28 Jul
A hard blog post to write... 1MillionShirts
It is with a heavy heart that I write this blog post. The past few months have been an eye-opening experience and one that I’ve learned a lot of life lessons from. I am making the decision to indefinitely cease operations for 1MillionShirts. I believe that life is all about timing and that with my other business, now is not the time to undertake building a non-profit organization. I don’t want to completely remove the website as I do see an opportunity to revisit it, and by leaving it up, it’s my hope that others may learn from this experience.
The negative feedback, the angry blog posts, the scathing emails, all of that has had no effect on this decision. Trust me, I had a lot more negative feedback with iwearyourshirt.com (IWYS).
As someone who is speaking publicly and telling people to “Focus More, Do Less,” I need to heed my own advice. I can’t build a business and run a non-profit at the same time. Both endeavors will suffer and it’s simply not fair to the non-profits involved, the gracious people who have offered to advise me and the ambassadors.
One thing that I will be doing to help non-profit organizations is to give away one day each month on iwearyourshirt.com in 2011. Twelve companies will have the opportunity to be marketed/advertised via social media completely for free as my way of giving back. It makes more sense and ties directly into my current business.
The 11,000+ t-shirts that have already been collected will still be used towards disaster relief and some projects already in motion. If you’ve recently shipped t-shirts they will not go unused. All of the money collected will be donated to our friends at H.E.L.P.International to be used in conjunction with the t-shirts.
If anyone would like to reach out to me about 1MillionShirts related matters, please contact me at info@1MillionShirts.org.
Thank you for reading and for your support,
Jason Sadler
Comments
Focus is vital – and I’m glad you’re choosing to concentrate on IWYS!
You help so many causes throughout the year in gaining exposure – that you’re still very much in the charitable side of things (Just not RUNNING ’em).
Have a DYNAMITE day!
Jason,
It took guts to make this decision. I hope that others take the opportunity to learn the things that you have learned during this experience. Things aren’t always as they seem. I applaude your willingness to humble yourself and continue moving forward.
The decision that’s best for everyone can be the most humbling for yourself. Congratulations on knowing when to let it go. (And for comfort in your decision to quit, read Seth Godin’s Dip)
Jason,
I salute your willingness to re-camp and gain focus.
I pray that you are able to see the parts of your character that are being tested, refined and asked to evolve.
As a young social leader, you have the opportunity to use this experience to face parts of your own ego that need looking at/facing.
As you continue to influence the world with your passionate spirit, I know that the right people will continue to surround you with wisdom, so you may continue to grow into the leader this world needs!
I send prayers of insight, compassion and courage to step forward into the man you are created to be.
Florence
Sorry Jason. Thanks for trying to make a difference. That’s more than most people can say.
How are you choosing which nonprofits you’ll give the days to in 2011, and how can we get in the running? :)