This week is 13 years since my wife Lynnda’s serious car accident in downtown Pinch. Her blood sugar dropped. She passed out while driving and took a 3,000-plus-pound Subaru Outback airborne, taking out a street sign and a utility pole.

The car landed on a small hill, rolling over and landing on its roof back in the middle of the road. Lynnda remained in the car hanging upside down with a gash in her head. Fortunately, the ambulance arrived quickly. The force of the roll cracked a vertebrae in her neck. The seat belt and airbags saved her life.

Two days later, still in the ICU on Sunday morning, a team of five doctors and interns were examining her with a lot of low talking and slow walking. As they were leaving, Lynnda whispered, “Doc.” The head trauma doctor returned to Lynnda and put his ear close to her mouth so he could hear and responded, “Yes.”

Lynnda whispered, “We have a trip to Disney World with our grandchildren, planned for the middle of next month. Is there any reason I can’t go?

This serious doctor started laughing. “It might be uncomfortable if you’re driving.”

I said,”I have plane tickets.”

Doc responded, “No problem!”

Lynnda believed it was possible. With the help of her doctors, motivated, she did the work required. One month later, I took a photo of Lynnda in a wheelchair with our oldest granddaughter in front of the Haunted Mansion in Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

A dream is powerful. Her doctor chose not to steal Lynnda’s. As they were leaving, one of the doctors looked at me, asking, “Do you remember me coach?” I smiled, “I’ll never forget you.”

He scored the goal that put our high school soccer team in its first ever state championship game in 1999. That team had the dream of playing for the state championship. We had never been to a state tournament. Doc knew what it was like to go after a dream. He was Lynnda’s doctor and had her out of bed and in a walker on Monday evening.

This week, six brave women achieved the dream of flying into space on Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin rocket. Space flight has changed a lot since the USA’s first suborbital flight of Alan Shepard in 1961 lasting just 15 minutes. It is still risky. Growing up, my dream was to be an astronaut. Getting motion sickness on a carnival Ferris wheel and The Racer rollercoaster at Kennywood in Pittsburgh ended my dream.

I was impressed with Gayle King from the CBS morning show, who at age 70, did the training to be part of the crew. Those women had dream stealers trying to talk them out of going. They also had encouragers who they listened to.

A lot is being said about tariffs and bringing back U.S. manufacturing. Recently, we talked to two foundry owners in the USA and one in Europe. China is shipping and selling products in the USA and Europe below their cost of material. We know from EIA data that China’s electricity cost is 26% higher than in the USA. Chinese government support is making this possible. If China can drive American and European foundries out of business, they can own the market and raise prices. Foundry products are essential for national security. Tariffs can protect the American foundry industry.

A 2024 Cato Institute poll showed 80% of Americans want to see manufacturing come back to the USA. That’s not surprising after their experience during the COVID pandemic. The American people’s dream is supply chain security, economic growth and high wage jobs.

Much of what we hear from mainstream media, places like Bloomberg and National Public Radio isn’t just why tariffs won’t work but why manufacturing can’t be brought back to the USA. I’m not sure how much of this is anti-Trump, hoping he will fail. It may be just plain negativity like other dream stealers or lack of knowledge.

Lynnda and I have some very negative relatives who would have told me to cancel our Florida plane tickets even after Lynnda told us she was planning to be in Florida with our grandchildren a month after she broke her neck. I’m glad we don’t live close; Lynnda didn’t need their negativity. The six women astronauts dealt with their dream stealers who had plenty of reasons why they would never get to outer space. In all cases the dream stealers were wrong. Lynnda, the six astronauts, our high school team and American manufacturing all refused to be denied.

Since 2010 over 1.5 million manufacturing jobs have been created in the USA. More are coming. This increase in manufacturing jobs coincides perfectly with the U.S. Shale Revolution creating increased U.S. energy supply and lower cost.The companies Shale Crescent USA talked to in Europe decided to expand to the USA before all this tariff talk. The large U.S. market and cheap abundant energy are their reasons. Many told us tariffs are the icing on their cake.

In our life, are we are going to listen to dream stealers or our encouragers and our own head and heart? Americans have the same decision when it comes to reshoring manufacturing. There are challenges to overcome, like:

¯ Labor cost and availability

¯ Supply chain complexity

¯ Lack of infrastructure

There are also benefits, like:

¯ Economic growth and increased jobs. The new jobs aren’t like factory jobs of the past. They are high tech jobs.

¯ Reduced supply chain risk.

¯ Technical innovation like robotics.

¯ Reduced trade deficits.

Americans don’t like having to depend on foreign powers for their health care, national security and other critical products. From our beginnings as a nation, Americans have overcome adversity. It is time to do it again when it comes to returning manufacturing. For our personal dreams and those of our country, we have to decide if we are going to listen to the dream stealers or the encouragers. Our own head and heart can tell us all things are possible if we believe.

Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and over 40 years experience in the energy industry.

Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.