Why did we Support Your Crowdfunding Campaign? (9/4/14)
On Monday June 16th I sent out an email to 46 contacts that I’m connected to in various different ways (college friends, family, people I’ve worked with, etc) asking them for some support in an ongoing project. I emailed them a link to my crowdfunding campaign that I setup to offset some of the expenses I foresaw on this little 10 month adventure, asked them all to do three small things, and told them I would explain my request today.
Support Requested
Take 5-10 minutes to take a look at the crowdfunding campaign
Share the campaign link if they thought it was a worthy project, they found it interesting, or they just wanted to help a first time author out.
If they shared it ask their connections to do the same thing.
Most people who set out on crowdfunding campaigns are actually looking for the money because they need it. They can’t locate it by any other means, they have to have it, or for some other reason they can’t/won’t go through traditional financing. In all honesty part of the big appeal for crowdfunding is that for all intent and purposes you get the money for free because you are providing goods and services that you would otherwise be selling anyway.
Let me make this perfectly clear; I planned on doing this book tour even if that meant I had to sleep in my car to save money, and eventually sell the car and walk because I was broke. I set up a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to create buzz and build a platform. Any cash that may have been generated was icing on the cake.
Unfortunately to me it appears that more and more we are limiting our dreams, goals and success based on what someone else thinks or has to say. If you want to reach for the stars you are labeled unrealistic, arrogant, greedy, or some other stereotype that is belittling to your choice of wanting to pursue greatness. Can those labels be accurate? Heck yeah, but that’s another discussion altogether.
The sad truth is that most people will try to hold you back and tear you down, like a bucket full of crabs where those crabs will pull back any individual crab that has the audacity to try climbing out to freedom. Deep inside if someone can’t see himself aspiring to reach greatness then no one else is permitted to get there either.
So enter this project. It is a project that has no finish line, and will ideally go on indefinitely. It’s a project of potential and possibilities that shows there are no limits to what you can achieve if you are willing to let your imagination run wild, and commit to your dreams.
A first time unknown author had his book picked up by a big time New York publisher on spec with his first and only book proposal submission (unheard of). With a book complete that author set out on an unfinanced book tour that had a six figure price tag with a goal of going from anonymity to New York Times Bestseller. There is almost noway for that author to recuperate his costs and turn a profit so at first glance his logic appears flawed.
Sometimes that flawed logic is the only thing that keeps people going. When the light at the end of the tunnel seems so far away it would be easier just to quit, potential, possibilities and hope keep you pushing forward. For those 46 people that got my initial email and chose to forward it to their friends and share a link to my crowdfunding campaign on social media they weren’t supporting a book and book tour; they were supporting a message of hope.
This project is an ongoing story for every person who can’t see a brighter day ahead of them. For the cancer patient whose doctor has given up on them. For the kid who doesn’t think he has a friend in the world. For the person who believes he has lost everything he holds near and dear. That author’s dreams bordered on delusional, reaching his goals were unrealistic, and he still chose to do it. Why? Because stories of overcoming adversity inspire hope in others, and hope is a commodity that is short supply these days.
