Our Crazy Idea
Everything we’ve ever started has been based on a crazy idea. So why not keep it going? October approached faster than CR7 running through the final third and that meant good things and well, scary things - and I do not mean Halloween. Jordan and I visited Tumaini about two years ago and ever since then, time has swept by. October hit and we realized we only had three months left to finish building the Tumaini school in Kenya. This deadline is a combination of Kenyan Government requests and the workable timeline for the contracted in construction workers for the build.
In the time between our first visit to Tumaini and this “scary” October, our lives happened. We lived and grew and most importantly, worked. Hard. At our other jobs, because we still have those, and at Crossbar. In that time, we spend countless hours trying to raise the money for Tumaini; we brainstormed Dinner Galas, events, campaigns, you name it. The truth is that we struggled. We started Crossbar to be a self-sustainable company capable of making an impact without the help of others. And that is the exact opposite of what fundraising is. So, as it turns out, we didn’t have a passion for asking other people for money. It’s just not who we are as people. Especially because it was so much money we needed. Que all of our sleepless nights and stressed out days. It’s more pressure than you might think and at times I debated if we could handle this.
But then, in October, it hit us. Maybe we had been going about this all wrong. We had spent so much time trying to capture lighting in a bottle; extraordinary people with extraordinary amounts of money, to donate to Tumaini. Part of me thinks this way of thought was fueled by a very generous donation we received at the start of our Crossbar journey. But, ever since Crossbar was founded, so many ordinary people (like us) have asked how they could help. And I mean from all over the world. It was this exact moment of thought that we realized we could change our fundraising game plan entirely. QUE new idea: What if we convince so many “ordinary” people to donate “ordinary” amounts of money and then it all just added up and we had enough. Crazy right? Especially because we would need 20,600 people to get on board in order to reach our goal.
But, like I said, everything we’ve ever started has been based on a crazy idea. So we’re going for it. We put together the video above to share with the soccer community, or any community really, our story. And to show off the beautiful kiddos of Tumaini. In 60 seconds we sum up everything we’ve done, why we’ve done it, and how we plan to get 20,600 people to all donate $5. It’s an idea we’re passionate about because it doesn’t feel like a crazy ask, the way so many of our ideas had before.
I debated back and forth about sharing this story. It doesn’t always feel like a great idea to say “we suck at this” while so many new people are discovering our company. But it’s the truth. And that is something that is lacking in the business world. The truth is that it is hard and brutal and there are so many failures to be had when building a company or a new school for that matter. But it’s all about how you react to them. It’s about discovering what you’re passionate about - and what you’re definitely not - that way you can execute in the best way possible. What ever you do, you should wake up every morning excited to do it.
We are really proud of this video and this idea and we would love nothing more than for you to share it with your people. In just one night, this video reached almost 10,000 people and we raised $10,000. We know this can go far but we just need some help. We believe the soccer community can do something really special here, together. We hope you join in the movement.
-Taylor