moments, you must survive severe challenges.

Things will not go as planned. People will laugh at you. But if you endure and prevail, you will be the one who comes out laughing.

One of the greatest gifts offered up by this journey of adventure is the discovery of self-knowledge — new insight that, in the right hands, can be used to improve the world.

While the benefit to others comes on the heels of your success, your own learning and growth comes from the journey itself.

Before that journey begins, however, remember this: attempting the impossible will be met with ridicule by some, but with courage and conviction, it will be you who has the last laugh.

Dr Tommy Weir is a CEO coach and author of ‘Leadership Dubai Style’. Contact him at tsw@tommyweir.com