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Stupid Projects: How One Thing Leads to Another

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

In 2002, Darren Rowse hit “publish” on a blog for the first time. It was the early days of blogging, and Rowse was a pioneer in this vast new frontier of the World Wide Web. But at the time, he certainly didn’t see it that way. He started a blog, the first of many that would follow, primarily out of curiosity. This “blogging thing” as he later called it, was more or less a fun experiment. At worst, he’d have a bit of fun, and at best, perhaps he could gain a new hobby and make some new connections in the process.

At the time, Rowse was trying to save money for a wedding, pay off his modest car, and put himself through college, so he was working three jobs just to make ends meet. His heavy load left little time for his new hobby, and over the next twelve months, nothing much changed in that regard. Posts were sporadic, and his blog was still visited mostly by friends from church, although it had also started to gain readership in the “emerging church circles.”

As hosting costs began to escalate as a result of this small jump in readership, Rowse started to look for ways to cover the hard costs associated with his project. If the blog could simply cover its own costs, and perhaps bring in enough to pay for a customized blog design, that would be sufficient. Rowse started experimenting with AdSense and over the next few months, he saw a slow but steady increase in his daily profit average. In his own words,

I quickly discovered that my hope of covering my expenses was a realistic one. . . . December saw daily earnings hit $6 per day, January $9, February $10 and March $15. Hardly big dollars, but I began to wonder what would happen if I saw the same sorts of increases in income over a longer period of time. By that I don’t mean adding $2-$3 to the daily average per month, but what would happen if I could sustain 30%, 40% or even 50% growth each month. I began to think in terms of exponential growth.

From this point in Rowse’s little experiment, one thing led quickly and measurably to another. In April, his daily earnings averaged $20; May, $32, and by June, he was averaging $48 per day from the side project he still managed in his free time.

Then came his moment of truth. A seed was planted in his mind that he simply could not shake. Yup, Rowse was hit by a stupid idea. He relates:

This was a bit of a freaky moment for both [my wife] ”V” and myself. Neither of us had started a small business and while I’ve always had something of an entrepreneurial spirit we are both fairly conservative people in many ways and while the figures indicated that there was potential on many levels it just seemed plain weird. I mean who makes their income blogging?

After nineteen months of experimenting, Rowse decided to commit two days of his work week to professional blogging. He recalls:

Needless to say we didn’t really tell too many people of our decision. When we did tell just a few family members and friends there were plenty of raised eyebrows and lots of comments like “That’s nice but are you going to get a real job?” and “How’s your little hobby business going?”

But despite the lack of understanding and/or support he received from others, Rowse leaned into his fear and acted on his stupid idea by starting small and building on his incremental success. He continued to experiment with different types of blogs, subjects, and styles, and he tested different ways to monetize his sites in order to determine what worked best. (At one point, he was managing twenty blogs at the same time!)

“We are both fairly conservative people in many ways and while the figures indicated that there was potential on many levels it just seemed plain weird.”

By 2005, Rowse had made the leap to full-time blogger. His little experiment had become a full-time experience. His initial growth was slow and steady. Over time, that growth accelerated and has continued to sustainably increase in depth and breadth ever since. Rowse’s network of blogs now earns him a seven-figure income; his company b5media started over 300 blogs, received $2 million in venture capital and was recently acquired. He has also now become a popular author and speaker. 

Rowse is best known for two sites: Problogger.net, which teaches professional blogging tips and is consistently listed as one of the top blogs in the world, and Digital-Photography-School.com, which is a massive online digital photography educational site with over 4 million visitors per month.

Overcoming the Psychology of Stupid: Moving from Idea to Project Phase

In order to give your stupid idea legs, you’ve got to first overcome the psychology of stupid. By their very nature, stupid ideas are often unconventional. Because of this, there is no existing road map designed to take us from “point A” (stupid idea) to “point Z” (stupid success). This lack of certainty causes us to become so overcome by our big-picture goals that we can’t decipher where to begin.

Let’s use Darren Rowse as an example. If his initial goal had been to earn a seven-figure income by blogging, chances are good that the complexity of that goal would have been so overwhelming that he wouldn’t have known how or where to begin. And when we can’t determine where to begin, more often than not, we don’t begin at all.

The overwhelming psychology of stupid is overcome by breaking our big-picture goals into smaller, more manageable projects—projects that have a beginning and an end. Suddenly the very ideas that we didn’t think we could possibly begin don’t seem nearly as daunting. This simple change in identification transforms an abstract thought into an actionable task or assignment.

It’s much easier to get yourself and others behind a project—with a beginning and an end— than it is to get yourself and others behind an abstract, non-actionable idea.

For example, if you want to start a blog, then the script “I want to start a blog” should transform into “working on the Blog Project” or “working on the (insert your name here) Blog Project.” If you want to start a dog farm, your script should change from “I want to start a dog farm” to “I’m working on the Dog Farm Project.”

Projects Increase Overall Fulfillment

Projects lead not only to a greater chance for success, they provide greater fulfillment along the way. In the book Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action, and Human Flourishing, the authors draw from a remarkable amount of research to demonstrate “how personal projects can illuminate and enhance human flourishing, from psychological well being to physical health.” The following quote from the book illustrates the authors’ findings as it relates to the positive effects of personal projects within the framework of an organization. They state:

In the final analysis, personal projects provide meaning, structure, and community in the lives of people in organizations, and they also have impacts on those organizations. Personal projects, in short, are acts that have impacts and leave imprints. Personal projects, in this sense, are not merely personal. They are the connective tissue that keeps organizations functioning, for better or for worse.

Over a three-year period, I consulted the revenue-generating arm of a nonprofit organization. This organization had been running in the red, and I was hired to help the group generate profits so that they could become self-sustaining. I decided to experiment with personal projects that met the mission of the organization to see what would happen. Individuals created projects they were interested in, set deadlines to begin and end, started small, and built upon simple, incremental successes.

I observed a significant shift in overall profitability when employees were given projects in which they felt a sense of ownership and autonomy. Not only did department profitability increase, but also employees were suddenly engaged and enthusiastic about their work. Creativity increased as a result, and the entire department culture shifted. It is ironic to note that before personal projects were introduced, the group had been working in silos, with nearly no employee integration. As a natural by-product of the newly introduced personal projects, employees were suddenly invigorated and eager not only to complete their own tasks, but also to collaborate and help everyone else’s projects succeed as well.

While we have been discussing personal projects within the framework of an organization, it is important to note that the results could be the same in any aspect of life. Personal projects, intrapreneurial projects, and entrepreneurial projects provide a sense of purpose and structure to our lives and can breathe new life into our organizations.

One Thing Leads to Another: How a Simple Project to “Make Caine’s Day” Turned into Much, Much More

When Nirvan Mullick walked into Smart Parts Auto in East Los Angeles one afternoon, looking for a used handle for his 1996 Corolla, he walked right into the start of a project that would change his life, and the life of a nine-year-old boy, forever. As Mullick discovered, Smart Parts Auto was also home to an elaborate do-it-yourself arcade, comprised of a bunch of cardboard boxes and built by a boy named Caine. Mullick was Caine’s first and only customer in months.

So impressed by Caine’s attitude and the amazing attention to detail he had put into his cardboard arcade, Mullick, a filmmaker, decided to “make Caine’s day” by producing a short film about Caine’s Arcade.

With permission from the boy’s father, Mullick organized a surprise flash mob at Caine’s Arcade. The news of the surprise went viral, and over one hundred people came to play at Caine’s Arcade—even NBC news attended the event.

The residual effects of this simple film project are astonishing. Within the first day the video was posted online, a total of $60,000 in scholarship money was raised for Caine. A week later, a dollar-for-dollar $250,000 funding grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation was set up to help fund the Caine’s Arcade Imagination Foundation—designed “to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in more kids like Caine.” Caine also received the Latino Spirit Award at the California State Assembly in Sacramento, and became the youngest speaker at Cannes Lions international festival of creativity.

As for Nirvan Mullick, he says, “This has opened up a lot of doors for me. There are people offering feature film deals based on Caine’s Arcade. There are some series projects in development. . . . It’s been pretty overwhelming. . . . I’m still figuring out what’s happening here.”

As we overcome the psychology of stupid by starting projects, one thing leads to another, sometimes in miraculous ways. Mullick was looking for a handle for his car door, when he decided to start a simple project with the solitary aim of making a kid’s day. He never could have anticipated what would happen as a result.

Above and beyond anything else, personal projects get us moving. Because they generally require less in terms of time and other resources, they help us successfully close the Time-Education-Money Gap and start and maintain momentum toward our big-picture goals. In the end, personal projects may lead somewhere better than we ever could have dreamed.

How to Turn a Free Project into a Paying Gig

Chris Bennett had a well-paying job in Internet marketing consulting for small businesses. He loved the work he was doing, but he knew he eventually wanted to be his own boss. He started a variety of entrepreneurial ventures on the side, all in hopes of reaching his goal of becoming independent.

In one such entrepreneurial venture, Bennett dabbled in real estate investing, and when he lost everything but the shirt on his back, he decided it was time to reevaluate his process. He wondered if he was failing at these projects simply because his heart wasn’t really in them to begin with. He decided to experiment. Instead of trying to make money by doing things he didn’t like (conventional smart), he decided to give his services away for free, doing something that he loved (new smart).

A friend of his owned a small, marginally successful, local catering company. After Bennett took over their online marketing (a project he loved), they went from three to five calls a week to five to seven calls a day. Only a year later, the company had grown to become the second largest catering company in the state.

What happened next was interesting. Out of nowhere, other companies began contacting Bennett, inquiring about his services. Suddenly, he was a trusted, experienced Internet marketer. Chris Bennett’s experiment had paid off. Not only had he proved his passion for Internet marketing, he now knew he could turn his passion into a profitable business.

From this experiment, Bennett’s company, 97th Floor, was born. Seven years later, 97th Floor is working with several Fortune 100 companies and Bennett is a sought-after speaker all over the world on the subject of Internet marketing.

Bennett offers this advice to others, “Just start something. . . . The first thing people say after starting on an idea is always, ‘I only wish I’d started sooner!’”

Experiment with Stupid Projects

Projects are a wonderful way to experiment with your stupid ideas, because with a small project, the stakes are considerably lower than they are with a big-picture goal. Projects allow us to experiment and determine what works and what doesn’t. They also allow us room to fail and modify our ideas as necessary to achieve eventual success.

With an experiment, you can test as many ideas as you can, as fast as you want, and then go with the methods that are most effective. Consider how Mark Zuckerberg generates innovation at Facebook. Fast Company magazine once asked Zuckerburg, “How do you innovate?” He responded,

A lot of people think innovation is just having a great idea. But a lot of it is just moving quickly and trying a lot of things. So, at Facebook we’ve really built our whole company and our culture around this. We do things like ship code every single day. And, um, we have this tradition of having hack-a-thons—which are events where all of our engineers and really the whole company get together and stay up all night just building things. Whatever they want. Not what they’re doing for work. Just trying things out and innovating.

Stupid projects like the kind Zuckerberg promotes at Facebook spur innovation, and sometimes those innovative ideas stick.

Google is another prime example. As part of their mission, not only do they listen to every idea that comes through “on the theory that any Googler can come up with the next breakthrough,” but they allow time for their employees to experiment with personal projects. “We offer our engineers ‘20-percent time’ so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about.” The result of personal projects and experiments in areas that truly interest their employees are impressive, to say the least. For example, ideas like “Google Suggest, AdSense for Content and Orkut are among the many products of this perk.”

Do you think you would you be more likely or less likely to test one of your so-called “stupid ideas” in an environment like the one Google strives to create? My money’s on “more likely,” and you can facilitate the same kind of environment in or outside of almost any organization.

Experiment with stupid projects and see what works. It’s better to find out now if your idea is a flop (when the stakes are low) than to wait your whole life and find out your idea is a failure (when the stakes are high).

Try it out yourself. Test your idea with an experimental project. See what works and what doesn’t. Then move forward or move on.

Use Personal Projects to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Big-Picture Dreams

Over a consolidated period of time, Lara Casey left her lucrative yet unfulfilling job in New York City, underwent a painful divorce, lost her childhood home to Hurricane Ivan, and nearly lost her only brother after he severed his spinal cord in a snowboarding accident.

As her life seemed to unravel around her, Casey refused to be overcome. She recalls, “I was at rock bottom. There was no place to go but somewhere.” Over time, as she continued to put one foot in front of the other, things began to improve. Within a matter of months, Casey had met her soul mate, remarried and landed her dream job in California. But it was the height of the war in Iraq, and her new husband was suddenly deployed for an eight-month tour of duty. So Casey returned home to Florida to live with her parents and bide her time until her husband returned home.

“I couldn’t watch the news,” Casey recalls. “I waited by my phone day and night. I needed a project to keep my mind occupied. One night, I found myself dreaming of pretty things—anything to keep my mind off of bomb threats—and I decided to mock up a wedding magazine cover on my little PC.”

Before she knew it, Casey was dreaming up photo shoots and looking up domain names. Because it was her only lifeline to sanity, Casey threw herself full force at this new project. “I thought I’d just print a tiny run and put it in local grocery stores, churches and bridal shows. God had a different plan.” One thing led to another, and before Casey knew it, a full-fledged magazine was born! Despite being hit by obstacle after obstacle, including a “scary” cease and desist order from a major publishing company, Casey prevailed. “The first issue of ‘Southern Weddings Magazine’ debuted to RAVE reviews,” Casey recalls. “It was a phenomenal success and we sold out in 3 months. We sold 30% above the national average with that first issue. Readers were delighted. Sponsors were thrilled. Our distribution agents were elated.” That same growth and success has been sustained for five years running with no sign of slowing down.

Casey has sustained her success by doing things on her own terms. Rather than being bought out by some big conglomerate, she has continued to approach Southern Weddings as a simple project. “We’re not corporate or owned by some big publishing house. WE do the layout, write the editorial, organize the advertising—and everything else—ourselves. We are self-published, which nowadays is a rarity in print. We’re really, really small. We never want to grow to the point where we can’t give personal attention to what matters most. We are really grateful for that.”

When I asked Casey what advice she had for others, she said,

How do you start a powerful thriving business? How do you get out of “overwhelmed” and start really living? You walk—sometimes through mud, jagged rocks, thick weeds, thorns, and on thin ice. But you will get to the other side, because you are walking through it. If you do not walk, you will not get to the other side.

I am not more extraordinary than anyone else. You were given gifts that were meant to be shown to the world. Stand up and put one foot in front of the other, right now. Step strongly. No mistakes, only lessons. Plant those feet on the ground and walk. You have this.

Commit

“You have this”—you do. No more waiting. If you keep overcomplicating your dreams, you’ll never learn how wonderful it feels to actually step into them. Take a deep breath, and simply experiment with what’s right in front of you by starting a stupid project. It’s time to blaze your own trail. It’s time to start living your dreams.

Making your stupid idea happen won’t be easy. You have to be committed. Not halfway committed—you need to commit 100%. At times, you may stand all alone in your efforts to engage the New Smart, but standing alone is part of standing out, and standing out is often what it takes to inspire meaningful change—and it’s all a part of embracing stupid.

“1984” is a legendary Apple commercial that ran during the 1984 Super Bowl. TV Guide hailed it as “the greatest commercial of all time.” But the story behind the story is that the advertisement almost didn’t make it on the air. The ad was intended to highlight the launch of the Macintosh personal computer, but not even once did the commercial show the product. Instead, the advertisement showed a woman, running with a sledgehammer, smashing an image of “Big Brother,” reminiscent of George Orwell’s book 1984. The board at Apple wasn’t thrilled. In fact, when Steve Jobs presented it to them, they “thought it was the worst commercial they had ever seen.”

“Jobs was beside himself.” He went to cofounder, Steve Wozniak, and showed him the ad. Wozniak “thought it was the most incredible thing.” Jobs told Wozniak about the board’s decision to scrap the ad for the Super Bowl time slot and explained that they consequently needed to sell the air time. But Wozniak was committed. He asked the cost of the Super Bowl slot, and when Jobs said it was $800,000, Wozniak replied, “Well, I’ll pay half if you will.”

In the end, Jobs and Wozniak didn’t have to pony up the money for the ad, but they were completely prepared to, and that’s commitment. That’s 100%.

Embracing stupid as the New Smart means committing to follow through with your stupid projects, committing to give them your 100%.

Chances are, you won’t have to cough up $800,000 to run an ad during the Super Bowl, but there will be obstacles. It’s part of the process of experimenting; it’s part of blazing your own trail. But that’s the beauty of a project in the first place—you don’t have to commit to forever, it has a beginning and an end. Projects are a wonderful opportunity to ensure you’re on the right path, but unless you commit to follow your project through to completion, even when the going gets rough and you’re tempted to jump ship, you’ll forever wonder what could have potentially been just around the next bend.

 

 

 

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

—Winston Churchill