I Will Not Die

Persistence Paying Off?

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Does persistence pay off?

There is no guarantee.

What can be guaranteed?

One thing for certain:

Not persisting will always result in failure.

The only exception to this is blind luck, and to be honest with you, I haven’t always had the best of luck, so I’m far more liable to assume that bad luck will come to surprise me far more often than good luck.

My instinctual response then is to persist. I try to augment the lack of luck by overshadowing it with effort.

That’s the ultimate premise of this blog.

After all the unbelievable help I received from the bloggers I had already met, the secondary help was somewhat low (I met Beth and Sanity through Hayden’s blog, and Georgia Farm Woman through blogcatalog); things slowed way down.

Er, I mean completely stopped.

So I charged off. That’s what I do. I started contacting bloggers of all sorts. Most didn’t respond. Some responded scathingly.

And hell, I haven’t even asked anyone for a kidney yet. All I’ve ever asked for is a short shout out, or a few dollars. No organs.

(By the way, if anyone is interested in kidney-selling as a means of fundraising, just one kidney would kill this fundraiser eight times over. They can fetch up to $85,000. Let me know if you have a spare).

Ok fine, I don’t really want anyone’s kidneys. But I’m tempted to publish some of responses just so I can rebut them publicly, and so you can see them, but, none of the naysayers bashed me publicly so that wouldn’t be very nice. [evil grin]

But then I got an e-mail.

The first fully positive response. And go figure, it was one of the bigger bloggers I contacted. No waffling, no maybes, no sortas.

He said, "No problem."

I’m letting the cat out of the bag early only because I want to express my gratitude. Justin from Life of Justin, I thank you. I’m not sure yet what he has planned, but I’ll be eager to share what he offers when he gets it up. In the meantime, I encourage to check out his blog.

Several things that are interesting: He, (like I, and many of us), was in a cubicle; but he has recently been able to give his two weeks notice so he can pursue blogging full-time. Also of note, it won’t take you long on his site to see that he’s an avid traveler. No doubt these contributed to his identifying with me and my trip.

I hope my efforts here during the last few weeks document the cost, but also the reward of strain. In the end, persistence and its promise are worthy adversaries.

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Dereck :: Oct.01.2008 :: CUBE :: 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “Persistence Paying Off?”

1. on 01 Oct 2008 at 10:35 pm1Beth

   Dereck, it looks to me like you got about $100 from the last few weeks of effort. You’re a little closer to your goal. I’ve never done much fundraising, but I do believe that it takes time to build a base of support. Can you invest the money in some short-term CD or something to earn a little interest? Maybe find a way to cut a few $$ here and there and tell people you’ll match their gifts?

   Also, have you looked into any bike riding sites? There must be forums for people who like to do these long bike rides.

   Hope this helps.

   Beth´s last blog post..The Bailout as a Nigerian Scam

2. on 02 Oct 2008 at 1:20 am2Matthew Dryden

   Have you thought of offering your writings as WeeBooks (the same model Writer Dad is using)?

   Might be something worth looking into.

3. on 02 Oct 2008 at 2:29 pm3Writer Dad

   Congratulations, Dereck. I guess it’s time for another Writer Dad shout out. I like Matthew’s Idea by the way. Maybe it’s a way people can support (tip) you.

   Writer Dad´s last blog post..I Said Stop.

4. on 02 Oct 2008 at 4:16 pm4Justin Wright

   Hey, thanks a lot for the mention. I am glad I could help in any way!

   Justin Wright´s last blog post..I Will Not Die

5. on 02 Oct 2008 at 4:32 pm5JJ

   Derick,

   Are you a member of Reddit? Have you tried Reddit before? I still remember how Reddit members helped to compile money for this one old lady so she can go for a holiday. So I think you should try your luck over there. Reddit members are mostly sitting in cubicles.

   I also forgot to mention about this lady and her blog to you:

   http://www.mariag4g.blogspot.com/

   Her name is Maria and she travels with her bike, friend and puppies in Africa. Her equipments are being sponsored by a lot companies including Sony and others.

   So maybe you can read her blog and get some hints somehow and someway.

   Her purpose might be different, possibly the same or almost the same but the base is similar.

   She’s a Blogcatalog member as well.

   Regards,

   JJ

6. on 02 Oct 2008 at 4:33 pm6JJ

   Oh ya, her page in Blogcatalog:

   http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/mariag4g

   Regards,

   JJ

   JJ´s last blog post..Hello World: Ice Blended Juice

7. on 02 Oct 2008 at 7:58 pm7Dereck

   @ Beth - Quite right. Actually Hayden just killed PayPal. Wow.

   Before her monstrous gift, I was on track to take two years. While I will keep at this as long as it takes, I’ve set a goal to try to go before winter. That’s my aim, so we’ll see. As far as matching gifts, I’m not sure how to estimate that reliably. I am putting up about 18% of my take home pay though. Lastly, as to the bike sites, I have found some, but not too many forums. Most advice for fundraising is pretty general.

   @ Matthew - Never thought of it. Not sure how to do it. If you think offering exclusive content would be a good extra incentive for people to donate small amounts, then I’m willing to give it a shot.

   @ Writer Dad - I’ve appreciated all the shout outs so far, very much. Thank you Writer Dad. I mean Sean

   As to the Wee Books - Maybe we could chat about it sometime. You’ve got lots of experience here where I lack. It’s worth looking into.

   @ Justin - No, thank you. I really appreciate it.

   @ JJ - Funny you mentioned Reddit. I was talking to my wife last night about the possibility of writing a “open letter” to the Reddit community to see if I could get some publicity. I may have one up by this weekend.

   As to this woman Maria, I’m reading about her now. Thanks for telling me about her! I would never have found her had you not said anything. Finding biking enthusiasts would be a major plus. I’ll keep looking for more.

8. on 03 Oct 2008 at 8:21 am8kouji

   arrived here care of life of justin. good luck with this.

   kouji´s last blog post..haiku poem: friendship (loss)

9. on 03 Oct 2008 at 8:37 am9Dereck

   @ kouji - Nice to meet you. Thanks for the support

10. on 03 Oct 2008 at 2:35 pm10Robin Easton

    Dereck, I can understand wanting to expose, refute or make the naysayers understand, but I think you are right in just letting them go. In many ways negative energy or anything that takes you from your goal is a drain on you and will only slow you down. Let them fall to bottom of the pond like dead weight and move on. It many ways negativity like that can be trap as it engages us in a way that takes us from our focus, which sometimes negative people like. They want to drag everyone down with them. If you engage with them, it will only affect you and rarely them.

    You are better off letting them go and being and modeling to them Life’s potentiality. That turns around more people’s lives than engaging does.

    I know it’s not always easy and I hope I remember my own advice when next time I need. Maybe you can remind me when the times comes!! :)

    Focus on those people and situations that are behind you that way you are reinforcing the positive energy in the Universe and on this site. And most people LOVE positive energy. And then you are not wasting one bit of your precious energy on someone/something that is NOT behind you.

    As long as you keep going and don’t give up this thing will snowball. It can’t do anything else but. and the internet is a BIG world…it would take a long time to exhaust its resources. the snowball may take just a bit of time. And I know that is hard when the need to do it now is so strong, but hang in and YES! persistence with a dose of creativity is ALL that pays off.

    The negative responses are what stop people from doing exactly what you are doing. Asking for help, living a dream, making their lives better. It takes guts to keep going in the face of adversity and negativity….esp. negativity from other people.

    But you can do it. You have it in you and you KNOW you can do this. Others believe in YOU or we would not be trying to help you. So focus on that and don’t stop. You CAN do this.

11. on 03 Oct 2008 at 4:05 pm11Dereck

    @ Robin - much appreciated. All of it. BTW - still working on those e-mails.

    hehe

    Was really backed up

12. on 05 Oct 2008 at 10:24 pm12More Reinforcements, Bizarre Traffic and the Best Conversation I’ve Ever Had That I’ve Never Had | I Will Not Die

    [...] As promised, here’s the update to Justin’s post. He wrote a fantastic article about the trip and included a lot about the background of my dream, from beginning to end. Thank you Justin, your help is appreciated deeply. Your article introduced me to several other bloggers who are supportive, at least one of which has written about the event too (see below). [...]

13. on 06 Oct 2008 at 4:01 pm13The Flimjo Recap - October 5, 2008 | Flimjo

    [...] Dereck Coatney from I Will Not Die had a nice post about how persistence pays off. [...]

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