Editor’s Note: The following post is by contributor Zee from Work to Not Work.
Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Instant gratification is more prevalent than ever these days, right now Amazon is starting to roll out a new service in some places called Amazon Now which will get you your order within an hour of when you clicked “buy”.
Today is the era of NOW.
Everyone wants results now, most people don’t have the patience and discipline to build something from the ground up, slowly and with hard work. Part of the reason I believe this is all of the kick starter campaigns out there. Everyone is trying to skip the step of “let’s start a business out of my house” phase and go directly to “I have a profitable business on day one!” I don’t blame them, I mean, who wants to work hard at something that either doesn’t pay back for a long time, or possibly never (I realize that basically all bloggers have gone through this struggle).
I was talking with one of my friends about this recently, the company that he works for started out of a converted taco truck and sold clothing at farmers markets when they first started. Now they have multiple store fronts in the bay area and their clothing is sold throughout the US. They slowly built their company from a single truck to the thriving business it is today. But that’s not how people are trying to build businesses anymore. They are trying to crowd source the capital so they can skip the years of slowly building a brand and becoming profitable before they start.
Sometimes I have no issues with these sorts of campaigns. If a friend has a medical issue and needs funding to help pay for their treatment – I’m totally okay with that. Life happens, sometimes we need help to get through. But other times, when someone wants to start a small business but doesn’t want to invest their own time or money…. That just irks me. Just last week there was a crowd sourcing campaign on Indigogo for $2 million to make a movie sequel for “Super Troopers 2” which I thought was just stupid. The first movie grossed over $23 million so why do they need to ask for more money to make a sequel? That just seems ridiculous to me. I loved the first movie, and I will probably watch the sequel, but paying to have them make a sequel and then paying again to actually watch it.. No thanks. But I’ve actually seen worse than this. Just a few years ago Zach Braff did the exact same thing to fund a movie of his on kickstarter. When someone who was the lead character on a TV show for 9 years asks for money to make a movie… That just pisses me off.
But those are just some of the larger extreme cases. There are tons of art projects and business ideas out there that people don’t want to put the elbow grease in on to see if they can make it succeed over time.
The American dream used to be that if you worked hard and put in the time and effort you could make something happen. But today’s American dream is to have an idea, then sit on your ass and pay other people execute your idea with someone else’s money. To be honest, I would love to have that situation work out for me, but do I think it’s realistic…. Not really.
Look, I’m a fan of short cuts. That’s basically what I do as an engineer, I automate things so certain tasks don’t have to be done by humans. But if your crowd source campaign doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to put in some old-fashioned elbow grease and get the job done like it was in the old days.
Thanks for the interesting read Zee. I agree with you on a lot of points, but I just wanted to share with you my favorite aspects of crowdfunding. I love that it brings more diversity to business. It gives more minorities and underprivileged entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams. Maybe someone from a rural town in India has an incredible idea but he/she doesn’t live in the environment where brand building will pay off. I like how this system promotes globalization. And I like the idea that the finances become democratized because now it’s the public that gets to choose when and which ideas succeed based on their merit. Before, it was all about knowing where to be at the right time, saying the right things to establish relationships with investors, etc.
But like you said, some people who are fully capable of doing things the old fashioned way choose not to. It’s unfortunate because some of them have zero experience to managing a business so they eventually quit when things don’t pan out – even with the donations they received through their campaigns.
Anum,
I agree that crowd sourcing can be good for some people, it really does provide opportunities that people wouldn’t be able to have no their own. But there are many people that give up too easily on their dreams just because they don’t want to put in the hard work of starting from nothing on their own.
But that is another good point there that the consumers get to pick the ideas that they want to fund. I’m all for the market making the decisions on what becomes reality, but I still feel like it’s weird when an artist wants you to fund their art project. When they are asking to have someone else fund their dreams seems similar to me starting a campaign to fund my retirement. So not all crowdsourcing is equal in my mind. And then there’s the people that give up on their dreams if they don’t get the funding which is pretty sad. But perhaps it’s a good thing because they might not be committed enough to continue if they have to actually put in hard work to make it happen.
-Zee
Zee, I hadn’t really thought of this before. But you are right, it was never this way prior to the advent of the internet and Kickstarter, etc. In some ways I think things like Kickstarter can be nice for the entrepreneur- I mean, how great to have an easier source for capital- but I agree that there is a double-edge sword there. For instance, it’s well-known that kids who pay at least part of their college education expenses tend to study harder and get better grades. Having your own money on the line increases the motivation for people to bust their butts and work hard. I wonder what the stats are on business failures from Kickstarter campaigns. That would be interesting to see if it’s similar to the research on paying for your own college expenses.
Dee,
Excellent example of kids that contribute to their own college education taking it more seriously! I know that I definitely saw that happen. I even admit that I wasn’t taking things as seriously as I should have. I was just going through the motions to graduate, not to get the “most out of what was available.”
I also didn’t realize that kickstarters could fail after they had been funded! Most of the times I see them for things where they already have the prototype and just need the capital to mass produce the item. Hence failure doesn’t seem like much of an option. That would be incredibly disappointing to fund something that doesn’t even make it. I wonder what those failure rates are too.
-Zee
I think the ‘now’ culture is part of the problem with the “property issue” we have in the UK.
Young people these days complain about not being able to get onto the housing ladder because property prices are too expensive. However, instead of going for a basic starter home, they are looking to leave their parents’ house and move straight into their dream detached home with garden in an ideal location, so no wonder they can’t afford the price!
You have to work your way up the housing ladder and this includes starting in a basic property at a cheap price often not in the best area to live in. Property tends to go up so you sell and move onto the next one, (if you can afford it) and it goes on til you can afford the nice house with garden.
But of course, they want it all now….
Weenie,
You’re right about people wanting to immediately move into their dream house. They are dream homes for a reason, it takes a long time to realize a dream and make it happen. Personally the idea of starter homes is weird too, why buy a house for 3-4 years to move up to something else? I guess if you stay in that starter home for 7+ years then financially it will make more sense since you have time on your side to help it appreciate.
Also for me, (I think I’m in the minority here though) I think that upgrading houses for the sake of a better house seems silly. If it doesn’t fit your needs that’s one thing, but if your home provides everything you need then upgrading feels like throwing more money for a flashier version of the same thing you already had. Now you may need to upgrade for reasons like having children and needing more space, or even moving to a safer neighborhood or significantly closer to work. But if you stay in relatively the same area, and just get a bigger home so you can have larger closets, better views, or just more space to put more stuff you probably don’t really need then that just seems silly to me.
But then again, I know I’m in the minority here.
-Zee