Sharing my idea to the world was not scary for me. The process of my ideas being rejected by others just taught me about how and how not to promote my idea to people. So why did I not just return to the eternally optimistic timeline of Kickstarterland with my new found knowledge? Because I thought that I'd lose friends. That's why.
E-Begging. Rattling a tin for the future benefit of my ideas and dreams; felt like begging. Worse than that, some friends may have [possibly will have] taken a request to pledge on my idea as a personal attack on the importance of their own future plans. "What mate? You want to build a widget? Do it then... but don't ask me for any money. I have dreams and plans of my own. I think I'll invest in them instead". And they do.
Why? So why do we do it? To feel complete? Marketing guru Seth Godin believes that you cannot consider yourself an artist until you 'ship' your art. So what this means is that you could be the most talented inventor with a beautiful style and mind - but until you share your 'art' you cannot call yourself an artist. That could be one reason. Another reason is that crowd funding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have hundreds, thousands and millions of potential investors just waiting to become part of something big. Money may not be burning holes in their pockets, but a compelling feature of the 'crowd' is that you are more likely to find fans of your idea or product. And we all know that good ideas spread right?
Experience. For me it was a little more basic. I needed the experience, a challenge and ultimately a goal to shoot for. What I didn't realise was the toll it takes on your work, health and relationships. Most of us entrepreneurial types [and I use this term loosely] are stubborn and overwhelmingly passionate about our ideas. We have to be to survive the knock backs and disappointments. What I come to realise first hand was that an entrepreneurs support network is as essential to our survival as air and water are. When our foundations shake and fracture, when our loved ones finally begin to lose faith in our resolve, purpose and sanity, it feels like our confidence and mojo are being stolen away when we need them the most. So pursuing an idea or crowd funded project is a gamble; and we wage our most important life assets on it.
Confidence. So please trust me when I say; someone who has mustered the will, confidence and the self belief to act upon their dreams will not be put off by a temporary state such as 'failure'. BUT. But, what will bring them to a grinding halt is the belief [not necessarily the realisation] that their loved ones no longer have confidence in their abilities to succeed. It's like kryptonite.
Will I ever go back to crowd funding with HappiJar? I hope we don't have to. Kickstarter enabled me to find a bunch of fans and one of them joined me as partner in the venture. Together we are self funding the project and have already begun constructing the app with artists, programmers and DJ's. It's going to be awesome. Still though, the road ahead is a long and perilous one. I don't know if I will get the support I need from everybody like when I was crowd sourcing my idea... but so long as certain key individuals are near me when I need them the most. I am Iron Man.
Note: I decided to leave this page as it was when I raising funds. If you want to go and see our website which it building a following in readiness for our launch this year - then click on this www.happijar.com
It would be great to hear from you.
Glen
HappiJar
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