The “Super Moon” and the Snow Bowl are in the news and both brought up thoughts about dreaming, vision, and goals. One area that I find small businesses could do better at is having a vision and setting goals to get there.

Sitting on my back patio looking at the “Super Moon”, I couldn’t help but wonder about the people who looked at a similar moon and thought, “I think we could fly a space craft there and land on the moon.” Now that’s a vision.

The hurdles must have seemed unsurmountable, yet, people pushed forward. So a man on the moon went from a dream, to a vision, to a goal. And we met that goal. Sitting out back looking at the moon, I marveled at that whole process. I was just thinking that it was a very nice night. Someone years ago thought, we should go there. That is just awesome.

The Snow Bowl is making news with its expansion and some challenges with that process, but what I was thinking about was the old Snow Bowl.

Growing up, the Snow Bowl was a short rope tow that went to the top of the open slope. Weekends were busy and a couple of nights a week the lights were on. Some people had a vision. They saw a bigger venue and raised the funds to purchase a T-bar lift and expand the trail system beyond just the open slope. Today that may not seem like much, but back then it was excellent foresight and built a solid foundation for what is being built on today.

Every big accomplishment has a mover and shaker making things happen. I have no idea who the mover and shaker was behind the moon landing, but I know that Sonny Goodwin was the mover and shaker behind the Snow Bowl. The guy who was tirelessly working mostly behind the scenes to get things done was Sonny Goodwin. Ken Hardy was also a big player in making that first expansion happen. While I was a second generation, we came from a time when we made the most of what we had. The T-bar came from a failed ski area in Dedham, so they didn’t buy new. That would probably have sunk the project before it even got started. George Adams was the contractor who did all the trail work for many years. Quality work at a fair price because the movers and shakers made sure of it.

After the new chair was installed and especially today with the new expansion, people are reveling in the death of the “Big T”, but without the “Big T” there would be no Snow Bowl. Having been there when the “Big T” opened I can tell you it was a very big deal. It wasn’t a man on the moon, but in Camden it was pretty close.

Huge accomplishments are all about people. The creating of trails, pouring concrete foundations for lifts, all those tangible things only happen because of people.

Somebody, somewhere said, I think we should send a man to the moon. Lots of work and lots of money later, it happened. If not for that person with the vision, it never would have become reality. It’s the same with the Snow Bowl. Sonny Goodwin is not an in-your-face kind of person, but he can make a very powerful case for what he believes in by just being Sonny. There is a Sonny Goodwin some place who was pushing for landing a man on the moon. People like that are all the same. They have a dream that becomes a vision and then becomes a goal.

This winter, there will be a big celebration when the expanded Snow Bowl opens for the season with lots of hoopla and fanfare. Rightfully so. Back in the day Sonny Goodwin had a dream, which became a vision which became a goal. If not for that, none of this would ever have happened. Sonny wasn’t alone. I mentioned Ken Hardy. Maurice Payson played a big part. Frank Morong has always been a part of the Snow Bowl. I apologize to people I left out, but those folks were the movers and shakers, and that’s what it takes to make things happen. Dreaming about going to the moon or building a ski area in Camden, Maine, are just dreams. It’s the Sonny Goodwins in the world that make those dreams realities.