2009 - A Year of Branching Out

I had a revelation yesterday, on the first day of the new year.

Before I share that revelation with you, the following observations are critical (take notes):

1 - Most of the people who support us right now are FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

2 - For the most part, friends and family generally support WHO WE ARE more than WHAT WE'RE DOING. That doesn't mean that friends and family disagree with what we are doing. It's just that they know us as people first and foremost... and can find a way to support us on the merits of that relationship, even if they may not understand or agree with our choice of "mission."

3 - Most of our "new friends" who do support us ALREADY AGREED WITH OUR VISION before they met us. In other words, we did not change their mind or convince them of anything... we simply found them.

Birds of a feather! Like attracts like.

And now for the revelation...

I woke up from a nap yesterday with one simple thought:

"Preach to the choir"

There are countless people who already think like we do! In our case, these people might include: educators, filmmakers, technology companies, software developers, civil rights groups, etc.

These groups of people already believe (strongly) in the merits of:

- Education
- Mass media as an instructional tool
- The use of technology for human advancement

In other words... I DON'T HAVE TO CONVINCE THEM OF ANYTHING!!! These fine people are already sitting around somewhere, in total (or partial) agreement with what we are doing... they just don't know we exist yet.

Without a doubt, these groups are prone toward lending a helping hand.

The job cannot be to convince people to believe in something. The job must be to find others who already hold the same values we do and invite them to join us.

In other words, I have been working too hard at the wrong job!


While revelations of similarly OBVIOUS STUFF might be personal (for the purposes of avoiding shame), I decided to give all of you this gift as a way of assisting you in your quest to communicate better.

Please, do us all a favor and quit trying to change our minds. We either agree with you or we don't. If we are your friends and family, then don't sweat it either way... cause we support you.

As for your time and energy, spend it on people who already see the world through your eyes. You will find the journey to be much more enjoyable and your traction will be greater.

I'm going to avoid regrets right now as that seems like an enormous waste of time and energy. Instead, I will try to be excited about this revelation and thankful that, at the very least, this subtle mistake of mine has generated some really good promotional materials for us.

They had to be good. Remember... I was trying to convince you!!!