Threads, the Swedish Navy fail, and a Kickstarter fizz & pop.
C is for CANDID.
What do these 3 things have in common?
A Swedish warship sinking.
A Twitter clone launching.
A Kickstarter crashing and burning into the void.
That's right: OPTIMISM!
Simply put, optimism reduces the bad stuff and elevates the good stuff in your body.
Forget about oxycontin, cocaine, or sour Skittles.
Optimism is good dope’s big boss.
Hooked on optimism, my friend Pato Rammsy and I embarked on a Kickstart campaign that took MONTHS to prepare.
The work was grueling. We shot a video, created rewards, and Pato even hosted an exhibition in Brazil (I lived in Toronto at the time) to promote the whole project.
But we got it done.
It was glorious.
So, exhausted and proud, we hit publish.
And!
.
.
wait for it
.
.
here they come
.
.
🦗the deafening crickets🦗
.
.
After 30 days, the campaign only made 9% of the goal.
So the internet did its thing, swallowing the “Nearby Wonder Project” hopes and dreams into the abyss.
But optimism had victims before our time.
In 1626, optimism got Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus high enough to wake up one morning and tell the world:
“Yo, Sweden is much more than meatballs, modular furniture, and the great Zlatan. FYI: We are also bangin’ sailors ⛵️!”
So, in a megalomaniac display of power, he commissioned:
“The Vasa”
The Vasa was a warship so over-the-top and poorly designed that it would sink hit by the faintest wind in front of a horrified crowd.
And, err.
On its inaugural voyage.
Yup.
Less than a mile into it, the brand new royal warmongering chonkster was shooting bubbles 32 meters under the sea.
What happened?
Well. You have optimism, and then you have A KING’S optimism.
The “get-it-done-now-we’ll-fix-later-it-in-post” type of optimism.
The “let’s put 64 bronze cannons in it for the lolz” type of optimism (The Vasa could only carry 32🤦♂️).
The “let’s clone a social media app and fix the public discourse” type of optimism.
You know where this is going.
I know, I know. I’m being a wet sock.
Optimism. It’s a beautiful thing!
But the warm and fuzzy feeling of early efforts won’t cut it.
Our Kickstarter campaign ran on optimism.
We were sure that it would be a hit.
Go viral
In 2013
Via Facebook 😂🤦♂️
We hit publish and then hoped that it would be smooth sailing.
You know.
Unlike…
“The Vasa”
Ahem.
Sorry.
Point is!
We focused 99% on creating the Kickstarter campaign, leaving way too little oomph to promote it.
And here is where I tip my hat to King Gustav and The Zuck.
They have the optimism to fail in public, which we lacked with our Kickstarter.
Our optimism was comfortably quiet and naive.
I think we were a little too-cool-for-school-ish about it.
It would have helped to be a bit louder, bolder, and shameless.
If you pair hard work with optimism, you have a right to shoot your shot and get a little high with it.
You have a right to tell everyone: “Look, I’m doing this! Want one?”.
So, Mr. Zuck. You have a shot. Godspeed with this one. One “Threads” over here.
Just don’t get silly with our data or try to cram in more cannons than your ship can handle.
See you on Monday!
Matias.
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