Why I'm supporting Bud's book

I woke up Wednesday morning, fed the cats, fixed my coffee and started my morning read.  This included a tweet from Bud Caddell -

I clicked the link and found out that Bud is writing a book and he's crowd-sourcing some funding + playing along with the process.  I became a patron pretty soon after learning about the project.

Now, Bud has asked us to "Write a blog post, a tweet, or an email telling your friends and followers why you did it."  I know enough about motivation and behavior on spending money and other decisions to figure I'll most likely think out some sort of post-rationalization for this answer if I try to give a clear argument. Let's just see what happens with rambling; it'll probably be more authentic.

1) Intuition - I went with my gut.  In 2003 2002 [Thanks bro! - always there to notice my mistakes!] after Jack Daniel's first global website went live (a project I invested quite some hours on), I sat in my apartment in Dallas and noticed I was quite fat.  And not the good fat that I am now. A bad fat. A lazy, unhappy fat.  My brother called me and told me I could move up to Chicago, live with him and serve food in the luxury boxes of Wrigley Field.  My career path said that would be stupid.  But my good friend, Pablo Ampuero said, "40 years from now are you likely to look back and go, 'Man, I'm glad I didn't work at Wrigley Field' or 'Man, I'm glad I worked at Wrigley Field?'"  I quit my job shortly after that and moved to Chicago.

"Man, I'm glad I did not do that book project with Bud Caddell" or "Man, I'm glad I did that book project with Bud Caddell."  Easy choice.

2) I've been looking for the mouse? - You can either read Clay Shirky's newest (last chapter) or read this speech to get a thorough idea.  But basically, I'm done with passive media.  I lost too much of my life to Three's Company.  Watching Shirky's book come alive on twitter, blogs and videos was fun and engaging.  But, I also like following my favorite comic book creators on twitter.  Or hearing and exchanging comments about the voices of people whose words make me love this planet even more than I already do.  Bud creates remarkable things, chances are the book will be remarkable.  I would like to play in any way I am capable of playing.

3) Good Timing - I had actually just sent Bud a postcard of thanks the other day.  I teach strategy at an art school. Not many people understand that.  Despite being a strategy person, Bud is an artist - his aesthetic eye is wonderful (I constantly rip the images he finds for my presentations) + he makes groovy things. He also wrote a brilliant piece about getting a job in this field which I shared with all my classes the first week of summer. I had also noticed his activism with the Gulf oil spill and found out that he's from the Houston-area (where I was born) and went to UTexas (where I went for grad), so there was some common interest.  Anyway, all this stuff made me go - this guy seems to be doing a lot of things I care about at the same time I care about them.  I've been "stealing" from him, why don't I give back.

So, I did it.  However, I ended up putting more money than my initial amount.  For two reasons:

4) I saw a good friend (Heather) was also playing.  I like playing with Heather (here are her reasons for being a patron - so I guess they are sort of mine too now.)  It's easier to tell people you saw a unicorn when someone else says, "Look a unicorn!"

5) Bud had originally set it up that the project was going to be revenue-shared for the people who participated. This was a cool idea, but made it cloudy for me.  Would people be extrinsically motivated by the project ... and could I feel good about recommending it, if I was tied to it making me money? However, that had to go away because of legal reasons (thankfully.)  So, I became more interested.

OK, so that's why I did it in plain ramble.  Underlying all of this, just like underlying all "marketing strategy is making money," is exchanging monetary capital for social capital.  Somebody will read this post that has never read my blog before now or I'll connect in some other way through being a part of this book.  And that person might make an offer to me, or one of my students, or a friend, or family member that makes the decision process go "am I going to look back and say:

Man, I'm glad I did this or I'm glad I didn't do this?"  (BTW: If you are currently thinking, I don't want to look back and not have joined the fun - go join now!)